🗞 What's New: Is AI killing freelancing?

When it comes to freelancing, AI can be a threat or an opportunity:

• AI has changed the way we work, but using it for low-level tasks can increase productivity. But pay attention to governmental regulations.
• To find and work with the right influencers, consider the levels of influence, cast a wide net, and gift with intention.
• $40K in revenue. Josef Strzibny started selling his book on Gumroad 28 months ago, and recently hit this major milestone.

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by James Fleischmann

AI may threaten freelancing as a lucrative option for indie hackers.

We caught up with freelancing experts to understand the threats and opportunities, and to learn how indie hackers can be effective in the current freelancer economy.

Threats and opportunities

Craig Short:

We have definitely seen some interesting movements here that suggest it is a worry. We have seen a 90% reduction in gigs for copywriters and social media managers. We asked our clients why, and they said they were using ChatGPT, Copy.AI, or Jasper instead.

But the opportunity is that we have seen over $2M of data engineering gigs since March, which suggests there will be a huge demand.

This is directly linked to AI. They are hiring data engineers to help build, integrate, or configure generative AI.

Tim Noetzel:

I absolutely don't worry about AI taking my clients. AI simply isn't good at the types of critical thinking and strategic planning that high-end clients need. Yes, it can reproduce passable code or write a legible blog article, but it can't deliver a solid strategy for helping a client grow their business, retain more customers, or scale their technical stack.

Enda Mac Nally:

There’s no question that AI will transform how we all live and work, but as long as people need (and want) to work with people, I think it'll be fine.

Tom Hirst:

AI will give freelancers superpowers. If clients want to use AI for a task, you probably weren't going to get paid much for that task anyway. I see AI as an assistant to freelancers for low-level tasks.

Supply saturation and regulations

Rich Wilson:

McKinsey recently released a gig economy report that says there are 58M freelancers in the US, and that is expected to grow 35% by 2027. Being able to stand out from the crowd will be really important.

Craig:

Another serious threat comes from governmental regulations around classification. In the US, the definition of an independent contractor differs from state to state. In the UK, we have IR35, which caused a reduction in the amount of freelancers hired by companies. Governments see that they can make significant tax revenue from freelancers.

Getting clients

Enda:

I’ve tried various methods over the years to acquire clients, but the one that has delivered most consistently is through personal connections: People who know my work, and are confident in recommending me to others.

Craig:

Build your brand on LinkedIn. Post every day about your experiences and the projects you have worked on to create inbound leads. Also, work with 2-3 freelancing platforms, and really invest your time into understanding how they work.

Tim:

I think that one-on-one conversations are by far the most efficient way to find and land high-value clients.

Don't get burned

Tom:

The best way to get paid as a freelancer is to get as much as you can upfront. Try asking for 100% upfront, but at least ask for 50%. Ask for 33% at an absolute minimum. In my experience, no project is real until money has exchanged hands.

Craig:

I was often burned as a freelancer. That's why it's best to go with a platform like Gigged.AI, where all the client money goes into escrow, then the freelancer gets paid as each deliverable milestone is completed.

Discuss this story.

from the Growth Trends newsletter

🛩 TikTok has published a new playbook for travel marketers.

📧 Email subject line tips and best practices.

📹 YouTube has enabled linking between Shorts and long-form videos.

🧾 11 e-commerce checkout tips to increase conversions.

🔗 Outbound links won't help your content rank better on Google.

👥 Sapiengraph lets you import "people data" from LinkedIn and Crunchbase to your own private spreadsheet. #ad

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

from The Hustle newsletter

Many brands screw up their influencer strategies by expecting the influencer to deliver a quick ROI.

We tapped experts Sonia Elyss, president of influencer marketing agency Round Twelve, and Trendster Yash Chavan to give you the real deal on acquiring influencers who actually want to boast about your brand.

Pay attention to levels of influence

Navigating the world of micro- versus nano-influencers can be muddy.

According to Sonia Elyss, "micro" on TikTok can mean 50K followers, whereas on Instagram, it's 20K and under. "Nanos" haven't gained much traction yet on TikTok, but will share your product with ~5K followers on IG.

At the 100K range on IG or TikTok, their influence grows wider, their price goes up, and brands have to work harder to keep them engaged.

While you need to be aware of an influencer's reach, the most important thing is making sure whoever you engage is going to become a champion for your brand.

Find the right influencers

It's way too easy to hire the wrong people to represent your brand. You should:

1. Go wide: 70% of your influencers should reflect your core market. The rest should be adjacent or complementary.
2. Check the tags: Look at the feeds of your competitors and brands you aspire to emulate for organic accounts that align with your brand.
3. Go micro: Next, check out who tagged those organic accounts to find micro- and nano-influencers. That's where you'll find small niches with high engagement.
4. Get on the map: Geolocations are an untapped tag to track down influencers for retail stores and events.

Check the tags: Trends member Yash Chavan has a proven way to use hashtags to find influencers for your brand.

Once you've developed a list of influencers to engage, Yash advises against inundating them with brand information and detailed direction.

If you've chosen the right influencers, they are experts in both your industry and content creation. You'll get much better content if you don't clip their creative wings.

Gift with intention

Gifting can be an impactful, but risky, strategy: Marketers report that less than 50% of gifted influencers actually post about the product.

Gifting is a brand awareness campaign that may convert into dollars if the campaign is broad, has significant airplay, and responds to data in real time.

If your brand doesn't have the capacity to support a strategy like that, keep your eyes on more achievable prizes, like:

• A review from an influencer.
• A usable quote.
• Genuine product feedback.
• An innovative way to use or show the product.

Subscribe to The Hustle newsletter for more.

from the One Page Love newsletter

Strengthen your landing page with these design, development, and conversion tips:

Invest in an icon library.

Having a go-to icon pack can speed up landing page development and keep the aesthetic consistent.

Subscribe to Rob Hope's One Page Love newsletter for his favorite UI, design, and development finds.

by Josef Strzibny

I started selling on Gumroad 28 months ago, and I recently hit $40K in revenue!

The product

My e-book, Deployment from Scratch, covers deploying web applications.

I recently added a SaaS boilerplate called Business Class as my second product. Almost all of my earnings come from the book, though.

The background

I started writing way before I put my book on Gumroad. I was writing my book for three years, with a total of one year of unbillable time. I sold first copies after two-and-a-half years when the book was still unfinished, and to this day, I have sold 980 copies.

Marketing

I didn't have a real audience when I started, but I wrote for such a long time that I practically grew my Twitter and mailing list together when writing.

I shared most of my learnings on X and on my blog. You can read more about my marketing and numbers here.

What's next

I am now thinking of getting started with SEO to be able to sell another thousand copies.

Today, I extended the book landing page by adding a breakdown of the chapters and the description of scripted demonstrations.

For my second product, I'll work on adding more value soon!

Discuss this story.

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to James Fleischmann, Darko, Susie Ippolito, Rob Hope, and Josef Strzibny for contributing posts. —Channing