Designer Earns Extra $5,000/Month Posting Logos on Instagram

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hey there, Side Hustle School listeners, welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau. So excited to have you here for season two as we kick off with a ton of great stories. Now, as we go through the year, I'll be telling you these stories, but I also hope to show you something through them. I want you to learn how these kinds of projects work and what kind of side hustle might be best for you.

And as part of that, I think it's very important to understand both your skills and your personality to find the best fit. There are three general categories of side hustles, products, services, and kind of a catch-all category for everything else. Most of the stories you'll hear on the show fall into one of those first two categories, which are pretty straightforward. But on day two, episode 367, that amazing story of the accountant who earns $200,000, actually more than $200,000, buying stuff at Walmart and then selling it online, that's kind of in this everything else category. And technically that subcategory is called reselling.

Like he does have products because he's purchasing something for sale, but the specific products are kind of irrelevant. Like it's all about this model of reselling. Today's story also falls in this everything else bucket and it features an affiliate sales model using Instagram. Affiliate sales are when you refer a customer or a client to a company, that person makes a purchase and then the company pays you a commission. So we'll look at that in different ways throughout the year as well.

Now today's story is pretty cool. It's this guy from Sri Lanka who's able to earn $5,000 a month posting on Instagram. That is correct, $5,000 a month, posting logos specifically on Instagram. I want to be clear, this didn't happen overnight and he actually puts a lot of work into it. But still, wouldn't you like to get paid every day for something that many of us do anyway?

I think you'll like this story. I hope you learn something from it. And I'll bring it to you right after this quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]

For 29 year old Sri Lankan native Jonathan Rudolph, design has always been something that he was interested in. As a child, he loved sketching cartoon characters from comics like Batman and X-Men.

The leopard design was cultivated further as he watched his grandfather make beautiful handmade cards. And that would inspire him to create and design beautiful things as he grew up. Jonathan would act on this leopard design as a teenager. When a friend gave him a copy of Adobe Photoshop, he was hooked. He would spend the time after school on his computer designing cars, changing their colors and adding new rims.

It was during this period that Jonathan knew he wanted to design things for the rest of his life. A year after graduating from university, Jonathan began freelancing, offering services in logo design and brand identity. He named his freelancing business the graphic illusionist and began looking for work right away. Some amount of work came in almost every week and he was making a decent income while holding down his day job at a publishing house. For a while, Jonathan thought he could become a full-time freelancer and leave his day job.

But the freelance work quickly dried up as he faced increasingly stiff competition. More designers were competing for a limited number of projects, and his lowest point came when he was offered $175 for a logo project. That project would take him three weeks to complete. He got a much better break that led to a much more profitable project in 2014. His wife had created an Instagram account under his freelancing name, the graphic illusionist, and posted up some of his designs.

Jonathan was initially skeptical. He says he hated Instagram because his wife just used it to post selfies. But the account got his attention when it started to gain more likes and followers than either of them had expected. After exploring the platform more, Jonathan found that there were a number of design-curated accounts with huge followings. However, there weren't any dedicated to finding the best online logos.

Having collected stamps and paper clippings of exotic cars as a child, Jonathan saw an opportunity. He decided to start curating the best logos by walking the streets and taking photos. That's the story behind how his new Instagram account, Logo Inspirations, was born. Jonathan would post a couple of logos he saw every day, and he'd maximize the reach of each post by using the appropriate hashtags. He had done his homework and discovered that even in the design space, there were some hashtags that simply had a wider reach than others.

He posted consistently and often, and within the first year, Jonathan gained 100,000 followers. With all these people paying attention, he then attempted to monetize his newfound platform. He offered to post the logos of companies and charge them for advertising, but that turned out to be the wrong approach. His only success was with one design company who paid him $200 for including a link in his caption. He continued to proactively send out advertising pitches to companies, but got no replies.

It was only when he changed tactics that he was able to find real success and turn his curation hobby into a profitable hustle. He signed up with a company called Logo Corps, which offered affiliate commissions for each sale of their logo design program. Within a few days, Jonathan made $250, which blew his mind. With affiliate marketing, he didn't have to pitch companies at all. He realized this was the revenue model he would pursue.

With a working model in place, he began to look more seriously at the project. He joined more affiliate programs by companies, including Skillshare and Book Depository. The income he now makes from affiliate marketing has reached $5,000 a month and shows no sign of stopping as Jonathan continues to grow his platform. At the time I'm recording this, he has more than half a million followers. Meanwhile, the costs for this side hustle are next to nothing.

He spends about $300 a month for various online services, and that's it, there are no other expenses. However, the same can't be said for the amount of work he puts in. He sometimes stays up till 2 a.m. to work on the project because time is tight with the day job he still has. For anyone interested in growing their Instagram account, Jonathan has a couple of tips.

He says this might sound boring, but the single most important thing you can do is to post daily and be consistent while ensuring that you only put up high-quality images. If you're trying to grow an account that focuses on a specific topic, stay on topic. Don't be tempted to branch out. Do your homework and make sure you use relevant hashtags for your niche, and don't be tempted to use third-party apps because Instagram may penalize you for it. Jonathan is now exploring the possibility of creating his own products such as eBooks and courses for designers.

In all that free time he has, he's also started a YouTube channel, which has already surpassed 10,000 subscribers. The ultimate aim for him is to go full-time with the hustle this year. So we'll follow along and see how he does. Jonathan learned that Instagram was more than just selfies. When he put in the real work, he received real money.

What an awesome project. Congratulations to Jonathan. It's not an overnight success. It took a lot of work, but his decision to focus entirely on logos and really kind of carve out this space in the design world is why it's so popular, at least I think so. I went to look at the account, and for each post he has not only thousands of likes, but there are also lots of designers commenting on what they like and don't like about each logo.

So in an important way, he's created a community. Like I said, at the time I'm recording this, he has more than 500,000 followers on that account. And as he's gone along, he's also improved how he thinks about the business side of the project. Your goal in something like this is to consistently improve both the content and the user experience, along with the revenue model, preferably at the same time, so that as you go along, you're making more of an impact, you're better serving people, and you're also making more money. So at the $5,000 a month point, it seems Jonathan is certainly doing that.

Again, good work. As for me, I'm definitely not great at Instagram, but if you'd like to see photos from my travels and daily stories, you can follow me at 193 countries. That's 193 countries. I hope you enjoyed this episode. As always, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

Today's show notes, including links to everything I mentioned, are at sidehustleschool.com/369. There's also a bunch of other free resources for you there. If you're on Instagram, come say hi. And wherever you are today, I hope you do one thing to get closer to a bit more freedom. Thank you for listening.

I'll be back tomorrow. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.