The Side Hustle Show

Royalties from book sales is one of the most passive of all my income streams.

After you create a book, with print or digital distribution handled by Amazon, you can collect royalties for years.

And while I enjoy the writing process and have published several titles myself, I have yet to venture into the world of children's books. 

(Despite having the outlines of a couple kids books on my phone for the last two or three years!)

This week I connected with Matthew Ralph, a children’s book author from England, who recently quit his full-time marketing job to focus on his publishing and freelancing business.

His bestselling work to date is Sam the Speedy Sloth. The idea of which came to him while walking through an airport, and by the time his flight landed, the book was almost written.

Matt has since added more books to his portfolio, while freelancing to help other self-publishing authors.

Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn:

Full Show Notes: How to Make Money with Kids Books on Amazon

What advice would you give your 18-year-old self? Here's my actual valedictorian speech from 20 years ago!

Creating assets you can sell over and over again -- that’s the passive income dream, right?

This is exactly what Rachel Jones at MoneyHackingMama.com has done by creating and selling downloadable printables on Etsy.

This year she’s averaging over $10,000 a month in sales, all while balancing a full-time job and two young kids.

Rachel has only been doing this for two years, and she’s planning on leaving her full-time job in the near future and going in full-time on her Etsy business.

Big thanks to Cody from Gold City Ventures and The FI Show for the intro!

Note: I call this the Buy Buttons strategy. To kickstart your business, find the mini-marketplaces your target customers are already shopping at. Go where the cash is already flowing!

Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn:

Full Show Notes: $10,000 a Month Selling Digital Products on Etsy

What if you could rent out digital real estate just as you would traditional real estate, but without all the headaches that come with maintaining a property?

That’s exactly what Luke Van Der Veer is doing with his digital “Rank and Rent” business.

I found Luke through the Side Hustle Nation Facebook group, where he shared a unique take on online business, kind of at the intersection of service businesses, SEO, and real estate.

Really taking a page out from all of those playbooks.

What Luke does is he builds a local service business website, then “rents” it out to a local, less digital-savvy business that is more than happy for the extra leads.

Luke has been doing this for several years but said it took about 6 months to replace his day job income, and 12 months to hit 6-figures.

Today he runs a portfolio of over 100 different websites using this “rank and rent” model, earning predictable recurring revenue taking up just a few hours per week.

He also helps people get started doing the same at Website Rental Coaching.

Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn:

Full Show Notes: Rank and Rent: $1000 a Month From Simple Local Websites

Free Listener Bonus: 50+ Rank and Rent Niches

Next Steps: Luke's Website Rental Coaching

Want More? Since this episode, I've actually interviewed a couple of Luke's Website Rental Coaching students:

Earning up to $2,000 for 45 minutes doing something you love -- who wouldn’t want to do that?

That’s exactly what Brian McGovern of McMagical.com does. Brian is a party entertainer — he’s been practicing magic and performing since he was in high school.

The success of the side hustle allowed him to walk away from a well-paying, but stressful, career on Wall Street.

Despite the pandemic forcing him to perform shows from his living room, he’s still making up to $2,000 for an hour's work.

Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn how to:

Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Going to Parties

"Apples to Apples meets Shark Tank" in SideHustle, the party game for entrepreneurs.

After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the team behind the game is looking for ways to raise awareness and stand out on the crowded Amazon marketplace.

In this coaching episode, you'll meet co-founders Darby Rollins and Tomer Soran, who (along with a 3rd co-founder, Tim Palladino) are looking for some ways to expand on the initial traction and grow a brand in the "productive play" space.

To help out with this one, I enlisted Side Hustle Show alumni and e-commerce and branding pro, Scott Voelker. 

Full Show Notes: From Kickstarter Success to a Sustainable Brand [Side Hustle Coaching]

With a full-time job, a baby at home, and a thriving side hustle, Troy Parker was becoming a master juggler.

He was excited about the growth of his Etsy shop, Goober Prints, but was beginning to reach the ceiling of his own capacity.

Troy specializes in fun, quirky, customizable direct-to-garment printing. Goober Prints had a breakout year in 2020, jumping to $80,000 in total sales — up from about $10,000 in 2019.

Could it become his full-time focus? Is it possible to scale sales without sacrificing even more sleep?

I reached out to Side Hustle Show alum and Etsy growth pro Melissa MacDonald, because I knew she'd have some great ideas for Troy.

And she didn't disappoint!

Tune in to check out our full conversation.

Full Show Notes: $80,000 in Etsy Sales: How to Grow from Here? [Side Hustle Coaching]

Side Hustle Show listener Raffaele Di Lallo has built a successful house plant website, earning $10k a month — on the side from his day job.

Still, he explained that 90% of that income was from advertising, and he wanted to diversify his revenue sources and earn more from affiliate marketing.

To help me talk through Raffaele's business is a long-time friend and online business mentor of mine, Matt Giovanisci.

Matt runs SwimUniversity.com, BrewCabin.com, and MoneyLab.co and the Money Lab Pro membership community.

I knew he'd have some suggestions to grow the income pie and "future proof" Raffaele's business.

Tune in to check out our full conversation.

Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Blogging: How to Grow from Here?

With Mother's Day coming up, I wanted to share some of the best advice and lessons I got from mom growing up. Most of the time, this was pretty literal advice, but I found a lot of it has a broader application to entrepreneurship. 

Mom has always been probably my biggest advocate and supporter. For background, she essentially had a couple different careers, first in nursing and then as a library assistant.

(At the library, she actually helped me get one of my first jobs in high school.)

Lots of wisdom I hope to be able to pass along to our little ones!

And if you like this format, be sure to check out the companion list/episode on dad's advice!

Full Show Notes: 10 Life and Business Lessons from Mom: The Best Mom Advice

$10,000 a month working 20-hour weeks sounds like a pretty sweet gig! And for Jade Weatherington, it's been a dream come true to make a living in education--while working from home.

Her financial success didn't happen overnight. She had months of earning less than $100 from her online private tutoring.

But when she discovered a then-new platform called Outschool, things really started to take off.

In her first month on the platform, Jade made $32. Still, she was encouraged by the possibilities and scale of teaching online classes there.

By the third month, she made almost $5,000.

Today she’s making $10,000+ from a combination of online classes, pre-recorded courses, and other teaching products -- all while working around 20 hours a week.

Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn:

Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Teaching Online Part-Time