This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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How SEO support became a reliable monthly payday. What's up friends? Welcome back to Side Hustle School. Welcome as well to Throwback Thursday. In this segment, we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them.
What's gone well, what has not gone well, how have they made changes? Most of the time your side hustle does not remain static. It is in fact dynamic. I think that's the opposite of static. It changes, it evolves, it grows, or sometimes it moves in another direction too and that's okay as well.
So since we first featured somebody at some point in the past 2,900 episodes, what has changed in their business? That's what it's all about. Last week we heard from a travel lover in Lisbon who begins crafting personalized itineraries for remote workers, helping them find co-working gyms and local culture while earning a solid income. Today in our latest feature, we'll hear from a freelance SEO auditor who transformed one-time reports into a monthly subscription. So this is key, basically, and they'll tell you about it, but they were doing one-time reports.
It was like you pay this person a set fee, they go and do a report for you, it's done, but they've transformed that into recurring income, which is even better, right? So they're offering clients new keywords, competitive insights, ongoing support, a very smart business transition. So let's hear more from Brandon about how he was able to do this. Hopefully there's a point of inspiration or a practical tip for somebody else out there as well. And I'll come back at the end with a few words of wrap up.
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Hello, I'm Brandon, a freelance SEO specialist who started off by selling one-time audits to small business owners. I'd come through their websites, highlight technical fixes, suggest keywords, and hand over a report. I got a few decent paydays, but I noticed a recurring pattern. Clients would apply my recommendations and then vanish, only to return months later asking for new ideas. I saw an opportunity.
Instead of leaving them to flounder after the audit, what if I offered them ongoing support? I decided to test a subscription model for a monthly fee I'd deliver fresh keyword lists tailored to their industry, analyze competitors' ranking strategies, and provide an editorial calendar with blog post suggestions. On top of that, I'd invite all subscribers to a private Slack channel where they could ask questions anytime, plus hold a monthly group coaching call to address new trends, algorithm updates, and anything else they wanted to know. I emailed five of my past audit clients and offered an introductory rate of 150 bucks a month if they signed up within a week. Three of them jumped on board immediately.
I'd just earned $450 in recurring revenue within just a few emails. Two more clients joined by the end of the month, bringing my monthly total to $750. Not quite $1,000 yet, but close. To attract more clients, I promoted the subscription in a couple of online business forums and LinkedIn groups. I posted tips, answered SEO questions for free, and mentioned my SEO content strategy club whenever it felt natural.
Within a few weeks, I signed two more clients at a higher rate. Now I was making $1,700 a month in recurring income. I refined the experience further by adding a short, downloadable SEO cheat sheet each month, summarizing trends and best practices. Clients loved it. One even told me she read it during her morning coffee, calling it her SEO newspaper.
For me, it was a simple PDF that took an hour to compile, but it made the subscription feel dynamic and worth sticking around for. As the subscriber base grew, the Slack channel turned into a mini SEO support group. Clients shared their wins and failures, asked for feedback on their blog headlines, and celebrated whenever one of them broke on to page one of Google. The monthly group calls became a highlight. People showed up with questions and left with concrete action steps.
By month three, I had 10 subscribers and was earning $2,500 a month. I still offered one-off audits to lure in new clients, but the subscription had become my main focus. The extra stability gave me room to experiment, learn and respond to what customers actually wanted. I'll never forget one client who hopped on a coaching call, thrilled, because a keyword I suggested was now outranking a major competitor. "You're like my secret SEO weapon," she said.
That feedback made my day, and it further justified my decision to go from selling reports to providing a long-term service. [Music]
- Brandon, thank you for sharing the story of going from the one-off service to a monthly subscription. This doesn't work for everyone. I think everybody in the world these days is trying to do subscriptions, and there is a good amount of subscription fatigue. So just to be aware of that, if you try to do that in your business, sometimes you encounter resistance.
But if you can make it work, then it's a good goal, right? There's a reason why everybody wants to have subscriptions, because then you can count on this predictable income coming in every month. So well done to Brandon for making that happen. Listeners, let me know what you're working on, who you'd like to see featured from our archives of literally thousands of episodes. And of course, you can subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts and make it for you every day, seven days a week.
It's always completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You are listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
