Niche Pursuits Podcast: Find Your Next "Niche" Business Idea!

The January income report for aPennyShaved.com is here! This is one that I know a lot of you have been anticipating, because of how well the site did last month. After earning over $650 in December, the big question was whether December was so big mostly due to Holiday shopping. The clear answer is NO! January was a much bigger month, and Perrin and I attribute that to simply getting more pages indexed and ranking in Google. Newer sites can take a few months before Google starts ranking all the long tail possibilities. And January was the month that aPennyShaved really started to do well in Google. Below, you can see the full income report along with Perrin's thoughts. However, this is a special occasion because in addition to just the normal income report, Perrin and I also recorded a podcast to review the entire project! This is meant to be the final official coaching call for Niche Site Project 2. This podcast/coaching call is the culmination of the entire project...so we hope you listen!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Justin Cooke of EmpireFlippers.com just a few days ago. I'm sure you already know about Justin and Joe, as they are pretty popular guys! In fact, I had both of them on episode 3 of my podcast back in April 2012! So, its been almost 2 years ago since I interviewed them. I wanted to catch up on what has changed, and what their business plans are for the future.

Jon Cooper is a sophomore at the University of Florida studying finance. Even though he's "younger", he happens to be a respected expert in the SEO arena; particularly when it comes to link building. I had the absolute privilege of interviewing Jon Cooper recently to discuss niche sites, link building, and more. Today I am excited to share that podcast interview with you!

I had the opportunity to interview Nick Loper of SideHustleNation.com and ShoeSniper.com, a short time ago. I was excited to interview Nick because he has a great story of how he was able to take a little side business he started and develop it into something full-time. That business was ShoeSniper.com, an affiliate site selling shoes. What's interesting about his strategy, is that almost all of the traffic is paid traffic...mostly from Google Adwords. So, in this episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, I let Nick tell his story of why he got involved in the shoe business, how much the site was earning at its peak, some of the challenges that he's come across along the way, and what he is working on lately.

Well, Hayden Miyamoto is at it again! I decided to bring Hayden back onto my podcast for the 3rd time because he continues to build his business in unique ways that I think we can all learn from. In my interview with Hayden today, we discuss how his niche site business has fared over the past year, and what he is doing differently now. In particular, Hayden has been able to build a huge business using expired domains and his own private blog network. You may recall my previous 2 podcast interviews with Hayden of NoHatSEO.com. They were very in-depth and groundbreaking for many people. In my first interview, Hayden shared how he was making 30,000 dollars a month with niche sites, post penguin. In my second interview, Hayden shared how to find valuable expired domains for just $9. I HIGHLY recommend that you listen to those podcasts if you haven't already.

Several months ago, I ran across a blog that I really enjoyed reading in the personal finance niche. Before I was running my business full-time, I worked in the finance industry for several years, so I've always been interested in investments and personal finance. As I researched this blog a bit more, I realized that it was doing quite well! According to its "About" page, it was receiving over 200k unique visitors a month and I could see that there was a very active community. I've always been intrigued how people build their blogs into successful businesses, so I contacted the owner of FinancialSamurai.com and asked him if he'd be interested in doing a podcast interview with me. He agreed. So, on the podcast today, I'm excited to share the interview I had with Sam of FinancialSamurai.com. Financial Samurai is a personal finance and investments related blog that covers all the topics surrounding saving, investing, retirement planning, and more. In my interview, I dug a little bit into Sam's story of how he was able to engineer his own layoff so he could work full-time on FinancialSamurai.com at the age of 35. In addition, we dive into how he was able to build a blog of such significant size in an extremely competitive niche. The personal finance niche has got to be one the most valuable and highly competitive niches that are out there. However, Sam has been able to build a significant following and financially do well. In the podcast, you will find out how he was able to do that.

In podcast 19 of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, I was able to sit down with Elaine Heney and discuss her business of building mobile phone applications. She has currently built over 200 iPhone or Android Apps and only started about a year ago! I was completely amazed at the success she is having, and knew I had to have her on the show. Elaine has an interesting story because she's not a programmer and was just tired of working for someone else (sound familiar?). After creating her first app, she saw a little bit of success...not much, but enough to keep her intrigued by the app market. As a result, she did something that I could never do...she quit her job before she was really making much money! She decided that she was going to give herself a few months to do nothing but work on her iPhone app business...and well, it turns out that it worked big time! She has now built over 200 mobile phone applications and is comfortably living off this full-time business. She share tips on building iPhone apps and more on her blog at: TheChocolateLabApps.com.

A little while ago, I shared the success story of Jon Haver from AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, I highly recommend you check out what he is doing and how he is doing it. Jon has set a goal for himself to be making $15k per month by his 35th birthday. He wants to achieve this primarily through building websites and monetizing those sites. And he's well on his way! I wanted to sit down with Jon and dig a little bit deeper into how he's built a site that is making $3,000 per month. So, in this podcast you will here more details on that site, along with tons of other awesome strategies that are working for him. This podcast is a little different as well. I tried to keep it a bit less formal, and more just like Jon and I sitting down for a casual conversation about business. So, I ask Jon some questions and Jon asks me some questions, and we just talk shop.

I interviewed Jamie Wilson who is a stay at home mom, but also a successful entrepreneur. In fact, throughout the interview we dig into 2 successful sites that she owns: OrganicBambooClothing.com and JellyBeanQuilts.com. Jelly Bean Quilts is currently her biggest money maker, and quite honestly, I think is a pretty cool business (yep I have kids!). I found out about Jamie because she submitted her "Success" story to me following these guidelines here. After reading it, I decided I needed to have her on the podcast, and I'm glad I did! She shares tons or really cool tips and tricks. As a result, I have the text that she sent in for her success story, so I'm going to share below. The podcast follows a very similar format to what you see below; but there are TONS of points we discuss in the podcast that is not included below. So, I recommend both reading and listening to get all the great information that Jamie has to share.

I felt like it was time that I sat behind the microphone and shared a few of my thoughts on the current state of SEO and my public niche site project. In fact, as I look back at when I published my last podcast, its been over 4 months! What I think you will find are some motivational words to help you see how I view the world of Search Engine Optimization and more. In addition, I cover a few more topics in regards to my niche site project that I haven't mentioned previously on my blog yet. So, its definitely worth a listen.

I am always amazed when I find people outside of the "internet marketing" niche that are finding big success with the principles that I teach on my blog all the time. I am constantly trying to harp on the fact that finding "long tail" keywords is something that EVERY business should be doing, not just affiliate marketers. I've shared the success of Marcus Sheridan with this for his pool company. Jon Haws built a successful landscaping company using long tail keywords. Last week, I shared the story of Perry Rosenbloom that found success with his Glacier National Park travel guide site using smart keyword research and great content. And now today, I'm happy to share with you the story of Nathan Hartnett. I had the privilege of interviewing Nathan Hartnett recently about his niche eCommerce sites. And you guessed it: he attributes much of his success to solid keyword research (understanding markets), and exposing low competition.

Today, I'm sharing a podcast interview I did with Perry Rosenbloom. I think you will find his story interesting, because he was able to build a large website based on his passion for hiking and the outdoors. The site was so successful that he expanded his business into other related sites and was able to quit his full-time job about a year ago! These are the kind of success stories that we all love to hear about. However, Perry's journey has not always been rosy. Shortly after quitting his full-time job, Google Panda hit which had a big impact on his sites. He has since been able to recover his primary site, but he has also been savvy in diversifying his business income as well.

Marcus Sheridan is an entrepreneur that truly understands content marketing. He was able to take his pool business from the brink of the financial abyss to strong profitability primarily through the use of online content marketing. I absolutely love the story that Marcus has to share, and it was a pleasure to interview him for today's episode of my podcast. To get the full picture, you really need to listen to the podcast; plus you get a better grasp of the fun personality that Marcus has. It was all I could do to keep myself from busting out laughing during a few parts... Content Marketing Advice However, here's a brief synopsis: Marcus started out as a partner in a small swimming pool business. However, for a number of reasons, the company started to go downhill after a while. At this point, Marcus knew he needed to do something differently and started learning about content marketing. He decided to give it his FULL attention and produce lots of great content on their company website: Riverpoolsandspas.com . It wasn't overnight, but the website started generated more traffic and a lot more interest in their business. By focusing on the questions customers ask for content (this is critical), he was able to rank well for lots of long tail keywords in Google. This free traffic, began converting into paying customers. Fast forward a couple of years and their pool business was thriving all because they started marketing their business with content online. Now Marcus focuses the majority of his time teaching others how to use content and inbound marketing in their business. His blog for this business is at: TheSalesLion.com . I highly recommend that you check out his site and download his free content marketing ebook. Warning, its over 200 pages long! Because of his experience with his own pool business and now his blog, Marcus consults other businesses on how to have an effective content and inbound marketing strategy. Follow Marcus on Twitter: @thesaleslion

Don't tell Jon Haws that he doesn't own a tech company. Even though he currently spends his days pushing lawn mowers and leading a crew of landscapers, Jon has embraced the internet and so much more to market and run his business. In fact, if you ask him about his business, the fact that he cuts grass may never come up. Instead you'll get an earful about long tail keywords, niche sites, subscription based business, auto-billing, lead generation, and more. Because Jon has been able to think of his company as a tech business, he's been able to build it to over $70k in revenue in less than 6 months! Yes, Jon happens to be my cousin (what up cuz!); which is how I got the scoop on his fascinating story. Not only is his experience very interesting to businesses of all kinds, but the priciples he discusses can REALLY help you in your marketing efforts. Rather than go over his entire story, please listen to the podcast below! Here are just some of the topics covered: Why Jon put nursing school on hold to start a landscaping business. How Jon got his first few customers without a crew, equipment, and living 1500 miles away. (A true lean start-up!) Why Jon had to write a business plan and executive summaries for his wife before leaving school. How niche sites and long tail keywords bring in 40% of his business. The importance of understanding the life-time value of a customer. How these online marketing tactics can be applied to any business (and local service businesses in particular). How average monthly billing, additional services, and "passive" tactics are all part of Jon's plan for business growth.

After a break of about 4 months, I’ve finally done another podcast! The podcast recording is just me…no guest this time. I felt it was important to say a lot of things that are hard to say in a blog post. I can talk for a half hour and make my points much better than I could if I tried to blog about it.

Last week, I released a podcast that I did with Hayden Miyamoto where he explained how he is pulling in $30,000 a month with small niche sites. As suspected, people loved the podcast! Hayden was able to share a lot of his "secrets" that he uses to build micro niche sites after Google Penguin in that podcast. So, today I am releasing a new podcast interview I did a couple of days ago to dig a bit deeper on how Hayden is using expired domains to build links to his niche sites. In particular, we discuss exactly HOW and WHERE he is finding the high value expired domains. These are some advanced tactics that most people starting with niche sites are not familiar with. In fact, I didn't even know you could find expired domains using these methods until recently.

I always love to hear the success stories from readers of my blog. And this story is a big one. I am absolutely blown away by the success that Hayden Miyamoto is having with small niche sites. In particular, Hayden has refined his process post-Penguin and is doing better now than before! Now only 2 months since Penguin, this new process has proved to be extremely fruitful - his income is already back up to $30,000 a month - all from small niche sites.

Andreas not only have a very interesting story of how he got started with his business, but he also has some excellent advice for creating a successful launch of an iPhone app. Of course I took and followed some of this advice as I launch my own app, and there are several other points that I will be doing on this app or future projects. I highly recommend that you listen to the podcast interview below if you ever consider launching a mobile phone app. The advice Andreas shared here is very unique to anything that has been shared or discussed on this blog before.

Pat Flynn discusses how he has been able to build his brand. This interview covers how he generates up to $50,000 a month from his blog, niche sites, iphone apps, and more.

Benny Hsu shares how he was able to outsource the creation of his very first iPhone app: Photo365, and make nearly $3,000 in one day. This is a truly inspirational story and offers great insights for anyone wanting to create an iPhone app.

Fraser Cain is the owner of UniverseToday.com, a highly successful space related website. He also owns Keyword Strategy, a keyword management software. He offers powerful insights on getting search engine traffic and much more.

Tyrone Shum shares his background that led him to the outsourcing business as well as providing SEO services.

Justin and Joe from AdsenseFlippers.com share their business model of building hundreds of niche websites and then selling those sites for profit. They also dig a bit deeper into the future of niche sites, business automation, and much more.

Chris Guthrie of MakeMoneyontheInternet.com discusses some of his early entrepreneurial websites. He also mentions a site he sold for over six figures and now how he is buying sites and increasing their revenue.