From unemployment to business acquisition in 12 months

Dear starters,

Pat Walls here, creator of Starter Story.

As you know, every Thursday I send you an email highlighting the best case studies that we've published on our platform. This is a bite-sized summary of the most interesting experiences that starters have shared with us.

I hope you enjoy it!

And remember that as a newsletter subscriber, you are eligible for a very special deal to enjoy unlimited access to our Ideas database. Join us now and get Starter Story Premium for $79/year, a 45% discount from our regular price. That’s just $1.71 per week, an absolute no brainer investment in your business.

I make $16K/year giving advice about my favorite thing

Asen wanted to escape the corporate world and had some money from a previous hustle. Instead of starting from scratch, he bought an already-made niche website that had a good foundation. 

How much did it cost to buy the site? Only $1,700. Reasons why it made sense:

1. It was in a niche that he loved and had a passion for
2. He thought of a couple of ways the site could grow: SEO and Pinterest

The blog makes money thanks to affiliates. He shares some truly valuable insights on how to grow thanks to SEO, Facebook groups and Pinterest. Plus, how to run a team of writers profitably.

The Business Of Sharing Advice

Do you know more than your friends about a specific topic? Well, you could be making money by sharing what you know! See these case studies of people making extra money by sharing advice about:

• Career advice ($1.5K/mo)
• Financial advice ($2.5K/mo)
• Financial advice for first responders ($3.5K)
• Engagement rings advice ($1.5K)

Launch a successful affiliate program in 7 steps

Marketing can be expensive. With affiliate marketing, you are finding someone else who is better at marketing to take up the risk and advertise or promote your products.

Instead of running ad campaigns, you can pay an affiliate a commission for every lead or purchase that they achieve. That’s what I call a win-win.

Those commissions can be quite high (your ad spend just went down dramatically) which is a great incentive and excellent ammunition to create a wide affiliate network.

Get started now with our detailed 7-steps guide (plus real examples).

We’ve published many success stories of starters making big money thanks to affiliate marketing:

• Spencer makes $500K/year. All profit, no employees
• Starting an affiliate marketing program made Elizabeth doubled her revenue ($400K/mo)
• Part of Michelle’s $100K/mo income comes from teaching others how to make money with affiliate marketing

Our app went from $0 to $1M in 6 months

With so many weddings on hold for the last year and a half, bachelorette parties are expected to grow like crazy. So when Mike decided to create this planning app, he knew he’d have the wind at his back. Seeing how they’ve built a waitlist of 50,000+ people is nothing but a confirmation of that. 

But of course, they didn’t stop there, due to the intrinsic virality of the app their growth is through the roof and now 40,000 parties are planned every month on the app. If you’re interested to know more about a well-designed viral loop, you need to read this story.

Planning things can be kind of boring and people often pay big money to avoid it. And of course, many of our starters have capitalized on this to build profitable businesses:

• This app generates $3.3M/year by planning sales routes
• Natasha makes $4M/year planning events for Fortune 5000 companies
• This couple makes $40K/month planning surprise vacations

💰 Start a profitable business now

Learn from real people sharing real stories. The struggles, the wins, the good and the bad. 

How do people get inspired and find great business opportunities? How do they get their 10 first clients? What challenges do they face at every stage and how to overcome them?

Get unlimited access to 2,000+ case studies, 3,000+ business ideas and 200+ proven growth strategies for $79/year (just $1.51/week). This is the best deal we've ever had.

​Or, get even more with our Premium Plus membership for $199/year and you will additionally gain access to the Lean SEO course (sold separately for $249) where I share how I've grown Starter Story to over 900K monthly visitors.

(all of our plans are billed yearly)

Find the perfect Instagram username [700 ideas + free name generator]

Finding a good Instagram username may be difficult, but it's an essential step when you start a business or a side hustle. 

So, if your Instagram username isn't catchy, or is difficult to spell, you're already behind the eight ball in terms of social media marketing. Can’t come up with a catchy Instagram username? No worries; we’ve got you covered! Visit our website and you’ll find:

• 700+ ideas
• Free name generator
• Availability checker

From unemployment to being acquired by a $500m fintech company in 12 months

Earlier this year we spoke to Luciano who launched a subscription service for investors that surfaces and analyzes trending stocks. In just a few months he was able to grow the business to $4,5K per month.

Now, just after just 1 year, he shared on reddit that he had been acquired by a major Australian fintech company. Congrats!

Newsletters are a great way to make money. Everyone can start one with free tools in just minutes. They can be a tool to make a little money on the side or huge businesses:

• Casey makes $48K/mo with a newsletter for sneaker heads
• Qin generates some extra income writing about personal finance
• Matt built a $14M/year business sharing stock market news

Trending articles this week

1. We Started Making Protein Bars In Our Dorm Room. Now We're In 7,000 Stores

2. How to Grow a Massive Email List

3. I Make $120K/Year With My Print On Demand T-Shirt Side Hustle

4. The Six Step Guide To Creating Great List-Based Content

5. I Created A $1.2M/Year SEO Agency From India

6. We Built A $6M 3PL Company In 3 Years

7. We're Using Our Agency Experience To Build A Paid Newsletter

8. 5 Quick Tips to Get More Out Of Your Instagram Sponsored Ads

9. Create Tik Tok Ads: A Guide

Looking for a job, or some work on the side?

Get your feet wet before you take the plunge into founder life.

Many of the companies we interview are hiring in operations, design, marketing, engineering, and more...

Check out our jobs portal for all new opportunities - new jobs are added every day!

Thanks for reading!

Pat

🙏 If you enjoyed this newsletter, you could really help me doing one of these things:

1. Share this newsletter on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.
2. Forward this email to a friend who’s starting their own business!
3. If this was forwarded to you, subscribe to receive this email every week.

I really appreciate you sharing and spreading the word. It really means a lot!

P.S. Huge thank you to Klaviyo - our exclusive sponsor at Starter Story. By using Klaviyo, we've grown our email list to 135K and added thousands of dollars in revenue per month through email marketing. Get Klaviyo today!

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