Tag: Product Reviews

Art School Model Starts Sexually Stimulating Side Hustle

What It’s About

Let’s talk about… one blogger takes her passion to the next level.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Cy says it’s important to come up with an elevator pitch for why you’re blogging, what your blog will be, and how it will help people. Anybody can get started blogging, but in a broad niche, it helps to be crystal-clear about what will make you stand out.

Fun Fact

Cy’s blog has won some accolades over the years, and was recently named one of Kinkly’s top 10 LGBTQ blogs.

Notes from Chris

Episode 693

Sexual positivity is a crucial part of who Cy is.

She started her first ever sex blog while still in high school; a Tumblr page called Smash Cache where she could reblog all of the erotic content she was reading.

The more she read, the more she felt compelled to tell her story and leave the curated content behind. So, in 2016, alongside studying for her biology degree, Cy evolved her blog into Super Smash Cache and created a free WordPress-hosted website.

This would be a fresh canvas where she could review sex toys, share a body positive message, and discuss taboo subjects which would probably get her banned from Facebook.

Cy posted a lot of content on the blog, but the content she was the most passionate about was sex toy reviews. She loved getting her hands on a new product, testing it, and publishing her findings. It was the perfect synergy of the scientific and person parts of her life.

Problem was, Cy didn’t have a lot of business connections and was reviewing only items she’d bought herself. So in late 2016, Cy decided to put the blog on pause. She’d found work as a life model for art classes—which she still does to this day—bringing in a more immediate income and freeing up time to focus on her studies.

Cy’s first foray into the business side of blogging was to network with other sex bloggers. She’d contact them, make friends, and find out who was offering them sample toys to review. Cy would then reach out to those companies, review their toys, and add an affiliate link in the post to generate income.

Cy found two profitable income streams for Super Smash Cache.

The first was to rent advertising space on the blog to sex toy manufacturers. This allowed her to control the cost of the space, and offer on-brand products, which wasn’t available with advertising programs like Google Adsense.

The second was to offer sponsored posts. These are blog posts which have been paid for by a third-party company to advertise products or brand ideas. For example, a couple’s sex toy shop paid for Cy to write a post about a sexy couple’s night, which included their brand message and a link back to their store in the post. These type of posts take a lot of work, but also the most profitable.

This mixture of income streams has lead to around $600 a month in earning from the newly revised Super Smash Cache.

Cy would like to transition out of modeling and explore more of her creative and artistic passions. She’d like to grow the blog while she explores other options.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Super Smash Cache: Learn more about Cy and her award winning blog (adult content)
  • WordPress.com: The platform Cy used to create her blog. Note that WordPress.com is similar but different than WordPress.org

 

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

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GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

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Quote of the Day
"If your ONLY incentive for blogging is to make money and you’re not having fun with the process, you’ll probably lose motivation before the money-making happens."
—Cy #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Marathon Runner Earns Full-Time Income Trying On Shoes

What It’s About

A product review site that goes the distance right out of the gate!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

If you want to build a successful affiliate review site, try to build something that is truly going to be helpful to your readers. That’s the secret!

Following the latest trend or shortcut might get you somewhere in the short-term—but it’s only if your readers like you, share your content, and come back to you that your business will endure. The key to being a successful affiliate is to realize that you are there to serve the customer, not the retailer.

Fun Fact

In 2016, there were 64 million people who the USA who went running or jogging. In that same year, Ruggero quit his job to work full time on Running Shoes Guru and the site received 500,000 unique visitors per month from all over the world. That means 6 million people visited his site that year, equivalent to 10% of the running population in the USA.

Notes from Chris

Episode 625

Ruggero Loda has been an avid runner his entire adult life. Few things give him more pleasure than lacing up a pair of shoes and hitting the road. It never occurred to him that he could use that passion to earn an income. That is until he lost his job as head of merchandising for a major shoe brand.

Ruggero’s side hustle story is like running a marathon. It spans over the course of ten years with a lot of hard work along the way. But before we get to what his side hustle is, let’s jog back to that day in 2009 when he lost his job.

He viewed the sudden time off like a rest day in marathon training. A rest day is when runners relax and rebuild energy for more training in the week ahead. In this case, he’d regroup for a couple of months and then start looking for work. Like any good runner though, he couldn’t just do nothing so he used the time to read a few books. He was able to distill several lessons that would lead to him creating a side business of his own.

That side business turned out to be a running shoes review website. He started the site because he was shocked to find that no such websites existed, at least no good ones. Some running publications were doing short reviews but there was no one doing in-depth research. With that, his side hustle Running Shoes Guru was off and racing.

The first version of the site was nothing special. It launched with a few running tips and reviews of 8 running shoes Ruggero was familiar with. But that was fine, he didn’t have any grand plans for the site in the beginning. He figured it would be a fun project to work on and that he may be able to show prospective employers for his next job.

However, he’d heard he could put affiliate links on the website linking out to products he reviewed. If anyone purchased a pair of shoes after visiting his site, he’d make a commission. So he added the links.

The next Sunday afternoon he made his first commission, $9! Not a record-breaking sum but still something to get excited about. His first online income! He earned a few more dollars over the next month but it wasn’t enough to live off.

A year later, in 2010, the site was receiving 30,000 visitors per month and income had also grown. Ruggero began buying new pairs of shoes so that he could review them and create more high-quality review content. In 2011, he started to build a small group of remote testers to help trial and review the shoes. The strategy was working, and by the end of 2011, the site had grown to 80,000 visitors per month and it turned out he has just hitting his stride.

He continued that same strategy for two more years and by 2013 the site was picking up the pace Traffic had grown to 300,000 visitors per month and his mind began to spin like a treadmill. He thought that Running Shoes Guru had the potential to become his full-time job. However, he wanted to make sure that if things didn’t work out he would have a soft landing. In other words, he wanted a good plan B. If Running Shoes Guru failed, he wanted to be certain he had a career to fall back on.

The site is regularly reaching one million visitors per month and is generating six figures in profit every year. Ruggero and his team of testers test over 100 pairs of running shoes annually and views this as his competitive advantage over the other review sites, where many don’t even try the product they’re reviewing.

Over the coming year, Ruggero plans to double down on his effort and hire a few more employees so that he can delegate more. That will give him more time for running, and not just running the business.

Ruggero’s story proves that a good side hustle can be a marathon, not a sprint. With consistent, deliberate work you can push through the wall and cross the finish line. As a reward, you’ll get paid in more than just Gatorade and bananas!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Running Shoes Guru: Run—don’t walk—to Ruggero’s website to learn more about this fast-paced side hustle!

SEE ALSO:

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

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Quote of the Day
"I would recommend always having a ‘Plan B.’ When I left my job, I made sure I was in a position where if I was to leave my business in four, five, or ten years, I would have enough work experience and results to fall back to a job that was appropriate. This way if I HAVE to go back to a job, I can go back to a nice job."
—Ruggero Loda #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

CRAZY ENOUGH TO WORK

This week, Side Hustle School is brought to you by Crazy Enough to Work, a popular podcast and film series. 📈

When the rest of the world is still zigging, some companies know when it’s time to zag. Elizabeth Banks has teamed up with State Street Global Advisors to make a series of podcasts and films that uncover the bold moves mid-cap companies make to thrive and survive. Listen Here!

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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

British Man Earns $700/Month Writing Fish Tank Reviews

What It’s About

Unusual product review site earns money as an Amazon.com affiliate.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

If you have an obscure hobby, you’re probably not the only one. Topics that have enough people interested in them but not a lot of existing resources are great for side hustles. In this story, Max provides helpful information to people seeking information on what kind of fish tank to buy. He’s rewarded when his website visitors click-through to Amazon.com and make a purchase.

Fun Fact

Because he lives in Scotland, Max wasn’t sure how much his first $200 check was worth to him. After he figured it out, he went back and added more reviews. Three years later, Fish Tank Bank is still bringing in $700/month with no further effort on his part.

Resources

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RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $5/MONTH

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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. You can get support 24 hours a day. Don't overpay: get your own hosting plan for just $5 a month!
Learn More

Quote of the Day
"I built Fish Tank Bank during a weekend but forgot about it after it was finished. It wasn’t until I received a check in the mail that I realized the potential of making money from my hobby."
—Max Robinson #SideHustleSchool

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