Hello. I’m new to the group and I’d like to start some kind of business that can generate passive income. I’ve read many interesting and useful tips on this subreddit. Most of them were very informative. I’ve been an employee all my life, and basically, I don’t have any problem with that. However, I have plans for the future. That’s why I’d like to build something extra that I can do alongside my job and that could potentially bring in enough income that I could eventually focus solely on it. I’m probably not alone with this thought in this group.
My goal is to earn at least an average of $1000-1500 per month. The problem is that whatever I try doesn’t work. Of course, I don’t expect something to bring in such an amount in the first few days or even the first month. What I experience is that nothing brings in even views. I have had and still have activities that have appeared in front of larger audiences and were popular then. For example, one of my graphic works appeared in a Facebook group with over 10,000 members. But even then, the likes didn’t turn into followers, so overall, I didn’t achieve my goal.
My question would be, what am I doing wrong? How do others achieve popularity with anything? What’s the secret? How should this be done?
I’m aware that nothing guarantees success. So it’s very subjective what people like. And what I do may not necessarily be popular. That’s okay. But as I wrote, when what I do reaches people, it usually tends to appeal to a larger group. The problem is that I don’t easily reach that many people.
What I definitely don’t want is any kind of investment, whether in the form of stocks or purchased ad appearances. If possible, I’d like to achieve organic reach. I typically deal with digital products that appear on social media.
The goal is to make sales on sites like Red Bubble or Etsy. Rather, I’m interested in what channel or technique could be effective in increasing popularity? And later, sales?
I sell digital products on Etsy and don’t do any promotion or ads - Etsy sends all the traffic. I started last year and just passed 12k sales. $1000-$1500 per month is very doable. What niche are your digital products in? It’s possible to do very well with digital products on Etsy but also possible to make no sales at all depending on what you sell. Do you do keyword/competitor research to see what’s in demand?
@Jordan
Wow! Congratulations on the 12k. I’m currently only planning the sales. Market research is coming up next. I’m a graphic designer and video editor. Because of generative AI, I started thinking about retraining myself. It’s possible that AI will replace the work you’re currently doing. Marketing interests me the most right now. This could also be good for sales. But I’m still very much a beginner at it. This October, my nephew will be one year old, and I thought I’d create some graphic materials for him that will help him learn. These could be coloring books, coloring pages, or any skill-developing products related to words, letters, and numbers. Although he’s still too young for these, I realized that the product could also be suitable for older children. I found examples on Etsy and was amazed at how popular these products are. I’m thinking of something like this: [link to Etsy listing]
Of course, the keywords and other marketing tools haven’t been developed yet. I’d be interested in your opinion. What do you think about this?
@San
Definitely I think AI will feature more and more in the coming years. Right now most digital products sellers on Etsy use ChatGPT to create the listings and create written content for things like games etc. Midjourney is also used a lot for creating coloring pages, graphics etc. although I usually just buy commercial use graphics from Creative Fabrica or similar. I started out on Etsy without a niche (tried a bunch of different ones) but eventually gravitated towards kids products as they’re easy to sell. Teachers, parents, homeschooling parents, grandparents, daycares, Sunday school teachers etc. are always looking for resources for teaching kids. I find preschool crafts one of the easiest things to sell (have a look at all the handprint crafts etc. on Etsy). I use eRank for keyword research but there are other good ones too - I think it’s important to find low-medium competition keywords otherwise it will be hard to compete.
First of you need to think of an idea, then roll with it, if it doesn’t work out, learn and move on. I would suggest doing something you enjoy, it sounds like you enjoy graphic work. So let’s use that as an example - think of a USP, check out your competitors, offer something different to the competition. That’s a good place to start.
@Case
Thank you for the advice! Yes, I enjoy graphic design the most. I feel this is what I’m good at. A few years ago, social media was very new to me. I didn’t really use it. Essentially, I only had a Facebook profile. I felt I needed to change this and decided to actively use these platforms. I remember it was very new back then. Basically, I registered for everything and created a unified profile. The theme was a fun facts-style page. It didn’t have any particular purpose, I was just sharing interesting facts with others. Primarily in the fields of nature, wildlife, and science. I didn’t want to sell anything, I was just trying out how to do things on these pages. I shared these in the form of ‘cards’ with my followers. I wrote card texts like ‘Surveys show that 70% of people have experienced déjà vu and 18-38% of people think they’ve had a dream that came true.’ These cards sometimes came with a relatively longer description. But this was always determined by the topic. So I did this just for my own and others’ entertainment. I didn’t aim to generate income from it. However, I learned a lot from the feedback. I think I posted almost daily on 4-5 platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.) for almost two years. I reached about 400-500 followers, all organically. The first 100 followers were hard to get. After that, 300-400 followers came quickly. But then something happened, and getting to 500 followers became very difficult. I noticed that if I post the images on my own page, the posts hardly reach people. But if I share it somewhere (e.g., Facebook group), there can be over 1000 interactions. But these don’t turn into followers. I concluded that people like what I do, but it doesn’t reach enough people. Other pages that started after me, however, built a much larger follower base in a shorter time. But I don’t understand how. I wrote to u/Main-Kaleidoscope526 that I want to start selling skill-developing products on Etsy because of my nephew. But I’m afraid that there’s some kind of obstacle that will cause sales to stall and not reach people.
@San
No problem - it sounds like there is at least some interest in your designs, which is good. Getting your brand/ product out there takes time and there is no quick fix. Keep developing and improving, make new relationships, connect with like-minded people. Do this regularly and you should then start to develop more hits and interest.
It’s true, getting that initial traction can be the hardest part. You’re not alone in feeling like you’re shouting into the void. It sounds like you’ve had some wins with your graphic work, which is awesome. Have you thought about building a portfolio website to showcase your stuff? That way you can direct people to a central hub and maybe even start collecting email signups for a newsletter or something. Just a thought. You mentioned Red Bubble and Etsy, have you experimented with different strategies for their algorithms? Like A/B testing titles, tags, product descriptions, that kind of thing? I’ve also heard that consistency is key on those platforms. Keep experimenting and don’t give up!
@Asa
Thank you for the response! I’m currently preparing my portfolio. I’ve just started using Etsy and Redbubble, but I’ll definitely follow this advice.
I work on my own project, allowing users to buy and sell digital products on my platform. This transaction makes them money while the activities are dynamic like a game.
What 99% of the people in this sub are doing wrong is not understanding how much time and effort goes into earning nontraditional income and that it is actually harder, not easier, than working a full-time job.
You don’t need to be popular to be successful. Having a post liked on Facebook doesn’t really mean anything. Why do you want followers? For most side hustles, you need sales not followers. On Etsy, sales count, not followers. If I want to buy a t-shirt, I look for one I like and buy it. I don’t need to know the seller or follow them, or even like them. My e-commerce business made $500,000. I had zero followers. Followers don’t matter. You say that whatever you try doesn’t work. Can you list what you tried and how long you tried it for? Also, what experience did you have and what courses did you take? These are the side hustles that worked for me. I had varying degrees of success. All take some work to get going. If I’ve had side hustles that don’t work out, I just move on. No need to stick at any that don’t work. But don’t give up too soon either. Only try ones that you have enough skills and experience for. Try some that don’t need many skills. Selling on eBay is a good place to start. It’s hard to fail selling there. Build your confidence by aiming for small wins.