This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh yeah, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is Chris Guillebeau. Thanks for tuning in today. Got a great episode for you here.
Really interesting story as part of our feature called Your First Thousand Dollars. This is a feature all about how somebody gets started, how they make their first thousand dollars. In this case, I think we're gonna hear from somebody who makes three or $4,000 a month from Instagram DMs. Direct message strategy on Instagram without having an account with a lot of followers. Really interesting, as I said, she's got multiple accounts, but none of them have more than, I think it's more than 5,000 followers or maybe even more than a thousand followers each.
The whole point is not building a following on Instagram, but well, let's just let her tell the story. The whole point here is like, once you begin to earn real money, the steps required to go to the next level, whether it's a thousand to $2,000 or 5,000, 10,000, whatever it is, those steps are often easier from that first real paycheck. So this feature comes to us from Jenna in Seattle. We're gonna hear about this Instagram DM strategy, pretty different strategy here, fairly unique, let's say. At least I don't think I've heard of it before in this particular way.
So let's hear the story from her. I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
This is Jenna from Seattle here to tell the story of my first $1,000. I actually make at least 4,000 a month in affiliate commissions through Instagram and I don't have a big following. I actually have five accounts, but none of them have more than a thousand followers.
So how does it work? Well, side hustle school has helped me so I don't mind telling you guys the details. So each of my accounts is connected to a specific niche like an industry or a sub industry. Each of the niches is in a field with expensive items for sale. I'll use the example of jewelry, which isn't one of the industries I work in.
I don't wanna say exactly what they are. If I had an account focused on a certain type of jewelry, I'd post a bunch of relevant images and make the account look somewhat useful. I wouldn't really care about making new posts after that though because the account just exists to give the appearance of authority. Then I'd set up tools to search for hashtags and phrases related to the type of jewelry I was focusing on. From there, I'd start sending DMs.
That's right, the whole strategy is to send Amazon affiliate links by DM to people who mention the items or something similar. Now most of them ignore the messages, but some click on the links and make a purchase. The reason I choose niches with expensive items is because the commissions are higher and also because it doesn't seem entirely odd that a random stranger is sending people links. Context is everything. Within two months, I was earning at least $1,000 a month and it's gone up from there.
So right now I'm doing all the work manually, but my hope is to somehow automate the messaging, maybe even with AI that seeks out ideal phrases and people. Like I said before, I'm working on five different accounts now. That's partly so I can diversify my efforts, but also because I worry that Instagram doesn't love this and might kick me off at some point. If they do, fortunately, I still have the other accounts. Well, at least until they find those two.
So are other people using this method? I'm sure they are, but I also don't think it's highly known as a strategy yet, so there's room for more. I'm not gonna say what niches I work in, but clearly I'm not too worried about competition since I'm telling you guys about it here. Anyways, thanks again for the show and for your books. I've been inspired through so many people's creative stories and I hope this one makes the cut for you to share with the community.
Keep up the good work. [Music]
Thanks so much, Jenna, for telling us about your first $1,000. In fact, your first several thousand dollars a month is what you're doing, it sounds like, from those affiliate commissions. As I said, creative strategy, definitely have not heard of that before, at least not that particular version. So listeners, I hope you enjoyed it too.
I hope you enjoyed the podcast. That's how we make the show, to share stories like this and to get you thinking about what you could do, perhaps, to make some extra money or even build out a whole business, which is what it sounds like Jenna is doing. So well done to her. Listeners, take care of yourself out there. If you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
That's all for today. We've got a new episode coming out every single day. Tune in again tomorrow. Follow, subscribe, wherever you like to listen. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
