Mike Burton, 37, has always loved to rap. But it never occurred to him that he could really pursue it as a career.

While studying and after graduating from the University of Houston in 2011, he held a series of jobs, from delivering pizza at Domino's to customer service representative at financial services firm Aon Hewitt. But aside, he always found time to make music. “That's what I keep doing on my breaks, on my free time, on my weekend,” he says. “It has never stopped.”

In December 2016, Burton was fired from Hewitt. He had known for a long time that people sell rap Writing skills on Fiverr and had even dabbled in it himself. But losing his job was the impetus Burton needed to give the site a serious try. Among the first packages from him was offering to write a 20 to 30 second verse for $5.

Today Burton, who is based in Houston, works full time writing original raps for individuals and businesses on Fiverr. She works 40 to 45 hour weeks and typically earns between $7,000 and $8,000 per month.

In all, he has raised nearly half a million dollars from the site.

This is how Burton was able to build the rapping career he had always wanted.

Burton first dove as a rapper on Fiverr in 2015.

“The first request I got was, ‘Can you rap to my mom about why it's okay to listen to Eminem?'” he says. But he had no idea how to do it and as a result, he ended up canceling his account.

In mid-2016, he decided to try the site again, this time more prepared for the peculiar requests he might receive. he had built momentum.

These days, Burton's writing spans a wide range of requests: kids who need raps for their story projects, men who need rhymes for their boyfriends, an upbeat DJ who works to cheer up artists. “Shout out to Norway,” he says, where families regularly hire him to write original raps in English for the Christian confirmation of their 15-year-old sons.

“I've done so many,” he says. “I'm like an honorary Norwegian.”

Burton's prices have risen steadily since he started working on the site. He now she charges a minimum of $65 per 30 second verse. Recently, it has become more concerned with revamping the look of its services on the site.

“With music and hip hop, it changes so much that you'll alienate someone if you sound old-fashioned,” he says of redoing some of the videos in his packages.

A new source of income Burton is considering is teaching others how to do what he does. For years, he has been getting requests from people asking him to teach them how to write rhymes.

“I've been writing every day and figuring out how I want to tell the story of how things come to me and how you can do it,” he says.

He plans to dive into the tutorials by making a series of YouTube videos on the subject. Initially, this will be free content. Once you're comfortable with this new medium, you'll start thinking about how to monetize.