So yesterday, I shared with you why I think it’s better for people with a full time job to create a side hustle that sells their knowledge and expertise rather than their time, and then I asked you to think about a couple of things to help you figure out what you have to offer and who you want to help.
If you missed that, you can find it over at www.shannonmattern.com/10
Today, I’m going to give you the basic steps of how this type of side hustle actually works.
So the basic steps are 1) build a website 2) find your audience online 3) build an email list 4) build a relationship with your subscribers 5) turn your expertise into income
So let’s break it down:
- The reason you build a website is to establish yourself as an expert on your topic. It’s your online home, and it’s where you’re going to post blog posts or videos or podcast episodes educating your audience about your topic. It’s also the engine that runs your business. It’s basically the online version of you that people can access while you’re at work, right?
- After you build your website, you gotta go out and find your audience, find that ideal customer that you want to serve. Yes, they might stumble upon you from a Google search, but we’re not going to wait. You gotta go out there and find them on social media, on other blogs and podcasts and give them a reason to follow you on social media and come check out your website. And that reason is going to be all the awesome free content you create for them which positions you as a credible expert on your topic.
- Step 3 is building an email list. We want to get people to sign up for our email list because then we can communicate with them later. If they just come to our site, read a blog post and leave, then we’re missing an opportunity to continue the relationship with them. And the way you get people to want to sign up for your email list is to give them a valuable piece of content in exchange for their email address. I’ve heard call it a freebie, other people call it a content upgrade or a freemium.
4) And then after you get them on your email list, you continue to nurture that relationship via email, sending them more awesome free content that establishes you as an expert.
5) Finally, your email list is where you’ll sell whatever it is you end up selling, maybe it’s a online course or a group coaching program or an e-book or a membership site. Something that can be created once, and delivered automatically to your audience when they buy.
So that’s the basic overview of how to create a side hustle online so you’re not trading time for money. It does take time to build, and there are ways to monetize all along the way so that you’re not waiting forever to make any money, but what I just described to you is the basic foundation.
So what are you waiting for? You can get started setting up your online home today for as little as $2.95 a month with Bluehost. Don’t know what domain name to get? Just get your own name! You can always change it later.
Show Notes:
Get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 with Bluehost here.
Learn how to build your website with my Free 5 Day Website Challenge here.
