← The Side Hustle Show
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- [00:00]
Nick Loper
This episode is presented with limited commercial interruption by Intuit. How cool is that? Whether you're looking to grow a side hustle or switch things up full time, Intuit helps tax and bookkeeping professionals chart your own path and connect with customers in meaningful ways. Head to intuit.comexpert to learn more or apply now. When I first walked on campus at the University of Washington over 20 years ago, it was a little bit overwhelming. The undergrad enrollment there was a little over 30,000, or roughly double the size of my hometown. But at freshman orientation, the person who was leading the group and maybe she could see the deer in the headlights look on our faces, but she gave a line I'll never forget and that was it's not as big as it seems from the outside. You're going to find ways to shrink the university. That shrink the university was the line that stuck with me. And she was 100% right. Through interest groups, residence halls, business school clubs and fraternities, rec sports, I found ways to shrink the university. So what's this have to do with side hustles? Well, the Internet is the same as that big university. It's not as big and crowded as it seems from the outside. If you find ways to shrink it in this episode, I want to give you 10 ways to shrink the Internet and make it easier for your ideal customers to find you. And this is based on a talk I did at A Mastermind last year. The first one is local search, and obviously this is where you want to play if you have a local service business. But what you might not, you might not consider it if you have a broader virtual type of service. But it might surprise you that a lot of people still like to do business with people who are local to them, even if you're delivering the service remotely. Here's Chris mistryk from episode 388.
- [01:38]
Chris Mistryk
Another thing I did was I tried focusing on something called local SEO. You know, I'm by no means a SEO expert, but something that I did that was really smart was I put my home address on my website. And another great strategy, a friend of mine had encouraged me write the blog post that says the best the 10 best web designs in whatever city you live in. So for me it'd be Gilbert, Arizona. So it'd be the 10 best web design firms in Gilbert, Arizona. And put some other people that you know that are good, that are close to you, but also put yourself. And what happens when you focus locally? It drives people who are looking for your services to your site a lot easier Because Google is setting it up to where they're wanting to connect people that are close to each other. And so I've had quite a few jobs of people saying like I was looking for somebody that was in my city and you're right down the road from me and I love your work. And so that, that was a super helpful strategy.
- [02:40]
Nick Loper
So even though Chris could have provided this web design service from anywhere in the world, he found that clients liked to do business with people that were local. A little bit of a way to cut through the clutter there, really interesting strategy. So that's the first way to shrink the intern is to think local, even if you have a much broader target market. The second way to shrink the Internet is to target listicles that are already ranking in Google. So Chris mentioned the 10 best web designers in Gilbert, Arizona. Right. So those articles may already exist. And if you have a new service, you could look up those articles, you could send a note to the whoever owns that website, hey, I'm a new startup in the area, here's some of my work, like do whatever you need to do to get your foot in the door. But would you mind adding me to your list? For example there maybe you sell a course on, you know, how to self publish your next book or something. And so there's already going to be a bunch of articles like the best, the best way to learn self publishing, the best courses for self published authors. Right? And you might find those articles, you might find even for bonus points some where, oh hey Mr. Mrs. Website owner, number seven on your list doesn't exist anymore. They're out of business. But I am in business and here's a little blurb, I'm going to make it easy for you. You can just copy and paste that in. I'm happy to be number seven and I'm going to tap into some of that traffic that already exists rather than trying to build something up completely from scratch. That's how I'm going to be able to shrink the Internet with listicles. The third side door that I want to touch on is Reddit and forums. So how this works is you can search your keyword in Google or you can search it on Reddit directly and you're probably going to find threads with people asking about the problem you solve. Like Hannah Morgan recently mentioned finding threads, talking about the mental load of parenting, which was a natural place to sympathize with them and kind of gently mention her virtual house management service. Hey, we can take care of some of that mental load for you now I found a thread on has anyone ever hired a business coach? And so that's an opportunity again, gently, if you have a business coaching service without self promotion, you can describe your experience in working with coaches if you've hired them yourself and your approach if you are a business coach to working with clients and getting results there again doesn't have to be overly self promotional. You're going to want to tread carefully there. But looking for those keywords and those threads because those are already ranking in Google and people starting their search directly on Reddit, it's a way to get that exposure to shortcut some awareness and exposure to shrink the Internet to just your target audience. We did a whole episode on Reddit marketing a couple Months ago, Episode 673 if you want to go check it out. The fourth way to shrink the Internet is through Google search console and this is one for people who already have existing websites. How this works is you're going to open up your search analytics report and I like to look for the terms or keywords that have a lot of impressions, relatively speaking, but not a lot of clicks. That's a signal that Google is already ranking your content. It finds it relevant and helpful and high value enough to be showing it to people, but it's not giving it the primary positions. Right? It's probably lower on page one. Maybe it's the top of page two where if you just were able to go through and tweak those existing content pieces, beef up that content, make it more relevant, more timely, whatever it may be, that is going to be an area of opportunity to improve the click volume. Since the impressions are already there. It's like almost like getting free traffic. So I think you'll really get a good bang for your buck out of the search console strategy. Are you looking for a flexible income stream and one with real career potential? I'm excited to partner with Intuit for this episode because they're actively recruiting side Hustle show listeners to join their world class network of tax and bookkeeping experts. You know Intuit as the maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks, and maybe you're one of the hundred million people who use those products yourself. I know TurboTax has made a few of my Aprils a little bit easier, but as an Intuit expert you can work virtually on a flexible schedule and get the support you need from an experienced and credentialed team. Plus you'll get free access to Intuit Academy, their free self paced training program where you can build your confidence in tax prep and bookkeeping skills to start or grow your career. Whether you're looking to grow a side hustle or switch things up full time, Intuit helps you chart your own path and connect with customers in meaningful ways. Sound like your next move? Head to intuit.comexpert to learn more or apply. Now that's intuit.comexpert intuit. The fifth way to shrink the Internet is through podcast and YouTube guesting. And if you want to start your own show, by all means. I think that's a fantastic way to build a relationship with your audience. But it's a whole lot slower than just showing up for half an hour and tapping into someone else's audience. Somebody else who already has a built in podcast or built in YouTube audience. So for example, and how this works, you just, you can just search your keyword on itunes or in or in YouTube and you might see these shows, especially interview shows would be value if you want to come in as a guest where you might be able to lend some expertise. And my recommendation is to not just come in with this generic cold pitch because as podcasters this is what we get all day, every day is hey, so and so is a new book out and it's like you didn't, you don't know, you don't know my audience at all. You don't come on, at least make an effort, show you listen to some content. You, maybe you present a gap in what you're talking about. So I looked up MedSpa, like for example, maybe you do market marketing consulting for MedSpa owners. And so there's a dozen or more different med spa related podcasts that MedSpa owners are probably tuning into. And so if you don't have a competing service with that host, maybe you have a complimentary service or maybe you have a unique angle or perspective that the audience would still find valuable. It's a way to come in and make that an easy pitch. Now for the sake of reference, the best pitches that I get as a podcast host are the ones that have a clear hook or a clear, almost like a transformation. Like here's what the audience is going to get in Exchange for their 45 minutes of tuning into this. It's like, you know, the before, the after. There's a clear picture there, there's some bullet points, there's, there's something that I can work with rather than just can I come on your show? Like, well, what are we even going to talk about? It's like make making it an easy yes. And if you can Send a personalized outreach message. I think you're going to have a really good success in that area. So that's the. That's the fifth idea on this list. Podcast and YouTube guesting. The sixth way I have to shrink the Internet is what call how to content on YouTube. Call it tutorial YouTube. This is answering specific questions that your target customers might have. I remember Joshua Lysik talking about for his ghostwriting business how much does a ghostwriter cost? Or traditional versus self publishing or how to work with a ghostwriter or how does the ghostwriter work? Like these types of very specific almost bottom of the funnel like you know, high purchase intent, decision maker type of questions where he can answer the question and at the same time introduc introduce himself as a professional ghostwriter. Somebody who can do this. For example, we met last year Christie Da Silva on the podcast. This was episode six 27. She's got a consulting business that specializes in a couple of different software Tools, ClickUp and HoneyBook. So what'd she do? She creates videos about how to do certain tasks in ClickUp and Honeybook.
- [10:00]
Christy Da Silva
We decided to launch a YouTube channel and that was a huge turning point for DL because YouTube is obviously long form video content and people are extremely problem aware. Like they're like how do I do this with ClickUp? How do I do this with HoneyBook? And so our first YouTube video that ever took off that's still one of our highest ranking is five ClickUp dashboards that will change your business. It was cool to see like because the first few videos were like here's how we can help you. What's the difference between a CRM and a project management tool? You know, Beginner's guide to Honeybook and ClickUp, which those still do well as well. But then the more specific we started to get with it like okay, these five ClickUp dashboards that will change your business. Even ones like specific ClickUp automations or how to create a content calendar in ClickUp or things like that, how to run your agency in Honeybook. Those are things that perform really well because people are searching for that exact thing.
- [11:01]
Nick Loper
People are searching that exact thing and probably not a ton of other people have created that exact keyword targeted video. Really powerful strategy and it doesn't take a ton of views to drive meaningful revenue. You don't need to win the algorithm, you don't need to go viral because the only people watching that specific video are the ones that really need help with the problem you solve. Again, episode 627 with Cristy for more on how she converts those viewers into customers. But always a good idea to introduce yourself as the fill in the blank expert consultant or service provider and then provide an obvious next step or call to action in the video or description. So that's number six if want to you create that how to or tutorial YouTube content targeting those long tail super specific keywords that your customers are going to be typing in. Maybe even repurpose the frequently asked questions on your on your website into YouTube content idea number seven on this list is Facebook groups. And Facebook is still a traffic juggernaut. And every day people are looking for groups related to their interests and problems. The example that comes to mind here is Abby Ashley and her virtual assistant savvy's group, which is probably over 130, 140,000 members at this point. So people might search virtual assistant on Facebook, they come across Abby's group and the, you know, one of the primary call to actions is, you know, join the free webinar or whatever other lead magnet she may have. You know, download the list of 101 virtual assistant services you might be able to offer. Right. It's a top of the funnel entry point into her world for selling her virtual assistant training program. And so it's a way to tap in to the traffic that's already happening, the search volume that's already happening on Facebook, which is probably a lot less competitive than the search landscape on Google. That's a fun way to shrink the Internet. I do the same thing with the side Hustle Nation Facebook group. If people are searching side hustles on Facebook, I want to make sure they come across the side Hustle Nation Facebook group as well. And then there's an opportunity for people to join the email list from there and hopefully get indoctrinated into the podcast and all the other stuff that we have going on. Hopefully a good entry point from there. So that's number seven Facebook groups. Number eight is actually Facebook Groups part two and that is internal group search. And so this could be groups you're already a member of. This could be groups that you proactively go out and join of your target market. Remember Jane Havens talking about joining a bunch of mom or parenting groups and looking for threads, talking about oh my kid won't go to sleep, what can I do? And she comes in and said, well, have you tried this, this and this? By the way, I'm a certified sleep consultant. And so it was a way to interact in an organic way, similar to the Reddit strategy. Above with people who are having the problems that you help solve. And so even in the groups that I'm in, I see people asking, like, and sometimes they'll even say, I'm willing to pay someone to help set up a Facebook ad for me or test out this paid campaign. I need someone to help me with WordPress. I need somebody to help me with video editing. It's like different keyword phrases that you can go and search. And it's like, that's a hot lead. And the other thing about it is those threads live on forever. Even if it's from a couple years ago, people might still be searching. And this is how we found contractors for house projects around here, our local neighborhood Facebook community. I will often search for plumber recommendations, kitchen remodel recommendations. And it might be three or four years old, but it's like, hey, if my neighbor recommended it, that's probably a pretty good reference, right? And so those threads can live on and have a really long shelf life. And it's a really powerful strategy to get in front of your target customers and again, shrink the Internet to just the people that you want to do business with. The ninth strategy that I want to present to shrink the Internet is LinkedIn, another major, major social network, another major search engine that a lot of people aren't taking advantage of as a search engine. But LinkedIn gives you the opportunity in your headline or your bio to target certain keywords that you want people to find. For example, I typed in weight loss, and I found people saying, hey, I'm a weight loss coach. I'm a weight loss coach for busy parents. I'm a weight loss expert. I'm a spiritual weight loss mentor. All different ways that people are working in that target phrase into their profiles. And imagine if you're creating content on that. I don't know how the LinkedIn algorithm works, but I imagine if you start to build up a reputation in that space, you can show up as somebody you could help in that area if people are typing that in. Now. We did a whole episode on LinkedIn marketing and setting up your profile page as really a sales letter to your ideal target customer. And you know how to create content that resonates and can. It can reach outside of your existing network. And we did that whole episode earlier this year with Joe McKay. So I'll link that up in the show notes for this episode. But don't, don't sleep on LinkedIn. I think it's a powerful search engine that a lot of people aren't really paying A ton of attention to and it's a way to shrink that Internet and, and connect again with your ideal customers. And number 10 is one of my all time faves and that is Amazon and I'm talking about self publishing on Amazon. Of course a lot of time and effort that goes into writing a book, especially if you're starting from scratch. But it's a huge business card, like it's the best business card in the world and a huge credibility builder. Oh, he wrote the book on the topic, right? He must know what he's talking about. It is also something that can have a really long shelf life where some of the titles that I wrote years ago are still making sales, are still driving awareness. I have looked up just recently the data on this. So over 2000 people have downloaded the Permafree side Hustle book this year, even though it's definitely due for a refresh. But again, it's another one of these search engines. If somebody is searching side Hustle on Amazon, I would love for them to come across my stuff and enter into that ecosystem. It could be a lead generation play which you see really common in nonfiction books where you know, download as you're going through, you'll see download the free play toolkit and you know, it's a low barrier to entry into your world if it's a, you know, a 3 to $10 price point or even if you're going to use the permafree type of strategy there. I looked up commercial real estate for beginners. Maybe you help people get started with real estate investing. There's a book with over 900 reviews that in kind of flipping through like the beginning preview, you know, look inside is very obviously a lead generator for this guy's, for the author's, you know, paid membership program. So ranking really well on Amazon and has turned into okay, yeah, I'm making a little bit of royalties, selling the book, sure that's great. But the real money is going to be made as a lead generator for this paid, you know, mentorship program that he runs. So Amazon, really long shelf life, of course, a little bit of effort to create that book upfront. But you might be able to take some of the existing content that you've already created to create an outline. You may be able to ask AI to help you create an outline based on some of your existing content. You might be able to crowdsource some success stories from clients, a few different creative ways to go about it. But don't sleep on Amazon as another way to shrink the Internet and get in front of your ideal target customers. If you have any other favorite ways, I love geeking out on this stuff. So if you have any other favorite ways to shrink the Internet to connect with customers in creative ways, let me know. Nickidhustlenation.com is my direct email and maybe we can include your suggestions in an upcoming episode. Big thanks to our sponsor, Intuit for helping make this content free for everyone. Intuit is the maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks and they're inviting side Hustle show listeners to join their world class network of tax and bookkeeping experts to learn more or apply. Now head over to intuit.com expert again. That's@intuit.com expert. That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen and I'll catch you in the next edition of the Side Hustle Show. Hustle on the.