It’s one thing to teach a toddler to read; it’s another thing entirely to transform that skill into a 7-figure business.

Spencer Russell built Toddlers Can Read from the ground up and achieved tremendous success in just 2 years.

Despite early setbacks with initial sales, he adapted by refining the course experience and struck gold with viral content on TikTok.

As Spencer innovates, scales, and plans a rebranding, he remains deeply committed to his mission—helping children everywhere unlock their reading potential.

Explore his strategies, learn from his experiences, and discover why he believes in giving your side hustle full-time energy.

Tune into episode 584 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

How Spencer Russell found his niche in early childhood education
Strategies for delivering value and engaging customers
Leveraging social media for business growth
Expanding reach through blogging and paid advertising

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Identifying the Opportunity

Spencer Russell is an award-winning teacher and dad who saw an opportunity to help kids learn to read starting at very young ages.

When researching business ideas, he was heavily influenced by the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, which recommends focusing your efforts at the intersection of three criteria:

Something you can be the best in the world at
Something you’re excited to do
Something that can provide for your family

As Spencer shared:

“What are the jobs, the occupations, the roles that I could fill that would hit those three criteria? I had already taught my son to read, he was two years old, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m pretty good at teaching little kids how to read.’”

Spencer knew he had a natural skill set for this niche based on his experience as an educator.

He conducted competitive research and pored through the myriad online courses targeted at general parenting topics:

sleep training
motor skills development
behavior management
and so on

However, he found very few tailored specifically to building early reading skills for the toddler demographic.

Despite the massive market of anxious parents eager to prepare their children for kindergarten and beyond, this narrow sub-niche appeared wide open.

Preparing for Launch

Armed with a business idea he was confident could succeed, Spencer promptly entered an intensive learning phase. Although knowledgeable about childhood education, he had limited business experience beyond teaching.

He absorbed online business model concepts from resources like The Online Course Guy, Russell Brunson, and StoryBrand.

After consuming content voraciously for several weeks, Spencer pieced together a basic course and began collecting pre-orders at $49 with a mid-June release date. He promoted it verbally to his network of friends and family.

However, Spencer quickly realized that most people who expressed interest didn’t end up purchasing. After an agonizing 3-4 days of zero sales, Spencer finally made his first sale.

While far below expectations, this response still provided enough validation to move forward and ended up with 31-32 pre-orders from initial users.

Now it was time to double down on course development and finalize the content.

Optimizing the Customer Experience

With his “beta testers” granted access, Spencer tracked their engagement to identify improvements. He discovered most customers don’t actually finish online courses.

Rather than questioning his teaching, Spencer concluded he needed to optimize the delivery for his target audience. As he explained:

“My takeaway from that was I need to make it more engaging and make it easier to access. I thought my takeaway was going to be I need to teach this lesson more clear or explain this concept better.”

He transitioned the course onto the platform Kajabi, which allowed support for mobile and on-demand consumption.

This flexibility better matched how his customers—busy parents—wanted to learn. Spencer also re-recorded higher quality videos to boost engagement.

Spencer created a high-value course tailored to his audience by continuously refining the customer experience.

Gaining Social Media Traction

In parallel with finalizing his course, Spencer launched social media profiles to build an audience.

After months of consistent value-focused content, Spencer finally struck gold. A January 2022 TikTok video about teaching sight words went viral.

As he explained:

“Our first viral post was on TikTok in January of 2022, and it was a sight word post. And we learned from that post—sight words as a topic is a big thing. And so we started to do more posts about sight words than a lot of those posts picked up.”

This initial boost provided momentum to optimize future videos using data analytics. He would diligently test different variables like captions, visuals, video style, prompts, and more to pinpoint what resonated best with his audience.

If a particular video underperformed, Spencer broke down the data to determine exactly why.

“How many people were still watching after one second? What was the angle? Was there a kid in the shot? Where were the captions? Was it a negative hook?” he shared.

Diversifying Traffic Sources

While hugely reliant on social media, Spencer understood the need to diversify channels. He started blogging weekly, optimizing articles around targeted keywords.

He also began experimenting with paid advertising on Google and Facebook, driving traffic to a free online workshop funnel.

While new to paid ads, Spencer takes a data-driven approach to iterate toward profitable campaigns.

Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value

Visitors who make it through Spencer’s funnel can enroll in his reading curriculum—three courses available individually at $99 each or discounted as a bundle for $249.

He follows up over email with purchase incentives and delivers an automated nurture sequence, providing supplemental content to past buyers.

Although a one-time purchase model served him well initially, Spencer shared his regrets about not incorporating a subscription model from the start:

“Not having a subscription model … is my biggest mistake. And that structure would be what I would shift my business to if I could start over.”

He has expanded into physical products like workbooks and flashcards based directly on customer feedback. Spencer also envisions adding a paid membership program in the future.

Tools and Technology

Spencer built his course delivery on Kajabi but soon incorporated specialized tools like ActiveCampaign for email and eWebinar for his online workshop.

He accepts the high costs and complexity of migrating off integrated platforms in favor of best-in-class solutions.

Day-to-Day Operations

To manage everything smoothly day-to-day, Spencer divides his time into structured “success blocks” focused on priorities:

Morning ritual – Cardio, stretch, cold shower, cleaning
Learning – reading, journal, meditation
PQO: Prolific Quality Output from 8-11am without any distractions
Quick check on stats/dashboard from 11 am-12 pm
Content creation – Filming videos, ideating new lessons, designing graphics from 12pm-4pm
Working out and family time from 4pm-8pm
Evening catch-up – Processing emails, messages, and misc. to-do items from 8pm-10pm

He also adheres strictly to the “11am rule” where he ignores messages before 11:00am to reserve mornings for strategic work. This discipline enables him to effectively scale the business.

Looking Ahead

Given his success so far, Spencer plans on continuing to widen his course curriculum, physical product line, and even considering a company rebrand to serve a broader audience.

He plans to launch in additional international markets, localizing content where needed.

While his brand has a very broad global appeal, Spencer sees huge potential in tailored messaging and translations based on factors that differ across countries.

He also plans to rebrand. As he put it:

“The biggest thing that is on the horizon that we haven’t talked about much publicly is a rebrand away from the name Toddlers Can Read towards a more universal and inclusive name with programs targeted for different ages from toddlers to bigger kids to adults.”

He continues to listen closely to customer feedback to ensure his company direction stays aligned with their evolving needs. But he never loses sight of the core purpose—empowering parents to maximize their kids’ reading potential.

Spencer’s combination of genuine care for his audience and strategic innovation positions him for growth.

Key Takeaways

Embrace a blue ocean strategy. Thoroughly analyze competitors and customer needs to identify wide open niches worth pursuing.
Focus on quick wins on social media to get attention and solve problems. Adapt content for your audience, leverage social media for viral growth, and diversify traffic sources to avoid sole reliance on external platforms.
Listen to customer feedback and adapt accordingly. Customer input guided Spencer’s expansion into physical products and potential subscription model. Build what people want.

Spencer’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Don’t be afraid to go all in. Take a big step. Give it full-time energy, even if not full-time hours.”

Links and Resources

Toddlers Can Read
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The Online Course Guy
Russell Brunson
StoryBrand
Kajabi
ActiveCampaign
eWebinar
January 2022 TikTok video

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

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Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

Can you really can get paid to be an online friend?

The short answer is yes.

The longer answer is your odds of making consistent money as a generic online friend are pretty low.

In this post, we’ll explore:

how virtual friendships work
how to maximize your earning power
how to keep yourself safe online
the top alternatives to consider

As more and more elements of our lives shift online, paid virtual friends really isn’t much of a stretch. We’re more connected than ever before, but also more isolated.

If you’re a social person with a gift for interesting conversations, this may just be the side hustle for you.

Why Become an Online Friend?

Are you friendly, talkative, and empathetic? Are you interested in other people and what they have to say?

Being an online friend can provide relevant experience towards a career in caregiving, psychology, or life coaching. You might be motivated to help change someone’s life, or you might just need extra cash.

Whichever it is, being an online friend is worth looking into. After all, it can be rewarding both emotionally and financially.

What is a Virtual Friend? What Do Virtual Friends Do?

It’s simple: virtual friends offer friendship online. This can be through messaging, video calls, or even video games! It’s all platonic and doesn’t involve meeting face-to-face.

And, as it turns out, there are real websites and online platforms that set these connections up.

Virtual friends have to be available, willing to talk, listen, and express interest. This “job” may even involve offering advice or emotional support. Ultimately, your task is to be a real friend — just not in-person.

And it’s not that far-fetched: a recent study found that over 80% of Americans have met at least one person they consider a friend online.

Why Do People Hire Online Friends?

It might seem over the top to pay for a virtual friend. But the fact is, there are many people who really struggle to make friends “in real life.” Social anxiety, depression, agoraphobia, and just being an introvert are a few reasons why.

Loneliness is another reason, even with the connectivity of the Internet. Even people who are surrounded by friends and family can feel lonely. It can mean feeling misunderstood, like no one you know relates to your opinions and interests.

People might also hire virtual friends for life advice or emotional support. Sometimes because their current friends are not as available as they used to be.

Housebound disabled people are also likely to seek virtual companionship. And the same applies to seniors who have lost their partners.

1. Rent a Friend

If you want to get paid to be an online friend, RentAFriend is one of the most popular websites to sign up for.

The global platform is strictly for platonic friendships, and has over 600,000 members.

The site primarily caters to people looking for in-person friends to:

show them around a new city
attend events with
be a wingman/wingwoman

But they facilitate online friendships as well.

How it works is you’ll create your free Friend profile, complete with your personal details and interests. This allows you to be searched for by Members and get hired.

Profile pages look like this:

Friends on RentAFriend charge anywhere from $10-50 an hour, paid any way you choose. There are no fees for being hired, and setting up a profile is 100% free.

It’s between you and your new friend to sort out the payment. (Many users use Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal.)

The only requirements are being at least 18 years of age with no convicted felonies. Sex offenders are obviously not allowed.

It’s worth mentioning that Rent a Friend is used for in-person meet-ups as well as virtual friendship. So for strictly online interaction, make sure to state that on your profile.

How Does Rent a Friend Make Money?

Rent a Friend charges members — not friends — $24.95 a month to access their database. This unlocks the ability to message and hire friends.

Is Rent a Friend Safe?

Rent a Friend might not have the most professional-looking website in the world, but the service itself is legit. They’ve been around since 2009… and apparently haven’t redesigned their site since then.

Still, RentAFriend is widely used for face-to-face meet-ups so it’s important to take caution. And RentAFriend actually encourages its users to only meet for public social activities.

As an extra precaution, let others know where you’re going. Turn phone location tracking on, and carry pepper spray if it provides peace of mind.

If you just want to interact online, however, this is generally going to be safer.

2. Rent a Cyber Friend

RentaCyberFriend is another website where you can get paid to be a virtual friend.

And unlike RentAFriend, Rent a Cyber Friend operates fully online. There’s no meeting face-to-face.

RentaCyberFriend calls itself a community that connects people of similar interests.

Users can search for Cyber Friends from around the world who share the same hobbies or goals as they do. And once a Cyber Friend is found, they can start video chats.

Cyberfriends get paid by the minute. In browsing different profiles, I found rates from $0.10-$1.00 per minute. The platform charges a 20% fee, so a $1.00 per minute friend could earn $48 an hour after the fee.

As for requirements, you only have to be at least 18 years of age with a good Internet connection and camera.

When you complete your profile, be sure to include keywords people might search for, such as:

your location
hobbies
interests
skills

The more relevant keywords you can include — along with a fun profile picture — the more likely your profile is to get seen, and the more likely you are to book calls.

3. FriendPC

Think of Friend PC like RentaCyberFriend, except that it doesn’t just involve video calls.

Friend PC allows users to find Virtual Friends who share interests and hobbies. They can then interact via text, online messaging, phone calls, video calls, and even video games.

As a result, people seeking friendship use this platform for various reasons. This includes emotional support, life advice, online gaming, and general conversation.

What’s good about Friend PC is that Virtual Friends can be booked for several days or weeks. Availability calendars are also displayed on each Virtual Friend profile.

You can get paid to be a Virtual Friend on Friend PC by signing up (for free). Fill out your profile and make yourself available for different services like:

messaging
calls
gaming
life coaching
tourism advice
and more

You get to set your own rates, with payments easily withdrawn from the FriendPC dashboard. Friends on this platform typically charge between $5-50/hr.

You can also pay a monthly membership to enjoy extra perks—like getting featured on the homepage.

4. Outschool

Unlike the sites above that focus on relationships between adults, Outschool is actually aimed at creating a safe online environment for kids.

The site allows you to create virtual group classes on any topic — academic or not. I’ve connected with Outschool teachers with writing classes, virtual reading hangout time, and just social hours to discuss the latest books, games, or movies.

One of my favorite examples is Devyn Ricks, who goes by Miss Devyn on Outschool. She hosts a variety of video game classes for kids and reported earning up to $4,000 a month part-time.

5. Preply

Another angle to get paid to be an online friend is to help people learn and practice English. Preply is a popular site that language learners use to practice their conversation skills.

As a Preply tutor, you can earn $15-25 an hour with no special certifications or teaching experience required.

6. Fiverr Friendship

Many lists of ways to make money as an online friend include Fiverr, the popular freelancing platform.

And while it’s true you can list you online friendship services on the site, there doesn’t appear to be a huge demand. (Based on the low number of ratings the top gigs have.)

Still, it’s free to set up your Fiverr profile and offer gigs around:

advice
relationships
emotional support
conversation
life coaching
online friendships
general chat

Like most of the other online friendship services on this list, Fiverr allows you to set your own rates, starting at $5. The company takes a 20% fee on whatever you earn.

You can also get rated up to 5 stars on Fiverr, helping you gain exposure and earn more clients. After you get paid, you can withdraw to PayPal or your bank.

7. RentALocalFriend.com

Rent a Local Friend focuses on travel and tourism. It connects travelers with locals (like you!) who can share insights and activities about your hometown.

In other words, Local Friends on RentaLocalFriend are tour guides or travel buddies. They can provide companionship, local information, translation, photography, and more.

Despite that, Rent a Local Friend can be used virtually. And as a Virtual Friend, you’ll simply provide the client with local travel tips online. I found rates between $10-$40 per hour.

You’ll need to set up a Friend profile with all your details, which will allow you to be searched for and hired. You set your rates and then get paid through PayPal.

8. Get Paid to Chat

For women comfortable with more adult-centered online relationships, there are a number of sites that can help you make money.

Among those is Chat Recruit, which claims to have paid out over $30 million to members. The company specializes in phone and webcam chat jobs, and allows you to set your own rates.

Tips to Earn Money as an Online Friend

The best tip to earn money as an online friend is to simply be the best friend that you can for those who choose to hire you. This means treating them like any of your real-life friends.

But to be hired as an online friend in the first place, you need to make yourself approachable. Be transparent with your personal details, interests, photos, and what you offer friendship-wise.

This will result in more people with similar interests being drawn to you. It can also lead to genuine friendships that will help you earn money without feeling like work.

Sign Up to Multiple Virtual Friend Websites

Another tip to earn money as a virtual friend is to sign up to multiple virtual friend websites. The more virtual friend websites that you sign up for, the more chance you have of being chosen as a virtual friend.

Get Paid to Be an Online Friend: Safety Tips

If you’ve been thinking about safety while reading this article, you wouldn’t be alone. Presenting yourself online and talking to strangers comes with risks like:

catfishing
data misuse
scams

This makes it important to be careful with any online interaction with strangers. Here are a few must-know safety tips.

Only Sign Up for Trusted Friend Websites

The most important safety tip is to only sign up for trusted online friend websites. The above websites are good examples. These sites have terms and conditions, and privacy policies that all users need to follow.

It’s also recommended to maintain online communication on the website itself or on trusted messaging/video chat platforms. Avoid using messaging services or apps that you are unfamiliar with, even if it’s described to you as safe.

Be Careful About Your Privacy

To have a better chance of being chosen, you need to be honest and open about who you are. However, this requires completing your profile with your personal information and photos.

To protect your privacy and make it harder for someone to reverse image search you, consider using a unique profile picture — one that you haven’t uploaded to Facebook or other sites.

If there’s an option, make your profile only visible to registered members of each site.

Be Clear and Firm with Your Boundaries

Like real-life friendships and relationships, boundaries are important. This means being upfront about expectations.

With the exception of the adult chat and webcam options, all the sites listed above are strictly platonic. Still, you may want to reiterate this each time you get picked as an online friend.

Other boundaries might include:

not meeting in person
conversation topics that are off-limits
offensive language
your available times to chat

Which Virtual Friend Websites Are Most Popular?

My big fear with this side hustle is that there are far more people looking to make money as an online friend than there are people wanting to hire them.

Even Rent a Friend, the most popular “online friend” site, doesn’t seem to have enough buyer traffic to support its 600,000+ friends.

And when you consider that a good chunk of their estimated 250,000 monthly visitors are people looking to get hired, and the majority of customers are looking for in-real-life companions, the odds of making any money as an online friend seem super low.

That’s not to say that online friends don’t provide a valuable service — they do. It’s just that the supply of available friends far outpaces the apparent demand.

The idea sounds cool, but success stories of people actually making money as a virtual friend are hard to come by.

So what other ways can you make money online?

Alternatives to Being an Online Friend

While it’s certainly possible to make money as a virtual friend, I don’t think it’s super likely. (Aside from a niche service offering like on Outschool, language learning, or adult chat.)

Here are some other ideas to make extra money with low startup costs.

In-Person Caregiving

It’s not entirely virtual, but the market for in-person caregiving, childcare, and companionship is booming.

Sites like Sittercity.com and Care.com are big platforms that help connect families with caregivers like you. You can create a free profile and take on jobs that fit your schedule.

The nationwide average rates are in the range of $14-20 an hour. If you love kids and you and have time to spare, babysitting would be a pretty easy side gig to consider.

Online Focus Groups

There are several sites that help match you with paid research studies online. Depending on your areas of expertise, these can pay $50-200 an hour.

My favorites are:

Respondent — Aimed at tech industry workers and other professionals. Check out my full Respondent review to learn more.
User Interviews — High-paying remote market research gigs in an easy-to-use interface. Here’s our full User Interviews review for more info.
Rare Patient Voice — For patients (and their caregivers) with rare and not-so-rare medical conditions. The average payout is $100 an hour.

Become a Virtual Assistant

Starting a remote service business is another way to make money online on your own terms. Virtual assistants provide administrative support for other companies, and often earn $20-40 an hour.

Or, you can check out FlexJobs, the leading resource for work from home jobs.

There’s a nominal fee to access their listings, but the site is legit and has thousands of flexible, part-time, and full-time options.

Create a Helpful Website

Finally, my favorite way to build an income online is to create a helpful resource. What are you interested in or curious about? What are you a relative expert in?

Could you turn around and help answer questions online about that topic on a website or YouTube channel?

For example, Raffaele Di Lallo turned his love of houseplants into a 6-figure online business. How cool is that!

Making Money as an Online Friend: Conclusion

Being an online friend can be an emotionally and financially rewarding side hustle, but it will be a challenge to stand out from the crowd.

My recommendation is to find a narrower niche — such as providing language practice or chess lessons.

Don’t expect to create a profile and have the cash automatically roll in. Like anything, building an online income takes patience, practice, and consistent effort.

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.