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

Today, I'm excited to share with you an interview I did with Steve Wiideman from Wiideman.com. Steve has been in the SEO industry since 1999...a dinosaur in internet years! His first job out of college was doing SEO and search engine marketing. So, Steve bring all of his SEO knowledge and experience to the podcast today. In particular, we discuss how his SEO consulting group is working with clients doing local SEO, eCommerce SEO, and much more. During the interview we discuss specifically how the Wiideman group helped Bob's Watches: eCommerce SEO Bobs Watches has grown to over $40 million a year in revenue and much more We also discussed his view on affiliate sites and how it relates SEO. Are affiliate sites really providing value or are they just doorway pages? What sort of link building and keyword research should be done? Ranking affiliate sites in Google Steve is also a professor at Fullerton college and UCSD where he teaches SEO and online marketing. He's put together lots of video materials that he is giving away for free. If you want to get free access to Steve Wiideman's SEO videos you can go to AcademyOfSearch.com. Use coupon code SEOSteve to get free access.

Jeff Oxford is the founder of Link Hunter and has been in the SEO industry since 2010. He shares 4 really unique link building strategies that get results. Listen in to hear Jeff's story and to get some high quality link building ideas that don't involve guest posting.

How can you know when you make a change to your website that it's not hurting your rankings in Google? Well, you can set up SEO tests. Today, I'm excited to share my recent interview with Matt Diggity where he drops some serious knowledge bombs as it relates to SEO tests, affiliate marketing, ranking in Google, and much more. Why SEO testing? Well, there's a lot of noise in the SEO industry. You can listen to one expert or you can listen to another person and not know if they're an expert. And of course you can try to listen to Google. How do you know what SEO strategy is the best for your site? Listen to the full episode to hear some of the SEO tests that Matt has performed and how you can set up your own tests.

Listen in to hear how Azedine Djedid tested out multiple aged domain services and why he now only buys through ODYS Global. Azendine was able to start a new site with an aged domain and grow it quickly to 13,000 visitors a day. Read his entire story here.

How do you constantly come up with good ideas? How can you know what direction you should go in your business when you have a busy schedule and very little time to just think? In my interview today with Saud Juman, we discount how to tap into the "creative well" and what exactly that is. Saud started a company called PolicyMedical.com almost 18 years ago. He exited the company about 2 years ago. Policy Medical is a SaaS company that serves hospitals primarily to organize their policy documents. Saud has a great creative framework for: coming up with new SaaS or other ideas deciding where to focus your time What niche to go into We talk about something that Saud calls the "Creative Well". Saud used the creative well to help him understand where his professional journey should go and eventually the ideas that became Policy Medical. During the second half of the interview, we discuss content marketing strategies. Policy Medical has a really long sales cycle and the software can cost $50,000 or $100,000 or more. He was able to apply the principles of content marketing, answering customers' questions, and even getting customers to write some of the content for them. Listen in to hear how he navigated the content marketing process and how it helped grow Policy Medical into the business it became.

One Little Web is a reseller-friendly SEO & content services owned by Sujan Sarker. Today, I'm sharing an interview that I recently did with Sujan. As you know, backlinks can be a big help to your site, if done properly. If you get excellent links and you see your traffic soar. Get a backlink penalty and watch all your traffic and income disappear almost overnight. With such a fine line between success and disaster, you shouldn't take outsourcing backlink generation lightly. So, during my interview, I specifically ask Sujan what type of due diligence potential customers should take when analyzing link building services of agencies. You can see One Little Web here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/onelittleweb

Why is updating website and content auditing popular right now? Well, 10 years ago, people didn't need to audit their websites. It wasn't a thing. Generally speaking, websites we're pretty new. Now that sites are getting to be 10, 15, or 20 years old. There's a lot of upkeep and maintenance. Some are referring to this problem of old "blog content decay". If I'm looking ahead to the future, I think this will be a much more common topic and problem, and process that people follow in the coming years. In my latest podcast, I sat down with Tom Drake, the owner of MapleMoney.com, and a partner at GetRichSlowly.org. To revive old content, Tom is no stranger. He started his blog a decade ago. And Get Rich Slowly (founded by JD Roth) was one of the original personal finance blogs started about 15 years ago! With over 5000 old blog posts to update and audit, it's no easy task. Tom breaks down precisely the process he uses to update (or delete) content.

Anthony Presley and a partner recently purchased Templatic Themes in 2018. The business has over 120 premium WordPress themes and plugins. When they bought the business they had a vision to grow it, but there have been a few major bumps along the way. Listen in to hear how Anthony and his team have tackled these challenges and even recovered from the May 2020 core Google update. If you are interested in SEO, WordPress themes, or buying online business you will enjoy this interview. Anthony is also offering the Niche Pursuits Audience over 50% off the Templatic Club Membership. This gives you access to ALL their themes and plugins. Normally the Templatic membership is $299 + $19/month. Use coupon code "NichePursuits" to get access for just $89 + $14/month. Get the special deal here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/templatic

Michael Bereslavsky of Domain Magnate is bringing private equity to online niche businesses. Learn more at: https://www.domainmagnate.com Since 2004 Michael has been building online businesses. Over the years, he's had plenty of hard lessons and unique experiences. He found the best complementary strengths and profitability in buying, managing, and selling websites. Today Michael is now the founder and CEO of Domain Magnate, a micro private equity firm specializing in buying and growing online businesses under $1m. In addition, Michael is now a partner at Deal Flow Brokerage. Listen to the interview to hear how Michael started, and a few of his most memorable deals.

I'm excited to have Jon Gillham back on the show! Jon is the founder of the content writing service, Content Refined. During the interview, we not only talk about how he built the company but the entire process behind how they create content at scale. They do anywhere between 1,000,000 to 3,000,000 words a month on average! That's a lot of content. We dive into how they use statistics and competitor analysis to create content that is most likely to rank in Google. Jon also shares a couple of examples of sites using Content Refined that have grown significantly in terms of traffic from Google. Listen in for the mindset behind how to create a large content writing service and how to optimize your content so it will rank in Google. Read more details about this interview here.

Brock McGoff owns the website TheModestMan.com which now generates over 400,000 visitors and $30k in revenue per month. Over the years of building websites, Brock has learned a lot. Including getting hit by the first Google Panda update taking his traffic down to virtually zero. Since then, Brock has made every effort to make sure a Google penalty would never happen again and only aims to build content and links that he is genuinely proud of creating. So how does someone go from a corporate employee to a fashion influencer? Listen to this interview to find out.

Mushifiq is the owner of a popular website flipping newsletter and EasyWins.io. To date, he has completed over 175 website flips, whether buying, selling, or brokering website deals. How did he manage to flip so many websites? He's created systematic processes of "easy wins". These easy wins are tasks, or site improvements often overlooked but take relatively little time to complete and provide a big impact.

Scott Voelker may be a new grandparent but has the energy of a teenager. This year marks his 19th year being self-employed, and although he is slowing down to focus more on family, his workload at Brand Creators is still more than most will tackle in a lifetime. Running the Rock Your Brand Podcast is his primary focus with nearly 900 episodes and 16 million podcast downloads, but that's just the start. Last year Scott checked a few things off his to-do list: Wrote the book Take Action Effect. Ran a high-level mastermind (10 people at $25,000 to join). Completed a $200k home renovation for an Airbnb rental. Managed his podcast 175k-350k monthly downloads. Created online courses for Brand Creators. Hosted a live event with over 250 people in attendance. (pre-Covid) Completed a handful of exciting case studies. Sold a business which all together netted just at 7 figures. Listen in to hear what Scott has learned and where he will be focusing his time in the future.

Craig Hewitt is the founder of Castos, a popular podcasting platform. I met Craig 4 years ago at RhodiumWeekend.com when Craig ran the podcasting editing and service-based business, Podcast Motor, before he built Castos. Today, Podcast Motor and Castos have merged into a SaaS company for hosting and analytics for your podcast. They also still offer a complete podcast editing and transcription service. As we will dive into during the show, Craig also shares how he purchased the Seriously Simple Podcasting WordPress plugin before he ever started Castos with the idea that they could perhaps leverage it into a SaaS play one day. On the podcast, we talk about the new podcasting trends, the struggles of growing Castos, and how the Castos team used the Ahrefs course to train new employees on content marketing, and how those efforts are paying off.

In this Niche Pursuits podcast episode, we discover the key themes that made ConvertKit a success. ConvertKit is an email marketing platform started by Nathan Barry, a former designer and author, in 2012. The software is now generating $2.1M monthly revenue, has been listed on the INC 5000 numerous times, and founder Nathan Barry recently invested in an actual Ghost Town.

Today, I'm excited to share an interview I conducted with Jared Bauman, a long time Niche Pursuits reader. Jared and I sat down to discuss a recent site he purchased and how he grew it 5x in just 7 months. He took the site from earning around $200 a month to now over $1,000 a month! Jared's website purchase criteria: 1. Ranking Articles 2. Consistent Revenue 3. No Backlink Profile 4. Monthly Traffic over 3,000 Pageviews 5. No Premium Ad Network How to Grow a Purchased Site 1. Site Audit and Repairs 2. Add Buy Buttons and Tables 3. Keyword Research 4. Hire a Writer 5. Publish New Content 6. Build Links 7. Add Internal Links

In 2010, I launched Long Tail Pro, a keyword research software tool. Over the next 5 years, I grew the company from 0 to about $1 million in revenue per year. I sold that company in 2016. Today, I share the "untold" story of Long Tail Pro and what has happened since I sold the company, along with some of the valuable lessons learned along the way.

Today, I brought Mark Mark from Niche Website Builders onto the show to discuss my recent order of a Skyscraper link building campaign for one of my niche sites. We dive into how they started their agency (Niche Website Builders), what types of services they offer, and more. Then we spend time looking behind the scenes of what happens when they create a link building campaign, how they do outreach, and everything that is involved.

Over the last little while, I've come to the realization that I need to make a major shift in how I blog. All thanks to Google.

Unlimited WordPress development? WPTangerine is a service I had never heard of until recently. I was a bit surprised when I heard they had been around since 2015 and came highly recommended by someone in my network. In my podcast, I interviewed Marcus, the co-founder of WP Tangerine. We dive in and talk about how he built his business and how WPTangerine has grown to nearly 600 paying clients with 60 full-time employees.

I started a case study to try and revive a dead email list of about 20,000 subscribers. However, it turns out my domain reputation is bad for this particular domain (my other email sending domains are excellent). So, my emails have primarily been going to people's junk folders, leading to terrible open rates. As a result, I'm PAUSING this email case study UNTIL I can improve the domain reputation. I'm working with an email expert and using a tool called "Mail Warm" that will likely take 2 to 3 months to show significant improvements to my domain reputation. However, there is a silver lining! My highest open rate (of 14%) was an email related to side hustles / making money online. This shows me that this audience might be very interested in much more than coupons and discount codes. I think I have a clear path to monetization moving forward. But, I want to do it right. I need to take the extra 2 to 3 months to stop sending email broadcasts to the list, so that I can systematically improve the domain reputation. Give me another 3 months or so, and I'll be back sharing updates.

MarketMuse uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze content, suggest topics to cover, and create better content. It works best for SEO writers who want to develop highly effective content marketing strategies not based on gut instinct. I've also recently been hearing all the news about GPT-3, robots writing articles, and wondering how all of this will impact content generation for bloggers and SEO's in the future. I wanted to dive more into the subject and could not think of a better person than Jeff Coyle to explain what's going on. I'm excited to share this interview I did with Jeff to get his take on artificial intelligence as it relates to SEO, how these changes will impact us humans, and the latest advancements that Market Muse has made in machine learning for content creators.

Learn why Bart MacDonald of BloomVP.com left the previous company that he founded and raised $10 million for. + Bart previously founded and help raise funding for the SaaS company, Sapling HR. However, he recently stepped down from the CEO role at Sapling to found Bloom VP, a venture firm focused on SaaS. Listen in to hear Bart's strategies and why he is so bullish on SaaS.

Matt Diggity is someone that has been buying, building, and growing affiliate website for a long time. In fact, I had him on the podcast about a year ago to discuss some of his background. Since then, I've stayed in touch with Matt and he started sharing more and more about the recent success of a couple of websites that he purchased. These 2 sites have gone from making less than $1,500 a month combined to nearly hitting his goal of $100,000 per month (combined earnings) before the end of this year! And all of this growth has happened in less than 2 years. How did he do it? Well, that's the focus of this brand new interview that I'm releasing today. We dive into tons of SEO strategies, but we focus mostly on E.A.T. (Expertise, Authority, and Trust) and Link Building.

Mark Webster and Gael Breton are from AuthorityHacker.com and have been in the authority website space for a long time. Listen in as we discuss how they took a website from scratch to a mid 6 figure exit. We dive into how they: Sold a niche site for over six figures they built in 18 months Negotiated affiliate deals three times higher than the public rates Develop their trademarked Shotgun Skyscraper strategy Create successful frameworks to identify keywords and much more. Full blog post at: https://www.nichepursuits.com/shotgun-skyscraper-link-building/

Dave Chesson has self-published nine books on Amazon that now have a combined revenue between $7-9k a month. How does he do this? He describes it as the "Long Tail Pro" of Amazon. Finding undervalued Amazon keywords that drive traffic to the book. He uses his niche sites to drive traffic to his books. We also discuss how he's built a $40k/month niche site by partnering with a true expert in the field.

​Substack is a platform where independent publishers can easily earn money from their writing with paying subscribers. Substack allows publishers to collect payments from subscribers and publish their content online and in email format. If you do some googling or twittering, you'll see that Substack is pretty hot right now. They got some $15 million-ish from Adreessen Horowitz and it feels like publishers are flocking there.

Did you know that more large sites (over 1,000,000 pageviews a month) use Ezoic when compared to Mediavine or Adthrive? Tyler Bishop is the chief marketing officer for Ezoic and during this interview we discuss how Tyler got involved in Ezoic and what the company does. We also dive into some of the common misconceptions about Ezoic; such as how it compares to Mediavine and Adthrive (or other ad shops). Does Ezoic slow down your site? You might be surprised at Tyler's answer. How does artificial intelligence play a role in Ezoic display ads? If all ad shops (like Mediavine and Adthrive) get ads from the same place (primarily from Google ad exchange), why would someone choose one platform over another?

Matthew Allen is no stranger to online side hustles. He has been dabbling in online business for about a decade now. He even started a blog over at DumbPassiveIncome.com. Despite driving a delivery truck full-time for FedEx, he's still managed to find time to create AmaLinks Pro; an all inclusive Amazon Associates WordPress plugin. Amalinks Pro allows you to quickly create professional-looking call to action buttons, showcase boxes, product comparison tables, and much more. Today, we'll discuss Matt Allen's story and how and why he created AmaLinks Pro.

I started a case study about a month and a half ago to try and revive a dead email list. This is an email list that has been collecting dust for a "Mom" blog that I own. The site makes several thousand dollars every month from Ezoic display ads and Amazon associates. However, I wanted to see if I could monetize the email list that had been ignored for over a year. My earnings since the project started? $11.15! Well, the numbers don't lie...I still have work to do. Listen in to hear the update and plans moving forward.

Artificial Intelligence for article writing is getting much more advanced. Tools like GPT-3 and First Draft by MarketMuse.com are making quality content production much easier. Will this eliminate the need for human writers? How will this impact the Niche site space and blogging in general?

Matt Paulson has grown MarketBeat.com to $10 million in revenue through SEO, email marketing, and much more. Listen in to hear how he uses email sponsorships to monetize his audience and SEO strategies used to grow his traffic (now at over 15 million visitors a month).

Almost exactly a year ago, my partners and I launched Motion Invest as a new way to buy and sell content sites. We've delivered on being a fast and easy way to buy or sell content sites. Our original plan was to buy sites ourselves, so we would only buy sites that we felt strongly enough about to put money behind. We still buy sites directly if you are looking for a quick, all-cash deal. However, over time more and more people wanted to see if they could get a higher price on other marketplaces than what we were offering. Rather than "lose" out on good sites, we recently turned Motion Invest into a true marketplace. In other words, you can now list your site for sale on Motion Invest marketplace instead of selling the site directly to Motion Invest. As a result, we have gotten an increase in listings...which is great news if you are looking to buy a site. But today we want to shake up the website brokerage business for small content sites just a little bit more.

How does someone with a full time job as a construction worker and a small child find the time to build an online business? Adrian Diaz has enthusiasm that is infectious. Listen in to hear how he stays motivated to build his affiliate business and youtube channel.

Brand Builders has come a long way. If you were familiar with Brand Builders 1 or 2 years ago, what you see today is drastically different. Today, I hop on a call with Brady Cargle, the manager of Brand Builders and talk about the evolution that Brand Builders has taken over the past 2 years and why it's become a very interesting business. In full disclosure, I am now a part-owner of Brand Builders, but I'm not involved at all in the day to day operations (so don't send me a customer support email :)). I'll share the story of how I became a part-owner in Brand Builders and how they've truly risen from the ashes as a business.

Listen in to learn how Clarence Cheang has built a successful Amazon FBA business, despite all the competition. Amazon is getting more and more competitive each year, but Clarence shows that new FBA sellers can still make it as his business is less than 2 years old.

In this second update on my recent case study update, I discuss what I've been up to so far and my plans to improve my domain reputation.

Danny Brooks is the founder of AMZtableassistant.com a chrome extension that allows you to quickly insert code snippets for AAWP, AMAlinksPro, and other Amazon associates tools. Danny shares his entrepreneurial journey and why he building his tool on existing platforms.

Listen in to hear the Word Agents founder story. Vincent D'Elleto has focused on providing customers high-quality SEO content at scale. By focusing on this niche, he's been able to grow it to 7 figures and beyond with a goal of hitting 8 figures a year very soon.

Listen to Mukesh tell his story of how he got started in digital marketing and is now making $10,000 a month between his agency Monk Metrics and his portfolio of sites. And it all really started with a typo domain name.

Today, I'm happy to share the success story of Systeme.io founded by Aurelien Amacker. Systeme.io is an all in one landing page, funnel builder, and email automation software platform. The best part? Aurelien was able to build up the business targeting the French market (where he is from). He has only recently started focusing more on the US market and he's doing quite well there as well. How does a non-software developer build a software tool that has tons of competitors to $3 million a year in revenue? Well, you will find the full story below and I feel like there are a ton of tips that you can apply to your own business. You can check out the tool right here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/systeme.io

In this episode, I share my plans to try and monetize an email list that hasn't been emailed in over a year. I have 22,000 people on an email list that have been neglected. Let's talk about my strategies to revive this list - a 90 day case study has begun.

Kevin Jourdan saw a need for a brokerage in the French Market, so he built DotMarket.eu. He is now on track to sell over $1 million worth of sites on his new brokerage. He shares his background that includes building, buying, and selling niche websites and also how he's gone about growing a successful startup brokerage.

Learn how Niche Website Builders launched their digital agency to nearly $800k in year 1 revenue by using 2 small facebook groups that they had started. In addition, you can get an exclusive deal for content and link building services by going to https://www.nichepursuits.com/nichewebsitebuilders

I'm all FIRE'd up! FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) is a movement that is all about making and saving enough money at an "early" age so that you can live off your investments for the rest of your life. I'll be honest that I've thought about this subject a lot. In fact, I quit my job in 2011 (in my early 30s) and have been building online businesses ever since. I sold my software company a few years ago for 7 figures and have had some other successful ventures. I've thought, "I might be able to just stop working and live on what I've saved for the rest of my life". I wanted to see what others have been able to achieve and see if this FIRE lifestyle was something I should pursue. However, the more I researched the bloggers and influencers that say they have "retired early" thanks to their savings, the more I got annoyed. And even a little upset! Today, I want to share my thoughts on the FIRE Movement and why I think most of the influencers are lying to you.

Affiliate marketing can be a lucrative business. In fact, it's how I was able to quit my job over 9 years ago and I've been building sites, products, and running various online businesses ever since. However, when it comes to building a site like OwnTheYard.com (my Niche Site Project 4 site), it can be extremely risky. An affiliate site that is reliant on Amazon for its earnings and Google for its traffic really is at the mercy of businesses that are out of your control. Today I want to take a look at both the upsides and downsides of affiliate marketing and then what I think you can do to eliminate some of that risk.

Would these behemoths of the internet make up their minds? Do they love my site...or not?! Google and Amazon appear to be all-powerful and that power has been on full display over the past couple of months. First, Amazon decreases their commission rates...during a pandemic...because...Bezos money? Next, Google rolls out a core update near the end of May, and I'm not gonna lie, my niche site took a hit. Not a fatal blow, but a hit nonetheless. So, after all this fire and brimstone from the internet "gods", I thought it was time to assess the carnage for OwnTheYard.com. You know, my Niche Site Project 4 site. I basically said that last time I did an update post, it was potentially going to be my last update post. But I wanted to be transparent and share the bad that sometimes comes. Affiliate marketing is hard, with lots of ups and downs. But as you'll see in this full income report, it's not all bad. I mean I still did make about $3k a month without really doing much :). It just could have been...oh, what could have been!

Jon Dykstra is back on the podcast to share more of his story and an update. He's now making over $50k a month with his niche sites and avoids link building.

Listen in to hear what happened to OwnTheYard.com when I did an internal linking case study. I built over 100 internal links to various pages and tracked the Google position over time.

Listen in to find out why I closed blog comments on Niche Pursuits and perhaps why you should consider doing the same.