Podcasts about niche sites

The MacVoices Live! panel of Dave Ginsburg, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Jim Rea, and Jeff Gamet look at why Apple has withdrawn its investment interests in OpenAI, and what it means for Apple Intelligence. The panel also looks at the loss of respected Apple news site iMore, how long the content will be available, and why it happened.  Take Control Books: The Answers You Need Now, From Leading Experts. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Opening Remarks 05:53 Apple Not Investing In OpenAI 12:03 iMore's Closure 20:35 The Future of Niche Sites 26:20 Closing Thoughts Links: Apple not investing in OpenAI after all, new report says https://9to5mac.com/2024/09/27/apple-not-investing-in-openai-after-all-new-report-says/ One more thing… Goodbye from iMore https://www.imore.com/apple/one-more-thing-goodbye-from-imore Your Website Traffic Is About To Decrease Because Of AI https://www.fa-mag.com/news/your-website-traffic-is-about-decrease-because-of-ai-79662.html Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

In this episode, I'm sharing some exciting news—I got my second site, Southern Crush on the Road, accepted into Journey by Mediavine! This travel blog started as a passion project after spinning off a section of my crafting blog into a niche site. Even though travel blogs seem to be a tough niche right now, sometimes going against the grain pays off. https://creativesonfirepodcast.com/episode162 Links and resources mentioned during this episode: My niche travel blog https://www.southerncrushontheroad.com   153 | Niche Blogging: How It Started vs. How It's Going 148 | Blog Rebrand and Niche Sites with Heather Painchaud Start a Blog Course: Blog Kickstart 2024 Content Planner Creatives On Fire™️ Content Planner SUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW I am honored to share a new Blogging Creative on Fire each week on the podcast to bring you inspiration, behind-the-scenes secrets, and quality tips. I hope it is truly helpful for you. One of the best ways you can bless me in return is to subscribe to the show and leave a review. By subscribing, you allow each episode to be downloaded straight to your phone which helps the download numbers and ensures you never miss an episode. And when you leave a review, you help show others the value of what we provide! You can GO HERE to subscribe and review

Welcome to another episode where I help you overcome a limiting belief as a blogger that stops you from actually growing your business. That's the myth that if you haven't earned anything, or have just a little profit in your first year, it's time to ditch your blog and move onto something else because it's just not working. Let's debunk that myth. >> Join The Blog Monetization Challenge inside Fearless Bloggers: https://letsreachsuccess.podia.com/fearless-bloggers Resources mentioned in the episode: The 1-Year Blog Experiment, When to Call It Quits & My 2 Niche Sites: https://letsreachsuccess.com/blog-experiment-niche-sites/ Links:

Learn why it takes 1 year to really see if your blog idea actually has potential, and see my analysis of the 2 niche websites I run, why I will keep one and I won't renew the domain name of the other (and will quit that project). Show Notes: The story of blog #1; How it's monetized; Why I'm definitely keeping it; My plan for it; How many articles I have on it and how many page views it gets; Pinterest growth; One of the biggest signs you should keep a blog; What is blog #2 all about; Why I haven't worked on that site at all; Should you start another blog; The story of a niche site I started a few years ago that I never told anyone about. Mentioned: Membership for Bloggers: https://letsreachsuccess.podia.com/fearless-bloggers WPX Hosting: https://wpx.net/?affid=520 Links:

This week, I'm chatting with Heather Painchaud, the mastermind behind Homemade Heather. Heather shares her journey from hobby blogger to full-time income earner, offering invaluable tips for aspiring bloggers. Don't miss out on her story and insights! Thanks for listening! I'd love to continue this conversation over on the Facebook Page or on Instagram. Talk to you soon! https://creativesonfirepodcast.com/episode148 Links and resources mentioned during this episode: Instagram: @homemadeheather Blog: Homemade Heather 2024 Content Planner Creatives On Fire™️ Content Planner FUEL Mastermind Creatives on Fire™ FUEL SUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW I am honored to share a new Blogging Creative on Fire each week on the podcast to bring you inspiration, behind-the-scenes secrets, and quality tips. I hope it is truly helpful for you. One of the best ways you can bless me in return is to subscribe to the show and leave a review. By subscribing, you allow each episode to be downloaded straight to your phone which helps the download numbers and ensures you never miss an episode. And when you leave a review, you help show others the value of what we provide! You can GO HERE to subscribe and review

Nate Matherson chats with Nile Frater on this episode of the Optimize podcast. Nile is the founder and CEO of Masse SEO, an agency which specializes in delivering high-scale content campaigns for fast-growing startups at Series A and beyond. He previously owned NoCode.Tech, which was acquired in 2022 and runs a micro private equity firm, Concrete Capital. Nile has an extensive background in both startups and banking. Today, they discuss the intricacies of building effective SEO programs from the ground up, enhancing content creation processes, and much more.Throughout the episode, Nile shares his insights on leveraging AI tools to overcome writer's block in the content creation process, while emphasizing the importance of human input to add value and insight beyond what AI can generate​​. He also discusses the rapid growth and scaling challenges at Masse SEO, including managing increasing client demands and maintaining content quality with a growing team​​.Nile advocates for a high-volume content strategy, explaining that more content increases the surface area for SEO success and allows for more experimentation and quicker results​​. He also touches on the competitive nature of SEO today, describing strategies for succeeding in high-competition niches by building comprehensive topical authority​​.Closing the episode is our popular lightning round of questions, where Nile provides quick insights into his personal experiences and preferences in SEO and content strategy​​.For more insights from Nile and to learn about MasseSEO, be sure to check out their website and follow Nile on his social platforms. Learn More About Nile FraterTwitter: https://twitter.com/Nile Masse SEO: https://www.masse.marketing/ 

Is the age of niche sites crumbling before our eyes? As an affiliate marketer and SEO expert with two decades of experience, I, Ed Dawson, expose the stark realities and future possibilities for niche sites in the wake of Google's 'helpful content update.' This episode isn't just another doomsday prediction; it's a clarion call for content creators who've felt the seismic shift beneath their feet. I dissect the essence of a niche site and argue against the black and white narrative that's been painted post-update, emphasizing that the problem isn't the niche, but how we build upon it.Through a candid exploration, I reveal why some sites took a hit and how others can learn from their pitfalls. I discuss the importance of coherence, depth, and user-centric design, steering away from the peril of mere click-chasing. No stone is left unturned as I share practical advice on crafting sites with robust architecture and a focus on genuine value—strategies essential for weathering the storm of digital change. Join me in this honest examination, as I provide the compass for navigating the evolving landscape of SEO and affiliate marketing.SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.comYou can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tipsTo get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO then book an appointment with me nowAsk me a question and get on the show Click here to record a questionFind Edd on Twitter @channel5Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared break down recent events in the SEO, publishing, and niche site space.  It's been a very busy week and there's a lot going on, so sit back, get comfortable, and get ready for a packed episode! They get things started with a report from Glen Allsopp, which takes a closer look at who's ranking for affiliate queries at the moment.  He goes into great detail in his article on Detailed, for which he handpicked product review terms to look at. Who's dominating organic search for these very valuable affiliate keywords?   But it's not as straightforward as that!  Jared reveals a twist to the plot that's affecting search results, rendering the results from the dominant ranking website full of spam.  But what is the definition of spam, exactly? And when a spokesperson for that website denied that the results were poor quality and offered an example of quality search results, what happened? Is this an overcorrection by Google? Are they aware of what's happening? Check out the episode to find out all the drama! Moving along, Spencer and Jared discuss an article that seems to have gone viral about how Google is killing independent sites.  The article was published on the website Housefresh, which reviews air purifiers and was hit hard by the HCU, and looks at how large publishers are ranking for affiliate keywords with less in-depth content and without actually putting in the work to review the items. If this trend is glaringly obvious and offers a poor experience for users, why isn't Google doing anything about it? How did Danny Sullivan respond?  Is there a silver lining on the horizon? Jared and Spencer have a lot of thoughts on this, so check out the episode to hear more. Moving along, but closely related, they talk about how Housefresh's article about Google killing independent sites is, ironically, being outranked by everyone, from Search Engine Land, Twitter, and Reddit, for its own article! Hear what they have to say about it! And along the same lines, they share a tweet from Glen Allsopp with the same problem: not ranking for his own article. In short, the smaller guys are getting beat by the bigger guys, for no good reason. For their last story, Spencer and Jared talk about the big deal that went down between Google and Reddit. Google has agreed to pay Reddit $60 million a year to train its AI models.  Why is this an important moment for Reddit? By how much would this increase their revenue? But what makes this situation so incredibly ironic? Jared gives a great breakdown of recent events. When it's time to talk about their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and reveals he's launching a premium Niche Pursuits community.  His goal is to create a community where users can connect with each other, discuss what's happening in the industry, and learn from and bounce ideas off one another. The group will include weekly expert calls, mastermind groups, group challenges with monetary prizes, among other elements. It will open to the public on March 4th, so check it out! Jared talks about his Weekend Growth newsletter side hustle, which is now1 year old. He set an initial goal of getting 1000 subscribers in the first 3 months, and 1 year in he has 4600+ subscribers.  He's earned slightly less than $40k during that period, from newsletter ads, affiliate earnings, and the services he offers. He offers some great motivational advice for listeners and talks about what has worked for him when building up this side hustle. Spencer then shares his weird niche site, Let Me Google That, and shares a funny story about how he found the site. He gives a demo of how the site works and recommends sharing the link when someone asks a “silly” question. Not only does the site sell merch, but Ahrefs says they're getting 111k organic visitors per month while SimilarWeb calculates a million per month. How much might they be earning per month? When it's Jared's turn, he shares Throx, the cure for the missing sock. What started out as a pitch on Shark Tank many years ago has actually grown to become a popular brand with tweens and teens making $1 million a year.  That being said, his SEO could be improved and his website is kind of sparse. Are his products expensive? Is this a gag-gift type of product? Hear what Jared has to say. And that brings us to the end of another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. As always, we hope you're feeling informed and inspired by today's jam-packed episode, and we'll see you next week for more! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Join Nate Matherson as he sits down with Charles Floate for the thirty-eighth episode of the Optimize podcast. Charles is an SEO expert, entrepreneur, and investor from the United Kingdom. He's behind The God of SEO blog and runs a successful link-building agency. Charles is known for his somewhat controversial SEO strategies, tutorials, case studies, and talks. In our episode today, Nate and Charles explore topics we have yet to discuss on the Optimize podcast, including a mix of white hat, grey hat*, and black hat tactics*. During the episode, Charles discusses niche sites' challenges and opportunities, including decreased exit opportunities, algorithm updates, economic conditions, etc. Charles also speaks to applying AI content strategies within SEO (ex., Programmatic SEO), expressing concerns about the quality and potential risks of bulk-generated content for your blog. Listen to hear why he suggests new domains to mitigate client risks. In this week's deep dive, listen to Charles share everything you need to know about Parasite SEO in 2024. Charles gets tactical, sharing multiple case studies on how it works, why it works, and what results have been achieved with these tactics. Rounding out the episode, Charles and Nate cover topics like the future value of backlinks, Google's use and transition away from quality raters, and how AI-generated content affects competition in SEO and content marketing. Closing the episode is our popular lightning round of questions!  For more information, please visit www.positional.com or email us at podcast@positional.com.*Disclaimer from Positional: Google has published guidelines for acceptable practices for SEO. We recommend you review Google's Search Essentials Guide to understand those guidelines before implementing some of the tactics discussed in this episode.Resources:Join Positional's Private Beta Here: www.positional.comCheck-in with Nate on LinkedIn & TwitterCheck-in with Charles on LinkedIn or Twitter or his Website or Training Website

Welcome back to another episode of The Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared break down the latest and most relevant news for SEOs, content creators, and business owners. They kick things off by talking about the Helpful Content Update, which was rolled out in September 2023. There has been lots of chatter of late—in Twitter threads, in Facebook posts, and beyond— where people are looking for signs that recovery from the HCU is possible.  Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan explains a little bit about the helpful content classifier and how it works, although his explanation certainly gives rise to more questions.  How does Spencer interpret his explanation? Does he think it's possible to see a recovery in the short term? Have Jared and Spencer seen any sites make a full recovery?  What interesting statistics does Jared reference in terms of HCU recoveries? If the classifier is constantly being updated and tweaked, what does that mean for content creators?  Since no one can truly define what is and isn't helpful content, the big question remains: Is there hope? Listen to Spencer and Jared's predictions. The next order of business is the fact that web stories are no longer visible as Google is deprecating the carousel view of web stories in Discover. What are the two takeaways from this brief news story? And last but not least, Spencer and Jared talk about the recent news of an upcoming Google algorithm update. Lots of people have noticed an uptick in traffic as well as volatility, and suspect there might be an update brewing. Have Spencer and Jared noticed anything going on with their sites or the sites they manage?  Next up on the podcast is the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion. Spencer goes first, but instead of talking about one of his side hustles, he shares an update on the AI content competition underway on Niche Pursuits. This competition was launched after the HCU and the goal is to grow a new site with AI content. He shares the 4-month leaderboard, and there's no shortage of interesting things to talk about! The person leading the pack is getting 24,000 organic visitors to his site with around 7 million articles, and after just 4 months, the top 10 people in the challenge are getting more than 1000 organic visitors per month, which is impressive considering these are fresh domains. If you want to hear the backstory, check out the full episode and also the Niche Pursuits community. When it's Jared's turn, he provides an update on his public speaking side hustle, reporting that he has reached out to more than 50 different conferences to see if he can speak. How many did you hear back from? And what did they say?  He also gives an update on his Weekend Growth YouTube channel, which recently reached the thresholds for monetization. Jared shares his stats as well as some useful advice for YouTube content creators, and reports on how much he's earned to date from that channel.  When it's time to reveal their weird niche sites, Spencer goes first with Snow Day Calculator.  This site, which does have a social media following, allows users to calculate the number of snow days according to their zip code and type of school. It also offers predictions of future snow days.  The DR42 site is monetized with display ads and has a relatively strong backlink profile, thanks to links from news outlets. As it's a seasonal site, the traffic spikes in winter but dies during the rest of the year.  How much money might it be making during those peaks? And what other clever strategies are they using to earn money? Listen to the episode to find out what Spencer and Jared discover as they poke around. Things take a morbid turn when Jared reveals his weird niche site, Aerial Ashes, a company that uses drones to scatter people's ashes over land and sea in the UK. The site, which is clearly for a local company, is a DR8 and is ranking for just 45 keywords, so it's difficult to say how successful it is.  However, Jared makes a great point about this section of the podcast: Every day, people are executing on their business ideas and using their skill sets, passions, and hobbies to create something unique. And you can too! Well, that brings us to the end of another interesting episode! join us next week for a look at all the latest news, and updates from the hosts, more weird niche sites and, above all, lots of inspiration. Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Welcome back to this week's episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared report on all the latest news in SEO.  It was a busy week, so tune in to hear what's new at Google and how changes there effect content creators and webmasters. Stay for the latest updates on their side hustles, and don't miss the weird niche site discussion at the end.  The first news item is a big one. Based on a post on LinkedIn, there's speculation that Google's SGE might not be rolled out now, or maybe not even at all. That's obviously great news for SEOs. Spencer and Jared dissect this news item and try to understand what Google's future plans are. Are there really going to be changes? What's behind the gradual shift in the language they're using? Listen to the episode to hear what they think is actually happening. The conversation continues to revolve around Google, but the topic shifts to what's going on behind the scenes there. Another LinkedIn post gives a bit of insight into the company, suggesting that the company has no real leadership and is plowing ahead with AI while slowly killing organic search. Is Google really done innovating? Does the company need new leadership? Hear what Spencer and Jared have to say about the situation. The next news item up for discussion is Google's announcement that its contract with Appen has ended and it has cut thousands of search quality rater jobs.  Although there was confusion about whether or not Google was getting rid of all of its quality raters, the company confirmed that it's simply cutting ties with Appen. How did this news initially come to light? Spencer has the scoop! The last news item today is that Sports Illustrated's publisher has laid off most of its union staff. You might recall that SI was busted recently for using fake AI-generated personnel on its website and, as a result, the CEO got fired. Want to hear more of the drama at SI and with AI and the world of publishing? Listen to the full episode! In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer revisits a website he started about a year ago, the goal being to drive traffic from Facebook. His Facebook page has 45k likes, and he shared the strategy he's using to get people to his site. How's it doing? Does it have potential? What happened when he applied to Mediavine? He shares some Facebook page metrics, including link clicks, and he fields several questions from Jared about his strategy.  Jared reveals a new and exciting side hustle he's got in the works: a public speaking side hustle. He's set a goal for the year to speak at 4 conferences, and he's already got a few lined up. But what does he hope to earn or achieve from this new side hustle? When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Let's Learn Slang, and he looks at a few of the articles and shares their stats from Ahrefs.  How could the site have established more topical relevance? And what do Spencer and Jared think of the About page?  Jared then shares his site: Easy Toilet Tips, the number one source for lavatory bias-free reviews.  The site has a ton of content but hasn't put a lot of thought or effort into UX. Although it seems like an AI-generated website, Ahrefs reveals that it's been around longer than that. Traffic peaked at one point, but it was devastated by the HCU. And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. We hope you're feeling up-to-speed on all the latest SEO news and inspired by Spencer and Jared's side hustles and general insight. See you next Friday!

Welcome back! We're here with another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared highlight what's happening in SEO, content creation, website creation, and beyond.  Listen in if you want to hear the latest about Google, SGE, unique side hustle strategies, and some weird niche sites. The first news item this week that Spencer and Jared discuss is a recent report that says that Google's results are getting worse. It's based on a year-long study of product review queries.   How did Google respond? What exactly did the study assess to come to this conclusion? And what do they consider “low quality?” Spencer and Jared have many thoughts on this topic, so tune in to find out whether they think it's legit or not. The next topic up for discussion is Google's SGE. A recent article states that 94% of Google SGE links are different from organic search results. So now we have about 10 links in the SGE results plus another 10 from organic search and most are not the same.  What does this mean for publishers? Is this good news or bad news? How does this affect you if you're ranking first in the organic results but have an SGE pack ahead of you? And what does this mean for you if you're not appearing in organic results? Are there 2 different standards at play here? Talk about Google SGE continues when Spencer and Jared discuss an article about the impact of SGE by industry, which reveals that the sector most impacted by the SGE is healthcare as those queries have triggered the most responses. In contrast, finance is at the bottom of the list. What's interesting about the difference in performance between these YMYL niches? And what conclusions do Spencer and Jared come to as they analyze the SGE performance statistics by industry?  As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about his new YouTube channel, where all of his podcast episodes will now live. Although he was initially worried that people wouldn't be able to find the channel, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the first episode published there got over 1200 listens in just over 24 hours. With over 350 subscribers already, Spencer's confident that he made the right decision to separate the channels and that people will still be able to find the podcast episodes. When it's Jared's turn, he talks about a strategy he's using for his Weekend Growth newsletter that's allowing him to increase his agency business by providing a new service. Essentially it's a side hustle on top of a side hustle! It's definitely an idea that anyone with their own email list and business can adapt to their niche. He also gives an interesting update on the Amazon Influencer Program and his family. Check out the episode to hear the latest developments. When it comes to Weird Niche Sites this week, Spencer comes with a sub-niche of a niche with his site: The Arcade Stick. Arcade sticks can be customized and plugged in just about anywhere. The site, which is just a DR8, could be getting around 100k visitors per month, which is pretty interesting considering how niche it is, plus It's monetized on Mediavine. When it's Jared's turn, he shares a site called Emoji Combos. Although it's in beta, it still works perfectly. This DR43 site ranks for 140k keywords and gets over a million organic visits per month.  What unique keywords is it ranking for? How is the site monetized? And how much money do they think the site is making per month? And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. Now you're caught up on all the latest SEO news and, hopefully, you're feeling inspired and motivated to continue to work on your side hustles. See you next Friday!  Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of The Niche Pursuits News podcast! Spencer and Jared are back this week to bring you all the latest happenings in the world of SEO and to break the news down. There's a lot to talk about, so let's get started! The first topic of discussion is the latest article in The Verge about Google.  According to the article, content creators and website owners have essentially created their websites with Google in mind, with the result that they all look and feel the same. As a result, Google has shaped how we build our websites.  Do Spencer and Jared believe that the article's premise is accurate? Is there too much homogenization going on? Should we really be preparing people-first content? And what about the use of Reddit in content creation? They also talk about the response from Danny Sullivan, sharing a particularly thought-provoking tweet from the Google Search Liaison about “chasing the algorithm,” EEAT, and the “perfect” page formula. The last news item they cover is an article about Google's efforts to combat spam. There are still a lot of spammy results in the SERPs and Google reports that it's aware and is working on the situation. Spam is a huge problem, and it's only increasing with the rise of AI. Google certainly has its work cut out for it!  When it's time for the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer kicks things off by explaining that he's going to put all of his podcast videos on a new YouTube channel going forward.  But what are the reasons behind his decision? And is he going to move existing videos to the new channel? When it's Jared's turn, he wants to continue to grow his Weekend Growth newsletter, but he flips the script this week. Instead of talking about his future plans, he asks for Spencer's input on new actions he can take. They have a productive brainstorming session with several interesting ideas! As for this week's weird niche sites, Spencer shares a directory site for dude ranches. His site this week is a little bit different in that he knows the backstory because he discovered it on Twitter.  He shares the interesting story behind the site, which has excellent visuals and branding and makes money through its paid listings. Jared's weird niche site is certainly a sight to behold: Dogica. This DR12 site ranks for 10k keywords, including lots of first-page rankings. He and Spencer agree that the very old-school design might be holding it back, plus it doesn't seem to be on top of many modern monetization methods, although it does offer a dog rental service. And that brings us to the end of another episode of The Niche Pursuits News podcast.  We hope that we helped catch you up to speed on all the latest news in SEO, website development, and content creation. See you next Friday! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

#747 I say it all the time—the riches are in the niches! Today's guest, Victoria Moll of Contempo Coding, is the perfect example of someone taking this to the ultimate level. So listen in to hear how she became the leader in her tiny industry and built a six-figure business around it! Victoria has amassed over 100K highly targeted subscribers on her medical coding education YouTube channel. That's bananas! She credits bringing personality and entertainment to what is often a dry, technical space as the key to her success. I'm not surprised—this is something that's vital for anyone trying to stand out online! In today's episode, we get an inside look at everything from how she found her content creation voice to transitioning YouTube viewers into paying customers. We also dive into Victoria's innovative formula for managing squirrel syndrome. If you need help figuring out which ideas are worth your time, tune in! Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session747.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back, Niche Pursuits fans, to another episode of the podcast. As always, Spencer and Jared cover the latest news in SEO, AI, Google, and everything content creators and website owners need to know. This week they kick off the show talking about how Google has been discussing its plans to get rid of third-party cookies for a long time now. The underlying argument is that consumers in the UK, Canada, Europe, and increasingly in the US don't like the idea of Google collecting all of their private data, which is then used for advertising purposes. The main issue is privacy. But Google has finally announced its plans to really truly get rid of them and it all begins on January 4th. The roll-out is going to be gradual and may be completed by the end of 2025. The big questions are how will this impact advertisers and website owners? Will display ads decrease? Will RPMs decline? Does this have a connection to the anti-trust suit? At the moment, it's really a speculation game, but tune in to hear what Spencer and Jared think might happen. Then the conversation shifts to a tweet from Jake Ward, about how he stole millions in traffic from a competitor by using AI to write articles based on all of his competitor's keywords. The tweet was essentially a marketing ploy to promote his AI tool, and it went viral. The bad news is that his tweet was seen by Google and his site was hit with a manual penalty because of copied content. Traffic tanked as a result. Why did Google penalize his website? What alternative strategy does Spencer suggest? Does the fact that it's AI content factor into their decision? Has Google changed its position on AI content? What are the general takeaways from this story? Listen to hear what Jared and Spencer think. The conversation shifts to the ever-changing landscape of artificial intelligence and offers an overview of the changes that Google has had to implement since OpenAI appeared on the scene. They discuss spammy results and the future of spammy AI content as well as the role brands play in ranking.  In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer reports that his Amazon influencer side hustle is going really well. So well, in fact, that he has seen massive earnings in the month, including some $500 days. During the last 30 days, he earned $6800+. Although he hasn't uploaded any videos since last week, he does have additional videos ready to go and is hoping to break $7k in the next few days.   Jared shares his experience with the program recently, and he's seen his 30-day rolling total at slightly under $6k and expects to be under $5k for the month of December. Although he killed it on Black Friday, his earnings have been lower this past month.  Also, something “happened” to his star product that had been driving the bulk of his earnings until now. Listen to the episode to hear what he discovered, and hear what he and Spencer plan to do with the program next year. Moving onto their weird niche sites, Spencer shares Elfster, Which is a website and an app that helps you conduct Secret Santa gift exchanges. It can also recommend gifts, which allows it to make money from affiliate sales and sponsored product placements. He shares its highly seasonal traffic graph from Ahrefs, with 1.5 million organic visitors in December 2022, and appears to be trending up. The rest of the year, they're still getting incredible traffic and are a multi-million dollar business. Listen to the episode for more details. When it's Jared's turn, he shares Campsite Photos, a site he uses often. You can enter just about any campsite in the US and check out photos so you can decide if it's the right fit.  You can answer questions like if it's flat or not, if your trailer would fit, etc. and is incredibly helpful if you're into camping. This DR43 site is ranking for 119k keywords, and has organic traffic of 150k, according to Ahrefs. The site is monetized with ads, and it offers a service where it finds you a campsite if the one you want is booked. Check out the episode to hear more observations about Jared's weird site! And that brings us to the end of another great episode. We hope you're feeling inspired and informed, and don't forget to come back next week so they can bring you up to speed on the latest happenings. Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Welcome back everyone! It's Friday, which means it's time for another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast.  A lot happened this week so there's a lot to talk about. Join Spencer and Jared as they discuss and analyze the latest happenings in the SEO, AI, and content creation space. The first news item they cover is the Google Core Update and the fact that it has finally finished rolling out.  How long did it last in the end? What kind of movement did Jared and Spencer see? Was there a reversal from the HCU? Are there any updates currently underway or coming in the future? Tune in and find out! Then Spencer and Jared shift the conversation to a slightly more controversial topic: Sports Illustrated allegedly published a ton of content written by AI-generated writers.  When the articles were deemed as potentially AI-generated, the team at Futurism pressed Sports Illustrated, which then deleted all of the content and issued a response. What did they say? What do Spencer and Jared think about the situation? And how does EEAT play into all of it? The next topic is how the Canadian government has reached an agreement with Google on the Online News Act. Google has agreed to pay online Canadian publishers around $100 million a year to publish their news content on Google.  This is clearly a win for news publishers, who are going to get paid, but it raises some interesting questions. Why did Google agree to pay? Will other countries follow suit? Will it go beyond news publishers at some point? In more Google news, the number of companies who have blocked Google from crawling their sites and using their data for Bard has increased by 180%. Jared and Spencer have talked about this situation previously, but in that case it was the GPT OpenAI bot; now it's the case with Google-Extended. What about this article really riles up the hosts? Spencer gets especially riled up sharing that Google Bard is now summarizing YouTube videos. Not only can you get a summary, but you can also get a transcript. Spencer gave it a test drive with one of his videos. What was the result? Was the summary accurate? The result is pretty funny, so check out the episode to see why.  Moving along, the next topic is X (formerly Twitter), and how some brands have paused their advertising campaigns while others have stopped altogether. As a result, the platform may lose up to $75 million in ad revenue by the end of the year.  This is attributable to the fact that Elon Musk is a bit of a loose cannon, he's making offensive statements, and there are also lots of changes to the platform.  What does this mean for other advertisers? Could this be part of Musk's overall strategy? Last but not least is news from Amazon, which has launched a new AI chatbot for companies. This chatbot is not a competitor for consumer-facing chatbots but, rather, for companies to use for their businesses. Think financial projections, policies, and procedures. What is AWS and how is it involved? And what might the name of the chatbot be a reference to? Listen to the podcast to hear what Spencer and Jared think about it. Moving into the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks first about his progress with the Amazon Influencer Program. With 954 videos currently published, how did he do during Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Jared then shares his progress with the program. Currently, he has 982 videos live, but how did he do during the big shopping days? After talking with other members of the program, Jared also has an interesting theory about how to increase earnings during this period next year.  He also talks briefly about Weekend Growth, progress, and new developments.  As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Katie Goes Platinum—a site that's more unique than it is weird. Katie documents the process of letting her hair gray gracefully and seeks to inspire others.  She's got ads and digital products, not to mention a YouTube channel and a section featuring her web stories. A little research shows that back in 2020, she was earning $6k per month from her site—a figure that has most likely increased since then. Jared's Weird Niche Site is Hood Maps, which creates funny maps for different cities. He and Spencer take a closer look at a few of them and share some of the entertaining descriptions. This DR41 website doesn't have any display ads but it does rank for 50k keywords. But how does it collect the descriptions for so many maps? And is it making any money? And that brings us to the end of a jam-packed episode. See you next week when Spencer and Jared tackle the latest headlines and serve up more information and inspiration.    Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, where Spencer and Jared cover the latest news in SEO, AI, affiliate marketing, and content creation. As always, there's a lot that happened since the previous episode, and they talk about the best Black Friday deals, so don't miss this one! The first news story they cover was the major upheaval at OpenAI over the last few days. Essentially, the board ousted Sam Altman as its CEO due to a lack of confidence and trust in him.  This led to a whirlwind of events: other employees quit in solidarity, he was hired by Microsoft, and then the board at OpenAI changed course and hired him back.  What does this all mean and how will it eventually play out? How did Sam and Microsoft really fare in this debacle? And how does this ultimately impact content creators? Tune in to hear Spencer and Jared's takeaways. The next bit of news they cover is that Google is testing out a “Simple Search” function, which would allow users to filter their search queries and simplify them.  How exactly does it work? What does this mean for the Search Generative Experience? What is Google really doing as it implements all of these changes? And what does it mean for bloggers? Listen and find out. The next topics are about shopping, which could not be more appropriate, since it is Black Friday after all. Google is now using AI to help people shop for their holiday gifts. Spencer and Jared discuss how it works and show the demo. Essentially, AI will help refine gift categories and help people find exactly what they're looking for. The new functions even let you virtually try on clothes! In other shopping news, Amazon has announced that, on Black Friday, its Prime Video will feature shoppable ads, allowing users to scan QR codes to make “instant purchases” during the NFL game. Speaking of shopping, as it's Black Friday, Spencer and Jared forgo the usual Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast to share some of the biggest and best deals they've seen this season. They talk about special discounts on Spencer's tools, like Link Whisper and Rank Logic, as well as on Jared's photography course. To save big on the best tools, check out the Niche Pursuits Black Friday Deals page! As for this week's Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first and reveals Rhyme Zone which, as the name suggests, identifies words that rhyme with your chosen word. The extensive results are organized by syllable. But what's really shocking is how much traffic the site gets! It's off the charts! How is it monetized? And what could it do better to earn more from ads? Listen to the episode for all the details. Jared's site is a bit more whimsical: Cloud Appreciation Society. This weird site features everything from the cloud of the day and cloud of the month to a “Recent Clouds Spotted” section. It also has a very cool UGC feature that Jared and Spencer discuss, as well as the possibility of buying a membership. Is this DR69 site ranking for a lot of keywords? How is it probably doing in terms of revenue?  And that brings us to the end of another episode! Hopefully, you feel like you're in the loop and caught up on recent happenings with Google and SEO. See you next week for another jam-packed episode! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Welcome back to Niche Pursuits News, where Spencer and Jared share the most important and recent news in SEO, digital marketing, content creation, and website building. Grab something to drink and get comfortable—there's lots to cover this week!  The first topic they cover is Google's antitrust lawsuit. One of Google's witnesses made a mistake on the stand and accidentally revealed that it pays Apple 36% of the revenue earned via search ad activity on Apple's Safari browser.  Essentially, Google is paying billions of dollars to Apple to ensure that it's the default browser on all of its products and it did not want this data to be revealed. What does this mean for other search engines? Does Google have a monopoly in the search engine market? Or, maybe a better question is, how good is Google really? Does it need to go to these lengths to become the default browser? Is the quality of its search actually getting worse? And what is the science behind being the “default?” The next news item up for discussion is Google's announcement about new ways that users can find what they're looking for on Search.  Google is testing out three features: allowing users to follow topics that they're interested in by adding a follow button, adding a perspective filter to allow users to get the best first-hand knowledge on a topic, and including information about content creators to highlight their expertise.  What other potentially controversial announcements has Google made with regard to new features? What's the role of AI in all of this? Tune in to find out!  Jared and Spencer then talk about Danny Sullivan's recent presentation at brightonSEO. The Google Search Liaison essentially told attendees to get ready for even more changes, tweaks, and improvements to Google's search rankings. To get a peek at his full presentation, head on over to Twitter, where he posted all the slides and see for yourself. But what were the overarching themes? Listen to the podcast to hear Jared and Spencer's impressions.  When it comes to Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about his adventures building a faceless YouTube channel.  He offers a summary on Twitter, but the gist is that he started uploading videos and one video went viral in May and got 474k views. He started to earn money and was making plans for the future when his viral video got hit with a copyright notification and had to be taken down. How have things gone since then? What's in store for this side hustle? Listen and find out what Spencer's doing now! When it's Jared's turn, he gives an update on his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle which, if you've been tuning in over the last few weeks, has been particularly volatile. The good news is that earnings appear to be picking up, so stay tuned to see if he sees a full recovery.  He also talks about his photography course on Weekend Growth and the importance of having high-quality photos, particularly in view of all the changes in Google. His course, which offers useful tips for non-professionals, is celebrating its 1-year anniversary.  Don't miss out on the chance to get it! Jared's offering it for 50% off with the code “Niche Pursuits.” When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, the co-hosts really capture the weirdness of the web. Spencer reveals his ‘90s-looking website, Disk Prices, which is essentially a list of hard drive prices and their different characteristics.  All of the links are Amazon affiliate links, and search engine traffic varies according to the source: 2600 organic searches per month according to Ahrefs, 20k according to SimilarWeb. How is the website updated? How is it doing on mobile? How did it fare during the HCU? What are the key takeaways from this website?  When it's Jared's turn, he shows his love for cats with Cat News Headlines. It's a repository of daily (and probably) manually updated cat news from all over the web. This DR4 site only ranks for 250 keywords. The main articles it's ranking for are cat food reviews and, in general, the site isn't doing especially well.  What do they think of the design? What is the site doing correctly (if anything)?   And that brings us to the end of another great podcast. We hope you feel informed of all the latest news in the SEO space and inspired to launch or continue your business projects and side hustles. See you next week! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

In this episode, you'll learn about my latest business updates - from monetizing a new niche site and using ChatGPT to create more content in less time, to optimizing my product suite and starting a membership site. I'll discuss 2 big topics in the blogging industry that I haven't dived into before - niche sites and artificial intelligence. If you've been thinking of trying any of these or adding an extra income to your blogging business, you might come up with some interesting ideas after this episode. Show Notes: The only thing that can get you out of a rut in business Why I started using AI How exactly I use ChatGPT as a blogger What the rise of AI tools means for content creators How I'm monetizing my other site My plans for the brand new niche site I started The course hosting platform I switched to Changes in my product suite that followed The new big thing I'm working on and my vision for it Mentioned: Bold Business School: https://boldbusinessschool.com/ Blogger Playground Waitlist: https://letsreachsuccess.com/waitlist-blogger-playground/ Podia: https://podia.sjv.io/jr5nd0 Teachable: https://teachable.sjv.io/n1WYxR Pinterest Boost: https://letsreachsuccess.podia.com/pinterest-boost Links:

#730 Everything's already been done! That's one of the common excuses we come up with to stop us from starting a business. We tell ourselves all the good ideas are exhausted and that there's nothing new we can do. But is that really true? In this episode, I want to help you shift your mindset around what it takes to build a brand online and help you discover promising niche markets. This doesn't only apply to people with expertise and credentials, either! Being an authority in your space is fantastic, but you can still offer plenty of value online by sharing your journey as a beginner. That's how I approached and grew Deep Pocket Monster to over 700k subscribers! So, how do you plant your flag and decide what you want to be known for? Listen in on this session for my tips and a look at one of the emerging niches I'm keeping an eye on! Snow notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session730.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! You definitely don't want to miss this one as it's packed with interesting insights and thoughts about events over the last week in SEO. After Spencer talks briefly about his positive experience promoting Link Whisper at FinCon, he and Jared dive headfirst into the big news of the week: Spencer's unexpectedly controversial post on X about how Google is slowly killing blogging.  Much to his (and everyone's) surprise, Danny Sullivan, from Google, responded to his post and offered a few helpful tips and takeaways from the HCU. This exchange generated a lot of debate about the topic—over 130 threads on Spencer's original post.  Spencer and Jared talk about the general confusion among site owners and content creators over the HCU and their efforts to understand what Google wants, and although Danny references this document to help people, people remain very confused and frustrated. They also talk about the difference between the HCU and previous updates like Panda and Penguin, and encourage everyone to check out the original post on X. Moving on, Spencer and Jared talk about the latest news about Reddit, as the platform is threatening to block Google. This decision hinges on Reddit's ability to reach deals with generative AI companies to pay for its data. What might happen to Reddit if it goes through with it? What would be the ripple effect? And what about the other 500+ companies that have already blocked their content from being scraped by AI? What would Spencer and Jared do if they ran Reddit? Tune in to hear them discuss the possibilities. The next big news is that the DALL-E 3 image generator is available in ChatGPT and it's free. With the right prompts, you can create whatever images you want.  Spencer shares a few images he created using the tool, Jared talks about using it to successfully create YouTube thumbnails, and they discuss the quality of the images it creates. As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer starts by talking about his most recent results with the Amazon Influencer Program. He shares that his videos are back in the carousel and his earnings are around $2k for the month.  Although he's finally cash flow positive with this side hustle, with 767 videos currently, what will the coming months hold in terms of earnings? Also, who's making more at the moment, Spencer or Jared? Listen to the podcast to find out which host is in the lead. Jared then talks about growing his Weekender Growth email list, which is now at 3k subscribers.  He shares his challenges growing the YouTube channel, which has about 12 videos, +1k subscribers, and 2000 watch hours. He hopes to monetize it in the coming months, so stay tuned to see how that evolves! As for weird niche sites, Spencer's find of the week is the very colorful Sound Buttons World, which receives 575k visitors per month from organic search and has tons of sounds that users can download or link to.  He and Jared look at the site's exponential growth and discuss why that may be, and they look at the types of keywords the site is ranking for. Jared shares his weird niche site, Day of the Week, which provides a lot of information about the days of the week, everything from the zodiac, birthstones, historical events, and more.  This DR26 site ranks for 60k keywords, and Jared and Spencer are very surprised when they take a closer look at those keywords and at the type of ads running on the site. Listen to find out why! And that brings us to the end of the latest episode of Niche Pursuits News! Hopefully, you're feeling informed and inspired. Tune in next week when Spencer and Jared take on more SEO, digital marketing, and niche site creation news. Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative 

It's Friday, and that means it's time for another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Jared and Spencer break down the latest SEO news into bite-size pieces. Buckle up people, because they cover many, many topics on today's episode! It's been one week since Google announced its core update for October, plus the spam update was rolled out, so Jared and Spencer first talk about how to know which may be affecting your site. For those affected by the HCU, they look at a very exhaustive, data-heavy resource and highlight some of the conclusions, including what type of content performed better, how new sites fared in the update, how article length importance has shifted, and conclusions about AI content. They also share their opinions on some of the author's theories and touch on the future of updates. Moving on, Spencer and Jared address Google's antitrust lawsuit and the recent news reveals that Apple was in talks to buy Bing or DuckDuckGo. They talk about the money that was exchanged between Apple and Google and how Apple negotiated the deal. The next topic is how a recent op-ed on Wired claiming Google alters users' search queries was recently pulled from their website for “not meeting their editorial standards,” and Jared and Spencer discuss why it might have disappeared. In the latest SGE news, they talk about how Google appears to be testing a lite version, where the results are taking up less space at the top of the page. They share a few theories about why this is, how the experience has changed over recent months, and what this means for website owners. In other SGE news, the conversation shifts to Google's AI-powered search and its ability to generate images and drafts. They also talk about how AI images are something we should be paying attention to. The next topic is how Google is using clicks to rank websites, contrary to what the search engine has said for years. They talk about the implications for privacy data and how this information may change the way we operate.  In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about a website in the news niche he created with his kids, the goal of which is to get traffic from Facebook. He built up a Facebook page to 30k followers and the website has traffic of 27k over the last month. His goal is to get into Mediavine in the coming months, and he'll report back as he and his writer make progress. Jared then talks about a spreadsheet he created to help website owners, SEOs, and content creators with prompts relating to the HCU. It's free over the weekend and then he may start charging for it, so grab it now! When it comes to weird niche sites, Spencer shares Cake Wrecks, which documents cake fails and adds some funny titles to the cakes. The DR59 site, which has been around for many years, is making money through ads and the author also has a book.  As for Jared, his site is History Colored, which adds color to traditionally black-and-white photos. What probably started as a personal project to add color to photos eventually expanded into a bigger website that targets informational topics and gets more traffic. They talk about how some pages might go viral. With 515k followers on Facebook and 355k subscribers on YouTube, this is a topic that does well on social media. And that brings us to the end of another jam-packed episode of the podcast. See you next week! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared analyze the latest news in SEO, digital marketing, and website building and offer their unique insight. You won't want to miss this episode, especially if you were affected by Google's Helpful Content Update.  As the update has officially wrapped up, this week Spencer and Jared dedicate a lot of time to talking about its massive impact on the industry. They share common insights and important takeaways from 4 SEO experts: Lily Ray, Glen Gabe, Barry Schwartz, and Marie Haynes. According to the experts, this update, the 3rd and largest of its kind, looked at over-optimized content and the authenticity of reviews. It also potentially penalized websites with the blogroll on the homepage and sites using too many affiliate links with no context.  User experience is another big topic, with Google appearing to penalize sites that are poorly-designed, sites with broken links and, perhaps most importantly, sites with aggressive ads and pop-ups. They also speak about how data reporters have not picked up on the volatility of this update, how niche site owners have been extremely affected, and how UGC seems to have been rewarded as opposed to SEO content. They discuss the importance of building a brand on multiple platforms, the importance of verifiable credentials, and the need for content from trusted sources that is truly helpful. Jared and Spencer then talk about the possibility of recovering from the update and self-assessing your site using Google's guidelines, and they offer sage advice to website owners who have been negatively impacted by this update.  In the next portion of the podcast, they share and analyze real sites that have been positively affected by the update, talking about why they think that is and what they're doing right. They specifically look at sites in the finance and travel spaces. They also take a closer look at a few sites that have lost traffic following the update, in the travel niche. Don't miss their conclusions about the update, their opinion on the future of the industry, and their advice on moving forward for site owners. Although they dedicate the bulk of the podcast to talking about the update, they do speak briefly about their current side hustles in the Side Hustle Shenanigans portion of the podcast.  Spencer speaks about his AI website challenge and how some of those creators are already seeing a little bit of traffic. He'll also be hosting a second YouTube Live on Monday, October 2nd, along with an AI expert. Jared briefly talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle and his Weekend Growth YouTube channel.   As for Weird Niche Sites, Spencer shares his: HowToPronounce, which is getting 1.4 million visitors per month, according to Ahrefs. It's ranking for lots of keywords with significant traffic, although it looks like it was hit by recent Google updates. Jared's site, I Might Be Funny, is a good example of UGC (but not SEO), as it amalgamates and shares content originally published on social media. Although it has a DR of just 6, it ranks for 4k keywords according to Ahrefs, some of which have significant traffic, and gets around 5k organic visitors per month. As always, talking about these weird niche sites allows Jared and Spencer to share some fantastic advice and inspiration when it comes to picking a niche and building websites. Tune in again next week when they bring their expertise to talk about the latest news in SEO and beyond. Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Join our next web class - https://buildassetsonline.com/playbookEnroll in the Elite Fleet NOW - https://www.buildassetsonline.com/elite-fleet-plus/ ABOUT US Joe and Mike Brusca own and operate a digital portfolio of over 10 websites including 4 high ticket dropshipping stores. The duo have created over 6 high ticket dropshipping stores, all in operation and profitable. 3 have been sold for a total of over $300,000K

Join our next web class - https://buildassetsonline.com/playbookEnroll in the Elite Fleet NOW - https://www.buildassetsonline.com/elite-fleet-plus/ ABOUT US Joe and Mike Brusca own and operate a digital portfolio of over 10 websites including 4 high ticket dropshipping stores. The duo have created over 6 high ticket dropshipping stores, all in operation and profitable. 3 have been sold for a total of over $300,000K

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, where your hosts Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, from 201 Collective, bring you all the latest news and insight in SEO, digital marketing, website building, and entrepreneurship. This week the hosts focus entirely on one major event in the space: Google's Helpful Content Update. As this major update has had wide-ranging effects on the niche site community, Spencer and Jared break it down for us and share some words of encouragement. The update, which came out a week ago, has really shaken up the community. All across X, website owners are sharing graphics and reports that reflect the very negative impact of the update.  Spencer and Jared highlight the change in Google's wording, where the focus has shifted from content “written by people” to “written for people” and articles that needed to be “written by an expert” now need to be “written or reviewed by an expert.” They share the stats behind some of their own websites, which experienced both gains and losses and talk about the chances that Google may include a rollback before the update is fully complete. They also talk about the sites that benefited from the update, such as Quora, Reddit, and other forums; they share their thoughts on EEAT and UGC; and they discuss the impact on Mediavine sites in particular.  In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer gives an update on his two new Niche Pursuits challenges, one where people (135 at the moment) will build a website with AI content from scratch, and the other where participants (73 currently) will add AI content to an existing website. The challenges are about to begin and Spencer will be hosting a kickoff call. Join the community and follow along! He also gives an update on his Amazon Influencer side hustle, reporting that Amazon has made changes in the way videos appear, which has in turn affected his earnings. He was about to crack the $2k per month, but these tweaks have kept him from reaching that goal. He has a total of 593 videos at the moment and plans to keep at it, at least through 4Q. Jared talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle too, sharing that his earnings went off a cliff due to the change in how videos appear. He talks about how he thinks the program will play out in the future and whether it's worth sticking it out. Moving on to their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first and shares Apple Rankings, a funny website that ranks apples according to taste. The site potentially gets about 55k visitors a month and has separate pages for different types of apples, which reflects a strong site structure. The site was created by a comedian, and it shows. Jared's site this week is Gizoogle, which translates content into “gangster-speak.” They test it out on some Niche Pursuits content with very entertaining results. This DA58 website gets very little organic traffic but has over 14 million backlinks. Although it's unclear if or how it's monetized, and even how it works, it's worth checking out for a good laugh. And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. Don't forget to tune in next week for more inspiration and insight into the world of SEO, content creation, digital marketing, and website building. See you then! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, from 201 Creative, are back with the latest news in niche sites, SEO, and affiliate marketing.  The first order of business this week is the news that the Google Core Update has finished rolling out. Jared talks about how, instead of looking at his Google Analytics to see how his sites weathered the storm, he looks at his ad networks. Jared shares information about the impact on a few of his sites and he talks about focusing more on earnings as opposed to fluctuations in traffic. Jared and Spencer also talk about how the update doesn't appear to have had much of an impact on AI content. The next news item on the agenda is the upcoming trial between the US vs. Google. Spencer talks about the potential implications of this monopoly trial, which is expected to last 10 weeks, on niche site owners and bloggers.  The main focus of the trial is whether or not it was illegal and monopolistic to not allow any other search engines to be used by default, although there are many other issues that will also be addressed in this important trial, which is expected to set a precedent. They also mention quickly how Google is also in the news in the EU, where it's accused of being a “gatekeeper” and has been ordered to give more freedom to other companies to compete under the new EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), starting in 2024. The next topic they discuss is how YouTube is making it easier for creators to choose the perfect thumbnail. The platform is coming out with an A/B testing tool and this function could be available next year. This would allow users to upload 3 custom thumbnails and then YouTube would test behind the scenes to see which performs the best.  Jared and Spencer talk about how this will affect YouTubers and why they think this is a good move by the platform. Then it's time to talk about some Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer talks about hiring 6 local people to create reviews for his Amazon Influencer Program account, where he has 453 videos at the moment.  After earning around $1500 in August, he's going all-in with this side hustle and expects to see an improvement in September and beyond. He also created a YouTube channel, where he's going to publish all of his Amazon videos and see what happens. Spencer also talks about a survey he recently published where he's looking for people to create an online business and he will document it publicly on Niche Pursuits. The type of project hasn't been decided yet, so don't forget to vote for what you'd like to see! Jared then talks about creating videos for his Weekender Growth YouTube channel, which has about 800 subscribers and 1,000 watch hours at the moment. Although he's a far way away from monetization, he's going to dedicate more time to this project going forward. Then it's time for everybody's Weird Niche Site. Spencer shares his, which is HTTP Status Dogs, which combines HTTP status codes with photos of dogs illustrating those codes. The site used to get 20 to 30k in traffic but now only receives about 1000 visitors per month. It's not monetized in any way, but it's a good laugh. Jared's site this week is Cornify, a unicorns and rainbows on-demand website. Aside from lots of functions like adding unicorns and rainbows to photos, coloring pictures online, and making your own younicorn, the site also has a store linked to Amazon products. Despite this, it only ranks for around 400 keywords and less than 1000 monthly organic visitors, although it does have a DR of 57. Jared and Spencer also talk about what the site is doing right and how it could improve. And that brings us to the end of another episode of Niche Pursuits News. Tune in next week so Spencer and Jared and keep you up-to-date with everything that's happening in SEO, website building, and content creation. What Niche Pursuit do you want to see started next? Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Is blogging dead? Nope. Nick Loper, founder of Side Hustle Nation is chatting with Chelsea Clarke about how he grew his side hustle niche site business into a 6-figure career. Nick has some great advice for niche website owners and podcasters alike. More at HerPaperRoute: https://herpaperroute.com/ 

I discuss what I think is the hardest part of publishing niche sites.

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. This week's show is hosted by Jared Bauman, from 201 Creative, and Jacky Chou, the digital asset investor entrepreneur behind Indexsy, Far & Away, and several other businesses. The episode kicks off with the latest about SGE, which can now be used when browsing and also offers users the option of summarizing the article they're reading. Jared shares a small experiment he did to see how well the summarization function works, comparing SGE with Claude and ChatGPT4, and they talk about the implications for content creators. Will this reduce the time on page? Will it lower ad or affiliate revenue? How will it affect smaller sites vs. authority sites and article length? Is this good news for end users or site owners? The conversation then shifts to how Tim Soulo, from Ahrefs, recently asked for feedback on Reddit. The company received a lot of backlash on the platform from unhappy users and Jared and Jacky talk about why they think that is and whether or not they believe it's justified. The next topic is a highly controversial tweet by Google's John Mueller, who says “A page doesn't have to be on a site that's “related to the niche” in order to be useful and helpful. You don't need to have a niche site in order to rank in Google, in fact, sometimes that's a good way not to rank.” His tweet really waded into a ton of topics and, perhaps most importantly, contradicts the concept of topical authority. Jared and Jacky talk about why Google may have said this, if they think it's true or not, and whether or not users should pay attention to it or ignore it. In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Jared begins by giving another update on this faceless YouTube channel which, sadly, still doesn't have enough subscribers to qualify for monetization. He does share some interesting statistics about the videos embedded on his website, he and Jacky talk about different aspects to improve on his channel, and he discusses his future plans on YouTube. Jacky then talks about parasite SEO and one of his side hustles where he's spinning up sites on Outlook India and redirecting penalized domains to them, the goal being to earn through Amazon Affiliates. If you want to know how it goes, follow him on Twitter. He also talks about a cold outreach strategy he's using at the moment and how it's going. As for their Weird Niche Sites, Jared shares The Hotdog which is, unsurprisingly, all about hot dogs. This DR31 site ranks for 12.8k keywords and has over 140 pages live. Although it doesn't appear to be monetized, it does look like a brand play. Jacky shares the site he found, Beaming Health, which helps users find specific therapists for their kids. He talks about how the autism services market is worth $7 billion and growing, and how search volume for these terms has been increasing by 50-60% each year. He shares a few business ideas related to this niche that he sees as potentially profitable. Thanks for tuning into another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. We hope you're feeling informed and inspired. See you next week! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Welcome back to another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman of 201 Creative. This week, like every week, the hosts serve up the latest SEO news as well as inspiration for listeners. They started by addressing the changes Google announced to the how-to and FAQ rich snippets. Specifically, Google will be limiting how-to rich snippets to desktop results and reducing FAQ rich snippets, and the roll-out should be completed by next week.  They talk about what this means for niche site owners and content creators, whether FAQs generally drive significant traffic, if this is Google's attempt to use SGE to provide that information, and whether or not creators should still include them in their content.   Then Spencer shares a post on LinkedIn from the COO of Word Agents, David Peterson, where he talks about how AI put them out of business, causing them to lose 70% of their revenue. He talks about how Make Lemonade suffered a similar fate, as discussed in a previous episode.  They talk about this unprecedented shift in the way content is created and how it's having a major impact on content agencies. Whether website owners are using AI to create their own content or taking a wait-and-see approach until the dust settles, major changes are happening and who knows what the landscape will look like in 8 or 9 months. The last news item they tackle is that Google is in talks with the Australian government as it wants to be able to scrape publishers' content and use it for AI training unless publishers specifically opt out. Spencer and Jared share their opinions on how they think they may affect content creators. In the Shiny Object Syndrome portion of the podcast, Spencer begins by giving an update on his faceless YouTube channel. His channel was doing very well initially, earning about $1800 in display ads in the first month, in particular thanks to a video that went viral.  When Google found that video to contain copyrighted material, it had to be demonetized. Although Spencer appealed the decision, he could not reverse it.  He talks about how he recently started adding more content to the channel, and earnings over the last month were $1.66. Spencer's not throwing in the towel, though. He's going to keep working on the channel though and is even starting a second faceless channel on YouTube. During Jared's turn, he talks about his faceless YouTube channel that he started and completely forgot about. He shares the strategy he used when he first created the channel. It currently has 23 videos and hasn't been touched in almost a year, yet it's got 400+ subscribers and 219k video views. He's very close to fulfilling the monetization requirements and he shares his strategy to move forward with this channel.  Jared and Spencer then talk about their weird niche sites, and Jared goes first with Fail Army. This entertaining website shares people's “fails,” like falling down and running into things. This DR47 website only ranks for 500 keywords and is more like a landing page. The action is over on their YouTube account, which has +16 million subscribers, and Jared talks about the potential they have to grow their website and drive traffic. When it's Spencer's turn, he shares his very weird niche site: Cyberspace and Time. He struggles to explain what this retro-looking website is all about, mainly because the creator also has trouble explaining what it is. What's really interesting are the stats: 500k visitors per month just a few months ago and 78k clicks from desktop users. All in all, the website is very weird! And that brings us to the end of another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with a lot of food for thought and no shortage of ideas for listeners! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

#705 Too often, creators focus on profit instead of the value they provide. So what is the first step toward building a successful business? It's making sure your products actually work and proving it! My returning guest, Mark Wills, is a perfect example of applying a serve-first mindset to entrepreneurship. He and his business partner Roman run Loan Signing System, the largest notary coaching business in the US. In episode 303, we heard how they used strategies from my book Will It Fly to build their incredible six-figure business. Mark's enthusiasm is just as infectious in today's high-energy chat. We talk about why community and authenticity are vital in the age of AI, how to run a hands-on business that can scale, the importance of social proof and gathering effective testimonials, the 5+1 email marketing strategy, and more. So how do you achieve massive success without compromising your desire to help others? Tune in to find out! Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session705.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Friday, so it's time for another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with your hosts Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman. This week, as always, they bring us the latest in SEO and digital marketing news. They kick things off with a big news item: Google has announced that it's testing live links in the Search Generative Experience. The good news is that it looks like an expanded featured snippet that may drive more traffic to our individual websites. Spencer shares an example of what it looks like currently and he and Jared talk about how Google may be testing different formats to see what users prefer. They also talk about Google's announcement of “new” things you can do with generative AI in search, the fact that AI-powered overviews are faster, and Google's focus on article publish dates. Spencer also shares a look at his SGE and he and Jared talk about whether or not the results they get are relevant and what the future might look like for SGE.  The next portion of the podcast is Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer begins by talking about his Amazon Influencer side hustle, which earned around $1800 over the last month. He talks about how he obtained approval into the program for a Facebook page he's been building (and spoke about on a recent episode) and handed over the entire project to his oldest son. Jared then shares an update on his Amazon Influencer program, which is up to 329 videos and brought in $2870 in July. He only started in May, so growth is quite impressive, and he has plans to continue to add more videos and take advantage of this massive opportunity. The next topic is the Weird Niche Site they've both discovered. Jared goes first and talks about Marcas de Whiskey (Whiskey Brands, in Spanish), a whiskey review site that was started last year. It's a DR 9 and ranks for over 50k keywords.  Although it started out in Spanish, it switched over to English and has seen its traffic triple over time, publishing over 1200 articles in a year. Jared talks about how well the author satisfies search intent and how this may be the main driver of traffic. Spencer nails it this week by finding a site that's both weird and very successful: Wheel of Names. This site, a DR 71, gets between 11 and 5 million visitors each month, according to Ahrefs and Similarweb, and traffic is growing. It's ranking for all kinds of “wheel” related queries and is monetized with Google Adsense ads.  All in all, another great episode from Jared and Spencer with lots of interesting news, ideas, and advice. Tune in next week for more! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! This week Spencer sits down with Josh Blackburn, a growth marketer at Link Whisper with an extensive background in SEO to talk about the latest news for affiliate marketers, website owners, SEOs, and content creators. They kick off the show by talking about how Google recently released its earnings for Q2 and the CEO, Sundar Pichai, said that the Search Generative Experience is going to gradually get better, faster, and more accurate and that user feedback has been extremely positive so far. Spencer and Josh put those comments into context and were skeptical of his statements, but one thing is abundantly clear: SGE is here to stay. Spencer does a few searches using SGE and he and Josh talk about the results. The next topic is Twitter and Elon Musk's rebranding of the company as X. Musk has a broader vision for Twitter as a massive brand where, in the future, users would be able to send payments, message others, shop, etc. Spencer and Josh talk about the future trillionaire's plans and whether or not they think he'll be able to pull it off. In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer starts by talking about his new software, Rank Logic. He shares that it has done better than he expected since its launch and talks about how it works. He also mentions two new features that were recently added which allow users to see how content is performing based on their category or tags. Josh then talks about a niche site he's been working on. It had been growing until it got hit with an algorithm update and lost most of its traffic. Josh is currently experimenting with that site by uploading AI content, sometimes up to 200 articles per day. He reveals that his traffic has increased not from the new content but, rather, from the old content. He and Spencer talk about why this may be, how he does it, and what his plans are for the site. Then it's time to talk Weird Niche Sites. Spencer's site is not that weird, but it is very successful: PDF2go. The site ranks really well for PDF-converting keywords and has lots of display ads. It's probably getting 10 million visitors per month and may be making 6 or 7 figures, also per month. Spencer talks about how the website probably started out with a one, simple free tool and, over the years, grew into a very lucrative business. Josh shares his site for the week: PercentageCalculator. This is just a simple, free, 3-page website that gets between 220k visits per month, according to Ahrefs, and 2.4 million, according to SimilarWeb. Along the same lines as Spencer's example, they talk about the possibility of replicating these sites' success. And that brings us to the end of another great episode of Niche Pursuits News. Thanks for listening, and don't forget to join us next week! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

#701 Entrepreneurs without programming knowledge tend to dismiss software-based businesses as too complex. Courses and other digital products are often seen as more accessible. But here's the thing—creating digital tools to serve your audience is easier than you think! Spencer Haws, today's returning guest, hasn't been on the show since episode 066. That was over ten years ago! He still runs an incredible blog at NichePursuits.com and has built and sold several thriving software businesses with no coding experience! In this episode, Spencer brings us up to date on his journey. We hear about his niche sites and get an inside look at his latest venture, Link Whisper—a WordPress plugin that makes internal linking faster and more effective. This fascinating chat covers everything from interviewing potential customers for successful product creation to selling a business for massive profit! Tune in and enjoy! Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session701.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week's episode of Niche Pursuits News is hosted by Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative, and Shawn Hill, a previous podcast guest and the brains behind The Grilling Dad. The first topic they dive into is Ezoic's announcement of the end of its affiliate program and its plan to lay off workers. They talk about the blow to affiliates but also mention how it created an interesting juxtaposition in providing a financial incentive for referring people.  They talk about the statement from Tyler Bishop, the company's CMO, about the discontinuation of the program, in which he shares some interesting data, as well as the letter from CEO Dwayne Lafleur about the layoffs. They also discuss whether there needs to be an entry-level ad provider for website owners. Jared and Shawn then move on to a different topic: the Claud 2 launch, by Anthropic. Claud is an AI language model which is gaining attention for having more human-like responses. Claud also allows users to upload files and ask questions about different documents, which is a unique feature.  Shawn shares his thoughts on it after using it a little bit and comparing it with ChatGPT, and Jared has some ideas about how to leverage Claud for SEO. Listen in to hear what they have to say! Moving on, Jared and Shawn touch on the recent volatility in the SERPs, suggesting that a Google update is underway. While the exact cause of the update remains unclear, there is evidence that changes are happening in the search engine landscape. The next topic on the agenda is Wix's launch of its AI website generator. The tool allows users to create complete websites with just the press of a button. Jared and Shawn discuss the implications of this new tool and its target market, noting that it will help certain types of businesses establish a web presence.  In the Shiny Object Syndrome portion of the podcast, Jared goes first with an update on his progress with the Amazon Influencer Program. He continues to rake it in and recently surpassed the 300-video mark. He also talks about taking a brief break from his Weekend Growth newsletter. Shawn talks about helping a friend build his first niche site and documenting the process publicly, and he also has a positive report on The Grilling Dad, which continues to grow and do well despite spending less time on it. As for the weird niche sites, Jared kicks things off with HEIC to JPG, which is a great tool for iPhone users, as photos are sometimes saved as HEIC files. They talk about the site's clean design and ease of use. It has a DR of 62 and only ranks for 5200 keywords, but it has a ton of number-one rankings and ranks for keywords with very high search volumes. They also talk about the idea of creating a tool that adds to your business or your website. Shawn then shares his weird niche site: Cooler Spy. He highlights how the site is dedicated to just one product, how it has lots of addictive YouTube videos, and has just 24 pages. He estimates traffic of around 10k and earnings of up to $1k per month, and although it's a small site, its quality is off the charts.  And that concludes another thought-provoking and inspiring episode of the podcast, where you can learn about the latest in SEO and niche site news and what it means for you! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

It's been another busy week in SEO news, and Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative, explain it all here! Don't miss the latest edition of the best news podcast for SEOs, people in the digital marketing and niche site development space, and everyone in between. First, they talk about how Google was recently hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming that it stole data from millions of users to train its AI tools and seeking compensation. Jared points out that we'll have to wait to see how this all plays out and how we address issues like copyright infringement and content rights and ownership.  They predict that, even if the suit moves forward, it won't stop AI or make much of a difference in the long run. That being said, lots of people are suing AI tools and there could be quite the legal battle ahead. Jared and Spencer then move on to talk about how Google has sent out emails notifying website owners of Core Web Vitals and INP issues on their sites, giving them until March 2024 to fix the issues. Then Spencer talks about how he was invited to use Google's new Search Generative Experience. By the end of the year, around 30% of all users will participate in a gradual rollout, and the remainder will be provided with access over time. Then Spencer and Jared do a few search queries live and talk about what it looks like, how it seems to work, and what they think of it. Spencer goes on to share a few podcast reviews before shifting to the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast.  He starts by discussing a niche website he created with his kids, who eventually lost interest. However, he's been working on it for the last 6 months and has been able to build up a Facebook page to +30k followers. His strategy is to post short articles on the website, share them on his Facebook page, and drive traffic back to the website, which is monetized with ads. Although he hasn't seen much success so far, he did have an article go viral, registering 48k users in about a week. Spencer's still wondering what to do with this project and he offers listeners the chance to reach out and partner with him to take it to the next level. Jared talks about his side hustles, focusing on his experience with the Amazon Influencer Program. He talks about the impact of Prime Day on his earnings and clicks, and how he's increased his earnings to more than $2k in the last 30 days. He also gives some ideas of unique places to go to get content for your videos. Jared also talks about the YouTube channel he's developing with his wife and the progress they're making, particularly with regard to copyright issues. He briefly mentions a WordPress plugin he's considering developing. Stay tuned to hear more about it! In the Weird Niche portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about a single-page website with approximately 3.3 million visitors a month, Sleep Calculator. The simple site helps you figure out when to go to bed and explains the various sleep cycles and it's monetized with display ads. He and Jared talk about sleep as a niche and the potential it has as a niche. Jared shares his weird niche site, Dash Lights, which focuses on dashboard warning lights and what they mean. The design is quite generic, it has a DR of just 8, and it's monetized with ads, but it's ranking for 27k keywords, 2000 of which are number 1 rankings, and probably gets over 100k visitors per month. Jared's theory about the success of this website is the great way it has established topical authority, and he thinks it could be earning up to $5k per month. And that concludes another informative edition of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. We'll see you next week! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast with Spencer and co-host Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative. This week they talk about the latest problems for Google, their side hustles, and some very strange niche sites. You won't want to miss this one! They kick off this episode by talking about how Google employees recently expressed their dissatisfaction with search results after the Reddit blackout. In response, Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the issue and introduced a new feature called "perspectives" to address it, a move that shows that Google is trying to balance AI-generated content with human perspectives.  Jared and Spencer discussed how bloggers who provide unique human perspectives and hands-on experiences can benefit from this change, highlighting the importance of honesty, expertise, and authenticity in search results. Spencer also shared his thoughts about Google's plans with its search generative experience, as it's clear that people want well-researched human reviews in the search results. Also, the fact that the Reddit debacle has got Google's attention is great news for content creators and bloggers. Jared and Spencer then talked about more bad news for Google.  Google is getting in hot water on YouTube and across the web as they haven't been complying with the agreed characteristics of the ads they display on websites. This is relevant for content creators and niche site owners as they often have ads displayed through Ezoic, Mediavine, or AdThrive.  Tons of companies, large and small, have been paying for video ads and Google has been charging them but hasn't been complying with the agreed characteristics of the ads and hasn't been transparent or accurate in how the videos are being displayed. The big question that Spencer and Jared ask is how this affects us as website owners and content creators. Listen in to hear more about their thoughts on this topic. Then Spencer shared some reviews of the podcast on Apple Podcasts Reviews and asks people to leave a review and he will read your name and website on their next podcast episode. In the Shiny Object Syndrome portion of the podcast, Spencer begins by talking about his new WordPress plugin, Rank Logic, which is now available. He talks about the challenges behind creating a plugin and preparing for the launch. Rank Logic offers users a better way to track their SEO performance. Jared talked about his side hustle using the Amazon Influencer Program, of which he has officially been a member for 30 days. He was happy to report that he broke the $1000 mark in his first month, a trend that will likely continue even if he doesn't keep uploading videos. He also talks about his daily earnings and the possibilities of growing his income even further. In the Weird Niche Site portion, Jared goes first and talks about Hire Goats, a site that lets you rent goats and have them come and manicure your property. The site was created in 2017 and has a DR of 26 although it's only ranking for 260 keywords. The 7-page site does, however, rank number one for all keywords related to renting goats, and although it's a very glitchy experience and it's a directory website, it's very possible that they're earning some money from it. When the hosts click around, they see that the goat landscaping website links to HireSheep.com. It's a whole world of possibilities! Then Spencer talks about his weird niche site, Random Word Generator which, as the name suggests, lets you generate random words, numbers, and phrases with certain characteristics. It's monetized with ads and gets 1.3 million organic visitors per month from Google and potentially 3 of 4 million visitors per month in total.  It has a DR of 72 and has really capitalized on all kinds of random generators, from dinner ideas to Bible verses, and could be earning at least $50k per month. As Jared and Spencer dig a little deeper, it looks like the creator has a whole network of successful sites. This conversation and Spencer and Jared's ideas are sure to get the creative juices flowing, so don't miss this episode! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Interested in 10x'ing your niche site profits? Garrett Yamasaki joins the podcast today to share how he started a dog site in 2018 and grew it into a massive success thanks to his strategic use of Amazon FBA. In the first three months, he wrote close to 100 articles targeting low-competition keywords before and after work. He saw exponential traffic growth around months four through six and knew it could be a viable business long-term. So he started hiring others to scale the business and started putting money into it. By 2019, he had 10 writers, one editor, and one virtual assistant. (He also lays out the simple yet effective workflow he uses to this day that any site operator should take note of.) In 2020, the Amazon affiliate side was growing rapidly, and by 2021, they were earning around $10,000 per month. That's when Garrett realized they could create their own product and make more money. He chose to go the private label route for a faster time to market. He identified manufacturers and branded the products for their market. And chose middle-priced products on Amazon to avoid competition from affiliates and generate external traffic to sell their products. To make it all work, he went with Amazon FBA for logistics, fulfillment, and storage and hired a VA to handle customer service. Garrett explains how Amazon FBA offers you 30-40% profit margins, compared to the 2-4% commissions as an affiliate. Plus, with Amazon's Brand Referral Bonus, you get 10% back for external traffic to their site, making it more profitable than going with a Shopify store. He also shares what the most effective type of Amazon ads are for generating sales and bestseller status. Plus, he discusses how adding FBA to his business has helped build a brand and traffic source outside of SEO. A much more profitable alternative to say, focusing on social media for brand building. It hasn't always been easy though, and expanding this business requires some experience. He discusses how going from one to now eight products have benefited from hiring a mentor and outsourcing to agencies to help with PPC and listings. Inventory management has also been difficult due to unpredictable sales curves. But he mentions that ordering a lot can help prevent stockouts. As such, Garrett keeps inventory in his garage in case of emergencies, as selling out affects his bestseller rating on Amazon. Overall what started out as a dog site has become a full-blown business. And although he's already making great money, he's still in growth mode. He reinvests much of the 20% profit margin he could be taking home back into the eCommerce side of things. And on top of all of this, his website generates at least $500,000 a year in passive income from ad revenue. This is a really great success story. Garrett shares tons of valuable tips, strategies, and things to consider adding to your own business to make way more money! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Get ready for an exciting new episode of our podcast, where Spencer and co-host Jared Bauman of 201 Creative dive deep into the fascinating world of AI, SEO, and website building!   First up on their agenda is Google's policy on AI-generated content and EEAT. At the moment, Google does not distinguish between AI and human-generated content and is not requiring creators to label their content. The hosts talk about why this may be and about how Google has also shifted its position on this topic and will probably continue to do so. They also discuss EEAT and AI, as artificial intelligence-generated content can't claim any kind of experience. As this is a topic that is constantly evolving, they agree to discuss it as changes arise. The next topic Jared and Spencer talk about is OpenAI's potential plans to open an AppStore for ChatGPT. This could include customized AI chatbots, which several companies are already selling. The hosts then briefly talk about how the INP report has now been added to Google Search Console and is now a part of the Core Web Vitals report. GA4 comes up when Jared asks Spencer about his thoughts on the new analytics, and the hosts talk about their experience using it. In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the episode, Spencer talks about his new side project, the WordPress plugin Rank Logic, which helps users track their SEO performance. It's a real game-changer that enables content creators to understand what's working and what's not and tracks changes they make as well as content and author performance. He's even considering incorporating GA4 into the app to make it the data user-friendly. The launch is imminent, so stay tuned! Jared talks about his new side hustle using the Amazon Influencer Program, reporting that in his first month, he will have made around $1000 from 229 videos. He talks about how daily earnings from the program fluctuate a lot and how inspiring it is to be able to build such a lucrative income stream in just one month.   As for Weird Niche Sites, Jared goes first and talks about the site People of Walmart, which features user-generated photos of the people that shop at Walmart. He talks about how a site like this could be created for any number of stores, although he and Spencer point out how normally it's very risky to use the name of a company as part of your domain name. Spencer shares his site, which is Psychic High School, a humorous site. It's updated actively but is a low-traffic site that's ranking for very few keywords. The hosts talked about why the site might have been created and they have a good laugh about the content. You won't want to miss this episode, where the hosts share insight, opinions, and a few surprises along the way!

Interested in setting up a YouTube channel? Spencer and co-host Jared Bauman of 201 Creative explore some exciting updates for content creators today on Niche Pursuits News. First up is a new announcement from YouTube that they're lowering the threshold for channel monetization! While content creators used to need 1000 subscribers and 4000 long-form watch hours, now you need just 500 subscribers and 3000 long-form watch hours in the last 12 months to start earning money on the platform. Jared and Spencer talk about why they think YouTube changed the rules, and they also discuss other ways to monetize using the platform, such as channel memberships. Then they move on to talk about how Time magazine announced its plans to remove its digital paywall and give everyone their content for free. Their plan is to monetize with display ads, using the same model many bloggers and content creators are using.  The hosts move on to discuss data in a SEMRush report that revealed interesting statistics about search engine users, like the percentage who change their keywords before clicking and how very few searches led to clicks on the first result in the SERPs in 2022. It's clear that user patterns of search are changing. What does this mean for us? Jared and Spencer also discuss a recent article in Search Engine Journal about Google making its feedback form more robust. According to Twitter, this move will set the stage for more negative SEO, and the hosts share their thoughts on the implications. Will the positives outweigh the negatives with this new move from Google? In the Shiney Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about recent developments with his faceless YouTube channel.  Although the channel was making $80 to $90 a day, a copyright claim has almost eliminated all of his earnings. His appeal was ultimately denied, and he talks about his plans for moving forward, as well as other ideas for faceless YouTube channels. Jared finally reveals more details about his YouTube project, which will revolve around read-alouds for social-emotional learning by his wife, a seasoned school counselor. She'll be working on this project all summer and Jared will report back on their progress. In the last section of the podcast, Spencer talks about a weird niche site he found years ago based on a scene from Star Wars where Darth Vadar screams. The site was getting around 30k visitors per month back in 2015.  Although the original website no longer exists, there's a copycat site now, but it only gets a few thousand visitors per month. Jared talks about the site he found called Awkward Family Photos, created with user-generated content. He talks about how the site is monetized using ads and how it's ranking for 20k keywords even though it's just a photo site.  As it turns out, Spencer and his family play the Awkward Family Photo board game all the time. This example certainly makes you think about creative monetization opportunities you might not have thought about before! Once again, Niche Pursuits News is coming at you with a thought-provoking episode on YouTube, legacy publisher strategies, changes in Google, unique side hustle ideas, and creative monetization techniques. Don't miss out! Tune in and listen now! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Will Google's new Search Generative Experience (SGE) help or harm site owners? Spencer and Jared kick off the latest episode of Niche Pursuits News pondering this question with some interesting findings as they look at various examples of search queries. They also reflect on a recent Twitter poll by Lily Ray and contemplate whether or not SGE seems to be an improvement over the existing Google search experience. For instance, in the event it turns out to be a glorified featured snippet and not so much AI as it is displaying site content directly on the SERPs, will Google provide attribution to site owners? They also consider how this GSE may work in YMYL niches. But in hopeful news, Bing AI has added links to sources of information within their AI results which could help put pressure on Google to do the same. The discussion then moves onto their shiny object shenanigans. Spencer shares some recent troubles he's run into with his faceless YouTube channel and what they're doing to fix it. Plus, he discusses how his upcoming plugin Rank Logic is coming along after beta testers finally got to use it. Then Jared gets into how he decided to jump into the Amazon influencer program and how he and his 201 Creative business partner Kaitlin managed to create 100 videos within a few days reviewing items in their homes. And as always, they close things out with some great niche site discoveries. Jared starts with Snake Dreams, a site that focuses on interpreting dreams about snakes. And although it's not doing so well these days, according to Ahrefs - back in 2017 it was receiving an average of 56,000 organic monthly visitors. Then it's onto Spencer's site highlight, Dimensions.com. This is a reference database for product dimensions founded by an architect that provides dimensions for various objects and people, including celebrities and fictional characters. The site is monetized via display ads and a subscription service that offers 2D and 3D downloads, no ads, easy download access, and support. And it appears the site is getting lots of traffic! So, it makes you wonder what's an problem or issue that people like have that could be turned into a helpful niche site! Overall, it's another helpful episode to wind down for the weekend, hope you enjoy.

Are you interested in turning your niche blog into a money making machine?! Niche sites have significant earning potential, but to reach that point, you need to know how to successfully get one off the ground. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Kristin Hanes, of The Wayward Home, from her sailboat in Mexico! Kristin is a former radio news journalist turned blogger, at The Wayward Home, who hopes to inspire and teach people how to live alternatively in an RV, campervan, sailboat or tiny home. She started her journey to tiny living in a Toyota Prius, and has since lived in a Chevy Astro minivan, a sailboat, and a DIY Sprinter van. She now splits her time between a Sprinter Van in the U.S. and a sailboat in Mexico. A true digital nomad! Kristin built her niche site from the ground up not knowing anything about online business, and five years later, averages 400,000 monthly pageviews, reaches 2.5 million people per year and brings in six figures of revenue from ads and affiliates alone! In this episode, Kristin shares her step by step process for successfully building, growing and scaling a niche site that earns multiple six figures per year! We'll also dive into the importance of SEO, keywords and how she feels about using AI. Kristin really is proof that creating a niche site is a great way to generate income while working as much or as little as you want. If you don't think it's possible to create a six figure income from blogging alone, this episode is for you! Enjoy the journey! ~ Rose Willard https://resetyourjourney.com/ Get Kristin's Free Blogging Course: https://thewaywardhome.lpages.co/how-to-start-a-blog-2/ Get 20% off Kristin's "Niche Sites Made Easy Course": https://thewaywardhome.thrivecart.com/niche-sites-made-easy/ Check out Kristin's website: www.thewaywardhome.com Listen to Kristin's podcast: https://www.thewaywardhome.com/category/podcast/ Follow Kristin: www.instagram.com/thewaywardhome www.facebook.com/thewaywardhome ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Be sure to JOIN the RVE community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/therventrepreneurcommunity CONNECT with RVE on your favorite socials: https://therventrepreneur.com/connect Have a QUESTION? We'd love to hear from you - send us a voicemail by clicking here: https://therventrepreneur.com/voicemail Want to be a GUEST on the show? Fill out this guest form: https://therventrepreneur.com/guestform ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The RV Entrepreneur: www.therventrepreneur.com The RV Entrepreneur is presented by RV LIFE - Tools that Make Camping Simple www.rvlife.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rve/message

Want an in-depth look and summary of the key findings from Semrush's State of Search 2023 report? Spencer and Jared sit down today to discuss it all, sharing key insights that are sure to help site owners and niche site enthusiasts in all sorts of ways concerning: Niche traffic trends The number of new sites indexed Google Update and search volatility trends Important CTR data And more. Plus, they highlight some interesting findings in the report about the differences between paid and organic traffic. The conversation then shifts gears to discuss their side hustles. Spencer shares how his Amazon influencer project is going, including diving into some of the numbers and discussing whether it's likely to be a profitable niche pursuit.  Jared also touches on one of his side hustle successes, discussing how he reached 1000 email newsletter subscribers in just 8 weeks. And of course, they dive into interesting niche site finds, including BetterSheets.co, a site that offers a course on how to use Google Sheets that is making over $100,000 a year.  And a Mai Tai niche site that documents different types of Mai Tais from around the world, including recipes and history.  The guys suggest potential ways to expand the site, such as creating a directory of Mai Tai bars in Hawaii and other ways to better monetize the site. So make sure to listen to the full episode to gain lots of valuable info to help you kick off a productive weekend. Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

More good news from Google. They've announced they'll be removing the Page Experience report and mobile-friendly test from Search Console in the coming months. So how will this affect you and what workarounds can you use instead? We've got you covered! In today's episode of Niche Pursuits News, Spencer and Jared dive into all sorts of important developments in the world of online business and niche sites. The guys discuss the recent Google algorithm update - which has impacted an estimated 40% of sites, including some non-review pages. And of course, they delve into Google's decision to replace the page experience report and mobile-friendly test with a more holistic approach. You'll get some help on how to optimize your site for a great page experience, unraveling the confusion surrounding core web vitals, general page experience, Google Page, and speed insights. Including some important pointers on which alternative tools can help with website audits. Also important to site owners, AdThrive has rebranded as Raptive, shifting its focus to enterprise customers and possibly expanding into an influencer network. Learn how this company has evolved over the years, from CafeMedia's acquisition in 2016 to being acquired by private equity firm ZMC in 2018, and how it strives to meet the needs of creators and enterprise publishers. Spencer also shares his experience running the Boston Marathon, and why it's the most prestigious marathon in the US. We also get a sneak peek into their exciting new projects. Spencer shares an update on his faceless YouTube channel's monetization journey, while Jared discusses his newsletter. Finally, we learn all about two unique niche sites: cockroachfacts.com and marathoninvestigation.com. The former is a surprisingly well-developed site with a range of content on cockroaches, while the latter investigates and exposes marathon cheaters.  Overall, it's another great episode, full of insights and pointers to help you stay on top of things and make the most of your marketing efforts. This Episode is Sponsored by https://search-intelligence.co.uk/ Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

Starting your first niche site is one thing – buying, growing, and flipping an empire of sites is another. So how do you scale and sell a portfolio of niche sites? Shawna Newman is an SEO expert with nearly 20 years of experience acquiring and scaling niche sites. She is one of the most seasoned SEO professionals in the industry, known for her unique testing methods and extensive year-long case studies. She is also the founder of Skipblast, where she shares her key findings from her SEO and business research. Shawna joined us on this episode to discuss her methods for building a niche site portfolio, what to look out for when buying and selling sites, how to scale newly acquired sites, and much, much more. Topics Discussed in this episode: How to build an SEO site portfolio from scratch  How long it takes to make $1,000/month from a niche site How to buy and sell sites as part of an SEO portfolio How to diversify your revenue streams, grow your sites, and run an email list When to monetize your site How Shawna developed a successful system to acquire aged and expired domains Shawna's monthly growth and selling plan How to bounce back from an algorithm update The misconceptions about monetizing and “dripping out” your content The future of building niche sites Mentions: Empire Flippers Podcast Empire Flippers Marketplace Skipblast Copyhackers Authority Hacker Google Trends Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn the secrets to building a portfolio of high-performing niche sites.

Get ready for an exciting episode of This Week in Niche Pursuits News, where we dive into a rollercoaster of digital marketing stories: From a $9 million employee theft scandal at Ezoic to weird niche websites and ad network comparisons. This episode is a treasure trove of interesting discussions to help close out another week! Things kick off with a jaw-dropping case of employee theft at the popular ad tech company Ezoic. The guys explore how one crafty individual tried to steal $9 million by altering the bank account details on the company's Google AdSense account. Luckily his plan was foiled, but not before Ezoic faced layoffs and cash flow struggles due to the incident. The conversation then switches gears to continue last week's discussion on Google's latest update, and how it's expanded to encompass all types of reviews, not just products. The conversation also gets into the fascinating world of weird niche sites, like sleepinginairports.net – a handy guide for those seeking a good night's sleep during layovers or as a hotel alternative. This unconventional site thrives on crowdsourced reviews and enjoys a whopping 46,000 organic traffic per month (according to Ahrefs, so for sure, their real traffic is much higher)! They also cover a mysterious travel site whose social media presence is suspended and a Lego site with untapped potential in email marketing and social media. And the question on every site owner's mind is: which ad network pays more? We tackle this question head-on, comparing Ezoic and Google AdSense, considering factors like ad setup, programmatic display, and site speed. Spencer then dishes on his latest side hustle – outsourcing product review videos for the Amazon Influencer program. With a team of five videographers and a video backlog, Spencer is set to rake in commissions from product page views. To wrap things up the guys discuss the perks of starting with ads on a website for that initial burst of energy and income and share an SEO tactic that involves hunting for unlinked mentions and requesting links. In a nutshell, this latest episode of This Week in Niche Pursuits News covers a wide array of digital marketing topics that are both fun and interesting for anyone involved with online businesses. Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper 

Do you have e-Commerce or dropshipping experience and want to learn how to leverage your knowledge to grow profitable niche sites today? Or how about some tips and prompts to create great AI-powered content? If so, you're lucky because James Beatty is on the Niche Pursuits podcast with tons of golden nuggets to share. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter                              -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- James has been building online businesses for years, mostly with dropshipping and YouTube. But when 2020 disrupted the global supply chain and Facebook ad costs, he started looking for something more passive and hands-off. And so, in 2021, his niche site was born, ticking all the right boxes for his ideal business model. He focused on tutorial-style articles, answering questions related to the niche, and later hired a writer to create affiliate content. The website's main source of revenue was Ezoic ads, with some income from Amazon. James hired writers to scale up content production and reinvest profits from the website. While James says he was in no way an SEO expert, his site reached 96,000 page views in its first year generating $3,000 in monthly profits. It eventually peaked at 365,000 page views, $7,700 in revenue, and $5,000 in profit. Then the site got hit by a Google update, and James decided it was time to sell. He soon after successfully exited for just over six figures, with an ongoing 6-month performance bonus. And in his interview, James shares lots of great advice and insights into: Why you should have a passion or some prior experience in your niche. How incorporating video content can boost rankings and engagement. Handling the emotional rollercoaster of growing and selling a site Deciding when to sell How he now decides what niches to go after in the age of AI And more... He believes anyone can create content if they are one step ahead of their audience and can provide value. He also discusses his use of AI in content creation. He's been testing out GPT-4 and shares some tips he's been using to produce surprisingly good articles. And he shares some great prompts you don't want to miss! So, tune in to the full episode to learn more and get inspired to scale your niche site today. Topics James Beattie Covers Why he transitioned from eCommerce to content sites Differences between paid and organic traffic How his eCommerce experienced helped his current work His first content site revenue numbers The ups and downs of SEO How he chooses a niche Being one-step ahead of the audience Using video content Creating helpful and logical topical silos The emotional involvement when building content sites Diversifying content types Selling after a Google hit Tips for using AI for written content And more... Links & Resources James Beattie (@jamesybeattie) / Twitter James Beattie on YouTube LowFruits : Analyze the SERPs faster Empire Flippers - Website Brokers | Vetted Marketplace

What do you think about passive income? Have you always thought that it wasn't possible or it is something that other people can do but not you? Or have you ever wanted to create a side project that can generate revenue for your business passively? If so, this episode is for you.In this episode of Art of Online Business, I sat down with one of my Accelerator coaching members, Kristin Hanes, to talk about how she generates multiple five-figures in passive income from her niche website every month without selling anything. Kristin Hanes is a former radio news journalist and now publisher at the Wayward Home, where she teaches people how to live an alternative lifestyle in a campervan, RV, sailboat or tiny home. Kristin built her niche site from the ground up knowing nothing about online business, and five years later, averages 400,000 monthly pageviews, reaches 2.5 million people per year and brings in six figures of revenue. Kristin splits her time between a Sprinter van in the U.S. and a sailboat in Mexico. Her first foray into tiny living was in a Toyota Prius, in which she lived for four months with her partner, Tom.Kristin creates truly passive income every single month while being a digital nomad and now she's showing others how to do what she does. She really is proof that creating a niche site is a great way to generate income while working as much or as little as you want. In this episode, you'll learn:How Kristin got started with bloggingThe importance of SEO when growing a websiteThe type of traffic she is getting right nowThe revenue that she brings in from her websiteWhat Kristin's work schedule looks like Why she decided to create a course and what she teachesTips for finding writers and good VAsThe strengths and weaknesses of using AIHow Kristin approaches marketing for her course without adsLinks & Resources:The Art of Online Business websiteDM me on InstagramVisit my YouTube channelThe Art of Online Business clips on YouTubeFull episodes of The Art of Online Business Podcast on YouTubeThe Art of Online Business Podcast websiteCheck out my Accelerator coaching program*Disclosure: I only recommend products I use and love and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.Kristin Hanes Links:Check out Kristin's websiteGet Kristin's courseFollow Kristin on InstagramFull show notes available at www.rickmulready.com/684

#1255 This is a very special Where Are They Now? session. You see, my returning guest was able to quit her full-time job just three months after our first AskPat call together. But she actually decided to go against my advice and follow her gut instead! Now, to be honest, that's not exactly the whole story. I'll let Dr. Kimmy of The Doctor Coach School share the twists and turns of her journey with you. Suffice it to say, she's serving more people than ever, and business is booming. I say it all the time—the riches are in the niches. By narrowing our focus, we're actually helping more people. This is a counterintuitive strategy that many beginner entrepreneurs struggle with. Dr. Kimmy was able to overcome this hurdle and take her business to the next level. In today's episode, we hear all about how she found her voice and is now helping women doctors of color transform their lives. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/ap1255.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.