How I Banked Over $30,061 in 12 Months With “Content Stretching”
Posted 16th April 2016 at 10:18 AM by Greg Jeffries
Wouldn’t it be nice if you just knew that ONE thing you could do for just a few hours per day, that was pretty simple and produced predictable passive residual income?
That’s kind of the dream, right? Either that or someone just dumping a BIG pile of cash into your bank account overnight that you didn’t have to work for at all
But reality is you generally have to hustle and grind and fail A LOT before you ever find those magical unicorn income streams…if they even exist.
Well, I’ve been online now for about 10 years and I’ve got the typical story. I struggled a lot…but I did find something very simple that did work for me. And the great thing about it, is it is one of those rare gems of income streams that don’t require a ton of time, a ton of money to get started, you don’t really have to be an expert…and you don’t have to be a master at copywriting, marketing or recruiting affiliates.
It’s a simple strategy that I like to call “content stretching”.
Here’s some of my results…
Now, to some of you, your eyes might light up when you see those numbers. For others that may not be a fortune. But the good news for you is my results are extremely average or perhaps even low, so I want to reiterate that this is something you can absolutely do…and I truly believe if you do, you’ll have far more success that I have had.
So What The Heck Is “Content Stretching”?
Content Stretching is essentially taking one piece of content and leveraging it as much as you can by spreading it out to as many different marketplaces and media as possible.
In the results above I chose online course marketplaces such as Udemy and Skillshare.
So What Do You Need To Get Started?
All you need to get started are these few items…
1) Computer/Laptop - I use a Macbook Pro (I know they’re not cheap but they’re definitely worth the investment)
2) A decent microphone - you don’t have to be some super master sound engineer and go overboard here. The mic I use is a Blue Yeti USB microphone you can pick up on Amazon for about $100. I also recommend picking up this inexpensive pop filter to block out additional noise. I purchased a Whisperteknik foam windscreen.
3) Screen recording software - I have a Mac and highly recommend ScreenFlow, but if you are using a PC, I recommend Camtasia.
In addition to this I recommend recording in a quiet place so you don’t get much noise or feedback.
TIP: And, like I mentioned you DO NOT already have to be an expert to be good at this or have success. The majority of courses I published were literally rehashed content of courses that I just bought and consumed. You probably already know a lot about a certain topic but if you’re absolutely drawing a blank when coming up with ideas for content to teach, just get a subscription to Lynda.com - it’s only like $25/mo and you’ll absolutely make at least that in your first 30 days if you take action.
Also, if you’re worried about being on camera or you don’t like your voice - you gotta just push past that and get over it. When I started I sucked too, but I got better over time and even to this day I still cut out all my as and umm - I almost never record it perfect on the first try.
The Step-By-Step System
The system is extremely simple and it’s basically: Learn. Do. Teach.
- Go learn something
- Do it, so that you know what you’re talking about and can speak from experience when you’re teaching
- And then teach what you just learned to others
It’s really that simple.
Creating An Outline
Now, in order to make things flow as fast as possible, I like to plan out a simple outline for the courses I create.
To do this think of what you want to teach, and then figure out how you can break that down into simple steps. Each step will be a separate lecture or video.
I typically try and make most courses about an hour or so. Now, that may seem like a long time. But to make it really easy for myself, I break each step into short videos.
If you were to teach something that included 12 steps to get to one hour of content, that would mean only talking for 5 minutes about each step, which anyone can do.
Then, when you’re done, you just assemble all the pieces.
How To Scale The System
So, each and every course platform is slightly different but also has several things in common.
This is how I like to structure and plan out my content so that when I’m done with my course I can scale it in the easiest, laziest way possible.
I create one full course, usually about an hour in total length, made up of multiple smaller lectures usually 3-10 minutes each.
I also create an image to represent the course and what I’m teaching. Make the image 1280 x 720 (it can be smaller, but keep those same proportions).
This structure is going to make it easiest to scale once you’re all done.
Some platforms want you to have full courses, some are fine with just mini lessons, some like to bundle your courses, etc.
So, setting up your courses this way, the most you’ll ever have to do when adding to different marketplaces is maybe add/remove a few lectures, create a different intro video, or add a text description to individual lessons.
What Are Some Of The Most Popular Course Platforms?
Udemy - this is basically the Google of the online course marketplaces. It’s the largest and most popular.
Skillshare - my recommended place to start out because they let you upload individual lessons. They only have to be a minimum of at least 10 minutes. This platform will be the easiest and fastest to scale since there’s no course approval process, and will put some quick money in your pocket.
StackSkills - this is another large platform that has a wide reach and can promote your courses out to their massive audience for exposure. They do like to promote courses as uncles, so you’ll need to have a few courses complete and put together before you reach out to them.
ULearning - this is a newer platform. It’s very similar to Udemy and makes it easy to upload and publish content, but I’m not 100% on how well this one will do, since at the time of me writing this they just recently launched.
Amazing - this is also a newer platform launched by Matt Clark, one of the people behind the massively successful Amazing Selling Machine. This is a unique platform and kind of a hybrid between Skillshare and Udemy. Worth checking out because I believe there will be greater chance to earn more revenue on this platform than other marketplaces, but it might be helpful to get your feet wet at somewhere like Skillshare or Udemy first.
So, there you have it. A simple, scalable, and sustainable passive income system that is completely newbie friendly, that doesn’t require a lot of resources to get started, and that you can still have massive success with even if you suck at selling or driving traffic.
I encourage you to take action and implement this system. It’s so hard not to succeed with this system that I almost guarantee if you just take action you will see some results and once you do I think you’ll be amazed and get hooked.
If you’re interested in learning more about this system or curious about other simple, scalable and sustainable passive income streams, I invite you to check out IMSource Academy, where I share all my best tools, resources and systems along with my personal support and help.
That’s kind of the dream, right? Either that or someone just dumping a BIG pile of cash into your bank account overnight that you didn’t have to work for at all
But reality is you generally have to hustle and grind and fail A LOT before you ever find those magical unicorn income streams…if they even exist.
Well, I’ve been online now for about 10 years and I’ve got the typical story. I struggled a lot…but I did find something very simple that did work for me. And the great thing about it, is it is one of those rare gems of income streams that don’t require a ton of time, a ton of money to get started, you don’t really have to be an expert…and you don’t have to be a master at copywriting, marketing or recruiting affiliates.
It’s a simple strategy that I like to call “content stretching”.
Here’s some of my results…
Now, to some of you, your eyes might light up when you see those numbers. For others that may not be a fortune. But the good news for you is my results are extremely average or perhaps even low, so I want to reiterate that this is something you can absolutely do…and I truly believe if you do, you’ll have far more success that I have had.
So What The Heck Is “Content Stretching”?
Content Stretching is essentially taking one piece of content and leveraging it as much as you can by spreading it out to as many different marketplaces and media as possible.
In the results above I chose online course marketplaces such as Udemy and Skillshare.
So What Do You Need To Get Started?
All you need to get started are these few items…
1) Computer/Laptop - I use a Macbook Pro (I know they’re not cheap but they’re definitely worth the investment)
2) A decent microphone - you don’t have to be some super master sound engineer and go overboard here. The mic I use is a Blue Yeti USB microphone you can pick up on Amazon for about $100. I also recommend picking up this inexpensive pop filter to block out additional noise. I purchased a Whisperteknik foam windscreen.
3) Screen recording software - I have a Mac and highly recommend ScreenFlow, but if you are using a PC, I recommend Camtasia.
In addition to this I recommend recording in a quiet place so you don’t get much noise or feedback.
TIP: And, like I mentioned you DO NOT already have to be an expert to be good at this or have success. The majority of courses I published were literally rehashed content of courses that I just bought and consumed. You probably already know a lot about a certain topic but if you’re absolutely drawing a blank when coming up with ideas for content to teach, just get a subscription to Lynda.com - it’s only like $25/mo and you’ll absolutely make at least that in your first 30 days if you take action.
Also, if you’re worried about being on camera or you don’t like your voice - you gotta just push past that and get over it. When I started I sucked too, but I got better over time and even to this day I still cut out all my as and umm - I almost never record it perfect on the first try.
The Step-By-Step System
The system is extremely simple and it’s basically: Learn. Do. Teach.
- Go learn something
- Do it, so that you know what you’re talking about and can speak from experience when you’re teaching
- And then teach what you just learned to others
It’s really that simple.
Creating An Outline
Now, in order to make things flow as fast as possible, I like to plan out a simple outline for the courses I create.
To do this think of what you want to teach, and then figure out how you can break that down into simple steps. Each step will be a separate lecture or video.
I typically try and make most courses about an hour or so. Now, that may seem like a long time. But to make it really easy for myself, I break each step into short videos.
If you were to teach something that included 12 steps to get to one hour of content, that would mean only talking for 5 minutes about each step, which anyone can do.
Then, when you’re done, you just assemble all the pieces.
How To Scale The System
So, each and every course platform is slightly different but also has several things in common.
This is how I like to structure and plan out my content so that when I’m done with my course I can scale it in the easiest, laziest way possible.
I create one full course, usually about an hour in total length, made up of multiple smaller lectures usually 3-10 minutes each.
I also create an image to represent the course and what I’m teaching. Make the image 1280 x 720 (it can be smaller, but keep those same proportions).
This structure is going to make it easiest to scale once you’re all done.
Some platforms want you to have full courses, some are fine with just mini lessons, some like to bundle your courses, etc.
So, setting up your courses this way, the most you’ll ever have to do when adding to different marketplaces is maybe add/remove a few lectures, create a different intro video, or add a text description to individual lessons.
What Are Some Of The Most Popular Course Platforms?
Udemy - this is basically the Google of the online course marketplaces. It’s the largest and most popular.
Skillshare - my recommended place to start out because they let you upload individual lessons. They only have to be a minimum of at least 10 minutes. This platform will be the easiest and fastest to scale since there’s no course approval process, and will put some quick money in your pocket.
StackSkills - this is another large platform that has a wide reach and can promote your courses out to their massive audience for exposure. They do like to promote courses as uncles, so you’ll need to have a few courses complete and put together before you reach out to them.
ULearning - this is a newer platform. It’s very similar to Udemy and makes it easy to upload and publish content, but I’m not 100% on how well this one will do, since at the time of me writing this they just recently launched.
Amazing - this is also a newer platform launched by Matt Clark, one of the people behind the massively successful Amazing Selling Machine. This is a unique platform and kind of a hybrid between Skillshare and Udemy. Worth checking out because I believe there will be greater chance to earn more revenue on this platform than other marketplaces, but it might be helpful to get your feet wet at somewhere like Skillshare or Udemy first.
So, there you have it. A simple, scalable, and sustainable passive income system that is completely newbie friendly, that doesn’t require a lot of resources to get started, and that you can still have massive success with even if you suck at selling or driving traffic.
I encourage you to take action and implement this system. It’s so hard not to succeed with this system that I almost guarantee if you just take action you will see some results and once you do I think you’ll be amazed and get hooked.
If you’re interested in learning more about this system or curious about other simple, scalable and sustainable passive income streams, I invite you to check out IMSource Academy, where I share all my best tools, resources and systems along with my personal support and help.
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