This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
All right friends, thanks for tuning in today. It's Chris Guillebeau, your host of Side Hustle School. So excited to bring you today's episode and every episode, every single day. I so enjoy working on the show for you. So let's see, what do we got today?
Today we're gonna go to Boise, Idaho. We've got a question from Riley. Riley is a digital marketer. She's got over five years of experience helping other businesses succeed online. Digital marketing these days is a huge industry.
Lots of people spending money on Facebook ads, billions of dollars on Facebook ads being spent. It's not just Facebook ads, but that's a big part of digital marketing, at least for a lot of people that are working in the industry. So now Riley is planning to flip the script and launch her own information product on content strategy. So basically what we've got here, Riley has the skills and the experience, but now she needs to adapt them in a different way. She needs to kind of translate her skills and package them in the form of a course.
So often what you're doing in a Side Hustle is you're taking an existing skill and figuring out, okay, how do I now take the skill that I have and market it in a way that's going to be valuable to others? So it's not just me doing the work, it's me teaching. So there are a few things that need to happen here and Riley wants to make sure the new venture starts off on the right foot. So sounds like a good setup for an episode. Let's see what we can do here.
What should Riley consider for a successful launch? Specifically, best platforms, best practices for selling information products. Her question and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hey Chris, it's Riley from Boise, Idaho. As a digital marketer with over five years of experience, I've helped other businesses sell their products online.
Now I'm planning to launch my own information product on content strategy. Before I dive in, I wanted to ask about the best practices for selling information products. Are there specific platforms or marketing tactics you'd recommend? - Hey Riley, it's great to hear you're planning to leverage this expertise in digital marketing to create your own product. There are a lot of products in this industry, but a lot of people are looking for help.
So since you're already familiar with the landscape, you've got that foundation. As mentioned, we need to focus on how do you then adapt the skill? And Riley's asking here specifically about platforms and tactics, okay? So one of the best platforms for selling information products is Teachable. Teachable and Thinkific actually, I'm gonna give you two of them.
Both of these products are platforms. They offer a lot of customization. They don't take a big portion of your sales. I mean, obviously you have to pay a subscription cost for these tools, but they're really good. So Teachable and Thinkific, I have used Thinkific myself.
I know some other people who use Teachable. There are others out there, but those are the first two I always start with. They come with all sorts of built-in tools like analytics, even some SEO. They're gonna help you kind of build your modules out, just a really intuitive platform and system. So big fan of them myself.
And in terms of marketing tactics, I mean, obviously Riley's got this background in digital marketing, but one thing I would mention to everyone is, don't underestimate the power of a well curated email list. Everybody's always focused on social media. It's very fleeting. An email list can be with you for years and years. It is in fact a direct line to people who are already interested in what you have to say.
So I think everybody should have a strategy for building an email list if you want to sell products, if you wanna sell courses or anything over time. You wanna be able to communicate with people, warm them up a little bit with some free content, build relationship, you also have webinars and such, but email marketing I think is really important. Ultimately though, the best marketing strategy is a great product. So make something so good that people can't ignore it. You're gonna have a much easier time selling it then.
So Riley cheering you on, wishing you the best. Let us know how it goes. Listeners, I hope you're working on something too. If you have a question or if you're stuck in some way, or if you just wanna report, that's fine also. sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll continue to feature updates from our listeners every week, along with a new episode every day. Super excited to make this show. Thanks for being out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
