Creator economy

Newsletter or Substack

You write a newsletter people subscribe to, often with a paid tier on Substack. Free readers grow the list, and paid subscribers pay the bills.

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Median monthly earnings

$900

Middle 50% shown here

Effective hourly

$28.00

Earnings over the hours people logged

Hours per week

9 hrs

Median across reviews

Startup cost

$100–500

To get up and running

Time to first $100

1–4 weeks

From starting out

Monthly expenses

$50–150

To keep it running

Schedule flexibility

Mostly flexible

Most common answer

Would recommend it

86%

Say yes or probably yes

What people make in a month

Gross earnings people entered themselves, before expenses and taxes. Example distribution.

Under $100

$100–250

$250–500

$500–1,000

$1,000–2,000

$2,000–3,500

$3,500–5,000

$5,000–10,000

$10,000+

By platform

How many reviewers use each platform. Many people work more than one.

?Platform one

12 reviewers

?Platform two

9 reviewers

?Platform three

4 reviewers

How it scores

Happiness7.4 / 10

Would do it again68%

Schedule flexibility4.1 / 5

Pay predictability2.9 / 5

What surprised people most

Every option reviewers could pick, most common first. Example distribution.

How little I could earn

Nothing really surprised me

How difficult it is to get started

Taxes — how much I owe

How much I could earn

How competitive the market is

How much time it takes

How difficult it is to find customers or clients

Unexpected expenses

Example preview

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Most people doing newsletter or substack overpay on taxes — here's the full write-off guide.

27 Tax Write-Offs for Bloggers

You can write off lots of expenses to keep more of your blogging income in your pocket. Here are the details.

Side hustle income means side hustle taxes.

Keeper — the tax app behind this index — finds the write-offs for whatever work you do.

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