This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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One of our listeners has written a viral Facebook post. It went on to get millions of views, I believe thousands or tens of thousands of comments, and it's got them thinking, okay? After the fact, they're wondering a bit more about what they could have done or even what they could do now to capitalize on all this attention. Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
Every single day since January 1, 2017, we have been looking at the world of creating extra money without quitting your job. Not just extra money, but also security, confidence, sometimes an entire business that can replace your day job income so that you do more of what's important to you, whether that is to remain in your job or to go full-time in your business or maybe some type of hybrid approach. Now, it's a very interesting question, the listener question you'll hear today. It reminds me of a story. So after you hear their question in more detail, I will share that story and my answer about capitalizing on viral posting fame.
Okay, so can you get paid for views on a popular social post? That is the short version of this question. You'll hear the whole version in just one moment after this quick sponsor message. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Justin from Nashville and I have been listening to your show for a couple of years now on my commute to work. I've really enjoyed hearing all the hustle stories.
A few years ago, I wrote on a post on Facebook that ended up going viral. I didn't have a business account, but all of a sudden I had tens of thousands of people viewing, sharing and commenting on the post. It took weeks for the attention to die down. I've thought about this experience ever since. Was there some way to monetize all this attention that I just didn't see at the time?
Do some social networks pay people based on the number of their views their posts receive? Unfortunately, I haven't been able to replicate those results since then, but I've wondered if there's a key or a lesson I can apply in some other way. Thanks, Chris. - Well, as I said, this reminds me of a story. I knew a guy who had a very similar experience to Justin.
He wrote a post on a personal account, wasn't intended to be anything businessy at all. And that post ended up blowing up to the point where he received massive attention in a short period of time. So all of a sudden he was receiving not just thousands of comments on the post, but thousands of messages from people who were looking for help. And he was writing about something personal and it really struck a chord. I think that had something to do with it.
And this guy reached out to me and some other people asking for advice because he was overwhelmed. Like a lot of the people writing to him wanted to hire him for coaching. A lot of people just had questions they wanted answers. There were offers from talent agents, all sorts of interesting as well as some questionable opportunities coming his way. And as I said, it happened in this very condensed period of time, just like Justin's experience a couple of weeks.
So to fast forward a bit, that guy ended up being pretty disappointed because he thought also he's like, I'm gonna make a business out of this and I'm getting famous and I need an assistant. And basically short version, one viral post doesn't make a business. And he assumed that whatever he posted next would have similar results. And that didn't happen at all. Or he thought, well, maybe it won't be huge, but at least it'll be big.
And it wasn't because the vast majority of all that attention he received was about this one original post, 99.999 whatever percent of those people didn't stick around. So it's an interesting experience to have for sure, but difficult to go from zero to whatever that is, all that attention and then somehow kind of settle. So to get to our caller's question here, Justin, it's great that you had that success. I would say instead of second guessing yourself, instead of trying to capitalize on that particular incident, that particular post, and instead of trying to recreate it because you probably won't be able to, I think it's best to think about why your post created such an impact. And is that area, that topic, something you want to work on more?
If so, don't think about your next strategy to go viral, think about your next steps to create more of a foundation. And that may not sound as exciting or sexy as that post with tens of thousands of comments, but I do think it'll be much more sustainable. So that's what I think about that. Let me know if you have any feedback. And listeners, if you have a question or comments for Justin, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We will feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects, hopefully share some viral posts. But more importantly, build that sustainable business. Okay, that's it for today. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
