The Side Hustle Show

It’s time to dive into the ol’ listener mailbag and answer a few questions in this week’s edition of The Side Hustle Show.

I’ve had quite a few interesting questions come in since the last Q&A episode, and picked 20 to talk through in today’s show.

Like this format?

This is the 9th installment of “20 Questions” so feel free to go back and binge on the older ones too:

A common piece of advice you’ll hear is to take audience questions and turn them into content, so here’s a meta example of that in action.

This episode covers market saturation, getting up earlier, mapping out content, and lots more.

Enjoy!

Full Show Notes: Market Saturation, Mind Mapping, Miracle Mornings, and More: 20 Questions with Nick

Looking for a part-time side hustle where you get can your inventory for free and there are almost no startup costs?

This week, I’m excited to introduce the side hustle of public domain publishing.

This is the art and science of republishing classic literature - where the copyrights have expired - and earning passive royalties when your version sells.

Because these works are so old, they’re available online for free - but many Amazon shoppers and Kindle owners will pay to have them delivered straight to their device.

I think any business where you can get your inventory for free is pretty compelling!

Since 2013, Aaron Kerr has pocketed over $110k in royalties through this very part-time side hustle. You can see all his public domain projects over at TimelessReads.com.

Tune in to hear how this business model works, Aaron’s advice on what to publish and how to get past Amazon’s gatekeepers, and how to differentiate your public domain books from everything else out there.

Full Show Notes: Public Domain Publishing: $100,000 Selling Classic Books on Amazon

This week’s show is a re-take on last year’s Thanksgiving episode on 10 Creative Side Hustles that Make Real Money.

That show was a hit, so I’m returning to that format for another round.

Some of these will you have kicking yourself not thinking of it yourself, and some of these are 6-figure businesses you could literally start tomorrow.

Here are the 10 creative side hustles I cover in this episode:

Enjoy!

Full Show Notes: 10 Creative Side Hustles That Make Real Money - Part 2

Can you really get paid to answer questions?

That’s exactly what Debbie Gartner from TheFlooringGirl.com does - and her answers are earning her $20,000 a month.

Debbie used to run a local hardwood flooring consultation business. She’d estimate jobs, make recommendations, and match homeowners with reliable installers.

In her spare time, she started her blog with the goal of showing up in some local search results to generate some more business.

“I wrote blog posts that were questions that my customers would have,” Debbie told me.

But as you might have guessed, the site soon started to reach an audience well outside her local area. A couple of years later Debbie got out of the brick and mortar flooring business and decided to monetize her blog.

She was already pulling in more than 100,000 visitors and by simply turning on ads she made $1,100 in her first month.

From there she continued to grow her traffic numbers, added affiliate posts, created her own products, and is now making more than $20,000 a month.

Tune in to hear how Debbie is driving traffic, how her site earns money, and how you may be able to replicate some of Debbie’s tactics in your own niche.

Note: If you don't have a blog of your own yet, my free video series will show you how to get up and running quickly and affordably.

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Get Paid to Answer Questions: How I Make $20,000 a Month Online

Would you trade $200 for $4,000?

That’s exactly what today’s guest, Josh Elledge is doing.

Josh runs a kind of modern PR service for small businesses and has developed a unique and innovative way to break through the marketing clutter and have real conversations with real prospects -- and do it at scale.

He’s found a way to create what he calls “a speed dating environment.” That's his metaphor for the revolving door of new prospects he’s interviewing and selling his services to.

To do this, Josh has created a podcast called The Thoughtful Entrepreneur. It serves as a platform for business owners to talk about their businesses, and for Josh to demonstrate to them how he can improve their visibility.

It’s a win-win, and with streamlined processes in place, Josh is seeing a return of around $4,000 for every $200 he spends on producing his show.

If you’re a current or aspiring freelancer, consultant, coach, or agency owner… this is gold. 

Tune in to hear how Josh does his proactive prospecting, how he’s turning his content creation into sales conversions, and the foundational ground game he’s got set up that makes this all work.

Full Show Notes: How to Get More Clients … By Interviewing Them

He knew his $12 an hour gig at Walmart was a dead-end job.

His escape route was a business idea you probably walk past at least a couple times a year without even thinking about it.

What's he do?

Today, Larry McGee's the guy who takes care of the aquarium at the dentist office and other commercial waiting rooms.

And it earns him around $70,000 a year, doing something he enjoys and working just 15-hours a week.

Larry’s aquarium maintenance business started as a lunch break side hustle with a friend while working at Walmart. More than a decade into the operation, he's got dozens of predictable retainer clients that pay him every month.

In this episode, Larry shares some interesting tactics he’s used over the years to find new clients and keep them around for years.

I'm confident he'll give you some food for thought as to what type of local service business could be right under your nose.

Full Show Notes: From $12/hr at Walmart to a $70k a Year Part-Time Business

Just because a niche is insanely competitive, it doesn’t mean you can’t start an affiliate site and claim a slice of the revenue.

At least, that’s what Sa El of SimplyInsurance.com has done, and the way he lays out how he’s done it will pique the interest of affiliate marketers out there.

Sa was a door-to-door insurance salesman in Atlanta. He wanted to get into the online space and build an affiliate site, and with more than 11 years’ experience in the insurance industry, it made sense to enter the insurance niche.

He took Brain Dean’s SEO That Works course to learn the ropes. But, when he told Brian he was going to build a site in the insurance niche, he was advised against it.

Did Sa go back to the drawing board and look for a new niche?

Nope.

Sa told me there were two reasons why he decided to go ahead and build his site:

That was 2 years ago.

Today, Sa’s site is bringing in 6000 visitors a month and $13k-$15k in revenue.

These numbers prove how competitive the insurance niche is. That’s a huge revenue number for 6k visitors, and Sa told me that only around 4.5k of those visitors are landing on his "money pages." (Some examples linked below.)

Tune in to hear how Sa strategically built out his content to capture longtail traffic, how he builds backlinks (lots of them) to rank his money pages, and the tools he’s using to accelerate his efforts.

Full Show Notes: Profitable Affiliate Marketing, Even in an Insanely Competitive Niche

What if you could make your rent or mortgage payment go away?

Or, what if instead of paying that expense every month, your living situation actually paid you?

It’s not as far-fetched as it may sound.

In fact, that’s exactly what today’s guest, Craig Curelop, has done by intentionally "house hacking" over the past few years.

He’s even written a book on the topic, and it's one I wish I’d had when I was 18 or 19! I would have definitely done some things differently.

The basic idea is to use other people’s rents to offset, or even profit from your own housing costs. On top of that, you'll begin building wealth through real estate and earn tax benefits as well.

If you have a spare room or two in your home, or you're interested in house hacking, this episode is going to get the gears turning for you.

Tune in as Craig runs through some examples of how you can do this. Whether you’re a young professional, or you have a family of your own, you can offset some or all of your mortgage payments.

But keep in mind, this isn’t a common path -- this is living for a period of time like others won’t -- as you’ll hear from Craig’s story.

“Typically you’re going to sacrifice comfortability with profitability,” Craig explained to me. But living for a few years like others won’t has given Craig the financial independence to potentially live decades like others can’t.

Full Show Notes: House Hacking: Live for Free and Turn Your Biggest Expense into a Profit Center

You’ve started a business.

You’ve created a product or a service.

You’re selling it to clients and getting great feedback.

That’s great, you’ve overcome so many of the hurdles we face as entrepreneurs. But the next step is finding a way to keep new customers coming through the doors and scaling up your services.

That’s the challenge today's guest Matt Rudnitsky of Platypusbooks.com is facing. Matt helps entrepreneurs and other interesting people turn their ideas and expertise into books.

For this, Matt earns $30k and up per project. But, as you might have guessed, it takes a ton of work and the client pipeline is sometimes dry for months at a time. Matt has also created an online course teaching self-publishing, but hasn’t enrolled any students yet.

So, I invited Kurt Elster from EtherCycle.com back onto the show. (Some of you will remember Kurt from episode 71 back in 2014 where he talked about productized consulting).

Kurt hosts the unofficial Shopify podcast and is a leader in productized consulting in the Shopify space. He’s faced all the same problems Matt, and a lot of you reading this are currently facing.

Tune in to hear our take on Matt’s business and Kurt's recommendations for next steps. As you listen in, put yourself in Matt’s shoes and see how a similar product or service ladder can apply to your own business.

Full Show Notes: Productized Service Coaching: Building a Product Ladder

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective.

This post (and podcast episode) are inspired by my presentation at FinCon last month. I broke my own rule of not seeking out any speaking gigs, and submitted for a breakout session.

The idea was a bit of an homage to the conference: 10 FinCon Breakthroughs that Tripled My Business.

The powers that be stripped the "FinCon" part from the title, but I was still able to highlight some of my favorite -- and most impactful -- takeaways from the annual conference.

I've been every year since 2015, and have seen some great steady business growth since then. This chart tracks my yearly profit:

While there are certainly other factors that went into that growth, there is absolutely a concrete, positive ROI from attending. And on top of that, it's super energizing to hang around a group of motivated, talented, and generous individuals.

So here we go with the 11 simple ideas!

Full Show Notes: 11 Simple Ideas that Tripled My Business