Tag: Passive Income

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!

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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

Quiz Master Creates Side Hustle Nobody Can Question

What It’s About

What kind of a side hustle has a low startup cost and brings in passive income for a man in Poland? Trivia quizzes!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

John went to local bars with a simple pitch: he’d take one of their quietest weeknights and bring more people to the bar, starting with 40 regulars from his current slot. He would keep the entry fee for the quiz, and the bar would keep whatever was spent in drink. Because this was such a plus for the bar, it was just a few days before he found a location.

There’s a lesson in pitching there for all of you side hustlers out there. When you pitch, be sure to come with a high-value proposition—like John’s offer of increased patrons—and try to keep the downside minimal. In this case, the bar didn’t have anything to lose and everything to gain.

Fun Fact

John’s quiz night is paid for in cash, and instead of depositing them in the bank, they go into a big change jar in his house to pay for groceries or random daily outgoings.

Notes from Chris

Episode 388

Over the last ten years, pub quizzes have become a staple of expat life for a guy named John also known as Mr. Know It All. In his adopted Polish home of Krakow, John and a few of his fellow expat friends took it upon themselves to help write questions and host a trivia night at their new local bar. For them it wasn’t just some trivia-l task, it was a labor of love.

As the years went by, John’s friends slowly began to move away from the job of writing the weekly quiz fell to him. But this wasn’t a problem. He felt his years of experience had given him a knack for writing questions, and the work was enjoyable.

Over time, however, John began to feel the strain of not having his friends to help out. He could write the questions easily enough, but he was beginning to feel the strain financially. Although he’d receive free beer whilst hosting, this wasn’t enough to cover the six hours he spent preparing and hosting.

The contestants paid to participate in the quiz, but that money went directly to the bar. John saw this as unfair, but also an opportunity. If he could take his quiz night elsewhere, he could charge the entry fee and get paid for his time, while helping another bar to grow its custom. A win/win … as it’s known in side hustle circles.

He’s not sure how the idea came to him, but John decided that he would try and sell the questions on Amazon. He had more than enough content to fill multiple books of questions, and he knew that most of the quiz-based books out there weren’t that great. This was his opportunity to do create something unique.

Taking 500 of his favorite questions, he uploaded them to Kindle Direct Publishing and formatted them through their own in-house tools. John wanted to do this without spending any money at all, so he created a cover in Canva that looked acceptable. In order to keep his privacy, John published his books under the nom-de-plume Mr. Know It All and priced them at $9.75, which he felt was competitive with other books in his market.

With the combined income of his book and his in-person quiz night, John makes between $800 and $900 per month from his side hustle, for about seven hours of work each week. This level of income even prompted John to write and publish a second book of 500 more questions.

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
"Don’t try to win over everyone—focus on making the people who already like you, happier. They will become your evangelists and bring new customers into the fold."
—John Random #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

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

Published Author Adds Income Source; Makes Additional $21,000 Her First Year

What It’s About

Successful writer finds a successful side hustle in selling online writing courses.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

When we asked her for tips for others looking to start their own courses she had this to say:

“Don’t be afraid of sharing EVERYTHING you know about your topic to your students—that’s why they’re buying the course after all. Apart from the content of my courses, the most common piece of positive feedback is people who appreciate that I didn’t hold back. I gave them ALL of my secrets. I think new instructors worry about giving away too much like they’re creating their own competition, but you can’t think that way. No one can BE you—only you can do that.

Even if you tell your students everything you’ve ever done to succeed, not everyone is going to do it the same way or even interpret it the same way. If you hold back key information that you believe are your ‘trade secrets,’ students can tell and the course (and reviews) will suffer because of it.”

Fun Fact

When Jessica got her first customer, she didn’t even realize it. She put the course online, promoted it on social media, and waited. She thought Udemy would email her whenever they made a sale, but they don’t. After she and her husband landed in Dallas to visit family, and they sat down at a Mexican restaurant in the airport, Jessica watched her inbox obsessively thinking nobody was interested in her course and she’d wasted a ton of time. When she actually logged into Udemy, she saw that she’d already sold over 30 courses. She was ecstatic. They ordered another round of margaritas.

Notes from Chris

Episode 303

Jessica Brody (a recent transplant to Portland, OR from Denver, CO) is a seasoned author with over a decade of experience under her belt, and more than 15 novels for teens, kids, and adults to her name. She’s worked with some of the biggest publishers in the world—Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan—and she’s also the author of The Descendants: School of Secrets series, published by Disney Press, based on the hit Disney Channel Original Movie, Descendants.

Having found the success many writers dream of, she thought it might be worthwhile to share her knowledge with others. As many before her, Jessica started leading workshops on writing in person with her local communities and even started picking up paid speaking opportunities at middle schools, high schools, book festivals, and writing conferences. But as much as she enjoyed having an opportunity to share what she’s learned and connect with other writers, it was time intensive and provided little flexibility.

But all of that changed when she heard about the education platform, Udemy. Jessica’s husband runs a software consulting business and he stumbled onto Udemy when he was looking for platforms for him to host training sessions.

Udemy’s online marketplace was essentially the digital version of what Jessica was doing with her in-person workshops, but they would require far less of her attention since she’d only have to create the courses once. Naturally, her husband suggested that she look into it for converting some of her in-person workshops into online courses.

Similar to ideas for side hustles, ideas for courses are sometimes challenging to develop, so Jessica started out by reflecting on problems she encountered when she first started out writing—things like how to be productive as a writer, how to approach publishers and deliver a winning pitch for your novel, how to develop stories that become lucrative blockbusters, and general guidelines for how to write fiction and nonfiction. And from there, she built her courses with the intention of solving these problems.

Since then, Jessica’s launched four courses and is aiming to launch her fifth course by the beginning of November! She has over 3,700 students in more than 90 different countries, and she was able to bring in an additional $21,000 her first year on Udemy.

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

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.

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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
"Don’t be afraid of sharing EVERYTHING you know about your topic to your students. I think new instructors worry about giving away too much like they’re creating their own competition, but you can’t think that way. No one can BE you—only you can do that."
—Jessica Brody #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get a FREE Audiobook from Audible!

Audible is offering SHS listeners a free copy of the Born For This audiobook with a 30-day trial membership. 📚

Just go to aonc.co/bftaudible and browse the unmatched selection of audio programs and start listening.
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

Travel Blogger Gets Paid via Pinterest and Guidebooks

What It’s About

A French travel blogger zigzags around Europe documenting her travels and selling guidebooks for passive income.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Claire tried to give a lot of information about fewer locations, as opposed to most travel guides that try to give information about hundreds of locations. And she gave very clear directions about how to find the best shot of a particular waterfall, landmark, or landscape.

Her overall objective was to simplify the information being offered on a particular destination so people didn’t have to sift through a lot of extra information to get to the good stuff. She wanted to help with the trip planning overwhelm and lay out the really good options instead of every single option, and this is really good advice for anyone looking to do something similar. Everyone writes general guidebooks—stand out by simplifying your selection and getting specific with your info.

Fun Fact

One of Claire’s customers not only loved her guidebooks but said that it saved her marriage. The customer is also a travel planning addict and generally spends hours trying to find the information for their next trip, which annoys her husband. Thanks to Claire’s guidebook, the customer found all the information she needed, saved a ton of time and didn’t annoy her husband.

Notes from Chris

Episode 293

There are a lot of travel bloggers out there, but the vast majority of them aren’t making any money—at least, not anything to write home about. Today’s story is a bit different though—it’s about a travel enthusiast in France who spends her time road tripping around Europe. The best part? She documents her travels and turns them into guides that earn her an additional $10,000 a year. What a journey!

Today’s side hustle comes from Claire Robinson who is based in France, but travels a lot… so who knows where she is right now. Back in 2013, Claire was a Quality Manager for a medical device company and was lucky enough to travel around the world for her job. Since she was visiting and at times, living, abroad she started blogging about her excursions.

She set up a simple WordPress website and started sharing specific tips and itineraries from the places she would visit. She named her website ZigZag on Earth: because she zigzags around when she has time before zigzagging back home.

By early 2016, Claire decided to put some sort of strategy in place for her guidebooks. She picked Pinterest as her social media and for her efforts made $4500 in 2016. She continued with her free Pinterest marketing and so far in 2017, her revenue has exceeded $10k. She now has over 4,000 followers on Pinterest and over 46k unique monthly visitors to her website.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • ZigZag on Earth: Zigzag your way across Europe with some help from Claire. Check out her website!
  • Selz: The ecommerce platform that Claire used to take care of payments and the delivery of the guide book to the buyer
  • WordPress: Claire used WordPress to create ZigZag on Earth, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes!
  • Canva: The free design platform that Claire used to create images for social media

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
"Don’t go into travel blogging just because you love travel. Know that it will completely change your travel experience. My travel days are really long so that I can cover a lot of ground. I do not stop. I take strange pictures of information boards and entrances signs. It’s definitely changed how I travel."
—Claire Robinson #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

Australian Hacker Creates Passive Income Anatomy Course

What It’s About

Mnemonic devices that help students better retain anatomy knowledge.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Michael’s advice for listeners: “I can’t stress enough that it’s not productive to over think things. I’ve launched many side projects, and I really believe the most important thing is to just get something up. Even if the idea isn’t something brilliant or world changing (in fact it probably shouldn’t be for a side project). Anatomonics went from idea to revenue in less than two months and is a fairly complicated product. A much shorter launch window is achievable for most side projects.”

Fun Fact

After launching, things died down until Michael experimented with some article marketing and YouTube. YouTube had the biggest impact. It drove a lot of great converting traffic and continues to send traffic to this day. He also did some SEO on the site, which brings in targeted traffic.

He also added price tiers giving customers three options to choose from. Making that decision increased his average order $25 without affecting the conversion rate.

Notes from Chris

Episode 137

The promised land of passive income is hard to reach. Most of the time, it takes a lot of active work to get to it, but once you reach that point, all the hard work you put into it is well worth it. Today’s story is an example of something that truly fits this elusive category.

For the past 7 years, Mike Benkovich has earned an average of $800 a month. During all this time, he’s improved this project very little. Nor has he done much to maintain it… it just keeps paying out, month after month.

Would you be happy with $67,000 that arrived over time for something you did once? If not, you probably shouldn’t listen to Side Hustle School. This is a huge success that exemplifies the values of what I’m hoping to show you.

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Anatomonics: Learn more about Michael and his passive income building anatomy memorization
  • Keyword Planner: This tool helps you reach the right customers with the right keywords and helps you to better build your SEO and ad campaigns
  • WordPress: Michael used WordPress for his website, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes!
  • Upwork: Michael hired a voice over talent from Upwork for his anatomy audio files

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’ve always been interested in memorization, so I figured it would be a good place to start. I went to the Google Adwords Tool and typed in ‘memorize.’ One of the keyword suggestions was ‘memorize anatomy,’ so I went from there. After brainstorming a few ideas, I decided that combining anatomy mnemonics with audio could be a good approach."
—Mike Benkovich #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try Harry's for FREE!

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Sign up by clicking the button below, and you’ll receive their most popular Trial Set—a 13 dollar value—for FREE when you cover the shipping.💈 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

Essential Oils Podcast Produces $2,000/Month in Passive Income

What It’s About

A woman creates a niche podcast and creates more financial freedom for her family.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Samantha spent every spare second of her kids’ naptimes working on her side hustle and listening to podcasts, but she noticed that there were very few about her topic of interest. The ones that did exist were sales-oriented and low quality. So she thought, “Well, I like this medium and I know a lot of people are interested in oils. Someone should start a better show… why not me?”

What’s missing in your topic of interest? Why shouldn’t you be the one to start it?

Fun Fact

When Samantha launched, she posted about the podcast to a Facebook Group of essential oils fans. It was more of an announcement than an advertisement: “Hey everyone, come check this out—you might like it.”

That group had about 1,500 members, and many of them become her first listeners and subscribers.

Notes from Chris

Episode 97

Do podcasts make money? Well, yes…at least some of them do. It’s kind of like asking “Do websites make money?” Both podcasts and websites have the potential to bring in revenue, but there are a multitude of ways in which someone could do that: advertising, affiliate programs, online courses, etc.

Today’s episode takes you behind the scenes of an income-earning podcast about essential oils that’s been able to earn one woman around $2,000/month on the side.

Starting a podcast is not usually a quick way to riches, and it’s good to have another motive for it, whether it’s education or building community or just sharing your knowledge. That’s what I’ve done with Side Hustle School—I want to reach employees, not people who are already entrepreneurs—and that’s what Samantha did with her topic.

Still, as she’s grown the podcast, she’s also grown the rest of her business to have resources and products that her listeners can take advantage of. Hopefully, her income will only continue to grow as she nurtures this project.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The Essential Oil Revolution: Learn more about Samantha and the benefits of essential oils on her podcast!
  • Upwork: Samantha hired a sound editor and a virtual assistant from Upwork to help her with the podcast.
  • Naptime Boss: Samantha’s online course that teaches stay-at-home moms how to build their own online businesses while their kids are napping.

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
"Having a side hustle has allowed me to pay the bills and pull my family off of government assistant while still getting to spend tons of quality time with them."
—Samantha Lee Wright #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