After years of building up my following and testing a number of methods, I now am generating roughly $2,000 - $4,000 per month from Linkedin as side income.
Here are some steps for you to generate this type of income. Trust me Im no expert and did the exact "opposite" of what so called "Linkedin experts" claimed to do. Currently I have over 49,000 followers (which include some of the top CEO's, Company Founders, and Fortune 500 leaders ? yes the same ones you read about in Wall Street, Fast Company, & Mashable) and average about 700-1,000 profile views per week. Not only am I in the top 1% viewed, I'm actually ahead of the guy who wrote the best selling book about mastering Linkedin. Im not trying to boost my ego, Im just saying that with a little time and elbow grease (& common sense), you can accomplish a lot using this platform more so than other sites.
Here are the basics;
1. Your Profile
? You hear time and time again that you should update every section of your profile and make it "keyword" friendly. I did that, but honestly, I made sure it was showing my true personality. Nothing is more boring than a profile that looks like it's one big sales pitch with bullet points & "targeted" keywords. Also I didn't use some professional photo. I instead use a casual headshot (black & white) and had a headline title that outlined who I was ? not my job title.
? I wanted to do something different, make myself unique and interesting than all other profiles out there. Instead of a long-winded summary paragraph, i opt'd for a quote that exemplifies who I am.
? I gave brief descriptions to each of my jobs - one sentence that explains what the company is and another 2-3 that featured what accomplishments were achieved within the role.
? Add Videos & links to web posts/articles that can relate to your job, projects or accomplishments. People love visuals!
? Use the Projects section, and detail out specific small projects you worked on in the past. Give a brief paragraph on each one and list out client brands you worked with.
? Recommendations -- I'm strongly against these. I personally don't read them, nor do I ever ask anyone to post them on mine. They look so contrived and often I hear about people providing pre-written "copy" for others to post on their profile.
? Skills / Endorsements -- put in at least 20 skills that best showcases you and what you love doing. They can be unique, heck they can be funny too (i.e. "80's music lover"). Leave space for others to recommend skills they feel you are good at.
? Include ALL your jobs you had over the years (at least after college). Also include your hobbies, organizations you help or volunteer, relevant awards given to you and articles you wrote. Each of these will be of interest to someone who views your profile.
2. JOIN GROUPS
Yes, I know the "experts" say this also. But join a number of groups within different sectors and interests. Look at ones with larger followers and even niche smaller ones. You can only join up to 50, but you can always leave them and join others later on.
? Like articles that are posted within the groups of ones that you do "like". There is nothing more fake than people who "like" people's posts just for the sake of gaining people to follow them. In this day and age, people can see right through that and will block you.
Ill come back later on how to use Groups to your advantage.
NEXT...
Ok, now you have 2 of the most important things done. Take a look at your profile ? also have your friends view it. Does it make them want to read your entire career from start to finish? Do they want to learn more about you? Do they find you fascinating? Keep tweaking your profile until it does.
Now that this is accomplished, next is for you to determine what you would like to accomplish. Do you want to create a consulting business? Be considered a leading expert within a particular field you enjoy? Grow a community of like-minded people to discuss topics that are relevant to you?
For me, I didn't have any set goal when I first joined Linkedin. I actually thought is was just another social profile that was a time sucker, much like Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and others. However, I started to notice that it allowed me access to individuals at companies that I wanted to either work with, or align in some way. I also notice that no one was addressing a specific niche which my job was related to. With that I created my first "Group" approx 7+ years ago. It was the first one within that niche, and suddenly I saw a surge of people wanting to join. Within a month we had over 2,500 members. I was blown away. Eventually we started posting relevant news and content that related to the topic. Others joined in and a real conversation started to happen. Over the next few years we grew to over 20,000 members. However it eventually became time-consuming and a number of people started spamming on it. I ultimately "sold" the group to a member for them to maintain and run using a different group name. Before I left it, I made sure to gather their contact info and suggest they follow my "related" social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook and others.
So you maybe asking now, "ok but how are you making over $2-4K per month?" ? this I will go into more detail on the next post.
Here are some steps for you to generate this type of income. Trust me Im no expert and did the exact "opposite" of what so called "Linkedin experts" claimed to do. Currently I have over 49,000 followers (which include some of the top CEO's, Company Founders, and Fortune 500 leaders ? yes the same ones you read about in Wall Street, Fast Company, & Mashable) and average about 700-1,000 profile views per week. Not only am I in the top 1% viewed, I'm actually ahead of the guy who wrote the best selling book about mastering Linkedin. Im not trying to boost my ego, Im just saying that with a little time and elbow grease (& common sense), you can accomplish a lot using this platform more so than other sites.
Here are the basics;
1. Your Profile
? You hear time and time again that you should update every section of your profile and make it "keyword" friendly. I did that, but honestly, I made sure it was showing my true personality. Nothing is more boring than a profile that looks like it's one big sales pitch with bullet points & "targeted" keywords. Also I didn't use some professional photo. I instead use a casual headshot (black & white) and had a headline title that outlined who I was ? not my job title.
? I wanted to do something different, make myself unique and interesting than all other profiles out there. Instead of a long-winded summary paragraph, i opt'd for a quote that exemplifies who I am.
? I gave brief descriptions to each of my jobs - one sentence that explains what the company is and another 2-3 that featured what accomplishments were achieved within the role.
? Add Videos & links to web posts/articles that can relate to your job, projects or accomplishments. People love visuals!
? Use the Projects section, and detail out specific small projects you worked on in the past. Give a brief paragraph on each one and list out client brands you worked with.
? Recommendations -- I'm strongly against these. I personally don't read them, nor do I ever ask anyone to post them on mine. They look so contrived and often I hear about people providing pre-written "copy" for others to post on their profile.
? Skills / Endorsements -- put in at least 20 skills that best showcases you and what you love doing. They can be unique, heck they can be funny too (i.e. "80's music lover"). Leave space for others to recommend skills they feel you are good at.
? Include ALL your jobs you had over the years (at least after college). Also include your hobbies, organizations you help or volunteer, relevant awards given to you and articles you wrote. Each of these will be of interest to someone who views your profile.
2. JOIN GROUPS
Yes, I know the "experts" say this also. But join a number of groups within different sectors and interests. Look at ones with larger followers and even niche smaller ones. You can only join up to 50, but you can always leave them and join others later on.
? Like articles that are posted within the groups of ones that you do "like". There is nothing more fake than people who "like" people's posts just for the sake of gaining people to follow them. In this day and age, people can see right through that and will block you.
Ill come back later on how to use Groups to your advantage.
NEXT...
Ok, now you have 2 of the most important things done. Take a look at your profile ? also have your friends view it. Does it make them want to read your entire career from start to finish? Do they want to learn more about you? Do they find you fascinating? Keep tweaking your profile until it does.
Now that this is accomplished, next is for you to determine what you would like to accomplish. Do you want to create a consulting business? Be considered a leading expert within a particular field you enjoy? Grow a community of like-minded people to discuss topics that are relevant to you?
For me, I didn't have any set goal when I first joined Linkedin. I actually thought is was just another social profile that was a time sucker, much like Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and others. However, I started to notice that it allowed me access to individuals at companies that I wanted to either work with, or align in some way. I also notice that no one was addressing a specific niche which my job was related to. With that I created my first "Group" approx 7+ years ago. It was the first one within that niche, and suddenly I saw a surge of people wanting to join. Within a month we had over 2,500 members. I was blown away. Eventually we started posting relevant news and content that related to the topic. Others joined in and a real conversation started to happen. Over the next few years we grew to over 20,000 members. However it eventually became time-consuming and a number of people started spamming on it. I ultimately "sold" the group to a member for them to maintain and run using a different group name. Before I left it, I made sure to gather their contact info and suggest they follow my "related" social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook and others.
So you maybe asking now, "ok but how are you making over $2-4K per month?" ? this I will go into more detail on the next post.
