The Side Hustle Show: The Blogging Mixtape – Details, episodes & analysis

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

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

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

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

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

Nope.

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

1. He likes a challenge, and
2. If the niche is that competitive, most of his competition is already at the top, leaving room for him to work his way up.

That was 2 years ago.

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

Note: Click here to download Sa's top tips for starting and growing an affiliate site in a competitive niche from this episode.

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

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

Kimberly Gauthier has been running KeepTheTailWagging.com since 2011, but things really started to take off when she niched down her focus to raw feeding for dogs.

Raw feeding is basically the paleo diet for dogs -- attempting to mimic their ancestral diet.

Her blog had than 2 million page views last year -- almost entirely from organic search in Google, and she's monetized the traffic with a few different income streams.

Tune in to hear how Kimberly arrived at his niche, what drives content and marketing today, and how the business makes money -- all on the side from her day job.

Ben Foley started writing about how to use mindfulness to reduce stress and anxiety at FullyRichLife.com a little over 6 months ago.

Since then, his little side project has generated over 6000 email subscribers and $10,000 in revenue.

His secret sauce?

Tapping into the big audience of readers on Medium.com.

Note: Click here to download Ben's tips for getting your content in front of huge audiences and building your email list.

Having overcome stress and anxiety issues himself, he knew this was a niche he could enter and help others. And, with a different approach to using mindfulness in the modern world to help reduce stress working for him, he knew he had a unique angle to blog about.

Before starting his site in December last year Ben had never even written a blog post. However, after finding a passion for writing and encouraged by positive feedback, he "tripled down" on content and started getting huge exposure almost right away -- something new sites often struggle with.

Related: My free video series on how to start a blog.

Tune in to hear how you can use Medium to growth hack your new or existing site, and how Ben is turning those readers into subscribers and revenue.

Perrin Carrell is a senior contributing editor at AuthorityHacker and well-known within the internet marketing community for building niche/authority sites.

He has built several successful sites from scratch, including one recent project that went from a valuation of $0 to $200,000 in just under 20 months.

Note: Click here to download Perrin's tips for starting an authority site and getting started in affiliate marketing.

Perrin started learning about internet marketing and SEO while working a day job at a global communications consulting firm. Desperate to escape the day job and turn his side hustle into a full-time business he started building sites and learning from his failures along the way.

He now has the blueprint nailed for building profitable sites with several different income streams.

From planning the site structure, ordering content, carrying out keyword research, to link-building, Perrin shares exactly how he builds his sites in this episode.

Nagina Abdullah turned her weight loss blog, MasalaBody.com, into a 6-figure side business. By day, she works for a large consulting company, and with a busy work schedule, a young family, and limited time to work on her side hustle, Nagina has been very smart about her marketing and pricing.

Note: Click here to download Nagina's sales funnel and high-end coaching tips from this episode.

After struggling with her weight for all of her adult life, she finally hit on something that worked and dropped 40 pounds! With friends, colleagues, and neighbors asking how she did it, she started her blog to share recipes and tips.

But she soon discovered that people didn't want recipes; they wanted to lose weight! Quickly, Nagina adapted and used her own success story as a catalyst to begin helping other women make some serious lifestyle changes.

Her sales funnel process is applicable across a broad range of industries and business models, and I think you'll find a way to put some of her tactics and strategies into practice for your own hustle.

Erin Chase is a busy mother of 4, a former teacher, and today runs 5DollarDinners.com and the 5dollarmealplan.

Back in 2008, after some number crunching, Erin was excited at saving 50% on her grocery bills. She shared how she did this on her family blog, but with a low amount of interest she decided to start her own blog to help others make savings on their own grocery bills.

You may have heard the saying, "there's no such thing as a free lunch" – well there is such a thing as free meal plans. Erin carried on publishing free meal plans and tips how to feed your family on a budget and her viewership kept growing.

Note: Click here to download Erin's top blog monetization tips from this episode.

In this episode, you will hear how Erin capitalized on the momentum of viral social media posts to set up paywalls and start generating more income. You'll learn how she transitioned from ad networks and affiliate income to selling directly to her audience, and how she set up membership programs for recurring revenue.

Today, her online empire brings in a healthy 5-figure monthly income.

Related: Want to start a blog of your own? Check out my free guide on how to start your blog.

As co-host of the #1 marriage podcast in iTunes, the ONE Extraordinary Marriage show, Tony DiLorenzo speaks to a worldwide audience about sex, love, and commitment. Along with his wife Alisa, their goal is to reach as many couples around the world as they can, equipping them with the tools and strategies they need to create an extraordinary marriage.

With a hugely popular blog and podcast, Tony is a little modest in saying, "that's consistency over 7 years." Tony and Alisa sell coaching services, their own products, promote affiliate products, and have sponsorships as some of their income streams. Over the last 7 years they have come a long way with their brand from a side hustle hobby to a full-time business.

Note: Click here to download Tony's top content to cash flow tips from this episode.

Want to start an online business of your own? It starts with a website, and my free 6-part video series walks you through how to set it up without breaking the bank.

Tune in to hear Tony taking me through the steps he took to build up his podcast to over 150k downloads a month, the tools and techniques he uses to drive traffic to his lead magnets, how he has a tiered upsell funnel, and how he and his wife have built up profitable and diverse income streams.

You may remember Rosemarie Groner from episode 142 of the Side Hustle Show last year. She revealed how her blog Busy Budgeter was just a year old and receiving around 400,000 pageviews and making around $5k a month — primarily through Pinterest traffic.

It's almost a year later now and I had to have her back to see how things were progressing. Rosemarie is now regularly making more than $20k a month, and while her pageviews are still at a similar number she has improved her ROI and diversified her traffic and income sources.

Note: Click here to download Rosemarie's top traffic and monetization tips from this episode.

Rosemarie is still getting a ton of traffic from Pinterest and explains how she has moved with the changes on the platform to maintain her numbers. She also talks about how she has started focusing on SEO, has built different email lists to sell different products to, and why calculating the ROI on a project should be one of your first considerations.

Her first appearance on episode 142 was one of the most popular shows of last year and I expect this episode to be just as popular. It's packed with actionable tips and information you can use to increase your own traffic numbers and earnings, along with some of the new tips and tricks Rosemarie has implemented in the last year.

Related: Want to start a blog of your own? Check out my free step-by-step tutorial series on how you can get up and running in no time.

Before people can do business with you, they have to know about you, and before they know about you, they have to find you.

And that's universal, whether you're running a brick-and-mortar shop, an ecommerce store, a blog, or a virtual consulting business.

Neil Patel is a master at solving the first step in that equation: getting people to find you. Through SEO, content marketing, and social media, we go through the traffic generation tactics that are working today.

Note: Click here to download Neil's top traffic hacks.

Neil runs a handful of online projects, including NeilPatel.com, QuickSprout.com, and the heatmap software tool CrazyEgg.com. His latest project is a book called HUSTLE (a title I can definitely get behind), due out in September and all about how you can (and must) make your own luck in an economy rigged against you.

This episode is all about how new and experienced content creators can get more visitors to their work.

Don't have a blog yet? My free blogging course shows you step-by-step how to get started.

We first heard from Robert Farrington back in 2013, on episode 10 of The Side Hustle Show. At that time, he was earning $3-4k a month from a portfolio of different sites, and looking to expand his online empire.

This week, we catch up on what's changed since then. Robert's doubled down on his main site, TheCollegeInvestor.com, narrowed his focus, and roughly tripled his earnings.

Oh, and he's still working full-time too.

We chat content, traffic, and monetization strategies, as well as how he manages the business in his spare time.

Note: Click here to download Robert's top part-time blogging tips.

I think you'll like it!

If you don't have a blog of your own yet, use my free 6-part video course to get started today.