The Blog That Laid the Golden Egg

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

I'm so glad you tuned in today. What's up? Welcome. This is episode 1,800 of Side Hustle School. 1-800-1,800. Look how far we've come. I'm so grateful for you being out there. I hope

to keep serving you with inspiration, education, and maybe even some entertainment, right? Now, speaking of that, we have put together a very special story for you today in honor of 1,800 in honor of you. We're going to call it the blog that laid the golden egg. And why do I call it that? Well, long, long ago in the first two weeks of Side Hustle School, so that goes back, you know, 1,790 days or so. In that time, I told the story of a woman in Colorado who makes and sells chicken

saddles for a good profit. If you don't know what a chicken saddle is, they are vests, like little vests that you put on chickens to give them a better life. True story, not making it up. She makes a lot of money from it. And that became one of the classic references that I use and other people have used when talking about the show. Like I don't want to feature startups here. I want to

feature people making lots of money from selling something you never thought of before, or you think of as just totally wild and crazy, but yet it's actually working out well for them. And, you know, maybe there's something that you can do too, right? That's the whole point. So in that spirit, in that spirit of there's something you can do, and also you probably never thought about this and also isn't this crazy. Today's story, a Wall Street accountant hatches a million dollar business around raising chickens in her backyard. It is in fact a blog

about raising chickens that provides a ton of information and also makes a really good amount of money. Tell you more about it in the story. This person is a real expert, let's say. You can't make these things up, or at least you don't need to because they're true. The blog that laid the Golden Egg, that's our story right after this message from our sponsor. After leaving her accounting

job on Wall Street, Lisa Steele was born. Her husband was in the Navy and had recently been stationed in Florida, which led Lisa to make a big change as well. That year, 2009, she bought some chickens to raise in her backyard. The following year she started posting photos on Facebook, sharing stories about her backyard flock. It turned out that followers loved learning how to raise chickens, but Lisa noticed she was answering the same questions over and over.

So in 2012, she started a blog called Fresh Eggs Daily. Whenever someone on Facebook would ask a question, Lisa would write her answer and post it online, along with a link to the blog where the post would remain available for years to come. Once she learned she could earn money selling ads on her blog, that changed everything. Lisa began reaching out to some brands she liked to see if they wanted to advertise. She started charging $10 a month for an ad, and over the years she added more sponsors and raised her rates as blog traffic group. These days, the least expensive ad

on her blog cost more than $400 a month, and now brands contact her instead of the other way around. She's very picky about who she works with. Even though Facebook was important, Lisa learned the hard way to not rely on social media to grow her audience. That popular Facebook page was on track to quickly reach 1 million followers a few years ago. But then her growth screeched to a halt. All

thanks to algorithm changes, where only a fraction of her followers would see her content unless she paid to boost or promote her posts. It's a common complaint. She now relies on her search engine ranking to get new readers, and Google accounts for 80% of the blog's traffic. Lisa doesn't spend anything on marketing or public relations. She does, however, still post on social media every day, and sends emails to a blog subscriber list of 50,000 readers. Her early posts continue to be some

of her most popular topics, because they answer the most common questions about raising chickens. Things like healthy treats, how to raise baby chicks, and what is molting. One of her posts about how to figure out how old those eggs you buy at the store actually are went viral, and was mentioned on Dr. Oz, as well as in Cosmo. Very diverse media outlets there. Always a good

sign. So what about the money? Well, get this, Lisa earned $23,000 that first year. And now, a decade later, she's on track to gross 1 million. $1 million gross, netting about $500,000 in profit.

Where's that money coming from? Well, her ad revenue is her best earner by far. But she also sells a product line on Chewy and Amazon. She's an Amazon affiliate and does sponsored posts. Last, but definitely not least, are the royalties from the six books she's written so far about raising poultry, a children's book, and a forthcoming cookbook. It's all been a fun ride

for Lisa, who now gets recognized on the street, thanks to a local TV show she was featured on for a couple of years. This side hustle allowed her husband to retire early from the Navy, making her the main breadwinner for their family. Going forward, she wants to bring her expertise to a national TV show. All these years later, she still has the first dollar she earned, framed and hanging in her chicken coop. Well, as you may know by now, if you've been listening for, let's say, more than a week or so, there are all kinds of ways to make money. There are so many things out there. There's

something for you too. This person can make a million dollars gross in revenue from a blog about raising chickens, you know, half a million dollars a year in profit. I know that there's something for you. And by the way, Lisa's blog is very helpful. I was checking out fresheggsdaily.com myself, all kinds of articles like how to winterize your chicken coop. Can chickens recognize each

other? That question everybody's been wanting to know. And winter boredom busters for chickens, because they get kind of bored too, just kind of sitting around in the coop. All kinds of detailed, helpful information there. We're going to link it up in the show notes page. Inspiration is good,

but inspiration with action is so much better. And what is that notes page? Well, it is sidehustleschool.com/18001800. Thank you for being part of this community. You are awesome. Really

appreciate you listening every day and perhaps sharing the show with your friends. That's always much appreciated, leaving us a little review, but mostly just keep inspiring me. I love hearing what you're up to, what you're working on, and how perhaps one of these ideas or stories gives you an idea for something. So do that. Don't stop believing. Tune in again tomorrow,

episode 1801 coming up. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. from The Onward Project.