The Manual #58 - Building a following is easy

It seems as though everyone now wants a following or social presence. And I think it’s much easier than people realise. Here is a high-level break down of how I’d do it if I were starting from scratch.

I’m going to use being a UI designer as an example:

• Make a website with any website builder, can even be a link in bio — put in it that you’re a “UI designer for companies and businesses”

  • Website must have a picture of you or some logo icon

  • Your name/company name a short bio about what you do

  • A way to contact you

  • What services you offer

  • It doesn’t even need to have any work on it yet

• Make a twitter and instagram account — bio must also say the same as your website and link to your website. This will cement to anyone who comes across your profile you’re a designer.

• Share your work — whether it’s real projects or made up stuff — concept work is a fantastic way to get new eyeballs on you.

• Share CONSISTENTLY — this is the reason why so many fail, they’re not consistent. Whether it be posting every day or once week. Have a schedule of sharing consistently.

• Interact with other creators but don’t leave generic “this looks great” comments. Tailor the comment to their content and who they are. You’re more likely to make friends that way.

• If your content is not getting likes or attention, it’s because it’s shit. Keep improving until it does.

• Repeat.

• It’ll take 12-24 months.

That last point is what throws people off. Most people want overnight followings. When in reality it can take years to build a rep.

In reality that’s what people want. Reputation and respect. They realise only after building a 100k followers that the numbers are nonsense.

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Shared my story on how one wallpaper pack made $50k. Ngl this was a wild time and even I didn’t think it would be this much of a success.

We’re upping the price of Online Creator Course again tomorrow.

We plan to up it every month going forward. Primarily because we want to reward early purchasers and we’re adding more content every month. So if you’ve ever been interested, now is the time to lock in the price so you don’t have to pay more for it in the future.

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I launched something new - linxgear.com. It’s a place to find and search for quality products.

We’ll be adding cool and aesthetic products every week.

But it also has an AI search tool that has been refined to find quality products on Amazon.

It’s still in BETA as we refine the AI search tool and the website itself. Tbf I don’t think it’ll ever be perfect. This is one of those tools that can always be improved in some way.

Let me know what you guys think. If it gets good traction, I want to keep developing it.

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Link Lowdown

A collection of links to stuff I think are worth sharing.

Toolfinder — Awesome directory that lists a ton of super useful apps and websites for anything and everything.

Supercut — A screen recording tool that lets you add your face on top. Looks ideal for when you need to show someone thing.

Haptic — Minimal action based journal app.

Utilio — Little online utilities.

Herding — Bookmarking app made for saving anything.

Palito — This is crazy. It’s an $85 toothpick. Branding, packaging and style transform a simple thing in to something that looks cool.

Coffee — A tiny time tracker for your Mac.

Subframe — A Figma alternative. Haven’t tried it myself but it looks interesting.