How I made $53,000 in a month with an engaged audience

In February, I made $53,000 in a month by growing my audience and selling an online course. In fact, I had too many course signups. I ended up closing the course to new applicants sooner than expected.

Two years ago? I spent months creating a mini course. Months. I meticulously wrote a course script. I created graphics. I had my mother edit it. I filmed for days and bought an entire green screen and lighting kit.

It had one or two downloads. I literally could not get anyone to want the product. Did I mention it was also FREE? I couldn’t even give the course away!

The difference between that product and my course generating $53,000? I spent time actually building an engaged audience and asking what they wanted me to create. I created quality content on the subject. I grew rapidly on social media, I created tons of free resources and guides, and I helped people 1-1. More details below.

Share quality content on social media and other channels to help your audience

When I grew rapidly on social media, it was because I meticulously started sharing carefully curated resources and information I had collected over the past almost decade in my career as a developer.

I didn’t share jokes. I didn’t share photos of my dog (anymore). I didn’t write clickbait-y tweets. I didn’t schedule my tweets. I didn’t auto retweet. I hate gimmicky or engagement focused tweets. None of that leads to a truly engaged audience.

I even helped people 1-1 over Twitter DM’s. And this wasn’t a few messages during my lunch break. I reviewed resumes, portfolios, and gave advice for hours every day. My mornings, nights, and weekends were filled up.

All in all? I spent weeks hunched over hundreds of resumes carefully editing and providing feedback.

This translated to a real audience and sales because I had given out real value that had truly helped people. Marketing is what you say about yourself. Branding is what others say about you. I didn’t intend to create a brand for myself. I set out to help people.

Establish yourself as an expert in your field by creating great content

When you produce high-quality content, people will see you as a credible source of information. Produce garbage content? You’ve lost that potential customer forever.

My biggest pet peeve is seeing someone constantly put out content in an effort to saturate the market. It never works! And it actively pushes away customers.

Think of all the times you got sick of seeing someone spam on Twitter or email you relentlessly with useless content. You probably unsubscribed or muted them immediately, right? We have a low tolerance for useless information.

You have a limited amount of time to catch someone’s attention and once you’ve lost it? It’s potentially gone forever. You become noise.

One high quality blog post is worth 10 crappy blog posts. When I started out blogging, I spent weeks on one post. I had several people edit it (even my Mom!) and I obsessively analyzed every word.

It's important to make sure that your content is high quality and relevant to your target audience. If you succeed, you increase the chances that your content will be seen by more people and help you achieve your business goals. If you fail? You’ll spend months building a free course like me that has two downloads.

Engage with your audience and respond to their comments and questions

Engaging with your audience is key to creating a successful audience. Not only do you want to respond to comments and questions, but you also want to engage with them on a more personal level.

Remember how I spent weeks editing resumes and responding to DMs? I also jumped on calls and mentored people as well. This also helps you create a dialogue with your audience, which can help you learn more about them and what they want from your content.

When I created my first product, I couldn’t even give it away for free. I went off in a silo and built something that people didn’t want. When you take the time to engage with your audience, they will be more likely to return to your blog, and they may even become loyal followers. They’ll become customers.

Jumping on a call with someone is scary. But you know what’s scarier? Spending months building a product that nobody wants.

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