1625
9 min 45 sec

Zen Master Makes Mindful Moola

When an online marketing manager gets a pandemic pay cut, he meditates on options and creates a wellness blog.
Affiliate Blog Health & Wellness

Subscribe Now For A Free Five Step Tutorial

What It's About

Meditate on this story 6-figure health and wellness blog that started last year.

Business Model
Affiliate
Skills Required
Writing & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

Matt shares some great advice for those looking for a hustle idea, “If you can't think of anything you're passionate about, consider being a bit more lax on your definition of "passion". Do you like spending your nights lying in bed watching anime? Well, I bet there's something there. With any niche community, there are a world of opportunities to build something cool - whether it's a website, a Youtube channel or even just a spreadsheet of data.”

Fun Fact

One day, Matt’s former boss and mentor spoke to him about a site that was doing such a good job, that it outranked his own for certain keywords Low and behold, he’d taught Matt so well that it was actually his site outranking them.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1625
Matt Oney has worn every digital marketing hat there is over the last six years in his day job as an online marketer for a startup in San Francisco.

After working hard for his employer, he started to question why he wasn’t putting that sort of effort into something of his own. He’d heard about affiliate marketing and thought it could be something that played to his strengths. On top of that, Matt had an old boss with a successful affiliate website, so he called on him to ask for advice.

The old boss ran through how to pick a good niche and said to make sure it was something he actually cared about. It didn’t take long for Matt to settle on health and wellness, with a particular focus on mental health products.

In February 2020 he registered the domain name ZenmasterWellness.com. It was a little different, but Matt felt it was exactly the type of branding and image he wanted to set for his new website.

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, his employer cut his hours and salary by twenty percent. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Matt figured that with a little more time on his hands, and a little less money, he now had both the space and the necessary incentive to work on his site more seriously.

He continued learning, identifying keywords and writing articles on an occasional basis. By July, this method had his site generating around twenty five visits per day.

Within those articles, he began placing affiliate links to the products website. These tracked users' clicks and he’d receive a commission for every sale he generated.

The strategy worked, and over the next year he added content that would often succeed—not always as successfully as his smart gyms article—but that generated revenue nonetheless. How much? Well, just over a year into Zenmaster Wellness the site generates an average of ten thousand per month in commissions.

With that sort of money, you’d be forgiven for thinking Matt has quit his full time job, but that hasn’t happened yet. Instead, he looks at Zenmaster Wellness as a way to increase his wealth building efforts. It’s definitely a healthy complement to meditation.

 
  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Want more zen in your life? Check out Matt’s website, ZenMasterWellness.com.
  • Looking to monetize your own blog through affiliate marketing? Check out Shareasale and Impact, the two companies Matt used for his blog.
SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work! Yours in the revolution, cg-sig-newsletter
Download Episodes By Months:

Season 6 (2022): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 5 (2021): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 4 (2020): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 3 (2019): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 2 (2018): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 1 (2017): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️


Learn More

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!

Learn More

Quote of the Day
"With any niche community, there are a world of opportunities to build something cool - whether it's a website, a Youtube channel or even just a spreadsheet of data."
—Matt Oney #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Skillshare. 📷

Skillshare is giving Side Hustle School listeners 2 months of unlimited access—for $0.99! Join the 2 million students learning everything from street photography to SEO on Skillshare today!


Get Started Here!

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.




Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!





To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau