The Side Hustle Show: The Blogging Mixtape

Just because a niche is insanely competitive, it doesn't mean you can't start an affiliate site and claim a slice of the revenue. At least, that's what Sa El of SimplyInsurance.com has done, and the way he lays out how he's done it will pique the interest of affiliate marketers out there. Sa was a door-to-door insurance salesman in Atlanta. He wanted to get into the online space and build an affiliate site, and with more than 11 years' experience in the insurance industry, it made sense to enter the insurance niche. He took Brain Dean's SEO That Works course to learn the ropes. But, when he told Brian he was going to build a site in the insurance niche, he was advised against it. Did Sa go back to the drawing board and look for a new niche? Nope. Sa told me there were two reasons why he decided to go ahead and build his site: He likes a challenge, and If the niche is that competitive, most of his competition is already at the top, leaving room for him to work his way up. That was 2 years ago. Today, Sa's site is bringing in 6000 visitors a month and $13k-$15k in revenue. Note: Click here to download Sa's top tips for starting and growing an affiliate site in a competitive niche from this episode. These numbers prove how competitive the insurance niche is. That's a huge revenue number for 6k visitors, and Sa told me that only around 4.5k of those visitors are landing on his “money pages.” (Some examples linked below.) Tune in to hear how Sa strategically built out his content to capture longtail traffic, how he builds backlinks (lots of them) to rank his money pages, and the tools he's using to accelerate his efforts.

Kimberly Gauthier has been running KeepTheTailWagging.com since 2011, but things really started to take off when she niched down her focus to raw feeding for dogs. Raw feeding is basically the paleo diet for dogs -- attempting to mimic their ancestral diet. Her blog had than 2 million page views last year -- almost entirely from organic search in Google, and she's monetized the traffic with a few different income streams. Tune in to hear how Kimberly arrived at his niche, what drives content and marketing today, and how the business makes money -- all on the side from her day job.

Meredith Marsh is a “total introvert with over 3 million views on YouTube.” When Meredith started VidProMom.com she didn't set out to be a “YouTuber”. She started a blog and YouTube channel because she wanted to help families better capture those classic, picture-perfect family moments. What she discovered was “a pretty big gap in the whole video creation side of things for people who are creating videos for fun,” Meredith said. She started creating a video series on how to use a GoPro and some of the software - and things quickly snowballed. Note: Click here to download Meredith's top tips for growing a YouTube channel from this episode. Her YouTube channel was getting more subscribers than all her other social media metrics and blog visitors added together – so it was obvious that YouTube was the ideal platform for her content. A year after starting her channel Meredith left her day job, and her blog/YouTube channel that started as a side hustle is now her full-time job. Tune in to hear how to set up your YouTube channel for success, how to master the YouTube algorithm to reach more people, and how to make money from your new video content.

Jodi Carlson has been running her blog LeaderConnectingLeaders.com part-time since 2014 and has slowly built it up to $5-6k a month in revenue. The earnings come from a combination of mostly digital product sales, as well as advertising, and affiliate relationships. Click here to download Jodi's top tips for growing a blog and creating digital products from this episode. The surprising thing – to me at least – is that she's done this in a niche that theoretically doesn't have any money. Her readers and customers are almost all volunteers and they're donating their time to local non-profit groups – in this case, Girl Scout groups. On the surface that makes it seem like it's as tough a niche as any to tackle, which makes Jodi's results even more impressive. She brings more than two decades of experience in Girl Scouts to the table, as a scout, then as a troop leader, and even though the blog didn't start out with dollar signs in mind she's turned it into a substantial income stream. “I actually started it to help myself, and to then help troop leaders in my community,” Jodi said. Jodi started documenting the activities she was doing with her Scout Troops in her blog and making PDF books so she could refer to them again in the future, and shared her articles with a small circle of other leaders in her community. It wasn't long before Troop leaders further afield started asking for her activity books. This sparked the idea to start selling her books and growing her blog. Tune in to hear how Jodi comes up with product ideas and prices those, how she made her first sales, how she's grown her traffic to more than 100k pageviews a month, and income to $5k + a month – all while working full-time and raising a family. Related: Check out my free video series on how to start a blog.

“I feel like this is the most important project I've ever worked on,” Mike said about his blog YoungArchitect.com. Mike Riscica runs a blog, podcast, and has built a thriving community for young professionals in the architecture field. The idea for the blog came from a pain point in Mike's life, and for many others – passing the Architect Registration Examination (ARE). After failing to pass the exam 4 times (before passing) and seeing his peers struggling, Mike started blogging about his challenges. “[My story] resonated with people in a pretty serious way,” he said, and he started seeing traction within the community. He started monetizing his blog from day one with affiliate products and continued to add more revenue streams to scale up his business with courses, speaking gigs, books, videos, and more as his traffic grew. Today his blog in a full-time business. He's had the opportunity to travel the country with his dog doing speaking gigs, has helped hundreds of students pass their ARE, and has some interesting plans for the future. Tune in to hear how Mike grew his blog, how it rings the cash register in at least half a dozen different ways, and the strategies you may be able to lift for your own project.

FoodTruckEmpire.com generates $60k a year on the side from Brett Lindenberg's marketing consulting job. Why'd he start a blog about the food truck industry? “I started the blog at a time in my life when I was looking at just a whole bunch of different business ideas,” Brett said. Originally, Brett wanted to start his own food truck. While researching how to start a food truck business he discovered there wasn't enough quality information online. So, he did what all good entrepreneurs do – capitalized on this gap in the market and started his own blog. Note: Click here to download Brett's top tips for starting and monetizing a part-time blog from this episode. Brett creates the bulk of his content interviewing food truck owners and influencers in the industry. He's grown his blog to $60k a year in just 4 years through building an academy course, securing paid advertising, running AdSense, and selling ebooks. And spoiler alert: he never ended up starting that food truck! Tune in to hear Brett's content strategy, the different ways he monetizes his business, and how you can apply these methods to your own blog.

“Go big or go home, that's kinda my whole philosophy with SEO,” Matt said. And his results speak for themselves. Note: Click here to download Matt's top SEO tips for writing and ranking epic content from this episode. It's been more than 200 episodes since we last heard from Matt Giovanisci. Back then, Matt was explaining how he was growing his authority site SwimUniversity.com with epic content and strong SEO. Since then he's started 3 more authority sites and has fine-tuned his SEO practices for even bigger and quicker results. His latest site BrewCabin.com is just a few months old and Matt is already ranking well for high traffic “money” keywords – without building backlinks or promoting this content. How is he doing this? It's not through longtail keywords. Quite the opposite, Matt goes after those high traffic keywords and outranks his competitors by producing epic content that people want to read. Tune in to hear Matt explain how he does his keyword research, how he formats his content to ensure strong on-page SEO, and why he's seeing such rapid growth across all of his sites. Note: This is "round 2" of SEO for Bloggers. Round 1 was this conversation with Joseph Hogue last year.)

Could a part-time blog really bring in that kind of cash? Rosemarie swears she only works 20 hours a week! Yes, The Busy Budgeter is back for her 3rd round on The Side Hustle Show, and it's a good one. If you missed the first two: In episode 142, Rosemarie Groner's blog was about a year old and earning $5k a month. She shared a step-by-step system for generating massive traffic from Pinterest, which I immediately implemented myself. [this strategy is outdated, which why I didn't include this episode in The Blogging Mixtape.] A year later, in episode 199, she was earning $20-25k a month, and shared her "date your list" and "core affiliate strategy." A few months after that recording, she started posting consistent $100k months from her blog, so of course I had to invite her back to hear what changed. Note: Click here to download Rosemarie's top tips for improving your blogging ROI. If you guessed creating her own products and driving paid traffic, you'd be the big winner. “I eliminated anything that wasn't important for my growth,” Rosemarie said. Tune in to hear how Rosemarie started selling her own products, the sales funnels tactics and tools she uses to turn subscribers into customers, and her tips to keep improving your ROI so you spend less time working while increasing your revenue.

Is your website guilty of these common sins? How secure is your site, really? WordPress is like the new toy you unwrap on Christmas morning -- you know it's going to be awesome, but there's some assembly required. To break down some of the most common website mistakes, I invited my friend Anthony Tran on the show. Anthony runs MarketingAccessPass.com, a web design and development agency, as well as AccessWP.com, a WordPress support company offering unlimited support for a low monthly subscription. (Get $20 off your first month of Access WP through my affiliate link) With years of experience building websites for himself and for clients, he definitely knows his stuff. Note: Click here to download Anthony's top tips for optimizing your WordPress site. In this episode, we walk through how you can tighten up the security of your site, speed up your load times, and some quick changes that'll improve your SEO and user experience. Whether you're new to WordPress or have been blogging for years, I think you'll take something away from this episode as Anthony shares his tips, tools, and best practices from years of working online for himself and for clients. Note: If you don't have a website up and running yet, my free video series will show you how to get online quickly and affordably.

You might know Michelle Schroeder-Gardner from her super-popular blog MakingSenseofCents.com where she gets hundreds of thousands of readers and makes 6-figures a month. Around $50k of that monthly revenue (or more) comes from affiliate marketing. Note: Click here to download Michelle's top tips for maximizing affiliate revenue from this episode. Michelle's online journey started in the summer of 2011 when she decided to start blogging about paying off her student debts, “I didn't know what blogs were at the time… I literally didn't know that you could make money with a blog,” she said looking back. It was when she made her first $100 six months later with a sponsored post that she knew she wanted to build an online business. “It became super addicting,” Michelle said. Fast-forward just two years and Michelle had become a full-time blogger making money through affiliate marketing sponsored posts, working as a freelance staff writer and selling display advertising. She started to focus on affiliate marketing, and with her most profitable post making more than $400k to-date it's fair to say she's nailed the right way to do affiliate marketing. The secret to her success? Listening to her audience and providing relevant content that solves a pain point. Sounds simple, right? Tune in to hear Michelle explain how she finds the right affiliate products to promote to her audience, as well as her tips to maximize conversions, increase your social media following, diversify your traffic sources, and much more. Don't have a blog yet? My free video course will help you get started!

Ben Foley started writing about how to use mindfulness to reduce stress and anxiety at FullyRichLife.com a little over 6 months ago. Since then, his little side project has generated over 6000 email subscribers and $10,000 in revenue. His secret sauce? Tapping into the big audience of readers on Medium.com. Note: Click here to download Ben's tips for getting your content in front of huge audiences and building your email list. Having overcome stress and anxiety issues himself, he knew this was a niche he could enter and help others. And, with a different approach to using mindfulness in the modern world to help reduce stress working for him, he knew he had a unique angle to blog about. Before starting his site in December last year Ben had never even written a blog post. However, after finding a passion for writing and encouraged by positive feedback, he “tripled down” on content and started getting huge exposure almost right away -- something new sites often struggle with. Related: My free video series on how to start a blog. Tune in to hear how you can use Medium to growth hack your new or existing site, and how Ben is turning those readers into subscribers and revenue.

Perrin Carrell is a senior contributing editor at AuthorityHacker and well-known within the internet marketing community for building niche/authority sites. He has built several successful sites from scratch, including one recent project that went from a valuation of $0 to $200,000 in just under 20 months. Note: Click here to download Perrin's tips for starting an authority site and getting started in affiliate marketing. Perrin started learning about internet marketing and SEO while working a day job at a global communications consulting firm. Desperate to escape the day job and turn his side hustle into a full-time business he started building sites and learning from his failures along the way. He now has the blueprint nailed for building profitable sites with several different income streams. From planning the site structure, ordering content, carrying out keyword research, to link-building, Perrin shares exactly how he builds his sites in this episode.

Nagina Abdullah turned her weight loss blog, MasalaBody.com, into a 6-figure side business. By day, she works for a large consulting company, and with a busy work schedule, a young family, and limited time to work on her side hustle, Nagina has been very smart about her marketing and pricing. Note: Click here to download Nagina's sales funnel and high-end coaching tips from this episode. After struggling with her weight for all of her adult life, she finally hit on something that worked and dropped 40 pounds! With friends, colleagues, and neighbors asking how she did it, she started her blog to share recipes and tips. But she soon discovered that people didn't want recipes; they wanted to lose weight! Quickly, Nagina adapted and used her own success story as a catalyst to begin helping other women make some serious lifestyle changes. Her sales funnel process is applicable across a broad range of industries and business models, and I think you'll find a way to put some of her tactics and strategies into practice for your own hustle.

Erin Chase is a busy mother of 4, a former teacher, and today runs 5DollarDinners.com and the 5dollarmealplan. Back in 2008, after some number crunching, Erin was excited at saving 50% on her grocery bills. She shared how she did this on her family blog, but with a low amount of interest she decided to start her own blog to help others make savings on their own grocery bills. You may have heard the saying, “there's no such thing as a free lunch” – well there is such a thing as free meal plans. Erin carried on publishing free meal plans and tips how to feed your family on a budget and her viewership kept growing. Note: Click here to download Erin's top blog monetization tips from this episode. In this episode, you will hear how Erin capitalized on the momentum of viral social media posts to set up paywalls and start generating more income. You'll learn how she transitioned from ad networks and affiliate income to selling directly to her audience, and how she set up membership programs for recurring revenue. Today, her online empire brings in a healthy 5-figure monthly income. Related: Want to start a blog of your own? Check out my free guide on how to start your blog.

As co-host of the #1 marriage podcast in iTunes, the ONE Extraordinary Marriage show, Tony DiLorenzo speaks to a worldwide audience about sex, love, and commitment. Along with his wife Alisa, their goal is to reach as many couples around the world as they can, equipping them with the tools and strategies they need to create an extraordinary marriage. With a hugely popular blog and podcast, Tony is a little modest in saying, “that's consistency over 7 years.” Tony and Alisa sell coaching services, their own products, promote affiliate products, and have sponsorships as some of their income streams. Over the last 7 years they have come a long way with their brand from a side hustle hobby to a full-time business. Note: Click here to download Tony's top content to cash flow tips from this episode. Want to start an online business of your own? It starts with a website, and my free 6-part video series walks you through how to set it up without breaking the bank. Tune in to hear Tony taking me through the steps he took to build up his podcast to over 150k downloads a month, the tools and techniques he uses to drive traffic to his lead magnets, how he has a tiered upsell funnel, and how he and his wife have built up profitable and diverse income streams.

You may remember Rosemarie Groner from episode 142 of the Side Hustle Show last year. She revealed how her blog Busy Budgeter was just a year old and receiving around 400,000 pageviews and making around $5k a month — primarily through Pinterest traffic. It's almost a year later now and I had to have her back to see how things were progressing. Rosemarie is now regularly making more than $20k a month, and while her pageviews are still at a similar number she has improved her ROI and diversified her traffic and income sources. Note: Click here to download Rosemarie's top traffic and monetization tips from this episode. Rosemarie is still getting a ton of traffic from Pinterest and explains how she has moved with the changes on the platform to maintain her numbers. She also talks about how she has started focusing on SEO, has built different email lists to sell different products to, and why calculating the ROI on a project should be one of your first considerations. Her first appearance on episode 142 was one of the most popular shows of last year and I expect this episode to be just as popular. It's packed with actionable tips and information you can use to increase your own traffic numbers and earnings, along with some of the new tips and tricks Rosemarie has implemented in the last year. Related: Want to start a blog of your own? Check out my free step-by-step tutorial series on how you can get up and running in no time.

Before people can do business with you, they have to know about you, and before they know about you, they have to find you. And that's universal, whether you're running a brick-and-mortar shop, an ecommerce store, a blog, or a virtual consulting business. Neil Patel is a master at solving the first step in that equation: getting people to find you. Through SEO, content marketing, and social media, we go through the traffic generation tactics that are working today. Note: Click here to download Neil's top traffic hacks. Neil runs a handful of online projects, including NeilPatel.com, QuickSprout.com, and the heatmap software tool CrazyEgg.com. His latest project is a book called HUSTLE (a title I can definitely get behind), due out in September and all about how you can (and must) make your own luck in an economy rigged against you. This episode is all about how new and experienced content creators can get more visitors to their work. Don't have a blog yet? My free blogging course shows you step-by-step how to get started.

We first heard from Robert Farrington back in 2013, on episode 10 of The Side Hustle Show. At that time, he was earning $3-4k a month from a portfolio of different sites, and looking to expand his online empire. This week, we catch up on what's changed since then. Robert's doubled down on his main site, TheCollegeInvestor.com, narrowed his focus, and roughly tripled his earnings. Oh, and he's still working full-time too. We chat content, traffic, and monetization strategies, as well as how he manages the business in his spare time. Note: Click here to download Robert's top part-time blogging tips. I think you'll like it! If you don't have a blog of your own yet, use my free 6-part video course to get started today.

Do you know Jon Dykstra from FatStacksBlog.com? I've been following his work since last summer and have been really impressed. Jon is a former attorney turned full-time entrepreneur, and he's the master of building high quality niche blogs and monetizing them to $10k-20k per month in record time. (Sixty days to $10k in one case.) Note: Click here to download Jon's top blog building tips. On the call, we use the example of a snow sports site, which in years past may have been considered too broad. Niche down to something like “powder ski reviews,” experts might have said. Jon takes the opposite approach: broader appeal means more visitors and more ad revenue. Inspired to start a blog of your own? My free video course will show you how.

In this binge-worthy podcast series, you'll hear from some of the most successful bloggers in the business.  Learn how to create killer content, grow your traffic and audience, and monetize your website. If you don't have a blog of your own yet, check out blogstartercourse.com, my free video course on how to get set up quickly and affordably.