About the Episode:
In today’s episode, we’re talking to Preston Lee, the founder of Millo.co, a blog, community and phenomenal resource hub for all things freelancing.
Preston and I, along with Ian Paget, also co-host another podcast together called The Side Gig Show where we take turns diving deep into the tactics, strategies, ups, downs, and decisions we’ve made, that have helped us grow our own side businesses into full-time endeavors over the past couple of years.
Preston’s got a unique side hustle journey and he actually only recently left his day job to focus on growing Millo full-time, despite earning more from his business than he was getting paid at work.
Preston’s been blogging for almost 8 years now, and he’s gotten up to the point of driving about 150,000 readers per month, and he earns an average of $8,000 – $15,000 from blog sponsorships every month.
What’s even more impressive is that up until just recently when he jumped over to working on Millo full-time, is that Preston was running his side business in just about 1 hour a day.
He hired a team of contractors and outsourced everything he didn’t personally need to do himself, and because of that decision, it’s enabled him to focus on bringing in more sponsorship dollars, and lately, Preston’s been doing much more testing, experimenting and launching of new side projects, which were getting into here shortly.
In Today’s Episode, We Talk About:
[02:46] What book Preston’s reading at the moment.
[04:34] Why he waited a while before going full-time with Millo.co.
[09:18] How long it took him to earn his first dollar from his blog.
[11:52] His first custom sponsorship job for his blog and how he got it.
[15:07] Where most of the revenue of MiIlo.co comes from.
[18:12] What his daily routine currently looks like.
[21:40] How he hires new team members.
24:39 His biggest piece of advice for anyone looking to start a blog and make money primarily through sponsorships.
[27:43] A big turning point in his blogging career.
[29:25] How many visitors Millo.co gets each month.
31:11 How much revenue is generated at Millo a the moment.
31:37 The biggest sacrifices he’s had to make to grow his business.
33:30 Experiments that he’s tried in the past that have failed.
36:59 The best investment he’s made in growing his business.
Like What You’re Hearing? Subscribe for New Episodes.
"*" indicates required fields
Resources Mentioned:
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Connect with My Guests:
Preston on LinkedIn and Twitter
Subscribe, Review, & Share:
If you enjoyed this episode of The Side Hustle Project, I would love your support. Head over to the show on iTunes or in the Apple podcast app and give us a rating please! And as always you can catch every episode on the Apple podcast app, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for tuning in.
Hey Ryan,
Loved the episode!
I can definitely relate and want to add that I’ve learned that the best way to minimize the uncertainty and fear that most entrepreneurs experience especially for making big decisions like Preston did for pursuing his venture full time is to carefully study the road map that people like you took before you.
When you know what successful people in your space did to reach their level of success, you can better predict your future by following what they did knowing that sooner or later things will work out. Keeping a stream of income at first, helps you sleep well at night until you’re ready to dive in full time.
Abdo
Absolutely, I love that Abdo.
Studying what’s worked for others and then testing relentlessly to see what your own secret sauce will become, is the way to go 🙂
Getting those kinds of sponsorships is truly humbling, especially when you’re starting from the bottom.
Oh hell yeah, that’s a really impressive monthly sponsorship figure.
When Preston was just starting out though, his first sponsored post went for just $100. But it’s the relationship he built with that person/sponsor that grew over time and helped him start charging more as his audience grew.
I loved hearing Preston’s turning point: recognizing that readers enjoyed that type of content, but also that HE enjoyed writing it more. Super valuable advice – much appreciated!
Couldn’t agree more! It’s those activities you find that fall at the intersection of your interests/skills and what others are resonating with when they come across it. ✌️
$15,000 money in blog sponsorships is a lot of money, especially when you’re single and have no kids. That’s nice money especially after you pay your independent contractor taxes, because you have more than enough money to put away for your future retirement. But when you love doing what you’re doing such a side hustle blogging, you don’t look forward to retirement. yet you look forward to expanding your blog in so many ways beyond earning just a mirror $15,000 monthly inside hustle income.
Hi i m intrested