Want me to teach you my favorite way to make money?

Back in 2001, after the dot-com crash and 9/11, I was in a world of financial hurt.

I'd been making a great living creating content for dot-com startups, but suddenly those clients were disappearing left and right. I had no idea how I was going to replace that income.

Then a fellow USA TODAY columnist gave me an idea that changed everything.

She said, “Hey Steve, you own your copyright. Why not take something you are already creating and sell it to multiple customers, month after month?”

So that's what I did.

I took my weekly small business column and started selling it to chambers of commerce around the country. They needed good small business content, I had it, and they were happy to pay me for it.

One piece of work. Multiple paying customers. Money coming in every month.

I had stumbled into the wonderful world of monthly recurring revenue, or MRR.

And you know what? Of all the businesses I've created over the years, including some much bigger and more lucrative ones, that little syndication business remains one of my favorites.

Why? It was easy to create, easy to grow, easy to run, and super lucrative.

At one point, I had 90 chambers paying me between $50 - $100 a month for that content. Roughly $7,500/mo in MRR.

But here's the thing.

You don't need to be a columnist to do this. You don't need to be a writer at all.

Think about it. Maybe you're a great cook who could send busy moms five easy dinner recipes every week. Or maybe you spent 30 years working in human resources and could send small business owners a weekly email filled with practical hiring advice, employee retention ideas, and time-tested solutions to common workplace headaches.

The possibilities are practically endless.

You have an expertise, or a passion, or something you love to geek-out on. Well, you know what? Other people like to geek out on it too.

The idea is simple: Find something people want or need on an ongoing basis, deliver it to them once a week in an engaing way by email, and charge a monthly subscription.

And here's where it gets interesting.

Imagine having 100 people paying you $10 a month for something they find useful. That's $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

Or take that retired HR professional. What if 50 small businesses paid $50 a month for a weekly email that helped them make better hiring decisions, avoid costly mistakes, and manage their employees more effectively?

That's $2,500 a month. $30,000 a year.

From one email a week.

One.

Now, of course, you still have to create something people genuinely find useful and find customers willing to pay for it. But the beauty of this model is that you're not creating a different product for every customer. You're doing the work once and selling it many times.

And in this age of AI, that is easier than ever.

In fact, I love this model so much that my latest business venture uses the exact same idea and is designed to generate significant MRR. So yes, I believe in this model. I've used it successfully before, and I'm using it again right now.

So here's what I'm thinking.

Would you be interested if I put together a short, FREE email series showing you how monthly recurring revenue works, how you could turn something you already know into a simple weekly email people pay for, and how to find your first subscribers?

No complicated business plans. No expensive technology. No need to become a TikTok star.

Just a simple, practical way to create an additional income stream from something you already know.

If that sounds interesting, hit reply and say YES.

If enough of you are interested, I'll put together a five-part series and show you how it works.

Steve