Side-Hustles From Scratch #15 — Uploading Upscaled Designs
created by HungryMinded using Midjourney AI
Intro
Another Thursday and another progress update. No miracles, just real slow progress. Get future updates e-mailed to you every Thursday by signing up for my mailing list.
And if you missed the previous updates, here is a complete list for you:
Trying Popular Online Side-Hustles From Scratch
Hopefully, in a year or so, we can look back at this list as a roadmap to a successful side hustle.
Update #15
This week I have finally gotten to uploading designs that I have created. There is still a long way to go. But progress is being made. I will show some examples below.
Affiliate earnings are also slowly coming along. The progress isn’t huge. But it’s adding up over time. And I am quite happy about how things are currently working.
Last week I also promised to share my writing earnings which I have not included in this series. So here they are:
September Earnings Report — Joining The $100 Club
Now let’s get to the regular stuff.
Earnings
Total: $66.49
Breakdown:
Print-on-demand: $0.61
Affiliate marketing: $52.26
This Week:
Affiliate marketing: $11.35
Accomplishments
Series started — April 21, 2022
First photos accepted to Shutterstock — April 26, 2022
First video published on Youtube — May 5, 2022
First sale on RedBubble — May 10, 2022
First referral on Medium — May 12, 2022
First actual affiliate sale 34$ — August 7, 2022
Affiliate Marketing
So far I have acquired 5 referrals on Medium, which will bring me $11.35 a month as long as their subscriptions are active. It’s not a lot of money but the recurring nature of these payments is nice. It now covers more than my own monthly Medium subscription.
screenshot by HungryMinded
My strategy on this is currently pretty simple. I do 3 th
ings to acquire new referrals.
Call to action — in the footer section of my articles
Writing about Medium and sharing these articles on other writing platforms
Promoting my Medium article to external audiences, such as SubReddits on Reddit and groups on Facebook.
Here’s an example of an article I wrote about Medium. It also explains what I do to reach external audiences:
Promote Your Medium Articles Like A Pro
When I started my side-hustle journey I also created a YouTube channel. YouTube is another great source of external traffic. I am currently not focusing on YouTube, but am planning to do so in 2023.
I Turned My Medium Stories Into YouTube Videos and You Can Too!
This article also features an affiliate link that has made me over 38$.
Since I started this journey I have learned a lot about affiliate marketing. But I haven’t yet applied all of this newfound knowledge. I truly do see a huge potential for this side hustle as compared to others.
If you want to learn about Affiliate Marketing, I highly recommend checking out videos on the topic from this YouTube channel:
I have watched a lot of videos on the topic. And the ones from this creator seemed to bring the most value.
Print-On-Demand
This week has been about finally getting to uploading new designs. I have also seen some improvements to the traffic my store is getting. But still nothing new in terms of sales.
Here are some of the latest designs I have uploaded:
The Scientist Essential T-Shirt by HungryMinded
Van Gogh's Cat Essential T-Shirt by HungryMinded
Universe of Sound Art Board Print by HungryMinded
Leaf pattern Mouse Pad by HungryMinded
I’ve used Midjourney AI in the process of creating these designs. If you are interested in doing the same. Here are some tutorials to get you started:
Start Creating Images With Midjourney Now
To upscale the images to the final resolution I used another AI-powered tool Vance.AI. If you have a powerful GPU, there are also ways you can do these things locally on your own computer.
Here are some stats from my RedBubble store:
screenshot by HungryMinded
Traffic:
screenshot by HungryMinded
As you can see the amount of traffic I am getting has drastically improved during the month of September. But only a fraction of this traffic comes from organic search or RedBubble.
I currently don’t see a huge potential in starting a RedBubble store. As the competition is pretty damn high. And it’s difficult to get noticed. But I value the skills I have acquired along the way. And do think that there is more potential in print-on-demand. I just need to move away from using only RedBubble.
Goals For The Week
Overall goals:
Keep going. Stay consistent.
Affiliate marketing:
Look into some new possibilities of using affiliate marketing to generate income.
Print-On-Demand
keep uploading more designs
In Future updates:
A transparent look at my progress
I will share what I have learned
I will share other valuable sources of information
Here is a list of all articles in the series:
Trying Popular Online Side-Hustles From Scratch
Feedback
If you have any suggestions or questions or want to share your thoughts, leave a comment below.
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This article was originally posted by me on Medium