Don’t Fall for This Side Hustle Scam
I'm going to save everyone $200+ right now by exposing one of the biggest "side hustle" trends that I keep seeing all over TikTok and Instagram.... LETTER WRITING which is being promoted by "digital marketers."
I’m really over the way some "digital marketers" gatekeep by putting everything behind a course. And honestly, I'm tired of everyone calling themselves a digital marketer after they take a $200 course when there are many of us marketers who have decades of experience.
It's not the same thing.
Are all courses bad? Not at all—I’m even building my own social media course. But I don’t withhold content; I share a lot for free info on Facebook and on LinkedIn. My course offers things like 1-on-1s and live workshops to give personalized support, which is where it adds real value. But I digress.
You might’ve seen videos about "digital marketers" making money by sending out letters. Not the fancy calligraphy ones—these claim you can make hundreds by sending letters but never really explain what’s being written.
Here's the claim: You write letters and companies will pay $5 per letter.
Here's the reality: You write to casinos to get $5 in virtual coins, gamble those coins, and, if you win, cash out into real money.
These "digital marketers" are selling courses between $25-$200 on how to do this.
Maybe if you can find someone selling the course for $25 it might be worth it to save you the time it’d take to find the same information just with a little Google search. I would not spend $200 on this.
Well, I would not spend any money actually when I'm just going to give you an amazing FREE resource where you can learn how to do this, and no you don't even have to give me your email.
A few things to remember:
You also aren't just cashing out from one casino. You have to log into multiple casino's, gamble the $5 hope you win, cash out. There's a bit of a process to follow. It's not as easy as write a letter get a free $5.
Here's a nice youtube video that explains how to do it for free:
https://youtu.be/Gyv2LRo4UfE?si=xzRr1_onn0sJtF_v
Here is her resource list: https://iamlrose.com/casino-games/
She also has a FB group.
Here are four casinos you can check out on YouTube without paying for a course:
Can you make money doing this? Yes, some people do. But what bothers me is that many of these videos don’t mention that this is technically gambling, which could be a harmful path for people with gambling issues.
Also, most legit side hustles do not require any money down to get started. Mystery shopping might be an exception here.
With letter writing, you will have these upfront costs:
Postage $0.68 x 200 letters- $136
Index cards $2.24
Envelopes $5.42
Total: $143.66 up front costs + $25-$200 for the course + $25 a month to subscribe to the course for information you could find for free.
I'm going to test this side hustle out WITHOUT buying any course, just watching these free youtube videos and share back what happens. I'm also going to track how much time it takes to write the letters send them out and what that looks like as an hourly rate.
You write letters to get credits to gamble with and you can then cash those out for money. You also have to wait 6-8 weeks to get paid that credit.
There is a chance that your letter could be rejected. So you are not guaranteed $5 per letter.
Let's say I can write 10 letters in an hour which would equal $50 an hour.
I've spent 30 minutes researching this information and writing this post so I'm -$25 already if we're going by that hourly rate. And I have some #10 envelopes already but if I calculate the cost from above let's just say an estimated 143.66 for all supplies. so now I'm out -$168.66 and will need to write at least 40 letters (accounting for some that might be rejected) to earn that back.
I'll report back in 6-8 weeks.
Any other side hustles you want me to investigate?
