Ep. 41: 5 Authentic moneymaking ideas that deliver results

Welcome to episode 41, “5 Authentic moneymaking ideas that deliver results.” For the last three episodes, we’ve been learning how to make money from the Instagram platform. I’m pleased to deliver this final episode today in the series based on actual case studies from my results and that of my clients and podcast guests. *This […]

The post Ep. 41: 5 Authentic moneymaking ideas that deliver results appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Welcome to episode 41, “5 Authentic moneymaking ideas that deliver results.” For the last three episodes, we’ve been learning how to make money from the Instagram platform. I’m pleased to deliver this final episode today in the series based on actual case studies from my results and that of my clients and podcast guests.

*This episode contains either affiliate links or links to my products. Should you choose to purchase, the show will go on! Woo hoo!

Click below for show notes

Ep. 41: 5 Authentic moneymaking ideas that deliver results

5 Authentic Moneymaking Ideas that Deliver Results

Now, in case you’re behind on your listening, or you’re just tuning in, Episode 38 was with Susie Goodwin of Run, Lift Mom Pod on Instagram. She delivered how to generate Instagram revenue by driving traffic to your website. Episode 39 was all about how your amazing content can explode Instagram growth through social selling with Carrie Wilson of The Little Pallet Farmhouse on Instagram.

Then, last week in Episode 40, Christa Hutchins of Do a New Thing on Instagram shared how to do a product test using Kickstarter for crowdfunding and why it works seamlessly with Instagram. Be sure to check out those episodes. It’s been such fun having these experts on the podcast and I’m super honored that they took the time because all three of these ladies are busy, independent business women who have figured out how to use the Instagram platform to market their products or affiliate merchandise. 

Yours truly has figured this out too, which is why we have this podcast on authentic moneymaking ideas and why we have this series! 

Your Presence = Your Strategy

I teach my clients and my membership community that each person’s Insta-presence needs her own strategy. That’s where I get all geeked out, brainstorming and coming up with those strategies for my clients and community members. But today I’m pulling back the curtain just a little bit to share what worked for me, my clients, and also some of the advice of my previous three podcast guests. This is a meaty episode! Strap on your seatbelt and grab a pencil or your iPhone notes, whatever you have close, because you’ll definitely want to log some of these ideas for future use. 

1. Create Your Own Product

All right, let’s get started. The number one way to make money from Instagram is to create your own product. 

Carrie and Christa both produced their own products. What Christa developed was her move forward “line a day” journal. It was a positive experience. But first let’s talk about Carrie’s advice. The way she developed her product was first on Instagram to find her story. She was very authentic in what she shared in terms of authentic moneymaking ideas. She got super niched down, consistent engaged with her audience, and she used Instagram’s new features, specifically reels because when Instagram releases new features.

That means they want you to try them! If you see those specific posts taking off, that means Instagram loves them. Let’s face it, Instagram loves Instagram. They don’t love us. So, Instagram wants to use what is going to make Instagram grow even bigger than the beast it already is. If you just happen in the path of what they want to promote and grow, then good for you– start using that.

That’s what Carrie did and that’s how she grew her audience and developed her product. Her advice is the key to posting the key to growth on Instagram. 

Create a Mapping Experience

That content is key to develop your own product. Now, the way she advises to develop the product is by doing kind of a mind map of your experience in the past, plus your present experience and your expertise in certain areas. Again, you’ll want to circle back and listen to that episode with Carrie Wilson on social selling, but it’s kind of like a mapping experience.

Maybe get out your post-it notes. Do something like that to where you have a mind mapping or brain dump or kind of a vision board for what you can really teach other people, because it’s often something that comes easy to you that doesn’t to others, take Christa Hutchins, for instance, of “Do a New Thing.”

Now, Christa has a podcast called “Just One Simple Thing.” Her whole mantra around everything that she does is she’s a project manager. She breaks down huge projects into small bites and her advice for how to test a product idea is to just take a few steps first and see if there is a response that way. 

If you get a good response, then you can move on. If you don’t, then you haven’t lost too much time on that. Keep that in mind as we discuss these authentic moneymaking ideas. What Christa does through developing her products is she uses her mantra of breaking things down. That’s how she created her product.

It was amazing!  Results just exploded. Go listen to episode 40 about that. You can develop your own product and the nice thing about it is it’s just yours. You own the rights to it, and you can launch it however you want. I do this with my client coaching. I’ve done this with my courses.

Authentic Instagram Engagement is a sort of introductory course. I used to run Instagram accounts. That was my business for awhile. Now, I do client coaching. I have my 12 week insider intensive that has members inside that and I have a membership. It is a continual process, but it is what I excel at because I love Instagram.

I love studying Instagram, and I figured out how to make it work for me. I did that first before expanding my business. So, look and see what you Excel at and where your strengths are, in other words. That’s number one of these authentic moneymaking ideas, create your own product. Now, for number two, you can use affiliate sales

2. Use Affiliate Sales

So number two is affiliate sales. A great way to do affiliate sales from Instagram is to drive your traffic to a freebie. That is, one that leads into that affiliate sale or it’s cookied. What you want to do with affiliate sales is make sure, like Christa said, make sure your affiliate sales are closely aligned with your brand, whatever you’re trying to sell.

I’ve had great success with a writing program I promote called Sticky Blogging by Kelly Holmes, and she offers a free, super valuable workshop that is cooking for up to a year. All I did was talk about the value of writing sticky, captions and newsletters, and I modeled what was taught. In my own Instagram, captions and newsletters.

Because I believed in the product and had taken the course and really increased my writing game, I promoted it in my newsletter.  I continually nurture it and give valuable offerings and support. By the way, if you’re not an IG insider member, please get on my list! Head to ruthiegray.mom and you can sign up right there.

People leapt at the chance to join that workshop. This is an essential part of the authentic moneymaking ideas. I talked about it a lot in my stories and just showed a recording of the sales page and talked about how it worked for me and that this workshop was completely free and super valuable.  I said, “just DM me for the link.” I also put it in my link in bio, but a lot of the people just DM’d me for that link.

At the end of the workshop, Kelly offered her Sticky Blogging course and many people purchased, which made it a nice chunk of change and padding for my year when I was busy planning my own authentic social marketing membership launch. That being said, affiliate sales are a great way to promote on Instagram and drive traffic to sales. 

3. Promote Your Podcast

Number three of the authentic moneymaking ideas that deliver results is to use  your podcast. Now, you may not have a podcast, but you may be thinking about starting one. This could also definitely apply to blogs. So If you have a blog, you can use that as a traffic driver for money. Suzy Goodwin in episode 38 mentioned how she does this.

She drives all of her traffic on Instagram to her podcast. Her podcast is housed on her blog, where she has all the links and landing pages to her affiliate sales products. If you have a podcast, the very best place to house it is on your own blog site. This is what I do too, so that when listeners land there, they can read the show notes, which are full blog posts and click on the links and hopefully poke around and find more articles that draw their interests.

If you can get a bug in their ears, you can get them to your podcasts site. There’s just something about that sound in their ears and that layer of intimacy that either draws or repels the listener. If you’re thinking about podcasting, you should do it. 

If you already have a podcast, there are ways to present your podcast to your audience. You can take a look at my site, Suzy’s, or Christa’s to see how we do this effectively and get people to subscribe. That way they’ll always get updates. When the next episode drops, give them a reason to check out your show notes and visit your blog! Eventually, you’ll be reaping those rewards.

4. Promote Your Book

Number 4, If you have authored a book or will be doing so in the future, Instagram is your BFF! My friend, Dawn Klinge, who is also in my Authentic Social Marketing Membership, just launched her third historical fiction novel and gained traffic from Instagram by running a book club pod which I am in and I love it.

She’s listed a book of the month for us that she’d already researched, and then we read it and discussed it. Then she wrapped up the season with the launch of her own book. She also had a bunch of fans who she had developed “know, like, and trust” with in that chat group, who leapt to give her, leave her a review and share the book with others.

That was so smart to me. This was absolutely incredible because I only read historical fiction. If it’s fiction, it’s historical fiction. Like that is my jam.  I also love Dawn’s writing and she’s a personal friend, so I was happy to be in her group and support her books and write a review. So think of using Instagram as a great tool for driving traffic to book purchases.

I know I have a lot of friends who are authors, who are growing their Instagram accounts. If that is you, please come see me because I do have a good strategy for this. So that’s a little plug. 

5. Client Coaching

Number five is coaching. Now, as you know, I coach clients and members of my membership on how to effectively market your book, your podcast product, or even yourself as your brand.

I’ve gained clients all the time by authentically presenting myself as my brand by my own wallet. With my own message. I also share client testimonies and suggestions of what you’ll receive from working with me. Then, I give short Instagram tips and promote the podcast on Instagram. I gain clients through both the podcast and my Instagram platform because I put out amazing content that is well-written and hugely valuable.

I am also socially supportive on social media. So, I take the time to get to know my followers by reaching out both in comments and in DMs. When I see repeat watchers on my stories, I want them to know that I appreciate them. I want them to know they are welcome here and what can I help them with? 

Christa has launched repeatedly from the Instagram platform. If you go back and listen to my episode with Christa, she shares exactly how she expanded her platform. Through a series of lunch break live videos with several larger accounts.

She uses collaboration a lot to get her message out as well and to move forward. I have other friends, Jamie Bailey and Wren Robbins who are both clients of mine, in my membership.

Jamie is a marriage counselor who regularly gains clients from Instagram. Wren is my podcast coach. She gets her clients from Instagram as well. This can work for you! Coaching is a great avenue to drive traffic and make money on Instagram. 

Summary and a Thank You

To sum up these five points, number one is to create your own product. What are you good at? What do you excel at and what is something that is easy for you but not for others. Experts say you only have to be a little bit ahead of everyone else, or even just your ideal client in order to start teaching and creating a product.

Number two, use affiliate sales. Drive traffic to a freebie. Talk about it. Make sure it’s something you love and have used! Be authentic and drive that traffic to a freebie that is cookied. Number three, use your podcast or your blog. Get the traffic over there! Then number four, promote a book.

If you have a book, Instagram is your best friend for launching. Additionally, if you’re going to launch, write some amazing content over there. I suggest if you haven’t taken the Sticky Blogging Course, I’ll leave the link to the free workshop here and you can check that out. You may already have a book and if so then you’re just that much ahead. 

Number five, if you have some kind of a coaching business, you can share testimonies of past clients and share little tidbits so that people can kind of get to know what your teaching style is and what they would be gaining from you and gleaning from you.

Remember, it all needs to be hinged on amazing content. You can’t just throw up your content and just say, “buy my thing, buy my thing.” That’s not going to work on Instagram. What works is being authentic, being social and showing others that you care about them and that you’re there for your followers.

It is about your followers, not really about you or your product. Your Instagram account is about them and how you can serve them. The key to selling is through service! You gotta be good at customer service. Just think about it. Think about where are you personally a repeat customer?

What is it you like about that certain business, that product, the company that sells the product, the customer service. We all know that we love good customer service, and if we don’t get it, we usually leave. Specialize in customer service and delivering value first, then ask for the sale. 

Leave a Review!

Thank you for listening to this Episode number 41 of the Instagram Insider Hacks Podcast on authentic moneymaking ideas to deliver real results! If you liked this podcast and you gained some value from it, would you mind leaving a podcast review and then take a screenshot? If you’re learning a lot from it, if you love it, would you mind just hitting the five stars in the review box, and then take just a second to leave a review, then take a screenshot and then share it to your stories on Instagram and tag me @ruthiegray.mom.  I will share it back and tag you!

I would love that. We love podcast reviews because that promotes the health of the podcast, which keeps it going and keeps me going. It helps my guests coming in and just helps me to know that I’m on the right track with helping you. See you next time, and be sure to remain authentic on the Instagram platform!

The post Ep. 41: 5 Authentic moneymaking ideas that deliver results appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.