BBC's Sherlock is back and better than ever. As the show is want to do, it raises a lot of questions, but one of the biggest questions on our minds is not the typical Sherlock Holmes mystery: How many side hustles does Dr. John Watson have going? And how much of his money is coming from each one?
In true Sherlockian fashion, we've compiled the evidence to figure out what's going on with John Watson's finances.
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His blog
By this point, he's got a pretty popular blog— after all, that's how Sherlock Holmes became famous. When you're one of the most famous bloggers in the world, or at least in England, how much money can you make?
Some blogs rake in a as much as $100,000 per month. Those tend to be big names, sites that you wouldn't usually think of as blogs — like Lifehacker and the Huffington Post. We don't think that John Watson would be making quite that much, but he's definitely raking in the cash.
According to Smartblogger.com, the primary steps of building a successful blog are to set up the blog, write content that gets a lot of traffic (we know John is doing that, since his blog is referenced on the regular), convert visitors into email subscribers, send those subscribers content that builds trust, and sell products or services that your audience wants.
We're not sure what the status is with John's mailing list, but his blog is certainly working to sell services that his audience wants. Their client base is private citizens, who we see in montage, and city police and government intelligence agencies. Without John's blog, it's doubtful that as many would have found Sherlock for his services.
Solving crimes
As noted above, solving crimes is their main gig. We'll look at how much top private investigators can make when they consult for the police and private citizens.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average Private Investigator makes an average of $41,760. That number is lower than we expected. It also doesn't account for John's blog, or the high profile cases that Sherlock makes.
The top ten percent, however, can have salaries that top $125,320, and if we know one thing, it's that Sherlock and John are running the top detective outfit in the world.
Medical consulting
Dr. John Watson is a doctor…but does he doctor at all anymore? John uses his medical expertise when he's in the field solving crimes with Sherlock, but we don't see him do much medical work anymore. We must assume that since he seems to have given up medicine, he is making as much as he would be earning as a practicing doctor. The average incomes for physicians in the United Kingdom vary. GPs employed by the Primacy Care System make between 53,781GBP ($64,104) and 81,158GBP ($100,478), while those in private practice make an average of 103,000GBP ($127,514), according to this salary site.
From what we know, it seems that John is earning the bulk of his income from solving mysteries with Sherlock. After all, they regularly consult for the British government, and government contracts can be $$. His blog is an important part of that because it's his primary marketing tool. Because of the traffic pulled on his blog, they are able to reach a wide audience in order to sell services that their audience wants, which is after all, the key to making money off your blog.
One thing is for sure, between all his income options, John Watson is living that six-figure freelance life.