How to Build a 6-Figure Blog in Less Than a Year
Jon is a former attorney turned full-time entrepreneur, and he's the master of building high quality niche blogs and monetizing them to $10k-20k per month in record time. (Sixty days to $10k in one case.) We've covered niche sites in the past, but the type of sites Jon focuses on are a different animal. In a way, he sets out to build an authoritative brand in a particular space.
38m Mar 10, 2016
38m
How to Earn up to $3000 an Hour With Your Voice
Voiceover acting may be -- at least in my mind -- one of the most universal side hustles. I mean, almost all of us can speak, right? My guest this week, Carrie Olsen, assures me there's a little more to it than that, but also says it's a business with low startup costs and low barriers to entry. Carrie went from her first audition to quitting her job in a span of just 4 months.
29m Mar 03, 2016
29m
The Mini-Victory Theory and 17 Mini-Wins You Can Get Today
Parenthood has got me thinking, every BIG victory is built on the back of a ton of mini victories. You don't wake up one morning and win the Super Bowl. You win it one quarter at a time, one possession at a time, one down at a time, one yard at a time. We all want the BIG win; quit our jobs, passive income, early retirement, location-independence, whatever it is. But what's the next mini win ...
18m Feb 26, 2016
18m
Turning a Service Business into a Passive Income Stream
A couple months ago, Matt Bochnak sent me a note about his motorcycle repair side hustle. As someone who is, shall we say, less-than-savvy when it comes to mechanics, I was impressed. But Matt shared that the passive income from this service business now actually exceeds his revenue from "turning wrenches."
29m Feb 25, 2016
29m
How to Earn 6-Figures Teaching Online Part-Time
Teaching online is a fantastic way to earn money from your experience, skills, and expertise Phil's built up a HUGE library of more than 50 online courses and teaches more than 130,000 students. While he now focuses on his business full-time, he hit the 6-figure income mark before leaving his day job. In this episode we chat about how he comes up with course ideas, how he structures his conte...
41m Feb 18, 2016
41m
How to Find Your First Amazon FBA Private Label Product (Tips from a 7-Figure Amazon Seller)
I'm happy to introduce Greg Mercer, who is the go-to guy for Amazon product research. His own ecommerce empire has grown to $400k per month in revenue -- yes, per month -- and he's the founder of the popular Jungle Scout software tool that helps make the product research process faster and easier. In this call we dive into his specific sales criteria and next steps in evaluating a product's p...
38m Feb 11, 2016
38m
Amazon FBA: Retail Arbitrage on Steroids (Six-Figures in Year One)
Assad's a Finance Director by day so he's got some street cred when it came to offering consulting, and quickly built that business up to around $1000 a month. In April, he mentioned he'd also started selling products on Amazon FBA using the clearance arbitrage model Travis Scott shared on the show. Nine months later, that little experiment had grown into a six-figure side hustle. Check out o...
32m Feb 04, 2016
32m
How to Stand Out With Words: Copywriting Tips for Side Hustlers
When it comes to your side hustle, the words you use matter. In so many businesses, our first impressions with customers often come from a website, an email, or a product description. Are you sending the right message? Is it unique and powerful enough to stand out from the crowd?
38m Jan 28, 2016
38m
How to Drive Viral Traffic From Reddit
My guest this week, Brian Swichkow, is a viral marketing pro, having achieved outsize results on several different projects. Having one viral hit could be considered a lucky fluke, but to be able to do it again and again, and you start to recognize a repeatable, learnable pattern. That's what listeners can look forward to in this episode; how you can apply Brian's tactics to your own side hus...
34m Jan 21, 2016
34m
How to Start a Consulting Business: Your First $5k
Jonathan Stark says the key to side hustle success -- for consultants, at least -- lies in finding an expensive problem, and solving it. Jonathan's a pro at finding these expensive problems, having run a successful online consulting business for several years, focusing on mobile-ready web development. At the recommendation of two-time Side Hustle Show guest, Kai Davis, he dropped by to share ...
34m Jan 14, 2016
34m
Zero to $20k a Month in a Year: 5 Ways to Completely Dominate Your Niche
We've heard of niche sites seeing success with AdSense or Amazon Associates income, or even with selling private advertising, but Jon Haws took a completely different approach. Since last November, Jon has masterfully experimented with 5 different avenues and built up a huge email list. All told, these different channels -- that didn't even exist a year and a half ago -- are earning more than ...
44m Jan 07, 2016
44m
Finding Your Slight Edge
What separates the 5% of fulfilled, successful people from the 95% rest of the population? Author Jeff Olson argues it's The Slight Edge. Successful people have harnessed the power of relentless incrementalism, the daily practice of making progress toward their goals -- even if imperceptible at the beginning. Today is a brief solo show to discuss how you can find your slight edge in 2016 and ...
22m Jan 01, 2016
22m
How to Quit Your Job in 6 Months
Can you see yourself walking away from your day job in the next 6 months? In 2013, Amanda Abella decided to start taking her side hustle (freelance writing and coaching) seriously so she could make that glorious exit. Six short months later, she was free. How'd it happen? Well that's what this week's conversation is all about.
32m Dec 31, 2015
32m
5 Steps to Turn a Hobby Into a Business
Three years ago, Bryn and her business partner Brooke had each made less $500 from photography -- far less than they'd spent on equipment. Fast forward to this year, and they shot more than a dozen weddings and booked top-line revenue in excess of $40,000. Listen in to hear what happened in between. Remember, every professional starts as an amateur, and there are parallels in this conversatio...
30m Dec 24, 2015
30m
How to Start and Market a Subscription Box Service
Recurring revenue models are all the rage these days, and for good reason. You can make a sale once and continue to earn from it as long as you keep your customer happy. There are quite a few recurring revenue business examples from The Side Hustle Show archives, but today I'm excited to introduce Ross Simmonds, a side hustler turned full-time entrepreneur, and the founder of Hustle & Grind, a...
32m Dec 17, 2015
32m
7 Houses at 27: Building a Real Estate Empire on the Side
Elizabeth Colegrove and her husband are budding real estate moguls. So far they've acquired 7 houses, and neither of them are 30 years old yet. Between their 7 properties, they're earning around $1800 in cash flow every month, and their tenants are paying off $1650 in loan principal. But real estate investment is not without risks and Elizabeth joked that I just have easily could have called ...
32m Dec 10, 2015
32m
Rob’s $30,000 Side Hustle: Flea Market Flipping
This week I'm excited to welcome Rob Stephenson to The Side Hustle Show. Rob is the "Flea Market Flipper" and he's got an interesting take on the age-old Buy Low, Sell High business model. In fact, it earned him $30,000 last year working just 10-15 hours a week. This is on top of his day job as a real estate inspector.
23m Dec 03, 2015
23m
Growing Your Income Pie: Blogging, Freelancing, and Making Your Own Luck
I met Lauren Bowling at FinCon in September and was impressed with her "story" and her hustle. In this conversation she shares the random path she took to starting a blog, and how that turned into a new job and a new side hustle. Eventually she turned that side hustle into a full-time business, and is now hiring subcontractors to "scale" her operations and add another side hustle project or t...
29m Nov 26, 2015
29m
Amazon Ranking Secrets for Books and Physical Products from an SEO Pro
We've covered Kindle publishing in a variety of ways on The Side Hustle Show in the past, and it's one of my favorite side hustles. But one area of frustration, at least for me, is that for all the effort put into writing, editing, publishing, and launching the book, it's still tough to sustain sales for long periods of time. My guest this week has a way to keep moving units month after month...
33m Nov 19, 2015
33m
Side Hustle Q & A
This is my attempt at a Q&A show, based on some questions of the interesting questions that have hit my inbox or the Facebook group over the past couple weeks. It actually stems from a new inbox "trick" I've been playing with lately. Maybe I'm a super-latecomer to this game, but I just created 2 new "labels" in Gmail: one for Questions and one for Testimonials.
16m Nov 13, 2015
16m
Building a Multi-Million Dollar Ecommerce Brand on the Side
If you've ever been frustrated with the products in your life, and thought "there's gotta be a better way!," this conversation is sure to hit home. Jeremy Michael Cohen and Fred Perrotta created Tortuga Backpacks after an awesome trip to Europe -- and a less-than-awesome experience with their luggage. They resolved to create a better travel backpack, and did it, starting as a side hustle of c...
35m Nov 12, 2015
35m
$5k per Month Blogging Case Study: How to Drive Massive Traffic with Pinterest
Rosemarie Groner is a former state trooper turned blogger and stay at home mom. In the last 12 months, her site The Busy Budgeter has grown from zero to 400,000 page views per month. More importantly, Rosemarie earned $5000 from the site last month while working on it part-time. I met Rosemarie (and several other members of her mastermind group) at FinCon in September, where she shared a surp...
41m Nov 05, 2015
41m
Do the Scary Thing: My Top 10 Side Hustle Fears
It's a special Friday-before-Halloween edition of The Side Hustle Show! Today we're diving into some of the scary moments in my business and some frightening tales from Side Hustle Show listeners. Even though we're told to "punch fear in the face," I think it's something that will be a constant in our lives. There's always something to be afraid of.
20m Oct 30, 2015
20m
Self-Publishing Success: Stay at Home Mom Shares Her Kindle Story
The self-publishing world has changed quite a bit in the last couple years. Amazon is constantly changing the rules and rewards for authors, and more and more writers are entering the fold. In today's show, I'm joined by Jyotsna Ramachandran, a "stay at home mom entrepreneur" and best-selling author. She shares candidly how she built her Kindle empire to more than 50 titles in less than 2 year...
36m Oct 29, 2015
36m
Building Multiple Income Streams with For-Profit Hobbies
I'm excited to introduce you to John Rouda, an IT manager near Charlotte, North Carolina. He's built a variety of non-job income streams on the side, while still working full time. In fact, we recorded this session from his office at work! John calls his side businesses for-profit hobbies, which I think is a great attitude to take. He has a handful of books on Amazon, dozens of apps in the ap...
29m Oct 22, 2015
29m
Authority Site Case Study: How an Air Force Flight Surgeon Took His Side Hustle Full-Time
I first met Ryan Gray at New Media Expo in 2014. He introduced himself and when I asked what he did, he said he was a doctor. Turns out that Dr. Gray, along with his wife (also a doctor), was building MedicalSchoolHQ.net, a resource for med school and premed students. It's another perfect example of building an authority site around a particular area of expertise.
30m Oct 15, 2015
30m
Free Press Exposure: Your Fast-Track to Customers and Credibility
The battle for attention is one that almost all new businesses find themselves mired in. You may have the greatest product or service in the world, but if no one knows about it, how will you get paid? You can write the best blog articles, guest pitch big sites, and tweak your SEO until you're blue in the face, but despite all our new media channels, it's still hard to trump the pull and power ...
32m Oct 08, 2015
32m
How a Part-Time Blog Turned Into an 8-Figure Business
Brian Clark has been content marketing since before the term even existed. In fact, he left a miserable corporate job and built several successful businesses using these effective new marketing techniques. Then he started this little side project called Copyblogger to share some his findings, tactics, and ideas with the rest of the world. Fast forward 10 years and Copyblogger is now Rainmaker ...
33m Oct 01, 2015
33m
Brainstorming a New Affiliate Site from Scratch
I've had an idea for a new affiliate site kicking around in my head for a while now, so I thought I'd do a live walk-through of my thought-process and analysis of whether this is an opportunity I should pursue or not. The idea? A comparison and review site for meal delivery services like Blue Apron, Plated, Hello Fresh, Gobble, and others.
14m Sep 25, 2015
14m
Growing a Blog to 70,000 Visits a Month in One Year (and More Importantly, Turning it into a Business)
Tyler Zey turned his web development side hustle into a full-time business, but not without a few twists and turns along the way. Tyler's actually a classically trained musician (clarinet), but now runs EasyAgentPro, one of the leading marketing services for real estate agents -- despite having no background in real estate. What he lacked in real estate knowledge he made up for with hustle.
30m Sep 24, 2015
30m
How to Accelerate Your Side Hustle with Webinars
Jon Schumacher is a side hustler turned full-time entrepreneur. In fact, when we met at Podcast Movement this summer, he'd punched the clock for the last time just a few weeks before. He mentioned he'd been side hustling for years, and finally had hit on a business and marketing plan that worked. His target was $5k in monthly income before he quit, which he achieved this year and made the leap.
35m Sep 17, 2015
35m
7 Days to a Profitable Business
A viable startup business in 7 days ... sound to good to be true? Dan Norris is the co-founder of WP Curve, a service that offers unlimited 24/7 WordPress support for small jobs for $79 per month. He went from idea to paying customers in less than 7 days. Based on his experience, Dan penned the bestselling book The 7 Day Startup, and stopped by The Side Hustle Show to share some of his insights.
31m Sep 10, 2015
31m
Building an App Empire: From $0 to $70k a Month
Is there still an opportunity in smartphone apps? Carter Thomas thinks so, and shares some interesting and insightful ways to take advantage of the 3 giant app marketplaces (Apple, Google, and Amazon). Carter and his company are app-production machines, pumping out a crazy 1500 new apps in 2 years (mostly 2013 and 2014). Nowadays, the strategy has shifted somewhat to creating fewer apps and p...
36m Sep 03, 2015
36m
How to Create Massive Influence and Profit with Virtual Summits – Even If You Have No Audience
Navid had been blogging and podcasting about lifestyle business topics, but wrote one epic "round-up" post that went viral on the subject of personal branding. Sensing he was on to something, and noticing the success of virtual summits in other industries (like health and fitness), he decided to put together The Branding Summit. At the time, Navid had a modest list of 1000 email subscribers. ...
51m Aug 27, 2015
51m
Why You Should Quit Your Side Hustle (and What You Should Do Instead)
Should you quit your side hustle? My guest this week says you should, and argues that what you should do instead is find an apprenticeship. Taylor Pearson is the author of the bestselling The End of Jobs, and one of those super-smart individuals we should all pay attention to. The book is largely a historical perspective on where our economy is today and where we're going; and it's at once te...
29m Aug 20, 2015
29m
Building a 6-Figure Online Store on the Side
I met Steve Chou at New Media Expo this spring, and was fascinated by his story. He's built three different six-figure businesses, all while still working a day job in Silicon Valley. In fact, I was really surprised to find out he's still working TODAY, despite all this side hustle success. Those businesses are an ecommerce store at BumblebeeLinens.com, his blog and podcast at MyWifeQuitHerJo...
32m Aug 13, 2015
32m
Side Hustle Coaching: When to Pause
How do you know when it's time to step back, take a "time out," or stop the hustle? There's no spreadsheet or matrix or formula to give you the answer, but I think you know it in your gut. And even then, there's probably a part of me that wants to say, no, this is just "the dip" -- keep pushing. If you've been following along with my public coaching series, you know that Wellington has been ...
14m Aug 07, 2015
14m
$120k in Pre-Sales in 6 Months – With No List
John Logar is the king of pre-selling software. As one of The Foundation's top students, he's broken all their records and even broken the mold on some of the methods they teach. In fact, he sold $120k worth of software within his first 6 months of joining the program. Since he was already a consultant, doing idea extraction and finding pain points for businesses was second nature. He just kn...
36m Aug 06, 2015
36m
$4k a Month on the Side with Amazon FBA Clearance Arbitrage
I was really excited to sit down with Travis Scott from StuffParentsLike.com to share his success with the Amazon FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) clearance arbitrage business, and also to get his insight since I just started playing around with this side hustle myself. Travis has seen impressive results with Amazon, netting $25,000 so far this year through July, in addition to his full-time job and ...
30m Jul 30, 2015
30m
What I’ve Learned and Applied from 50 Awesome Entrepreneurs – Part Two
At the end of nearly every episode of The Side Hustle Show, I ask my guests for their #1 tip for Side Hustle Nation. There's always a great variety of responses, and I wanted to take some time today to go through some of my favorites from the past 50 interviews. (I first did this for episode 50, which was my first-ever solo podcast recording.) If all these really smart and successful people ke...
29m Jul 23, 2015
29m
Time Hacking for Side Hustlers: How to Get More Hours, Clarity, and Results
If you're looking for ways to squeeze more out of your limited side hustle hours, this is the episode for you. I'm excited to introduce Julie Sheranosher, host of the Time Hackers podcast. Julie and I met at World Domination Summit in 2013 -- she flew in all the way from Israel -- and she is one of my favorite people and true time management pro. I feel like my productivity has improved over ...
39m Jul 16, 2015
39m
How to Re-Purpose Content Into Multiple Income Streams
This week, I'm joined by fellow online entrepreneur and freedom-seeker, Natalie Sisson. Natalie is a masterful marketer, blogger, podcaster, and speaker, and on this call she breaks down how a blog post idea became a major turning point in her business, and was eventually re-purposed and repackaged more than a half-dozen ways -- all ringing the cash register in some unique fashion. The breakt...
32m Jul 09, 2015
32m
An Engineer’s Approach to Building a $1500 per Month Side Hustle
Tim Johnson is a man of many hustles. In fact, when he applied for my Inner Circle Mastermind last year, I had a hard time keeping them all straight. Between his day job as a product engineer, his awesome self-publishing business, his Amazon FBA activities, and an upcoming brick-and-mortar project -- and twin 2 year old boys -- there's no doubt he's keeping busy! On this call, we focus on his...
34m Jul 02, 2015
34m
Side Hustle Coaching: 10x Thinking and Standard Operating Procedures
I was able to catch up with Kathryn, one of my public coaching volunteers who’s starting a gluten free baked-goods company in Portland, Oregon. Where we left off, things were going pretty well. She’s been pounding the pavement doing some good ol’ fashioned cold calling to land her first clients, focusing on coffee shops in the local area. She had 2 recurring clients and around $250 a month in...
39m Jun 26, 2015
39m
Side Hustle Coaching: What it REALLY Takes to Build a SaaS Business, with Special Guest Dane Maxwell
It's been almost 2 months since we last caught up with Wellington, one of my public coaching volunteers. Where we left off, he was working on a smartphone app for travel hackers and kicking around the idea for a software business in the home renovation estimating world. Our last session was a rough one. Wellington had just broken his foot and had his app repeatedly rejected from the app store...
59m Jun 25, 2015
59m
Yes without Regret; No without Guilt; Maybe without a Doubt
Can I make a confession? I'm a little indecisive. Maybe more than a little. Bryn calls me slow. (I prefer "methodical.") This episode is about making decisions -- or not making them -- without regret, guilt, or doubt. Have you heard the quote, "If it’s not a HELL YES, it’s a NO!"? I believe this is attributed to Derek Sivers, and actually is a pretty handy decision-making tool.
24m Jun 19, 2015
24m
The Fastest Path to Side Hustle Cash Flow?
One podcast I've been following for a really long time is the Empire Flippers show with Justin Cooke and Joe Magnotti. It's been fun to watch their evolution from building tiny Adsense sites, running an outsourcing company in the Philippines, selling WordPress themes, and now really focusing in on their website brokerage business. Consider this: it's MUCH easier to buy an existing cash flow th...
36m Jun 18, 2015
36m
Getting Started in Ecommerce
Travis Marziani is the co-founder of BDancewear.com, an ecommerce store specializing in dance-clothing handmade in the US. On this week's show, Travis joins me to talk about why ecommerce is such an awesome business model, especially for side hustlers, and the story behind the dance site -- since he is clearly not the target demographic. He's got some innovative content marketing ideas for on...
36m Jun 11, 2015
36m
Monetize What You Know: Proven Course Creation Best Practices
Ankur Nagpal is the founder of Fedora, an online course-hosting platform with more than 4000 instructors. From his unique vantage-point, he's got some insight into what separates top-selling courses from the rest of the pack. Ankur gives some innovative ideas on how to use free distribution platforms like YouTube and even Udemy to build an interested audience and drive them to your premium cou...
28m Jun 04, 2015
28m
How to Build and Monetize a Blog from the Ground Up
I first met Melinda Fleming at an Affiliate Summit conference in Las Vegas in 2013. At that time, all she had was an idea -- no website, no online business, and no social media presence. She was working in Hollywood as a freelance writer and voice over talent, but could see the direction of the entertainment industry was toward hiring cheaper and cheaper alternatives. Should the trend continue...
33m May 28, 2015
33m