I reached 151 supporters in Ko-Fi
I just achieved a cool milestone: 151 supporters in Ko-Fi. I like the number 151 because it reminds me of the original 151 Pokémon from Generation 1, it makes me feel very nostalgic. 🎵 "Catch 'em! Catch 'em! Gotta catch 'em all!" 🎵 Just like nowadays there are more than 1000 Pokémon, I hope my number of supporters continues to grow, reaching high numbers too!
For those of you new to Ko-Fi, it's an online platform designed for creators to make an income: they can accept tips, set up memberships, take requests, and sell their work. A Ko-Fi supporter is a distinct user who gives some money in any form to the creator (the same user giving money many times still counts as one supporter). Although I originally set up Ko-Fi to accept donations for my free notes and flashcards for the AWS AI Practitioner certification, I afterwards set up a Ko-Fi shop, with PDFs and flashcards for other AWS certifications for sale. The vast majority of my income in Ko-Fi has been through shop purchases and not donations, so in a way those 151 supporters can pretty much translate to 151 distinct customers.
Most of the Ko-Fi creators are artists and streamers, but interestingly I'm neither. I'm just a student of the AWS cloud who wanted to share his study materials upon passing AWS certifications. I didn't intend to make this a side hustle originally, but I did hope for the donations to at least help me pay the fees for hosting my christiangreciano.com domain. Upon seeing success and interest with the first certification, I was motivated to publish materials for the next certifications that I achieved. I have noticed that while there are lots of video courses and practice exams to prepare for AWS certifications, there's not a lot of high quality written materials. So creating the notes and flashcards that I wish I had had initially not only helped me pass all certification exams so far without problems, but it has doubled up as a side hustle.
Selling my study materials is not new to me. Back in my university days, when I studied electrical and computer engineering, I took extra care to polish the notes I took at the lectures. Then I made photocopies of them and sold them at symbolic prices. I made a bit of money but, more importantly, I was happy that others found my materials useful and studied with them. I could not fathom back then that such an experience would prepare me to sell study materials online, many years later.
Side hustles can originate from all sorts of talents, hobbies, or skills. If you are good at something, others around you validate your skills, and can even make some money locally, there's a good chance you can make money online too. It's not overly complicated, although you will have to put some effort in marketing: you might have the coolest product in the world, but if others don't know about it, they won't buy it! It's also perfectly fine NOT to want to start a side hustle from a hobby, since that can suck the joy out of the hobby. ;)