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$1 million a year teaching people how to use software š¤
Welcome to a fresh edition of eBiz Insider, my free newsletter packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business.
Today...
$1M/Year Teaching People How To Use Software
Top-Rated Courses For As Little As $10
$20K/Month After 8 Months: "We Just Make Noise"
When Youāre Struggling To Get Startedā¦
$170K From Practicing Photography
December Finance Report
How Side Hustle Nation Earns $420K/Year
$250 Giveaway
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$1M/Year Teaching People How To Use Software
Paul Minors runs Minor Workshop, a productivity consulting business.
Per a recent interview, the business is raking in $1M+ year š°
Paul saysā¦
Weāre an Asana Solutions Partner and Pipedrive Elite Partner.
We make money by 1) Charging consulting fees to set up and train teams on how to use these two software products and 2) Reselling the software or earning a commission for referrals.
Unclear what the split is with those revenue streams š¤·āāļø
I'm guessing the bulk of revenue comes from #1, but Paul does have 34k subscribers on his YouTube channel and often has affiliate links in his video descriptions (example).
Those commissions can add up š
How Paul got startedā¦
I first discovered Asana in 2012 when I was working in a marketing role at an e-commerce company in New Zealandā¦Ā
I took the lead in figuring out how to set it up, and I trained the rest of the company on how to use it. My boss at the time paid me a bonus as it really transformed how we worked togetherā¦
A few years later, I had been blogging about productivity for a while but struggled to earn enough to replace my full-time income.
Thatās whenā¦
I decided to offer Asana consulting services as I figured there must be other businesses out there willing to pay to learn how to use Asana betterā¦
My hypothesis was correct, and within a few months of part-time consulting, I was earning enough to replace my salary. I started offering Pipedrive consulting as well.
He addsā¦
I didnāt realize it at the time, but my employer had helped me to validate my idea, and the experience demonstrated that there was value to be captured in this space.
This just goes to show that good business ideas could be hiding in plain sight in a previous experience youāve already had.
Think about your current and past employment š¤
Anything there that could be the seed of a consulting business?
Back to Paul, and how he found his first clientsā¦
I listed my services on Clarity.fm (a dial an expert service). Clients would search for an Asana consultant and find my listing.
I even made free calls with friends to boost my listing and get reviews. This was a great way to validate that there was a demand for my expertise.
Nowadaysā¦
In a typical month, weāll make about $90,000 in sales from consulting and subscription feesā¦ the business is very profitable. My biggest costs are the contractors on my team, which come in at around $14,000 per monthā¦Ā
The margin is around 80% [around $70K+/month].
Paul has kept things pretty simple, no crazy business model or fancy marketing hacks.
He found something he could do well, and has been chipping away at it consistently for several years.
That's how most successful businesses are built šŖ
šĀ permalink
Top-Rated Courses For As Little As $10
Today's email is brought to you by Udemy š
Use promo code Q1CP24 to save up to 85% on courses until May 25th š„³
You can get top-rated courses for as little as $10 on topics likeā¦
Sale ends Thursday, Jan 11.
ā¹ļø full disclosure | sponsorship info
$20K/Month After 8 Months: "We Just Make Noise"
š¤Ā Journalist AI is an AI writing tool that comes with features like publishing directly to WordPress, automated internal/external linking and more.
Afonso Matos tweeted in late December that the tool earns $20,000 in monthly recurring revenueā¦
I started out in January with $0 MRR, 20 followers, no product and just a goal to make $20k MRR by the end of the year.
I was stuck with a part-time job and $0 MRR even in April!
ā¦ I finally partnered up with [Vasco Monteiro] in April and bootstrapped Journalist.
Oh and let me add that I was travelling the world during this whole time!
Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines
Afonso tweeted back in Aprilā¦
Finished working on the dashboard for a hobby project called Journalist.
You give your business URL, context and niche, and it'll generate high-quality articles
Then in Octoberā¦
Journalist just reached $5k MRR.
š¤ Less than a month laterā¦
Journalist AI is making 8 grand a month
with one file and 125,231 lines of code
While Afonso codes, Vasco comes up with marketing ideas and memes to get the word around.
Like this cheeky tweet where they made the Journalist logo look like the P*hub logo. That somehow got 200K+ views š
(Maybe worth trying that for your business? š)
Vasco recently tweetedā¦
āhow do you market your product?ā
āwhatās your marketing strategy?ā
āwhat are your main acquisition channels?ā
BROTHERS
we just make noise anyway we can
find a platform (ideally one with browse features)
and be the one pumping more content in your niche
thatās how you win
Elsewhere Afonso mentions Facebook Groups to be one of the main ways they find customers.
In another tweet Vasco addsā¦
need emails for cold outreach?
1. scrape niche FB groups
2. use Apollo
So that's likely what they've done themselves.
Both Vasco and Afonso tweet regularly and Vasco also runs a YouTube channel. So they're very visible online, and their followers tend to check out what theyāre working on.
With that in mind, what can you do today to āmake noiseā and get your business noticed? š¤
Lastly, Afonso's tip for building a software as a service (SaaS) businessā¦
i would tell AI companies to get as many yearly subs as possible, until your product is mature and not flaky
yearly clients are the ones who stick around and give feedback to improve
journalist has progressed immensely due to yearly customer feedback
šĀ artificial intelligence | permalink
š When Youāre Struggling To Get Startedā¦
From the archive, published January 2023ā¦
You should watch this 36-second video of advice from Mr. Beast.
In shortā¦
Your first video is not going to get any views
Your first 10 videos are not going to get any views
Get to work anyway and start uploading
Make 100 videos and improve something every time
Those first 100 videos are going to suck
Maybe by video 101 youāll start getting some views
Thatās pretty much what it takes to get good at anything. You have to be willing to suck at it for a while and keep going anyway. Practice long enough and youāll get pretty good š
Remember, there are two kinds of peopleā¦
Those who try to learn everything before starting
Those who start and then figure it out along the way
Which kind are you?
šĀ permalink
$170K From Practicing Photography
Charles Wollertz has been a traveling photographer for 10+ years šø
In a recent video, he shares how he's earned $170K from stock photography.
He saysā¦
This did not happen in 1 yearā¦ this has been [culmination of] over 10 yearsā¦ the average I've made has been $16,000 a year uploading and selling photos through these agencies.
Charles notes that $170K is the 30% cut he's received from selling his photos on agency sites like Shutterstock. So he reckons he's sold more than $500,000 worth of photos š°
See some of his photos here.
Charles againā¦
Keep in mind that this is not my full-time job. I do this as a side job.
I use my extra photographs when Iām learning a new techniqueā¦ This was when I was learning photography because I started from zero.
So I am happy to say that I've been through the journey and not only stock photography but photography in general.
What set him apartā¦
Not many people get 500 photos rejected and go back the next week to do it all over again.
Gotta love that grit and determination šŖ
Alsoā¦
I was learning how to use my camera, where it's best, where it's not. So I took photos everywhere I went, I took my camera.Ā
I was taking pictures of every single thing I could: outdoors, indoors, lighting, whatever was happening in my world. I was taking pictures of it and I was uploading those photos.
Now sure, $16,000 per year isn't a ton of money.
But again, it's a side hustle for Charles, one that has helped him learn a valuable skill and develop a nice passive income stream š
If you're eager to learn a skill yourself, maybe there's a way you could earn while you learn, and build up your own passive income stream over the years.
For example, if you wanted to learn music production, you could start uploading songs and mixes to YouTube and other platforms, and earn money via ad revenue and/or royalties š¤
šĀ permalink
December Finance Report
My latest monthly finance report is here š detailing everything we earned and spent in my business last month.
$22,455 income
$9,191 expenses
More details in the full report.
š How Side Hustle Nation Earns $420K/Year
From the archive, published January 2023ā¦
I often share articles and interviews from the website Side Hustle Nation.
Nick Loper runs the show there and does a great job researching and interviewing people about their money-making side hustles š¤
Nick shared in a recent interview that SHN earns $420,000 per year via a few different income streamsā¦
Affiliate relationships
Brand sponsorships
Products and services
But the first way he monetized his website and podcast back in 2014 was via paid mastermind groupsā¦
This was 7-8 months into writing the blog and hosting the podcast, and I probably had around 700 people on the email list at that time. I created the 3-month Side Hustle Nation Inner Circle mastermind, priced at $99/mo. In the end, I got 6-7 applications and ended up running the groups for the next couple of years.
Hereās how Nick explains the appeal of his podcast in the beginningā¦
Something about the approachable, curious, tactical side hustle focus resonated with listeners.
I love that. Just goes to show: you donāt need to be an expert to create and share content that people enjoy, and ultimately build a successful business out of it.
Nick didnāt have direct experience with all the side hustles he talked or wrote about, but via good research and expert interviews, he was able to provide a ton of value.
Maybe you could do similar with a niche youāre interested in š
šĀ affiliate marketing | permalink
$250 Giveaway
Weāre doing another $250 giveaway at eBiz Facts this month.
Check the list of online business courses on this pageā¦ have you done any of them?
If so, submit your rating and review ā takes 3-5 minutes ā and once published youāll be entered into a draw to win up to $250 š
If youāve done multiple courses, you can leave multiple reviews and thereby have a better chance of winning.
(Want to review a course thatās not listed? Tell me about it here.)
ā¦
Thanks to Fardeen Khan for helping me write and research today's newsletter.
Hasta la prĆ³xima, rock on with your legendary self šŖ
Niall Doherty ā Canillo, Andorra
eBiz Facts (follow on twitter)
P.S. Be sure to check out Udemy's big January sale.
Use promo code Q1CP24 to save up to 85% on courses through Jan 11 š
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