This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh my gosh, hello, what's up? Welcome, this is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. And guess what? Today is episode number 500.
We have been going strong 500 days in a row and we're not stopping. But I do wanna take a moment to commemorate the occasion and say thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being part of this community. Thanks to everyone who has been part of sending stories in those who've been featured on the show, those who have been part of putting the stories together on our production team. I always thank them each week in the recap, but I really am thankful for them every day.
I'm so glad I'm able to do this. I'm glad it's helping people. I hope it's helping you. And if you're new to Side Hustle School, we'll keep listening because every day, just like today, I've got a story of somebody perhaps like you who has a job, doesn't necessarily want to be an entrepreneur but finds a way to create freedom and opportunity and security for themselves through the world of a side hustle. And in most cases, just like today, they're creating an asset for themselves.
So they're making something that can earn money for them while they sleep, while they do other things, something that can be part of building a future for themselves. Okay, so that's our vision. And now for today's story, it really is a good one. Obviously, we chose something great for 500. This is the story of a married couple who goes from a crashed drone to a soaring side hustle.
As I was working on this story, I remembered once upon a time, a long time ago, I think something like 20 years ago, I crashed a car into a bulldozer. It was my first car, I was 18 years old, and this bulldozer was parked, so it wasn't like a big threat, but somehow I managed to crash my car into it. And thankfully, I was okay, like you should have seen the other guy, that bulldozer, like he was dented, basically, that was it. While my car, of course, was totaled, but I'll tell you that story another time, you'll understand why I was reminded of it when I tell you this story. So this is more important.
It's our sky-high success story of a six-figure drone coaching business that begins after a man crashes his drone into a parked car in New York City. A wild, crazy, and true story, just like all of our stories. So look out for those drones. Let's say thanks to today's sponsor, and then on with the show. [Music]
Alan Perlman never intended for his side hustle to become a full-time business.
In fact, Alan, a regular side hustler for 10 years, had modest goals in mind when he started his website, uavcoach.com. The original plan? Well, that was to make a few extra dollars on the side by reviewing quadcopters and drones, his favorite toys. You see, Alan loves UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles, so much that he could drone on about them for hours. Let's dive into Alan's story because there's a lot you can learn and apply.
Back in 2014, Alan purchased his first drone with the idea of doing some basic aerial photography. It was not an auspicious beginning. On its maiden voyage, he crashed the drone into a car in New York City. I should also point out that it was a parked car, although Alan assured us that that parked car came out of nowhere. I know how that goes.
The bulldozer story was very similar. Alan had seen friends build successful review websites and drive traffic with SEO. That traffic could be monetized with affiliate offers through stores like amazon.com. So when visitors clicked links and purchased something on Amazon, they would get paid. Alan thought he could do the same for his newfound passion.
He decided to launch the website on a whim. It was a good idea because drones are a very high-priced item. With Amazon's commission structure, it's possible to make up to $60 per sale on the higher-priced models. Alan could bring in real money if he sold even a few each month. In the years before, he'd worked for HubSpot and as a HubSpot consultant for his own marketing agency.
His experience running the agency gave him the technical knowledge he needed to get the website up. And since he could rely on his own skillset, the setup costs were practically zero. Now, technically speaking, the website was profitable from its first month. But to be specific, we're not talking about sky-high revenue here. We're talking 14 cents.
That's right, in month one, the website made 14 cents. It's in times like these that many people lose hope and move on to something else, but not Alan. He didn't lose heart. He kept working on the site over the following year. A big investment of time went into producing long-form, high-quality reviews.
The site began receiving more traffic. Visitors read those reviews, and then they bought drones based on his recommendations. One year later, his results were more than a bit better. The UAV coach generated five figures in a single month. Most of that income came from the Amazon associate program.
Now, you're probably expecting us to end the story here and say, "Well, that's great, he made five figures." But that's not the way things panned out. Because in fact, that five-figure month was the single largest month he'd ever experienced for affiliate sales. The sales began to decline after that with no way of recapturing the revenue. You see, those commissions are great, but they're often one and done. You might make a significant commission, but then the customer is gone forever.
In fact, you have no idea who the customer even is. Only Amazon knows, so there's no way to remarket to them and increase their lifetime value. Not satisfied with letting things continue to nosedive, Alan moved to a higher altitude of operations. He started collecting the email addresses of his website visitors. Over the next few months, the website generated thousands of email addresses from people who are interested in drones.
Now, here's where phase two of the plan took off. Alan began talking directly to his website visitors and email subscribers. Alan knew that the best businesses solve real problems and to find those problems, you need to have communication with potential customers. For Alan, this revelation came with a simple email, an email with the simplest of subject lines. Can I ask you something?
Additional questions within the email were equally simple. Why'd you sign up? What are you doing on our website? What do you want to know? These emails led to several one-on-one conversations, which often demonstrated a specific and currently unmet need.
A lot of drone enthusiasts out there needed flying education and training. They didn't want to crash their drones into parked cars. On top of that, many drone owners didn't even know what the laws were around flying drones in their local area. It's with this revelation that UAV coach started to take off. At this point, it was mid 2015 and Alan had achieved enough success to wind down his agency and start working on UAV coach full time.
His wife also helped him build a prep course for those wanting to learn how to fly drones. They spent significant time putting it together, all the while keeping their customers up to date on the process. This ensured the course they created would fulfill the customer's exact needs. They were also getting future customers excited about the product as they were making it. Alan and his wife worked down to the wire and were up until 4 a.m. the night before the launch,
making sure everything was perfect. This launch paid off big time. It made a lot more than 14 cents. Early the next morning, they went to breakfast and every detail of that moment is etched into Alan's memory. He could barely get through the meal because his phone was beeping so much.
Sale after sale was coming in. All the effort, time and sweat was paying off. That single product launch brought in $60,000 in sales the very first day with 250 new customers. And it didn't stop after day one. From a basic review website to a flagship product and a huge launch just two years later, Alan and his wife had changed their lives.
So where are they today? Well, in 2017, their business generated six figures in income and is on track to do the same in 2018. The money earned through affiliate sales only accounts for 10% of their total income now and the rest comes from their training courses. In fact, they recently launched an in-person training program which is sure to grow things even further. You could say they're flying high with no end in sight and we're confident Alan can take this business into the stratosphere.
Wow, episode 500, congrats to Alan. Six figure drone coaching business. Pretty amazing and of course I love the transition from Amazon Commissions into making his own course. Now obviously, Amazon Commissions, that's still a viable business, a viable side hustle for some people. But I also think about it in the nice work if you can get it category because just as you heard in this story, it's great to do a five figure month but then the next month like sales are down, you have no control over the customers, you don't even know who the customers are.
Reminds me a bit of a previous story we did, episode 152, this guy had the idea of doing a bring a book registry, like a book registry to a baby shower or to a party or anything like that. And that's an interesting project as well but it's also completely dependent on Amazon. So if Amazon changes the rules or just doesn't like you or whatever, any kind of other variable, any other factor, then that business can go away. And we also talked more recently, episode 472, the guy doing the personalized restaurant reviews, the Netflix of restaurants where he created this special algorithm to recommend restaurants to people. The first iteration of that business was completely dependent on Google.
And when Google changed their rules, he saw his income drop tremendously. So here's the thing, if your business is dependent on a platform like Amazon or Google or Facebook or whatever, remember that it can go away at any moment if that platform changes the rules and they do change the rules all the time. So very wisely, Alan shifted his focus, he still earns commissions from time to time but he considers those as bonus money. It's like, cool, got some extra money from Amazon this month but meanwhile, our main revenue source is serving those customers who have visited the site, read the reviews, signed up for the emails, they are being helped through all the free information and now we have this course for them. We already know that these people have money, they're prepared to spend money on drones, which are not cheap, and they want to protect their investments.
So of course they want to learn how to fly the drones better and to learn how to follow the local laws and all that kind of stuff. So it really is a wonderful example of serving a specific community and providing a clear solution to their problems and of course making a lot of money. So great work. Again, congrats to Alan, congrats to everybody out there, by the way, not just him, but everybody out there who is working on their side hustle or is thinking about it or is planning for their future or is otherwise doing something to build their own security. That really is what this is all about.
You notice that some people quit their jobs just like Alan did in this story, but he only did that when the side hustle was taking off, in this case, literally taking off into the stratosphere, as I said. So there are lots of different ways to do this kind of thing but ultimately one way or another, it is about empowerment. It is about taking ownership of your life and being able to do what's important to you. That's what I'm excited about every day. If I sound excited now, it's because I've had some coffee, true story.
And also it's episode 500. So even if I hadn't had coffee, I think I'd still be excited. And as I said at the beginning, it is my privilege and my honor to bring these stories to you every day. Thank you for joining me for the journey. The best is yet to come, so don't go anywhere.
And don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Guess where today's show notes are? They are online at sidehustleschool.com/500. That is 5-0-0. Come and say hi on social media or just send me a note from sidehustleschool.com.
Email podcast@sidehustleschool.com. Send me a carrier pigeon or a note from a drone. Don't crash it into my car, please. I don't actually have a car, so that makes that easy. But still, don't crash it.
Be safe out there, my friends. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
