Tag: Writing

Data Scientist Profits from Viral Article

What It’s About

A scientist finds her audience through a series of online publications.

Words of Wisdom

Nicole shares an important tip for those looking to do something similar: “Having a base of Medium blog posts to draw from helped me generate content to get started and helped establish my authority in the field. So if you want to get started, start a blog. You’ll refine your voice and find your audience.”

Fun Fact

Less than 0.5% of all the data people create is actually analyzed and used. [source]

Notes from Chris

Episode 1984
You remember March 2020. We all do. Just as the coronavirus pandemic began to surge around the world, Nicole Janeway Bills began publishing articles on Medium.

As a data scientist, she had a unique set of skills that were becoming increasingly valuable for a variety of fields. These articles featured both her detailed knowledge as well as her technical experience with programming languages like Python.

Then in August, she published a post about the Certified Data Management Practitioner Fundamentals Exam (CDMP). She called it “the best data certificate you’ve never heard of.” The reason CDMP is so great is that it’s an open book exam, centered around learning the concepts of data science, not just memorizing a bunch of facts. Not only that, but receiving this certificate bolsters the credibility of people who are new or old to the data management scene.

That post gained a wide readership, which got Nicole thinking about creating a community for anyone interested in her field. To begin, she started two Facebook groups. One is focused on helping those who are studying for the CDMP exam, and the other is a more general group for people who are looking to break into data science.

As those groups began to gain traction, Nicole added others on Linkedin and Meetup. She had cultivated both her own community and a captive audience for her writing.

With this much engagement, she figured that there would be a market for online courses. She had more knowledge to share, and wanted to do it in a structured manner. All of the other work was free, so it would be nice to get paid. Not only that, but she had already built a whole network of potential buyers. By blogging consistently for over six months, she’d established her authority in the field.

After a few months of research, Nicole learned how to sell a course through email using a system called Sendinblue. She launched it in February of 2021. In the first month, she made $172. Business picked up from there.

In terms of profit margin, this is a very good business. Payment services like Stripe and PayPal take just 3% of the revenue from each sale, which means that Nicole gets to keep 97% of the profits.

What she’s doing seems to be working—because her profits keep growing! In January of this year, DataStrategyPros.com had its biggest month of profits yet, at $1,500. This occurred after Nicole launched a new product, called the CDMP Fundamentals Notes.

Because one side hustle isn’t enough, next she’s experimenting with creating mobile apps centered around wellness.

 

 

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!
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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
"Having a base of Medium blog posts to draw from helped me generate content to get started and helped establish my authority in the field. So if you want to get started, start a blog. You’ll refine your voice and find your audience."
—Nicole Janeway Bills #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.
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It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

College Student Turned Fashion Influencer Earns $140,000

What It’s About

A young fashion blogger writes herself into financial independence.

Words of Wisdom

Through her experiences, Harman has learned firsthand how hard it can be to analyze the differences between her and other bloggers and influencers out there. “Believe in yourself and what you are doing. Don’t compare yourself to the bigger fishes in the sea when you know you were born yesterday. Keep doing and take out time for learning.”

Fun Fact

Harman loves food. In fact, on her blog it says that the way to her heart is through pasta and chocolate chip ice cream. “Oh, I’m a hardcore foodie. And I don’t know if other people experience it or not, but I legit get drunk on good food. My brain stops working, I cannot stand properly, and you’ll find me laughing and talking drunkenly, lol. It seems very funny to other people or my friends, and I cannot even control it.”

Notes from Chris

Episode 1956
As a seventeen year old, Harman Awal was amazed with the influencer life she saw on Instagram. These people seemed to have the perfect life—full of food, travel and shopping.

It was a happy and luxurious lens, and Harman wanted it for herself! In the middle of her first year of college, she turned to the internet to see what exactly these influencers were doing, how they were doing it, and the ways they were getting paid.

I should mention that Harman is from India. If you live in North America or the UK, you might not realize that Instagram is pretty big everywhere—in fact, in parts of Asia it has even more adoption than where we live.

What Harman found was that every single one of the influencers she liked had blogs. So, her next question was how to start one of her own. Harman found that many of them were using WordPress, so she followed suit and began her free website.

She didn’t feel pretty enough or perfect enough, she was constantly comparing herself to other influencers, and she didn’t understand why she wasn’t attracting an audience like some of the other accounts she followed.

It took her a year to get out of this mindset. Then, she tried again. She started another free website, then eventually spent $100 to buy a hosting service and the domain name YourGirlKnows.com.

As a student, she didn’t have a lot of money, so she asked if she could use her mom’s credit card for the expenses.

Through her initial research about how to profit from a blog, she could tell that she had a lot more to learn. She didn’t have money to pay for courses. Instead, she picked a successful blogger every day, and read or watched all of their free content about growing her website into something profitable. Harman observed their techniques and took detailed notes.

She knew that to make money, she needed traffic. She saw that a lot of people were getting views from building up their presence on Pinterest. In addition, since she planned on having a female-focused audience, she figured that this would be an effective platform to invest her time into.

Right now, most of her content centers around fashion, skincare, beauty and lifestyle. Harman writes about topics many young women are interested in, from where to buy fake designer bags to how to smell good all day with minimal effort. Her work is reminiscent of Seventeen Magazine.

Harman started this side hustle on April 3rd, 2020. She made her first few cents (yes, cents!) two months after she started with an Amazon affiliate program. With that consistency, marketing, and research, she started making about $900 a month from it by September.

Soon after is when she began to use SEO, which skyrocketed her profits to be $400 a day. This roughly translated to $144,000 a year. While she has to reinvest some of the money back into the site, she gets to pocket most of it.

As a 20-year-old student living in India, Harman says that this amount of money is “seriously a lot.” In India, many people live with their parents until they are 25 or even longer, so being financially independent makes both her and her parents incredibly happy.

YourGirlKnows has made her financially independent, and she is proud to be the youngest earning member of her family.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about Harman and check out her fashionable website at, YourGirlKnows.com.

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
"Believe in yourself and what you are doing. Don’t compare yourself to the bigger fishes in the sea when you know you were born yesterday. Keep doing and take out time for learning."
—Harman Awal #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.
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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

“Geek Chic” Skincare Blogger’s Persona Pays Off

What It’s About

A young entrepreneur makes up a successful beauty blog.

Words of Wisdom

If you’re looking to start an online blog Jenny says, “Make SEO a priority from the start! And you don’t have to invest in expensive tools, there are a ton of free resources and tools available for you to get started!”

Fun Fact

Jenny was once an extra on the Soap Opera, One Life to Live.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1900
In 1999 while all the adults were worried about a glitch in their code that would lead to Y2K and the subsequent end to civilization, 11-year-old Jenny Wu was busy creating her very first website. The theme? Pokemon. Complete with sparkling purple background and comic sans font.

She loved collecting rocks and stickers, so Pokemon came naturally. Though she wasn’t yet coding, using a drag-and-drop tool to make the website, constructing it was fun and creative, an outlet that would inspire Jenny to become the successful developer (day job) and blogger (side job) she is today.

I should mention that Jenny was in Taiwan back then, where she was born. She now lives in Toronto.

After the Pokemon site, twelve-year-old Jenny decided to launch the blog that would eventually become her current side hustle. Approximately a decade later, she got serious about it and renamed it Geeky Posh.

As someone with a bit of a geek bent herself and who firmly lives by the saying that “knowledge is power,” she decided to focus her content on what truly mattered: do skincare products work, and are any of their wild claims founded on actual facts?

To answer these questions, she decided to dig into evidence-based studies to investigate whether or not the ingredients do what their packaging suggests. She then tested the products on herself and filmed the process. Her little lab of learning became fodder for her blog.

Though her messaging was in place, that wasn’t enough to make actual cash. To do that, Jenny decided to focus on ads.

The first ad provider she chose was Google Adsense, and it produced only pennies. She was relieved when another one invited her to their network. But her inner web developer was annoyed with their buggy platform. Finally, Jenny landed on Mediavine, who she still works with today.

Mediavine supplied her with support and training on best practices. It wasn’t long before her ad campaigns were optimized and turning profits. What used to be pennies climbed to an average of $2,000 dollars a month.

These days, Jenny’s considering a shift towards wellness work, yet another competitive industry that has a tendency to distort the facts. Instead, she plans to stand out in much the same way she’s done with Geeky Posh: by focusing on facts and engaging readers by guiding them towards proven results.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Get your makeup on and learn more about Jenny’s website, GeekyPosh.com.

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
"Make SEO a priority from the start! And you don’t have to invest in expensive tools, there are a ton of free resources and tools available for you to get started!"
—Jenny Wu #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

Nurse Quits Job for Six-Figure Parenting Blog

What It’s About

A former nurse and busy mother gives birth to a successful parenting blog.

Words of Wisdom

Hilary suggests “keeping the day job and simply dipping your toe into your side hustle to see if you like it. If you find you’re passionate about it, invest more time and maybe go down to part-time at work. Just make sure you really like your side hustle before you go all in!”

Fun Fact

In the United States, the average number of daily births in 2020 was 4.06% lower than in 2019, dropping from 10,267 births per day to 9,850 births per day. [Source]

Notes from Chris

Episode 1844
Hilary Erickson was passionate about her work as a nurse. But she loved writing too. She even enjoyed doing reports at nursing school…which most people can’t stand—even when she was criticized for the creative way she wrote them. (Apparently they’re supposed to be standardized.)

So when she discovered blogging in the prehistoric year of 2005, it seemed like a natural fit. Hilary began writing about family health and pregnancy, topics she knew about as a labor and delivery nurse.

Her blog, Pulling Curls, was all about family life. She chose the name because life was making her pull her curls in frustration. In addition to her work as a nurse, she was also a mom of three.

So in addition to writing about family health, she added posts on home organization and setting routines. In short, Pulling Curls was a self-described “mom blog” with the mission to help families create confident, simple lives.

Hilary started placing ads on her blog using Google Adsense and later BlogHer. She was bringing in some income but wanted more readers. In 2014, she began using Pinterest to grow her audience. That meant writing blog posts about a specific problem she could create a pin for and then drive readers to her blog.

The strategy worked and she moved to better ad networks, which brought in more money. She also uses affiliate links and has developed close relationships with some companies.

But straight up blogging isn’t all Hilary does. She’s used her vast experience as a nurse to develop several online courses….including an online prenatal course for couples. The course provides three hours of everything you need to know about labor, delivery, postpartum and newborn care. Since expectant parents are busy, they can go through the material on demand with no deadline.

Since 2015, Hilary has helped 4,000 couples prepare for the birth of their child, a number she never could’ve reached if she’d been teaching couples offline.

Hilary also has an online course called The Organized Home and one called Family Systems. The courses build upon subjects she covered on the blog…and the blog works to drive customers to the courses.

As if she wasn’t doing enough, Hilary also started a weekly podcast where she shares tips from other health professionals such as chiropractors and physical therapists, as well as personal updates.

Between the blog, her courses, and the podcast, Hilary earned about $280,000 in 2020. When you break it down, 22% of her income came from ads, 12% came from affiliate sales, 1-2% from miscellaneous projects, and 65% from her courses.

Hilary finally took the leap to full-time self-employment and left nursing last year. She had held off going all in on the business for many years but loves all the options she has now… most of all, she’s thrilled at the huge difference she’s made by helping thousands of families prepare for their baby’s arrival.

She plans to keep updating the courses and nurturing the community. It’s been working very well so far!

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about Hilary and check out her blog and courses at, PullingCurls.com.

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
"Keep the day job and simply dip your toe into your side hustle to see if you like it. Just make sure you really like your side hustle before you go all in!"
—Hilary Erickson #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

Marketing Analyst Serves Up Gluten-Free Profit

What It’s About

Seeing a lack of good tasting gluten-free food, this blogger creates and shares her own recipes.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Addison shares a fun life pro-tip: “Life is too short. Never quit your daydream!”

Fun Fact

Addison is not only a health-conscious, gluten-free chef. She’s also a former Division 1 soccer star, which she says is by far the most challenging and fulfilling experience of her life. Apparently, she doesn’t have an off switch because she’s also completed two full marathons as well!

Notes from Chris

Episode 1821
Many of us can’t imagine a life without bread, pasta, and pizza. The majority of eaters out there don’t consider gluten-free as a viable option.

Adding to the challenge, many alternative recipes get a bad reputation as being a poor substitute for foods we love. Enter Addison Labonte—today’s featured side hustler–who decided it was time to make gluten-free cooking approachable, fun, and most importantly, delicious, for everyday home cooks.

A marketing analyst by day, in 2018 Addison had the idea to start an online food photography and recipe blog. A few years earlier, she had gone gluten-free to address some medical issues. As she got used to her new diet, friends and family enjoyed her reports on what she was whipping up in the kitchen. Presto! The ingredients for a food focused blog began to blend together.

Though she was confident in her abilities to cook healthy and delicious recipes, Addison admits to not being computer savvy. She could write recipes, but didn’t know where to start to get her content online. So, she hired an agency to set up her blog, which she called Organically Addison.

To build her audience, social media (mostly Instagram) became her gluten-free bread and butter. And to grow that audience, Addison put on her analyst hat—because that’s what she does for her day job. Rather than just “try everything,” Addison choose to measure what worked and what didn’t.

How did it work out? Well, by consistently posting eye-catching photos and a new weekly recipe, Addison’s blog viewership grew and she was able to monetize it within the first year of launch. Through just a few different advertising channels, she’s taken an initial investment of $1,000 and turned it into a recurring $5,000 a month business.

As for what’s next, she’s content with keeping her main job while working on her blog. She loves the balance and benefits she gets from doing both. In a way, it’s like having your gluten-free cake and eating it too.

 

 

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
"put something into the world that you feel genuinely passionate about and proud of. If you are not passionate about what you are contributing to the world, you can’t reasonably expect that others will buy into it either."
—Nico Millado #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

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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

Writing About Reality TV Becomes Rite of Passion

What It’s About

A journalism professor earns real money covering all those reality TV shows the world loves to watch.

Words of Wisdom

Andy shares an important reminder for content creators, “Keeping up the energy to produce content every day is a struggle sometimes. But the more honest you are to yourself and to your readers, the easier it is to handle the challenge. It’s okay to take a break!”

Fun Fact

Andy was once a guest on Katie Couric’s daytime TV talk show for an episode about Duck Dynasty.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1809
Back in the 90s when Andy Dehnart was in college, there were only two reality shows on network TV: Survivor and Big Brother, and two others on cable: The Real World and Road Rules. There were no websites covering these new shows. And of course, networks like Twitter and Facebook didn’t exist.

As a college intern at Student.com, Andy would talk for hours about his love for The Real World…even though the other interns made fun of his passion. The obsession paid off, though. A year later one of those old co-workers became an editor for a web magazine and suggested Andy write about the new season of the show.

This was 1999 and Andy wrote a weekly column about The Real World Hawaii. But when a new editor came along, Andy was fired. Depressed and missing the chance to write and joke about the shows he loved, he went online but could only find bits of news and gossip scattered around the web. There just wasn’t one central place of information.

You know what happens next: Andy Dehnart created it.

He called it Reality Blurred, and it officially launched on July 9, 2000 with a grand total of three posts. Although he never marketed the site, he did submit it to Google and Yahoo and other search engines. People found it because they were looking for news about reality TV and there just wasn’t a lot of competition. Over time, the site’s popularity grew.

At this point Andy was a year out of college and writing for a couple of hours in the morning and another hour or two after work. Over time, he went from simply providing links to reality TV news to recapping episodes and giving his opinion about what was really going on with various shows, always fact-checking the information he shared and providing links to all sources.

So far it had just been a labor of love. But in 2003, he began running ads. A TV network representative reached out and asked about running an ad for a new show. Andy had no idea how to price an ad, but he needed a new computer that was going to cost him $2,000—so he gave the rep that price and they immediately said yes. Andy was shocked but cashed the check and ordered the computer.

The website is still mainly a passion project for Andy. Since 2002, he’s been teaching writing and journalism at Stetson University in Florida. But let’s be clear, this is a very profitable passion project.

On average, he earns $10,000 per month from the project’s various income streams. He’s had to fight to keep traffic coming to his site since there’s now a lot of online competition now from content farms, which produce a ton of low-quality pages. But being first—and being so consistent—has certainly helped.

Andy’s currently working on a memoir that details his side hustle journey and goes behind the scenes of reality TV.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about Andy and see if he covers your favorite reality tv show at his website, RealityBlurred.com.

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
"Keeping up the energy to produce content every day is a struggle sometimes. But the more honest you are to yourself and to your readers, the easier it is to handle the challenge. It’s okay to take a break!"
—Andy Dehnart #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

Scented Santa Letters Become Sold-Out Seasonal Business

What It’s About

A listener success story that ends this hustler on the nice list.

Words of Wisdom

A good business idea doesn’t have to take a long time to get started. North Pole Postal was up and running in less than 2 weeks and it’s on track to change Alejandra’s entire career and life.

Fun Fact

Leaving a treat out for Santa began during the Great Depression in the 1930s as a way to teach children about giving. It was also a sign of appreciation for the gifts children received while America was struggling economically. (Source)

Notes from Chris

Episode 1760
Sometimes you don’t need a completely original idea…you just need to put your own spin on something that works.

Alejandra Gomez was listening to Side Hustle School when she came across an episode about a woman who sold letters from Santa. Alejandra had been looking for a way to raise money to buy Christmas gifts for underprivileged children—and she thought a Santa letter business was a great way to do this.

As any good side hustler knows… research is essential. Alejandra dug in and found a huge gap in the market…nobody was doing scented Santa letters. (Right??) Since memory is closely tied to our sense of smell, Alejandra wondered how she could connect her letters with a scent to create positive memories that would last a lifetime. She devised a storyline that made it all work: Santa writes his letters in the kitchen while Mrs. Claus bakes. (I know it’s a little patriarchal, but just consider the era when they grew up.)

Anyway, Alejandra came up with a secret way to make her letters smell like cookies. But now it was early November. She knew if she wanted to sell Christmas letters that year, she’d need to do it before Thanksgiving. The power of a deadline! She went to the craft store and bought envelopes, paper, wax for the seals, and of course some Christmas stamps.

Her creativity didn’t stop there. She added in a bit of fake snow to each letter. Then she added prints of reindeer hooves on the envelope, which Alejandra addressed by hand in modern calligraphy. She typed up the first letter and created her prototype.

She also knew the importance of having an effective website. Alejandra hunkered down and created a complete Squarespace website in only two days. She took all the photos in her living room with her iPhone using red poster board as the background. And she wrote the copy herself.

North Pole Postal was up and running in less than two weeks for under a hundred dollars.

That was year one, 2018. North Pole Postal has grown significantly every year since then. The business has gone from selling 32 letters that first year to selling one thousand letters in 2020. Although the season is only about six weeks long, in 2020 the business brought in $17,000 in three weeks!

In fact, she’s sold out of letters the past two years because she reached capacity. One Santa’s helper can only do so much! She’s considering adding more paid elves soon so that she can offer more letters.

But the growing pains are worth it. This side hustle is on its way to becoming Alejandra’s full-time job within the next year. And she wants to grow the business into a full brand that includes a children’s book based on her North Pole Postal storyline. She’d love to work as an elf all year round!

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Don’t wait and land yourself on the naughty list. Purchase your custom Santa letter asap before they sell out at NorthPolePostal.com. They launch every November 1st!

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
"Venture out, learn what makes you uncomfortable and repeat. What I learned about myself in 15 years I could never have learned just from reading books or hearing others tell their stories."
—Eva Rosales #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.
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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.
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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Tailgate Lover Creates Product Review Business

What It’s About

An insurance manager scores big with his love of tailgating.

Words of Wisdom

When it comes to starting your own side hustle, Luke says: “Build your brand and credibility first. If you come out asking for big dollars you won’t make the relationships, get the content or build credibility vs coming out slowly and working your way up.”

Fun Fact

In some ways, the tradition of tailgating may have existed even before football games. Before the Battle of the Bull Run in Virginia, civilians gathered together to sit and watch the battle commence. Later on during the Civil War, people began to feed soldiers out of the back of wagons, which might have been the start of grilling out of the back of a truck. [source]

Notes from Chris

Episode 1746
Back in 2012, Luke Lorick was falling asleep after a long week of working at a Fortune 30 insurance company. While he liked his job, he was starting to get bored. He began to imagine what it would be like to put his multiple business degrees to use and combine it with one of his passions. Above all else, he loved tailgating.

Let’s break this down for those who don’t know: tailgating is a type of celebration that typically occurs before a big event. Usually this event involves sports, like a football game, but some people have them before concerts or festivals. Most “tailgates” involve some combination of drinking beer, sitting in foldout chairs, and grilling food in the tailgate of a truck—hence the name.

Tailgating had been one of Luke’s favorite things to do for years, and as he was thinking about how it could be a bigger part of his life, the words “tailgating challenge” suddenly rang through his head. He began to wonder if he could start a business where he would review tailgating products and build a community of fellow fans. In a sleepy stupor, he created a Facebook page for his idea, and went back to bed.

When he woke up and remembered his idea, he was ready to answer the call of the ball. Quickly, he created accounts for Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. He then made a website, spending about $250 for what he’d call Tailgating-Challenge.com.

Luke didn’t go a day without working on his side hustle, even if it was just those few minutes of work. As his presence began to grow and he started to gain more followers, he started hosting giveaways on his social media accounts. This technique was one of the best ways for him to build engagement and continue to increase his following.

Rather than doing one or two giveaways a month like most brands do, Tailgating Challenge has one every single week. Luke says that this keeps his audience engaged and coming back for more. He also strategically plans his giveaways to build engagement in the areas of his business that he wants.

For the first few years, Luke didn’t make any money at all. He focused on building up a following and increasing his credibility. Over the years, however, he began to turn more of his attention to monetization.

So let’s talk about that money. Luke brings in anywhere from $1,000-$3,000 a month from the site. He is still working at his day job and he isn’t planning on quitting anytime soon. He says that the side gig brings him a sense of empowerment, financial freedom, and positivity to his life.

Years after that restless night where he dreamed up the idea of Tailgating Challenge, Luke is still gaming high.

 

 

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
"Build your brand and credibility first. If you come out asking for big dollars you won’t make the relationships, get the content or build credibility vs coming out slowly and working your way up."
—Luke Lorick #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

“Going Gray” Blog Brings in $6,000/Month

What It’s About

By embracing her natural gray, this aerospace manager is making a lot of extra green.

Words of Wisdom

Katie has important advice for those seeking to start their own blog, “Learn SEO ASAP—it’s more valuable than social media traffic.”

Fun Fact

When your hair begins to turn gray is caused by genetics, and predetermined even before you were born! This means that qualities like premature graying tend to run in families, but most of the time, people start to notice gray hair in their late 30s and 40s.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1732
In 2015, Katie Emery’s world turned upside down. Her husband lost his job, and her son nearly lost his life.

She says that those traumatic events led her to a period of “brain fog.” She didn’t feel like herself, and was constantly stressed.

But she had always loved being creative, and so, facing the uncertainty of her husband’s career, she decided to find her way out by starting a new project. One day around that time, she was listening to the audiobook of “You Are a Badass at Making Money” by Jen Sincero when the book covered the art of getting paid through blogging.

Katie was interested, so she began to learn more about WordPress. Instead of learning on her own, however, she found a WordPress tutor (yes, those exist!) and spent $300 to gain as much competence as she could.

Inspired, she decided to start a new blog, Katie Goes Platinum, to document her journey of going gray and perhaps encourage others along the way. She spent about $100 on the hair necessities—$50 on a blog theme, $15 on a domain name, and $35 for web hosting.

In July of 2018, the blog officially launched with a few posts. In an ideal world, she wanted to wait to launch until she had several in depth, well-written articles, but in the end she decided not to overthink it. Good choice!

Three years in, about 50% of her traffic is organic, and she is hoping to continue to grow that number. Katie makes more than $6,000 a month from her side hustle, and she is still working her day job as an aerospace marketing coordinator.

Katie says that above all else, she’s grateful that her side hustle has eased her family’s financial strain. Living in Los Angeles, the extra income has been critical.

She’s also glad that this is the blog that took off, rather than one of her first two attempts. She hopes it will inspire others in their 50s to think outside the box. Coming up next: a line of e-books, and maybe even a podcast.

 

 

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
"Learn SEO ASAP – it’s more valuable than social media traffic."
—Katie Emery #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

7th Grade Teacher Earns 2nd Income Writing Resumes

What It’s About

A teacher finds a profitable extra-curricular activity using his writing skills.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Greg offers some wise advice for those seeking to launch a side hustle, “Make sure your day job is secure first. That’s your bread and butter!”

Fun Fact

Greg likes to keep his business in the family and hired his brother to design his logo.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1730
Greg Marano has had a lifelong obsession with writing. He’d penned his first book before leaving Elementary School. Fast-forward a few decades, and Greg’s dreams of writing had turned out a little differently than expected.

In some ways, he’d acheived them: he was working as a columnist for The Poughkeepsie Journal—his local newspaper—but he found writing for a living left little creative energy to write for fun. He eventually quit his job to explore other things, finally ending up as an English teacher. That was the stable role he stuck with.

While teaching literature and poetry to seventh-graders, he found himself with renewed energy and a desire to write again. With a new baby at home, a little side hustle income also wouldn’t hurt. So, he toyed with the idea of freelance writing.

Greg created a profile on the marketplace UpWork and began offering his services. At first he focused on general writing needs: proofreading, ghostwriting, and blogging, feeling a broad scope would give him the best chance of success. He also set his prices relatively low, a decision he says, in hindsight, was driven more by fear of rejection than trying to undercut the market.

Greg slowly began moving his clients away from UpWork and worked with them directly. This allowed him to cut out the middleman and commission fees to keep more of the income for himself. That was important if he wanted to raise his prices.

Where do the customers come from? Well, Greg generates a consistent stream of leads for his business by using Google’s display ads. After a particularly dry month without much website traffic, he knew he needed to be more active in his approach, so he budgeted $50 to target people searching for keywords around resumes. It was a figure he was willing to lose if it didn’t work out. Thankfully, it generated enough interest to more than cover the cost, and he began to slowly increase the monthly budget until he reached a comfortable workload.

Looking to the future, Greg is happy to stay on his current path. He knows the only way to scale his business would be to hire people, and he can’t imagine himself doing that any time soon. After all, managing a class of seventh graders is enough hard work.

 

 

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
"Make sure your day job is secure first. That’s your bread and butter!"
—Greg Marano #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

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

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

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau