What It's About
A Pinterest sensation leads a developer to a weekend project that creates passive income.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
The Amazon Associates (Amazon affiliate) Program is one of the oldest and best affiliate programs out there, and it takes about two minutes to sign up. Part of why affiliate programs are so appealing is that they allow for a more 'hands-off' approach allowing you to passively bring in a side income each month without having to dedicate a whole lot of time.
After all, who isn't a fan of free money?
Fun Fact
This isn't the first time Randy has tackled a side hustle related to books. He also wrote and published a children's book with his wife in late April of this year called How to Get Rid of the Hiccups which follows a little girl as she tries everything she can think of to get rid of 'Hector the Hiccup.' His wife wrote the story for it, her mother provided vivid illustrations, and Randy handled the production side of it. Naturally, you can also find it on his website!
Notes from Chris
Episode 154
Randy Jensen is a busy guy. He's a web developer who provides safety certifications for short term rentals. Not just that—around the beginning of our story, he and his wife were expecting a baby. Around the time they were planning a baby shower, his wife requested that her guests bring books instead of greeting cards that she knew she would just end up throwing away. Randy had never heard of this before, but as he started looking online, he saw that there was a movement of people doing the same thing—especially on Pinterest. Because he just wasn't busy enough with his current schedule, Randy thought to himself, "I need another project." Even though there was the beginnings of this movement, the process was rarely organized—in fact, it's still this way! Randy's idea was to take this movement one step further by creating an online book registry that included affiliate book links that led back to Amazon.com, and after discussing this with some of his and his wife's friends, he discovered that this was something they would definitely want if they knew it existed. That very weekend he created and launched (he's a developer, guys) a website called Books Not Cards and linked it to his Amazon affiliate account so that he could make a small profit anytime someone purchased through his site. While the site has only been live for around two months, Randy has already made $500 in Amazon affiliate sales from this side-side hustle, and the great thing about it is that the more people that start directories on it, the more people will see it and spread the word. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Books Not Cards: Learn more about Randy and his unique registry side hustle on his website!
- CSS3 Generator: The website Randy created for people who were looking to learn the new CSS3 syntax
- Amazon Associates Program: Interested in starting your own affiliate program? Of course you are! Learn how you can get started, here
- ProBlogger | How to Make Money with Amazon’s Affiliate Program: Check out this thorough guide by Darren Rowse on how you can make money with the Amazon Affiliate Program
- Diamond in the Rough: Engagement Ring Hunt Turns Into Hustle: A search for the perfect engagement ring leads a software engineer in Baltimore on a mission to discover the algorithm for the ideal sparkly diamond. Along the way, he creates an affiliate side hustle with major potential
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Resources
CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE
Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.
Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today!
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GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time.
Quote of the Day
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To infinity and beyond,
