Texas Blogger Turns Weekend Adventures Into $2,000/Month

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

[Music]

Hey, hey, what's up? Side hustle school friends, listeners, community. Welcome back, my name is Chris Guillebeau. So glad you're here. Today, I've got a story for you about a Texas blogger who turns her weekend adventures into $2,000 a month.

We're gonna talk about the business of social media influencing. And not just influencing, but getting paid for it. And we're gonna talk about it from the perspective of doing this if you're not a celebrity. Okay, because it's probably easy to understand how somebody could make a living or at least make a good income if they've got a million followers. What if you don't have a million followers?

Can you still be a social media influencer and get paid for it? Well, once again, today's story, that is of a woman in Texas who turns her weekend adventures into $2,000 a month. Also as a little bonus, our content manager, Whitney, spoke with her the other day and got some specific tips you can use if you're interested in doing something like this yourself. So stay tuned for that story and those tips right after this quick thank you to today's sponsor. [Music]

You may have seen social media influencers on your Instagram or Snapchat feeds.

Or at least you may have heard about people getting paid to post about brands on their social accounts. But if you've ever wondered what it takes or how to begin your own influencer side hustle, you're not alone. Jessica Cerna in Dallas, Texas wondered the same thing, so she figured it out. You see, Jessica loved her nine to five job working as a recruiter for a local nonprofit organization. But whenever she wasn't at work, you could find her on a road trip, traveling to a new city or town for the weekend.

If it was within driving distance from her home in Dallas, she would be there. Soon she developed a knack for finding interesting places to visit in Texas and figured out all the tricks to staying fashionable in the blistering heat and humidity that the state is known for. As she made the most of her time outside the office and her Instagram feed became filled with pictures from her travels, people began to ask her for recommendations and places to try. She slowly started to build a following, but it wasn't until a brand offered her some money to promote their product that it really clicked. Maybe she could make money from her social media following while doing something she liked, sharing new places and things with her followers.

Social media influencing was completely new territory for Jessica, but she felt like she was up for the challenge. She spent a weekend at her desk creating a basic WordPress website to house her new travel posts and images. And she kept the name for this new brand as simple and to the point, My Curly Adventures. The name was partially inspired by her wanderlust and partially because as a woman with curly hair, she was constantly doing battle with those challenges of Texas humidity. After her website went live, Jessica's following began to grow even more.

It turns out that her idea to focus on a specific niche, traveling within Texas was a hit. And with this increase in following came incoming brand promotion offers. Who would have thought? Businesses were actually reaching out to her to get her to promote their products and services. However, Jessica had no idea what she would quote them.

So naturally she did what many of us do when faced with life's tough questions, she went to Google. Influencing is a new evolving industry. So parts of it are constantly being redefined. Jessica started out on the lower end, but after some trial and error, set her rates beginning at $400 and up per contract. If it's a single post, she'll quote the brand on the lower end of the spectrum.

But while many of her contracts have been simple one and go posts, she's also signed on a few long-term clients as well. Now, as a side note, Jessica says that determining your rates greatly depends on your area, your competition, and the unique value that you provide. This is another reason why setting yourself up in a niche market is useful. For example, if a gardening company wants to get their brand out there, they're more likely to approach someone in a gardening niche than an overall general influencer. And that hard pruning gardening niche influencer can charge more because their audience is composed, not composted, composed, of the people most valued by the gardening brand.

All right, so back to the topic. This new project came with a learning curve. Jessica picked up a lot of knowledge as she went. She said you can't get a college degree on being an influencer, but there are things to learn. At the end of this episode, we're gonna give you three tips from her.

And she also says that as she got going, she did do some cold pitches, and she also looked at signing up with third-party platforms. Some of those are Impression, Markerly, and Statosphere. These kinds of platforms are essentially agencies connecting influencers and brands, enabling them to partner in promotion. And of course, those agencies take a commission. I'll come back to that in the end as well.

Now, with an initial investment of just $150, Jessica has been able to turn that into a side hustle that earns about $2,000 a month. She also earns free trips, meals, and products. This is her first side hustle. She's always wanted to start one, but the fear of high startup costs always held her back. This project, doing something she enjoyed, and with those very low startup costs of just $150, was ideal.

Since her first paid promotion, Jessica has had the chance to attend special events in different cities, try interesting and unique products, eat at amazing restaurants, and visit new destinations, all either for free or for money, actually getting paid for her efforts. In her words, "It's a life I never imagined, and every day I can't believe I get paid for this." Of course, this wasn't an overnight success. It took Jessica a year and a lot of travel to build up to those 22,000 followers. In her opinion, it was well worth those long weekend trips and hours spent editing photos, especially now that she's earning that consistent money each month. Looking ahead, My Curly Adventures is set to create even more content, and Jessica can take even more trips as she finds interesting new ways to share ideas and locations with those followers.

Jessica is their own main advocate, and the combing attractions are sure to look interesting. Right now, I promised you a couple of specific tips in addition to the ones in the main part of the episode. These come from Jessica via Whitney. Thanks so much, Whitney, for tracking these down, and thanks, Jessica, for providing them. So Jessica says, "If you're looking into social media influencing as a side hustle, first of all, start by thinking about what you can offer to your potential audience, and think about what makes you and your content unique.

And not just that, just like she did, be as specific as possible." You notice that Jessica is not just a travel Instagrammer. She's really focused on the market of Texas itself. So if you want to talk about fashion, again, be specific. Think about something that's not already super saturated. Maybe make your channel all about fashion in really bright colors, or make a channel all about scarves.

And once you narrow it down, stick to it, and try not to get off base. Okay, second, from there, post compelling and consistent images on your social media page to tell a story, not just a one-off post, but an overall story. Your story can be anything from the meals you have, the style you have, the best things to do in your city, anything else you come up with. Instagram is the main social influencer platform because it's so visually appealing, which means your content has to be visually appealing too. Not like my photos of just having coffee or riding on a camel somewhere.

I do not own the writing on the camel Instagram niche. There's probably some other people doing that much better than me. But thankfully, it's not my side hustle. Oh, and by the way, on images, don't just focus on quality, even though that's important. You also want consistency in your lighting and photography style if you want to go into this kind of business.

So your content shouldn't be monotonous, but do make it to where it's easily recognizable, it's cohesive, and it's appealing across the page, not just one photo. Finally, if you want to be competitive, do your research, know your audience, understand what they like, figure out where else they go, figure out what else interests them, try to gain as much knowledge, insight, and understanding into what makes them tick as possible. Now, before we wrap it up, I also mentioned a number of third-party platforms or agencies that connect potential influencers with brands. The ones that we heard about in this episode were Impression, Markerily, and Statusphere. I actually don't know much about any of them myself, but of course, we'll link them up in the show notes so that if you're interested, you can go and check them out and see what you can learn.

On that note, learning, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you learned something from it. Don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Those aforementioned show notes will be online at sidehustleschool.com/496. That is 496, I'll be back tomorrow with 497.

Thank you so much for listening. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.