EPISODE #41
When you get your first ebay sale
🚀 Midweek momentum check: are you building or browsing? This is The Ramen Hustle, your reminder that expertise has value. Time to capture it.
Today’s download:
🤫 Facebook ad cheatsheet
🧠 Your knowledge is worth $3K. Here's how to sell it.
📰 Sell Excel Templates on Etsy
📩 LinkedIn Newsletters Are the New Blog
🎨 The Free Canva Hack Every Creator Should Know
STAT OF THE DAY
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Know what works before you spend.
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🔥 FRESH IDEA
You've spent years mastering something. That expertise lives in your head, occasionally deployed for employers who capture most of the value. Productizing that knowledge into a $3K offering changes everything.
You package your methodology into a fixed-scope, fixed-price, fast turnaround deliverable that gets a client a clear outcome in days, not months.
Think “VIP Day” / “Sprint” / “Intensive”:
One clear promise (ex: “Leave with your website copy drafted”)
A defined box (ex: 6 hours + 1 revision)
A repeatable process (questionnaire → work block → handoff)
A premium price because it’s speed + certainty, not “hours”
This is the sweet spot: too specific to be commoditized, too packaged to be a grind.
💣 Examples
Cheryl Rerick — Automation + email tech set up Intensive
SO Digital Copy Studio — Sales copy Sprint
Offer: VIP Day built around a repeatable “method” for fast copy delivery
Heather Jones Creative — Website copy VIP Day
How to turn your expertise into a $3K productized offer (fast)
👉 Step 1: Pick the “one thing” you’ll deliver
Pick a single outcome the client gets at the end. Something tangible they can use right away.
Good outcomes (clear + shippable):
Landing page audited + rewritten
Calendar / CRM set up and organized
Email nurture sequence written + loaded
Sales deck rebuilt + ready to present
Rule: if you can’t point to it on a screen, it’s too vague.
👉 Step 2: Put strict boundaries around it
You’re selling a package, not open-ended help.
Time box: how long it takes
“1 day” or “1 week”
Scope box: what’s included + what’s NOT included
Included: “1 landing page + 1 thank-you page”
Not included: “full website, blog posts, ongoing edits”
Revision box: how many changes you’ll do after delivery
“1–2 revision rounds max”
Rule: tight scope = high profit + easy delivery.
👉 Step 3: Give it a product-style name
Make it sound like something you can “buy,” not “hire you for.”
Examples:
“The Newsletter Growth Sprint”
“VIP Day: Sales Page Rewrite”
“The HubSpot Setup Install”
Rule: the name should tell people exactly what they’re getting.
👉 Step 4: Price it like a shortcut
You’re not pricing hours. You’re pricing speed + certainty.
How to justify the price:
Tie it to ROI: “This should increase booked calls / conversions / close rate.”
Tie it to speed: “In 7 days, you’ll have it live.”
Add an application gate: “Apply to work together” (filters tire-kickers and makes it feel premium)
Rule: people pay more when they know the outcome and the timeline.
Start this week. Pick your signature offering. Define the transformation—not the hours. Set the price. Find one client willing to pay it.
Rate this hustle:
🦁 WILD CARD
Etsy isn't just for handmade crafts anymore. Emily McDermott documented her journey making $280,000 in under two years selling spreadsheet templates. Budget planners, expense trackers, project managers—digital files delivering instantly with zero inventory.
She prices templates between $5-25, with premium bundles reaching $70. Her first sale came within 24 hours of listing. The key: using eRank for keyword research, targeting phrases like "budget spreadsheets" where search volume was high but competition low.
Start with templates you've already built for yourself. That budget tracker you obsess over? That project timeline you've refined through three jobs? Your organizational systems might be exactly what thousands of others are searching for right now. Upload once, sell forever.
Learn AI in 5 minutes a day
What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join 1,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.
🚦 SIGNAL
LinkedIn Newsletters Are the New Blog
LinkedIn's native newsletter feature puts your content directly in subscribers inboxes with built-in platform distribution. LinkedIn newsletters enjoy open rates exceeding 50%—significantly higher than traditional email—with some creators gaining thousands of subscribers within just months.
The discovery advantage crushes traditional email lists. LinkedHelper's comprehensive guide explains the mechanics: your followers get notified when you publish, new connections see your newsletter on your profile, and the algorithm surfaces content to people interested in your topics. No lead magnets or landing pages required.
AI Journal is one example of a brand that built 65,000 LinkedIn newsletter subscribers while also sending traditional email. One month after enabling ads, they generated repeat revenue—proof that LinkedIn audiences convert to paying attention.
Monetization is straightforward for B2B audiences. Sponsors pay $50-200 per thousand subscribers for well-targeted newsletters. At 10,000 subscribers, that's $500-$2,000 per sponsored issue. Write about topics you'd discuss for free over coffee, and get paid for the audience you build doing it.
💰 FREE FIND
The Free Canva Hack Every Creator Should Know
Canva's free tier includes far more than most people realize. The free version offers 1.6+ million templates, 5GB of cloud storage, and unlimited folder organization. For casual creators and early-stage side hustlers, that's enough to operate for months without paying anything.
The limitations of free: no background removal, no magic resize for multi-platform posting, and no filter to hide premium-only assets. But workarounds exist. Free background removers like remove.bg handle the first problem. Manual resizing takes 2 extra minutes.
The education angle is completely free regardless of subscription. Canva Design School teaches typography, color theory, and composition fundamentals without cost. The knowledge applies whether you eventually upgrade or not.
📈 Coaching industry reaches $20B globally — Executive and business coaching growing 15% annually.
💡 Solo consultants average $150-$300/hour in specialized niches — Top performers earn $500K+ annually without employees.
🎯 Course creators on Teachable earned $1B+ in 2024 — Average successful course priced at $137 with completion rates around 13%.
📊 Freelance economy represents 36% of U.S. workforce — 59 million Americans freelanced in 2024.