Explore every episode of the podcast Niche Pursuits Podcast: Find Your Next "Niche" Business Idea!
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How Casey Markee Uses AI to Help Bloggers Grow: Lessons From 175 Site Audits | 05 Nov 2025 | 00:48:55 | |
In this episode, SEO expert Casey Markee shares insights from over 175 audits of food and lifestyle blogs in 2025. He breaks down what's actually working right now, from email list growth strategies that doubled subscriber counts to SEO fixes that led to traffic increases and higher RPMs. We also dive into how bloggers can use AI tools smartly, what mistakes are killing traffic, and how to build topical authority beyond Google. If you're feeling lost post-HCU or wondering how to future-proof your blog, this episode is full have useful information! Sponsor: 201 Creative Links & Resources Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative
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| How Andy Skraga Turns 10K Facebook Followers Into Monetized Pages | 29 Oct 2025 | 00:51:21 | |
In this episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Andy Skraga goes into detail on the secrets behind Facebook's evolving Content Monetization Program and how creators can start earning money directly from their posts. He shares his proven strategies for growing a Facebook page to 10,000 followers, maximizing engagement, and using AI to scale content production effortlessly. Andy also breaks down his process for making up to $30,000 a month, reveals key tips for avoiding Facebook penalties, and discusses what's working right now to drive revenue. If you want to make money on Facebook, this is a must-listen!
Links & Resources Use code NICHE20 to get 20% off!
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative
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| How Frey Chu Built Directory Sites that Generate $2,500/mo+ in Passive Income | 27 Aug 2025 | 00:53:15 | |
In this episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, Frey Chu shares his journey of building successful directory sites that generate passive income. He discusses his strategies for niche selection, site structure, and SEO, offering valuable insights for anyone looking to leverage their SEO skills in a side hustle. Frey also reveals his tech stack, monetization methods, and link-building techniques that have helped him grow directories to 100,000 monthly visitors. Are you looking to learn more on how to build directory site that earns long-term, passive income? Then make sure to listen to this interview!
Try Mailtrap for free - https://l.rw.rw/niche_pursuits_2 This episode is sponsored by Mailtrap - an Email Delivery Platform designed for product companies. Go for high deliverability, growth-focused features, and industry best analytics. Get 20% off for all plans with our promo code NICHEPURSUITS.
Links & Resources
Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google August Core Update RELEASED! HCU Recovery Guidelines | 16 Aug 2024 | 01:12:06 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast!
It's been a very big week in the news, with Google taking center stage for several different reasons. This week, Jared and Morgan break it all down for us, and they also share the progress they're making on their side hustles, and some weird niche sites!
Let's jump into it!
The first order of business is Google's announcement about its August core update, which the company has been teasing for some time. Moving along, they talk about an article in the New York Times about how the US Justice Department is considering several scenarios after deciding that Google is a monopoly, including possibly breaking up the company.
Jared shares the timeline and the opinions of Duck Duck Go, and Morgan talks about what happened in the EU when Google was forced to give users a choice when installing their web browsers. It's pretty surprising what she reveals!
They also talk about the ways this ruling could change the internet and which of the scenarios they'd prefer to see. Is Google really resting on its laurels, as Morgan says?
The next topic up for discussion is that Reddit investors are concerned about what all the traffic is doing to its stock price, as company shares have plummeted by 26%.
Why are they complaining about the traffic? Why are "logged in" users more valuable than "logged out" ones? How does Reddit's current situation contrast with its attitude just a few weeks ago?
Then Jared and Morgan tie the Reddit news to Google's announcement about its current core update. What do they predict might happen? Listen to the full episode to hear what they say!
When it's time to talk about their side hustles, Jared comments briefly about the course he recently launched on the Amazon Influencer Program, but then dives into the newsletter he recently acquired, The Slice.
He shares his stats, such as open rates, ad earnings, and affiliate income, and his future plans for the side hustle.
He also talks about Creator Connections, in the Influencer Program, and shares his latest earnings.
Morgan then talks about her Amazon Influencer side hustle and shares her experience creating more polished videos for the program and the impact on her video clicks. She also shares a strategy she's going to experiment with in the coming weeks.
Jared's weird niche site comes with its own personal story this week: San Diego Sandcastles, which he discovered while at the beach with his family.
When it's Morgan's turn, she shares This Person Does Not Exist, which generates AI images of people who don't exist.
This site has been around since 2021, and she shares some of its stats. Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| I Make $20k/Month Using Paid Ads | 14 Aug 2024 | 01:01:01 | |
If you didn't get into paid media before Google changed up the traffic game, you can still get into it now. That's what Alex Goldberg is showing us on this week's podcast.
Alex started a site as a side hustle, but it eventually grew into a portfolio of sites. Organic traffic was abundant, but he decided to experiment with paid media arbitrage.
In the end, he built up a portfolio of sites earning $20k/month and then sold it for a hefty sum.
For people who are generating a lot of traffic from SEO or social media, Alex outlines a great strategy to diversify, and for people who aren't getting as much traffic as they used to, they can also diversify.
Don't miss this episode where Alex shares a lot of great advice and tips for getting started and succeeding with paid ads. Alex starts with a brief introduction of his background, talking about how he always wanted to be an entrepreneur, how he started side hustling, and how he eventually exited one of his main projects, a portfolio of health and wellness sites.
He starts by talking in more detail about his initial site, which he started in 2018 as a side hustle with a colleague. They were reviewing fintech companies, but pivoted to health and wellness when they sensed there was a better opportunity in that niche.
In 2021, he quit his job, eventually bought out his business partner, and went on to create a portfolio of related sites. He also shifted his focus from organic traffic to paid media arbitrage before he eventually sought out, and found, a buyer.
Alex goes into more detail about switching from SEO to paid media arbitrage and why he decided to diversify. He talks about the challenges he faced setting up a paid arbitrage strategy, but claims that once you have a roadmap, it's easier than SEO.
He discusses the types of keywords he bids on, how to meet the demand of underlying queries, and future-proofing your business.
Alex had experience before he started using this strategy, but for people who don't usually use paid ads, he shares tips and tricks and challenges people generally face.
He reveals the percentage of campaigns that are generally successful and talks about how to talk to brands about using this strategy, what kinds of niches it would work in, and he compares it to SEO, content creation, and organic traffic.
Alex explains social whitelisting and then goes into a lot of detail on conversion tracking, and he also talks about scaling the business and reaching $20k/month in profit while providing immense value for his clients, which was very important to him.
Towards the end of the interview, he talks about being hit by the HCU and how diversified his sites were, and he also shares some stats: how much his business was earning and how much he sold it for. Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google Ruled a Monopoly! How this Impacts Bloggers | 09 Aug 2024 | 01:03:32 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared talk about the biggest news in the SEO and creator industry and what it means for you. They also share their inspiring side hustles and some weird niche sites they've discovered.
Today they tackled the biggest news item we've seen in a while: Google's antitrust lawsuit.
Google has been in the news for a while now as the courts have been trying to determine whether or not it's a monopoly and a decision was finally handed down, stating that the company does have an illegal monopoly on search.
What did the company say on Twitter and how did others respond? And what are the potential outcomes?
Spencer and Jared talk about how Google got here, what it might be asked to do in the future, and what they really think about Google's claims. Moving along, they head into the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, and Spencer goes first. He talks about his experience with the Facebook Bonus Program, of which he has been a member for the last 2 months.
His first month in the program, he earned $3k, and he was on track to surpass that in his second month. What happened at the end of July? How did it all play out?
When it's Jared's turn, he talks about the Amazon Influencer Program.
Although he had a few complicated days, his monthly earnings were in line with his usual performance. He also announces the release of his new course, which walks you through the process of getting started in the program.
He shares some interesting data, comparing his performance with Spencer's and another member of the Amazon Influencer Program, who recently joined. He looks at how much they're all earning and how many clicks each of their videos are receiving per month.
He also talks briefly about his experience with the Creators Connection program.
Then they move on to their Weird Niche Sites.
Spencer goes first with Spot the Difference which, as the name suggests, shows users two photos and they have to find 4 things that are different. It's monetized with a lot of display ads and gets around 23k organic visitors a month.
When it's Jared's turn, he's excited to share Where Is My Milk From, indubitably a weird niche site that helps you locate the origin of your milk.
And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope you're feeling informed and inspired.
Don't forget to catch Spencer and Jared next Friday when they tackle the latest news and provide updates on their projects. Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative
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| I Make $3k/Month Posting Short Videos to Amazon | 07 Aug 2024 | 01:03:15 | |
This week on the podcast we have a familiar face!
Spencer Haws comes on to talk about a very interesting, and surprisingly lucrative, side hustle both he and Jared have been working on for the last year: the Amazon Influencer Program.
In this episode, Spencer and Jared talk about their experience with the program, discuss the different strategies they used to grow this side business, and share some insider tips for succeeding.
Jared also reveals that he teamed up with Authority Hacker to create a course that helps people through the entire process. They begin with a brief overview of what the Amazon Influencer Program is all about: creating shoppable videos and posting them on Amazon's product pages. By doing this, you get a sliver of Amazon's massive traffic.
But before you can participate, you need to get accepted into the program.
Jared gives a rundown of the primary requirements, and then he and Spencer talk about the path they each took to get accepted into the program.
Spencer even shares an Amazon Influencer Program secret he hasn't shared before!
They talk about making the first three videos for your account, and why they're important. If your videos get rejected three times, you won't be able to participate in the program.
With that in mind, Spencer talks about what makes a great first video and lets listeners know what not to do.
He and Jared also talk about whether or not you need to show your face in the videos, what type of product features to discuss, and how to approach Amazon's long list of rules when making videos.
They also share some of the mistakes they made, which got some of their videos rejected.
Then Spencer shares his personal journey on the program, which he joined in January 2023, and talks about adding videos gradually. By December of that year, he peaked at $6k for the month.
To give an idea of how passive the program is, now he's earning an average of $1500 a month and hasn't added any videos for the last 7 months.
Jared shares his story, too.
He got accepted in May 2023 and frontloaded a lot of the work, publishing +200 videos in his first month, which led to earnings of $1000.
He continued to gradually upload videos, and he's currently earning around $3k to $4k consistently per month.
Then they move backwards slightly, and Spencer talks about how he got his videos done. The first ones he did himself, and then he outsourced the next 1000.
He shares where he found people to create the videos, how he paid them, and how much he paid them. He also shares some of the pros and cons to this approach.
When it's Jared's turn, he shares his strategy for growing his Amazon Influencer account. Jared did the bulk of his own videos, reviewing products that he had around his house, his neighbors' houses, and his parent's house.
He even shares a cool hack for accessing even more products for videos.
Equally importantly, he talks about how long he spent doing his videos and how he became super efficient for the best possible ROI.
To close out the interview, they share some important insights they've gathered about slightly over a year in the program.
These revolve around reviewing higher priced products, showing lots of close-ups, skipping long winded introductions, seasonality, creating SOPs, among others.
All in all, this is a fantastic, information-packed episode if you're curious about the program and looking to get started, or if you're already using it and want some fresh ideas. Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Reddit Blocks Search Engines but NOT Google! | 02 Aug 2024 | 01:07:17 | |
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. Jared hosts this week's episode, along with Morgan Overholt, who's standing in for Spencer. They kick off the news portion of the episode talking about Reddit and how it has blocked Bing Search. Microsoft has confirmed this news and is respecting Reddit's decision, but the plot thickens when Reddit's CEO speaks out. This leads them to another article that talks about how the traditionally mutually beneficial arrangement of web crawling is breaking down, referencing Google and Reddit's relationship, Reddit's decision to block Microsoft, and how these moves are really hurting the internet. The conversation then shifts to SearchGPT, and they look at and dissect a sample query. As for side hustles, Morgan talks about an idea that came to her through her graphic design agency, where she has consistently designed ebooks for clients. Now she wants to try her hand at it, publishing her own book with the content she had originally published on her website, which was hit by the Helpful Content Update. When it's Jared's turn, he explains the Creator Connections program inside Amazon Influencer and how it's been going since he started participating. Then the conversation moves on to their Weird Niche Sites. Morgan goes first with Chirper AI, a site that looks like the Sims meets ChatGPT. In this wild little AI virtual reality world, you create characters that interact with others created by different users. When it's Jared's turn, he shares an image-to-text converter which, as the name suggests, takes pictures and converts them into text files. That concludes another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where you can hear about the latest and most important news in the SEO, online business, and blogging world as well as feel inspired by the hosts' side hustles and get ideas from some weird sites. Catch you next week! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| I Make $20k/Month Posting Memes on Facebook Pages | 31 Jul 2024 | 01:01:20 | |
Brian Nagele has had a lot of success building online businesses, but nothing could have prepared him for what he has been able to achieve on Facebook. You can join Brian's Social Growth Mastery to learn how his exact Facebook strategies here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/socialgrowthmastery After his niche sites were hit by Google's Helpful Content Update, he fully understood the importance of diversifying his traffic, and he turned to Facebook. He started building Facebook pages, and some of his posts started going viral. Once Facebook noticed the engagement he was getting, he got invited to the platform's Performance Bonus Program. After one of his new pages in the program earned $11k its first month, he was hooked. Today he's earning $20k per month posted viral content on his Facebook pages. Don't miss this episode, where he shared a ton of his secrets and gives listeners the tools to get started earning money on Facebook. Topics Brian Nagele Talks About
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| The End of Google? OpenAI Launches SearchGPT | 26 Jul 2024 | 01:04:49 | |
Welcome to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared offer their thoughts on the latest news in SEO, Google and AI; talk about their side hustles; and share some funny and weird niche sites. They kick things off by talking about the SearchGPT announcement. Spencer talks about how the tool looks like it will work and whether it will include links to sources. They reference an article on Wired and talk about how SearchGPT's initial search functionality would be limited, but what will it look like when and if it eventually expands? What type of approach will SearchGPT eventually be based on? How does this impact publishers? Tune in to hear Spencer and Jared's initial thoughts on this bombshell news item! Moving along, they talk about how Google is planning to scrap its plans to kill 3rd party cookies in Chrome. This news is quite shocking, as Google has been talking about killing those cookies since 2020. People have been preparing for it for years! Why does Spencer think they made this decision? And what trend does Jared highlight and question? How's this going to play out in other countries? And what's likely driving this decision by Google? Is this good or bad news for publishers? Next up is more Google news. Google recently released its Q2 earnings and revealed some interesting data, such as growth in its search revenue. Although the company beat some of its estimates, where did its projections fall short? And where does its stock price stand? What does Jared point out about CEO vs public perception? And does this performance suggest that there's room for SearchGPT to get a piece of the pie? Also, what's the status of AI Overviews, according to Sundar Pichai? It's on to the Shiny Object Shenanigans, and Spencer kicks things off talking about his experience in the Facebook Performance Bonus Program. After just 2 months, things are going very well. In the first month he earned slightly less than $3k and this month he expects to surpass that. How often is he posting? How has his strategy changed? What does this mean for the niche website associated with the Facebook page? For Jared, he talks about a side hustle within a side hustle: Creator Connections inside the Amazon Influencer Program. He recently discovered higher-paying opportunities within the program. How did he find out about them and how do they work? And why did he and Spencer describe them as "free money?" Check out the episode to hear all the details! Spencer shares his weird niche site first when the time comes: Test My Thumbnail, which allows you to upload a sample of a thumbnail and see what it will look like alongside others on YouTube and tweak it accordingly. The site offers lots of other features and functions, such as a/b testing thumbnails and YouTube revenue calculator. What does the traffic look like? What do Spencer and Jared have to say about this site? When it's Jared's turn, he goes pretty weird with Gift Wrap My Face which, as the name suggests, lets you print your fact on wrapping paper. This DR27 site doesn't get a lot of traffic and isn't ranking for a lot of keywords, but what's so interesting about it, according to Jared? What's the story behind the brand? Jared also checks back on a weird site that was featured previously. Find out how that site is doing! And that takes us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Don't forget to come back next week for some more insight, inspiration, and fun! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| My Niche Online Clothing Site is a 6-Figure Success Story with Over 90K+ Monthly Pageviews | 24 Jul 2024 | 00:54:01 | |
What do you do when you can't find a shirt that fits right? Well, if you're Tanya Zhang, you launch a business. Tanya and her partner Wesley identified a gap in the market: a lack of nice-fitting dress shirts for slim men. So, in 2018, they launched a very niche business called Nimble Made. In this interview, she talks about how she validated the idea and spread the word initially about the company. She shares details on finding the right supplier, identifying the company's core demographic, and using SEO to expand its footprint. Tanya's story is very inspirational. She quit her day job before she was profitable to go all-in on her dream, and with its current 6-figure revenue, it looks like it's all working out. Tanya kicks off the episode by sharing her background and her experience in creative roles, and then she shares how she decided to jump off the corporate ladder and launch a company. She noticed that her partner and the people around her were struggling to find slim dress shirts for work that fit properly. After validating the idea, she created Nimble Made, in 2018. She had no experience in the fashion industry, but she dove right in. Tanya shares the initial steps she took to launch the business, which included getting samples from a supplier and finding someone with a low minimum order and good communication. Tanya talks about developing their marketing message and working to validate their idea and create a community, and how they quit their day jobs after just six months to dedicate themselves entirely to the company, even though it wasn't yet profitable. Nimble Made is earning a 6-figure revenue and the website had 90k+ pageviews in the last month. Tanya shares how they pushed their brand story and got the word out initially about their company, with many features in leading publications. Once it took off, she speaks about how they scaled the business and were able to offer more than 40 different types of shirts to their customers, and how they used their marketing budget with paid ads on Facebook and SEO. Tanya then talks about their SEO efforts and how she used ChatGPT to accelerate growth, and also shares how the creation of customer personas and pinpointing the core demographic were really key in successfully marketing their products and determining exactly what content to write. She also discusses how she uses AI to produce content for the blog. In the last portion of the interview, she talks about diversifying the company's revenue with a YouTube channel, display ads, and affiliate marketing, and the use of email marketing. She also shares her thoughts on quitting her job to go all-in on the company, her worst-case scenario, and the way she planned to explain the experience to future employers had it not worked out. Links & ResourcesReady to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google Pampers a Blogger...Here's What Happened | 19 Jul 2024 | 01:00:25 | |
Welcome back everybody, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! This week Jared and guest host Colin Ma tackle the most recent news in the SEO world affecting creators and entrepreneurs, they inspire with their successful side hustles, and they highlight some unique ideas being used by some weird niche sites. The first item up for discussion is that Brandon Saltamacchia, the owner of Retro Dodo, whose website was crushed in the Helpful Content Update and he has been very vocal about it. He was invited to meet with Danny Sullivan at Google's office in London, and although the Google Search Liaison couldn't share any actionable advice, he was hopeful that website owners would see an improvement in the coming months. Jared highlights a few important sentiments from the article. What did Google say? And what is Danny's actual role? Tune in to hear what they are! Moving along, Jared and Colin tackle an article on The Verge which details a complex but fascinating story involving fake authors, BestReviews, Sports Illustrated, and link schemes. What's the juxtaposition Jared points out? Should Google just reveal its ranking factors? How would it all play out? Listen to the full episode to hear their thoughts. And lastly, they talk briefly about the impending Google Core Update. When is it coming? Will it bring with it a recovery to battered sites? And what has Danny Sullivan said about it? In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Jared talks about his performance on Prime Day as part of the Amazon Influencer Program and how that affects his overall earnings. Then he talks about the newsletter he recently acquired and the recent stats, which are very interesting. He also talks about working towards potential sponsors. When it's Colin's turn, he talks about his inspiration from speakers in the Niche Pursuits Community inspired him to try out the side hustle, and he's already earning money from it. What are his initial thoughts about the program? What's his ROI? What are his future plans? Tune in to hear a strategy he's considering and some additional creative ideas from Jared. Jared shared his weird niche first: Calculate Aspect Ratio, which allows users to check dimensions when resizing images. The DR58 site, which has been around since 2015, recently saw its traffic jump and ranks for 58,000 keywords even though it's just 6 pages in total. This simple site is monetized with ads and is probably making a couple of thousand dollars a month. What other simple ideas can you think of, using this site as inspiration? It's Colin's turn next, and he shares a weird site called National Nail Fungus. This DR20-something site has seen its traffic decline considerably, it hasn't done much to improve its initial design from 2012, and the content is written by doctors and other experts. Colin did some digging into the site and he made a surprising discovery. What was it? Is it something you could do for your own business? And what do they have to say about the site's traffic over the years? And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope that you feel informed about some of the latest happenings in the SEO world, inspired to start your own side hustle, and curious about how you might replicate the strategies we identified among our weird niche sites. Catch you next week! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How Sammie Ellard-King Make $40k/mth with Instagram Videos and Automation | 18 Jul 2024 | 01:02:49 | |
According to financial blogger Sammie Ellard-King, Instagram is one of the biggest opportunities right now because of the way the platform allows for exposure and brand awareness.
In fact, he has developed several strategies that are allowing for the exponential growth of his brand, Up The Gains, on that platform.
Last month, Sammie earned $40k from Instagram alone.
In this interview, he offers a close-up look at some of the strategies he's using, which can be applied to Instagram as well as other social media platforms.
This chat is chock-a-block with golden nuggets, so grab paper and a pencil as you're going to want to take notes! Sammie begins by sharing his background and talks about how he got into the finance niche and started his business.
Although he wasn't hit too badly by the HCU, a subsequent Google update did affect his traffic, but the fact that he takes an omnichannel approach to the business and was able to pivot so easily has allowed him not only to stay afloat, but to thrive.
He became laser-focused on social media, in particular on Instagram, and he talks in detail about growing his business on that platform.
First, he shares his main strategy and highlights the importance of developing customer avatars, understanding their problems, and creating content buckets.
Then Sammie shares his current Instagram metrics (134k followers, 150 million views since January) and how the platform contributes to his business.
He earned $40k from Instagram alone last month with affiliate links and digital products, using automation software.
He dives deep into his video content creation process, touching on the use of different types of hooks and the importance of getting viewers to watch the video until the end. He talks about the different kinds of content you can create and how to validate your niche for social media.
Sammie then shares how he creates mobile-optimized funnels, the tools he uses, and some of the low- and high-ticket items he sells. He also shares his thoughts on what makes a successful product and talks about growing his email lists through quizzes.
He concludes the podcast with a 30-day action plan anyone can implement to get started on Instagram, full of invaluable tips and insight. Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How Lana Sitler Hit $10K Months Blogging in 1 Year | 26 Aug 2025 | 00:47:07 | |
In this interview with Lana Sitler of Adventures By Lana, Jared and Lana discuss her inspiring journey from a mechanical engineer to a full-time travel blogger. Lana shares how she built a successful blog that now generates over $10,000 per month, the strategies she used to rank high on Google, and her approach to monetization through ads and affiliate marketing. If you're interested in travel blogging or just want to hear how one woman turned her passion for travel into a profitable business, this episode is a must-listen!
Try Mailtrap for free - https://l.rw.rw/niche_pursuits_1 This episode is sponsored by Mailtrap - an Email Delivery Platform designed for product companies. Go for high deliverability, growth-focused features, and industry best analytics. Get 20% off for all plans with our promo code NICHEPURSUITS.
Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google AI Overviews DECREASE to an All Time Low! | 12 Jul 2024 | 01:03:20 | |
This week's Niche Pursuits News Podcast features Jared and guest host Morgan Overholt, who dive directly into the latest news stories, share their side hustles, and talk all about some weird niche sites.
The first thing they dig into is news that AI Overviews is only appearing for 7% of queries. Jared shares a helpful summary of how this Google feature has evolved over time, and he and Morgan share their opinions.
How big has the decline been? What was their personal experience with AI Overviews? And which industries have been the most affected? What kinds of queries saw growth and declines?
And how did AI Overview citations from Reddit fare? And what do they think is going to happen down the road? Tune in to hear the discussion. Moving along, they talk about Google and Meta's investment splurges in AI, according to interviews with people from leading investment banks who essentially expressed shock.
But how much are Google and Meta planning to spend? What do the financial analysts liken the situation to, and do Morgan and Jared agree? Do you think we're in a bubble?
Then they move into their Side Hustle Shenanigans. Morgan talks about how she was inspired by Spencer's Facebook page project and decided to try it out herself.
She created a brand new Facebook page for her freelancer brand and hit 7k likes and followers after about 30 days.
How did she do it? What are her plans for the group? And how will it be different from her previously successful niche sites?
She also shares her experience in the Amazon Influencer Program. She shares her journey: how many videos she has, how much she's earned, and how she's doing it.
The conversation then shifts to Jared and his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle. He recently released a video about his experience after completing a full year in the program.
He shares his processes, talks about crossposting, and divulges some of his "editing" secrets.
Then it's time to reveal their weird niche sites. Morgan goes first with My Instants, a site with funny sound buttons.
How much traffic is the DR58 site getting? And where's the traffic coming from? As Morgan says, it's a great reminder that sometimes the simplest of ideas can be the most profitable.
When it's Jared's turn, he shares Bored Teachers, a DR56 site that gets 55k monthly visitors. But he reveals something really interesting about it after he consulted the Wayback Machine.
What did he find back in 2016? And what about during Covid? What does the site teach out about pivoting? Tune in to find out.
That brings us to the end of another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.
We'll catch you next week when we explore the latest happenings in the space and share our ideas and inspiration for all you entrepreneurs. Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| I Create 6-Figure Websites Using FREE Pinterest Traffic | 10 Jul 2024 | 00:45:56 | |
Mo Mullah is an entrepreneur with an impressive track record.
Back in the day, he was orchestrating 6-figure exits and bringing home up to $75k per month from email marketing campaigns.
In the middle of it all, he started his own agency, Niche Website Management.
After the HCU, like many others, Mo decided he didn't want to be a slave to Google, so he started testing out strategies on alternative platforms.
Today he's killing it on Pinterest.
In this interview, he shares his Pinterest tips and tricks, how he's combining Pinterest traffic and email marketing, and other strategies he's using to make money online. Mo begins by talking about his experience with email marketing back in the day, the success he was having, and how he came to start his own agency.
At the moment, his main focus is Pinterest.
He talks about his 3 content sites at the moment, how he's growing traffic, and how it's different from SEO, and he shares why his sites do well on Pinterest and what niches he believes will succeed on the platform.
He talks about his clients' accounts and he works with them on Pinterest. He talks about the amount of pins he creates, the general idea behind them, and where they get the ideas.
He also shares his strategy for seasonal content and talks about how he monetizes his Pinterest traffic: through email marketing. Then he goes into detail about connecting with email subscribers, understanding where they are in the buying journey, and they key to getting them to buy from you.
Mo also talks about using AI in his email campaigns and on Pinterest and the AI tool he uses the most.
He shares some alternative traffic strategies as well as some of the ways he's making money online, such as through the Amazon Influencer Program.
Then Mo talks about what he would do if he were to start a business today, which includes website creation, digital products, and Pinterest and Facebook.
To wrap things up, he shares some of his best efficiency tips. Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Only 36% of Google Searches Go to Websites: New Zero Click Report | 05 Jul 2024 | 00:59:47 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! As always, Spencer and Jared break down the latest news about Google, SEO, AI, and beyond for listeners.
They kick things off this week by diving into a zero-click search study by Rand Fishkin on SparkToro, talking about where clicks go and the difference in what happens after someone in America clicks vs. someone in Europe.
After the spam update finished rolling out at the end of last week, someone reported seeing a slight recovery.
The author of the report is seeing almost a 50% rebound in traffic on her affiliate marketing website since March 2024, and she details the 4 main steps she's taken since her traffic tanked, which included disavowing spammy backlinks and upping her internal linking game.
Moving along, they talk about Google Search Console's data freeze which, at the time they recorded the podcast, was 87 hours long.
It's then time for Shiny Object Shenanigans and, as usual, Spencer goes first with an exciting update about his first 30 days in the Facebook Bonus Program.
When it's Jared's turn, he reveals that he bought a newsletter! The Slice, which is geared towards solopreneurs, seemed like the perfect fit.
When it's Weird Niche Website time, Spencer shares a site that's doing really well. In fact, year-to-date it's earned 4 million GBP. Car Mats is an ecommerce site that's gone very niche as it focuses on a single car part: floor mats.
When it's Jared's turn, he reveals Keybr, a weird and quirky site that offers typing tests and helps you improve your typing skills.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| I Make $20k/month with Real Estate Courses and Affiliate Marketing | 03 Jul 2024 | 00:58:01 | |
Seth Williams is an entrepreneur with a passion for land investing.
After he got a few years of experience under his belt, he decided the time had come to share his expertise, so he created his website, REtipster.
He went on to create some digital products, including a course, to diversify his income. He peaked at $60k in one month, but he normally brings home $20k-30k a month.
In this interview, he talks about building his brand and creating his course and podcast, but perhaps most importantly he talks about leading with value and giving priority to creating great content that helps people. Seth Williams begins by sharing his backstory and talking about how he initially got into real estate investing and land investing.
After his initial success, he decided to launch a blog, REtipster, and with it, a brand.
He shares the story behind his first digital products and what led him to eventually create what was probably the first online course in land investing.
Seth talks about diversifying his business as well as the challenges of staying on top of the best techniques in an industry that is constantly changing.
He shares what he thinks it takes to be successful in the industry today, which is totally different from what it looked like when he started.
He then shares more about his brand, from the blog to the podcast, his metrics, and the type of content he creates.
Seth also talks about the surprising thing that happened when he lost 40% of his traffic overnight.
He shares how he knew it was a good idea to create and market his land investing course and, importantly, how he decided to price it.
He also shares advice for other people interested in creating their own course, along with his plans for the future. Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google Spam Update COMPLETE with Positive Results? | 28 Jun 2024 | 01:00:01 | |
Welcome back to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared share everything that's happened related to Google, SEO, and publishers in the last week.
Spencer and Jared kick off the episode talking about the Google Spam Update, which has concluded after a week. They share the chatter on Twitter, where people are seeing positive results and upticks in traffic.
What do Spencer and Jared think is going on?
Moving along, the conversation shifts to AI Overviews and a change in Google's strategy where it's posting the link cards above the AI answer. As Spencer says, this is great news for publishers, and Jared agrees that it's a best-case scenario in the current situation.
Although this is a test, Jared makes a great if not sad point. Tune in to hear what he says. And last in the news for this week, they talk about Google's decision to drop the continuous scroll in search results.
This feature originally launched on mobile in October 2021 and on desktop in December 2022, so it hasn't been operational for that long.
Spencer shares why he thinks the continuous scroll might have been advantageous and how he feels about this change, and Jared shares his opinion as well. What did Google say about it?
Before you know it, it's time to move on to their Shiny Object Shenanigans.
Spencer goes first, and admits he can't stop checking his Facebook stats.
He talks about a Facebook page he's had for about a year, with 65k followers, in a far-out niche. On June 3rd, he got accepted into the Facebook Bonus Program and started to post 15 times a day in an effort to get more engagement on the platform.
Since he got into the program, his earnings have exceeded his expectations and he's had about 3 posts go viral.
How much did he make and how many people saw his posts? How did he come up with the ideas for the posts? He shares a lot of details, but if you want the whole scoop, consider joining the Niche Pursuits Community!
Spencer offers some great advice and also offers an update on a site that recently got accepted into Mediavine Journey.
When it's Jared's turn, he talks about incorporating Pinterest into his strategy. He shares what he's doing, where he's getting the images, the templates he's created, how he's testing pins, what he's doing with boards, etc.
He shares his stats to date, even though he just started, and also gives an update on his newsletter.
Both Jared and Spencer highlight something important to remember when building a business. What mistake do most people make?
Then it's time for some Weird Niche Sites. Spencer goes first and shares Get YouTube Thumbnail which, as the name suggests, lets you see the thumbnail for any YouTube video. He explains how and why he has used the site in the past.
The site has tons of display ads, has 9k organic visitors per month and, most interestingly, has a ton of competitors.
How much do they think the site is making per month?
When it's Jared's turn, he gets ready to share what he believes is the weirdest niche site ever featured on the podcast. That site is One Million Checkboxes, which is totally fascinating and indeed very, very weird.
Jared shares the backstory about the creator, some of his funny tweets, and shocking stats behind this viral site, so tune in to hear all about it.
And that concludes another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Let us know your thoughts in the comments. See you next Friday!
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| My Local Email Newsletter Makes Over $200k/Year...Here's How | 26 Jun 2024 | 01:00:20 | |
This week, Jared interviews local newsletter expert Ryan Sneddon, who shares a ton of great information.
He shares the strategy he used to get his newsletter, Naptown Scoop, off the ground and he offers a ton of valuable tips for anyone thinking about starting a business like this.
He talks about everything from validating his idea and growing his subscribers to connecting with advertisers.
Ryan's goal at the moment is to reach $400k in revenue (he's already surpassed $300k) and to extend his local newsletter concept to other cities across the US. Ryan begins by talking about his life prior to creating his local newsletter and how he got started in the newsletter industry.
After quitting his job and taking a leap of faith, he buckled down to try to figure out what he wanted to create.
When he saw someone else was building a very successful local newsletter for several different cities and he figured out how much they were making, he dove right in and launched his own in his hometown of Annapolis, Maryland.
Ryan talks about how he got Naptown Scoop off the ground, and details the first steps he took to get started, which involved a combination of Mailchimp, Instagram, and Facebook ads.
He also shares the steps he took initially to grow his subscribers and how he maintained that growth while finding sources of information for his newsletter.
Ryan discusses the changes in his publishing schedule, and why he decided to publish daily.
He shares his thoughts on lead magnets and talks about how he narrowed down his ad campaigns, how much he spent in total on Facebook ads, and his current subscriber numbers.
When Jared asks him about evaluating a local market to see if there's a viable opportunity to create a local newsletter, and Ryan shares a lot of insight and the characteristics he deems as important for a newsletter to be successful.
Then he walks us through the content he includes and where he gets all of his information, and he explains how he knows what type of content his audience wants.
Moving onto monetization, Ryan talks about ads as the primary method he uses to monetize Naptown Scoop and shares information about who buys the ads, how much they pay, and package deals he's working on.
When Jared asks him about advertisers, Ryan offers great advice as he explains what kinds of businesses he looks for to advertise in his newsletter.
To conclude the interview, Ryan shares his final words of advice about the value of showing yourself as the face of your brand and the importance of networking and attending events in your city.
If you're considering starting a local newsletter, or you already have one, it would be a crime to miss this episode! Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google UNLEASHES June 2024 Spam Update | 21 Jun 2024 | 00:26:13 | |
Welcome to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!
This week, Spencer's flying solo so we've got a shorter episode for you. It may be shorter, but it's still packed with the news, some side hustle shenanigans, and a weird niche site.
He starts by talking about Google's 2024 Spam Update, which was just released on June 20th, and unsurprisingly, Google doesn't offer a lot of information about the update, except that the rollout will take just 1 week.
What implications could this update have for your site if you were hit by a previous update? Is this part of the site reputation abuse update? And what did Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan say about it?
Keep your eye on your rankings (as you probably are) to see how this all unfolds! The next topic on the agenda is Lily Ray's article about how SEO visibility is shifting away from review sites to eCommerce and UGC sites.
Google says that it has worked to "reduce unhelpful content by 45%," although many small publishers would disagree.
Spencer takes a look at Amsive's study, which compared the SERPs from May of 2023 and May of 2024 for various queries. What did they find? What other results does the article share? What does this mean for review sites?
Spencer offers some advice if you've been affected by this. Tune in to hear what he says!
Then he gives a quick update on his Facebook challenge side hustle, in which he's trying to make $1000 from a brand new Facebook page.
He shared his recent stats on Twitter, sharing his number of followers, his current earnings, and his current costs.
How many clicks has he got to his website? What's his new strategy going to be moving forward? How much engagement is he getting? How often is he posting? Check out the episode to get all the details.
When it comes to his weird niche site, he shares For Eternia, which is dedicated to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which Spencer admitted made him feel slightly nostalgic.
The site covers the latest news (there's a new movie coming out) and has an official podcast, an official late-night show, a YouTube channel, and a community with a forum.
Spencer talks about how niche the site and topic are. How well is it doing? How are they making money? Where is its traffic coming from?
Does this site give you any ideas that you can apply to your own site or business? What can you learn from this successful and weird niche site?
And that wraps up this week's solo episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope you're up to speed on the latest events in the space and feeling inspired by Spencer's side hustle and weird niche site.
See you next week!
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How Andy Skraga Made Over $500k from Facebook Traffic | 19 Jun 2024 | 01:01:25 | |
Andy Skraga, also known as The Facebook Traffic Guy, has had massive success driving traffic to his websites.
He currently manages 9 Facebook pages and 5 websites, driving millions in traffic to those sites.
In this interview, he shares a ton of strategies, offers advice on how to get started, and explains his exact approach to getting page likes, creating content, going viral, and much more.
His interest was originally inspired by a site called ViralNova.
All in all, Andy offers an absolute ton of value in this interview and it's a must-listen to anyone looking for an alternative traffic strategy and a lucrative side hustle. Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Hope For Google Helpful Content Update Recovery? | 14 Jun 2024 | 01:02:45 | |
Welcome back, everyone, to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!
As always, Spencer and Jared offer a quick overview of the most important news items affecting content creators, publishers, SEOs and entrepreneurs.
On this week's podcast, they decide to lead with positivity, kicking things off with potentially good news for sites pummelled by the HCU.
Recent comments from Danny Sullivan and John Mueller suggest that sites may see a recovery with the next core update, whenever that may be.
Should we believe them? Find out what Jared thinks about all of this.
Also, Spencer has some very interesting insider details about this, so check out the episode to find out what he knows that may or may not affect you and your site!
Moving along, they talk about Google usage over time.
Studies show that people are spending more time looking at search results compared with 5 years ago. So what does that mean exactly? Are people dissatisfied with the initial results, or are they more savvy? Or, is this a strategy from Google?
Spencer and Jared have a few theories about this. And Spencer shares some stats that are completely shocking to him. Tune in to hear it all.
The next news item is about the site The Wirecutter, which is owned by the NYT and has come to be an example to follow in affiliate marketing over the years.
Spencer reveals how the site has seen its visibility decline following the HCU, potentially losing half of its traffic.
According to Jared, they are seeing a very slight uptick recently, according to Ahrefs, which could be a sign of hope for others.
As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about the challenge he announced last week where he's trying to earn $1000 from a new Facebook page in one month.
He's currently 10 days in and nowhere near $1000 in earnings, but he does highlight some positive results of his experiment so far.
How many followers does he have? What's his ad spend so far? What interesting and potentially profitable advice does Jared offer him? Tune in to hear all the details!
When it's Jared's turn, he talks about a strategy he's using to try to revive traffic to a site hit by the HCU with a newsletter and a Facebook page.
He also shares his stats and progress from the last 7 weeks: Facebook followers, ad spend, email subscribers, cost per lead, etc.
He's also working on a digital product that he wants to sell to his audience. What's going well and what's not? Check out the full episode to find out.
Then it's time to discover some weird niche sites. Spencer shares Million Dollar Homepage, which was created by an entrepreneur in 2005 with the goal of selling pixels on the homepage to earn a million dollars.
As it was an unusual idea at the time, the creator got some press coverage and was able to sell out all the pixels and he did, in fact, earn a million dollars.
What happened after he reached his goal? How is his site doing now? What did he go on to create? And did his success streak continue or did it die? Check out the podcast to find out.
Jared then shares his site, US Beer Labels, a DR19 website created in 1999 by a guy who collects and trades vintage beer labels. It only ranks for 242 keywords and gets minimal traffic.
What's Jared's theory about this very niche website? What's so fascinating about it and what can we learn from it?
And that concludes another episode of Niche Pursuits News. Thanks so much for tuning in! We hope you feel informed and inspired, like every week.
See you next Friday! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How This Blogger Makes $10k/month Traveling in China | 12 Jun 2024 | 00:58:35 | |
What do you do when the job market looks bleak and you're tired of waiting tables? You move to China!
Well, that's what Robert Schrader did. He set off on a giant adventure that would eventually lead him to create 4 successful websites earning more than $10k per month.
After being in the business for 15 years, Robert has a wealth of experience to draw on and offers a unique perspective. In this interview, he shares his blogging strategies and philosophies, some clever monetization techniques, and much more. He begins by offering a great overview of how he got started traveling and writing travel-related content, and how he came to create his very first site, Leave Your Daily Hell, back in 2009, although it was not a travel blog at that time.
He talks about his fortuitous participation in a blogging contest that helped him realize the business potential of blogging, and his unconventional route to monetization.
Robert initially resisted niching down but eventually took the plunge. It's a good thing he did, because his first niche site, Japan Starts Here, is currently his most profitable venture.
He has a unique approach to content that he talks about, even sharing the exact formula he uses for his articles along with his anti-keyword research strategy.
Robert talks about his reasons for starting his two other niche sites, Thailand Starts Here and Taiwan Starts Here, and reveals some of his productivity hacks for managing 4 different sites.
He shares his strategy for planning his trips as well as his thoughts on updating content.
Robert has a somewhat unconventional philosophy when it comes to blogging, and this interview will absolutely provide some great food for thought. Links & Resources:
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How Erin Gorrie's Viral Videos Brought in Local Customers | 13 Aug 2025 | 00:52:13 | |
In this episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, Erin Gorrie, founder of Muskoka Puppy Yoga, shares her inspiring journey from police officer to entrepreneur. Erin discusses how she built a thriving business with over 450 million video views and 170,000 followers across social media platforms. She also highlights how her passion for healing and the power of puppy yoga have transformed lives, including her own. Listen to her interview now to learn how Erin turned her love for puppies and yoga into a global wellness movement.
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Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google DROPS AI Overviews to Just 15% of Searches | 07 Jun 2024 | 01:03:28 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!
This week, like every week, Spencer and Jared dive deep into the latest news affecting SEOs, publishers, and entrepreneurs relating to Google, AI, and beyond.
The call kicked off with AI Overviews and a letter from Google's VP/Head of Search, Liz Reid, in response to pushback from the public about the crazy answers users have been finding. In the last few weeks, the amount of queries for which AI Overviews has appeared has dramatically dropped, and Spencer and Jared share a graph that shows the niches where it has the largest and smallest presence.
Moving along, they return to a popular topic of late: Google's API leak, confirmed by Google themselves.
Spencer and Jared share some of the latest and most interesting discoveries from the leak, like how YouTube comments are a ranking factor for YouTube, whether or not small personal sites are really being torched, and how baby Panda is not the HCU.
They also share tips on how to approach SEO going forward, such as author authority and a focus on short, original content vs. longer, regurgitated content.
If you want to hear their thoughts on what you should do differently in SEO, knowing what we now know, check out the episode!
Moving along to their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about a challenge he recently revealed where he's trying to drive traffic from a brand new Facebook page to his website to earn $1000 in just 30 days.
Listen to the episode to find out these details, and if you want to see the actual Facebook page, join the Niche Pursuits Community!
When it's Jared's turn, he teases the success he's having with his newsletter side hustle, but ultimately talks about Amazon Influencer. He reveals how many videos he's uploaded recently and how much he earned in May.
He also did some digging into a drop he experienced in his earnings and made a funny discovery. Check out the episode to hear what he discovered.
As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer reveals r74n, a site with lots of mini-games. He plays around with the most popular one and talks about monetization and the site's unique features.
He also reveals that it gets 180k organic visitors per month, and in some months over a million organic visitors.
When it's Jared's turn, he shares Green Screen Memes, the largest memes download website for green screen video templates. This DR27 site ranks for 6k keywords, gets some good branded traffic, and has done particularly well throughout all the updates.
He talks about how it works and how it would be relatively easy to set something like this up.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How to Build High PR Links That Work (in 2024) | 05 Jun 2024 | 01:05:43 | |
Chris Panteli takes us into the fast-paced world of linkbuilding in this interview packed with tons of actionable tips. Chris, who runs the agency Linkifi, is on the front lines and shares a wealth of knowledge that nobody looking to build a brand should miss.
In this interview, Chris brings us up to speed on everything new in the linkbuilding world and covers a range of topics, from new platforms and what journalists want to winning strategies for 2024 and beyond. Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google Lied! What the Google Search Leak REALLY Tells SEOs | 31 May 2024 | 01:05:23 | |
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared offer their interpretation of the most recent events in the SEO, content creation, and online marketing space.
It's been a big week with a massive leak coming out of Google, so get ready for a jam-packed episode where Spencer and Jared break it all down.
They kick things off by giving a bit of the backstory behind the leak and the scope of the leak before diving into the details of the leak.
That being said, what strategy does Spencer think could be useful for ranking going forward? And what do they think about Google's spokespeople?
If you want to hear their thoughts on Twiddlers, small personal sites, baby panda demotion, and site radius, and also catch Spencer's advice to Google, check out the full episode.
Moving along, Spencer talks about an experiment he's working on: a site where the traffic comes from Facebook and Reddit.
With 50k followers on his Facebook page and 11k visitors in a single day from Reddit, his site got 55k pageviews in the last month. He's currently with Ezoic but his goal is to get into Mediavine or Raptive, start earning $1k per month, and build on that.
When it's Jared's turn, he talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle and how he has had success creating videos about the products he uses when he stays at Airbnbs. Then he shares a fantastic hack for making those videos.
Moving onto some weird niche sites, Spencer shares Search Craigslist, a search engine for Craigslist. He shows how it works and shares a funny story about his own personal experience with this kind of site. This site gets over 100k visitors a month, a mix of direct and Search traffic.
Are there any other sites you could create a search engine for or make other websites easier to navigate? Why does Jared call this idea brilliant?
Jared then reveals his site, Tree.fm, which lets you enjoy the sounds of random forests and stunning photography. This DR50 site doesn't rank for a lot of content, obviously, but they do have a clever monetization strategy.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| I Indie Hacked a $1M/Yr. App Idea in a Weekend | 29 May 2024 | 00:44:23 | |
What does it take to build a million-dollar business? Just ask Dawson Botsford, the developer behind Earnifi.
Dawson is a crypto entrepreneur who leveraged a unique opportunity in the space and turned it into a highly profitable company. He built it in a day, started out with no following, and used some counterintuitive strategies to grow his audience.
In this fascinating interview, Dawson tells the story behind building his business, "an overnight success 10 years in the making." Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Will AI Overviews Crush Small Publishers? Google CEO Responds... | 24 May 2024 | 00:56:37 | |
Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared bring you the most important headlines in the SEO space.
Spencer wastes no time this week and dives headfirst into an important video published on The Verge.
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is interviewed by Nilay Patel, and he asks him some very direct, hard-hitting questions and comments, including ones about the future of niche sites.
He also asks him directly about Google using publishers' content for its AI answers and talks about the catastrophic loss of traffic for independent publishers.
He discusses two sites that Spencer and Jared have discussed on several occasions: Housefresh and Retrododo, and he asks him about the availability of data from AI Overviews in Google Search Console. Moving along, Spencer shares a supplemental article about Google's Ads VP being asked about the impact of AI Search on publishers.
And lastly, they discuss an article on the recent results from AI Overviews.
Moving on to their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer talks about an experiment he's conducting with one of his sites where he received 11k visitors from Reddit in a single day.
Neal.fun is full of absurd and entertaining games which have likely gone viral, and it's monetized with display ads.
When it's Jared's turn, he reveals Caffeine Informer, a DR73 site with 818 pages, a lot of helpful blog content, and organic traffic of 141k per month.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| The Most Consistent Way to Make Money on the Web | 22 May 2024 | 00:51:20 | |
Blair Williams is an experienced developer who has been in the membership site game for well over a decade, so he knows his way around the space.
Back in the day, he looked at existing membership plugins and was unimpressed, so he decided to scratch his own itch and create his own. He called it MemberPress.
As of today, his plugin has generated more than a billion dollars in revenue for his customers, of which there are thousands.
Over the years, he has built it up to become one of the best, most powerful membership plugins on the market.
Don't miss this interview with Blair as he shares many of ways to incorporate a membership component into your business, how to get started, and many other tips and tricks for adding an additional income stream. Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google Launches "AI Overviews" for All US Users | 17 May 2024 | 00:54:16 | |
Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared offer an overview of the week in news related to SEO, AI, and Google.
As is usually the case, this was a news-heavy week, especially in terms of AI.
They kicked the episode off by talking about Google's O/I event, where the company revealed everything it has been working on, much of it revolving around AI.
The biggest announcement was that SGE has now been renamed AI Overviews, which will be available to users in the US immediately.
What's the full impact of these AI Overviews? How often do they show up in search results? Does the change in name mean it's going to work differently?
AI was definitely the theme of the presentation, but how does Google's offer measure up with that of OpenAI?
Jared highlighted information about AI Overview as it relates to publishers and content creators. What interesting (and promising) data did he share?
And what happens if you don't want Google to use your information for its AI results? Why does Spencer call this a "frustrating state of affairs?" Is this really what users want?
And is anyone fighting for small, independent publishers?
Moving along, Spencer and Jared talk about their Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer talks about his experiment getting Reddit traffic.
He shares a bit of his strategy, talks about Reddit and RPMs, and his efforts to join Mediavine's Journey program.
When it's Jared's turn, he talks about growing his Facebook page, his current cost per like, his cost per lead, and his plans for video ads.
Moving along to the Weird Niche Site portion of the podcast, Spencer breaks all the rules (which is okay, because he also makes them) and reveals a weird YouTube channel, Tiny Cakes.
With more than 6 million subscribers, their videos are getting millions and millions of views. According to Social Blade, the site has received 960 million lifetime views, he and Jared talk about the thumbnails,
Jared shares the site Famous For A Day, which allows you to hire a paparazzi for the day. He talks about the packages available on the site, whether this is real or a prank, and how it might be used by people.
He also talks about the keywords it's ranking for and potential marketing techniques it's using.
And that concludes another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope you're feeling more informed about recent events in Google's sphere and feel inspired by the side hustles and weird sites and channels we covered.
See you next Friday! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| I Grew a SaaS Acquisition from $11k to $40k/mth in 14 Mths | 15 May 2024 | 00:55:46 | |
From working remotely while traveling around the world - to acquiring a business for 43% of its asking price and 4x'ing its revenue within a year, Mike Swigunski has a lot of cool insights on deal-making, delegation, pricing strategies, and more.
In short, Mike is an inspirational example of a remote worker turned entrepreneur. Drawing from his time working at Empire Flippers, Mike gained valuable insights into the intricacies of the acquisition process for a software business.
A key takeaway from Mike's experience is the importance of understanding seller motivations and using factual data to structure deals for effective negotiation.
The acquisition he gets into was structured to enable a quick return on investment.
Again, thanks to his experience brokering several big deals with Empire Flippers, he has a deep understanding of monetization opportunities in the online space.
Pricing psychology and benchmarking were crucial in the immediate aftermath of acquiring the business. As he outlines, he prioritized testing prices, optimizing the pricing page, optimizing customer service, and ensuring mobile-friendliness for enhanced user experience.
He also chose to add a free trial of the full suite of tools, remove a free basic plan, translate the site into multiple languages, and focus on improving its conversion rate optimization.
His success is also attributed to his focus on lean operations and strategic outsourcing for important tasks like code auditing.
And he stresses the importance of hiring the right talent, mastering delegation, honing managerial skills, and possessing marketing and sales expertise.
All of this helped the site go from $10k in monthly profit to nearly $40k per month at the time of recording—all within a period of approximately 14-15 months! Links & Resources
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google's Site Reputation Abuse Penalties Begin... | 10 May 2024 | 00:59:13 | |
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. The first news item they cover is Google's move to enforce site reputation abuse, also known as parasite SEO.
He also shares a tweet from Glen Allsopp with early insights into these measures.
In positive news, Spencer and Jared talk about a potential correction from the recent Google updates.
Still talking about Google, it looks like the company's market share has taken a dip, and Spencer shares some of the recent stats.
By how much did its share of the global market shrink in the last year?
Speaking of a declining market share, Google may see itself up against a new search engine, launched by OpenAI. Although it's not official, rumors suggest that it's in the works.
In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer shares an experiment he's doing with a small website trying to drive traffic from Reddit.
He talks briefly about some of the things he did to get that traffic and what he plans to do moving forward.
When it's Jared's turn, he talks briefly about his newsletter side hustle but goes into more detail on a YouTube side hustle he's working on.
One of his channels has seen a boost in traffic thanks to the Amazon Influencer videos he uploaded there; in fact, it now has reached the threshold for monetization.
As for Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with James Bond Lifestyle, a DR57 website that provides exhaustive information about all things James Bond—clothing, accessories, gadgets, etc.
According to Ahrefs, it gets 20k monthly organic visitors, and according to SimilarWeb, 200k. Spencer also takes a look at its keywords and its optimization opportunities and reveals if it was impacted by the HCU.
When it's Jared's turn, he reveals his weird site: This Is Why I'm Broke.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative
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| How Liz Wilcox from Survivor Makes $40k/Month With Email Marketing! | 08 May 2024 | 00:55:24 | |
Looking to grow your email list?
Liz Wilcox is here to help. She's worn many hats:
But above all - she's an email growth expert joining us with awesome tips and tricks to help you connect with your target audience and make good money doing it!
And she's an absolutely great example to learn from - she was featured as a Niche Pursuits' success story in 2023 (link below), making $20k per month, and has since "doubled that!" Email marketing helped revolutionize Liz Wilcox's business.
Over the years, she's scaled her email marketing efforts, refined her lead magnets, and boosted conversions.
During this process, she developed her innovative "email staircase method." This is a strategic approach to converting followers into friends by building authentic and lasting connections with subscribers and, ultimately - lasting customers.
Infusing personality and relatability into email content is crucial for fostering these connections with an audience.
She has lots of practical tips to help, like crafting effective welcome sequences and evaluating performance to enhance engagement and conversion rates.
This not only helps with connections and authenticity but also with finding your own niche.
She also discusses the importance of setting clear expectations, sharing values, and offering a mix of free and paid products in welcome sequences to nurture a loyal subscriber base.
Tripwire offers transparent communication and strategic sales placements within newsletters to help her nudge subscribers from passive to paid. And she prioritizes products that address the needs she's found interacting with her audience.
Check out the episode to learn all about the transformative effects of starting with a well-crafted welcome sequence, engaging newsletters, and more! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How Tim Leffel Gained 20,000 Subscribers on Substack | 06 Aug 2025 | 00:58:21 | |
In this interview with Tim Leffel, a seasoned travel content creator and author, we dive into how he built a successful travel business spanning multiple websites, a popular Substack newsletter with over 20,000 subscribers, and several published books. Tim shares valuable insights on growing an audience, navigating SEO changes, and monetizing through newsletters and affiliate marketing. He also discusses how he maintains a flexible, nomadic lifestyle while managing multiple income streams. Tune in to learn from his extensive experience and discover strategies that can help you grow your own online business.
** Podcast Sponsor - Jolly SEO - Jolly SEO is offering an exclusive Buy 1, Get 1 Free deal to try their expert outreach service. Boost your credibility with genuine, high-quality SOS mentions. Don't miss out—claim your Buy 1, Get 1 Free offer today!
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google March Core Update Complete: Here's the Winners and Losers | 03 May 2024 | 01:03:11 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!
This week Spencer and Jared cover all the latest happenings in the SEO and content creation space and share their opinions and insight. Then they share some very interesting and inspiring side hustles they're working on, and they wrap things up with some weird niche sites.
They jump into things with the news that Google's March Update is finally complete!
It finished rolling out on April 19th, and Spencer and Jared discuss the update in general, how long it took, and why its conclusion might not have been announced by Google until later.
They talk about Google's original ambitions with regard to the update and the feedback form they created as well as the site reputation abuse update that's going to get underway.
They also discuss why nobody has recovered from the Helpful Content Update, whether Google even knows how someone might recover, and what this all means.
They move on to discuss the winners and losers from the March 2023 Core and Spam Updates, looking at different types of traffic losses and naming some surprising sites on the list as well as looking at some of the winners.
Of course, Amazon, Reddit, and YouTube come up, as do dictionary sites, Etsy, and Quora.
Moving on, they share an article on HouseFresh about how it no longer appears in Google Search and how Google is killing independent review websites.
They show the article's graph, which reflects a giant 91% decline in traffic, and discuss interesting topics it covers, such as the rise of Forbes in Search and keyword swarming.
Spencer and Jared then share a public plea from Marie Haynes for Google to help publishers hit by the update.
Why is this unusual? How does Jared summarize the situation?
As for their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer talks briefly about his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle.
He shares his earnings for the last 30 days and talks about his future plans for it. Although this project provides passive income, Spencer actually gave a highly detailed presentation as part of his Niche Pursuits Community program where he talked about all the work that went into the side hustle in the beginning.
Jared then goes on to talk about his Amazon Influencer side hustle, talking about the new videos he's uploaded in 2024 and his total earnings for March and April.
How did he do? How do his stats measure up to Spencer's?
He also talks about his most recent newsletters side hustle, which of the 2 is getting the most traction, his Facebook page lead generation strategy, and his current number of email subscribers.
Tune in to hear more about his strategy.
As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Secret Fan Base, which takes a closer look at the story and clothes from well-known brand Banana Republic.
As the clothes are now more mainstream and mass produced, the site covers its original safari style and is created by a group of original fans.
Although it doesn't get a ton of traffic, the site has a unique story and is a true labor of love.
Jared shares his site, Passport Waiting Time, and shares some of the site's interesting aspects, like a forum. This DR27 site is ranking for 2k keywords and gets 3k in organic search traffic per month.
They discuss potential strategies the site could use, its current monetization, and why they think the site wasn't impacted by Google's updates.
That concludes another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.
We hope you learned about the latest events in the space and that you're feeling inspired by the conversation.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| I Survived the Google Updates Using Authority Stacking | 01 May 2024 | 00:54:00 | |
Today, we're being joined by Brian Winum, a long-time digital marketer who started affiliate marketing in the late '90s...
He runs a marketing agency in New York and specializes in building websites as sustainable and valuable business assets - specifically focusing on securing Google News approval and executing effective monetization strategies.
And he's got a lot of tips on the topic and others that may interest you, including:
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| Meet the Man Killing Google Search... | 26 Apr 2024 | 01:07:54 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Are you ready to hear the latest news affecting Google, SEO, AI, and web publishers?
As always, Spencer and Jared will break everything down into digestible pieces and share their thoughts, concerns, and predictions.
They kick things off diving straight into a particularly spicy topic: who's killing Google Search.
They maintain that it's an inside job, and talk about the news that came out this week about an internal meeting at Google regarding the division's "new operating reality" and the decline in search queries and engagement.
Word on the street is that the man who heads the Search team is the man who killed Google Search.
Spencer and Jared talk about this possibility as well as a little bit about the history of Search, the results of updates over the years, why results have gotten worse over time, how ads have been redesigned, and how Google is trying to squeeze more money out of Search results.
What incredible irony does Jared point out? What's Spence's takeaway for bloggers? Is Google going to implode?
Spencer and Jared then move on to a related topic: how product recommendations have broken Google. They reference the Housefresh debacle from a few weeks ago, and talk about how the search for products has changed over time.
How do we know if the reviews are honest, or if they're sponsored, or if they're authentic? And what does the future hold for product reviews?
The last article they discuss is how Google has become defensive when it comes to its Search quality and forum results.
Experts are pointing out that the results being delivered by Google on Reddit offer very poor and misguided advice, especially when it comes to health queries.
How has Danny Sullivan responded? Why do Spencer and Jared talk about the difference between "trust" and "like?"
Moving on to their Side Hustle Shenanigans, Spencer talks about his Amazon Influencer videos going live on YouTube. Before his channel got shut down, he was getting between 100 and 200 views per day, peaking one day at 250.
Now his biggest day has been 11 views. He and Jared talk about why this may be as well as his process for getting his videos live on YouTube.
What program does he recommend using to automate the process?
Jared then talks briefly about his Alt G Conference, which was held just a few days earlier, and he shares some interesting stats and stories from that online event.
When it's his turn, he talks about his email newsletter side hustle.
He recently launched a second email newsletter using content from one of his sites that was crushed by the HCU. He goes through many of the steps he took to get the project off the ground, so tune in for some great ideas!
When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, Spencer shares his, which is Brick Economy, on the economics of Legos.
The site offers the current value on lots of Lego sets as well as annual growth of certain themed Legos, and the ability to track the prices of your own Legos. It's monetized with affiliate links and display ads, and according to SimilarWeb, it's getting over a million visitors per month.
When it's Jared's turn, he shares his site, Tractor Data, which is a small, family-run business that has been tracking data on tractors for the last 20 years. This DR61 site includes a news section and a directory and gets almost 400k pageviews a month, according to Ahrefs.
What keywords is it ranking for? Does it rank first for any terms? Is it making any money? And what kind of potential does Jared see in the site?
As both of these sites are doing well in Google, what can we learn from them and their strategies?
And that brings us to the end of another informative and inspiring episode. See you next Friday! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How Ben Rojas Grew an SEO WordPress Plugin to 3,000,000 Users | 24 Apr 2024 | 00:51:23 | |
What better way to respond to a time of uncertainty and transition than to share a true success story of change. Joining the podcast is a truly hopeful example of growth and evolution. Ben started off as an IT and web development guy and now runs of the SEO plugin All-In-One-SEO (AIOSEO) since it was acquired in 2020. Over these years, both he and the plugin have experienced massive change and transformation to be in the positions they are today. And we're gonna learn some of the key takeaways of how this was possible. Links & Resources AIOSEO - The World's Best All-in-one SEO Plugin for WordPress: https://www.nichepursuits.com/aioseo Benjamin Rojas | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminprojas/ Benjamin Rojas (@benjaminprojas): https://twitter.com/benjaminprojas Use coupon code "podcast" to get $15 off Link Whisper to build smarter internal links fast: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative This Episode is Sponsored by Search Intelligence - https://search-intelligence.co.uk/
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| The Verge Trolls Google...Again! | 19 Apr 2024 | 01:05:53 | |
Welcome back to a new episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast!
Jared and Spencer, as always, offer an insightful take on the latest happenings with SEO, publishers, Google, and AI, and give a peek behind the curtain at their latest projects. Stick around for a laugh when they reveal the weird niche sites they found.
The first order of business is to mention that the March Core Update has still not finished rolling out and Spencer and Jared decline to guess when that might be.
Moving along, they jump into the first big news item: The Verge trolling Google, once again.The Verge published a new article for 2024 "reviewing printers," when in reality the article is just mocking Google for how they rank articles.
Did The Verge actually test the printers? What outbound links did they include? What did John Mueller have to say about it?
And most importantly, how's the article ranking? Find out the amusing, and depressing, story behind this news item.
Moving along to another article in The Verge, Spencer and Jared talk about how Google is experimenting with a small subset of news publishers, removing their links from Google News. It's doing this because California is thinking about forcing Google to pay its news publishers.
What are the implications for publishers? Is there any precedent in these types of situations? What happened in Australia? And will Google extend this to other areas?
In other Google news, the company is launching a new ad product whereby ads appear inside your content, as hyperlinked text, which takes users to advertisers' products. This is optional for publishers within Google AdSense.
What does Spencer think? Would he enable this on his own websites? What scenarios does Jared share where this might work? Tune in to find out.
The latest news item is that Brave Search has released an Answer with AI feature.
What do Spencer and Jared think of it and its impact? What does it remind them of?
Moving along to the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle and his decision to publish those shopping videos on YouTube.
Incredibly, his channel disappeared! What happened? How did it turn out and what's happening now?
When it's Jared's turn, he announces a new side hustle: an email newsletter. He talks about how he plans to build it, why he decided to dive into this project, and his experience in this area.
When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, Spencer reveals Pets or Food, a very entertaining tongue-in-cheek website that does get some traffic, according to Ahrefs. It doesn't have a lot of ads but it does have merch, which may be a source of revenue.
Jared then reveals Line Rusher, which allows people to hire someone to wait in line for them at places like the DMV, Apple, and at restaurants and amusement parks.
They offer some interesting services and are constantly hiring line sitters, which may be an interesting option in the current gig economy.
What do the stats in Ahrefs reveal? What spin would Jared put on this service?
And that brings us to the end of another episode! We hope you learned from the latest headlines in the space, felt inspired by our side hustle projects, and got ideas from this week's weird niche sites.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative
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| How This "Gear Nerd" Grew an 8-Figure Media Brand | 17 Apr 2024 | 00:49:20 | |
Stephen Regenold is a true digital media success story.
Around 2010, when print media was starting to really feel the effects of the Internet, he decided to start his own outdoor blog.
Early in his online journey, Steven made wise decisions in the site's revenue model for direct ad sales, affiliate commerce, and SEO strategies.
These, combined with some viral luck when a term they helped coin was being considered for the Oxford Dictionary, helped the brand become a massive success.
(He also touches on how video content, from shorts to documentaries, played a crucial role in their strategy.)
Gear Junkie's achievements led to multi-million dollar revenue and partnerships with major brands, positioning the site and its editors as an influencer proposition. They engaged audiences through influencers like YouTubers and Instagram personalities, along with their SEO success.
In 2018, acquisition offers started pouring in, and Gear Junkie eventually sold to Lola Digital in 2020. Post-acquisition, the company rebranded as All Gear Digital, raising $40 million, making eight additional acquisitions, growing into an outdoor media conglomerate, and bringing back Stephen to help them grow.
This was well-timed as the outdoor industry saw surprising growth during the pandemic, with a surge of interest in outdoor activities and gear.
Stephen discusses how All Gear Digital's brands are doing today, providing numbers and sharing strategies for adding value to conversations and maintaining a unique voice in a competitive space. As a result of all this, you won't believe how long their dwell time on site is. Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google CEO Predicts the Future of Search | 12 Apr 2024 | 01:03:37 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!
Come join Spencer and Jared as they take on the latest news in SEO, AI, Google, and beyond.
This week's episode kicks off with some big news from Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, who talks about the future of Search.
The main pivot he focuses on in the interview is the shift to AI, which he expects to serve the company well over the coming decade. He notes that AI has been working behind the scenes for a long time now and that Google has to evolve to meet the changing needs of users.
What does he say about chatbots? And what does he say about websites? Are they going away and is SGE going to take over? Tune in to hear what Spencer and Jared think about his comments.
Moving along, they talk about a LinkedIn post from Lily Ray on the SEO visibility growth of Reddit and the mindblowing statistics she shares.
What theory does she share that Spencer doesn't agree with? How does this all play into Google's antitrust lawsuit, problems with Gemini, and its declining share price?
And what about Reddit's poor-quality results in Search? Listen to the episode to hear the ridiculous Reddit response to a weight loss query.
Spencer then shares a tweet from a series by Glenn Gabe on the March Core Update, talking about whether the update has finished or not, the role played by the HCU, and the lack of recoveries from these updates.
What did John Mueller say about the core update? What do Spencer and Jared think about the updates and when they'll finish? Check out the episode to find out.
The last topic is that Bing usage is on the rise, having gained some footing recently, and Spencer and Jared note from the article that Bing actually powers several other search engines, including DuckDuckGo and Yahoo.
What do they recommend when it comes to optimization? Who uses Bing and why does it matter? What's happening with desktop search?
As for their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer highlights two of his side hustles, the Amazon Influencer Program and his Facebook traffic project, neither of which rely on search engine traffic at all.
Jared then announces the Alt G Online Conference: Unleash Your Content's Potential Beyond Google, which will bring together people earning money on alternative platforms. It will be held on April 25th, and both Spencer and Jared will be speakers.
In line with the conference, the Niche Pursuits Community is welcoming a series of expert speakers each week who are also talking about using alternative traffic sources.
Jared talks briefly about his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle and then teases a new side hustle he's about to launch. Come back next week for all the details!
As for the Weird Niche Sites, Spencer reveals iScrap App, which reports local scrap prices. They've got a blog and a directory and they're doing well in search: 300k visitors per month according to SimilarWeb.
They monetize with display ads, they have a store, they sell directory space to scrapyards, and the owner probably has a nice little side hustle with this weird niche site.
When it's Jared's turn, he reveals Live Oasis, which lets you research the toxicity of many water brands and rates the water quality in different municipalities. It has a subscription model, which provides access to more information and research, but is it earning money?
Beyond that, this brand-new website is doing quite well and ranking for lots of keywords. What does Jared discover when he digs into the backstory? And where is all of the data coming from? And what if they were to change the model a bit? Hear Jared and Spencer's recommendations.
We hope this episode helped bring you up to speed on the latest happenings in the SEO and content creation space and gave you some new ideas when it comes to your own businesses.
See you next week!
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Meet the Flipboard Master that Gets 1 Million Views a Month | 10 Apr 2024 | 01:01:45 | |
Michael Dinich has had tremendous success with Flipboard as a traffic source for his site Wealth of Geeks.
Thanks to this focus, he gets about one-third of his traffic from the platform and avoids much of the pain and stress felt about Google updates.
Flipboard is described as a less time-consuming Pinterest and offers a broad approach suitable for diverse industries beyond strictly visual-centric ones.
It's platform that caters to a diverse demographic, slightly leaning towards males, and supports a wide range of niches such as finance, muscle cars, and video games.
And he's got tips on how we can follow in his footsteps.
For starters, he emphasizes the importance of participating in the community, and optimizing content for the platform. Things like:
Success on Flipboard hinges on strong headlines, engaging images, and community interaction to drive high-quality traffic and engagement rates.
And strategies like cloning posts with seasonal variations and maintaining SEO titles on website URLs can enhance visibility.
He also suggests following influencers, and adding a Flipboard button to your website are recommended for growth. And highlights how consistent effort and experimentation are key to seeing significant gains on Flipboard, with the process taking around six months.
He gets quite a bit deeper into the specifics though and if you're in the market for a new traffic source you won't want to miss this one! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| Google Considers Charging for AI Search (Search Generative Experience) | 05 Apr 2024 | 01:12:09 | |
Welcome to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! This week's news podcast is brought to you by Jared Bauman and Thomas Smith, who's filling in for Spencer.
As always, they're bringing you all of the latest news related to SEO, Google, and AI, along with their analyses. Stay until the end to hear about their side hustles and weird niche sites!
The first item up for discussion is the fact that Google is thinking about charging for its AI-powered features, such as the Search Generative Experience (SGE).
Jared and Thomas talk about SGE and the reasons why Google may consider this path, and if they do go ahead with it, what it might look like. They also discuss a Tweet from Glenn Gabe, sharing his predictions about where this is headed.
Moving along, they discuss how Google's search engine market share has declined by around 2%, which may not sound like very much, but it is, and it most likely has Google worried. It looks like Bing's market share is growing, and Jared and Thomas talk about potentially optimizing for the platform.
The conversation then shifts to Microsoft Start, which is Microsoft's version of Discover, and its recently-announced and very interesting AI policy. Thomas shares his experience using Microsoft Start and his interpretation of their stance on AI. What do he and Jared think about this policy? And how is it different, or similar, to Google's?
Moving to a lighter topic, Thomas talks about a musician named Matt Farley, who essentially mined Spotify for keywords and created songs around them. Today he's earning $200k a year. Tune in to hear his excellent advice around this story as well as the stats behind Matt's "business."
When it comes to Shiny Object Shenanigans, Jared starts by talking about his Amazon Influencer side hustle. In March, his earnings totalled almost $4k and, inspired by this progress, he uploaded another 66 videos. He shares some of his stats and talks about how passive this business model really is.
Thomas shares his Medium side hustle, explaining how the platform works, its stance on AI, and how he makes money from it. Last year he was earning $500 or $600 per month from it, and last month he made $3k.
Listen to hear him explain his thoughts on that growth and what Medium is doing right.
He also recently started an Etsy store for fun? Find out what he's selling!
As for Weird Niche Sites, Jared shares his first: MeetWays, which helps you find a spot in the middle when you're meeting up with someone. This DR34 site has seen its traffic grow from 15k last year to 30k this year and ranks for 188k keywords.
They talk about how the site is monetized, how it was potentially built, and whether or not it's helpful.
Thomas shares the site Antipodes Map, which lets you see what's on the exact opposite side of you on the earth.
He plays around with some locations to show how it works, and then shares the stats: DR52, 4k organic search traffic according to Ahrefs, and 113k searches per month according to SimilarWeb.
Is it monetized or is it a passion project? Listen to find out!
That brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! We hope you enjoyed this episode with Jared and Thomas and feel informed and inspired in your own business projects.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative
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| "I Make Money Online Selling Dude Ranch Vacations" | 03 Apr 2024 | 01:06:16 | |
Want to escape the 9 to 5 rat race but struggle to come up with good business ideas?
This episode is for you.
Peter Askew got into the internet business working for .com startups in the late 90s. Due to a series of bad experiences though, he was pretty much forced into entrepreneurship (his words). Thanks to this, over time, he developed an awesome ability to create opportunities by acquiring strategic aged domains.
This is what he dives into today which you don't want to miss! Peter's strategy is really cool and the interview covers a lot of interesting stories and insights from his journey.
It all started when he acquired the domain duderanch.com, which became the cornerstone of his success.
And while growing it - he learned a lot of lessons about diving into a niche that have continued to help him in all sorts of ways. He talks about attending industry conferences and fostering relationships with ranch owners. And how these real-world relationships translate to online business growth.
Over time, Peter continued to grow his site's directory-style business by improving rankings and revenue. And he discusses some key insights from various metrics, regarding his site's design, imagery, and brand reputation.
It hasn't been all successes though.
He also shares how important the niche is for success with this model - highlighting the expensive lessons he learned after acquiring 'birthdayparties.com'.
Peter also discusses the growth of his job board in the ranching industry, and his DTC onion project.
These are projects that highlight his ability to compete with comparatively massive companies thanks to his domain strategy.
Overall his story is really inspirational. And one that highlights the sometimes overlooked techniques that can be used to grow nearly any business. And is an episode that is absolutely worth watching.
Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| How Russ Morgan Built $50,000/Month in Passive Income | 30 Jul 2025 | 00:49:06 | |
In this episode, Russ Morgan from Wealth Without Wall Street shares how he built over $50,000 a month in passive income by applying his proven frameworks. We dive into Investor DNA, the Passive Income Operating System, and how to avoid the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make with their money. Whether you're scaling an online business or preparing for an exit, Russ explains how to turn your hard-earned income into true financial freedom.
Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| These Goliath SEO Sites are Seeing MASSIVE Growth | 29 Mar 2024 | 01:07:37 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared break down the most recent news in SEO, AI, and content creation into smaller, digestible pieces.
Let's get started!
Spencer first digs into Glen Allsopp's recent report on almost 50 companies' SEO performance, sharing some of his research for companies like NextDoor and Chegg, which are publishing massive amounts of AI-generated content and answering questions with AI, respectively, with a lot of success.
On the flip side, they share how many large content sites are also seeing a decline in traffic following the updates, just like smaller sites are experiencing.
They talk about the lessons we can draw from who's really winning in affiliate marketing these days, the Asia-focused version of websites that are killing it, and more, but you'll have to tune in to hear what they think.
Moving on, they talk about how Google has offered advice to those people affected by the HCU.
What kinds of things are people doing to show Google they're legit, and should they keep doing it? What does Danny Sullivan say? Were the penalties delivered really at page level or site level, and why do people think Google's response to this was contradictory?
The next article they address is from Glen Gabe, featuring hundreds of websites that Wikipedia has deemed as reliable or not, and what we can take away from this information as website owners and content creators.
What popular sites did they find on the list and what was surprising about their standing? Listen to the episode to find out!
Moving along to their Shiney Object Shenanigans, first Spencer talks about growing his Facebook page, which currently has around 60k followers.
Is he able to achieve his goal, which is to drive traffic from the page to his website? He shares the stats, as well as a unique strategy he's using that is starting to bear fruit, albeit just a little. He's still in the weeds with this one, so stay tuned to hear how it evolves.
When it's Jared's turn, he talks about a new experiment to grow 2 TikTok channels, one in the fashion niche and the other in the travel niche.
How did they do? How did he promote them? And what can we learn from this? And what does it have to do with the Amazon Influencer program?
Moving into the Weird Niche Site portion of the podcast, Spencer goes first with 1920s Fashion and Music, which dives into the 1920s celebrity fashion industry.
What's especially surprising about this site is that it got a traffic bump from the HCU and has been doing better ever since. Spencer shares the site's very interesting and inspiring backstory. What can we learn from this?
When it's Jared's turn, he shares Box Cycle, a platform for buying and selling used boxes. It has a Craigslist-esque look to it, but is it ranking at all? How popular is it? And how is it performing? It's a DR40 site with several number 1 rankings, but is this an actual niche? Listen to the full episode to find out!
This brings us to the end of another great episode full of information and inspiration. See you next Friday for more of the same! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||
| "Google Will Find Your AI Content" Here's What to Do Now… | 27 Mar 2024 | 00:53:40 | |
Originality.ai founder Jon Gillham joins the podcast to help online publishers better understand the dynamic world of AI and SEO! Learn more at: https://www.originality.ai Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative The episode covers a range of topics, including:
List of Resources:
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| The Google Spam Update Just Finished: Here's the Winners and Losers | 22 Mar 2024 | 01:02:35 | |
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared talk about the biggest news over the last week in Google, SEO, and AI.
They also give an update on some of their side hustles and top it all off with some very weird and entertaining niche sites.
They kick off this week's call by announcing big news: Google has just finished rolling out the spam update, although the core update will continue to be rolled out for another two weeks.
The spam update targeted three types of abuse: scaled content, expired domain, and site reputation (also known as parasite SEO), though the latter will technically be targeted in May.
They share a tweet from Lily Ray, where she details the winners and losers from the update, and then Spencer looks at a handful of their data in Ahrefs.
If you take a closer look at the "winners," you can see examples of sites that are crushing it and do your own deep-dive analysis. They also look at sites that were absolutely crushed in the update, as we can learn from both.
Listen to the full episode to see their analysis and which sites are doing well and poorly.
Moving along, the next news item is that Google is shaking things up a bit internally, replacing the Head of Search, among other roles.
What do Spencer and Jared make of this? And what does the new head, Liz Reid, talk about primarily in her announcement? What does she see as the future of search? And what's motivating these changes at Google? Tune in to hear what they think!
During the Side Hustle Shenanigans segment of the podcast, Spencer goes first and talks about his Amazon Influencer business. He reveals his current earnings and reports that his earnings have become almost entirely passive since he hasn't really uploaded videos since December.
Jared just finished his call with the Niche Pursuits Community, where he talks in detail about his business and how he's grown it. Spencer did a call the previous week where he shared all the details behind his Amazon Influencer business as well.
If you want to see those videos and enjoy many other aspects of the Community, you can join right here!
When it's Jared's turn, he talks about deleting 18% of the subscribers to his Weekend Growth newsletter. He shares the process for culling the list and trying to re-engage with disinterested subscribers, and the resulting open rate after the process.
Spencer then shares his process for managing the people on his list who are disengaged. Which approach resonates the most with you? Check out the episode to hear how their strategies differ.
When it's time to talk about Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Ling's Cars. From the psychedelic background to Ling's bobbing head, the site definitely leans into its weirdness.
The owner also uses some unique real-life marketing strategies but doesn't have a very strong SEO game. Most of its traffic is direct or comes from social media, reaching 84k visitors last month.
When it's Jared's turn, he shares the personal website, Tyler Vigen. The section that has gone viral is called Spurious Correlations, where he shows correlations between two completely random things, like Amazon's stock price and the popularity of the name Stevie.
There's a very entertaining AI component to this DR74 site, although it's not ranking for a lot of keywords or getting much traffic, and the owner is not monetizing in any way.
And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared break down the latest important news in the sector and seek to motivate listeners with their side hustles.
See you next Friday! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative | |||