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Comment by wisty | Hacker News Reader

It also says she tuned it into a full time job, and talks about how it's really hard work.

I suspect she's mistaken about how many hours she puts into it.

Maybe not. Maybe she just worked hard perfecting her skills and can make 100 pounds / hour, but is picking the most profitable opportunities. Some side gigs are like that - you can make a huge hourly wage on something but only for a few paid hours a month.

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I suspect the full-time job is actually her blog, rather than the contests per se:

> The operator of a popular sweepstakes blog, she has made the hobby into a full-time job.

So far in 2019, she's won prizes equivalent to £5,389, or about the same as working 110 hours/month at minimum wage[1]. Given that £2,000 worth (Majorca trip) is tagged as "Group win", and most of it appears to be stuff you couldn't sell at retail price, or just couldn't sell, I find it difficult to call that a full-time job.

[1] (£5,389/6 months)/£8.21 an hour = 109 hours

This is true. Reminds me of a somewhat popular youtuber who makes videos about "side hustles." One of his "main" side hustle is operating vending machines. He basically makes videos about how to operate your own vending machine business and so on. The irony to it of course is that 98% of his "profit" comes from youtube partner advertising. So he makes a few hundred bucks from the vending business but pulls 10k-15k profit per month from youtbe ads. So the real moral of the story here is don't waste your time doing a vending machine biz, focus on making entertaining youtube videos.

I've also been convinced that this is how most the authors of "how to get rich" books make their money. Not by applying their own teachings but by selling them.

In advice, I look for actionable details, leverage, and credibility? Is the advice detailed enough that it can be turned into a plan without too much work? Is the advice something that leads to gains that greatly exceed the effort invested? Does the advice come from someone who knows their shit?

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