Tag: SEO

CLASSROOM: Create Content By Answering Questions

What It’s About

Find your ideal customer by finding what they’re searching for.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1304

For the second half of the year, this Classroom series will appear twice a month instead of every week. On alternating Mondays, we’ll have another Q&A episode.

I was going to call this episode “Simple and Effective SEO Tips.” If you start to learn anything about SEO, you’ll find articles all about keyword research. This can be very helpful in understanding your ideal customer—what are they searching for? What specific words do they use? How do they phrase the searches?

Your goal is to find something a lot of people are searching for that doesn’t have much competition.

For example, if you sold a guide to solving the difficult NYT Sunday crossword, and you found a bunch of people searching “How do I solve crossword puzzles?” but not a lot of results, that would be great. You might want to create a page on your website title “How to Solve Crossword Puzzles.”

But let’s go beyond merely knowing how to create a page or two based on what you learn. One of the things you’ll notice is that people ask questions when they use search engines.

Well, guess what? If you’re struggling in coming up with topics to write about (or otherwise use for content creation), this is your answer.

 

You can create content based entirely around answering questions that people are asking. It helps you brainstorm, it gives you a task, and it ensures that what you’re working on isn’t going to be completely irrelevant.

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

 

THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT:

Look up one word or phrase using the Google Keyword tool and see what people are searching for. Does it give you any ideas?

 

 

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

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

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

Belgian Blogger Gets Paid to Wander Through Europe

What It’s About

Want to get recruited and paid to travel? This blogger maps out a way.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Is it too late to start your own website/blog? Here’s what Sofie says about the topic, “There is SO much great info out there nowadays on how to set up any kind of blog, how to run it, how to outsource things, how to do SEO… All of it. Do your research. Spend a few weeks or even longer mapping everything out.”

Fun Fact

Dutch is the mother tongue in northern Belgium, being spoken natively by three-fifths of the population of Belgium. It is one of the three national languages in the country, together with French and German, and is the only official language of the Flemish Region.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1046
Sofie Couwenergh, a native of Belgium, knew she wanted to do “something with writing.” After graduating with a Master’s Degree, she landed a job as a copywriter for a publishing house, and then with a Belgian press agency.

It seemed as if everything was going according to plan … except she wasn’t very happy with either of those jobs. In fact, she was bored. Sofie realized she needed more creative freedom and a greater sense of responsibility for her work.

It was actually Sofie’s parents who suggested she start a website about travel. With earnings from her job, Sofie had already begun traveling around Europe in her spare time. And having traveled together as a family growing up, her parents saw a way for Sofie to combine her love for writing with her passion for travel.

The idea sounded good to her, so Sofie got to work building out a free blog. It started purely as a hobby with a diary-like collection of stories from her trips—but she figured out pretty quickly that it could also be a business opportunity.

The site was called Wonderful Wanderings. Not being someone who follows blogs to know about the people behind them, Sofie instead focuses on practical advice: what to see, where to eat, and what area to stay in. She meticulously plans her trips around Europe, rarely even entering a restaurant without first analyzing its reviews.

In less than a year, someone offered to sponsor a blog post on her site. That was the first way she monetized her content, but it wasn’t the last—or the most effective.

Sofie’s thorough research on destinations was useful. She wouldn’t just provide an objective collection of “things to do” but a whole, ready-to-use itinerary that people could print out and take with them.

In the second year of the blog, it turned a profit of about €15,000, or a bit more than $16,000. In the third year, it reached a little over €21,000, or more than $23,000. Last year, Sofie re-invested some of her earnings into improving the site, getting contractors on board to help with research and translations (since she runs the site both in Dutch and in English).

The most effective way Sofie earns money is through destination marketing campaigns. Let’s talk about that!

In a nutshell: countries, regions, and city tourism boards hire Sofie to visit their destination and create promotions for them. They ask for a certain number of deliverables (usually social media and blog posts) so they can get in front of the Wonderful Wanderings audience.

Sofie prefers destination campaigns over going on a trip with a specific tour operator. If something on the tour goes wrong, you might be stuck getting paid to write about an experience you don’t recommend. (You also might be stuck on the tour.) Working with destinations, on the other hand, allows Sofie to always be honest and travel as she would naturally.

Now, those travel boards tend to find her instead of the other way around, either through her previous work or from a referral.

In reflecting on her success in turning a hobby into a side hustle and onward into a full-time business, Sofie puts a lot of weight on the intangible benefits.

She has freedom to visit her grandparents more often. The comfort of wearing sweatpants to work. A growing confidence. A newfound network of friends. And the ability to invest in her future while seeing the world.

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.

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
"My biggest struggle during this entire adventure: finding out what worked for me and then just sticking to it."
—Sofie Couwenergh #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

Mexican Swine Flu Leads to Virtual Language Lab

What It’s About

A disaster threatens a language school, but opens a new opportunity for this savvy programmer.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Have an interesting side hustle idea? Ray suggests looking for what you are offering by using Google Keyword tools to see if it’s viable. If there are not enough monthly searches, consider another idea.

Fun Fact

Ray wakes up every day and does what he says he is going to do. He plans his week two weeks in advance using a simple app called Wunderlist and every day he does what is on his list. He has not missed the gym, martial arts practice or meditation in years. He said it gets easier with practice as you get a better idea of what you are capable of.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1012

In 2008, Ray Blakney was in charge of operations and marketing for a Mexican language school when the swine flu struck. A lot of U.S. news outlets presented over-the-top, plague-like coverage of the event, and he was worried that students would stop crossing the border for classes. His worries proved to be well-founded, as the upcoming classes almost completely emptied. This was hugely problematic for not only Ray’s income, but even more so for the teachers.

But, hope was restored for all involved when Ray came up with an inventive idea. One that would not only benefit him greatly in the long run, but also a lot of teachers … as well as students!

Ray decided that he would start his very own language classes … via Skype. When he started, it was a novel concept and would give teachers a realistic opportunity to continue earning a living by teaching online. He called it LiveLingua.com.

Ray had a background in computer programming, having taken jobs as a programmer for Fortune 500 companies. This knowledge helped him build the website for Live Lingua—which started with just five simple pages. He also says that “the first version looked embarrassingly bad.”

But he began implementing SEO into his website and it soon started to shoot up the Google rankings.

Ray ran the marketing side of things—his Mexican wife, who was, and still is, a teacher, oversaw the classes. Roughly two months down the line, demand began to skyrocket, so they hired more teachers to ease the workload. All of these classes were conducted remotely through Skype … so you could say “The Skype was the limit.”

Ray had found a winner with Live Lingua.

After six months, he was bringing $4,000-$5,000 a month with the side hustle. All through SEO marketing, and with only a startup cost of $59.99 for a Bluehost annual subscription, Ray was now earning more than his full-time position as a director at the other language school, where he had been working at the time. He didn’t quit his full-time position right away. He stayed there for another twelve months, scared that his success was just a fluke.

As of today, Live Lingua generates annual revenue of $1.5 million, and Ray has staff working for him throughout the world, all remotely. Language classes cost students as little as $10.99 per hour.

Among several other projects, he’s now working on a podcast called the Anomalous Educator, which launched recently with the goal of helping teachers make money online as a side hustle—or to even replace their 9 to 5 full-time income. He thinks teachers aren’t paid enough money, which inspired him to launch the podcast.

It all started with a $59 web host subscription, and a clever idea in response to the swine flu.

 

 

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

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
"If the idea is financially feasible, then do competitor research. See how many people are offering what you are offering and honestly answer the question “Can I do better?” If you answer yes, move on. Get it up and out as fast as possible. Analysis paralysis keeps most good ideas from getting off the ground. Put up a website and start promoting what you have to offer as quickly as you can. That’s it. If the first time does not work, rinse, lather, and repeat."
—Ray Blakney #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

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

Accidental Side Hustle Becomes Decorative Family Business

What It’s About

A creative outlet becomes a side hustle for the whole family.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Jessica says that it’s important to take your ego out of the equation when you’re building a side hustle like this. It’s okay to start out creating products that you like and would hang around your house, but after a certain point, your likes need to take the backseat to those of your customers. Listen to what they want, tweak your offerings to accommodate, and success will follow.

Fun Fact

When Woodstock Rustic first began shipping, they didn’t own a postal scale so Jessica would weigh herself, pick up the package to be shipped, and weight herself again in order to get the weight of the package. This stop-gap measure must have worked for a while because no one bought a scale for a long time.

Notes from Chris

Episode 954

Jessica Massey was working as a corporate graphic designer, and her art was being used for a variety of products including cards, calendars, and blankets. Many of her designs were “ghost designs” meaning they were credited to a person the company worked with who had name recognition or a large social media following. After years of walking into big box stores and seeing her designs being sold under someone else’s name, she wanted a change. Once she had a baby, Jessica left her job and began freelancing.

Outside the freelance work, she was also looking for a creative outlet, and a way to make a little extra money on the side. Woodstock Rustic was the outcome—a home decor brand that tapped into the decorating zeitgeist that favors the wood pallet aesthetic.

There was no business plan, just a way to have some fun and make money—the true definition of a side hustle! Woodstock Rustic started out in that most mythical setting for American success stories, the garage, surrounded by yard equipment and not-so-rustic garbage cans.

For her first commercial outing, Jessica took her designs to an art show and made $2,500 in a single weekend. Giddy with early success, she set up an Etsy account for the pieces that hadn’t sold. This proved to be far less successful. That account only saw a sale or two over a six month period. Before throwing in the towel, Jessica decided to give Etsy one last go.

She did some research and learned that she’d made every mistake possible when setting up her page. Jessica discovered the importance of social media marketing and SEO—especially how impactful keywords and titles can be.

For example, Woodstock Rustic sells a lot of gift items, and one of their biggest product lines is sympathy or memorial gifts. Prior to this point, Jessica hadn’t really taken into account how customers might end up landing on her page when they started their search in Google or Etsy.

In the beginning, she might have named something “Butterfly Gift Box”—when she’d actually rank much higher if they called it a “Sympathy Gift Box” and just let potential customers see for themselves that the theme was butterflies. No one was searching for “butterfly” specifically, they were entering “sympathy” into the search bar.

After a few small adjustments, orders really started rolling in. It seemed like such a simple fix, but it made a major difference.

Woodstock Rustic now offers a range of home decor items including wall decor, plant containers, and kid’s room decor that can be purchased through the company’s stand-alone website. Jessica still sells on Etsy where she has more than 4,000 sales, but wanted her own site that would be free of some of the constraints imposed by the platform.

The business is now so successful that there never seem to be enough hours in the day. Luckily, the team members that Jessica has brought together all bring a unique skill, whether it’s marketing, customer service, production management, carpentry, or accounting. It’s the way these skills come together to form a complete picture that creates the overall Woodstock story.

Although their beginnings were humble, with just $1,000 in startup costs Woodstock Rustic now has an annual profit in the low six figures almost four years later. Not a bad return on investment for this homegrown family business!

 

 

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.

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
"If possible, start small rather than jumping in head first. We started by renting a booth at an art show (which felt like a huge undertaking at the time), and we learned SO much from it. Just hearing feedback from the general public was priceless."
—Jessica Massey #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

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

Online Tea Store Becomes Matcha-Made in Heaven

What It’s About

Restaurant manager uses her creativi-tea to brew up a side hustle that’s a matcha made in heaven.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Luciana attributes keeping 3 Leaf Tea as a side hustle early on as a big factor in her success. She was able to keep herself paid and supported while she worked her way up to leaving the restaurant.

This is the way of the side hustle … build a bridge to the future you want. Start where you are, and accept that there will be challenges!

Fun Fact

Matcha tea, while still somewhat obscure in the USA, is extremely popular around the world. What started out as a Japanese tradition has grown into a 3 billion dollar industry. The main consumers of matcha are the US, Canada, Germany, the UK, France, and Australia. [Source]

Notes from Chris

Episode 914
Luciana Torous is a lover of all things tea. This mild obsession started during her high school days, where she often struggled with anxiety and OCD. She had trouble quieting her mind and found it difficult to switch off and become present in the moment.

That all changed the day she visited a tea house with some friends. It was the first time she’d experienced properly brewed tea, and she instantly adored it. The aromas, flavors and ritualistic process of properly brewed tea resonated with her. The experience calmed her down and helped alleviate the symptoms of her anxiety.

Shortly after the trip to the tea house, a childhood friend returned from a student exchange in Japan. As a souvenir, she brought Luciana some matcha tea. Matcha is a traditional Japanese green tea. Taken from tea leaves and ground into a fine powder; it’s commonly used in Japanese tea ceremonies.

For Luciana, it was a matcha-made in heaven, the beginning of a brew-tea-ful friendship. The tea became a part of her daily ritual. After drinking a cup, she felt calm, alert and mentally clear.

She became interested in the health benefits that matcha provided and felt like this relatively unknown tea from Japan needed to hit the mainstream. So, Luciana decided she’d start a business selling matcha tea.

The only issue was, Luciana had no business experience and no idea where to start. On top of that, she already had a full-time job. By now it was 2014, Luciana had graduated high school and was working as a manager at a local Mexican restaurant. Although she was busy working, it was also time to get busy learning.

She read articles and books on starting a business. She asked her mom for a loan of three thousand dollars to get started. The money was spent mostly on importing matcha tea from Japan—as well as other herbs and blends to mix in to create different flavors.

Because the money didn’t go far, Luciana took advantage of the kitchen at the restaurant after hours. There, she used her creativi-tea and ran experiments on different blends of teas, which tasted the best, worked to give clarity of mind and had the nicest aromas. When she was confident in her creations, she tried some of them on her co-workers.

After a few months of positive feedback, she decided to build a website and start selling online. She chose the name 3 Leaf Tea. Namely, because tea often grows in 3 leaf combinations along with the bud. Plus, 3LT incorporated her initials.

Now, a few years later, Luciana is not looking back. Her physical store is doing well, and sales from her online store continue to grow: so much so that she is now profiting thousands of dollars per month, all while only a few years out of high school.

So, when the path to success seems far away, remember that you can start small. With consistent work, your idea will eventually hit the boiling point!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • 3 Leaf Tea: Drink up more about this side hustle over on Luciana’s website!
  • Shopify: Luciana used Shopify to set up her site for 3 Leaf Tea, and they’re offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!

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
"Start small—use the resources you have, and work your way up! There’s always a way to start something, even if you think you don’t have time. I would use my one hour break to work on my business, which doesn’t seem like much, but it added up."
—Luciana Torous #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

Engineer Parses His Way To 2x Income

What It’s About

An introverted engineer tries, tries, and tries again—eventually doubling his income.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Success in the SaaS game is about solving ONE problem, extremely well. It’s about serving your customers better than your competitors. You cannot give up until you’re 100% sure you cannot find customers. If you have one customer, get 10. If you get 10, I guarantee there are another 1000.

Fun Fact

SalesForce, a popular CRM (Customer-Relationship Management) platform, pioneered the SaaS business model and achieved massive success because of it. Founded in 1999, it now has yearly revenues of close to 9 billion dollars!

Notes from Chris

Episode 754

Courtenay Farquharson was desperate for a change. He’d been a software engineer for years, and work was taking a toll on him. He earned good money, but his work-life balance was non-existent. He felt dissatisfied, stressed, and unhealthy.

Things got even more complicated that year when he became a father to twin boys. Throw a lack of sleep into his already hectic life and something had to give.

So, he decided to start a side hustle with the goal of eventually escaping the rat race and having more time to be present with his young family.

This wasn’t the first time Courtenay tried side hustling. Since 2006, he’d launched 25 different projects. Everything from a social network to an e-commerce store—they all failed with only one earning even a single dollar.

You see, Courtenay was a self-confessed “wantrepreneur”. He had dreams of making it big and building a company like the famous entrepreneurs he’d read about. But up until now, he’d been unable to make the dream reality.

But this time, Courtney didn’t start with an idea—he started with a business model. He wanted to build a SaaS (Software as a Service) product. A SaaS is a program, run on the web, that customers pay a monthly fee to access. You probably already know some SaaS products. Dropbox, Slack, and Salesforce are common examples.

It’s a popular business model because it has recurring revenue. To build a successful SaaS product though, you need to solve a real problem for people. Something they need fixed time and time again, otherwise, they’ll stop paying. Research shows that it’s undesirable for customers to stop paying.

To find a suitable problem, Courtenay looked into his past as a software engineer and one particular thing stood out in his memory.

Several years ago, his company dealt with a client who wanted to email documents to a special address. Then, have that email scanned, the information extracted and added to their internal systems automatically. This is commonly referred to as parsing email.

For example, a restaurant may have a system to manage take away orders. But, orders come in via email through their website. Instead of manually reading the email and entering the order into their system. Software could read the email, parse the content, and add the order automatically so the chefs can get cooking immediately.

After a few months, Courtenay had a very basic version of his product ready. He called it Parserr, with a double R at the end—Parserrrrrr.

As of right now, Parserr is generating monthly revenue in the low five-figure mark, which, coincidentally, almost matches the income provided by his day job. But, Courtenay isn’t quitting work just yet.

He views Parserr as the culmination of his 12-year journey to launch a successful side project. Because of his willingness to keep experimenting, he now has significant recurring income, and the ability to make more of his own choices.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Parserr: Turn emails into data—get Courtenay’s SaaS application over on his website!

 

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
"This game is about solving ONE problem extremely well. And it’s about serving your customers better than your competitors. Don’t let them abuse you—just provide great service and value."
—Courtenay Farquharson #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

Miniature Dollhouse Website Pays Full-Size Profits

What It’s About

A side hustle that proves that great ideas can come in small packages.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Amanda said something especially wise when I was talking with her. She said, “People will say it’s a risk to start your own business, but so is wasting opportunities and your potential. Time is our most precious resource—don’t let your whole life pass you by without going for what you most want.”

Fun Fact

The earliest known miniature homes were found in Egyptian tombs from nearly 5,000 years ago. It’s believed these wooden models were made for religious purposes.

Notes from Chris

Episode 607

When Amanda Austin was a child, her late grandmother presented her with her very own dollhouse. Her crafty grandmother had assembled, painted, and wallpapered the miniature house personally. She even crocheted miniature rugs for each room in the house! It didn’t take long for Amanda to become preoccupied with the dollhouse. She spent every free moment playing with the house and the miniature family that lived there. Whenever she got allowance or birthday money, she would spend it at the local miniatures store.

Now, as an adult working full-time as a digital marketing manager, those memories have come full circle. Amanda sells wooden dollhouse kits and dollhouse miniatures on her own branded e-commerce site. She runs this site as a drop shipping business, which means she doesn’t have to buy and store any of her items. When someone places an order on her site, she notifies her wholesaler and they fulfill the order. There are over 3,000 items for sale on Amanda’s site Shop of Miniatures, and she takes care of the marketing, customer service, and website maintenance.

These days, there aren’t many brick and mortar dollhouse stores open. Since she still has that self-professed “soft spot” for miniatures, when she was thinking about starting a side hustle, she decided to dig deeper into the online world of miniature dollhouse sales. In her words, “They were all terrible… They were poorly designed, poorly organized, and not mobile optimized. I knew I could do better.”

How did she do better? Well, first—being a digital marketing manager, she knew using keywords was critical.

Keywords are words and phrases in web content that enable people to find a site via search engines. Sometimes a business can have a great website, but if keywords aren’t included in the site’s content, it won’t be found when a potential customer conducts a search on Google. Coming up on a Google search isn’t even good enough. According to one study, the first page of a Google search gets 95% of the web traffic.

Best of all are long tail keywords—which are, as the name implies, keywords longer than regular ones. They are also more specific. This means you have less competition with other sites when using long tail keywords on your site. Often someone who is searching the internet is looking for a specific item or subject. They will likely be using more descriptive terms in their search. If a website is sprinkled with long tail keywords that match such a search, the shopper is more likely to find that site. They are also more likely to stay engaged on that site, or even make a purchase.

Amanda’s goal was to rank on the first page of a Google search for dollhouse related items. She used metrics to conduct keyword research. She started out looking for keywords that had 3,000-5,000 hits a month that also weren’t overly competitive. She used the site longtailpro.com, where she found three keywords that had good search volume and low competition from other sites.

Her discovery that dollhouses and miniatures were in demand but weren’t that competitive of a niche was the deciding factor to enter this market.

Unlike some of the stories we’ve featured recently that have used Facebook ads or other paid strategies, Amanda has had much success in growing her business organically. However, this was no miniature feat. She did a lot of keyword research. She spent many months working to get on that first page of a Google search. She says blogging helped immensely and was very strategic about keyword placement on her website.

She started her business in November 2017 and is now making about $800 profit per month—which is just enough to cover her soon-to-be-born daughter’s daycare costs. Amanda now only works on her business about one hour a week.

Amanda’s goal is to continue to work on her site’s SEO so she can rank even higher than her current spot as the third top keyword search on Google. She would also like to hit the $30,000/year revenue mark—which she is hoping she will achieve with upcoming holiday sales.

No doubt about it, this savvy doll-house lover has set herself up for BIG success in a miniature world of e-commerce!

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Shop of Miniatures: If you’re interested in learning more about Amanda’s side hustle, head on down to the land of mini—where the grass is painted green and the girls are itty-bitty!
  • LongTailPro: The website that Amanda used to find keywords with good search volume and low competition from other sites

 

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
"People will say it’s a risk to start your own business, but so is wasting opportunities and your potential. Time is our most precious resource—don’t let your whole life pass you by without going for what you most want."
—Amanda Austin #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

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

Weekly Recap: Top 3 Tips for SEO

Notes from Chris

Episode 568

LISTENER QUESTIONS, THEMES, & TAKEAWAYS:

Last week, I was out and about all over the world, but it’s always good to come back home. In today’s Recap, I want to share some notes on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) from a guest expert. We received a great listener question, and rather than try to answer it myself, I went to an expert.

And I’ve also got a story to share with you—a helpful lesson perhaps—on this topic of whether or not you should tell your family about your side hustle or not. This came up a couple days ago in Ep. 566 – Accountant Generates $10,000/Month In Sweat Equity, and I’d like to touch on that a little bit as well. But first, let’s hear from Abigail and her question on SEO:

  • Abigail: “Hi Chris! I have now listened to the Side Hustle audiobook more than 10 times. I was desperate for a business coach before I read your book, and now I’m already making more money than before on my existing business using these steps. I haven’t even got through the 27 days yet and launched my new idea. Thank you so much for breaking this down I feel so much less overwhelmed and way more productive.I wondered what advice you could offer about SEO and getting my website found. Do you know of anyone who offers training or advice in this area, or do you think it is worth paying someone to do it for me?

    I run a baking business—so I work in a saturated market—but my products are unique and I am learning how to create “offers” (I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me before). I just want to be able to reach my audience.

    Any advice you could offer would be amazing. Thanks so much—this really has been life-changing for me!”

Congrats, Abigail! Let’s see if we can get your offerings in front of more people. To get some info, I went to my expert on SEO, Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz and SparkToro and the author of Lost and Founder. Here’s what he had to say with regards to SEO:

My best advice is to start by checking out a few free resources:

Tune in to today’s Weekly Recap to learn more about Rand’s tips for a strong SEO strategy and to hear a story from Laura Simms regarding sharing your side hustle with your family!

EPISODES FROM THIS WEEK:

Here’s what we heard this week on Side Hustle School! Listen to this week’s recap for a more comprehensive highlight reel.

  • Ep. 562 – In several parts of the world, bidets are used in lieu of toilet paper—but why not in Canada? One man sets out to change that, flushing away discouragement and banking profits
  • Ep. 563 – Want to embarrass your frenemy? Send them an awkward, anonymous postcard congratulating them on a purchase they didn’t make. This bartender and yoga teacher earns an extra $100/day from her inventive idea!
  • Ep. 564 – This production supervisor always loved buying video games—but it wasn’t until he stumbled upon some of his favorite games on eBay that he thought about selling them
  • Ep. 565 – Tall women everywhere rejoice as an Australian’s side hustle brings new meaning to ‘top shelf’
  • Ep. 566 – When this California accountant deducts harsh chemicals from deodorant, she earns sweat equity and superdry profits
  • Ep. 567 – A love of fitness and fashion inspires a real estate broker and his workout buddy to sell resistance bands in custom colors

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

We want to hear from you!

The best part of Side Hustle School is our community, and roughly 20% of our episodes come from listeners. Are you working on something and want to share it with us and our audience? If so, we want to hear from you!

Head on over to our online submission page, and we’ll be in touch if your story is chosen.

And if you’re still working on something but have some questions, we want to hear from you too! Most Weekly Recap episodes include Listener Q&A.

Call the Side Hustle Hotline at 844-9-HUSTLE (844-948-7853), record your question and send it to podcast@sidehustleschool.com, or just send us an email!

Here’s what’s coming up next…

Each week I’ll feature more stories from people who are starting side hustles without quitting their job. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming next week:

  • When he began live streaming his video games for a faraway friend, he had no idea he’d end up building a 30,000 person community and earning up to $3,000 a day
  • Two Florida State grads create a mini-mouthwash empire, selling 3,500 bottles in less than a year
  • And so much more!

Do you have a side hustle story you’d like to share? Fill out the Side Hustle School submission form and your story may be featured on the show!

Also, if you’re interested in joining the Side Hustle Society, visit our Society page to get notified when it goes live!

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
"A little SEO knowledge goes a long way. Even if you end up hiring an expert, knowing the basics will help you understand what you really need."
—#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

Policy Researcher Offers Private Tours of Nation’s Capital

What It’s About

Tour guide “trip hacks” his way to $1,500/month using YouTube.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

With the idea hatched, guidebook firmly in hand and a custom t-shirt printed, Rob was ready for business. To get customers he first thought to use TripAdvisor. Go where the tourists go right? But it’s not so easily done! Competition in DC for tour guides is fierce. There are currently over 150 companies listed in the tours section of TripAdvisor. With 22 million tourists visiting every year, it’s easy to understand why.

Instead of giving up or banging his head against the wall, Rob got creative—and it seems like it was the much better approach.

Fun Fact

While Washington DC is home to some of the world’s most famous monuments and memorials, there are also a multitude of fun facts about our capital and presidents that might surprise you!

The city itself uses letters instead of numbers to name their streets, but because DC was planned prior to the letter J joining our alphabet, there is no “J street” in the city. And although most of our recent Commanders in Chief have opted for a family dog, some of our past presidents have made more unconventional choices. Did you know that both Herbert Hoover and John Quincy Adams (allegedly) had pet alligators while they were in the White House?

Notes from Chris

Episode 508

There are two things that Rob Pitingolo loves: hanging out with people… and his hometown, Washington DC. So it’s of little surprise that, outside of his day job, Rob spent four years as a part-time tour guide. He got to meet interesting people and show them around the nation’s capital.

A big chunk of the DC population works in government, and Rob is no different. His full-time job is in public policy research. But in addition to the population of government employees, there are also a lot of tourists. The latter make up the lion’s share of the population during summer and spring.

Tourists give the city a constant hum of excitement. Sometimes it made Rob feel like he was on vacation himself. That’s why he spent a lot of his free time working as a tour guide. Not in his own side hustle per se, but for one of the biggest tour operators in the city.

Being a true “people person,” Rob most enjoyed the small, intimate private tours with only a few people. But, the problem with working for a large operation is that there are very few opportunities to give those tours. The real money for those companies is in volume. The chance to lead a group of only a few people rarely comes up.

Instead of begging the company he worked for to take on the limited amount of private tours on offer, Rob decided to take matters into his own hands! He took a step that America’s founding fathers would be proud of and inched himself closer to the American dream. How? He decided to start his own side hustle, and he called it Trip Hacks DC!

He’d offer private tours that he knew tourists would love.

To get customers he first thought to use TripAdvisor. Go where the tourists go right? But it’s not so easily done! Competition in DC for tour guides is fierce.

You can’t just add your company to the site and hope for the best. TripAdvisor prioritizes reviews above everything else—so if you’re new to the game, you’re at a real disadvantage. In Rob’s case, some of the top companies in DC had 100’s of reviews already.

This revelation led him to a hard truth. The difficult part of starting his tour company will be getting people to know he even exists. To paraphrase an old proverb. If a guide talks in the city and no one is around to hear it, is he really a guide at all?

Rob refused to head down the same path as everyone else and resort to fighting over TripAdvisor crumbs. He knew he had to think outside the box. So, he decided to try YouTube as a way to reach potential customers.

It turned out to be a great insight!

Using his own initiative, Rob is guiding himself to the bank, earning around $1,500 per month on average. Not bad for a little known public policy researcher from DC working on the side and doing it in his own way.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Trip Hacks DC: Did you know that among the many gargoyles adorning the National Cathedral, there’s a sculpture of Darth Vader’s head? I bet Rob knew that one! Learn more about him on his website
  • TripAdvisor & YouTube: The two platforms that Rob used to get Trip Hacks DC out to the masses

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
"The best part of this side hustle is getting to meet everyone who finds my YouTube videos and decides to book a tour with me. It’s one thing for people to leave a comment and say the videos are helpful, it’s even more rewarding when they spend their hard-earned cash on a tour to prove it."
—Rob Pitingolo #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Travel the Globe With Cards For Travel!

Side Hustle School is brought to you by CardsForTravel.com. Use travel hacking to see the world!

When you apply for their most popular, small business rewards card, you can earn 80,000 Bonus Points—enough for three round-trip plane tickets or $1,000 in travel credits. Check out this limited time offer! ✈️ 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

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.
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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