You just finished writing another epic article.
You’ve spent 5 days researching deeply and tweaking the article so there’s no disputing the fact your article is going to be a bomb.
It’s Tuesday, the very day you scheduled to publish it. And the time is already 11am.
Thinking about the compliments, likes and comments from the post is already giving you a reason to smile after all, it’s a well deserved reward.
You’re so eager to put out the “great stuff ” so without delay on this Monday morning, you dashed off to your “editor area” to click the golden “publish button”.
Now, the post is published. Your excitement and anxiety knows no bounds.
After five minutes, you checked the post. It’s yet to have a single like.
“It’s OK! My readers are yet to see the post anyway. Let me give them some hours. They will see it. And i will be receiving huge likes”. You console yourself.
Now it’s two long hours gone. And all you have is just two likes.
2 likes For a post i spent 7 whole days to write? It’s not possible.
You tell yourself. Let me just give them the whole day. Probably they are yet to even see the post.
Fast-forward to Wednesday It’s two days now. And all you have is just 6 likes. For a post you’ve spent enormous good hours to write. This cannot be encouraging.
You begin to tell yourself… “this cannot be real can it? It can’t. Because I’m one of the best writers around.
Not only am i the best in this field, people always say my stuff is the best.
So how come they don’t respond to my work these days?
I still remember this is the 7th consecutive post I’m having this low turnout of comments and likes.
All of a sudden you remember what your friend once told you and then you’re like, it seems what Michelle said is right. Perhaps this digital thing is not for me. Maybe I’m going to find something else.
You take a quick look at your friend Edet. His latest post just gathered over 87 likes and 39 comments.
His books on that niche has already garnered 45 downloads.
“You see i said it? I’ve always said it. Digital hustling is not for me. Or how can ordinary Edet be having 87 likes in just one post?
Edet that is just a learner? It’s not possible. I am leaving this niche.
I can’t be wasting my time hustling here when others are making it in other topical areas. Let me try another niche. I’m sure i will make it there.
So on and on it goes. From writing about Relationships, you change to Religion from Religion, you move to Inspirationals. From Inspirationals you get over to Leadership.
It seems you hardly break through any of these niches. And you’re worried. Because you’re already doing everything right.
And you’re wondering, what exactly is wrong with me?
Now, you know what?
It’s normal to feel shut in like this.
I mean most new digital hustlers go through the same stuff like this almost every single day.
Like you, they also feel like giving up on digital hustling. Because it’s not easy to keep looking North when the reality is looking South. Yeah. It would be damning. And unrealistic.
It would be crazy to hustle and feel inspired when you spend days writing an epic blog post only to come up with a 5 to 20 views.
Isn’t that a waste of time?
How about launching your book, only to have just 15-20 downloads, after weeks of publicity?
It’s disheartening.
Yet one thing is important. You are not in the wrong path until you accept it. The power to decide if a niche is wrong or right is still right in your palm.
And before you proclaim any verdict on your particular digital hustling, there’s something you should know…
There’s a way you can stay committed to your hustle despite how long it takes to find the big break.
And this way is about you and your audience / clients /readers.
Understand yourself, Differentiate between Hobby and Business.
For you, it starts with understanding yourself. You must understand yourself, the reason you’re in this hustling game, where you’re going from here and how you’re going to hustle until you break even.
After that, you must understand the difference between hobby and business.
Understand that while you can do your hobby anytime you want it, you must target your business with foresight, setting up a reliable system that people can trust.
Systemize your hustle.
When i talk about systems this is what i mean… You must set up a framework that is easily recognizable by your potential clients.
If your digital hustling is about writing for instance, your readers and potential clients should be able to know the exact time they’ll find your content to read when they check you up.
If it’s about design or other services, they should be able to tell when and how their jobs will be delivered.
Unlike your hobby which you’re doing whenever you have time, basically for the love of it, your digital hustling should be distinguished and attended to as something that your aspirations and that of so many others will depend on.
You should be able to see it as your work. Have a time table for carrying out certain tasks.
It’s not that you might not fall out of the dateline sometimes. But a commitment to sticking to the systematic schedule will really help you gain traction with your online hustling.
Write down all the specific activities you do as part of your digital hustling. Allocate days and hours for each of them based on your schedule.
Divide up your time for Capital and Recurrent tasks.
As a digital hustler, time is the most valuable resources you’ll ever have. Unfortunately, like every other person, you have the same 24 hours we all have in a day.
So managing your time effectively is going to be one of the greatest decider of your success.
You’re going to have to divide your time into lucrative and non-lucrative hours.
Let’s call these Recurrent and Capital hours.
Every single day, your recurrent hours are going to be spent on those tasks you’re going to do over and again which might not add direct increments to the money you’re making through online hustling.
You can call this the normal day to day activities like sleeping, doing house chores, attending non work related meetings, hooking up family and friends etc.
Your capital hours on the other hand see going to be spent on everything you do that will in one way or the other increase your hustling. Or add more bucks to your bank account.
You get it right?
These capital tasks may include: Writing your blog and social media posts, Promoting these posts, Building and tweaking your brand reputation, Writing free books and hosting other free stuffs, Reaching out to other influencers, Spending time on groups and forums, Choosing and building relationships with possible leads, Marketing your hustle across different platforms etc.
You have to be able to help yourself first by setting up a system for this whole thing before you get worked out.
Because the prelude to getting discouraged as a digital entrepreneur is the moment you start feeling you are getting worked out without much results to show for it.
This is sometimes caused by spending time doing the wrong things. And yes, so many times this is not even obvious.
It can be more like needing both the cart and the horse for a journey but putting the cart before the horse.
You work hard and long with the hope that everything is going to work perfectly because you’ve got it all well laid out but it turns out you didn’t.
This kills your momentum faster than anything especially considering the effort you put to work and the high expectation you had.
Understand. The moment you lose your enthusiasm, your audience will notice it.
So you’ll have to define your capital hours and it’s assigned tasks. Give them time tags. Schedule each of them into your daily, weekly, monthly time table and stick to it.
This will help you to a large extent. It will also help your audience, giving your hustle a systematic approach.
Don’t cast all your eggs in one basket.
As someone new to digital hustling, don’t put all your eggs in one basket by quitting your job or whatever you’re doing to focus entirely on your hustle.
No. It’s not advisable. It’s better you start your online hustling as a side gig. Focus on what’s already paying your bills while building up your hustle.
You should only focus fully on your hustle when it has started generating income to the point you’re confident it can sustain you.
Giving up on other sources of income before your digital hustle kicks off can be disastrous.
It will lead you to expecting an instant returns on investment (based on the effort you’re putting in) even when it’s not yet time.
And when these expectations are not realised immediately, you’ll be discouraged.
This is one of the main reasons so many digital businesses fold up, after the first six months .
If you want to survive past your first year, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Don’t micro niche your hustle immediately.
If you can do more than one aspect of digital hustling, do it. Supposing you’re a graphic designer and you can also do digital photography, add it up.
Whatever complementary service you can add to your digital hustling, add it up. It’s going to help you. Especially at the initial stage.
You can then micro niche your hustle to a particular aspect of the business you want at a time you might have gathered clients and made enough to help you target a particular micro niche.
Some other established digital hustlers are going to ask you to niche down. I can’t say that. You have to forget about focusing on a very tiny audience right now because it won’t help you.
As a start up hustler, you need people to know you. You need recommendations etc so you’ll have to reach out to as many people as you can.
When you feel satisfied with your established client base, you can then focus on a few more sophisticated target audience.
Brace up for the down times.
When it comes to digital hustling, it’s not always “Hallelujah”.
Ok. Let’s not scare ourselves. Digital hustling is almost like your offline business. You’re going to start up, grow, expand and scale.
You have to understand that all business go through different stages of growth. So brace up and get ready for the time your business will undergo these stages of growth.
Understand, running an online business is slightly different from doing your business offline so there are things you won’t take for granted if you’re planning to have a successful outing.
Things like honesty should form part of your value system.
Because you’ll have to do more than enough to get people who’ll probably never meet you physically, to trust you with their money.
Keep a clear picture of where you’re going with your hustle.
Be able to create a convincing picture of what you want to achieve in the long run, where you’ll be in 2-5 years and what you’re going to achieve when you get there.
Keep this picture in view during those days you get discouraged.
Have mentors, people who are already successful as digital hustlers. They will show you the rope and cheer you up during tough times.
Understand that commitment is not the absence of other options. It’s a decision to stick to something you believe in… Because you know it’s going to turn out successful.
So when you feel discouraged, don’t begin to think oh maybe I’m not committed anymore.
Acknowledge that feeling as part of the process and then move onto achieving success with your digital hustle.
I know you’ll succeed. Yes. Because i was once like you but today, I’m advising and consulting for other online hustlers.
You’re definitely going to grow a successful digital business if you use these principles here. And like i said, i know you will succeed.
Need more on how to succeed with your hustle? Let’s talk.
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