Are you looking to make some money in the new year? Do you want to start a business but are confused on where to begin and how? Then why not start with one of your favorite pastime hobbies?

It may sound too good to be true, but many people are starting to turn their hobbies into side hustles to generate an extra stream of income. The best part of monetizing your hobby is that when you work on something you enjoy and love, it doesn’t feel like work.

It becomes fun.

Whether you’re a painter, a graphic designer, an illustrator, a calligraphy master, create DIY art pieces, an embroiderer, or make custom pieces, you can literally monetize any hobby and start generating an income.

That is why in today’s post we’ll share some tips on how you can convert your hobby into a small business that not only generates an income but gives you joy as well.

Keep on reading to know how you can start, right now!

1. Create a strategy

Whenever you start with a new venture or endeavor, it is always wise to start with a game plan on what you want to achieve, and listing down steps to get there.

When first trying to monetize your hobby, research online how other people in the same category as you are selling their products or services.

List down the steps you need to create a digital marketing strategy that includes the time, resources, cost etc it will take for you to achieve goals you’ve set.

If you have a budget, you may want to invest in Adwords Consulting to get things rolling quickly.

Make sure that you set goals that are tangible and realistic, so that you can maximize the benefits from your strategy and be on track for success.

2. Start a website

Having a website for any small business or entrepreneur is a must, even if you’re not thinking of turning your hobby into a monetary profession for the long haul. Creating a website to showcase the range of products you have or services you offer, not only makes it easier for the right customer to reach you, but has positive outcomes long term.

Use this domain name generator to pick a name that reflects your hobby.

When you make a website and provide accurate information regarding price, contact info, shipping and delivery details, it creates credibility in the eyes of a potential customer and will help spread the word faster for more traffic. One of my favorite examples I recently found is this site profiling awesome waterfalls a family is visiting. Such a cool hobby!

3. Pitch and reach out clients

Reaching out to potential clients whether locally or online is very crucial to make your first sale. This point is especially important for people who run a food business, catering, provide supplies on a large scale, and are looking to expand their hobby to serve a company or a large gathering.

Whether your first pay check is the $5 or $500, your motivation to continue your new endeavor will be highly contingent on your first sale. In order to get potential clients, pitch yourself via email, in person, or on call to people you know can get benefit from your services or products.

Even if you’re shy of putting yourself out there, dropping emails is a great way to introduce your new business and if you can’t do that, then the follow the next point.

4. Create content for your social media account

Having a social media account even for your hobby is extremely important for exposure and gaining potential clients. Nowadays, both businesses and customers check social media accounts of businesses they want to engage with financially. Making sure you post creative content, regularly will not only increase your following but help you target potential customers as well.

The goal isn’t to go viral overnight, but to hope that one post gets viral enough to land you on the radar of your targeted business/customer for your category. And for that you need some strategies and tips to engage with your social media audience.

According to Oberlo, there are more than 3.5 billion social media users as of 2019, and the number is only increasing. Making sure you market your products the right way to the right customers will only increase your revenue and help you make profit.

And those are top 4 ways on how to monetize your hobby to generate an extra stream of income in 2021. We hope you found them useful and motivate you to start your journey today.

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

Have you ever had the opportunity to moan about something via social media? Did you do it? Put your hand up if the answer is yes…

Was it the stale bread in your lunchtime snack, a broken product, or something that you purchased but it didn’t work or was it something bigger? 

Did you complain about bad service?

So let’s talk about the dark side of social media traffic

I work with brands as well as small businesses to help them create and implement the right social media strategy for their business. If a company does its due diligence, it’ll find the Virgin Media post. They will see me bashing a brand to good effect – it got a resolution to a problem. But does that mean they will want to work with me? Am I biting the hand that feeds me?

When starting a business and considering various domain name ideas, keep branding in mind: How will it be perceived on social media?

Let’s look at it from their perspective. A company starts to follow me on Twitter. We interact a few times, start chatting and then they click on a link and find my site. They’re intrigued. Like all good social media marketers, I provide lots of valuable content for free and they can read through and see that I really know my stuff. 

They will also see that one of my busiest posts is one that shows how fed up I am with the responses from another company. They may feel empathy, they may feel annoyance or they may just lose a little respect for me.

Not all social media complaints get an easy resolution, just because you can blog and kick up a fuss doesn’t mean you’ll get the outcome you desire.

If you are looking for traffic and love to complain, be careful because it can quickly spiral out of control. It’s not just bloggers that complain, it’s irate customers.

If you are in business, great service is the way that you avoid bad social media traffic and the cost of a reputation management expert. If you experience bad service and are tempted to air it via social media, remember it can get out of hand, and not all social traffic is great traffic.

Have you or your company experienced the dark side of social media traffic?

Image by Azmi Talib from Pixabay

There are a lot of very good reasons to use online videos for your company, and it has been effective for both B2B and b2c companies.  

However, the internet is littered with videos that should have never been made, and here are some obstacles that may keep you from creating a lesser video for your brand.

1. Your Boss Doesn’t Think It Is Necessary

Even if you are confident that your company can use video effectively, at the end of the day, if the decision-makers aren’t convinced, it’s not going to happen. 

You can try to explain to your boss why it may be beneficial to the company, but the reality is that videos cost money and not everyone’s going to want to spend the amount necessary to make a good video.

2. You Don’t Have a Budget

The worst thing you can do for your company is risk your brand’s reputation by being attached to poorly made content of any kind. If you don’t have the budget, don’t try to go the “cheap” route. It is much better to not have  video at all than to have a bad one. 

Video production costs money: the equipment, time and experience are all important pieces to producing a good video. If you don’t have the budget now, it’s probably best to wait until you do.

3. You Have Unrealistic Expectations

You need to be aware of how much a video can really help your business and what your expectations are for it. It is good to have clear and focused expectations. Does this video heighten brand awareness? Is it supposed to be funny? Is it supposed to be informative? How do you want people to respond when they see it? Who is going to see it? 

These are all important questions to ask to help clarify exactly what your expectations are for your video. A video you use internally can’t be judged by the same criteria that a YouTube video is. This is why it is important to know your target audience.  If you have unrealistic expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

4. Your Goal Is Viral Online Videos

One way your goal can be unrealistic is if you hoping for your video to go viral. If a video goes viral, that generally means that it is being shared and re-shared by a large number of blogs, Facebook pages, and other social media outlets. 

The problem with expecting this is that it is incredibly uncommon and unlikely for it to happen to your video. While it’s true that the most popular viral video may have over 100 million views, the reality is that you only have a 0.3% chance of even reaching 10,000 views. It would be better to focus on creating a video that is sharable rather than viral.

A better goal is to make your site engaging. There are so many plugins and CMS solutions that integrate videos easily and make pages more attractive and useful. Shopify allows to add product videos which make product pages so much more effective. Here is a Shopify discount code for you to try this feature!

5. You Don’t Have a Goal For the Online Videos

Even worse than unrealistic expectations is to not have any goals at all. How are you supposed to evaluate the success or failure of your video if you don’t know how to measure it?

 It also makes it difficult to brainstorm on the creative end without having clear goals in mind. The possibilities of video are endless so having an end in mind helps narrow down what kind of video you need. You shouldn’t make a video just to make a video, so it’s crucial to be able to articulate your goals clearly.

There are plenty of good reasons to use video for your company.  However, if your  company is facing any of these roadblocks, you need to sit down and think through solutions to them before hiring a video production company.  

It’s always better to wait until you are ready to move forward and create a video than it is to rush into production and come away with a video that isn’t right for you.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Selling online is getting more and more challenging as the web gets too crowded with businesses and entrepreneurs.

How to sell more and boost your ROI?

Here are six sales strategies you can use to get started:

1. Provide a Short Product Demo

Showing a prospective customer how your product works by using a demo can improve your sales quickly.

A good demo lets a potential customer see how your product provides a solution to their problems.

It’s important to showcase how your product addresses the challenges faced by your customers. It’s essential not just to show features but to demonstrate the ways your product can make them more efficient or increase profits.

Prospects aren’t interested in a bunch of features if they won’t help them reach their business goals.

2. Use Storytelling

Humans have been enjoying and telling stories for thousands of years. Incorporating this method into your sales strategy can gain the interest of a potential customer on a deeper level.

You can utilize this technique at every stage of your sales funnel. It might include explaining the features of your product and highlighting how you solved the problems of one of your customers by utilizing one or more of the specific elements.

If your prospects present objections, use storytelling to show them how previous customers had the same reservations before using your product.

3. Make Your Sales Pitch Exciting

In some situations, you may need to provide an effective sales pitch that’s both exciting and informative. This sale strategy requires confidence and the ability to demonstrate your expertise.

It’s essential to quickly let your prospect now that you understand their problems and can provide the solution to their business that helps them quickly and efficiently. This strategy requires researching up front so that you can immediately take control of the conversation.

4. Listening to Your Prospects by Using Revenue Intelligence

If you frequently get some type of pushback from a prospect, it can help to listen to them. Using revenue intelligence provides this by tapping into the power of AI.

Utilizing this strategy allows you to capture customer interactions such as email, face-to-face meetings, video interaction and phone calls. The system delivers insights dealing with topics, messaging and competitors, which are all current data and facts you can use to help them.

Sales and marketing have changed dramatically by using AI. It cuts out the noise and understands what’s being said, which allows you to focus on the essential factors.

For bigger companies, it is essential to set up a reliable contact center because all those interactions should be managed effectively.

5. Always Follow Up Until You Get an Answer

It can take time for some customers to make a final decision. You have to remember that they have a business to run, and buying a product from you is probably not their number one priority.

If you’ve given them your time and let them think about it, it’s essential to follow up and get a response. Until you receive a definitive answer, you should continue to perform this sale strategy — no matter how long it takes for them to tell you yes or no.

When using email follow-ups, make sure to use your business email address as this creates brand awareness. You will need to use your own domain name for that.

6. Highlight Both Risks and Opportunities

Individuals who are selling a product will often only focus on the benefits and quick results that can be achieved. In some cases, your product may provide more solutions than a prospect needs.

Rather than having a customer hit a speed bump immediately after selling them your product, it’s best if you highlight the risks as well. Some of the features of your product may be highly beneficial when used, but your prospect may not have implemented this factor. Letting them know why the future is essential by sharing other experiences via case studies can help.

By looking at your sales team and seeing how these sales strategies relate, you can choose one or more of them to assist with your process.

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