Pretty soon after I quit that job, I started a new side hustle. This new side hustle completely changed my life forever. In fact, in my very first year of doing it, I made around $80,000. In the year after that, I made over $100,000. This was with zero previous experience.
What's even better is that I was able to do this side hustle basically anywhere I wanted – in my bed, in a coffee shop, on the beach – anywhere. I'm going to walk you through step by step exactly how I was able to do it, and how you can do it too.
Now, this side hustle that I'm talking about is building WordPress websites using a super easy drag and drop page builder called Elementor. This is something that quite literally anybody can learn how to do in just a matter of days. It's a service that literally every single business needs. By taking the time to watch this video and learn, there's nothing stopping you, except for yourself.
Now, this article is technically part three of a series on my website. If you haven't seen the other two yet, visit minetorial.com. But basically, we've already talked about the basics of setting up your portfolio website, which you'll use to send to potential clients. We talked about how to actually find clients and write proposals on sites like Upwork.
By following the steps from the previous two articles, you'll actually be able to get to a point where you're able to make between $1,000 and $4,000 per job that you do. If you were doing, let's say, four jobs per month, well, you do the math. That's still really good money.
However, today I'm going to teach you how to make the big money. The big money is not going to be found from clients on Upwork. Typically, clients on Upwork are only comfortable paying around $1,000 to $4,000 max for a website, at least from my experience. So, to make more money, we're going to have to look outside of Upwork. But the first step is you need to start an actual Agency and choose a niche.
Now, don't let the word agency scare you. As an agency, you're literally going to be doing the same exact thing that you would be doing as an independent freelancer. The difference, though, is that if you position yourself as an agency, then your potential clients will take you a lot more seriously and be a lot more willing to pay you more money.
Let's talk about this. What exactly does starting an agency actually look like? Well, it's basically just you choosing a niche for your agency, which we'll talk about in a second, and then you coming up with a name for the agency and then using a template to create your agency website. And this means you could technically start your agency today, like right now if you wanted to.
But before you get started, you are going to want to first choose a niche because this is how you're going to make the big money. What I mean by this is, do you want to only work with construction companies, roofing companies, medical spas, doctors, restaurants, realtors? Like, who is it that you want your agency to serve?
The reason this is so important is because by niching down who you build websites for and what you specialize in, this allows your agency to build much more efficient processes. For example, building a website for a roofing company is going to look a lot different than building a website for a restaurant because both websites are going to require different types of information and different structures.
So, by specializing in one specific niche, you can really hone in and shape exactly what the process is going to look like for building that type of website. If you decide that your agency is going to focus on building websites for dentists, then you can construct an exact blueprint for how that website's going to be built every single time. And this, of course, means that you will be able to build websites faster but also better.
You know, back when I was a freelancer, I worked with a lot of different web development agencies. The agencies that made the most money were always the agencies that were specialized in one specific niche. For example, I used to be a contract creative director for a very large web development agency. This agency only worked with defense government contractors.
I know it's super specific, but because they niched down so far, they became the go-to agency for every single defense government contracting company in that area. And we would charge $20,000, $30,000, sometimes even $40,000 for a single website.
The reason that we were able to charge so much money was because we had the competitive advantage. Yes, there were a ton of other web development agencies in the area, but not a single one of those agencies specialized in defense government contracting websites the way that we did. You see, companies are much more willing to pay more money for a specialized agency because they know even if they're paying a more premium price for the service, they know that the agency will be able to deliver results.
Plus, the other advantage of niching down is that if you're only building websites in one specific industry, in one niche, then you'll start to get a ton of different referral opportunities. If you build a website for a restaurant, well, the owner of that restaurant is likely going to go and tell all of his restaurant owner friends about your agency. And then when you start building websites for that restaurant owner's friends' friends, they'll begin referring even more restaurant owners to you, and the cycle will just continue on and on.
So, niching down is absolutely critical if you want to make the most money. Now you might be wondering, "Well, Kingsley, which niche should I choose? Like, which one is going to make me the most money?" And the answer to that question is all niches make really good money, like all of them. So, don't spend too much time trying to decide which one to start your agency in. Just pick one and run with it.
And once you've selected a niche for your agency, it's time to come up with an actual name. For this, don't think too hard about a name. Just pick something that resonates with you and then go with that. It could be something like your name and then the word "creative," right? Like perhaps your name is Allen, and so in that case, it would be Allen Creative. Or perhaps your last name and then the word "creative," and so Smith Creative.
Or you can make your name very niche-specific, right? And so, if your agency only builds websites for realtors, then your agency name could be something that reflects that. It could be something like "Web Realtor Pro" or it could be something like "Realtor Websites Agency." Like whatever, don't think too hard about the name. Just pick something and go with it.
Now, if you are having a hard time coming up with a name then you could use something like ChatGPT to help you. You would just ask the AI to give you a list of names for a real estate web development agency, and then pick the one you like the best.
Once you've come up with your agency name, it's time to quickly build an agency website. Don't worry because we're going to use pre-built templates to help us build our agency website in less than 15 minutes.
The first thing you'll need is web hosting, and for this, we're going to use Hostinger. Hostinger is super affordable, and for literally less than the price of one cup of coffee per month, you can start your own web development agency and start attracting high-paying clients. To get started with Hostinger, all you're going to do is click on my link there HOSTINGER. When you do that, you'll land on a page that looks like this.
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From here, you're just going to click on this button that says "claim deal." When you do that, it's going to bring you to the pricing table. You're just going to click on the middle option, and then you'll land on the next page .
You'll see this section that says "choose a period," and basically what this is is it allows you to pay in advance 12 months, 24 months, or 48 months. Paying further in advance allows you to save more money. So, if you were to select one of these longer plan periods, you would get the best price per month and can save hundreds of dollars.
But ultimately, it's going to be up to you to decide which period you want to go with. Either way, it doesn't matter because, like I've said before and I'll say it again, with your first web development job alone, you'll be able to pay for the cost of web hosting 50 times over. It's a really small price to pay for a huge upside potential.
Also, if you click right where it says "have a coupon code" and then enter the code if you have any, you'll get an additional 10% off your entire purchase. Make sure to use that code to save yourself some extra money.
On top of that, Hostinger does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, you can get a full refund within 30 days, no questions asked, which means it's literally no risk for you.
Once you're logged into your Hostinger account, you'll need to set up your first website, which will act as your agency website. If you've already read one and two of the previous articles in this series, then it's possible that you've already set up a portfolio website. But it's going to be up to you to decide if you want to convert that portfolio website into a full-blown agency website.
You know, perhaps you just build websites as an individual freelancer for a little bit so that you can gain some skills and experience, and then after a couple of months, once you're ready, you can start your own agency. But remember, like I said at the very beginning of the article, businesses tend to pay a lot more money to agencies than they do individual freelancers. And so, I personally wouldn't wait too long to take the leap and start your agency.
When I started my agency, I was basically able to 4X my income overnight. I was running the business the same exact way that I was as a freelancer, but the difference, though, is that I had an agency, and something about having an agency just was way more appealing and trustworthy for the businesses that I was working with. For that reason, I would recommend setting up an agency even though it's probably just going to be you as one single person for a while.
So, let's head back into Hostinger now and continue building your agency website. From your Hostinger dashboard, you're just going to click right here on "set up your premium website hosting." Then you'll simply click right here on "start now" and then click here on "create a new website." Once you get to this screen, you'll select the WordPress option.
After that, it's going to bring you to a page asking you to name your website. If you went with the middle pricing option, then you'll see this box that says "claim a free domain." You'll click "select" on that, and this is where you'll enter the name of your agency. After you've entered your name, you'll click on "continue" and then click on "finished setup."
You'll then quickly run through a few more questions and land on this page where you'll click on "edit your website." When you do this, it'll take you to the backend of your website, where you can then begin building out your agency site.
Very similar to the last article in this series, where we talked about how to build a portfolio website using pre-built templates, well, we're going to do the same exact thing except this time we're going to use an agency pre-built template.
You can either go to a website like ThemeForest and then type in "agency WordPress website," and a ton of really great options will pop up. You can quickly and easily download one of these themes, install the demo, and then change the content to match your agency.
There's also a ton of different free agency themes out there, so from the backend of your website, you can install a plugin such as Envato Elements and then download any of the free agency website templates. You can also use something like the Astra starter websites, which again have a ton of really high-quality and professional agency website options.
If you didn't want to use a template and you preferred something that was a little more custom, and assuming that you were already comfortable building websites using a drag and drop page builder like Elementor, well, in this case, you could go to a website like Dribbble, type in "agency websites," and then scroll through the thousands of different agency website ideas, all of which you could copy for your own agency website.
Here's an example of a finished agency website that took me maybe 15 minutes to build. We've got the homepage, the about page, a portfolio page of all the websites that we built, and finally, a contact page. And this entire website was built from one single template, and I just simply went in, changed the words to match my example agency, and maybe changed a few of the images using free websites like Unsplash and Pexels.
Once your agency website is set up, it's time to actually start doing some outreach. The first question you should be asking yourself after you've come up with an agency niche, come up with your name, build the agency website, is where exactly can I find clients? Remember, you're not just an individual freelancer anymore, right? Going to Upwork and finding clients that way isn't going to work. Are there clients on these websites? Yes, a lot of them. But remember, these are the low-paying clients, and we want the high-paying clients.
So, where exactly can we find them? Luckily, we live in the internet age, and in the internet age, we have things like social media, forums, and other places where we can go to find prospective clients.
Let's say, for example, that your client was realtors, and you find out that realtor Facebook groups are where realtor company owners hang out. What you would do is conduct some market research to figure out where realtors are typically hanging out online. Just by doing a couple of minutes of research, you can discover that many realtors are active in Facebook groups related to real estate. Each of these group members represents a potential client.
Create a Google Sheets document to organize this information. You can add the names of the groups, links to the group, the member count, and any other notes. Then, you start DMing the members of these groups one by one. You'll use a template response, so you can copy and paste it without rewriting it entirely for each message. The key is to get yourself in front of as many potential clients as possible.
Now, let's say, for example, your agency niche doesn't have many groups on Facebook. Maybe your niche is HVAC companies, and you can't find HVAC groups on Facebook. In this situation, you need to conduct more research to find where HVAC company owners are hanging out online. You might discover that HVAC companies are active on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Reddit. You have to figure out where your prospective clients are and organize that information in Google Sheets or Excel.
Once you've identified where they hang out, it's time to approach them. If your prospective clients are roofing companies, for instance, set up a professional and branded social media profile that represents you and your agency. Create a clean and professional-looking Facebook or Instagram profile that showcases examples of roofing websites you've built, testimonials, a link to your agency website, and other relevant information.
If you don't have testimonials or website examples yet, you can create some temporary ones. Use demo websites from theme marketplaces and change the content to make them look like examples of roofing websites you've built. Once you start getting real clients with actual feedback, you can replace the temporary elements with real ones.
After setting up a professional profile, you'll begin reaching out to prospective clients. You want to start a conversation without immediately revealing pricing, as the client should understand the value of what they're paying for before seeing the price.
After initial messages, you'll aim to get the client on a call, preferably a Zoom call, where you can pitch your services and reveal the pricing at the end. By this time, the client will have a clear understanding of the value your service will bring to their business.
After 3-6 months of consistent effort, you'll start developing your own scripts and processes. But at the beginning of your journey, following a blueprint like this one can be very helpful. It's the same blueprint I used when I first started my agency.
There's a lot more to discuss, but this article is getting quite long. If you have more questions you'd like me to address in the next article, please leave a comment, and I'll try to answer as many of those questions as possible in the next article in the series.
Remember, you can accomplish anything you want in this life. I believe in you, and I'm here to support you on your journey. Take care and stay amazing!
