Notes from Chris

Episode 1662

Matthew Alexander works as a retail warehouse manager by day. When he isn’t thinking about the physical logistics of his job, he’s hanging out online looking for inspiration and ideas. Yet, as an active member of both the IndieHacking and No-code communities, he knows an idea is just the starting point; creating something and marketing it is when the real battle starts.

That was never more evident than when he first dabbled in the side hustling waters. He had the technical know-how to create an offering and build a website. But he fell short on creating an audience to market that offering. That was when Matthew began noticing Twitter threads.

Twitter threads are a series of related tweets that tell a story or elaborate on a topic when one hundred and forty characters aren’t enough. Some people share their best of tweets or connect anything they feel requires the additional text. For example, a thread might include a series of exercise tips for losing weight, or tips to improve your business in a specific way.

In relation to Matthew’s project, he’d seen a lot of Twitter threads go viral and help to significantly boost the posters profile and followers. With that audience, they could monetize their service and products. So, he set about trying it for himself with his accounts and low and behold, things did improve. He didn’t set the world on fire overnight but his followers increased after he started making threads.

Forever business minded, Matthew saw an opportunity here. If Twitter threads worked for others as well as himself, would people be willing to pay for a service that created threads for them? He set about testing the concept.

He purchased the domain name Ttaas.co—Twitter Threads as a Service—and used Carrd, a free website builder, to launch the site quickly. Carrd allowed for easy integration with Stripe, a credit card payment processor. After customers paid, Matthew directed them to a free Google Form where he asked a few questions about their business and objectives.

Matthew was featured in a newsletter that went out to fifteen thousand people, all aspiring entrepreneurs and side hustlers; exactly his target audience. That feature brought an influx of customers and a fair amount of overwhelm along with it. Matthew felt flustered, and unable to handle the volume effectively; especially while juggling his day job as well.

Yet he soon settled into it and managed the overflow just fine by outsourcing some of the work. Right in the nick of time too, because his side hustle kept growing to the point where he’s now generated two thousand dollars per month.

He’s managed to thread the needle between working a day job and balancing a side hustle. Matthew says this isn’t his first and it certainly won’t be his last.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Learn more about Matthew and his service at his website, ttaas.co.
• Matthew used tools like, Carrd to launch his website and Stripe to collect online payments.

SEE ALSO:

• Q&A: When should I start posting on social media?: A common question: at what point in your new hustle should you start posting on social media—should it be before you even have a product or service?
• Instagram Scheduling App Becomes Wildly Popular: A New Zealand advertising executive and artist unlocks the magic formula of Instagram, creating an app that now serves hundreds of thousands of users.
• Pathetic Triathlete Creates $30,000 Facebook Group: Frustrated with snobby and overly-serious triathletes, a man creates a Facebook group for more casual and fun discussion. It then transforms into a $30,000 side hustle with tens of thousands of members.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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