IT Developer Creates Tech Blogging Dynasty

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Friends, listeners, side hustle school community, check out this advice. All right, this comes from today's featured story. This person says when you start making extra money doing a side hustle, it is an incredible feeling. But don't rest on that feeling or assume it will always be there. Run experiments and do research to improve what you're doing and always think about how you can deliver more value.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. Now in the story you'll hear today, an experienced IT developer turns to blogging and builds a sought after agency thanks to his narrow specific focus. He now runs that agency with his wife and no longer trades time for money, which was one of his goals when he began a series of entrepreneurial ventures. Now don't rest on your success just like he says, use it to move forward and keep improving. There is a pattern in these stories of how one initiative can lead to another, but of course first you have to take that first initiative.

It's my greatest hope that you'll do that, that these stories will help you with the foundation, give you some ideas and perhaps nudge you along. This one is called IT Developer Creates Tech Blogging Dynasty. That's right, Tech Blogging Dynasty. And that story is coming up right after this message from our sponsor. [Music]

Eric Dietrich's professional evolution began like many other software developers.

He started working as an entry level engineer while taking graduate level computer science classes. Then he transitioned to a senior role in a new company and significantly increased his knowledge and experience. However, without the extra pressure of grad school, he suddenly found himself with extra time on his hands. That's when he started doing some consulting on the side. As he built a client base, he began blogging to market his services to a broader audience.

Since his work was focused on training and management and that audience was fellow programmers, he was able to create content that was specific and technical. A few years in, he was actually making more with his consulting than he ever did with his full-time job, so he quit. Alongside the consulting, he kept up with his blog, while also guest posting on software and programming sites. He built a substantial following of subscribers with an additional stream of people arriving organically through search engines. This success garnered interest from tech companies.

They started reaching out to Eric to ask if he would write content for their blogs. He agreed, but asked for byline credit and the right to cross-post on his own blog for his audience. So in essence, he was now writing on his own blog and getting paid for it, which is, you know, nice work if you can get it. But he wasn't done. Next, he began to diversify.

He created courses for developers on an online learning platform and began writing e-books. In fact, one of his e-books continues to earn around $1,000 a month, which is quite a feat many years after publication. This mixed bag of income sources continued for a while, but Eric kept coming up against a ceiling of trading his time for money, which is something he didn't want to do. Also, he and his wife, Amanda, an editor and graphic designer, wanted to start traveling more. For them to be able to do that, she would ideally have to quit her job, so they needed to find a way to replace her income.

Together, they had a set of unique talents. With her background in editing and design, and his background in content and marketing, plus the connections they had to the tech community, they didn't need to limit themselves to only publishing the articles that Eric was writing. That's kind of when the whole big idea came about. Eric knew that companies were eager for engaging technical blog posts, but they didn't always have capacity, time, expertise, personnel to write them. He thought he might be able to fill that gap.

While there are lots of content editors out there, having a blog written or overseen by someone who really understands the market was unusual. He decided to call this new business Hit Subscribe, like Hit Subscribe. He offered bare-bones pricing to get clients on board and test their systems. Writing just a couple of posts a week brought in $400 to $700 a month. But soon, things started to grow, and both he and Amanda began investing more time and energy into it.

A few months later, they were making about $2,000 a month. Nearly all of it profit. And more importantly, Hit Subscribe was building a reputation as a tech-focused content agency that consistently delivered high-quality pieces. They weren't even doing any major marketing. It was just word of mouth.

Knowing they were onto something, Eric decided to raise his rates substantially to see if new customers would pay more. It turned out that they were more than willing, especially since Eric was able to apply his web skills to track and measure how the work they did could bring in potential clients. Now, all that's great, so now the bad news. Bad news is the money was rapidly coming in, but Eric and Amanda were exhausted. I knew they couldn't maintain this pace by themselves.

So they began to build out a team, first hiring a content writer to take on a few of the articles and to see how well their systems could work with someone else in the mix. As they landed new clients, they brought on more contractors to write and edit the posts, while Amanda shifted to manage their workflow and Eric began to focus on bringing in more business. Within the first year, they were making well into the six figures, although their outsourced staff also meant they had some high monthly expenses, sometimes as much as $25,000 a month, depending on what kind of assignments clients requested. But of course, they only have high costs when they have high income, so it's not a bad problem to have. Once they were sure that new team members were settled and comfortable and confirming that their systems would hold up, they began to look at other tasks that someone else could handle, like payroll, tax prep, and software systems.

These days, Eric no longer does any consulting at all, nor is he creating content for clients or online platforms that aren't his own. Whenever he blogs or records a video, it's more for himself and something he does for fun. Bringing together his expertise in software development, combined with a passion for writing and marketing, and finally, Amanda's ability to see the bigger picture, hit subscribe has been a hit. [Music]

Don't rest on that success. Don't rest on that initial experience.

It really is an incredible feeling, just like Eric said in the beginning. That's why I always wanna help people get to that first level of success, even if it's just a few hundred dollars a month. That feels really great, but don't assume it'll always be there. Use that to build us something else, keep iterating, understand what your strengths and weaknesses are, and focus on what you're good at. That's my encouragement to you.

In this story, Eric and Amanda were able to level up when they put their skills together, when they identified this core need among tech companies for high quality online content, and those companies didn't always have the capacity or personnel to make that happen. Then they refined those systems to the point that other team members could come in and operate the business, and now they're traveling and doing other stuff. So hit subscribe has been a real hit, and I hope that you're gonna have a hit as well. All right, I'm excited for all that's to come. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1057, episode 1,057. Okay, we are here at the end of November. I hope you're having a good holiday season, or a good beginning to the holiday season at least. I've got a weekly recap coming up for you tomorrow and a whole new set of stories all next week. Thank you so much for listening.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.