This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Friends, listeners, community, welcome to Sidal School, welcome to a new week. It is the middle of November, episode 2144, 2144. Excited to bring you an episode in the segment known as your first $1,000. Your first $1,000. How did somebody actually make $1,000?
How did they go maybe a bit beyond that as well, but mostly how did they get to that point? Because I know we've got a lot of people out there who are trying to make extra money without quitting their job, sometimes with the ultimate goal of quitting their job, but the idea is to first make that extra money. And so what are the steps to go from zero to 1,000? And it's just been fun to hear lots of different stories through the year so far. We are definitely gonna keep this feature rolling.
It's been very popular. So with that in mind, today's feature comes from Tabitha. You're gonna hear from Tabitha. She is the self-described WordPress girl. That's her branding.
I'm not calling her a WordPress girl. That's her brand. But she starts a service helping female entrepreneurs get set up with a website. And she is currently in the midst of a rebranding, which you might hear a bit about as well, but still is bringing in at least $2,000 a month on the side, sometimes a bit more. So business is good.
She's also learning along the way. Let's hear a bit from Tabitha. I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
Hey, this is Tabitha, and I wanted to report on my first $1,000. For the past four months, I've been hoping clients build websites.
And if that sounds boring, it did to me as well before I started. I know there are a million designers and coders out there, so I had to do something a little different. At the same time, the reason there are lots of designers is because lots of people need websites. I was inspired by someone in Chris's book who focused less on doing the design and more on getting people set up with the right platforms and plugins. It seemed like a smart model because you're not just another creative professional trying to compete and then doing a ton of iterations when the client doesn't love your work.
No, thanks. So instead, I tweaked that model to become the WordPress girl. My pitch was, I'm your girl for getting set up on WordPress. And if you don't know what WordPress is or why you'd want to get set up on it, well, I can help with that too. I tried $400 to get someone set up with a package they can use to make their first website.
It includes an hour of consultation to walk them through the steps and up to a month of follow-up by email and phone. In reality, most people don't need additional phone calls after that first hour. So it doesn't take me much time to offer that benefit. After a while, I realized something important. Clients don't want WordPress, they want a website.
They don't really care what platform it's built on. And in many cases, they don't have a preference. So maybe it was a mistake to go with WordPress girl as my primary branding. I'm now thinking of changing to the website girl. So that it's clear I can work with other platforms besides WordPress.
There are a few other people using that branding. So that could be an issue, but there's no way to know without trying. The good news is I already have a small client base as well as a day job. So I'm not desperate. Mostly I'm happy that I can earn between one and 3000 extra dollars a month doing something that's fun and not too stressful.
Thank you for all your help and wish me luck with the rebranding. Oh, and good luck to everyone else out there. You're not alone. - Yeah, really interesting lesson there. I think the key point is about the website thing.
Clients don't want WordPress, they want a website. And it's not a knock on WordPress. I mean, they don't want Squarespace. They don't want any particular platform, let's say. And I know a lot of these companies have been sponsors of the podcast, but I think the key point again is like people just want results.
They want outcomes. They want to have a website out there in the world and it's all about what is the best platform for them. They don't necessarily know what that is. So I do think that even though rebranding to website girl is potentially a bit more generic than the previous version, if she can overcome that limitation, it's definitely just a much more promising branding, I think. But we'll see what happens.
But great start so far, of course. Thanks Tabitha for telling us about your first thousand dollars listeners. I hope you found it encouraging as well. If you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, or if you'd like to be featured in this series, perhaps, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Let me know what's going on, what you're up to.
And of course, do something today to get closer to a goal you believe in. I'm so excited to make this show for you every single day. So a new episode's coming out tomorrow. Guess what? Crazy how that works.
All right, that's all for now. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
