Summary

Niharika Sodhi outlines seven key opportunities she has gained from actively writing on LinkedIn for a year, including career advancements, freelance work, accolades, rapid follower growth, new income streams, personal branding, and unexpected marriage proposals.

Abstract

Niharika Sodhi, a LinkedIn writer, shares her experiences and the opportunities that have come her way after a year of consistent writing on the platform. With over 38,000 followers, she emphasizes the importance of an engaged audience over mere follower count. Sodhi has leveraged her online presence to quit her traditional job, secure freelance gigs, receive accolades like LinkedIn Top Voice 2022, and grow her audience faster than on other platforms. She has also diversified her income through consultation calls, product sales, and potential brand sponsorships, while using LinkedIn's various content formats to build her personal brand. However, she also notes the platform's downsides, such as inappropriate messages and marriage proposals.

Opinions

Sodhi values an engaged audience over a high follower count, pointing out that having many followers does not guarantee engagement.
Writing on LinkedIn has opened unexpected job opportunities for Sodhi, including offers from startups and MNCs that value her online presence and expressed opinions.
She has received freelance opportunities from founders, CXOs, and agencies but chooses to work selectively, preferring low-effort, high-impact gigs.
Sodhi has achieved recognition through LinkedIn awards and programs, enhancing her credibility and audience reach.
LinkedIn has proven to be a platform for rapid audience growth for Sodhi, surpassing the growth rate on Medium and Twitter.
She has diversified her income through consultation calls, product sales, and is considering brand sponsorships, while being selective about endorsements to maintain her audience's trust.
Sodhi encourages the use of LinkedIn's diverse content formats, such as videos and carousels, for personal branding and audience engagement.
Despite the professional advantages, Sodhi has experienced discomfort due to unsolicited and inappropriate messages, including marriage proposals, highlighting a negative aspect of the platform.

7 Opportunities I Got From One Year of Writing on LinkedIn

#7 is the craziest one.

The author casually flexing her LinkedIn t-shirt

I started writing actively on LinkedIn a year ago.

Today, I have over 38,000 followers.

This can mean a lot to some of you, but nothing to others. While followers sound fancy, let me tell you that having an engaged audience is better than followers.

I’ve seen folks with over 100k followers get only 60 likes on their posts. We don’t want to get there, do we?

Now, here are the opportunities I’ve got from a year of writing on LinkedIn.

#1 The Obvious One

Writing online helped me quit a traditional job. And now writing online makes me get office jobs.

Strange, isn’t it?

I’ve realised that organisations, especially startups, look for people who can fit their culture.

Apparently, writing online is constantly helping you put your beliefs and opinions out there. So it’s common for recruiters to reach out to you to be a part of their ‘thriving and energetic team’.

It’s surprising how MNCs could approach you, too.

#2 Freelance Gigs

LinkedIn has

those who can pay (founders and CXOs)
those who get a huge volume of work (agencies)

I’ve got approached by both because they’re always on the lookout, but have only worked with the former.

I hardly freelance, but I sometimes take one short gig a month.

Since I started writing on LinkedIn, I’ve got a few low-effort-high-impact gigs.

I’ve also got offers from corporates to do their blogs, which I don’t have the bandwidth for as I’m a one-person team. But if you’re a content writer who eventually wants to branch out to create an agency, this could help.

#3 Accolades

In under a year,

I became LinkedIn Top Voice 2022
Got selected in the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program

These tags helped me get accolades from the platform itself, which improved my credibility as a creator and helped me build an audience.

#4 Faster Growth Than Other Platforms

It took me much longer to hit 10,000 followers on Medium and Twitter.

But I hit 10,000 on LinkedIn in under 6 months.

Growth on this platform is mad! If you get traction in the first hour, you can almost predict that your post will do super well.

It’s open and organic, which means people don’t need to follow you to discover you.

I’ve also experienced virality several times on this platform.

#5 New Income Streams

Here are the various income streams LinkedIn helped me gain.

1. $$$/hour

When corporate people see young Niharikaa quit her job, they can’t comment because their employer is watching them.

But deep inside, they desire something similar.

Work on their passion, follow their dream, start a side hustle, or work on their writing hobby. Some are senior folks who want to write online to impart their decades of experience.

So what do they do?

They book a consultation call with me. An income stream I didn’t even know I could attain so early.

2. $$/ item

This is when people buy my products.

There’s a second one brewing now, my LinkedIn Guide, which I launched less than a month ago.

Since I get asked frequently about how can one grow on LinkedIn as I did, I compiled everything I know into an ebook.

3. $$$/post

I’ve been approached for brand sponsorship posts, none of which I’ve taken yet because they don’t resonate with me.

Some of them have been great for quick money.

However, it looks shady and I don’t want my people to lose respect for me over what I endorse.

It’s an entirely personal choice for this.

Another woman I know is making over $1000 a month by promoting several big brands.

#6 Personal Branding 101

LinkedIn can help you build your personal brand because it has anyone and everyone out there. But it also has a content format for everybody, like:

short form
mid form
articles
newsletter
videos
photos
documents

I tried video and carousal for the first time as a part of the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program.

My ‘Sunday Solopreneur’ videos have performed exceptionally well, giving me hundreds of followers each time.

And my carousal was a copy-paste from my Twitter thread. This was a low-effort job and helped me put existing content into use.

Screenshot by the author (source 1, source 2)

I encourage you to experiment, especially with videos.

#7 Marriage Proposals

While LinkedIn has lots of advantages, here are two things that suck:

Cringey posts
LinkedIn becoming Tinder

My inbox has experienced incidents from a well-educated PhD who is a top guy in an organisation wanting to ‘help me with financial needs’ to straight-up pickup lines.

Some even reach my mailbox as my email is on display.

Screenshots from the author’s email and DMs

Maybe it’s just the internet, I don’t know.

But it’s uncomfortable.

Lastly

I have seen LinkedIn grow for a year and I know it will only become bigger and better.

This is an opportunity for creators, but also for everyone else who wants to seek opportunities via LinkedIn.

I feel the platform has miles to go until it gets saturated.

The perfect time to tap into this gold mine of opportunities is now!

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The Future of Audience Building Is Changing For Creators

It’s an opportunity for new and medium-sized creators.

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Author’s Note: You can connect with me on LinkedIn here if you want to read about solopreneurship and self-improvement.