Monetizing

how to quickly make

money using LinkedIn
BY RALPHIE ALBERT
This guide is a copyrighted work, provided to you with “all rights reserved.” It may not be re-distributed, given
away, or sold. You may, of course, use what you learn here to grow your business.

© 2016 ANAK. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 1

Using LinkedIn Online & Offline
LinkedIn not only requires the user to use the online aspects of networking, it requires
them to use the o ine aspects as well. The relationship between the two is symbiotic, in
that one is dependent upon the other.

Without utilizing both, someone who is interested in networking in will not be

capitalizing fully on what LinkedIn has to o er. Relationships are the most important part
of LinkedIn. The website is set up to be a more professional version of Facebook, even
though one could use Facebook to network in the same manner.

This is what makes LinkedIn appealing to business professionals and networkers. It

takes the social aspect of Facebook and turns it into a forum for people who are strictly
concerned with business interests. LinkedIn is the first step in developing a future
relationship with a business partner or employer.

This means that it is equally important to set up face to face encounters with the
connections you make.

How Your LinkedIn Profile Affects You

Who you know in the business world is often more important than what you know. This
saying is somewhat cliché but also incredibly important to understand.

LinkedIn not only gives you the opportunity to capitalize on the “who you know” part
of the phrase, it expands the phrase to capitalize on “who knows me”. You will find that
those you connect with through LinkedIn end up knowing a lot about you before they
even decide to reach out.

They research your background, work experience, expertise, etc. They’re trying to know
who you are in order to decide whether connecting with you is worth their time. This
means that you should be ready if someone wants to connect with you or inquire about
a potential business relationship; whether it’s employment or a partnership.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 2

The search engine for LinkedIn is a super powerful tool, and understanding how it
works is incredibly important. Just like Google when it collects search results for
websites; LinkedIn collects search results for profiles or businesses when you search
for somebody or something. In order for your name or business to pop up in the search
results more frequently, you must have a solid profile and have it complete.

For instance, if someone is not searching for you specifically, but people who specialize
in “X”, you have a better chance of appearing if you elaborate on that specialty in your
profile.

By completing your profile you are giving the person looking at your profile detailed
insight into your professional life. This will increase the likelihood of them connecting or
reaching out to you. You don’t need to flood your profile with every single piece of work
experience that dates back to when you were 16. Spend more time illustrating relevant
aspects of your work experience.

After that it really comes down to you summary. An e ective summary is tantamount for
highlighting the important aspects of your career and work experience. You are selling
yourself, and often people conflate LinkedIn with broadcasting your resume.

If an employer reaches out to you that is when your resume becomes an important
consideration. Prior to that, your number one goal is to make sure you sell yourself and
brand yourself e ectively.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 3

Using LinkedIn to Promote Your Product or Service
If you are a company that is trying to use LinkedIn to promote your product or service to
increase a customer base, you need to treat it like a social media page. It is going to take
followers in order for it to pay o .

People have a very short attention span, and with the amount of competition for that
attention, it means that you need to stand out from the competition. If you have nothing
to o er someone for following your business, you have a much lower chance of making
this worth your time.

O ering your followers something that increases their incentive to follow you is a good
place to start. This is just good branding and marketing. Treating LinkedIn like a radio or
TV advertisement is another way of looking at it.

You may have to make some sort of investment in the promotional side in order for it
to be worthwhile. Ultimately, it may be a better idea to use Facebook to promote your
business, as LinkedIn has not formally expanded to the customer yet.

This may change in the future but until then you will need to capitalize on what is useful
at the moment. LinkedIn is primarily there for establishing business relationships and
expanding networking opportunities outside of the grassroots approach. For instance,
if you are attempting to acquire business partnerships then LinkedIn will be able to
connect you with those potential partners quicker, and with relative ease.

When to Start Networking

Whether you are a farmer or a wedding DJ, LinkedIn is truly something unique that o ers
anyone interested in networking that chance. Of course, the sooner you get in then the
better. But this does not mean later is necessarily a bad thing.

Most people start the networking process once they lose their job or in the process of
looking for a new job. This is something I would advise against, as you have lost valuable
time in the interim. That time while you were employed could have been leveraged
against the uphill battle you have if you lose your job. This is especially true in the job
market right now.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 4

The volatility in job stability is something that we all currently need to worry about on
some level. This does not mean every profession has the same volatility; but it does
mean that even the less vulnerable professions are still susceptible.

Therefore it is best to plan for tomorrow since you can’t say for certain that your cushy
job will always be there.

Your goal is to market yourself and make yourself available to anyone who wants
to reach out to you. If you continue to do this then you never know what kind of
opportunity may come knocking at your message box. You may think that the job you
have is the one you will have forever.

You may be right, but you are also isolating yourself from the potential of landing an
even better “forever job”. This is what LinkedIn o ers all its users, and it’s on you to make
sure you secure a spot for your future.

LinkedIn is Useful for Everyone

If you think that LinkedIn isn’t going to work for you because your line of work is unique
or unconventional, then you would be missing out. Let’s say you are an artist who paints
like Jackson Pollack. Just because this is somewhat unusual and niche specific, doesn’t
mean that you can’t use LinkedIn to your advantage.

Remember that LinkedIn is about networking and establishing connections.

This means that you need to work any degrees of separation that may exist. An account
executive at a business firm may have a brother who has been searching for artists to
put into his gallery. The brother also doesn’t think LinkedIn is useful, but you were keen
enough to reach out to all of your connections. Those few degrees of separation are not
often obvious, but the more you connect and network the more likely you are to run
into them.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 5

It is true that we, as people, have a hard time balancing large amounts of relationships.
But the beauty of LinkedIn is that you don’t need to be on top of every connection you
have. If you are that Jackson Pollack painter, all you need to do is send out a message
to as many connections as you have ( “Does anyone know of any art galleries looking to
showcase new painters?”). You throw a question like that out to 200 people; your odds
of landing on those few degrees of separation are much higher. In fact, you will have a
much higher likelihood of getting in with a gallery than knocking on every door in the
phonebook.

What will make you stick out is the common connection you both have, which was
acquired through LinkedIn. This idea can work the other way around as well. Let’s say
that you are now the executive and you know that there aren’t any reputable painters
on LinkedIn (or you assume). And let’s say that you are trying to help a friend who owns
an art gallery find new paintings to add to his exhibit.

You send out a message to 200 connections and now you’ve not only run into the
Jackson Pollack painter, but many others. Then you may find someone whose brother is
an excellent painter who paints like Jackson Pollack and then someone else’s sister who
paints like Michelangelo.

Reaching Out Without Connections

One of the biggest problems that people have when trying to connect on LinkedIn is
reaching out to people they do not know at all. This is a type of social anxiety innate
within most of us on some level or another.

What people don’t realize is that even though you may not make that connection you
wanted people are flattered more easily than you think.

What I mean is people think that it is them you are interested in. If someone successful
reached out to you and you share no common connections, it may make you a little bit
flattered that they took an interest in you.

People are generous by nature, and they are also vain. You can make this work to your
advantage by giving an unknown potential connection accolades for their achievements,
successes, etc. Think of it like a movie star. Movie stars don’t know a fraction of a
fraction of the people who “love” them.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 6

And this appreciation often goes to their head. They love the attention they are
receiving even if they have no true connection with their fans. So, it is important to
remember that although you may be shut down a few times, the LinkedIn sea is full of
those movie stars that will gush at the recognition.

Keeping all of this in mind, remember that you don’t want to be too pushy or appear to
be “spamming” potential connections. LinkedIn, unfortunately, is full of spammers who
are just trying to send unsolicited information.

If you personalize an invitation, you may have a better shot at establishing that
connection. The risk you run by not personalizing the invitation is being reported as
spam. This can result in your account being suspended, which does not reflect well on
you even if this wasn’t your intention.

It is important to almost always accept invitations to connect with people you don’t
know. You have nothing to lose by doing so and you may end up stumbling upon a useful
connection in the future.

Of course, this does not mean you accept every single invitation per se since some
invitations could end up being spam (as mentioned above).

Finding Talent on LinkedIn

If you are a talent agency of sorts, LinkedIn can be useful for connecting with potential
talent but not in the conventional sense. For instance, if you are seeking a local band
to play at your bar, but you are tired of dealing with the “divas” and want to deal with
people who are professional yet talented, LinkedIn may be useful.

Let’s say you have 200 connections and within those 200 connections, there may be 2
or 3 connections that are in a band, and there may be 25-30 connections that have good
friends or family that play in a band.

This is obviously unconventional for someone booking a band, yet this just illustrates the
versatility LinkedIn has to o er its users. The key here is that LinkedIn is geared towards
professionals and not the “divas”. If your search is for quality over quantity, then the
connections you make on LinkedIn will provide a much more assured chance of finding
that quality.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 7

Make Yourself Look Loyal
Most people who use LinkedIn only use it within its perceived parameters. These
parameters are illusory and this is the trap that most people fall into. Just as the talent
agent can use LinkedIn to find talent, the business professional can use LinkedIn for
more than just business relationships.

Often times LinkedIn can be used for philanthropic purposes, thus creating a solid
business relationship and friendship with someone. These types of relationships spread
your name in a positive way, while creating a more loyal bond with someone who could
be a useful future business connection.

If someone reaches out looking for a business to host a charitable event that benefits a
cause near and dear to his/her heart, hosting that event will reflect positively on you.

The Need for Live Networking Events

Live networking events are extremely important and LinkedIn gives you the connections
needed to be notified of these networking events.

When you are picking your event, it’s important to go to one that is closely related to
your product or service. This may seem obvious but live networking events often appear
“close enough” to your product or service.

Hard networking groups are groups that only let in one person from each profession.
These tend to be much more exclusive and try to cater to more established
professionals. If you are less established or you would be competing with much more
established professionals, it may be best to avoid these groups as your chances of
getting in are much lower.

But ultimately, the networking strategy is up to you. If you think that you are worthy of
a hard networking group then the work will be harder, but the payo may be larger. This
is not to say that the payo will always be larger with a hard networking group, only that
the potential is there.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 8

You can obviously receive a higher payo outside of hard networking groups but again, it
all comes back to your specific strategy and what you want to achieve.

If you are attending networking events and you have no specific strategy after you
receive business cards and contact information, then you may have wasted your time.
LinkedIn may be fine for just having someone’s contact information, but these events
are catered to those who want to establish a true purpose in the connections.

Most of what you will get from a networking event is spam unfortunately. This is due
to people having no real strategy once they make the connections. They send out
blanketed messages over LinkedIn, flood your email with newsletters, and bombard you
with promotional content. This will most likely lead to that connection being flagged for
spamming you and everyone else in their network.

Another unfortunate byproduct of someone with little, to no strategy, is they try to push
a sales pitch on you too quickly. You have to make sure that the person you are speaking
with has a real interest or need for what you are selling.

This is simply Sales 101—make sure you know your customer and make sure they are
interested. For example, just because someone owns a printing company, it doesn’t
necessarily mean that they will be interested in buying brand new printing presses from
your company.

It would be best to find out how old their printing presses are, if there are any problems
with them, and if they are in the market for new ones. Without that information, you
may come o as too pushy or not inquisitive enough to find out that information; in turn
ruining a potential relationship in the future when they may need those printing presses.

When you are at a networking event, keeping track of the people you meet is important
because you could easily miss a valuable connection if you’re not paying attention.
When you meet someone, ask them if they have a LinkedIn account. If they do, make
sure you can access LinkedIn from your phone and send them an invitation.

Hopefully they can accept the invitation on their phone as well, thereby putting
everything in motion before you forget or lose track of someone valuable. If you are a
LinkedIn user, it is probably best to stay away from people who do not use LinkedIn. This
is primarily because you don’t share a common platform for communication.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 9

Email is obviously one way of communicating but if you are a LinkedIn user, this is
conceivably where most of your preliminary business talks begin.

Many LinkedIn users are hard pressed to initiate casual business discussions over email
since email is often where the second step of the business discussions are conducted.
This is not to say that email is not useful, only that LinkedIn shortcuts the need for email
in the beginning.

Connecting With the Competition

One of the biggest issues people have with establishing connections on LinkedIn is that
they become very hesitant about making certain connections.

For instance, some people are worried about connecting with someone who they are in
competition with because they may steal some of their business. This is somewhat short
sided because they run the exact same risk as you. Therefore you both are at risk of
stealing one another’s business.

For every potential business connection lost, one may be gained since you are now in
their network and get the same opportunity.

In fact, one of the most reputable things to do would be to actually refer your
competition to potential business. This will increase your reputation as someone
who is an honest businessperson. Most importantly, this increases the odds of your
competition returning the favor in the future.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 10

Connecting Without Sounding Desperate
People often fall into a category of sounding desperate when they reach out to someone
over LinkedIn. Sounding desperate usually comes in the form of pleading for a job or
pleading for them to find them a job.

This will not reflect well on you since it makes you sound as if nobody is willing to hire
you. In order to sound less desperate (even if you are desperate) it’s best to reach out
for advice or for help pertaining to the field you are in.

There are a few reasons why asking someone for advice rather than a job is the best
route. First, it makes you sound as if you are just now venturing into the job search
phase, rather than desperately begging someone for a job.

Second, the person you reach out to will feel as if they are competent to provide this
advice, in turn giving them a subtle compliment.

Third, it will make the person feel comfortable knowing that they aren’t put into an
awkward position if they may not have a job for you.

And fourth, the person will feel freer to choose whether or not you are someone they
may be interested in hiring.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 11

The Opposite of Desperate: Too Timid
The opposite of the desperate pleading problem is being too timid to reach out at all.
This is something that must be overcome in order to have any type of success using
LinkedIn. To overcome this, it’s best to approach people with the “let me help you”
approach, rather than the “I need help from you” approach.

This directs the conversation to them and gives you time to warm up to the situation. A
good place to start would be at networking events.

If you are looking to break out of your shell, attend an event and express interest in
what others do. Keep the conversations narrowly tailored to their business and their skill
set.

You will gradually feel more comfortable in conversation and then when it’s time to
direct the conversation your way, you’ll be better prepared to respond.

How to Stand Out

If you want to stand out among the waves of people who are trying to connect with the
same people you are, always be willing to learn.

Being confident in what you know is important but being humble in what you don’t
know is equally as important. When you show that you aren’t familiar with something
but show a strong interest in learning or trying, it will make you appear flexible.

Flexibility is something employers and potential business partners like to see. If they see
that you are rigid and unwilling to try new things, or learn new things, you will appear to
be someone who may be di cult to work with or do business with.

This is exactly what you do not want to happen.

Appearing confident yet flexible in your ability to change accordingly is what separates
successful people from people who settle.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 12

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t settle if you are comfortable with how you are; it is
to say that your odds of landing that dream job or establishing that desired partnership
will be harder.

Remember that LinkedIn is a powerful resource for anyone.

It can be used in a variety of ways and your success depends on your dedication and
your ability to think outside the box.

This guide is a copyrighted work, provided to you with “all rights reserved.” It may not be re-distributed, given
away, or sold. You may, of course, use what you learn here to grow your business.

© 2016 ANAK. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

© 2016 anak. all rights reserved. 13