The Side Hustle Show

What's the best way to write a bestselling book? Ask a hundred people and you'll get 100 different answers. Sure, I've had some book launch success before, and have certainly learned a lot about self-publishing since my first title in 2012. But there are always new and different tactics to try, and you never really know how audiences and algorithms are going to react. You can check out my latest book at 1K100ways.com. I asked several fellow authors "What's your #1 book launch or book marketing tip?" Here are their answers. Full Show Notes and PDF Checklist: 16 Marketing Tips for Books (and Other Products) From Bestselling Authors

I want to introduce a concept I call The Side Hustle Snowball. If you've heard about Dave Ramsey's "Debt Snowball" framework, this may sound familiar. Here's how The Side Hustle Snowball works: You itemize out your expenses and then aim to come up with side hustle income to cover them, starting with the smallest and working your way up. Once you reach the bottom of your list, you don't need your job anymore! In this episode, I'll share 11 of our real household expenses and how we zero those out with side hustle income. Full Show Notes: The Side Hustle Snowball: Erase Your Expenses One Extra Income Stream at a Time

Some ideas just won't die. This project was one of them. My latest book is called $1K 100 Ways, and it features 100 case studies from the Side Hustle Nation community on how to earn an extra $1000 or more in your spare time. The first flicker of the idea came into my head way back in early 2015. This is the story of how it finally came to life. Full show notes

Today we’re diving into the easy wins — the quick updates you can make to your websites to drive more traffic and sales. To help me out on that topic is Mushfiq S., a side hustler who has been building, buying, growing, and selling websites since 2008, all on the side from his full-time career. During that time he’s done over 175 transactions and has a wealth of knowledge on what it takes to make money and build equity online. You can think of it a little like flipping houses — trying to find these undervalued fixer-upper projects, and making 'em shine. Only it’s better suited to those who are more comfortable creating content than they are replacing countertops and cabinets -- and your upfront costs may be a lot lower too. You can find out more about Mushfiq over at TheWebsiteFlip.com and EasyWins.io where you can buy a copy of his “easy wins” spreadsheet listing the things he does to fix up sites he purchases. Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn: where Mushfiq finds “distressed assets” he knows he can fix up and flip for a profit the buying criteria he uses to find the best deals some of his best “quick wins” that have the biggest impact on a site’s revenue Full Show Notes: Easy Website Wins: Marketing and Monetization Lessons From 175 Website Flips

Want to drive more organic traffic to your website? I’m sure you do. At the heart of organic traffic is SEO or Search Engine Optimization. The better optimized your site is for search engines, the higher you’ll rank for your target keywords, and the more visitors you’ll get. For everyone interested in SEO, I have an excellent round-up style show for you today. To help you get up to speed with the latest SEO techniques and methods that are working right now, I invited a bunch of friends of mine and experts who make a living online to share their top SEO tips. I asked them what’s working today in terms of driving more search traffic to their sites, and they shared some insights, resources, and tips that are easily replicable for your sites. Tune in to The Side Hustle Show this week what's working now in the world of SEO, including how to: find easy-to-rank-for keywords perform a free SEO site audit and identify easy SEO fixes use content editors to write better-optimized content Full Show Notes: 12 Expert SEO Tips for 2021: Get More Free Traffic

If you’re starting an online business, you’re almost certainly going to create content. But should you focus on written content on your blog, or video content to try and tap into the massive YouTube audience? Which is better to focus on for audience growth, monetization, and for the best ROI on your limited time? To help you figure out which type of content is best for you, it's time for another Side Hustle Showdown. For the debate, I found two gracious volunteers. Both are from the food and recipe niche, so we can compare proverbial apples to apples. They are: Blogger Jannese Torres-Rodriguez, who started DelishD’Lites.com as a side hustle to share her love of Latin food. She has since turned it into one of several income streams under her multi-6-figure business umbrella. YouTuber Nisha Vora, who is a former lawyer who started RainbowPlantLife.com and the Rainbow Plant Life YouTube Channel to share how to master vegan cooking at home. She’s closing in on half a million YouTube subscribers and has more than 20 million lifetime views. Tune in to hear: Which type of content takes the longest to create How they go about creating content that ranks well on each platform The pros and cons of "owning" your blog content vs. relying on YouTube How monetization compares on the two platforms And more This is a fun one, and by the end, you’ll have an idea which platform is going to be best for your business. Full Show Notes: Blogging vs. YouTube: Which Platform is Best to Grow an Online Business?

It’s time to dive into the ol’ listener mailbag and answer a few questions in this week’s edition of The Side Hustle Show. I’ve had quite a few interesting questions come in since the last Q&A episode, and picked 20 to talk through in today’s show. Click here to join Side Hustle Nation for free! The questions: How I can use my knowledge for a blog or a podcast or affiliate marketing? How have your attitudes about side hustling changed over the last 8 years in the space? How do bundle sales work? Why would these product creators give their work away for so little? What's the table of contents plugin you're using on your site? How is the "You Might Also Like" box in your newsletter working for you in terms of boosting clicks, pageviews, etc.? I noticed that you are using Teachable -- any particular reason? Which WordPress theme should I use? How much do podcasters get paid by sponsors? What made you “jump” [from your day job]? How did failure not become an option for you? Should you build a review site around a single product or service, or broaden it a bit to the whole family of products of services? What are some good potential side hustles for retirees? How can you protect yourself from legal liability related to online content? What's your take on services like Skimlinks? Do you still recommend putting your books in Kindle Unlimited / KDP Select? When registering a business, can I be my own registered agent? I have 11 separate websites for the local towns where we operate. Should I consolidate domains? I'm just getting started. Should I write and publish a book or start a service business? How much is enough to retire at 35? What side hustles or gigs grew the most in the last year? How would you speed up the process of growing a community? Full Show Notes: Affiliate Marketing, Early Retirement, and Side Hustle Shifts Over 8 Years of Podcasting: 20 Questions with Nick

Royalties from book sales is one of the most passive of all my income streams. After you create a book, with print or digital distribution handled by Amazon, you can collect royalties for years. And while I enjoy the writing process and have published several titles myself, I have yet to venture into the world of children's books. (Despite having the outlines of a couple kids books on my phone for the last two or three years!) This week I connected with Matthew Ralph, a children’s book author from England, who recently quit his full-time marketing job to focus on his publishing and freelancing business. His bestselling work to date is Sam the Speedy Sloth. The idea of which came to him while walking through an airport, and by the time his flight landed, the book was almost written. Matt has since added more books to his portfolio, while freelancing to help other self-publishing authors. Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn: what the children's book creation process is like the most effective ways he’s found to market his books how he’s expanding his portfolio and entering different markets Full Show Notes: How to Make Money with Kids Books on Amazon

What advice would you give your 18-year-old self? Here's my actual valedictorian speech from 20 years ago!

Creating assets you can sell over and over again -- that’s the passive income dream, right? This is exactly what Rachel Jones at MoneyHackingMama.com has done by creating and selling downloadable printables on Etsy. This year she’s averaging over $10,000 a month in sales, all while balancing a full-time job and two young kids. Rachel has only been doing this for two years, and she’s planning on leaving her full-time job in the near future and going in full-time on her Etsy business. Big thanks to Cody from Gold City Ventures and The FI Show for the intro! Note: I call this the Buy Buttons strategy. To kickstart your business, find the mini-marketplaces your target customers are already shopping at. Go where the cash is already flowing! Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn: how to find profitable niches to sell digital products in on Etsy some of the categories Rachel likes the tools and technology she uses to get it all done Full Show Notes: $10,000 a Month Selling Digital Products on Etsy

What if you could rent out digital real estate just as you would traditional real estate, but without all the headaches that come with maintaining a property? That’s exactly what Luke Van Der Veer is doing with his digital “Rank and Rent” business. I found Luke through the Side Hustle Nation Facebook group, where he shared a unique take on online business, kind of at the intersection of service businesses, SEO, and real estate. Really taking a page out from all of those playbooks. What Luke does is he builds a local service business website, then “rents” it out to a local, less digital-savvy business that is more than happy for the extra leads. Luke has been doing this for several years but said it took about 6 months to replace his day job income, and 12 months to hit 6-figures. Today he runs a portfolio of over 100 different websites using this “rank and rent” model, earning predictable recurring revenue taking up just a few hours per week. He also helps people get started doing the same at Website Rental Coaching. Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn: how Luke picks a niche and evaluates the competition how to price your service how to find qualified “tenants” for your digital properties Full Show Notes: Rank and Rent: $1000 a Month From Simple Local Websites Free Listener Bonus: 50+ Rank and Rent Niches Next Steps: Luke's Website Rental Coaching Want More? Since this episode, I've actually interviewed a couple of Luke's Website Rental Coaching students: Ep. 597: Miao Rios: Website Rentals: The Simple Local Websites That Earn $1000/mo Ep. 693: John Michael - $300-$1,000/mo Renting Out Websites? How to Build Recurring Revenue with Simple, Local Sites

Earning up to $2,000 for 45 minutes doing something you love -- who wouldn’t want to do that? That’s exactly what Brian McGovern of McMagical.com does. Brian is a party entertainer — he’s been practicing magic and performing since he was in high school. The success of the side hustle allowed him to walk away from a well-paying, but stressful, career on Wall Street. Despite the pandemic forcing him to perform shows from his living room, he’s still making up to $2,000 for an hour's work. Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn how to: Get started, even if you don’t have any experience Attract event producers and party planners for high-paying events Turn something you love into something that can make you an extra $1000-2000 in just a few hours on weekends Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Going to Parties

"Apples to Apples meets Shark Tank" in SideHustle, the party game for entrepreneurs. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the team behind the game is looking for ways to raise awareness and stand out on the crowded Amazon marketplace. In this coaching episode, you'll meet co-founders Darby Rollins and Tomer Soran, who (along with a 3rd co-founder, Tim Palladino) are looking for some ways to expand on the initial traction and grow a brand in the "productive play" space. To help out with this one, I enlisted Side Hustle Show alumni and e-commerce and branding pro, Scott Voelker. Full Show Notes: From Kickstarter Success to a Sustainable Brand [Side Hustle Coaching]

With a full-time job, a baby at home, and a thriving side hustle, Troy Parker was becoming a master juggler. He was excited about the growth of his Etsy shop, Goober Prints, but was beginning to reach the ceiling of his own capacity. Troy specializes in fun, quirky, customizable direct-to-garment printing. Goober Prints had a breakout year in 2020, jumping to $80,000 in total sales — up from about $10,000 in 2019. Could it become his full-time focus? Is it possible to scale sales without sacrificing even more sleep? I reached out to Side Hustle Show alum and Etsy growth pro Melissa MacDonald, because I knew she'd have some great ideas for Troy. And she didn't disappoint! Tune in to check out our full conversation. Full Show Notes: $80,000 in Etsy Sales: How to Grow from Here? [Side Hustle Coaching]

Side Hustle Show listener Raffaele Di Lallo has built a successful house plant website, earning $10k a month — on the side from his day job. Still, he explained that 90% of that income was from advertising, and he wanted to diversify his revenue sources and earn more from affiliate marketing. To help me talk through Raffaele's business is a long-time friend and online business mentor of mine, Matt Giovanisci. Matt runs SwimUniversity.com, BrewCabin.com, and MoneyLab.co and the Money Lab Pro membership community. I knew he'd have some suggestions to grow the income pie and "future proof" Raffaele's business. Tune in to check out our full conversation. Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Blogging: How to Grow from Here?

With Mother's Day coming up, I wanted to share some of the best advice and lessons I got from mom growing up. Most of the time, this was pretty literal advice, but I found a lot of it has a broader application to entrepreneurship. Mom has always been probably my biggest advocate and supporter. For background, she essentially had a couple different careers, first in nursing and then as a library assistant. (At the library, she actually helped me get one of my first jobs in high school.) Lots of wisdom I hope to be able to pass along to our little ones! And if you like this format, be sure to check out the companion list/episode on dad's advice! Full Show Notes: 10 Life and Business Lessons from Mom: The Best Mom Advice

$10,000 a month working 20-hour weeks sounds like a pretty sweet gig! And for Jade Weatherington, it's been a dream come true to make a living in education--while working from home. Her financial success didn't happen overnight. She had months of earning less than $100 from her online private tutoring. But when she discovered a then-new platform called Outschool, things really started to take off. In her first month on the platform, Jade made $32. Still, she was encouraged by the possibilities and scale of teaching online classes there. By the third month, she made almost $5,000. Today she’s making $10,000+ from a combination of online classes, pre-recorded courses, and other teaching products -- all while working around 20 hours a week. Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn: how to decide what topics to teach the online teaching platforms Jade likes how to price and market your courses or classes Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Teaching Online Part-Time

Last year, Brad Rice booked $225,000 worth of Salesforce consulting work. That's impressive on its own, but what's crazier is he only worked an average of 18 hours a week. Brad took his existing skills and experience with a popular software product, and pivoted to become a remote freelance consultant. This is the "SWAS" strategy: Software with a Service. (We’ve heard from guests following a similar path with Asana and Quickbooks.) If you're not familiar with Salesforce, it's the #1 CRM (customer relationship management) software in the world. Businesses and non-profits of all sizes use the software to organize and manage the back-end of their sales efforts. And on the other side, there’s a community of salesforce professionals who support those customers … and earn up to $230 an hour to do so. Why are the rates so high? Supply and demand — there's a gap between the popularity of Salesforce and the number of experts like Brad who can help with it. That's the opportunity I think you should know about. To learn more and see if Salesforce consulting is the right career upgrade for you, check out Brad's Free 5-Day Salesforce Challenge. Tune in to hear: why there's such a high demand for Salesforce professionals how you can get started today earning your Salesforce certifications the progression steps Brad took to go from $40,000 a year to $225,000 part-time Full Show Notes: $225k in 18 Hours a Week: The Path to High-Paying Consulting Gigs

Rachel cash-flows $10k a month from her portfolio of mobile homes. When most people think of real estate investing, mobile homes probably don't come to mind. In fact, technically speaking, mobile homes are personal property--not real estate. Still, this is a sub-niche in real estate that comes with the familiar cash-flowing opportunity of buying a building and renting it out for a profit. Rachel Hernandez has been investing in mobile homes for over 10 years. She made her first mobile home purchase for $3,600, re-sold it for $10,000 on a leas-to-own contract, and hasn’t looked back since. Rachel is the author of Adventures in Mobile Homes and she blogs and podcasts about her work at AdventuresInMobileHomes.com. Tune in to hear: why mobile homes make an attractive investment how to find potential deals near you how Rachel markets for tenants Full Show Notes and Free Bonus: $10k a Month Investing in Mobile Homes

With over 500 million users and growing all the time, your target customers are probably on Pinterest. To help catch us up on all the latest strategies and best practices for getting more traffic, more sales, more leads from Pinterest is our resident Pinterest marketing expert, Kate Ahl from SimplePinMedia.com. It’s been a couple of years since I last spoke with Kate and a lot has changed on the Pinterest platform. The user base has doubled, they’ve released new pin formats, and I’m actually starting to see some signs of life from my own account. Which I’d kind of written off for a while to focus on SEO instead. Tune in to hear: what’s working on Pinterest right now how to optimize your content for Pinterest search some cool things coming to the platform around selling your own products Full Show Notes: 500 Million Users: Pinterest Marketing in 2021

Here's an inside look at what I've been working on the last few months. Tune in to hear: The projects / experiments on my mind Personal / lifestyle updates What books I read My plans for what's coming next Important links: TheTrafficCourse.com SideHustleNation.com/join Thanks so much for tuning in!

Anthony and Jhanilka Hartzog erased $114k of debt in 23 months. The couple were making good money at their day jobs, but realized there's only so much you can cut from your budget. That’s when they turned to the income side of the equation and started a ton of different side hustles. They picked up second jobs at their gym, rented out their car on Turo, dogsitted, and — inspired by my episode with Chris Schwab — they started a residential cleaning business called Maids2Match.com. Today, that business is doing $20-25k in sales a month, with other people doing the cleaning. Anthony and Jhanilka are fully in business-owner mode, dedicating just a few hours a week to it. You can follow along with their journey on Instagram @thehartrimony. Tune in to hear: how they got this business off the ground while working full-time how they find reliable cleaners the marketing tactics that are paying off Full Show Notes and Free Bonus: From Idea to 6-Figure Side Hustle: A Listener Success Story

Can you still make money in domain flipping? Last year, Mark Levine flipped 70 domain names, for around $160k in gross profit. Of that, he spent a little over half on renewal fees for his domain name portfolio and acquiring new domains to add to it, netting $70-80k for the year. Not bad for a part-time hobby! In his spare time, Mark manages a portfolio of 3500-4000 domains. That's not huge by domain investor standards, but still a good-sized collection. With established investors like Mark, I was curious to find out if there was room for new players to earn a profit. (Several Side Hustle Show listeners requested this topic as well!) Tune in to hear: what it takes to buy low and sell high in the world of digital real estate where to buy and sell domains how new up-and-coming extensions level the playing field for new investors Full Show Notes and Free Bonus: Domain Flipping: $70k+/yr Investing in Domain Names Part-Time

Speedos, systems, and niche strategy -- this episode has it all. John Lee Dumas to share some insights from 2000+ interviews with successful entrepreneurs. (Turns out, I have an informal tradition of hosting John every 4 years. In 2013 we chatted podcasting and monetization, and in 2017 we dove into productivity, discipline, and focus.) His latest project is a book: The Common Path to Uncommon Success: A Roadmap to Financial Freedom and Fulfillment. Inside, he unpacks a 17-step guide to business success -- based on his own experience in building Entrepreneurs on Fire into a 7-figure operation and lessons learned from his thousands of interviews. Tune in to hear: John’s take on the common path to uncommon success an outline of the steps you need to take to create a successful business some of the tips and tricks John has implemented in his own businesses over the years Full Show Notes: John Lee Dumas' Advice for Side Hustlers: Be "The Only"

How do you make time for a side hustle? That's one of the questions I get the most, and one of the reasons we return to the theme of productivity so often. In this post (and podcast episode), I'll share a 10-step process for making — and optimizing — time for your business, inspired by Side Hustle Show guests. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: 10 Steps to Make Time for Your Side Hustle

Last May, Monisha Misra reluctantly accepted her first customer. Nine months later, she'd eclipsed $100k in total sales -- all on the side from her day job. BoardsByMo.com is a charcuterie board prep company, and the early success and attention in that arena has spun off other revenue streams including virtual live charcuterie board building classes. Click here to join Side Hustle Nation for free! Monisha has covered a lot of ground in the last year. She started out donating snack platters to essential workers during the beginning of the pandemic. Now she’s scaling up her B2B operations, running online classes several times a week, and holding several business workshops a month. Tune in to hear: how Monisha has grown her Instagram following to over 20,000 people the actions she took to build a 6-figure operation on the side in less than a year how she’s been streamlining her business and adding additional income streams Full Show Notes: $100k in Sales in 9 Months: Instagram, Salami, and Fun

Are laundromats "the ultimate side hustle," like my guest Jordan Berry described? These simple, local, cash-flowing businesses have been around forever, but surprisingly this is the first time discussing them in detail on the show. Click here to join Side Hustle Nation for free! Jordan is a former pastor turned laundromat mogul. Along the way, he's become an advocate for the industry through his website and podcast at LaundromatResource.com. Jordan got the idea to buy a laundromat after his wife told him about a family friend quitting his day job in tech after buying one. It wasn’t just the income potential that intrigued Jordan. He wanted a business that would generate passive income -- and yield better returns than real estate. Jordan has been able to achieve both of those things through buying laundromats. Tune in to hear: why a laundromat makes a great side hustle and investment vehicle some of the expensive mistakes to avoid where to look for financing and some creative marketing and monetization ideas Here's a look at the 10 most compelling reasons why owning a laundromat is -- according to Jordan -- “the best investment you can make." Full Show Notes: Simple, Local Cash Flow: Are Laundromats the Ultimate Side Hustle?

From burned out freelance writer to making $200+ a day in affiliate sales ... all in less than a year. That’s Tami Smith's story. Tami was writing affiliate content for clients when she had a “why don’t I try that?” moment. Starting in late 2019, Tami went from watching clients make money from the articles she wrote, to making her own affiliate commissions on a site of her own. Her effort and results on FitHealthyMomma.com are extraordinary, all while combining two things she loves -- fitness and writing. Tune in to hear: how Tami gained traction and traffic so quickly the tools she uses to get the job done how you can follow a similar path with a side hustle of your own If this inspires you to start a blog of your own, my free video series will help you get online quickly and affordably. Full Show Notes and Free Bonus: How a New Blogger Went from Zero to $200/day in a Year

It’s time to dive into the ol’ listener mailbag and answer a few questions in this week’s edition of The Side Hustle Show. I’ve had quite a few interesting questions come in since the last Q&A episode, and picked 20 to talk through in today’s show. Click here to join Side Hustle Nation for free! Here are the questions I cover: How do you get over the fear of asking someone to buy your service or product? (1:42) Should I gain a skill to start a side hustle or just jump on some ones that have little barrier to entry? (3:45) How do you combat shiny object syndrome? (5:14) Do you have to have an established site to qualify for affiliate programs? (6:52) I'm thinking of expanding the focus of my website. Should I rebrand? (7:59) Are there tasks too small for virtual assistants? (9:32) What are your thoughts about leaving a side hustle as a "hustle" instead of a business? (10:08) Can you send it to me in French? (10:58) What low startup cost businesses can a 14 year old do? (12:07) Is there a service you would recommend for monetizing newsletters through sponsorships? (13:55) What are the top three things you would do to monetize a (new) podcast? (17:21) What’s the hardest part about hosting a podcast? (18:59) How do block days work if there's a conflict between your schedule and someone you're trying to meet with? (20:17) What's your take on the best length of time for a podcast? (21:26) How do I transition from my full-time career to my side hustle? (22:44) I have a idea that if shared with anyone or investors could be easily stolen. How do I protect it? (25:04) I just made my first $5 in passive income! How can I keep this newfound motivation alive? (27:51) I'm finding it difficult to grow my Facebook page. Any ideas or advice? (29:29) How would you go about getting your first freelance clients? (30:37) What makes a good KPI? (33:02) Full Show Notes: Fear of Selling, Protecting Ideas, Podcasting and More: 20 Questions with Nick

Service businesses can get a bad rap. After all, there are clients to deal with, and actual labor involved in fulfillment. They’re just not as glamorous as other more “passive” income models. But you should know that more Side Hustle Show guests started with a service-based business model than any other. This week’s guest has a unique approach to service businesses -- one that doesn't rely on your skills as the expert. Tyler Gillespie has built two successful service businesses and had a clean exit from both -- the last being just 13 months from startup to sale. Tune in to hear: how Tyler comes up with ideas for productized service businesses the processes he implements to put his business in a position to exit how he outsources the mechanism of his businesses Full Show Notes and Free Bonus: Built to Sell: How to Design a Business to Run Without You

How does the idea of taking your part-time hobby, and turning it into a full-time income sound? That’s exactly what Carey Adam of RunningMoms.com has done. Carey has turned her passion for running and fitness into a full-time business by creating paid products and a membership model. To do this, she tapped into the massive Facebook audience -- over 2 billion people -- to connect with her target customers. I’m calling this the Facebook Funnel. It's a unique and systematic way to make money on Facebook. Tune in to hear how: New prospects enter Carey’s ecosystem She provides them with helpful, valuable content and an “experience” They ultimately become long-term paying customers Full Show Notes and Free Bonus: The Facebook Funnel: A Proven Path from Strangers to Paying Customers

You’ve heard of Hot Tub Time Machine, but how does Hot Tub Cash Machine sound? That’s effectively the business model this week’s guest, Steve Nadramia. Steve is a high school history and economics teacher in New York, and a listener of the show. He reached out after our Thanksgiving episode, which touched on renting out attic space and even camper vans and semi-trucks as potential sources of recurring revenue. His unconventional rental business? Portable hot tubs! Steve started a hot tub rental business to replace his summer job income, with the goal of earning $1000 a month. Today, he’s got 25+ tubs in his “fleet,” delivers them with his pickup truck, and is doing thousands of dollars in bookings every month. Steve explained renting hot tubs is quite common in Europe, but doesn’t have much competition in the US yet. Tune in to hear: how Steve got the idea for this business how he’s marketed and grown his business the logistics of how it all works Want more unconventional rental ideas? Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Hot Tub Cash Machine: Zero to $1000s a Month

A masterpiece life starts with masterpiece days stacked on top of masterpiece moments. Whatever your future looks like, to get there you’re going to need to build masterpiece days. To help us build more of those masterpiece days and work toward being the best versions of ourselves in our life and work starting today is Brian Johnson. Brian is a serial entrepreneur who combines ancient wisdom with modern science to help people live their best lives. You’ll find him at optimize.me, the app version of which has lived on the homescreen of my phone for the past few years, ever since my brother introduced me to his work. This is an episode about taking a break from chopping down trees to sharpen the saw. This is about the seemingly small actions you can take on a daily basis to get from where you are to where you want to be. Tune in to hear: what it means to have a masterpiece day and where you should start the framework Brian uses with his students and coaches which virtues he sees having the biggest impact on his students Full Show Notes and Bonus Habit Tracker: Masterpiece Days: Laying the Groundwork for a Flourishing Life

In October, I sold a website. It wasn't a 7-figure, never-work-again type of exit, but when the funds were deposited, it was the largest single amount ever to hit one of my accounts. Over the course of 9 and a half years of running Virtual Assistant Assistant--including the proceeds from the sale--the site generated over $550,000 in revenue. This is the story of how I started, grew, and sold a very part-time online business. I hope it inspires you to start one of your own. Full Show Notes: My $550k Side Hustle: An Online Business from Idea to Exit

I know most people are ready to put 2020 behind us for good, but there were some bright spots in the midst of all the craziness. With that in mind, here were some of mine I'd love to share. Full Show Notes: Best of 2020: My Top Books, Tools, and Moments of a Wild Year

What comes first, the domain name or the business idea? For Peter Askew, the author of a viral blog post called “I Sell Onions on the Internet,” the answer is always the domain name. Peter is fascinated by expiring domain names and how they’re treated like physical assets. This is how he ended up with VidaliaOnions.com long before he had any plans on starting an e-commerce site shipping onions. Peter took that domain name, partnered with an award-winning onion farmer, and last season shipped more than 64,000 pounds of onions! (Prices range from $2.50-$7 per pound so you can estimate the site doing multiple 6-figures in revenue.) Like the product itself, this is a business with layers worth exploring. From the domain name to the farmer/supplier relationship, to the marketing efforts, and to the logistics and customer support that make it all work. Tune in to hear: why Peter says starting with an expired domain name gives you “a small unfair advantage” how he found a supplier and manages the logistics of his business his marketing and customer support methods Full Show Notes: How I Sold 64,000 Pounds of Onions Online: A Creative Drop Shipping Case Study

What started as a 2-week challenge with a friend 6 months ago, has turned into a business processing $3,500 in orders a day! Luke Emery has a background in design and portrait painting. So, he decided to utilize these skills and his e-commerce experience and start a business selling custom pet portraits. Van Woof specializes in putting your dog or cat into a Renaissance-style oil painting, looking like they really posed for the portrait. This isn’t Luke’s first e-commerce business, but it's taken off like a rocket! Tune in to hear: how Luke markets and sells these paintings on Etsy and his own store how the fulfillment logistics work the tools and platforms he uses to create a smooth workflow and great customer experience Full Show Notes: $3500 a Day in Etsy Sales in 6 Months

Ever thought about buying a semi truck and renting it out? Yeah, me neither, until I came across Ericka. Apparently there's big money to be made in trucking, but like any other side hustle, there's some strategy, risk, and nuance to the business. Ericka Williams owns 12 of these giant 18-wheelers, which can generate thousands of dollars a month in profit. Ericka has gone from delivering pizzas as a side hustle to owning a painting company, to now managing an investment portfolio that includes both real estate and semi-trucks. If you're interested in real estate, there’s a parallel to consider with this business model. Trucks are assets you can acquire with leverage (meaning other people’s money), and essentially rent it out for weekly or monthly cash flow. Tune in to hear: how Ericka came across the idea of buying semi-trucks what to look for when buying your first truck the math, marketing, and mistakes to avoid in this side hustle Full Show Notes: $1000 a Week Cash Flow ... from a Semi Truck?

Interested in growing a community and building a profitable blog around something you - and most other people - will inevitably go through? That’s exactly what Katie Emery did when she decided to stop dying her hair after 25 years and transition to natural gray hair. Kate had questions about the transition, but couldn’t find the answers she wanted online. In fact, the information she found was mostly negative. So, she decided to start her own blog, KatieGoesPlatinum.com, to provide comprehensive information about gray hair, and to show women that growing out their grays could be fun and empowering. In just two years Katie has grown her blog to an average of $6,000 a month in revenue. She’s also grown a passionate community and is helping other women go through the transition to natural gray hair. Ready to start a blog of your own? My free video course will help you get online quickly and affordably. Tune in to hear: how Katie started her blog and got it off the ground with no prior experience how she creates content that drives traffic the revenue streams bringing in an average of $6,000 per month Full Show Notes: $6k a Month Blogging About Gray Hair

Our annual Friendsgiving celebration has been put on pause this year, but one tradition lives on. This is year 3 of a special Thanksgiving Side Hustle Show episode showcasing creative side hustle ideas that make real money. If you like this format, I’d love for you to check out the first two in this series -- those are episodes 310 and 363 -- both are in the Top 10 all-time most popular episodes. Ready? Let's do it! Full Show Notes: 11 Creative Side Hustles That Make Real Money

Zero to 55k subscribers and $50k in revenue in 8 months? That’s exactly what Codie Sanchez with Contrarian Thinking, her newsletter about investing and entrepreneurship. Codie's a former journalist, turned institutional investor, turned online business owner. I've thought about content businesses mostly in the context of blogging, podcasting, or video -- but what if email is your content channel? After all, the challenge that many other content channels face is "how to get people to join your list." Codie's model, in a true "contrarian" way, cuts out that middleman. This episode is sure to have you thinking a little differently about how you approach building an audience and building an online business. Tune in to hear: what you might create a newsletter about what makes newsletters such an interesting business model how Codie’s grown and monetized her's so far Full Show Notes: Zero to $50k: How to Grow and Monetize an Email Newsletter

What little purchases or changes have you made that had an outsized impact on your overall happiness? This is something of a sport in our house. Bryn and I kind of joke that we have this mission to optimize everything, whether that’s the: limited space in our house hours in the day money in the bank We've taken great joy in these incremental improvements. We often ask ourselves, “How can we make this 1% better?” If we can make those 1% improvements consistently over time, they start to compound and we’re way better off than when we started. I put the call out to several friends and listeners: What little life upgrade or optimization have you made recently -- with great results? Tune in to hear 21 little life upgrades -- the habits, products, or tools that don't cost a lot of time or money, but make a big impact. Full Show Notes: 21 Little Life Upgrades: Small Optimizations to Improve Your Days

We’re in the middle of a massive labor shift from employees to entrepreneurs. In this episode, I want to try and equip you with some skills, frameworks, and mindsets to help navigate that shift. If you want to make money online, there are a million ways to get it done, but it usually boils down to one thing: helping people. To help me walk through this stuff I’m joined by Austin L. Church. Austin’s a writer, brand consultant, and online entrepreneur. He’s been making his living online for the last 12 years, with some of the exact strategies we’re talking about today. Tune in to hear: how to identify your marketable skills how to land clients in a crowded marketplace the tips and tactics Austin has used to grow his business over the last 12 years Full Show Notes: Make Money Online: The Freelance Business Blueprint

Want to get started with an online business but don’t feel like you’re an expert in anything? Maybe you’ve started a business but you’re struggling to monetize it? A few short years ago, Shane Sams and his wife Jocelyn were school teachers. In their off-hours, they built several successful online businesses, including ElementaryLibrarian.com, which sold for over $1 million in 2017. Today they run FlippedLifestyle.com along with the Flipped Lifestyle podcast, to help others try and replicate the success they’ve had online, and specifically take advantage of the membership model. Tune in to hear: how to set up your membership site the right way why you might be closer than you think to getting your first paying members the payment tiers that work for Shane and his students how Shane and Jocelyn continue to grow their community year-over-year Full Show Notes: Minimum Viable Memberships: Build a Recurring Revenue Online Business

Josh Belk is a full-time college student, he works full-time in web design, and in what little spare time, he’s started a $6,000 a month mobile detailing business with his younger brother. This idea came about when Josh connected the dots between obsession and opportunity. On the obsession side, Josh would always see his brother out in the driveway cleaning his car. On the opportunity side, he received an email about business ideas anyone could start, and mobile car washing was one of them. He asked his brother if he wanted to team up to see if they could make some money cleaning cars -- and with that, Belk Mobile Detailing was born. Tune in to hear to the full podcast episode to hear how the pair: landed their first mobile detailing customers price their service stand out from the competition Full Show Notes: How a Couple College Students Started a $6000 a Month Side Hustle

How can you instill the skills and values of innovation and entrepreneurship in kids? And if you can teach it to kids, why can’t you teach it to grownups? This week I’m joined by Don Wettrick, an award-winning middle school, and high school teacher and the CEO and co-founder of StartEdUp, which has a mission to empower students and teachers to apply innovation and entrepreneurship in the classroom. He’s author of Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level, and also the host of the StartEd Up Podcast. Tune in to hear: how to get kids AND grownups excited about this stuff the rules Don uses for brainstorming his processes for turning problems into real solutions for real customers how those of us with young kids can encourage them to be producers not just consumers Full Show Notes: Raising Innovative and Entrepreneurial Kids: The Next Generation of Problem Solvers

$18k in 9 months ... from ONE YouTube video? And that's without even filming or putting your face on camera! Jon Corres identifies trending topics on YouTube and produces viral videos to ride that trend. Or at least videos he hopes will hit the algorithm just right. It's a numbers game -- not everything you publish will get traction. In fact, Jon said most of his videos don't even breakeven on their production costs right away. But when you have one that hits, it washes away all those expenses and more. When I spoke with Jon, he told me about one of his videos that had gone viral earlier in the year. This video quickly hit 1 million views in February, netting Jon $3,200 in ad revenue. That same video has carried on bringing in passive income. At the time of our call, it had made Jon more than $18,000 and received 8 million views. All from a short video that cost $80 to produce and comprises of short clips from other videos. Tune in to hear: how Jon comes up with ideas for his videos how he and his team create videos without filming any new content the types of videos most likely to go viral the math and metrics behind a successful viral video Full Show Notes: $10k a Month on YouTube - Without Filming or Being on Camera

It’s time to dive into the ol’ listener mailbag and answer a few questions in this week’s edition of The Side Hustle Show. I’ve had quite a few interesting questions come in since the last Q&A episode, and picked 20 to talk through in today’s show. Like this format? This is the 10th installment of “20 Questions” so feel free to go back and binge on the older ones too: 365: Market Saturation, Mind Mapping, Miracle Mornings, and More: 20 Questions, with Nick 346: The Con of the Side Hustle, Beanie Babies, Affiliate Marketing, and More: 20 Questions with Nick 320: Multiplying Money, Morning Routines, and $100k Side Hustles: 20 Questions with Nick 291: Email, Ebooks, Platforms, and Conferences: 20 Questions with Nick 271: Brilliant Blogging, Ruthless Productivity, and Guaranteed Success: 20 Questions with Nick 245: Network Marketing, Imposter Syndrome, My Side Hustle Mistakes, and More: 20 Questions with Nick 219: Growing Traffic, Monetization, List-Building, a Day in the Life, and More: 20 Questions with Nick 198: Blogging, Branding, Book Writing, and Finding the Right Side Hustle for You: 20 Questions with Nick 181: SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Self-Publishing, Udemy, and More: 20 Questions with Nick A common piece of advice you’ll hear is to take audience questions and turn them into content, so here’s a meta example of that in action. This episode covers side hustle ethics, the side hustles I'm most excited about right now, the best traffic drivers, and lots more. Enjoy! Full Show Notes: 20 Questions with Nick: The Side Hustles I'm Most Excited About Right Now, Side Hustle Ethics, Charging Your Friends, and More

"I allowed the business to coast and it's coasted wonderfully well," Nate Dodson explained. In this episode you'll hear about the power of an evergreen digital product that makes sales on autopilot. It's allowed Nate to shift his focus to some offline projects, including several real estate renovations. In Nate's first appearance on The Side Hustle Show (episode 314 in late 2018), he shared the simple sales funnel that ultimately earned over $1 million in total online course sales. Tune in to hear how Microgreens Farmer continues to make sales every week, how COVID has impacted Nate's business, and his plans for the future. Full Show Notes: $40k a Month in 15-20 Hours a Week

How does a new blog get to $50k a month within 2 years? It takes great content, a consistent SEO strategy, and building strong partnerships. When we last heard from Alex and Healy from FinvsFin.com in episode 367 at the very end of 2019, the site was earning around $20k a month in affiliate commissions. Just 9 months later, that's jumped to $50k! Tune in to hear what's changed and what's working today in terms of content, SEO, and affiliate partnerships. Full Show Notes: $50k a Month Online in 2 Years