Making money & business more approachable for
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Who reads this? Freelancers, artists, YouTubers, solopreneurs, course creators, and more

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The Loaf: Archives

How Tyler, The Creator Built a Cult-Like Following - #50
After starting his music career in 2007, Tyler's since created a TV show, launched multiple brands, and began hosting Camp Flognaw - a music festival that had 2,000 attendees in its first year. Now, he has multiple hit albums and his festival brings in 50,000+ fans year after year.
September 24, 2022
How 1,000 Creators Would Spend $2,000 - #49
What would you do if you were given $2,000? This article breaks down over 20 different ways that creators would spend the money, including 43% of creators would invest in external help for their business and 10% would hire a virtual assistant.
September 17, 2022
How to accept payment on the internet - #48
There are few questions more powerful than this one because making money online will genuinely change your life, if you let it. Rather than working your whole career trading time for money, you can leverage the scale and power of the internet. You could have a product listed on your website and someone from another country can buy it at 3:00am while you're in bed dreaming about your next creative endeavor.
September 10, 2022
My Favorite Cash Back Credit Cards - #47
I like to stick with one or two well-rounded cards, take advantage of their benefits, and not worry about them. My time and mental energy is better spent trying to earn more money than searching for an extra 2% back on $1,000 of spending. I'd assume that's true for yourself too.
September 3, 2022
How to be More "Referrable" as a Freelancer - #46
I started my freelance career in April 2021 and since then, I've made over $50,000 and worked with 15 amazing clients. Out of all of them, I've only sent two outreach messages and they were for my first two clients (and they were both twitter DMs). This article breaks down 7 different things you can do to increase the chance of getting clients without having to do any outreach.
August 27, 2022
Creator Horror Stories with Brands - #45
Welcome to The Loaf - a weekly newsletter that makes money & business more approachable for creators & freelancers​
August 20, 2022
The Problem with YouTube Success - #44
In this 10-minute video, Kevin Espiritu breaks down the traditional YouTube monetization model (and its issues) while showing how you can avoid falling victim to an unsustainable strategy.
August 13, 2022
How to Build a Die Hard Fanbase as a Creator - #43
Everybody wants a loyal audience. Imagine being able to release a product or service and it sells out immediately. This article is focused on music artists, but the concepts can be applied to almost any creative career.
August 6, 2022
A Case Study of How Joe Rogan Makes Money - #42
Joe started his podcast in 2009, long before they were a societal norm, and earned his first dollar through a Sirius XM ad deal. He's since made more than $100 million through his podcast, brand deals, and brand reputation.
July 30, 2022
How to 5x Your Hourly Rates - #41
If you plan to be a career creator, you have to figure out your monetization strategy. Whether you want to sell products, offer services, sign brand deals, teach, or build a community, there's a way to make money doing so.
July 23, 2022
How to Write Better Original Content
My number one tip for writing better original content is using personal stories. For example, I wrote the "tax write-off" article above. Nobody else has your story and your experiences. Leverage them.
July 16, 2022
How to Leverage SEO as a Creator
I started putting some effort into my website and written content last year and just this last month, without doing anything, my site received 20,000 impressions on Google. The Creatorbread blog got 13,300 and I just launched the website last September.
July 9, 2022
How to overcome financial anxiety as a creative
Speaking from experience, financial anxiety is a difficult thing to manage. Some examples from the piece include worrying too much about whether or not you’ll make enough money next month, worrying that you’re spending too much, constant fear that you won’t be able to pay monthly responsibilities like mortgage, and flat out avoiding the numbers
July 2, 2022
An Easy Way to Save Money on Taxes
With an HSA, you can write off the amount of money you contribute, invest it and let it grow tax-free, and then pay for qualified medical expenses completely tax-free as well.It's an amazing, wildly underutilized account and if you qualify, there aren't any accounts that give the same tax benefits that an HSA does.
June 25, 2022
Tips for running a membership business during an economic downturn
+ 15 writing tips from a professional editor
June 18, 2022
How to ask for payment politely (+ an easy email you can copy)
+ How to make career decisions as a creative
June 12, 2022
18 Simple Tips, Tricks, and Misconceptions About Money
Nathan Barry is the founder of ConvertKit and has had firsthand experience in managing money as a creative business owner. A few takeaways: Use active income to buy passive income, automate your finances, donate appreciated stock, once you get paid immediately save and invest before spending​
June 4, 2022
Better Money Habits to Become Financially Free
We haven't seen a real recession since the creator economy took off, minus the minor blip in March 2020, so it's going to be interesting to see how a tighter economy affects us as a whole. But economic conditions are outside of our control, and there are a few tactical things you can do to put yourself in a position to thrive
May 28, 2022
How to Negotiate as a Creative
A hidden gem in Tim Ferriss' podcast library, this interview from 2016 with Ramit Sethi talks through some of the biggest factors that play into creative business success - including how to sell yourself and how negotiate to get what you want.
May 21, 2022
5 Keys to a Successful Creative Career
Being creative and making money from your creations are two completely separate things. In this article, Josh Spector walks through a few necessities to turn your creative energy into a sustainable career.
May 15, 2022
7-Step Process for Viral YouTube Ideas
"Too many people make the mistake of chasing viral videos and neglecting their existing audience. Your viral videos need to be still interesting to your regular viewers."
May 7, 2022
How to Stop Worrying About Money
This article walks through a few mindset shifts needed to alter your relationship with money. Ramit Sethi is the author of I Will Teach You to be Rich and meets with people all over the world to talk about their views and beliefs around money. A few takeaways from the article include: know that you can trust yourself, know that you can create more money, stop being afraid of waste, and play offense, not defense
April 23, 2022
21 Rules for Creating Better Content
This thread from Writing to Riches is full of short friendly reminders for creating content - a few of my favorites. If you really want to be a creator, stay consistent for at least a year before you even consider giving up. Maybe it won’t end up being for you, but it’s worth finding out. Give yourself a chance
April 16, 2022
The Money Behind Drink Brands (And How You Can Create One)
Aside from nostalgia, drink companies can be highly profitable. The industry as a whole is expected to reach $899 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow ~5% annually through 2026. With 8 billion people existing on earth and everyone needing some sort of hydration, there's an obvious demand for drinks. In America, we're lucky enough to have a wide variety of choices and where there's demand, there are business opportunities. Some creators have taken notice and launched their own beverage brands and experienced massive success.
April 11, 2022
How to Save Money on Self-Employed Taxes
I had the opportunity to chat with Myriam Robinson from Morning Brew about what freelancers and self-employed people need to know about taxes. They're confusing, but you need to know how to effectively manage & reduce them or you're leaving money on the table. A few highlights: track income & expenses with an accounting software, review expenses weekly, choose the appropriate business entity, and ensure you're receiving the correct tax forms from clients
April 2, 2022
Why You Shouldn't Start a Business
When the time comes, the decision between staying solo and maintaining the "hobby" feel or taking a business-minded approach will be challenging. Starting a business can be a huge responsibility and you may find out that you enjoy the comfort of creating on the side while maintaining a stable job.
March 27, 2022
10 Products That Nathan Barry Launched Before ConvertKit
"It's okay if your first product flops. Earning a living online is a combination of a thousand little skills that take time to learn. The only thing you can control is to create every day for a long time. Stay consistent, keep learning, and you'll eventually win."
March 19, 2022
Should Your Solo Business be an LLC?
Contrary to popular belief, LLCs are not a magical business structure that can save you thousands of dollars in taxes as soon as you set one up (sorry LLC Twitter folks).
March 12, 2022
Self-Employed Tax Mistakes to Avoid
When you're self-employed, you're responsible for withholding taxes from payments to yourself. They must be estimated and then paid quarterly to the IRS. Failure to do so can result in fines and penalties.
March 7, 2022
One Lesson All Creators Can Learn From Kanye
Kanye was on a mission to prove to the industry that he was more than just a producer. He wanted to release his own music and be known as a rapper and an artist - much like many up & coming creators want to be recognized for their content and creations.
February 27, 2022
Why You Don't Need a Big Audience to Land Brand Deals
When you're niche and your content is being consumed by a defined audience, brands know exactly who your audience is and you know what products or services would resonate with them. This product/audience fit creates an easy opportunity for a brand to sponsor a creator's content because they know there's a good chance for a positive return on their investment, even if it's only a few thousand dollars.
February 20, 2022
Mr. Beast Launches a Modern Snack Brand
How Mr. Beast launched a snack brand, why you need disability insurance as a creator, how to become a billion dollar creator
February 14, 2022
How a Web Designer Made $100k From One Course
How a Christian Guzman successfully built a Alphaland, a gym + retail experience, understanding health insurance when you're self employed, 7 ways to practice financial self care
February 7, 2022
This Creator Made 6 Figures, Now He's Broke
Why Mr. Beast should sell his channel, 4 easy tips to manage money as a creator, how much financial planners cost
January 30, 2022
7 Creators Who've Built Strong Personal Brands
Starting a business on a low budget, my financial setup & automation, 7 examples of creators building strong brands, how to use Twitter to get clients as a freelancer
January 23, 2022
A Look Inside a $1 Million Creator Studio
Why YouTubers are starting to sell their channels, breaking down how to pay estimated quarterly taxes, how to use twitter to get clients as a freelancer
January 16, 2022
Companies of One That Make Millions
3 Best Retirement Accounts Creators Can Open, How This Brand Used a Referral Program to Gain 100,000 Email Subscribers in One Week, Blake Emal shares 18 hard-earned marketing lessons
January 10, 2022
102 Six-Figure Creators Share Their Single Best Tip for Aspiring Creators
How I went from $0 to an $8,100 month as a freelancer is less than a year, 102 Six-Figure Creators Share Their Single Best Tip for Aspiring Creators, 5 Lessons from the Psychology of Money, Josh Spector's Guide on How to Get Followers on Twitter
January 3, 2022
The Story of a Microsoft Excel Creator (and We're Hiring!)
8 tax planning tips for busy freelancers,How a Microsoft Excel creator (huh?) made $100k in a day, Josh Spector's full collection of How to Get Newsletter Subscribers
December 19, 2021
The Return of Casey Neistat (And His New Course)
8 Year-End Crypto Tax Planning Strategies, revealing how much Kevin from The Office makes on Cameo
December 11, 2021
How Much Money Do You Need to Make to Be a Full-Time Creator?
December 5, 2021
Breaking the "Fourthwall"
In this week's Loaf we're going to cover: Fourthwall, a company helping creators build brand, audience, and income, officially launches
November 28, 2021
How to Build a Sustainable Creator Business
But the holy grail in building a sustainable creator business is finding a content format and rhythm that you can do consistently, and building a business that allows you some form of free time to stay creating. Bonus points (and concentration risk) if the content fuels the business growth.
November 21, 2021
The Best Fintech Solutions in The Creator Economy
November 13, 2021
Forget Cash or Crypto, Pay Me in This
Brands need the audience, trust, and distribution - and creators have it. For a new company, tapping into a creator's audience can help build immediate trust between their product and service and a group of viewers. For a new company, this is extremely valuable, so creators should be appropriately compensated. And for a creator taking a risk and putting their trust into a new brand, getting a little equity isn't unreasonable.
November 7, 2021
The Story of Jennette McCurdy
The dark side of childhood acting & ambitious parenting, how to launch a paid subscription, the 8 types of solopreneurs
November 1, 2021
Why This Creator Turned Down Millions in Brand Deals
But overall, the lesson here is that nothing can replace building equity in yourself. Brands will come and go but if you're in the creator economy for the long haul, start building your brand and your name so you can be the one with leverage, not the brands.
October 25, 2021
Pay Transparency Issues in the Creator Economy and a Unique Solution
Due to this lack of transparency and blatant disrespect towards unknowing creators, brands can underpay them and they may never even know they're being underpaid. So Fuck You Pay Me was created. Rather than signing brand deals in the dark, influencers and creators can sign up for the site, see what others have said about a company or brand, and get a rough estimate of what they pay. It's basically like Glassdoor but exclusively for influencers, creators, or their agents.
October 19, 2021
On Accepting Change and Recognizing Friction
October 10, 2021
Brands Beginning to Acknowledge Creators and What This Means
The first edition of The Loaf
October 2, 2021