What It's About
A former financial analyst hits a hole in one with his golf membership side hustle.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
Golf is a great niche because it’s a hobby that people have to spend money on. In fact, there’s no way to participate in it without paying money. So just like personal finance is a great blog topic when it comes to monetization, so too is golf for this kind of side business.
Fun Fact
Sean also has a quest, which is closely connected to Breaking Eighty. It’s not just to break eighty—it’s to play the top 100 courses in America and the top 100 in the World. And he’s playing most of them for free!
He’s now played 41 of the top 100 in America and 35 of the Top 100 in the World. He's currently looking for a way into Pine Valley—the #1 golf course in the world—so that he can mark off two more!
Notes from Chris
Episode 263
Sean Ogle got his start as a financial analyst, but that didn’t last very long. He had a bucket list, a list of goals, objectives, and missions of all the things he wanted to do in life. So he started a blog, Location Rebel, as a means of public accountability. In another story which I told in some ways long ago in the Art Of Non-Conformity book, six months after starting the blog, Sean ended up quitting his job, moving to Thailand, and then working on Location Rebel and freelancing to pay the bills. But that’s not what we’ll talk about today; today we’ll talk about his side hustle. Yes, even self-employed people need side hustles, and I really like Sean’s... His side hustle is called Breaking Eighty, a golf membership club. Sean monetizes it through a community he created within the site called The Eighty Club. It's an online forum for private golf club members across the world. Right now they’ve just passed the 150 member mark in about 8 months of being in business. It continues to bring in 1-2 new members a week on average, at a fee of $500 annually. Right now Sean is looking at $35,000 in annual recurring revenue, that's growing quite a bit since they raised their price from $250 to $500 a couple of months ago.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Breaking Eighty: Take your game to the next level on Sean's golf membership website. Fore!
- Location Rebel: The blog that Sean started as a means of public accountability
- Wordpress: Sean used Wordpress to create Breaking Eighty, and here you can learn how to install your own Wordpress site in 5 minutes!
- Discourse: The modern forum software that Sean used to build he forum for The Eighty Club
- ConvertKit: The email carrier that Sean used for his mailing list, and right now, you can get your first month free!
- Fashionista Blogs Her Way to Career Success: A thirty-four-year-old fashionista in New York City finds a way to turn the economic crisis into an opportunity promoting affordable fashion while bringing in a profit to keep her flush in designer looks
- PE Teacher Makes $11,000 with Membership Site: A PE teacher starts a blog that makes more than $11,000 through a sustainable revenue model that will likely grow with each passing month
- Blogger Shifts From Products to Sponsorships, Makes $82,000: Sometimes a shift is all you need to get on the right track. This blogger was able to get out of debt and make $82,000 last year while working two hours a day before and after his real job
Resources
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Quote of the Day
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