If you’re anything like me, you’re trying to do all the things all at the same time. I’m a do-er, an action taker and I like to dig in and GET STUFF DONE.
And I also have a tendency to get frustrated when things don’t happen as quickly as I want them to…and then I decide it’s not working and I move onto the next thing.
But what I’m not doing is giving things enough TIME to play out. I’m not watering the seeds that I’ve planted, and I’m doing all the things all the time and not giving any one thing my full, undivided attention.
I’m in a Facebook group for customers of Nathalie Lussier’s software and programs – and I happened to catch Nathalie doing a quarterly live training.
And the first thing she asked us is what our theme for this quarter is. She said her theme was TRAFFIC.
And at that moment it dawned on me that there are seasons in your side hustle.
There are times where you put a lot of energy into marketing and list building.
Then there are times where you put your energy into creating new things, like signature content and courses.
There are times where you’re actively presenting them with an opportunity to go deeper with you and buy your products or services.
There are times when you reflect on and evaluate your results, and plan and strategize and make changes for the next season.
So let’s break each season down, and talk about what dividing up your side hustle into seasons might look like for you.
The first season is the Season of Traffic or the season of marketing and list building. In this season, you’re kicking your efforts to get people to your website and onto your email list into high gear.
I’m currently also in the season of traffic. I recently removed 3600 unengaged people from my email list, and I’m ready to bring back 3600 brand new, engaged subscribers.
So here’s what I’m doing in my season of traffic:
I’m building relationships. I’m reaching out to people in my network and letting them know that I have a new 5 Day Website Challenge and this podcast. I’m engaging with them on social media. I’m showing up to their Facebook Lives and commenting. I’m asking them to be a guest on my podcast and pitching myself to be a guest on theirs. I’m asking them if I can add value to their audience. I’m giving.
One pitfall I see when people do this is they’ll send me an email that says something like “Hey, I saw this blog post you wrote on X topic. I too write blog posts, let me know what I can write for your audience”.
And you know what you’ve just done? You’ve given me more work to do. Now I have to research you, see what you actually write about, think up a topic for you. So you know what I do? I end up deleting those emails.
Make it really, really easy for people to say YES to you. Put the time into it on your end to research them, their audience and come up with your own idea for what to do together. You’re much more likely to have success that way.
The second thing I’m doing is engaging in Facebook groups where my target audience hangs out. I’m paying attention to who the admins of the groups are, I’m commenting on their threads. I’m helping people with their web related questions. I’m asking genuine questions on things I’m stuck on (yes, I totally get stuck). And if there happen to be opportunities where I can promote the 5 Day website challenge, I’m posting a link to it.
Facebook groups are responsible for the growth of my business. If you put some intentional, authentic time into engaging them, you can get quality traffic to your website from them.
The third thing I’m investing my time in is Pinterest. You can go back and listen to episode 76 with Jenny Blaisdell of Confetti Social who is a Pinterest expert – and she talks about Pinterest as a visual search engine. I’m optimizing my best content for Pinterest by adding eye-catching pins, pinning those to my boards as well as group boards, and making use of a Pinterest Schedule and group pinning tool called Tailwind to get my content in front of even more people. And I’m being patient with my results! Patience is key with Pinterest, and patience isn’t one of my better qualities.
The fourth thing I’m doing is Facebook Advertising. I’m running ads for both my podcast and the 5 Day Website Challenge to generate more traffic to my website. I still don’t feel like I have a great strategy, but I am putting a couple hundred dollars into testing, and I participated in a Q&A with Facebook Ads Expert Claire Pelletreau and got some great information and feedback on what to tweak, so I continue my testing.
If you’re listening to this podcast because you saw it on a Facebook ad, let me know – just tweet me @shannonlmattern #peptalksforsidehustlers
The fifth thing I’m doing is activating my already engaged, awesome community. I’ve started an affiliate program and invited all of my 5 Day Website Challengers to sign up, and when someone joins through their link and then upgrades or joins one of my paid programs, they get a commission. So now they are being rewarded for something they are already doing!
So to recap, I’m building relationships with people that serve the same audience I serve. I’m inviting them onto my podcast and adding value to them and we’ll see what it turns into!
I’m engaging in Facebook groups where my target audience is hanging out.
I’m putting time into my Pinterest strategy every single day, and I’m experimenting and testing out Facebook ads to find a strategy that works,
Finally, I’m activating my community to help spread the word to their networks.
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
