Behavior Analyst Creates Resources for Parents and Teachers

What It’s About

Twin sisters create resources to help children with autism and their families.

Words of Wisdom

Amelia shares important clarity regarding monetizing a blog, “if you’re looking to make money quickly – don’t start a blog. It was 15 months before we started seeing real growth. We could have probably taken a faster track by creating an online course first instead.”

Fun Fact

ABA has been around since the 1970s, and the science continues to develop.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1480
Amelia Dalphonse found her calling 17 years ago while she was teaching with Head Start, a program that provides early childhood education to low-income children and families. She’d worked with all kinds of kids over the years, but one, in particular, stood out. He was a four-year-old boy with frequent tantrums and very little verbal communication. Amelia and her fellow teacher wanted to help him, so they began researching the boy’s behavior and discovered that he might be autistic.

Wanting to learn more, Amelia then began studying Applied Behavior Analysis, a scientific approach that can be used to reduce challenging behavior and teach new skills in children with autism. Amelia liked Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA strategies because they’re easy for non-professionals to learn and can have lasting benefits for the child if they are used consistently.

Not too long after she started her research, she ended up switching jobs to work with children with autism. She wanted to understand more, so she decided to pursue a master’s degree and become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), again specializing in working with children with autism.

And this is what brings us to the side hustle part of the story. Amelia started a blog called accessibleaba.com, hoping to share insights to help parents understand more about the field and their child. Soon afterwards, around Christmas 2018, her twin sister Dianna came for a visit. Dianna enjoys writing, so she offered to write some posts.

They started out blogging just for parents, but eventually expanded to have a separate blog for each of their target audiences: parents, teachers, and professionals. Together, their blogs get over 40,000 page views a month.

Amelia admits that as difficult as the pandemic has been, it’s also been the catalyst that has pushed them to work even harder. They’re bringing in around $1,500/month through a mix of book sales, membership fees, and supervision services. However, they have really just started to focus on monetization. For most of 2020, they focused solely on growing the blog and developing the courses.

They know that if they want to make more money, they need to come up with a better product or offer, improve their marketing, reach a new audience, or take some other action. One of those things—or perhaps all of them—is exactly what they plan to do.

 


 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about ABA, Amelia, and the resources she and her sister have created for families and educators at AccessibleABA.com.

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Even though we’re still a long way from being able to quit our day jobs, there’s a feeling of control over the future that you don’t get working for someone else."
—Amelia Dalphonse #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Q&A: Should I publish my course in more than one location?

What It’s About

A listener is wondering where to publish her online course.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1425

Today’s listener from the UK is wondering about publishing an online course with a platform like Udemy or Coursera. Does she have to choose one of them, or can she cross-publish to multiple platforms?

I love the thinking here. If you can do the work once and reach people more than once (and get paid more than once!), what’s not to love?

Well—unfortunately, it might not be that simple in this case. I’ll explain why in my answer, and I’ll also suggest a path to pursue that might accomplish the same objective, or at least give our listener some practical action steps.

“Hi Chris, this is Amaria from London and I’ve been following the show for a few years. Thanks for all the great content and advice. You’ve shared a lot of stories from listeners who’ve developed courses for platforms like Udemy and Coursera—and probably a few other platforms that I can’t think of now.

My question is: why not publish your course everywhere? Aren’t there different users on each of these platforms? If you could reach twice as many, or even four times as many people, it seems you’d have that many more students and paying customers. But then I think, well, maybe it’s not that simple. Do the platforms require your work to be exclusive with them? Is there some other disadvantage to cross-publishing? I’d love to know what you think is the best way to proceed. “

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 


 

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Adjunct Professor Puts Course on YouTube for $100k Profit

What It’s About

A college professor hacks Udemy and makes more than he does at his day job.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

One of the things Jason confessed was that he has to be careful not to neglect his family by focusing too much on his side hustle. That’s easy to do when your project takes off, because as he says, “You want to throw yourself into it more.”

So what does he do to prevent this from happening? He’s found that setting clear boundaries help and recommends that other side hustlers hustling from home create clear divisions between their home and work lives.

Fun Fact

Even though Jason earns more per month in his side hustle than he does in his day job, he has no immediate plans to quit. He’s a couple years away from being fully-vested in his retirement plan….a great reason to stay.

Notes from Chris

Episode 462

Jason Dion is a Cyber Security Planner working for the government in the greater Washington D.C. area. In November of 2016, he uploaded his first online course on Udemy to help people pass their IT certification exam. Sixteen months later, he has fourteen courses and earns more in his side hustle than he does in his day job. We’ll get to the exact figure later.

So how did Jason go from being a cybersecurity expert in his day job to running a successful library of online courses? Well, teaching online courses on Udemy was not Jason’s first side hustle. His first was as an adjunct professor at a local community college.

While teaching as an adjunct professor, his “day job” switched to one that required extensive travel, often at the last-minute. So teaching in the classroom was no longer an option. During his final in-person course, he recorded the audio of lectures, converted that audio to video by pairing it with a slide deck, and posted those videos on YouTube. The videos were something his students could go back and use as they studied, but he also signed up for a free program that allowed him to earn ad revenue when people watched them.

Those videos sat on YouTube for about a year, and he made a whopping $25-50 per month in ad revenue. A friend suggested he turn it into an “online video course” on a platform like Udemy. So, during Thanksgiving weekend of 2016, he took that course from YouTube and converted it to Udemy’s format. Within a month, he made almost $60. The next month $277, the next $582. He realized he was on to something, so he started making more courses.

In less than a year and a half since starting—and without quitting his day job—Jason now has 14 different courses on Udemy, and he releases a new course every 1-2 months. So far he’s taught almost 35,000 students in 171 countries. Since that first course in 2016, he has made over $100,000 in profits. That’s $100,000 after Udemy takes their cut. In the last six months, his monthly sales have increased, and he averages between $10,000-$15,000 per month. More than what he makes in his day job!


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Quote of the Day
"I may spend 100 hours to build a course, but the sales keep coming month after month. I’m creating an asset that works for me while I sleep, and I loved waking up in the morning and seeing I earned money."
—Jason Dion #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Travel the Globe With Cards For Travel!

Side Hustle School is brought to you by CardsForTravel.com. Use travel hacking to see the world!

When you apply for their most popular, small business rewards card, you can earn 80,000 Bonus Points—enough for three round-trip plane tickets or $1,000 in travel credits. Check out this limited time offer! ✈️ Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

UX Designer Posts in Facebook Groups to Earn $1,000/Month

What It’s About

A Utah man discovers a way to make money without sacrificing his time.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Try lots of different things but make sure that you abandon the ones that aren’t fruitful.

Remember the principle that better or higher results don’t usually require the same amount of effort as initial results. In other words, Caleb was able to go from $200/month to $1,000/month without working 5x/hard. This is why if you haven’t done this before, you want to get to $200 or $500/month or similar as soon as possible—so that you can then focus on what comes next.

Fun Fact

When Caleb created a course on Figma.com, he was excited because there wasn’t a course on Udemy at the time. About halfway into making the course, he was bummed to find that someone else had already made the course and figured it’d be difficult to reach the top. He released his course a month and a half after the other course was out, and quickly surpassed it, earning the best seller badge in a week. That was because he gave the course away for free in the relevant groups and asked for reviews which brought in paying students. This is his highest income course so far.

Notes from Chris

Episode 413

Today’s story comes from Caleb Kingston in Salt Lake City, Utah. By day, he’s a UX designer. For his side hustle, he created two online design courses. In his first month, his course generated $200, but four months later, his courses are consistently bringing in an extra $1,000/month. What did he learn along the way that made a difference?

Caleb did not have a traditional high school or college education, so he mostly relied on online courses and tutorials to help him learn his trade and skills. And one area that he found that he excelled in was UX web design—basically helping companies design their websites and online stores to be more helpful to their customers. His wife recently had a medical emergency that set them back financially, so he wanted to find a way to pay off the bills and also to save for the future. After attending an event for the Side Hustle book tour, he decided it was time to create and launch his own course.

The course took him about 5 weekends working from his home office, continually telling his wife he’d be finished shortly. The long nights and time away from his wife are the hardest part of Caleb’s side hustle.

By the end of the year, Caleb hopes to get 10,000 students (he’s 20% of the way there), get his site traffic up to 1,000 visitors per day, have five courses, and increase his side hustle earnings to $5,000 a month. He’s thinking about creating a design product he can design and hire a team of developers to bring to market—something small to start out with that he can grow over time.

He’s paying off those medical bills, and even better, he’s building something for his family’s future.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • App Design Tips: Learn more about Caleb’s online design courses on his website, and check out his page at Udemy!
  • Figma: The first platform that Caleb used to create his design courses
  • Lynda: The platform that Caleb used to get inspiration for his courses
  • ScreenFlow & Camtasia: A couple programs that Caleb used to edit his videos

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Quote of the Day
"The best part of my experience is that this is the first time I have created something that I can leave alone while it makes money for me. I’ve always been in the business of selling my time or service and this is the first PRODUCT I have created that is starting to give me a return."
—Caleb Kingston #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
Get Started Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

College Student Hacks Into $40,000/Month Side Hustle

What It’s About

A computer scientist brings hacking over from the Dark Side with his ethical hacking side hustle.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Ethical hacking is a hot topic, but remember that the other stories we featured using this platform are about baking bread and plotting your novel—not exactly high-tech topics. Usefulness is the key! All three of these topics are things that a large group of people want to learn. If you’re the authority to teach them, your skills are valuable.

Fun Fact

Zaid has been able to use the profits from his side hustle to start his own internet security company, iSecur1ty, that serves Arabic speakers.

Notes from Chris

Episode 373

For college student and self-described ethical hacker Zaid Al-Quraishi, everything seemed to be going according to plan. His website teaching Arabic speakers how to ethically hack was making decent money. He was doing well in class and even had some cash left over to buy himself a nice car. But then he encountered a challenge.

Driving to college one morning, the engine of his car blew out and left him with no way to get to college for the coming months. This, topped off with a few other financial commitments, left Zaid in dire need of $4000. Not exactly money a college kid has lying around in their dorm room.

To help solve the problem, a close friend recommend that Zaid take a look at the website Udemy. They had thousands of people looking for courses like Zaid’s, and he could reach many more people than with his current website.

Zaid thought this was a great idea. He’d already created all of the material for his ethical hacking courses and just needed to translate the audio to English. He dubbed over it, kind of like a Hollywood movie, using the free iMovie editor that came preinstalled on his laptop.

I should point out that Zaid doesn’t make his money teaching people to “hack” like the bad-guys you see on the news. Instead, Zaid is teaching something called ethical hacking, which he describes like a martial art.

If you were to learn Kung Fu, you could use it to either defend yourself or to go out and hurt people. “Black hat” hackers would use their Kung Fu skills to steal your identity while you’re using the free wifi at Starbucks. But “white hat” hackers like Zaid use their skills to hack pre-approved security systems and help them improve their online defenses.

Zaid made more courses, now 8 in total on Udemy, which retail between $50 and $200. What does all of this add up? First of all, Zaid has more than 87,000 students—and these are not free students!

To date, he’s averaging around $40,000 per month in total course sales. He’s also stopped selling his Arabic courses and focuses full time on an English speaking audience.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

    • Zaid.com: Learn more about Zaid on his blog, and check out his online ethical hacking courses
    • Udemy: The educational platform that Zaid used to launch his ethical hacking courses
    • iSecur1ty: The internet security company that Zaid launched with the profits from his side hustle to serve the Arabic speaking community

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Just try everything, you never know what would work, I never thought that doing online courses will go so well, and if I wasn’t in a place where I had no other option I probably wouldn’t have done it."
—Zaid Al-Quraishi #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Skillshare. 📷

Skillshare is giving Side Hustle School listeners 2 months of unlimited access—for $0.99! Join the 2 million students learning everything from street photography to SEO on Skillshare today!
Get Started Here!

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Published Author Adds Income Source; Makes Additional $21,000 Her First Year

What It’s About

Successful writer finds a successful side hustle in selling online writing courses.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

When we asked her for tips for others looking to start their own courses she had this to say:

“Don’t be afraid of sharing EVERYTHING you know about your topic to your students—that’s why they’re buying the course after all. Apart from the content of my courses, the most common piece of positive feedback is people who appreciate that I didn’t hold back. I gave them ALL of my secrets. I think new instructors worry about giving away too much like they’re creating their own competition, but you can’t think that way. No one can BE you—only you can do that.

Even if you tell your students everything you’ve ever done to succeed, not everyone is going to do it the same way or even interpret it the same way. If you hold back key information that you believe are your ‘trade secrets,’ students can tell and the course (and reviews) will suffer because of it.”

Fun Fact

When Jessica got her first customer, she didn’t even realize it. She put the course online, promoted it on social media, and waited. She thought Udemy would email her whenever they made a sale, but they don’t. After she and her husband landed in Dallas to visit family, and they sat down at a Mexican restaurant in the airport, Jessica watched her inbox obsessively thinking nobody was interested in her course and she’d wasted a ton of time. When she actually logged into Udemy, she saw that she’d already sold over 30 courses. She was ecstatic. They ordered another round of margaritas.

Notes from Chris

Episode 303

Jessica Brody (a recent transplant to Portland, OR from Denver, CO) is a seasoned author with over a decade of experience under her belt, and more than 15 novels for teens, kids, and adults to her name. She’s worked with some of the biggest publishers in the world—Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan—and she’s also the author of The Descendants: School of Secrets series, published by Disney Press, based on the hit Disney Channel Original Movie, Descendants.

Having found the success many writers dream of, she thought it might be worthwhile to share her knowledge with others. As many before her, Jessica started leading workshops on writing in person with her local communities and even started picking up paid speaking opportunities at middle schools, high schools, book festivals, and writing conferences. But as much as she enjoyed having an opportunity to share what she’s learned and connect with other writers, it was time intensive and provided little flexibility.

But all of that changed when she heard about the education platform, Udemy. Jessica’s husband runs a software consulting business and he stumbled onto Udemy when he was looking for platforms for him to host training sessions.

Udemy’s online marketplace was essentially the digital version of what Jessica was doing with her in-person workshops, but they would require far less of her attention since she’d only have to create the courses once. Naturally, her husband suggested that she look into it for converting some of her in-person workshops into online courses.

Similar to ideas for side hustles, ideas for courses are sometimes challenging to develop, so Jessica started out by reflecting on problems she encountered when she first started out writing—things like how to be productive as a writer, how to approach publishers and deliver a winning pitch for your novel, how to develop stories that become lucrative blockbusters, and general guidelines for how to write fiction and nonfiction. And from there, she built her courses with the intention of solving these problems.

Since then, Jessica’s launched four courses and is aiming to launch her fifth course by the beginning of November! She has over 3,700 students in more than 90 different countries, and she was able to bring in an additional $21,000 her first year on Udemy.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Don’t be afraid of sharing EVERYTHING you know about your topic to your students. I think new instructors worry about giving away too much like they’re creating their own competition, but you can’t think that way. No one can BE you—only you can do that."
—Jessica Brody #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get a FREE Audiobook from Audible!

Audible is offering SHS listeners a free copy of the Born For This audiobook with a 30-day trial membership. 📚

Just go to aonc.co/bftaudible and browse the unmatched selection of audio programs and start listening.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Woman on Food Stamps Earns $86,000 Teaching People to Bake Bread

What It’s About

A passion for baking leads a woman looking to make ends meet to a profitable side hustle teaching others how to bake sourdough.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

You might think that you would need a lot of skill and credibility to be an instructor on Udemy, but Teresa proved that’s not the case when she started without any form of certification. There are instructors with celebrity chef credentials on the site, but search ‘baking’ on Udemy and you will see all of Teresa’s courses appear on the first page of the results shown. It goes to show that passion, hard work, and smart marketing can go a long way.

Fun Fact

In publishing circles, it’s said that the best form of marketing for your book is to write another one. That’s what Teresa did for her courses. She continued to create 10 more Udemy: courses over the next two years. The result? She did over $86,000 in revenue in 2016 and is on track to top that this year.

Along the way, her following grew as well. She now has a following of 50,000 spread over her social media accounts, with another 4,000 people on her mailing list. It’s a rock solid foundation for expanding her hustle and scaling it if she wishes.

Notes from Chris

Episode 237

Here’s a true rags-to-riches story that has nothing to do with making an app. How does a woman go from living in poverty, leaving an abusive relationship, cleaning motels… into an online teaching business that made $86,000 last year?

She did this not by teaching about digital marketing or building websites or anything like that. She has established independence and truly created an all-new life for herself on the trendy topic of baking sourdough bread.

Teresa Greenway has always loved baking. It all began in 2004 when one of her daughters decided to try and bake authentic sourdough bread. The daughter gave up after a month of trying, but not before leaving a remark: “No one can make real sourdough bread, Mom, NOT EVEN YOU!”

Famous last words. There’s nothing quite as motivating as someone telling you can’t do something. Teresa would go on to research and try her hand at baking sourdough from then on. Unknowingly, the work she put in paid off years later as she was able to monetize her expertise.

She took a couple of courses on the online learning platform Udemy, which gave her all the information she needed to start her side hustle. The courses were diverse, ranging from YouTube channel management and SEO to photography and video editing, but all of these were skills Teresa felt would be valuable in helping her run her side hustle. They cost $10 each at a discounted price, and for her, it was an investment.

This was when she got the idea to create her own course… she had just the topic: baking sourdough bread. She already had a website on how to make real sourdough, along with a small following in her niche. Teresa knew there was a market for online courses–after all she had just purchased a few of her own accord. Perhaps it would be possible to create her own and get others to buy it.

The first month, she made a thousand dollars in revenue, which encouraged her. By the end of the year, she netted over $28K in revenue from her website and courses.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Northwest Sourdough: Knead to learn how to bake your own sourdough batards? Head on over to Teresa’s website!
  • Udemy: The educational platform that Teresa used to launch her baking courses

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Listen to others when they give advice. If the advice hurts, listen even closer because nothing hurts quite like the truth. Success lies on the other side of fear, so go towards fear."
—Teresa Greenway #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau