This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
In this week's first $1,000 segment, we're gonna hear from a fashion lover who uses affiliate campaigns to earn commissions. And she actually earns a good amount of commissions. She is earning, let's see here, looks like up to $10,000 in a single month. That seems like a pretty good side income to me. And of course, we're gonna talk about how she made her first $1,000.
How did she get going? How did she go from idea to income? Because of course, once you begin to earn real money, the steps required to go to the next level, whether it is that $10,000 a month or something else, they are often easier than the first real paycheck, which is why we try to hone in on the origin story, again, of idea, execution, implementation, and so on. I wanna help you listeners also earn $1,000 and then beyond. So with that in mind, today's feature comes from Mia.
She is this fashion lover. She's gonna talk about in her update, how she actually uses campaigns, how she, I believe she's sharing content of some kind. I don't know if it's reviews or something else, but she's gonna tell us exactly what it is, how she was able to earn her first $1,000 and beyond. What did it feel like? What did she learn?
Let's hear from Mia. I'll come back at the end with a few words of wrap up. [Music]
My name is Mia and my side hustle is all about making fashion work for me. I've been doing affiliate marketing, specializing in clothing and accessories. This is a very seasonal business.
I've seen earnings as high as $10,000 in a single month, but the story of how I earned my first $1,000 is a mix of persistence, learning, and a little bit of Instagram hacking. In the beginning, I focused primarily on Amazon's affiliate program, but I quickly realized the power of diversification and added a few programs from share a sale. The beauty of affiliate marketing is that you're not tied down to a single retailer. You can recommend products from a variety of sources and earn commissions across the board. Earning that first $1,000 didn't happen overnight.
The pivotal change happened when I learned the ropes of search engine optimization. I started to use keyword tools to understand what potential customers were searching for and optimize my blog and product reviews accordingly. By writing informative SEO-friendly posts about the latest trends and must-have items, I gradually started to see my website climb up the search engine rankings. But that was just one side of the coin. Instagram was my other secret weapon.
The gram is a natural fit for fashion and style, but simply posting and hoping for the best wasn't enough. I needed to get creative or, as I like to call it, I needed to hack Instagram. I started by researching the best times to post and trailing different types of content. Outfit of the day posts, flat lays, before and after transformations, and styling tips. Interacting with my followers became a routine, answering their questions and engaging with their posts.
I worked hard to grow my follower base organically and sustainably. I also made sure to link back to my blog post whenever possible. This way, my Instagram followers became website visitors and ultimately customers who clicked through my affiliate links. Reaching my first $1,000 in commission was a satisfying milestone, but the journey was just as rewarding. Through my foray into SEO and Instagram hacking, I learned the importance of understanding my audience, their needs, and how to deliver valuable content to them.
If you're considering a similar venture, my advice would be to dive deep in SEO and understand its nuances. Be consistent with your content, whether it's blog posts or Instagram. And always remember, in affiliate marketing, trust is everything. Build a rapport with your audience, be authentic in your recommendations, and the commissions will follow. With patience and persistence, it can pay off.
Lastly, I want to say thanks to Chris and team for the podcast. I started listening in 2020 and I still enjoy it every day. It's been a great motivator for me and many others. [Music]
Big thanks to Mia for sharing her process. And she talked a bit about SEO, which is changing a lot, but what else is new?
SEO has always been changing a lot. The big change in the past two years with SEO has been AI-optimized SEO, because now so many people are using ChatGPT and other LLMs, language models, to essentially search for information. And those results can sometimes point to reviews which contain affiliate links. But it's also created a change where there's less content going directly to the blogs or websites. So there's always winners and losers in any change.
That's something you want to look into if you are trying to go into the world of content marketing specifically for affiliate ads. We'll look at some other ways of doing it as we go throughout the year. For now, thank you so much for being out there. Thanks, Mia, again. And if you have a question or an update about your hustle, listeners, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
Today's notes, sidehustleschool.com/3299, 3299. We've been going for a long time and I'm so proud and honored and grateful to be able to make this podcast for you every day. Subscribe or follow up for more. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
