Every few weeks, I get uber transparent about the steps and the struggles I’m taking to build an online business. Feel free to follow along so you can gain useful internet marketing tactics (and avoid my mistakes). Here is my recent side hustle update:
1.) Online Income: For two months in a row, my blog income has exceeded my job income. This is quite an improvement over where I was just a few months ago. My biggest breakthrough came when I adopted this philosophy:
– Focus on subscriber growth.
– Build trust by legitimately trying to help.
– Don’t be afraid to sell stuff.
Had I focused on business with this intention when I started, I could have saved years.
2.) Email Frequency: I email my subscriber list about once or twice a day with this intention. And I’m not saying that my email frequency is a best practice or that it will work for everyone. I get a lot of unsubscribes, but the people who stick around tend to like me. I’m focused on getting more of those.
3.) Email Subject Lines: For email subject lines, I usually do a Google search related to “subject lines that get opened” and then find a few examples I can modify to suit my objective.
4.) Email Content: Some of the emails I send are incredibly short, limited to one or two sentences. And some of the other emails I send are over one-thousand words. It depends on the type of value I’m trying to convey.
5.) Email Engagement: To encourage engagement, my emails often contain cliffhangers. I do this by purposely presenting a problem, and then hint that the solution will come later. Here’s an example: “Do you know why most bloggers don’t succeed? I’ll get to that in another email, maybe in a day or two. But for now, I want to make sure you understand how to _____.” Something like that.
Remember Your Whys
Bonus Share: For the first time in a long time I’m feeling inspired. As a reminder, the “WHYS” are often more important than the “HOWS.” This is because you can always learn how to do something. But you often won’t do anything unless your WHYS are compelling.
So as an example, I’ll share my own WHYS.
My main goal is to free my family from money worries so we can do what we want to do, without asking permission. Specifically, we need enough money to:
- Raise a family: This includes the food, the housing, the clothing and eventually an education (for our kid.)
- Travel at will: Preferably first class. I want us to take so many vacations to different parts of the world that we not only gain exposure to different cultures, languages and food… But that we eventually get sick of vacations.
- Produce motion pictures: This is a creative outlet for me. And it’s a lot of fun.
- Do a ton of public speaking: I personally like sharing ideas and teaching. And there is a certain enjoyment I get when I speak in front of audiences.
- Eventually run for political office: Because the current political climate feels like a team sport. And I want to help people.
- Give more to charity: Because there is a whole level of people who are underprivileged and would benefit from some outside help.
- Hire a personal trainer and diet coach: Because health is your first wealth.
Once again, these are my current WHYS. And even though this list will evolve as I grow, it’s a major reason why I feel good about getting up at 4AM. Hopefully this inspires you to create your own WHYS. And if you’d like the full story, make sure you check out my page and read all the side hustle updates. Until then, keep hustling…
Living Dot Com is Like Learning How To Play Piano