Tag: Blog

Gardening Mama Monetizes Frugal Living Blog

What It’s About

Lessons learned pinching pennies during the recession leads this mother to passive income!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

When she’s considering a topic, Pam makes sure that it fits the needs of her target reader and it meshes with the theme of the site. For example, even though many of her readers probably watched the Super Bowl, writing about junk food snacks doesn’t fit with her brand. However, if she had a healthy recipe for a junk food snack (like homemade queso sauce for chips), then that would be a good fit for Brown Thumb Mama. In other words: know your audience.

Fun Fact

Pam’s two most popular articles to date are “Homemade, Natural Febreze“ and “How to Plant & Grow Garlic.” Neither of those topics seemed exceptionally exotic or difficult to her, but her readers love them. Sometimes she’ll write an article that she thinks will surely be a success and it goes nowhere, like “Natural Tips for Great Sleep.”

Notes from Chris

Episode 418

Today’s story comes from Pam Farley in Sacramento, California. She was a corporate marketing writer for about 17 years, but now she runs a couple of side hustles. Her main one, Brown Thumb Mama, is a blog featuring money-saving tips. She also sells essential oils, and has an ebook about essential oil education classes, which brings in passive income each month.

Pam started the blog in 2009 during the recession, when everyone was pinching pennies. Her coworkers were asking her how she supported her family on her salary alone. Her husband is self-employed and wasn’t paying himself back then. Pam figured that if her coworkers wanted this information, others could benefit from it, too. So she started her blog. It had restaurant copycat recipes, money-saving tips, and gardening advice to help other busy moms learn how to make things instead of buying them.

For the first few years, Pam treated the blog as a hobby. It wasn’t making much money, and she didn’t research best practices or engage sponsors or advertisers. But in the past two years, she’s devoted time and money to improving her craft… and increasing the income.

Pam now makes at least $3,000 a month from the blog, minus about $100 in expenses (hosting, email software, and supplies.) She expects her income to increase as she gets more readers—and as she better serves those readers by continuing to be consistent and by understanding their needs.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Brown Thumb Mama: Learn more tips and tricks on Pam’s blog that will help you save money when your finances are tight
  • WordPress: Pam used WordPress to setup Brown Thumb Mama, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes
  • Google Adsense: Pam decided to try and monetize her blog using click through ads through Google Adsense
  • Mediavine: The service that Pam used for Brown Thumb Mama that searches out advertisers and places their ads on your site for you

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

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
"Think about who you’re writing your blog for, and ask yourself—what do they need help with? Brainstorm a bunch of ideas for blog articles and then ask your ideal customer if those articles interest them."
—Pam Farley #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Skillshare. 📷

Skillshare is giving Side Hustle School listeners 2 months of unlimited access—for $0.99! Join the 2 million students learning everything from street photography to SEO on Skillshare today!
Get Started 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

Golfer Takes a Swing and Scores $5,000/Month Hustle

What It’s About

A golfing blog scores a hole in one, bringing in a steady second income.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

If you’re looking to master your SEO, here are three tips to help you get started:

1. Choose a focused topic using something like Google Trends 2. Chose the right keywords—Google Keyword Planner is great for this! 3. Use a simple plugin like Yoast!

Oh, and be consistent!

Fun Fact

Jon basically ignored SEO for his first full year of blogging, but that didn’t stop him from transforming the hustle into a $5,000 per month business later on.

Notes from Chris

Episode 409

As an avid golfer, Jon Sherman spent many hours on golf-related websites and forums. He enjoyed the online community he discovered, but he was disappointed by the advice he found in forums, on blogs, and in videos.

After a couple years of digging through posts, he realized why. The majority of the advice was being given by swing instructors looking to boost their authority—not by actual golfers. Jon wasn’t just a golfer, he was a high-level, amateur player, and he knew he could write better, more valuable content than what he was seeing available online.

So, after being inspired by stories he’s heard of online businesses and niche sites, he started his own WordPress blog, Practical-Golf.com. Since January of 2015, he’s been a sales agency manager by day and a golf writer by night.

In any given month over the next couple years, Jon would see his earnings range from $500 to $6,000, depending on the shopping season and any media coverage he received for his premium membership. It was a very nice side hustle especially when you take into account that he started it for next to nothing (his startup costs were around $100), but Jon wanted it to become more.

Fast forward another year of steady organic growth through intentional SEO. Practical Golf now averages 40-50 thousand unique monthly visitors and generates an incredible $5-8,000 per month of pure profit. Jon is nearing that point where he thinks he’ll be able to quit his job and be a golf writer and consultant full-time within the next two years.

Jon’s thrilled to be earning so much from his passion, but the bigger joy is in the community he’s created and the relationships he’s built over the last few years. “I’ve made tons of friends from around the world,” he says. “The online golf community is great!” He’s hit a hole in one with this project, and his driving ambition has served him well.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

 

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

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
"There is no way I could have predicted where the site has taken me since I published my first article three years ago. Keep experimenting, failing, and learning!"
—Jon Sherman #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
Get Started 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

Music Therapist Writes Custom Lullabies For Restless Children

What It’s About

Customized children’s lullabies earn passive income for a resourceful music therapist.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Stephanie decided on the prices for her products based on earlier recommendations from her friends and by asking herself the question, “If I was to be overcome with orders, would the amount I’m charging justify an entire day working on them?”

If you’re having difficulties landing on prices for your product, this train of thought may help you too!

Fun Fact

When she worked in the hospital, Stephanie had a reputation for being the absolute best at helping kids in pain or distress fall asleep quickly and peacefully. She said that hours and hours of singing and playing the guitar for kids and watching them respond in real-time has had a huge influence on how she writes and records lullabies.

Notes from Chris

Episode 397

For pediatric music therapist Stephanie Leavell, the birth of her child was a huge turning point in her life. Not wanting to spend her days away from her daughter, Stephanie decided to leave her well-paying hospital job and take more casual work booking acts for a music venue.

Although the new job was more flexible around her life and child, the pay just wasn’t the same. So, she began to explore side hustling as a means of making up the difference. This exploration brought her to the Side Hustle School podcast!

Listening from day one, and never missing an episode, Stephanie constantly tuned in to hear people’s stories and get ideas on how she could make money from the skills she already had. After a few months of listening, she was struck with her own idea.

Over the years she’d spent countless hours trawling the internet looking for the best kids music, and what she found was that it took a lot of work to find something good. Stephanie figured if she’d had that problem, other parents might have it too and worked out a way to solve it. She would create a resource, that was backed by her own expertise as a music therapist, and share the best music for different problems kids or parents were facing.

In August of 2017, Stephanie created her website, Music for Kiddos, using Squarespace. With her website in place, Stephanie began to publish blog content and share it on social media.

As more and more of her blog posts went live, Stephanie began to notice a trend. People gravitated towards the music for helping children’s sleep: lullabies and songs that could help the little ones get off to the land of nod that little bit more smoothly. With her years of experience as a music therapist, she’d created and used lots of music for that very purpose.

This gave Stephanie an idea; why didn’t she record the music herself and sell it to these parents? She already had a custom lullaby she’d written for her daughter, which gave her a great place to start from.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Music for Kiddos: If you’re interested in having Stephanie concoct a customized lullaby for one of your kiddos, visit her website!
  • Squarespace: The website building platform that Stephanie used to create Music for Kiddos

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

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
"Just START. I thought a website was going to be a pain and take me a really long time, but with Squarespace, it took me just a couple of hours to figure out. I had the website up (and looking great) in a weekend!"
—Stephanie Leavell #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Where Life Meets Legal!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by LegalZoom. ⚖️

Visit LegalZoom.com today to get special savings on services to help you launch your side hustle—add "HUSTLE" in the promo box at checkout.
Get Started 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

Dog Sled Trainer Becomes Women’s Fitness Coach

What It’s About

A woman in her 50s finds her calling helping other women her age youthfully.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Mary decided to put her focus on women in the 45-55 age group instead of on all women in general which felt scary at first. But it also made a great deal of sense since she could speak specifically to the needs and desires of these women being one of them.

Fun Fact

Mary is planning on competing in a Strong Woman competition for the very first time in February of this year at age 51. Go, Mary!

Notes from Chris

Episode 392

Mary Black and her husband, Mark, trained sled dogs for 22 years in Minnesota. They spent ten of those years living off the grid in the backcountry, 6 miles from the end of the nearest road.

They fed the dogs high special diets for peak performance, massaged them to ease their aches and pains, and loved them on good days and bad. But on one of those days, Mary and Mark looked at themselves and said, “We’re taking better care of the dogs than we are ourselves.” While racing the dogs gave Mary and Mark plenty of exercise, they didn’t eat well, and they constantly felt exhausted.

They wanted to make a big change, so Mary kicked her smoking habit and hit the gym instead. Since they were a team, Mark followed suit and they both got hooked on a new habit—getting healthy and their lives back on track.

They weren’t the only ones to notice the drastic physical and lifestyle transformations that they were making—friends, family, and even strangers at the gym started going up to them to ask them what they had been doing. Not only were they getting fitter, it seemed like they had found the fountain of youth and were reaping the rewards. They felt better than they had in decades, and that’s when they decided that aging gracefully is fine but aging youthfully is even better.

They decided to document their journey and share what they’ve learned with others, so they created a free WordPress blog called “Aging Youthful.”

What she wanted to do more than anything else was to help women like her stop wishing for the youthful days behind them and instead start living a more youthful, vibrant life full of purpose and passion.

She decided to offer a 12-week coaching program that mirrored her own journey with three different elements: the mind, the body, and the soul. She began allocating an hour each weekday on her side hustle and anywhere from four to fifteen hours on the weekends.

That first program just ended, and following its success, she’s already planning on launching signups for her next one this month! When everything is said and done, this new coaching program brings in an additional $500 – $600 a month for Mary after the $200 startup costs for her website, domain registration, mailing list host, and PayPal fees.

The extra money has been great to help Mary out with her aspirations of joining her husband as a Strongman competitor, but more than anything, it’s helped her prove to herself and others that life doesn’t end at 50.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Aging Youthful: Learn more about Mary, her journey, and the coaching program that she’s created on her website!
  • WordPress: Mary used WordPress to form her website for Aging Youthful, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes
  • MailChimp: The email marketing platform that Mary used to connect with those who signed up for her coaching sessions
  • Zoom: The video communications service that Mary used to communicate with her coaching clients

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

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

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Quote of the Day
"‘Small hinges move big doors.’ I’m learning to take small steps and believe they will turn into big results."
—Mary Black #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

Excel Spreadsheet Guru Earns $3,500/Month

What It’s About

An Excel guru uses his spreadsheet skills to help employees maximize their efficiency.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Sumit recommends creating useful and comprehensive content on just one specific topic, since SEO is moving towards topical relevance. For example, if you’re a tech blogger, he recommends focusing on just one technology and try and create content for that. This will help in building topical relevancy of your blog for that topic.

Fun Fact

A few years after Sumit started his blog, some of his readers asked him to change the name because they thought it sounded political. He even had a few people offer to buy the site soon after the U.S. elections…but now things are back to normal.

Notes from Chris

Episode 387

Today’s story comes from Sumit Bansal in New Delhi, India. By day, he worked as a marketing manager at IBM, doing data analysis, storyboarding and client presentations. His work required him to use a lot of Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint.

That’s how his side hustle became Trump Excel, a blog sharing tips and shortcuts on spreadsheets that he used at work.

Sumit started this hustle—which is now his full-time job—in May 2013 because he wanted to share what a lot of his colleagues were asking him questions. When he got a positive response from his colleagues and friends, it gave him more confidence that his blog was useful.

It wasn’t until a year and a half after starting the blog that he found a real way to make money: by creating online courses. He launched his first online course in October 2014, and within an hour of sending the email, he got five sales. This was pretty basic: he called “Excel course.”

Those first few sales affirmed his faith in the blog he’d worked on all this time. He celebrated with a few close friends, taking them to dinner, he bought himself a few books, and then he got back to work.

That was three years ago.

Now Sumit has three courses: that basic Excel course (that goes for $127), an Excel dashboard course ($297), and a VBA (Visual Basics for Application) course, also $297. The Excel Dashboard course is the most popular. They don’t all sell every day, but more often than not, at some point during the day he’ll get a notification that either $127 or $297 has arrived in his bank account.

Not only that, he often gets positive feedback on how the courses are helping people do better work at the office. He recently got an email from one of his students who mentioned how he used the techniques shown in the course to create a dashboard. That employee received a standing ovation. Another student emailed him to tell him how the course helped her move from contract employment to a full-time job.

Right now, Sumit makes about $3,500 in net income from his tutorials. He has $700 in monthly expenses, including rent at his co-working space, some important subscriptions, and his email marketing tool.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Trump Excel: Don’t let spreadsheets get you down—learn more about how you can fight back on Sumit’s website
  • Blogger: The first platform that Sumit used to host his blog
  • WordPress: Sumit switched Trump Excel over to WordPress, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes
  • Google Adsense: Sumit decided to try and monetize his blog using click through ads through Google Adsense
  • ConvertKit: An email carrier that would allow you to have drip campaigns, and right now, you can get your first month free!
  • Keyword.io, AnswerThePublic.com, Keywords Everywhere: The various platforms and programs that Sumit used to do keyword searches

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

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
"The best part of this project has definitely been receiving feedback and fan mail from clients telling me how my blog is making such a difference in their lives. I feel blessed to be in a position where I can work with freedom, passion, and commitment while helping others at the same time."
—Sumit Bansal #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

Two Bulgarian Guys Launch Apparel Company with No Experience

What It’s About

Work clothes frustration leads to side hustle inspiration!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

If you ever face a problem, you can always scratch your own itch. Start by deconstructing large problems into smaller ones. There’s less risk involved if you do that, and it allows you to start taking action immediately.

Fun Fact

Marin and Julian documented their journey on their blog from Day 1. With their primary intention being learning, their side hustle long succeeded before they made a single cent. This helps them to consolidate their learning, and provide valuable information to anyone who might want to follow in their footsteps. It also helped to market their product prior to their initial launch.

Notes from Chris

Episode 383

Bulgarian native Marin Gerov has always liked dress shirts. They look great, but as Marin discovered, wearing them can be a hassle. Moving around in them can feel uncomfortable, and you have to worry about sweating when you’re on the go. Factor in the time spent ironing or taking them to the dry cleaners, and dress shirts become significantly less appealing.

That was Marin’s main problem with dress shirts. He knew that there were companies in the US which made performance fabrics dress shirts, but because of shipping and the import tax, they were really expensive for folks like him who lived in Europe. In September 2016, Marin decided that he was going to produce his own dress shirts in Europe.

He shared the idea with his high school deskmate, Julian, who was sharing an apartment with him. Both of them had moved to Amsterdam the year before in to explore living in a new city. They were looking for a fresh challenge, so Julian agreed to partner up.

They called their new business DULO, and they generated 2,000 euros within their first month. Marin and Julian had launched by sending out a blast across all their social media channels and mailing the 30-odd subscribers on their list. They also ran a ‘4 for 3’ deal, which encouraged people to purchase more product at the beginning..

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • DULO: Check out these amazing sweat wicking, antibacterial dress shirts that Marin and Julian make on their website and learn more about their process on their blog!

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

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
"There’s something so satisfying about going from an idea to an actual product we can touch and hold in our hands (quite different to my experience as a developer where you cannot touch the product you are working on)."
—Marin Gerov #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Skillshare. 📷

Skillshare is giving Side Hustle School listeners 2 months of unlimited access—for $0.99! Join the 2 million students learning everything from street photography to SEO on Skillshare today!
Get Started 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

Aerospace Engineer Becomes Full-Time Rideshare Expert

What It’s About

An engineer takes a starter side hustle to the next level.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Harry’s Advice to listeners: once you find the right project, be consistent. He’s posted an article every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday for over three years and never misses a day—not even for holidays!

He also says that you don’t always have to be the best, sometimes you just have to be determined. According to Harry, there isn’t a single other blogger in his industry that has come close to keeping up with that type of volume so consistently for 3+ years.

Fun Fact

Harry’s ‘classical training’ is as an aerospace engineer and up until 2014, he worked full-time as an aerospace engineer for Boeing. Harry was a structural analyst working on scribe lines on old 757 aircraft.

Fun fact: Scribe lines are microscopic scratches on a plane that happen most often when metal tools are used to remove decals (instead of approved plastic for example) and over thousands of flights, the scratches get bigger and bigger and can cause cracking which is bad.

Notes from Chris

Episode 375

Like some of our featured stories, Harry Campbell’s side hustling life began at an early age. For him, it started in the high school lunchroom. His mom made the best lunches, and the other kids would offer him money for them. So Harry started asking his mom for two bags of chips, two Snapples and sometimes even two sandwiches and he would re-sell the extra items to his classmates for a 100% profit. His best customer was a girl in English class who bought a bag of chips every day.

Later he became an aerospace engineer working for Boeing. The job paid well, and when Harry started driving for Uber and Lyft on the side, some of his friends and co-workers made fun of him. Why did he need to ferry people around?

Well, for Harry, it wasn’t so much about the money he earned for each ride, it was the idea and the opportunity. He also started driving in 2015, when the rideshare companies were desperate to sign up drivers and began awarding a lot of incentives for referrals.

In fact, the incentives were much more lucrative than the actual driving. He first signed up for Lyft, but then earned $500 for joining Uber and completing a single ride. He also hit the motherlode of incentives when Lyft ran a promotion offering new drivers $1,000 for doing one ride, and paid the referring driver $1,000 as well. In other words, they were paying $2,000 to acquire a driver who might only work for them once.

Harry spent three days trying to convince everyone he knew to sign up. People told him it sounded like a scam, but it wasn’t—he ended up referring 34 drivers and earning $34,000.

At first, the The Rideshare Guy site was just another side hustle. Harry made around $25,000 from it that first year which was a lot more than he was expecting. But traffic was growing, he was starting to get more media attention, and he figured that if he went full time on the site, the numbers would only get better.

That’s exactly what happened. In his first year of full-time work, the business made over $100,000 in profit and has only continued to grow.

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The Rideshare Guy: Get a sneak peek behind how Harry manages to make six-figures through referrals on his blog
  • WordPress: Harry used WordPress to create The Rideshare Guy, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

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
"I think finding the right side hustle is all about trying lots of different things. It’s important to do your due diligence and research ideas without jumping right in but at a certain point, you need to just start trying a lot of different things."
—Harry Campbell #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Skillshare. 📷

Skillshare is giving Side Hustle School listeners 2 months of unlimited access—for $0.99! Join the 2 million students learning everything from street photography to SEO on Skillshare today!
Get Started 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

Bitcoin YouTuber Earns Thousands in Affiliate Commissions

What It’s About

Altcoins lead to an alt-income stream for a man in the Netherlands!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Alex’s advice to anyone wanting to start a similar side hustle is to start a free YouTube channel on one niche topic you love to talk about. Don’t deviate and instead go to depth on this one topic, and provide as much entertaining information as you can.

Fun Fact

In addition to being a cryptocurrency guru, Alex is also known for being the founder of the Netherland’s equivalent to 411, the information telephone service. In the Netherlands, you can pay up to 1 euro per minute, and some users even pay for every minute after the call is transferred. Alex changed the business model and made the 411 service (called 1812 in this country) free! He makes his money selling advertising space, and it is more than enough to live on.

Notes from Chris

Episode 361

If you’ve watched or otherwise consumed any form of media recently, it’s been hard to avoid the conversation about cryptocurrencies. Despite all the hype and chatter, it can be a confusing topic. How do these currencies work? What are people actually investing their money into? And if I drop my Bitcoins behind the couch, will I find them later while cleaning and realize I’m rich?

Anyway, here’s a super short primer: Bitcoin is a digital currency with no physical form used to make payments without fees and a level of anonymity. These highly secure payments are made and recorded using a technology called blockchain.

For people who don’t like the current economic model, this gives them a lot of hope and creates a cause they can believe in. Which brings us squarely to today’s side hustler, Alexander van Dijl, cryptocurrency enthusiast, YouTuber, and owner of the Netherland’s based website Bitcoin Update.

Over the past few years, Alex has developed an interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, dabbling in investing and mining, and he felt an internal pull to spend more time and effort on it. He decided he would produce and broadcast daily video updates, information and case studies for the Dutch Bitcoin community. It would be simple to arrange around his day job, where he operates an information service and could be a fun way to connect with people with similar interests.

Since starting his YouTube channel in September of 2017, Alex has been able to grow his side hustle income to over $1,000 per month on average. But sometimes he makes that in one week with a big affiliate sale, and he projects his business will be worth around $15,000 per month this time next year. Oh, and he’s not getting paid in digital currency—he gets paid in money that goes straight to his bank account.

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

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
"Every sale is a celebration! Even though I now drive between 10 and 100 sales every day, I still celebrate each one. The first one is always the best. It shows that people are interested and that the new side hustle works."
—Alexander van Dijl #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Skillshare. 📷

Skillshare is giving Side Hustle School listeners 2 months of unlimited access—for $0.99! Join the 2 million students learning everything from street photography to SEO on Skillshare today!
Get Started 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

Digital Camera Blogger Snaps Into Passive Income

What It’s About

A love of photography brings in passive income for a Canadian man.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

There are plenty of sites with 30+ page reviews dissecting every menu item in each camera, but Itai’s reviews are 3 pages long max and only cover the essential things people want to know: what the camera can do, how easy it is to use, and how well it takes photos. Simplicity brought the readers to the site, and the no-nonsense approach to evaluating cameras kept them coming back. That’s some smart differentiation!

Fun Fact

Itai is an enthusiastic photographer, he but rarely uses his own cameras anymore! He always has someone else’s that he’s reviewing, sometimes several with plenty of lenses, so his side hustle has made him more creative.

Notes from Chris

Episode 349

Today’s story comes from Itai Danan in Montreal, Canada. By day, he is a software engineer. His side hustle is Neocamera, a website and blog focused on digital cameras and camera gear.

Itai researched digital cameras before a big trip and knew a great deal about the subject. He’d share information with his friends, who’d pass it on to their friends. After several years of that, he decided to put what he knew online and monetize the site using ads and affiliate programs. One of his first steps was to sign up for Adsense, which gives you a few pennies when someone clicks on an ad.

The first milestone was to get it to cover hosting and domain costs—but then it grew into a real passive income source, earning, anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $1,000/month. This is all from startup costs of just $17 for a domain and $55 for a year’s worth of web hosting.

Neocamera started as just 10 pages but has since grown to a lot more 40,000 pages with millions of visitors. Itai would add pages whenever he tried a new camera or new gear, or read a book on the subject. The site has buying guides, camera reviews, photography articles, search engines to find cameras and lenses, and tools to compare them all.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Neocamera: Take a picture—it will last longer! And if you don’t have a camera handy, here’s a link to Itai’s website
  • Google Adsense: In the beginning, Itai used AdSense—ads targeted to site content and audience—to monetize his blog
  • Google AdWords: Google’s online advertising platform that places your ad in the ‘Sponsored Links’ section next to search results to boost website traffic and sales
  • Cruise Vacation Turns Into Highly-Profitable Hustle:After searching for answers to questions about his first cruise, a copywriter decides to take matters into his own hands by creating an informative blog

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

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
"Making money from the web using ads is very nice because it detaches your time from your income. You must of course put time and effort, but it is no longer the case of putting in an hour of work for an hour of wage. I took a full year sabbatical and, even though, I did not put any work on the website, I still got monthly payments. Now I can tell people that I make money in my sleep!"
—Itai Danan #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

Aussie Engineer Moves to Farm, Earns Passive Income

What It’s About

A Tour de France resource blog that brings in passive income.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Cycling is an industry where people are passionate, and they buy gear. That gear is not inexpensive. For people who are hardcore, there are also training camps, extended activities like this L’Étape du Tour that is basically an amateur Tour de France. As with any passion-centric market, there’s money to be made!

Fun Fact

Tim is a three-time Etape du Tourer. “I kinda had to put “doing Etape” on hold because Baby #1. Aiming for returning to France for a 10 year anniversary with the event in 2021.” He’s also tackled Mont Ventoux in one day three times. He says he likes to do “stupid things for fun” like  a half marathon with no training, or a 260km/4000m Gran Fondo with no training, but really, it all ends up being source material for his side hustle.

Notes from Chris

Episode 329

In 2009, Tim Marsh took his first trip to France. He had a purpose: follow the Tour de France and do L’Étape du Tour, a mass participation cycle sporting event where amateur cyclists race the same route as a Tour de France. An admitted planning obsessive, Tim spent hours making all the arrangements. Had there been a guidebook to help him, it could have saved him a lot of time, but he couldn’t find one… you know what happens next.

On his flight back to Australia from his French adventure, Tim wrote the first draft of that ebook. The job was easy. After laying it out on the plane, Tim tidied it up, added photos, then sent it off to a company that helped him publish. The publication process took a few months, so during that time, he decided that his experience would also make a great blog.

That was the start of VeloNomad, a website for “cycling holidays and adventures” featuring ebooks/guides, product reviews, nutrition info, training insights, travel tips and more.

Tim, as you could probably guess, is an avid cyclist. He works as an engineer in the health industry in Australia—a job that he loves—and uses his side hustle as supplemental income. But that’s not all. Tim is a Melbourne escapee. In 2011, he and his wife quit their (previous) jobs and with only a little savings, moved to the Far North Coast of New South Wales and now live on a 10-acre hobby farm with chooks (that’s slang for chicken), cows and goats. Time is of such great value to Tim and his side hustle so notable—it’s passive income. That is, Tim’s hustle requires minimal effort for him to maintain it as a source of income.

His sales are about $400-700 a month through affiliate income (product reviews), plus sales of ebooks and prepaid SIMs, for cell phone use abroad—which isn’t a ton, of course, but it’s completely passive.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • VeloNomad: Ride on over to Tim’s blog to learn more about how to train for the Tour de France
  • WordPress: Tim used WordPress to create VeloNomad, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes
  • MailChimp: The email marketing platform that Tim used to connect with his readers and followers
  • Stripe: A payment processing platform that Tim used to process his sales
  • ActiveCampaign: The marketing automation platform that Tim used
  • LeadPages, Landingi, AppSumo, ConvertPlayer: The various programs and platforms that Tim has used over time he’s had VeloNomad

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

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

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Use programs that don’t cost anything whenever you can and try not to spend money on stuff you don’t need."
—Tim Marsh #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
Get Started 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