This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, hello, greetings. Welcome back. Listen, it is a brand new week. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. So excited to welcome you back.
Got any news story for you every day of someone, just like you, who has a day job, has plenty of responsibilities, but yet manages to create more freedom for themselves through the form of a side hustle. What's a side hustle? Well, I'm glad you asked. It is an income generating project. It's something that makes money for you, not something that you're just working harder at, not a part-time job, not just driving for Uber or Lyft, but actually, again, something that can make money for you.
Today's story is a great example of that. But first, today is also, for those listening in real time, today is National Reconciliation Day. And if you're listening later, well, any day is good to reconcile. But specifically, this is a day intended to patch up relationships. Whether it's a misunderstanding, an unintended word or action, or simply an unforgiven mistake, today could be a day to take that step and make amends.
It's not too late to reach out to somebody and make a fresh start. Now, as I mentioned on side hustle school, it's National Making Money Day, which is actually every day of the year. Today's story comes to us from New Zealand. It is about a software developer there who puts her digital skills to artistic use by creating virtual lettering brushes for budding digital calligraphers. Now, I know I said a lot right there.
I'm gonna explain the whole thing in the story, but I just have to say, first of all, that I think this is fascinating. We've talked about calligraphy a bit before, but I think we've mostly talked about it in the sense of the actual pen and paper kind of calligraphy. But there is this whole trend, hobby, activity, pursuit, not sure what the right word is, of people using iPads and the Apple Pencil to improve their calligraphy skills and then share their designs online. As a result of that technology and that trend, there's now an aftermarket, a new marketplace that didn't exist more than a year or two ago, of people making various digital art supplies for sale. And this person we're gonna focus on makes an extra $50,000 a year doing this.
Again, selling digital painting brushes or digital pens. How is such a thing possible? Well, it is because of the world we live in and it's a beautiful world. So stay tuned and I'll tell you exactly how it works. [Music]
Karen Newport is a software engineer in New Zealand who enjoys her day job.
But her analytical day-to-day work left her needing a creative outlet. She had always loved calligraphy, but her tiny apartment meant art supplies and canvases simply weren't an option. Then in 2016, that all changed. She got her first iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, downloaded an app called Procreate and then began lettering to her heart's content. Using her technical skills combined with an artistic eye, Karen began creating her own digital paint brushes to give her work the types of textures she was looking for.
She loves bright colors and watercolor effects and wanted brushes that would capture that look and feel. She created brushes using the settings within that Procreate app and then realized that other people might find them useful too. To test the waters, she made a basic website called iPad Lettering and posted a few brushes as free downloads. She thought if a hundred people downloaded them for free, maybe that would show there's an interest. Well, one week and a hundred downloads later, it was clear that there was.
But would people pay? Because what people want for free and what people are willing to pay for are not always the same thing. There was only one way to find out. She posted more brushes, this time with a price tag. Three hours later, she had her first sale.
She jumped up and down in her apartment, realizing that she was well and truly onto something. Pricing these digital items was a tricky question. She wanted the price per brush to be less than the cost of the Procreate app, which is $8. So she priced each brush at $2.50 and a set of three brushes for $6. She soon found that most people bought three sets at a time, spending $18 on their new virtual art supplies.
Now that she really knew there was a demand, Karen started spreading the word. Instagram was where she got her artistic inspiration from, so that's where she headed first. By sharing her beautiful lettering images with the iPad Lettering hashtag, she quickly built up a following. She now has 153,000 followers and her hashtag has almost 200,000 posts. Karen emphasizes that her success on Instagram isn't just about posting pretty pictures.
She has always engaged with her followers, liking their posts and leaving comments wherever she sees lettering artwork that she likes. She makes a point of answering her users' questions to really help people with their creative journey. She feels part of the hand lettering community and has certainly had a big hand in growing it. Karen brings this approach into all aspects of customer service and she's always thinking about how she can create more value. She offers free tutorials, handy guides and grids, and even free brushes.
She shares these with her growing email list of 35,000 subscribers who can't get enough of her ever-expanding range. What about the money? How's that looking? Well, that is equally impressive. Over the past year, this iPad Lettering shop has brought in $50,000 with nothing spent on advertising and zero costs outside of the iPad and Apple pencil she'd already bought.
She says the free website she made is not perfect, but it's all she's needed to generate a significant income while holding down her full-time job. In fact, Karen says that perfectionism is the enemy when it comes to getting an income-generating project off the ground. Fancy logos and websites might be nice to have, but they're not necessary. She's found that her time is much better spent on the things that will offer value in the long run. For example, creating those video tutorials on how to install brushes has saved her answering hundreds of questions and it gives customers confidence that the product works.
There's plenty more to come from iPad Lettering. Karen has just filmed her first lettering online course and plans to start selling her hand lettering artwork. There's also some possibilities for affiliate marketing. She's found that linking to other lettering courses from her website, at least the ones that are run by carefully selected calligraphers, has provided an additional revenue stream. She's also looking at building up her own affiliate program where she'll offer a commission to lettering friends who link to her website.
Did you know there's an active marketplace for virtual art supplies? Well, opportunities are everywhere and now you know. With a growing following, happy customers and new revenue streams on the horizon, this is one side hustle that won't be brushed aside. Opportunities really are everywhere. I mean, what an interesting world we live in.
A marketplace consisting of aftermarket add-on virtual items and Karen has been able to connect to this amazing worldwide community. Every day she's making and sharing content and every day she can go to bed, wake up in the morning and log in to see how many people came to her website, how many people purchased her downloads, how many new posts have been made on Instagram with that hashtag. I just think it's so fantastic and stories like these are really why I started side hustle in the first place to show people that there's so many different things you can do to make money and you don't have to quit your job to do them. Remember, Karen had zero startup costs. I mean, she had to buy that iPad and the Apple pencil but she was doing that anyway.
This was a hobby, this was something she was doing for herself and then out of that came the side hustle which is now providing what is a full-time income for a lot of people. This is also the kind of thing that seems like it's only going to grow as more and more people discover this whole trend, more and more people discover her. That natural organic growth of the hashtag helps a lot as do those free tutorials that she's making. I mean, I really just think it's wonderful and my only business comment is the bundle pricing that she's doing, that is huge. She discovered early on that people were very likely to buy more than one paintbrush which makes sense because if you're gonna go to the effort to make a purchase, if you're gonna spend $2.50 and you could get more, if you just spend a few dollars more, wouldn't you do that?
I mean, most people do. So in choosing to bundle and choosing to offer these packages, she set this up to where her average order is a lot more than $2.50. I think that is actually critical. I think that's what makes the big difference in her bottom line. So I really think anyone who sells any kind of digital products and lots of physical products as well should do this.
We had an episode a long time ago about a woman who was selling nail files. These are actually physical nail files or not virtual nail files. Not sure how that aftermarket would work. But when she set up at some kind of farmer's market, the first couple of days she just sold them as one-offs and then the last day she changed to a bundle of buy three and get one free or something like that. I forget the precise details, but that one decision, that one switch enabled her to greatly increase her average order size and the vast majority of people actually went for the bundle.
So as you're thinking about what you're gonna set up, definitely think about how you can sell more to the same people, increase your average order size, give people what they really want. There's nothing manipulative about this. Oh, it's actually about helping people and making it easier for them. If I went to buy something like this, I would want to see a package or a bundle. So do think about that.
Do check out Karen's shop if you get a chance. We will link it up in the show notes of course. Those show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/457. Thank you for listening today. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I enjoyed making it.
Got much more coming up. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
