ERIKA KULLBERG

Passive Income Online

The "Secrets" I've Learned - Erika Kullberg

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1. There is no "secret".
The biggest "secret" of building passive income
online is that there is no secret. Anyone who tells
you there is--I'd be cautious about their
intentions. They are probably trying to sell you
something.
ERIKA KULLBERG

2. The hardest part is starting.

For me at least, the biggest hurdle was actually
starting. I had all of these fears that prevented me.
For the YouTube channel, I had to overcome the
fear of being in front of a camera and the fear of
people judging me and laughing at me. I was really
worried about judgment from other lawyers.
Overcoming that was the hardest thing--I think
everything got easier from there.

For the online legal business (Plug and Law), my

biggest fear is selling. I don't think it comes
naturally to me, and it's something I'm still working
on. I fear coming off as too "salesy".

The best advice I can give here is just to do it. I

promise you, once you put yourself out there, it
gets easier. I really encourage you to get out of
your comfort zone. You do not want to be the
block between you and success.
ERIKA KULLBERG

3. The second hardest part is

consistency.
For building passive income online (whether
through a YouTube channel or through an online
business), I've found that the second hardest part
is consistency. Especially for the YouTube channel,
it's exciting that the channel has been growing
rapidly in the past month, but it took me 3 months
of putting out videos each week to get to 1,000
subscribers. It took me another 2 months to get to
2,000 subscribers. I truly believe this: most people
will quit before they even see success.

It's so easy to get discouraged when you're

focusing on things like views, or subscribers, or
revenue. Focus on the things you can control.
Focus on interacting with your audience and
building a community; focus on putting out high
quality content; focus on the skills that you're
learning and the lives you're impacting.
ERIKA KULLBERG
YouTube Specific Tips
1. My biggest tip is to always think about how you can provide unique value to your audience
and make every second of your video valuable to them.  I don’t like including ANY fluff in my
videos.  My intro is just “Hi I’m Erika, I’m a lawyer, and…” and dive straight in.  

2. Be willing to experiment and pivot.  Study analytics.  The first big pivot I made was going
from creating evergreen videos (i.e. about investing/personal finance in general) to trendy
videos (about stimulus checks).  That resulted in my first semi-viral video.  From then, it was
constant pivoting and experimenting.  Some examples - I learned that if I ask for
likes/subscribes in the beginning of the video, I’ll see too big of a drop-off in views.  I really
think you need to show your audience the value you provide before you ask for those.  Now,
for the most part I only ask at the end, or I don’t at all.   I also found out that thumbnails with
my face in them perform far worse in general than thumbnails without my face (sad for my
ego, haha).  For now, I’m sticking with thumbnails without my face because of that.  I’m
constantly thinking of different variables I can test to see what performs better.

3. Learn how to prioritize your time and be more efficient.  Because I have a legal practice and
also am the founder of a legal company Plug and Law, it’s really hard for me to fit YouTube
into the schedule.  One of the things I am a HUGE believer in is finding talented people to help
you.  From the beginning, even before I was monetized on YouTube, I knew I wanted to invest
in having editors.  It has been a game-changer.  I get my footage to my editors by 6pm and
they have it back to me by 9pm.  It saves me HOURS.  Think about what you could outsource
to make the YouTube process more efficient for you!  I find my freelancers on this website.

4. Don’t be afraid to change thumbnail / title even after you’ve launched the video.  If the
clickthrough rate on a video isn’t good, I change the thumbnail / title.  

5. Understand the importance of affiliates.  Less than 50% of my $20,000 I made on YouTube
in May came from YouTube ad revenue.  The rest was from affiliates / sponsored video.  My
biggest affiliate is Webull (investing app). If you're a YouTube creator, once you've hit 1,000
subscribers you can join the affiliate program--if you join through me you'll get $300 so feel
free to reach out. Find affiliate programs where you truly believe in the product or service
and think it’s a good fit for your audience, and promote away!  I take 10 seconds at the end of
every video to promote my main affiliate. You can sign up for my affiliate program and make
up to $119 for each sale here: https://plugandlaw.com/affiliates.

6. Network, network, network. Even when I had less than 100 subscribers, I was reaching out
to large YouTube creators via Instagram and just trying to pick their brains. You have to think
of other YouTube creators as colleagues--it's a very collaborative community and everyone I've
reached out to has been more than willing to help. As you grow your channel, the network
you've built will become an asset too. You can talk about strategies that are working,
strategies that aren't.  You can also exchange information about sponsorship rates you are
being offered--which will help you be better positioned to negotiate rates and not undersell
yourself.
ERIKA KULLBERG
Online Business Tips
1. Don't spend too much time on a product until you have market validation. It happens
all too often in the online business space--you spend 8 months creating the "PERFECT" e-book
that you're convinced is going to succeed, and when you finally complete it, you find that
there's no market for it. This is the biggest trap to fall into: you can have the best product in
the world that you've invested months creating, but if no one is willing to pay money for it, it
won't work out for you.

2. Do not be afraid to hear "no". Actively reach out and go after what you want.

Two examples for this:

Sponsorships —> I got my first sponsored video on YouTube by actively reaching out to
them.  My advice here is to remember that you should be actively reaching out to companies
you want to partner with rather than waiting for them to come to you.  Second thing, know
how to negotiate and don’t be afraid to do it!  Some of you know that I’m a lawyer and I’m
known for negotiating.  In this case, I ended up getting a deal for a sponsored video that was
more than double the amount someone with 10x the amount of subscribers told me he
typically gets.  For negotiating, in general, I always ask for 30% more than what I actually want.

Media —> For the Business Insider article, I studied the writer's style. I knew she covered
YouTube channels quite frequently, so when I felt ready, I emailed her with my "pitch". In my
email, I even gave examples of 5 different catchy titles she could use for my story (based on
my research of her previous works). It worked! Less than 24 hours later, she responded
asking to do a call. That's how the Business Insider article happened.

3. Social proof is so important. Social validation can make your business. That's why I've
been focused recently on getting into media. Being able to say "I've been featured in ____, ____,
____" validates you in a sense, and makes it easier to pitch customers.

For the same reason, testimonials are so important. Basically, what I've realized is the more
comfort you can give to a potential customer that 1. You are legitimate and 2. You have
legitimate existing customers, the more likely it is that you'll be able to build a successful
online business.

4. Legally protect your business. No matter what stage you're at--if you're just starting out
or if you've been in business for a while, it's important to make sure that you're legally
protected. I created a Free Legal Guide to walk you through the key things you need to know.
Download the Free Legal Guide here.