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10 Time-Tested Tactics to Grow Your Side Hustle in 2023

Growing a side hustle while working full-time is like playing a new game on the hardest level. This guide makes it easier (and more enjoyable)

10 Time-Tested Tactics to Grow Your Side Hustle in 2023
Time-Tested Tactics to Grow Your Side Hustle in 2023

So you have a side project now. Congratulations!

You put a lot of effort into building this product. It's time to tell the world about it.

That's why I collected 10 actionable pieces of advice to grow your side hustle. From acquiring new users to increasing the conversion rate.

1. Create a Tripwire Product 🪨

Effectiveness: high
Complexity: medium
Money-cost: medium
Time-cost: high

Not everyone has enough money for your product.

Launch a cheap alternative for them. Some of these customers will eventually buy your main product. Here are 10 product ideas that don't require coding.

Decide on the format

  1. Limit product features
  2. Give access to features for a limited time
  3. Limit support from you
  4. Create an info product that solves this problem

Promote the cheap product

  1. Send the email to users who haven’t bought your main product
  2. Add this plan to your landing page
  3. Announce this plan on your social media

2. Create a Contest 🕶

Effectiveness: medium
Complexity: hard
Money-cost: low
Time-cost: high

Do you love contests? Well, your users do.

Determine the task, tease the prize, and acquire new users.

Determine the task

  1. How this task will acquire new users?
  2. Is it relatively easy for people to perform this task?
  3. What objections will people have not to perform this task?
  4. Can you summarize the task in 1 sentence?

Determine the prize

  1. How many people will win the prize?
  2. Why would they want to win this prize?
  3. How can you increase the perceived value of the prize?

Promote the contest

  1. Tease the contest 3 days before
  2. Announce the content on Twitter
  3. Create and use a new hashtag
  4. Send the email to your list
  5. Publish it on external communities: Facebook, Linkedin, Slack, Discord
  6. Update your audience with intermediate results
  7. Create a video choosing the winner

3. Grow your Audience on Twitter 🐦

Effectiveness: high
Complexity: medium
Money-cost: low
Time-cost: medium

Twitter is the perfect platform to build an audience around your side hustle.

But getting the first 1000 followers is challenging. That's why I wrote a 4000-word playbook about it. Get your 1000 followers in 50 days.

4. Create a Limited Offer ⌛️

Effectiveness: low
Complexity: easy
Money-cost: low
Time-cost: low

Some users need one nudge to buy your product. It can be a discount or a bonus, and they are in.

Let’s make that happen.

Decide on the format

1. Create a discount

  • Limit it in time
  • Limit in in seats
  • Create a condition to get the discount (e.g., refer a friend)
  • Add a personalized promo code (e.g., FGH12SN)

2. Give a bonus

  • Give a low-end product for free
  • Give your consultation for free
  • Give premium features for free

3. Create a lifetime deal

Promote it

  1. Add a pop-up on your landing page
  2. Send the email to your list
  3. Promote it on social media

5. Launch on Product Hunt 🐱

Effectiveness: low
Complexity: hard
Money-cost: low
Time-cost: high

Launching on Product Hunt is the easiest way to get more users. But to make it happen, you need to get into the top 5.

I wrote an ultimate playbook for you to win the Product Hunt. Learn battle-tested lessons from our launches.

💡
Follow our ultimate launch checklist to manage all marketing from one place.

6. Buy Google Ads 💸

Effectiveness: high
Complexity: medium
Money-cost: medium
Time-cost: medium

Sometimes it’s hard to outrank your competitors in SEO. That’s when PPC ads come in handy.

You can skyrocket your revenue without breaking the bank.

Choose keywords

  1. Find sales keywords (e.g., newsletter tool for creators)
  2. Find educational keywords (e.g., how to get a sponsorship ad)
  3. Find brand keywords (e.g., convert kit pricing)

Create a campaign

  1. Select the campaign goal
  2. Choose the campaign type
  3. Segment the audience
  4. Write a straightforward and engaging headline
  5. Write a self-explanatory description that is aligned with the headline
  6. Add relevant keywords
  7. Pick a budget and bidding

Analyze the results

1. Give algorithms enough time to get statistically valid data

2. Analyze the following metrics for each campaign

  • Click-through-rate
  • Cost-per-click
  • Conversion Rate
  • Cost-per-action

3. Make decisions

  • What campaigns should be stopped?
  • What campaigns should be scaled?
  • What campaigns should be optimized?

7. Do Influencer Marketing 🏸

Effectiveness: medium
Complexity: hard
Money-cost: high
Time-cost: medium

Your target audience, especially Gen Z, trust Influencers more than Facebook ads.

So, leverage it with influencer marketing.

Find influencers

  1. Use special tools to find niche influencers
  2. Find people who you personally like and who have your target audience
  3. Tweet that you are looking for influencers (include “UGC-creator” in the text)

Pitch them your product

  1. Create a great offer for your product
  • Free trial for a 2 weeks
  • Save 50% of the price
  • Get something for free

2. Write short highly-personalized messages to influencers

3. Highlight the value of your tool, so they will know it’s not useless

Negotiate the deal

  1. Negotiate either a one-time payment or the affiliate link
  2. Negotiate the dates
  3. Negotiate the creativity ranges (do you provide the copy, or it’s up to them)
  4. Negotiate the distribution strategy

Analyze the results

  1. Have you got a positive ROI?
  2. What could be done better?
  3. What’s your next step with influencer marketing?

8. Partner with Other Brand 🤝

Effectiveness: medium
Complexity: hard
Money-cost: medium
Time-cost: hard

Your potential customers are watching and using other brands, too.

Acquire new users through collaboration with their favorite product.

Find products to collaborate

  1. What products are popular with your target audience?
  2. What products are better when used with your product?

Pitch them

1. Find Founders on Twitter

2. Engage with their content

3. Write a highly-personalized content

  • Focus on the value for them
  • Suggest the next step

Plan the partnership

1. Possible partnership ideas

  • Buy product X and get Y for free
  • Buy product X and get a discount for Y
  • Buy a limited product from X and Y

2. List every responsibility from each side

3. Outline campaign dates

4. Align across the messaging and visuals

5. Negotiate the price or the revenue share

Execute it perfectly

1. Create a shared document to align across tasks and dates

2. Focus on the distribution

  • Pitch media
  • Reach out to influencers
  • Send great emails

3. Measure the results

4. Decide on this partnership's future

🚀
Get our 7 battle-tested marketing tips for Solopreneurs

9. Create a Referral Program 📞

Effectiveness: low
Complexity: hard
Money-cost: low
Time-cost: medium

People love recommending products to their friends and colleagues.

Want to nudge your customers to do it more often?

Define the offer

1. Pick a format

  • Get X friends and get a free bonus
  • Get X friends and get Y money
  • Get X friends and get free Y months of subscription

2. Is your number of friends reasonable?

3. Is your gift desirable to users?

4. Does the profit from new users outweigh the cost of the gift?

Pick a tool

1. Code it yourself (if you hate paying for tools)

2. Pick a referral program tool

3. Do it manually (works best for high-ticket products)

  • New customers say that user X recommended your product to them
  • User X gets a gift

Promote your referral program

  1. Add it after customers achieve their goal with your product
  2. Add it in the email after 2 weeks after the purchase
  3. Add a page to your website — “Refer a friend”
🚀
Get our 7 time-tested marketing ideas for Solopreneurs

10. Create a High-ticket Product 🍣

Effectiveness: high
Complexity: hard
Money-cost: medium
Time-cost: high

Let people with money pay you more.

Launch a high-ticket product just for them.

Decide on the format

  1. Premium paid plan with additional features
  2. Personal consultation
  3. 1:1 mentorship
  4. Access to a closed community
  5. Personal review (or any work) from you
  6. Hire you as a consultant
  7. Outsource their work to you (building websites, developing MVP)

Promote the High-ticket product

  1. Send the email to customers who have bought the main product
  2. Send the email to users who haven’t purchased the main product
  3. Add this plan to your landing page
  4. Announce this plan on your social media

Conclusion

Growing a side hustle while working full-time is like playing a new game on the hardest level.

You only have a few hours weekly to make the right decisions and execute them flawlessly. It's not a piece of cake.