NYC Jazz Musician Builds $40,000/Year Blog

What It’s About

A professional musician runs a blog that offers tips, advice, and resources for learning jazz.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

After several months of work, Brent launched his first eCourse at the end of 2016, and in the launch month alone he sold 10k worth. He says it was truly gratifying.

He also says that the financial freedom has been amazing. It’s taken him from a struggling musician to feeling secure, and doesn’t have to worry if he’ll get enough gigs next month or not! Yet he still gets to be doing what he loves, talking about and working on jazz and music… just with the security of having most of his bills taken care of from the side hustle.

Side hustles offer security and financial freedom that you may not be able to get with a day job alone, what kind of freedoms can a starting a side hustle provide you?

Fun Fact

Interestingly, unlike almost every story you hear on the show, Brent didn’t actually start this hustle—he acquired it from someone else.

The website was the brainchild of a friend of his, who is now a former business partner. That friend, whose name was Camden, was inspired by another friend who was making a living off of his blog. Camden started with a fairly basic, quickly thrown-together blog, in 2010, and worked on it for about 5 months or so before becoming too busy to continue because of his teaching job. Brent liked the idea of the site and thought it would be a shame if it didn’t continue, so he took it over.

Notes from Chris

Episode 69

Jazz music is something that a lot of people want to learn. Back in Ep. #23 we featured Jake Posko from Maryland, who offered what he called “the most awesome guitar lessons in the universe” which ended up being a great selling point.

Jazz and classical music, in particular, are more difficult to learn, and a lot of people get stuck. With classical music, there is a pretty clear pedagogy and process, but jazz is more creative—at least the way people learn it involves a lot of self-study—so a resource like Brent’s definitely meets a clear need. And as I’ve mentioned before, where there is a need there is an opportunity to make money from it.

Also, don’t be discouraged if your side hustle idea is already out in the world—just because a product or service already exists doesn’t mean you can’t make your own version or do it differently or better somehow

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Chris Guillebeau

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
"The financial freedom has been amazing. It’s taken me from a struggling musician to feeling secure. No more worrying if I’ll get enough gigs next month or not! Yet I still get to be doing what I love, talking about and working on jazz and music."
—Brent Vaartstra #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it 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

Long-Haired Men Create Tribal Identity

What It’s About

Two friends create hair ties specifically designed for men with long hair

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Appealing to tribal identity can lead to loyal customers and a successful side hustle. Chris and Lindsay from The Longhairs are appealing to a specific group, letting men with long hair know that they’re part of the tribe. They’re having a lot of fun and building community among fellow long-haired dudes.

Fun Fact

The men of Longhairs are all about giving to charity, and they donate $1 for every sale they make online. So far they’ve donated $1,435 directly to an organization called Locks of Love, an organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

Notes from Chris

Episode 64

A few times in the show, we’ve looked at issues of belonging and identity. Identity is complex and multi-faceted, and you can occupy a lot of different roles in your life. You share identity with strangers based on things you have in common: your hometown, your background, your beliefs, and also anything that sets you apart from others.

This is not just an interesting sociological fact; it’s also something worth thinking about when you’re creating a side hustle.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The Longhairs:To learn more about Chris or see his funky hair ties, check out his home base
  • Locks of Love: The charity that benefits from each sale of Hair Ties for Guys

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Chris Guillebeau

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

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

Quote of the Day
"Hundreds of guys have written us expressing their thanks and appreciation for The Longhairs. One even got a tattoo of our logo!"
—Chris Healy #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it 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

PE Teacher Makes $11,000 with Membership Site

What It’s About

A PE teacher finds a way to offer online resources to other instructors on his blog through a membership program

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Ben started his teacher resource blog, The PE Specialist, because it was a way for him to reflect, answer common questions and provide some needed materials in the form of PDFs to help teachers out. After a while, he realized that in the long-term, selling one-off PDFs for a low price was not a great revenue model, so he made a shift and decided to create a membership site where teachers would pay annually for access to resources.

Almost immediately, he started to make an actual profit from his side hustle. The switch was key to his success. He wisely recognized that the first path to revenue would not lead to sustainable income, so he changed to this new model which is going well.

Fun Fact

Now that he’s fine tuned his membership service, Ben has 90+ yearly members, and this program is now the main source of income for his blog. He makes a little off some introductory PDF products that he still sells at a lower price point, but his memberships fuel the vast majority of his sales. Last year, he made about $11,000 from this project.

This new source of income allowed his wife an opportunity to leave her day job so that she could come home and raise their young daughter. Now that she’s seen how possible it is to obtain a steady side income, his wife has been inspired and is now working on a side hustle of her own.

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
"Try to go for a hustle that’s a win even if you lose."
—Ben Landers #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Cook with Blue Apron!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Blue Apron. 👩🍳

Check out this week’s menu and get your first three meals FREE, with free shipping. Get ready to say mmmmmm.
Get Yours 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

Charter Bus Employee Creates PR Service for Bloggers

What It’s About

A charter bus employee creates blogger outreach software built to help others manage their guest post submissions.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

At his day job as director of digital marketing, Adam spent a lot of time doing promotions through guest posts on business blogs. There was just one problem: there are a lot of different blogs, and he had a really difficult time keeping up with all of them.

He started to compile detailed notes on all the blogs that accepted posts, as well as a system to track his submissions. Before he knew it, he had hundreds of blogs covering lots of different categories. Thus was born the idea: why not offer this system to other writers with the same problem?

Marketing to bloggers isn’t necessarily a new concept, but Adam used his system skills and creativity to create a fresh new take on it. This method doesn’t work for everyone, but if you’re a good systems person, think about how you can use that strength in building your hustle.

Fun Fact

90 days in, Guest Post Tracker was bringing in $1,000 a month. By systematizing the process and repeatedly testing, it was up to $2,000 a month. He used A/B testing to make quick improvements in conversion. Six weeks after we first talked, he wrote me back to say this kind of process work had helped even more: the site was now up to $3,000 a month.

The biggest challenge for Adam right now is finding time for all of his projects. Still, this one is a side hustle—he can work on it when he’s able, and money often arrives even when he’s not doing much for it.

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

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Look for ways to solve common problems you have that would make your work easier. If there’s something that’s a problem for you, it’s likely a problem for thousands of other people, and they will often happily pay you to solve it."
—Adam White #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Cook with Blue Apron!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Blue Apron. 👩🍳

Check out this week’s menu and get your first three meals FREE, with free shipping. Get ready to say mmmmmm.
Get Yours 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

Miserable Day Job Turns Into $100,000 Side Income

What It’s About

School district employee becomes a writing ninja and earns more than $100,000.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

The great thing about online projects like Shaunta’s is that there are usually a number of ways to read or research someone’s story. Probably the easiest and quickest one is to look at their About page. In fact, the About page may be the most important page on your website because it gives you an opportunity to communicate your mission and tell your story the way you want it to be told.

On Shaunta’s page, she speaks directly to the needs of a large group of people. Her way of speaking is welcoming and personal. Like Shannon Mattern in Ep. 30, Shaunta uses insider language that creates a kind of personal relationship with her subscribers and lets them know that she’s one of them. She wants to help them succeed.

Fun Fact

After publishing her first novel, Shaunta got the idea to create a new, online journal project focusing on writing and publishing to help others figure out what it takes to write a novel.

She knew that she was onto something after getting more than 800+ subscribers in the first month of having that online journal. For a long time, she’d had the idea for a year-long novel writing course, and she thought that this might be a good time to test it out. She made a sales page on Gumroad and sent out an email to those 800+ subscribers. After that, she decided to go see a movie with her husband so that she wasn’t checking her computer constantly.

When she looked at her email upon leaving the theater, she noticed that two people had bought the course! During that two-hour movie, Shaunta had earned $700, which was close to an entire month’s pay at her day job in the school district.

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

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

Quote of the Day
"By far the best part of this experience has been the community. I set out to build the kind of community I wanted to belong to, and it worked."
—Shaunta Grimes #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it 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