Mike Burton, 37, has always loved rapping. But for a while, it never occurred to him he could actually pursue it as a career.
While studying and after graduating from the University of Houston in 2011, he held a string of jobs ranging from pizza delivery at
Domino’s to customer service representative at financial services firm
Aon Hewitt. But on the side, he always found time to make music.
“That’s
still what I’m doing in my breaks, on my free time, on my weekend,” he
says. “It’s never stopped.”
Back in December 2016, Burton lost his job at Hewitt. He’d long known that people sell rap-writing skills on Fiverr
and had even dabbled in doing so himself. But losing his job was the
impetus Burton needed to give the site a serious go. Among his first
packages was offering to write a 20- to 30-second verse for $5.
Today,
Burton, who’s based in Houston, works full-time writing original raps
for individuals and businesses on Fiverr. He works 40 to 45 hours per
week and usually earns between $7,000 and $8,000 per month.
Altogether, he’s brought in nearly half a million dollars from the site.
Here’s how Burton was able to build the rap career he’d always wanted.
Burton first dipped his toes as a rapper on Fiverr in 2015.
“The
first request I got was, ‘Can you make a rap to my mom about why it’s
okay to listen to Eminem?’” he says.
But he had no idea how to go about
it and ended up cancelling his account as a result.
In mid 2016,
he decided to try his luck on the site again, this time more prepared
for the peculiar requests he might get. Gigs started pouring in, and by
the time he decided to go full-time with the site in December 2016, he’d
built a momentum.
These days, Burton’s writing spans a wide range
of requests: kids needing raps for their history projects, men needing
rhymes for their boyfriends, a cheerleading DJ working to rev up
performers. “Shout out to Norway,” he says, where families hire him to
write original raps in English for their 15-year-olds’ Christian
confirmations regularly.
“I’ve done so many,” he says. “I’m like an honorary Norwegian.”
Burton’s prices have gone up steadily since he
started on the site. He now charges a minimum of $65 per 30-second
verse. Recently he’s concerned himself more with refurbishing the look
of his services on the site.
“With music and hip hop, it changes
so much that you’ll turn somebody off if you sound dated,” he says about
redoing some of the videos in his packages.
One new stream of
income Burton’s considering is teaching others how to do what he does.
For years, he’s been getting requests from people asking him to teach
them to write rhymes.
“I’ve been writing every day and figuring
out how I want to tell the story of how I come up with things and how
you can do it,” he says.
He plans to dip his toes in tutorials by
making a series of YouTube videos on the subject. Initially, this will
be free content. Once he gets comfortable with this new medium, he’ll
start thinking about how to monetize.
When it comes to advice for other people about how they can find a
niche getting paid to do what they love, Burton would remind them that
“business is supply and demand,” he says.
“Do what you love but
pay attention to what people seem to be connected to or are attracted to
that you do,” he says. Are people constantly complimenting you on your
style because you know how to find the best thrift store clothes? Are
people regularly asking you how you keep your work station so organized
because you have a knack for tidiness?
When it comes to what you can monetize, “sometimes you’ll find it in that,” he says.
