This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh yeah, I'm so excited about today's episode. You're gonna hear from Jodi Carlson. She is known to many of our longtime listeners. I think I featured her in my book, 100 Side Hustles as well. She sells resources and materials for Girl Scout troop leaders.
This is such a wonderful business. It's been great for Jodi. It's been great for her customers. She sells very low priced products, very accessible price points, and yet she's able to do well for herself. So in this episode, this is part of our first $1,000 series.
We're all about how somebody gets going with their idea and how they figured out how to package their idea into a product or service and make at least $1,000. Jodi's been able to go well beyond that point. But as I said, for this segment, we look at the origin story in a very practical logistical manner, okay? Jodi's in Ohio. We first featured her way, way, way, way back 3,000 episodes ago.
That's crazy to say, 3,000 days ago, episode 317, Lifelong Girl Scout earns her side hustle badge and $3,500 a month. As mentioned, she was also in my book, 100 Side Hustles. And as you can tell from the title of that original episode, she's definitely made her first thousand and much more beyond. So let's hear the story from her. Among other things, she's got some lessons to offer about blogging for profit.
So I love that. And I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. But for now, here's Jodi. [Music]
Hi, this is Jodi Carlson with Leader Connecting Leaders, a blog for scout leaders to make planning your troop easier. One thing you will never forget when you start a profitable business is how you made your first thousand dollars.
I have been blogging for over seven years now and looking back at the start, I made a lot of mistakes, but I also learned a lot with everything I did right and wrong. Before jumping into actually making that first thousand, I do want to say when I started out, I was not in it to make money. It was part of my hobby. I already did it. I was a Girl Scout leader.
I just wanted to share all of my ideas with as many other leaders as possible. I didn't even realize you could make money blogging. It wasn't until someone who visited my blog pointed me to teacherpayteacher.com and said I should put the badge programs together and fell on there for leaders and teachers to use. So that's where the creation of what is now a successful business and blog started. In month one, I put two of my badge programs on this third party website.
Within the first two months, I sold 10 programs at $5 a piece. It wasn't much, but it was $50 more than I ever planned to make from this hobby. I spent the following six months figuring out how to monetize my website. Using ads and learning what affiliate marketing was and how I can share what works for me and make money from that recommendation. The first six months, I made $50 to $100 a month between the printable sales, ad revenue and affiliate marketing.
As my traffic began to grow, I also quickly discovered how important email lists are and to get one started as quickly as possible because these are the people who will come back again and again as you add more resources and products. Plus every time I released a great piece of content or a new booklet, I had no way to market it successfully. It always felt like spam putting on other people's social media accounts. During that same time, I started growing my Pinterest account and created a Facebook page that I owned and can create a loyal following that wanted to see my content. Within that first six months, I created 10 printable activity booklets.
I realized I can make more per booklet by publishing and selling right on my website. So at month six, I added that and still continued to sell on the third party site, teacher pays teacher as well. I still remember the day I hit the thousand dollar mark. I had just published my 12th printable and I sent an email out to my mailing list to share that printable. Instead of just selling that one new booklet, I had someone come and purchase all 12 booklets and sent me a personal email telling me how helpful my blog was and how it made leadership of a troop super, super easy.
I was just shy of hitting my first year of blogging. I tracked monthly the progress of the site and the profit. It was that day with that order, it put me over the mark and I officially made $1,043 at 11 months of blogging. Now, of course, after the thousand dollar mark, it just continued to grow from there. The goals continue to grow.
After the first thousand goal for the blog, I then set my sites to make a thousand a month. When I hit that, I just continue to set more goals for the blog looking for more sources of income, just like I did when I was chasing that first thousand dollars. I will conclude this with a bit of advice for anyone thinking about starting a blog for profit. You need to know a few things. One, blogging is not quick money and it takes a lot of work and dedication of producing high quality content that will keep readers coming back for more.
Making your blog about your hobby will help you be the most successful because it will never feel like a job. As I stated at the beginning of this, I started it as a hobby and now it is a profitable blog. Don't look at other bloggers in your niche as a competitor. Rather, look to them as your peers. Find ways to collaborate with one another because often you can help each other grow a following.
Number three, be open to share other people's websites and blogs with your readers. If you become known as the person who shares and recommend others, you will grow a loyal readership. If you're starting your side hustle, going for your first thousand, embrace the ride. You will look back on it years from now and smile at what you achieved. Soak up the knowledge you can, get from experts already in your niche and most importantly, learn from every failure because remember, every failure is success and progress.
Good luck on your side hustle journey. [Music]
Well, big thanks to Jodi for telling us about her first thousand dollars. Hope you found it encouraging. Remember, there is something you can do as well. If you have some kind of passion project or hobby or interest or activity, something you're into, perhaps there's a way to monetize it.
Check out Jodi's website, leaderconnectingleaders.com. You can actually see all of the products that she sells as well as lots and lots of free resources as well. She just has this very generous heart, but also isn't afraid to sell. So I love both those things. If you have a question or an update about your hustle, you know where to go, sidehustleschool.com.
We got notes pages for every single episode as well. A bunch of resources there, everything is free. The show continues to be free day in, day out, seven days a week, 365 episodes a year. And of course you can subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
