Read time: 6 minutes
You may have noticed the wave of new creators popping up on LinkedIn. More people are building side hustles on the platform than ever before! With layoffs still happening almost weekly and employees feeling uncertain about their job safety, having a source of income that is not tied to your job seems like the ultimate security. I will be speaking at the DMZ in Toronto about this exact topic on June 1. But how do you do it and where do you start? In this issue I break down a simple framework to help you get started and keep going. But first, a principle:
Guiding Principle:
Giving starts the receiving process
So many people start creating content and immediately want to start receiving money from their audience before they give anything. What you need to remember is that giving always starts the receiving process. Seeds must be sown before a harvest is made. This applies to everything in life. If you want to receive more opportunities, give more opportunities. If you want people to be more generous to you, be more generous. Don't give with the intention of receiving - give for the sake of giving. Naturally, you will receive.
F.A.M.S
My first dollar from LinkedIn felt surreal. No spending on ads, no learning about Google AdWords or SEO. Just a few posts that generated interest and an offer good enough that it made sense to more than one person. 3 years later and I’ve officially surpassed my full-time income with revenue from LinkedIn alone. So here are the 4 stages I went through to get to this point (and how you can potentially do the same).
Foundation
Anything that is going to last needs a strong foundation and if you are going to use LinkedIn to create freedom for yourself and your family, you will need to do the same. A solid foundation is made up of three key components:
- Consistency: This is showing up on whatever schedule you commit to - regardless of how you feel that day. I’ve met people that only post once a week but that stick to it long enough to actually see results.
- Inspiration: Once you run out of inspiration, you run out of content. It’s your job to always be drawing inspiration from your experiences, the stories of people around you and even from strangers.
- Accountability: Excusability is not telling anyone what you intend to do so that you can get away with not doing it. Accountability is telling at least one person your goal and allowing them to hold you to it.
I’ve been making posts every weekday at 10am for the past 3 years! It was very hard to get started as you can see from the frequency chart below - that was 2020. Look how long it took to get started! Till today, there are several notes on my phone where I write down content ideas & stories for inspiration. When I made the commitment to start posting, I told two of my closest friends. If you want to go far on LinkedIn, a strong foundation is a must. And almost 800 posts later, I can tell you that it will be worth it.
Attention
The new currency of this generation is attention - how many people you can get to care about something you’re doing. Just because you post daily doesn’t mean that everyone should care. It’s your job to give people a reason to care by creating content that they get value out of. LinkedIn is a marketing platform too so if you want to win the attention of users, you need to optimize for what the algorithm is rewarding. You’ve probably noticed tons of carousel posts floating around LinkedIn. That’s mostly because the data shows that carousel posts have 2x more reach than any other format on the LinkedIn at the moment. The simplest way to create a carousel is to sign up for Twitter, set up your profile and write a Twitter thread. Then post the url to the thread in Taplio's LinkedIn Carousel Generator. It will produce a PDF format of your post to share on LinkedIn as a doc in just seconds.
Alternatively, you can create carousels from scratch using Canva (Here are some great templates). Until you understand how to get attention and build trust with your audience, you will struggle to earn money online. But once you unlock this, everything changes.
Monetization
Followers aren’t funds. Unlike TikTok, Instagram and Youtube, LinkedIn doesn’t pay you to just create on the platform. It’s up to you to create your own revenue stream from the attention you are gathering. Keep in mind that not every idea is a good idea and not every skill will make you money. Pay attention to the kinds of private messages and comments you receive when your posts do well. What are the themes you are seeing? Are people mentioning specific problems they are struggling with? If so, are they problems you might be able to help them solve? Are there people that are looking for direction so they can get to where you are? A few sure bets are digital products, courses & coaching. Gumroad is one of the easiest platforms to sell on and requires no upfront fees to get started. It’s great for courses and digital products. You can also use Calendly or SuperPeer for coaching and collect payment through PayPal or Stripe. You can also go down the consulting route and help companies solve the problems they are facing in this market. Send contracts, invoices and collect payments through Dubsado or HoneyBook so you come across as professional as possible. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you tell your audience that you are doing it. You should never feel any shame for getting paid to solve a real problem for someone.
Systemization
Once you get moving, pay attention to what’s working and what isn’t. Experiment frequently with your offer, the pricing and the marketing of your offer - but only run one experiment at a time. Once you start to notice patterns, build systems around what is working so that you can create more consistent results. Your revenue stream will fall to the level of the systems you create. If you notice a certain type of post always gets lots of clicks to your website, rewrite it 5 different ways and schedule it to go out every 2-4 weeks. If you notice that people are more excited to sign up when you use certain words on your screening call, build a script! If you keep getting direct messages and are struggling to sort them, set up a free account with Typeform to collect applications. The more systems you create, the easier it will be for you to scale your revenue without burning out. Systems are what allowed us to scale our side hustle revenue to multiple 6-figures in 4 years while working full-time jobs. Conserve your energy.
So here's a recap of the F.A.M.S framework:
- Foundation - Build a well of great content so you stay inspired
- Attention - Use the most powerful features on the platform to maximize your reach
- Monetization - Build something light and offer something valuable enough to solve people's problems
- Systemization - Use technology and data to systemize what is working so you save energy as you earn more.
Give first and give consistently. That's what leads to you receiving more. Be generous with the value you share with your audience and you will build deep wells of trust and credibility. Then as you solve problems, the money will follow.
Recommendation of the week:
Create a carousel
If you haven't tried to create one yet, now is the time to give it a shot. Carousels are great for sharing new ideas, actionable steps, life lessons and for teaching new concepts. You can also use them to share helpful tools and websites in a list format (like this). Don't want to sign up for Twitter to create threads? Here are 70+ Carousel Templates on Canva that you can edit. Don't worry about whether or not it goes viral, just spend the first 21 days of posting getting into a habit.
Thanks for reading this issue of Paid in Full!
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See you next Wednesday.
Tobi
Whenever you need it, here is how I might be able to help you get Paid in Full:
1. My LinkedIn Revenue Accelerator will be opening up again later in the summer for the second cohort. Join the waitlist for Cohort 2.
2. I will be speaking live at the DMZ in Toronto for the Rep Matters Breakfast Club on June 1. If you're in Toronto, and would like to attend the free event, you can RSVP here