I dropped out of college and now make up to $5,000 a month as a 'meme lord'

Jason Levin found his first copywriting gig on Twitter.

Jason Levin

• Jason Levin dropped out of college and turned his content creator side-hustle into a full-time job.
• He now makes between $2,000 and $5,000 a month by making memes and copywriting for startups and VCs.
  
• He writes his own newsletter and went from 1,000 subscribers to more than 7,000 in under two years.

Almost two years ago, I dropped out of college after I started making good money writing a newsletter and copy for tech startups. 

I was studying English at Rutgers University in New Jersey, but I felt like I was wasting a lot of time in class. I knew I wanted to write for an online audience, but we weren't taught how to write blogs or newsletters or Twitter threads.

That's why I decided to teach myself, and I started my own newsletter in July 2021, while also taking on freelance copywriting work for startups. 

I realized I was making more money than my professors

Three months later I quit college.

When I left, I had less than 1,000 subscribers to my newsletter, which focuses on content strategy. I now have 7,200. I also didn't have many Twitter followers, but in a year, that's grown to more than 10,000.

The growth came mostly from writing Twitter threads on marketing case studies and by making funny memes.

While I've had some threads go viral and get me 2,000 followers in a night, others have only generated 20 new followers. It's a matter of persevering and putting in the work.

I landed my first copywriting gig through Twitter

I saw someone post that she was looking for a freelance writer, so I sent her a message with a link to my blog. I was able to secure an assignment and since then it's been a snowball effect. 

I then built up my portfolio and found new clients by cold messaging tech founders and VC firms on Twitter.

One of the clients I was copywriting for saw some of the memes I made on my Twitter account and found them funny, so he asked me to make some for their company. 

—Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin) March 8, 2023

 

While I made about $75 in crypto from the first few memes, I'm now earning between $2,000 and $5,000 a month from between three to five clients.

I've had a bunch of memes go viral and that led to people messaging me and asking me to do it for them too. I'm proud to say I'm a "meme lord" now, getting paid to make memes and silly content for companies.

Some of my clients are well-known tech startups and VC firms

One client is a startup called Jam, a software firm backed by Union Square Ventures.

For Jam, I posted a picture of me eating jam and said I would eat a packet for every person that followed their Twitter account.

I live-tweeted myself eating jam for the next few hours. The next day I found out the company hit an all-time high on product usage.

—Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin) March 13, 2023

 

I have very high agency and almost full control of what I post from some clients' brand accounts. But I've had times where clients need to approve the content. It really depends on the client and how comfortable we are in our working relationship. 

I work six to eight hours a day

My working day typically involves generating memes, writing for my clients and my newsletter — which I send out twice a week — and writing Twitter threads. I also write a startups newsletter once a week. 

I also have a book coming out in October, "Memes Make Millions", which includes interviews with more than 20 people who make money through "meme marketing."

Dropping out of college was one of the best decisions in my life. I'm definitely living the dream. 

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