3 Examples of Helping to Solve a Problem(and getting paid)

Michelle Shares Her Experiences

This Week’s Announcements:

In this week’s newsletter I share 3 personal examples of how I helped solve a problem and made money doing it. One is a digital product, another is a service and the third is a digital product that also can be a physical item. I share the good and the challenges of each product and what to consider if you decide to solve a problem in a similar way. This Thursday I will share some insights into what it’s like growing a newsletter (Podcasters Getting Paid) and why everyone should grow a newsletter or email list. I’ve included a link to a podcast episode where I talk about the similarities and differences between a newsletter and email list.

1-on-1 Podcast Monetization Coaching, availability is ending next week. I won’t be taking coaching clients for the entire summer and will be available again for coaching in September.

If you are needing some input, support or feedback on a podcasting/brand monetization strategy book you session As Soon As Possible. I’m working on the “How to Prepare for and Land Brand Partnerships” Workshop that will be on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. This is going to be hands on and my goal is to help attendees build out their monetization strategy by the end of the workshop. The workshop is $97 and the deadline to register is May 25, 2023. I want to make sure there’s enough time to reach out to everyone before we meet.

Paid Subscriber office hours are on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:00 pm MTN/9:00 pm EST.

Finally, I wanted to say thank you to the amazing supporters of Podcasters Getting Paid. For those of you who are enjoying the free tier, the $5 tier, have made an annual $50 payment and Founder’s contributions-thank you so much for supporting this project. My goal has been to create and grow an accessible tool that helps as many people as possible while allowing folks to learn from the case studies shared in this resource. Also, make sure to check out the presenting sponsors of the newsletter: Podcast Movement and Swell AI-I’ve included more details at the bottom of this post.

How Content Creators Can Earn Money

Solve a Single Problem

This week we’re revisiting the idea of solving one problem in order to monetize your podcast and overall brand. One Thursday I’m going to re-share a conversation that I had with a friend of mine who has build a sustainable and growing business solving one problem and helping a significant number of people ACROSS INDUSTRIES who have the same problem.

This week I thought it would be helpful to share my experiences working on different products that solve problems and my experiences succeeding and failing with those products and lessons learned.

*In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this newsletter*

3 Examples of How Michelle Has Solved Other People’s Problems

The most important part of solving problems is figuring out the problem that you’re going to solve. Here are some things to consider that will help you identify which problems you could be helping other people solve.

• Are you passionate about the issue?

• Do you find yourself talking about it a lot?

• Are you presenting about the topic to online and in-person groups? Or, talking about the issue at conferences or other industry events?

• Do you people ask you over and over again about how you?

• Are you getting asked questions in your social media or other content that you’ve produced about how you worked through an issue?

Product #1 Make Money With Ebooks (My course)

This may surprise you if you don’t know this already….but, I write romances and non-fiction books. What has surprised me is the fact that I’ve made thousands of dollars writing romance and fiction books. Because of the success I had in self-publishing, I decided to design a course. That course is “Make Money with Ebooks” I absolutely love this course because I was able to support writers (many in underrepresented communities) and focused in different niches to write, complete and ultimately publish their books.

5 Lessons Learned

• Courses are a great way to help your community (positive)

• Courses can be a wonderful way to scale income if you’re able to design a marketing funnel or systems to constantly market your product.

• Selling courses can be a lot more logistically complicated than creators may realize. When COVID happened I stopped selling my course because I didn’t have the energy to manage a creative space (writing books can very emotional) There are also issues around:

  • Delivering the product at the level that your students expect

  • Potential risk of returns

  • Payment processing

  • Marketing

• Yearly or frequent content updates are needed in order to keep the course relevant and up to date.

• Figuring out pricing. There are so many ways to price a course. One key factor that influenced my course price and ultimately had me adjusting the prices when I felt like the amount I charged, time I put into the course and time that a student was active in the course portal way exceeded what I charged.

I love this course but I’m looking at tweaking the design so that I can take myself out of the delivery process for this product.

Product #2: Freelance Writing

This product may be an unexpected addition to this list. Freelancers solve the problem of producing well thought out written content for their clients. Freelance writing is often published on business websites, college websites, product website-basically any space that has an online presence (website).

In my case, freelance writing has been pretty lucrative. In fact I’ve worked with some amazing clients, written pieces that were very important to me and my brand. I’ve also been able to leverage my freelance writing to grown my expertise and brand awareness.

5 Lessons Learned

• Freelance writing is a great way to earn money and grow your brand. You can position yourself as an expert in your space-over and over again.

• Drop problem clients FAST. One of the biggest mistakes that I’ve made as a freelancer has been staying with problem clients for way too long. Don’t do it!

• Always raise your rate. I started freelance writing getting paid $15 a post. I loved it because a friend of mine was giving me plenty of projects to work on at my own pace. At the time $15 was the minimum wage in my state. I could write a $15 post pretty quickly vs. standing for an hour at a side-hustle. Soon, though, there was a point when I realized that I had to earn more per project. Now my rates are between .50-$1+ a word (depending on scope of work)

• Freelancers who don’t have a system for always bringing in leads will always be stressed out. Why? It can take months to onboard new clients, work on a project and then finally get paid.

• Freelance writing takes up SO MUCH TIME. It can completely takeover your brand if you’re not careful.

I’m in the process of phasing freelance writing out of my offerings because I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to and would prefer to write for my own websites and other personal projects which I enjoy a lot.

Product #3: Romance Novels

I bet you didn’t see that one on the list. But, romance novels very much solve a problem and in the case of the romances I write-a specific one. I found that I was having a hard time finding African-American women as the female lead in the romances that I was reading. I began reading romances around 12 years old. That’s a long time to have this issue. I wanted to read books where the lead looked like me and was: a spy, a CEO, a mermaid and more. So, when I saw that people were self-publishing romances…I got to work.

Also, I noticed something important before I started. I had been reading (and buying) self-published romances for awhile and absolutely LOVING THEM!

5 Lessons Learned

• If you’re experiencing a problem it’s likely that other people may be experiencing the same thing.

• Manage your pacing. I’m a pretty fast romance writer. Then COVID hit and messed up the pacing that I had prior to the Pandemic. I ended up getting hit by a pre-sale penalty on Amazon and ultimately decided to withdraw all works in progress from the platform because I had to rethink my writing pacing.

• Marketing is required. I love writing romances because it’s a one and done business model. But, you still have to grow an email list and market your books to future and return readers of your work.

• Don’t take criticism personally. People will feel very empowered to review your books. Often, it’s pretty harsh. I have to remind myself that my products aren’t for everyone.

• Screw the rules when it comes to pricing. There are a lot of rules about how to approach pricing (such as the CPM model for podcasting) I ignore the rules and approach pricing from what makes sense for my work. I also test out different prices with different novel lengths.

I will continue to write romance novels because they are so fun for me to do. But, they ARE work and there are a number of additional components that I have to consider when solving this problem and selling this product.

Final Lesson: It Takes Time

As a digital content creator it is highly likely that you will test out and try to sell several different types of products or services. Some will really resonate with you. You’ll be surprised by what is and isn’t a good fit and some products and services you may revisit at a better time. It’s not failure when things aren’t a good fit or don’t work out it’s a learning process.

Upcoming Workshop

• “How to Prepare for and Land Brand Partnerships” which will be held on Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 6:00 pm MTN/8:00 pm EST. Cost: $97. My goal is to have attendees prepped and ready to get their first brand partnerships by the end of this year. Deadline to Register: Thursday, May 25, 2023 (before Memorial Day Weekend)

  • The Workshop Will Cover

    • How to Price Your Partnership

    • Understanding the concept of value and how to communicate it to your brand partner

    • Why a brand would work with you when they often collaborate with well known and larger shows

    • How to to negotiate a partnership that makes sense for you when the terms change

    • Workshop Scholarships (2)

    • Fill out the following form

• Denver Podcasting Meetups

  • I’m hosting a meetup at a local coffee shop sometime in May TBA

  • Podcast Movement-Meetup tour will be held in Denver on June 30, 2023

• Podcast Movement Meetup Tour:

  • Portland 6/26/2023

  • Seattle 6/27/2023

  • Vancouver 6/28/2023

May Monetization Strategies Review

Each week I will record and share some additional thoughts and strategies to consider based on the monetization strategy shared. I’ve made money with each strategy. Each monetization strategy has both benefits and challenges to consider.

• Week #1 Affiliate Marketing (May 4, 2023-Shared)

• Week #2 Solve One Problem (May 11, 2023)

• Week #3 Brand Partnerships (May 18, 2023)

• Week #4 Crowdfunding (May 25, 2023)

• Week # 5 Freelance writing (May 31, 2023)

Presenting Sponsors and Supporters

Thank you so much for all of your generous support. With each $5 subscription, $50 annual subscription and Founder’s contribution I’m able to continue producing “Podcasters Getting Paid” that I purposely built as an accessible tool for podcasters who are in the testing phase of their business. You can invest in helpful resources for your businesses that are financially accessible.

Swell AI

I’m so excited to be partnering with Swell AI. This tool is the way I like AI to be used:

• Generate show notes

• Create social media posts

• Creates transcripts for PREVIOUSLY RECORDED content!

Podcasting can be so time consuming. Save your time and simplify your process with Swell AI.

Podcast Movement Denver

I’m so excited to partner with Podcast Movement this year. I love that it’s being hosted in my hometown of Denver.

• Build your social and professional network

• Share your expertise (even if you’re not a speaker)

• Meet industry professionals

• Learn from the community

And enjoy all of the parties! I love attending Podcast Movement and know that you will too.