Earning $3000-$4000 per Month on Kindle in Just 6 Months as a “Professional” Author
Last year, Lise "came out of nowhere" as they say, and published 13 books in 6 months, and now earns between $3000 and $4000 a month in author royalties. Of course the truth is she didn't come out of nowhere at all; she came out of New Zealand and had already built a successful freelance writing business. However, the hustle of delivering work for clients all day had her seeking a more time-le...
39m May 21, 2015
39m
The 3 C’s of Side Hustle Happiness
Creation, connection, and contribution are the 3 C's I believe everyone needs to live a happy healthy productive life, whether that life contains a side hustle or not. In this episode I share the audio from my TEDx talk, which breaks down the 3 C's and why they're so important. The idea for this episode came from an email I wrote last week in response to the statistic that only 30% of workers...
21m May 15, 2015
21m
How to Make Money as a Freelancer – Without Competing for Jobs on Elance or oDesk
Freelancing or selling some useful service is one of the fastest ways to earn more money. It may not be as sexy as "passive income" but it does come with instant gratification. Make deals, deliver awesome work, and get paid. In today's show, I'm excited to welcome back Daniel DiPiazza from Rich20Something.com. You may remember Daniel from Episode 35, where he talked about how his "marsupial m...
44m May 14, 2015
44m
Monetizing Your Art and the Path to 1000 True Fans
On this week's show, I'm joined by Steph Halligan, who runs ArtToSelf.com. She's a talented cartoonist who began a daily blog and email newsletter with inspirational and affirmational art -- all created by her. The site is 100% supported by donations from her followers, and even though it's very early in the journey, I think there's enough validation to say she's on the path her 1000 true fans...
38m May 07, 2015
38m
Public Coaching Update: Rejected by the App Store!
Where we left off with Wellington, he was facing some quality control challenges with his app developer in building the Getaway Geek travel hacking app. There was some back-and-forth after some testing and a lot of bugs that needed to be fixed. Since we spoke, those had been reasonably buttoned up and Wellington submitted the app to the App Store for approval. Unfortunately, it's been rejecte...
45m May 01, 2015
45m
The Best Passive Income Model?
I was very excited to sit down with Mark Podolsky, The Land Geek, to talk about his side-hustle-turned-full-time-biz of investing in raw land. In fact, he was able to replace his day job income and quit his job only 18 months after starting. Mark calls it the best passive income model because you don't have to worry about building a website, building a product, dealing with tenants, dealing w...
33m Apr 30, 2015
33m
Side Hustle Coaching: The Sales Process and Delivering the Goods
In today's installment of my public coaching series I'm catching up with Kathryn, who’s starting a gluten free baked goods business out of her home in Portland Oregon. When we last spoke, she’d just landed her first customer and sold her first $20 worth of product. Now she's up to two recurring clients and is also contracting to make gluten-free granola for one of her customers.
42m Apr 24, 2015
42m
Stand Out: Build Your Unique Authority and Get Paid
Dorie's latest book is called Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It, and it is the perfect companion to anyone trying to build a personal brand, an authority website, or an audience-based business. This episode is a little different from other Side Hustle Show episodes because we actually don't talk much about Dorie's personal story or experience at all,...
42m Apr 23, 2015
42m
How to Retire in Your 30s
I've been medium-obsessed with the idea of early retirement ever since I discovered this little blog called Mr. Money Mustache a couple years ago. The basic formula goes like this: once you have 25x your annual spending in invested net worth, you can theoretically live off growth/interest/dividends in perpetuity. On today's episode you'll meet Jeremy Jacobson, who retired at 37 and now spends...
34m Apr 16, 2015
34m
How to Find and Validate Your First Import Product
Four months ago, Andy Slamans gave us a detailed look at Amazon FBA product selection, working with manufacturers, and bringing those products to market. But the most common question I get from listeners is how to find that first product to import. How do I find a profitable product? How do I measure the competition? How do I validate the demand and the pricing? In today's episode, I sit down...
40m Apr 09, 2015
40m
Public Coaching Update: App Development Headaches and Brainstorming a SaaS Business
In this episode we're catching up with Wellington, my public coaching volunteer in New York. Where we left off, he was working with an outsourced app developer to finalize a beta version of his travel hacking app for the app store. He shared that he'd previously only ever made $0.07 online, but has the goal of earning $2500 a month by the end of 2015. One of the biggest challenges for Wellingt...
31m Apr 03, 2015
31m
Zero to $50k a Month: Email Marketing Hacks for Entrepreneurs and Audience Builders
Dan Faggella sent me an email last month that essentially said, "Hey Nick, I'm a fan of the show. I have some expertise in email marketing, and I know many of your listeners are working to build their online presence and their email lists. Would it make sense to do an episode on some list building and email best practices?"And then he added the kicker: "I'm making $50k/mo selling martial arts t...
42m Apr 02, 2015
42m
Public Coaching Update: Kathryn Lands Her First Customer and Talks Next Steps
In this episode we're catching up with Kathryn, my public coaching volunteer in Portland. Where we left off, she was starting a gluten-free cottage bakery out of her home. The ultimate goals were to be able to leave her less-than-awesome day job and figured with a net monthly side hustle income of $1500, she'd be able to lease some commercial kitchen space and scale up her operations. When yo...
29m Mar 27, 2015
29m
Behind the Scenes at Side Hustle Nation
This week my friend Alex Barker co-hosts and interviews me on my entrepreneurial beginnings, my first side hustle, and the origins and future of Side Hustle Nation. We also go through a few listener questions as well. I realized I've told some of these stories only in bits and pieces on the show and on the Side Hustle Nation blog before, despite having mentioned them on several other podcasts....
40m Mar 26, 2015
40m
Ideas are Worthless? Nate Earned $300,000 in Passive Income From His (An Intro to Product Licensing)
Nate and his brother earned $300,000 in passive income by licensing one of their ideas to Mattel. They didn't have to design it, produce it, or sell it. But they found someone who could, and they cashed the checks. And to be fair, Nate will be the first to tell you these kind of results aren't typical -- but he's proof they ARE possible. Nate's actually a dentist by day, but a pretty serious ...
41m Mar 19, 2015
41m
From $100 to $30,000 in Nine Months
John Corcoran is well-known in online business circles for being "the connections guy," but I was more curious in how he's built his own online business than networking tips. Today he sells his own premium course on Connecting with Influencers, plus earns money as an affiliate for other high-dollar, high-value online products. In January, he earned $30,000 in one month, through sales of his o...
52m Mar 12, 2015
52m
Public Coaching Kickoff: Introducing Our Stars As They Begin Their Quest
"Gun to your head, what would you do to earn an extra $500 in the next 30 days?" By far the best response I received to this question came from Mike Greig: "I go Bruce Lee circa 1970 on the guy holding the gun. Quick chop, headspin roundhouse kick...now I've got the gun. I'd leave the assailant alive but immobile, take the gun and pawn it to make my $500."
59m Mar 05, 2015
59m
Essentialism and Finding Your ONE Thing
In Hawaii and on the plane home I read two books with very similar themes: The ONE Thing by Gary KellerEssentialism by Greg McKeownBoth titles share the common message of FOCUS -- de-cluttering your day, your work, your mind, and your life. They came at a good time because I was starting to feel overwhelmed with projects and wanting to pursue new ideas and opportunities as they came up.
25m Feb 27, 2015
25m
$10k from a Single Sale … on Fiverr
Twenty months and 90 episodes ago, I was introduced to the incredible story of AnarchoFighter, the Top-Rated Fiverr seller who earned enough cash on the platform to buy a house. That episode convinced me to give Fiverr a shot as a seller myself, and it's turned into a fun side hustle income stream. Since we last spoke, Fiverr has implemented a bunch of changes, including the option to create c...
51m Feb 26, 2015
51m
Tax Saving Tips for Side Hustlers
It's tax season, and I think it would be foolish to give Uncle Sam more than you're legally required to. This week I'm joined by Joshua Sheats from RadicalPersonalFinance.com and the host of the Radical Personal Finance podcast. He explains there are 2 tax codes: the personal tax code and the business tax code. As a business owner, even as a side hustler, there are a number of distinct tax ad...
51m Feb 19, 2015
51m
How to Start and Scale a Service Business to Quit Your Job
Dayne Shuda runs GhostBlogWriters.com, a done-for-you blogging service that commands premium prices, and oversees a team of 20 part-time writers to deliver the work for clients around the country. But like most businesses, Ghost Blog Writers came from some pretty humble beginnings. In fact, Dayne started it as a side hustle with $0 upfront investment.
43m Feb 12, 2015
43m
Building a Location Independent Business of Freedom and Travel — Even With a Family
Here's a guy who built an online business, and had the courage to up and move to Cozumel, Mexico -- with his wife and 3 young daughters. It's not your typical single-23-year-old-dude digital nomad type of story, though Sean's business itself is simple enough to be replicated. This is a fun chat about hustling for business and building a lifestyle on your own terms. I think you're going to lik...
39m Feb 05, 2015
39m
Rapid Product Creation, Book Launch Tactics, and Turning a Book into a Business
This may surprise people, but I'm a pretty slow writer. I have a challenging time writing in "rough draft" mode. You know, where you just brain dump onto the page and clean it up later. That's one reason I wanted to have Chandler Bolt back on the show; because he's got a cure for that I'm anxious to try out. In this episode, we talk about his 3-step writing process to quickly create a new boo...
40m Jan 29, 2015
40m
How Non-Techies Can Build a Passive Software Business
Jon Nastor is lifelong side-hustler, the co-founder of VelocityPage.com, a pain-free webpage building tool for WordPress that’s grown to hundreds of users, and as a side hustle, he hosts the top-rated Hack the Entrepreneur podcast. His situation is somewhat unique in the software world in that he's NOT a coder or a programmer. Instead, he had an idea of what he wanted to build, from his own f...
41m Jan 22, 2015
41m
15,000 Subscribers in 6 Months: How to Build Your Email List From Amazon
You want traffic? You want readers? You want customers? You'll want to listen to this episode. Your free book is essentially your epic "guest post" -- only a MUCH bigger site than you could ever hope to publish on regularly. Like a good guest post, it leads readers back to more of your content, where they opt-in with their email to continue their relationship with you. This works for authors...
41m Jan 15, 2015
41m
6 Figures in 6 Months … with No Inventory, No Coding, and No Selling
I'm thrilled to welcome Benny Hsu back to The Side Hustle Show! Remember Benny from way back in episode 17, when we talked about dominating the app store? In 2014, his app business took a backseat to a new side hustle: selling t-shirts through Teespring. I ran into Benny at Podcast Movement last summer, where I was proudly rocking my "Every day I'm hustling" tee, and we got to chatting about ...
40m Jan 08, 2015
40m
The 5 Step System to Quit Your Job In the Next 12 Months
If you're not already following Bryan Harris, I recommend you do. The guy is super smart and has a unique way of breaking things down so that they're easy to understand and implement. He doesn't mess around, and gives super-detailed actionable advice with some awesome examples, but gives the caveat that it takes real work. This is not a 4-hour workweek passive income system -- at least not at ...
36m Jan 01, 2015
36m
Unlocking LinkedIn: Secrets to Grow Your Email List, Expand Your Network, and Build Your Business
It had been several years since I'd given any thought to my LinkedIn account, and it was due for a serious overhaul. Enter Joshua Jordison, a former side hustler turned full-time entrepreneur (primarily in the event production industry). Joshua, who goes by JJ, walked me through step-by-step on how to turn my LinkedIn profile from zero to hero.
46m Dec 25, 2014
46m
Part-Time Podcasting for Profit ($1900 in Week 3?)
Scott Oldford sent me a proposal for a podcast episode about part-time podcasting, and included the hook, "I've made $1900 in revenue from my first episode." OK, I'm listening! In this episode we discuss how a podcast can be a very part-time venture but still reach a wide audience and begin to earn revenue on its own.
46m Dec 18, 2014
46m
$33k in 30 Days? Getting Started with Private Labeling and Amazon FBA
Selling on Amazon is one of the hottest side hustles around, and I'm not talking about selling books! In this show, we'll dive into sourcing and selling your own physical products on Amazon by finding what's hot in the marketplace, making smart purchases, and out-marketing the competition. I'm joined by Andy Slamans, an Amazon seller who turned his online side hustle into a full-time business...
49m Dec 11, 2014
49m
How to Win Clients With Your Personal Brand, Plus 3 Live Listener Brand Audits
Jessica is a PR professional by day, but gets in her side hustle work of freelance writing, blog management, and branding bootcamps primarily in the early hours of the morning. 5:00am wake up call! During this call we discuss the merits of personal branding and why it's important even if you still have a day job. We also selected 3 audience victims/volunteers to have their websites and persona...
46m Dec 04, 2014
46m
The OMG and 5 Other Habits That Will Make You a More Effective Entrepreneur
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're having an amazing holiday with friends and family, and taking a moment to reflect and recharge. Even though it's an American holiday, the idea behind giving thanks for what we have is universal. What's your Turkey Day tradition? I'm behind the mic solo this week, talking about 6 habits I believe have made me a better entrepreneur, and how you can implement t...
27m Nov 26, 2014
27m
The Path to $5k a Month Passive Income Sharing What You Already Know
When I asked listeners last month who they'd like to hear on the show, Rob Cubbon is a name that came up from a couple different people. Rob's been crushing it lately between is online teaching efforts and his Kindle publishing business, and as luck would have it, is a Side Hustle Show listener himself. I've been following Rob's blog for some time myself, and have been really impressed with h...
45m Nov 20, 2014
45m
How a Single Apartment Turned Into a $60,000 a Year Hands-Off Business
Jasper Ribbers is one of the leading experts on building an Airbnb side hustle, having done it himself with his Amsterdam apartment and having co-authored the bestselling book on the topic, Get Paid for Your Pad. (He also runs a blog and podcast by the same name.) I was introduced to Jasper by Jesse Krieger (Episode 62, Generating Lifestyle Business Ideas That Work), and grew fascinated by hi...
37m Nov 13, 2014
37m
Getting Started in Real Estate Investing for Less Than $100
J. Massey discovered real estate as a business out of necessity. He and his wife were both in poor health, and as he explains, had a 398 credit score and $75 to their name. Then, introduced to real estate wholesaling, the picture began to turn around. This strategy allowed J. to develop some cash flow without risking his own limited assets, and he says he got started by dedicating just 2 hours...
47m Nov 06, 2014
47m
How to Build a Full-Time Freelancing Business
Carrie Smith's CarefulCents blog is one of my personal favorites. Why? Because she's a side hustler who's been there, done that. She's built her part-time freelancing business to the point where she was able to quit her job and become a full-time entrepreneur. In the process, she's built up a popular blog and personal brand, paid off $14k in debt, and commands significantly above-market rates...
34m Oct 30, 2014
34m
Growing a $4k a Month Business in an Hour a Day
When I learned the results Kellie Gimenez was seeing in her business, I knew I had to hear the story firsthand. She's a former co-worker of mine, who became a Beachbody coach in the spring of 2013. After following along with her journey on social media, I finally reached out to invite her on the show. In just 18 months, she's built her business up to more than $4k per month, with plans to pus...
34m Oct 23, 2014
34m
Building Recurring Revenue Streams as a Side Hustler
Today, Alexis Grant runs a social media, content marketing, and blog management agency and manages a team of 10 people to get it all done. But like many of us, she started off as a side hustler, working her way up and adding clients until it was time to make the leap. She took some very strategic steps along the way, including setting up clients on a retainer model instead of a one-off projec...
39m Oct 16, 2014
39m
How I Earned $7490 in My First 14 Months on Fiverr (and my plans to double it)
One of the surprising bright spots in my side hustle portfolio (my strategy of building multiple income streams) has been Fiverr. After hearing the incredible story of AnarchoFighter last year, I knew I had to give the platform a shot! While I haven't exactly earned house-buying money, it has turned into a nice little revenue source. I'm up $7490 through 14 months, or a little over $500 a mon...
49m Oct 09, 2014
49m
How to Make Money Driving in Your Spare Time
This week’s side hustle requires ZERO technical skills or expertise, you don’t have to sell anything, and you don’t have to make a big upfront investment. In fact, you probably already have the 2 key ingredients: a car and some spare time. The fine print (as I learned while I was recording this) that your […]
33m Oct 02, 2014
33m
How to Build and Monetize an Authority Site
Everybody's an expert in something, right? Well this week's guest, Matt Giovanisci, is an expert in pool care. He describes it as the most boring industry that serves such a fun product. He's taken an innovative approach to rank his site, SwimUniversity.com, in Google and monetize it with affiliate relationships and private advertising. I feel like Matt's process is proven and repeatable -- ...
43m Sep 25, 2014
43m
How to Make a Full-Time Living on Craigslist
Ryan Finlay from ReCraigslist.com makes a full-time living (and supports his family of 7) buying and selling items on Craigslist.In fact, he used this business to pull himself out from $25,000 in debt and now teaches others to do the same. This is really one of the most fascinating side hustle stories I've come across because there's a Craigslist for your city that is probably teeming with "in...
37m Sep 18, 2014
37m
One Page Adsense Sites and Productized Consulting
If you've been in the "niche site" game at all over the past few years, this week's conversation will open your eyes to a whole new world of possibility in the realm of making money with Adsense. Kurt Elster is the co-founder of EtherCycle, an online marketing strategy and web design and development firm. But on top of that, his company also runs a plethora of one-page micro-sites that earn ad...
32m Sep 11, 2014
32m
Software as a Side Hustle: Mistakes, Market Validation, and Massive Scale
I'm excited to welcome Spencer Haws back to the show this week! Longtime listeners may remember Spencer from episode 18 of the show, where he gave us a step-by-step walkthrough of how he builds profitable niche sites from scratch. But in addition to his niche site empire, Spencer is also an accomplished software entrepreneur. His popular Long Tail Pro software powers the keyword research for ...
41m Sep 04, 2014
41m
How to Build a Private Blog Network to Quickly Get to the Top of Google
In the SEO community, private blog networks (PBNs) have been all the rage lately. The basic premise is this: You buy up a small portfolio of expired domains that still retain a strong Domain Authority (a Moz metric for estimating a site's search engine clout), and put links on those sites to your "money" site. The net effect is 5-10 perceived high value sites linking to your site, which boos...
35m Aug 28, 2014
35m
How I Got My First Sale in 6 Different Businesses
One of my favorite questions to ask guests on The Side Hustle Show is how they got their first customer. Because that's an empowering moment! So today, I'll take you through how I got my first customers in a half dozen different business ventures. This show covers some formative moments in my journey, my struggles with sales, and some of my biggest takeaways from these businesses.
28m Aug 22, 2014
28m
The Hustler’s Path: From Freelance to Agency to Product
It's been quite a while since our last discussion of a software business here on the show. Even though we touched briefly on Long Tail Pro with Spencer Haws, I really have to go all the way back to Josh Isaak in episode 12 to find an in-depth breakdown of a Software as a service business.So that means today's conversation with Garrett Moon from CoSchedule is long overdue! After all, the low inc...
37m Aug 21, 2014
37m
How to Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half
A few years ago, Josh Elledge became obsessed with one line item in his family's budget: the grocery bill. His family of 4 was spending $700-800 per month on groceries, and he already considered himself a fairly frugal shopper -- it's not like they were eating filet mignon every night! So he set out on a mission to figure out how to feed his family for less, and ultimately cut his grocery bill...
26m Aug 14, 2014
26m
How to Reverse Engineer Your Blog to Get Paying Clients (and 10x Your Hourly Rate)
Corrina Gordon-Barnes is a sought-after coach and mentor, and today she shares with Side Hustle Nation exactly how she built her business from the ground up. There are some surprising turns and some eye-opening responses in this one, as I ask Corrina about how she prices her services, how she landed her first clients, how she's scaling her business, and how she made blogging work as an effecti...
34m Aug 07, 2014
34m
The Path to Passive Income on Udemy – Even If You’re Not an Expert
I'm excited to welcome Scott Britton from Life-LongLearner.com and The Competitive Edge podcast to The Side Hustle Show. In this chat, we talk about how he built up a passive income stream from online courses on Udemy, which gave him the freedom to travel and live in South America for several months. He's a super smart guy and really delivers a ton of excellent tips in this episode. I think yo...
43m Jul 31, 2014
43m