Want a great story filled with practical insights from someone who successfully jumped into online business without any prior experience?

Will I.O. joins the Niche Pursuits podcast this week to share with host Jared how he transitioned from teacher to full-time site owner.

It all started with a teacher training program he started growing prior to 2020. He started the side hustle because it was about something he knew well. But then Covid hit and he was forced to pivot and move his business online.

This was all new to him but with the help of Project 24 he managed to get started and building momentum.

Soon he was building his site and email list to sell info products and teacher training courses.

His email marketing strategies were crucial for this. Will even says that 50% of his revenue came from his email list.

And the email strategies he shares are very practical for any niche.

Eventually, he sold that site for over $100,000 and used the profits to start buying and selling more sites.

He now has a portfolio of five websites but primarily focuses on three.

His strategies are working though as he recently enjoyed a successful flip after buying an outdoors site for $5k, improving it, and selling it for $82,000.

Some of the best tips he shares is how and where he finds sites to buy.

He emphasizes the importance of backlinks and domain authority when evaluating sites for sale. He looks for low-hanging fruit opportunities, such as improving ad revenue and utilizing underutilized email lists. And he prefers niches that are less competitive and seeks out sites with steady or increasing traffic.

When it comes to content production, he emphasizes the importance of keyword research and creating tightly clustered content around successful topics. Will also mentions using AI tools like ChatGPT for content creation, but heavily edits the output to make it sound more human.

He plans to continue buying, building, and flipping websites while maintaining a measured approach to minimize risk and ensure profitability.

Overall it's a great success story. And it's interesting to hear how a relatively new site owner is finding success with. strategic approach to growing a profitable portfolio.

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter

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Spencer is back this week so everyone’s favorite duo is together again for the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. As always, he and Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative, bring listeners up to speed on the latest in SEO and digital marketing news.

Spencer begins by sharing that Google has announced a brand new broad core update, the biggest kind of update Google does. It kicked off on August 22nd and usually takes about 2 weeks to complete. It’s too early to say how it’s going to pan out, so keep an eye on your rankings!

The next news item they cover is the article in The Verge reporting that The New York Times has blocked OpenAI’s web crawler. But not only has this huge news media outlet rejected OpenAI crawling its site and training its models for ChatGPT, it’s also considering legal action against OpenAI for intellectual property rights violation. 

Spencer and Jared talk about the implications of this decision and what this may mean for content creators. Spencer shares a study whch shows that 9.2% of the top 1,000 websites in the world are currently blocking the GPT bot. They talk about what this means for Google and, potentially, the future of AI.

The conversation then shifts to SGE. Spencer shows his search page results, where the information now has down arrowhead symbols next to it, allowing users to access the sources for additional information. Is this good news or bad news for content creators? Hear what they have to say.

Jared and Spencer then move on to talk about their Shiney Object Shenanigans. Spencer kicks it off by talking about the latest news with his WordPress plugin Rank Logic and some new features he’s adding, which should be ready in about 2 months’ time. These include a Google Analytics 4 integration and the ability to update your content using AI.

It’s Jared’s turn, and he talks about his Faceless YouTube channel, for which he now has over 5k subscribers, unlocking some monetization features, but not all of them. He also talks about the Amazon Influencer Program and how Amazon is offering bonuses to influencers who create product comparison videos. Jared and Spencer share their thoughts on the program, a tip or two, and where they think it’s headed in the future.

In the Weird Niche Site portion of the podcast, Jared starts by talking about the site Always Judge a Book By Its Cover, which covers books that are “confusing.” The DA30 site is monetized with display ads and affiliate links but doesn’t rank for many relevant keywords, and probably isn’t making too much money. That being said, it does have scope for growth, and it can serve as inspiration for anyone looking to set up a humorous website or something that’s off the beaten path. 

Spencer shares his weird niche site, Watermark Remover, which likely gets 5 million visitors a month, both organic and direct, and is monetized with display ads. This well-designed website removes watermarks for free, although there is pricing available, and is owned by a larger company that has several image-related tools. Spencer and Jared talk about launching a single-tool website and the strategies that can be used to do so successfully.

That wraps up another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. Tune in next week for the latest news and a large dose of inspiration!

In this week's episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, host Jared is joined by Jason Wilson, Director of Search at Epic Gardening.

Jason originally worked with Spencer in banking before diving into online business with his own sites and working on Niche Pursuits.

Today he discusses a couple of his 6 to 7-figure site sales, his current role, and the entrepreneurial adventure that got him here.

It's awesome, and Jason shares a ton of valuable advice you don't want to miss.

But it hasn't been a linear road to success. And he believes success doesn't require you to leave your day job to become an entrepreneur.

He emphasizes the importance of finding a job you enjoy which also affords you the time to pursue your passions. This way, your salary can pay your bills and be used to invest in scaling your site's content production.

He also recommends you set manageable goals, celebrate wins, and define success based on your own values and goals.

Jason's approach to goal-setting and breaking down content needs into manageable daily targets has been key to his success.

And his latest venture, merging his gardening site with Epic Gardening and joining them as Director of Search, proves his process works.

Jason started All About Gardening after his big 7-figure exit. He chose gardening as a niche because it was a passion and hobby for him and his wife. He allocated a significant budget for content creation and hired experts in the gardening field to ensure high-quality content. And despite the competitive nature of the gardening niche, Jason was willing to bet his user-focused mindset would pay off.

And it worked. The site took off and quickly grew to generate several million page views per month.

The merger between Epic Gardening and All About Gardening was simply the next logical step, as their focuses were complementary - Epic Gardening on edibles and All About Gardening on ornamentals.

Soon the two sites will combine to become one of the biggest authorities in the gardening niche, continuing the strategies and guidance Jason shares in this excellent interview.

Hope you enjoy it!

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter

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Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. This week’s show is hosted by Jared Bauman, from 201 Creative, and Jacky Chou, the digital asset investor entrepreneur behind Indexsy, Far & Away, and several other businesses.

The episode kicks off with the latest about SGE, which can now be used when browsing and also offers users the option of summarizing the article they’re reading. Jared shares a small experiment he did to see how well the summarization function works, comparing SGE with Claude and ChatGPT4, and they talk about the implications for content creators.

Will this reduce the time on page? Will it lower ad or affiliate revenue? How will it affect smaller sites vs. authority sites and article length? Is this good news for end users or site owners?

The conversation then shifts to how Tim Soulo, from Ahrefs, recently asked for feedback on Reddit. The company received a lot of backlash on the platform from unhappy users and Jared and Jacky talk about why they think that is and whether or not they believe it’s justified.

The next topic is a highly controversial tweet by Google’s John Mueller, who says “A page doesn’t have to be on a site that’s “related to the niche” in order to be useful and helpful. You don’t need to have a niche site in order to rank in Google, in fact, sometimes that’s a good way not to rank.”

His tweet really waded into a ton of topics and, perhaps most importantly, contradicts the concept of topical authority. Jared and Jacky talk about why Google may have said this, if they think it’s true or not, and whether or not users should pay attention to it or ignore it.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Jared begins by giving another update on this faceless YouTube channel which, sadly, still doesn’t have enough subscribers to qualify for monetization. He does share some interesting statistics about the videos embedded on his website, he and Jacky talk about different aspects to improve on his channel, and he discusses his future plans on YouTube.

Jacky then talks about parasite SEO and one of his side hustles where he’s spinning up sites on Outlook India and redirecting penalized domains to them, the goal being to earn through Amazon Affiliates. If you want to know how it goes, follow him on Twitter. He also talks about a cold outreach strategy he’s using at the moment and how it’s going.

As for their Weird Niche Sites, Jared shares The Hotdog which is, unsurprisingly, all about hot dogs. This DR31 site ranks for 12.8k keywords and has over 140 pages live. Although it doesn’t appear to be monetized, it does look like a brand play.

Jacky shares the site he found, Beaming Health, which helps users find specific therapists for their kids. He talks about how the autism services market is worth $7 billion and growing, and how search volume for these terms has been increasing by 50-60% each year. He shares a few business ideas related to this niche that he sees as potentially profitable.

Thanks for tuning into another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. We hope you’re feeling informed and inspired. See you next week!

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Wanna hear tips on how to use your SEO prowess to grow a multi-million dollar eCommerce business?

Michael Jackness joins the Niche Pursuits podcast today to tell host Jared everything he did to buy, grow, and sell an Amazon FBA and Shopify store in 3 years. 

They dive into a ton of awesome points that are crucial for success in this endeavor. 

And to illustrate the effectiveness of SEO in growing the store, Michael shares his personal experience. 

He transformed a 100% Amazon business with a minimal website presence into a successful e-commerce brand across organic search and Shopify. With the Shopify store reaching 20% of the business, significantly increasing the overall enterprise value when it came time to sell.

His strategy involved thorough keyword research, focusing on terms with decent search volume, low keyword difficulty, and strong buyer intent (he shares some awesome tips you don’t want to miss).

Of course, creating high-quality content is key to turning this plan into a reality, though. 

And luckily, he doesn’t give a vague explanation of what that means. 

He highlights the importance of hiring writers and a graphics person to produce original and engaging content for the website - including discussing how powerful Midjourney has become.

The use of AI in content creation and social media marketing is also mentioned. And he discusses how AI can assist in generating content ideas, optimizing content for search engines, and automating social media marketing tasks. 

However, he expresses concerns about increasing competition and the potential impact of AI on the e-commerce industry. 

As more businesses adopt SEO strategies, the competition for top rankings becomes fiercer. And, of course, the rise of AI may disrupt traditional SEO practices, requiring businesses to adapt and stay ahead of the curve.

Overall this is an important discussion with tips to help a business of any kind improve its SEO and enjoy the profits that come along with it. 

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter

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Welcome back to another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman of 201 Creative. This week, like every week, the hosts serve up the latest SEO news as well as inspiration for listeners.

They started by addressing the changes Google announced to the how-to and FAQ rich snippets. Specifically, Google will be limiting how-to rich snippets to desktop results and reducing FAQ rich snippets, and the roll-out should be completed by next week. 

They talk about what this means for niche site owners and content creators, whether FAQs generally drive significant traffic, if this is Google’s attempt to use SGE to provide that information, and whether or not creators should still include them in their content.  

Then Spencer shares a post on LinkedIn from the COO of Word Agents, David Peterson, where he talks about how AI put them out of business, causing them to lose 70% of their revenue. He talks about how Make Lemonade suffered a similar fate, as discussed in a previous episode. 

They talk about this unprecedented shift in the way content is created and how it’s having a major impact on content agencies. Whether website owners are using AI to create their own content or taking a wait-and-see approach until the dust settles, major changes are happening and who knows what the landscape will look like in 8 or 9 months.

The last news item they tackle is that Google is in talks with the Australian government as it wants to be able to scrape publishers’ content and use it for AI training unless publishers specifically opt out. Spencer and Jared share their opinions on how they think they may affect content creators.

In the Shiny Object Syndrome portion of the podcast, Spencer begins by giving an update on his faceless YouTube channel. His channel was doing very well initially, earning about $1800 in display ads in the first month, in particular thanks to a video that went viral. 

When Google found that video to contain copyrighted material, it had to be demonetized. Although Spencer appealed the decision, he could not reverse it. 

He talks about how he recently started adding more content to the channel, and earnings over the last month were $1.66. Spencer’s not throwing in the towel, though. He’s going to keep working on the channel though and is even starting a second faceless channel on YouTube.

During Jared’s turn, he talks about his faceless YouTube channel that he started and completely forgot about. He shares the strategy he used when he first created the channel. It currently has 23 videos and hasn’t been touched in almost a year, yet it’s got 400+ subscribers and 219k video views. He’s very close to fulfilling the monetization requirements and he shares his strategy to move forward with this channel. 

Jared and Spencer then talk about their weird niche sites, and Jared goes first with Fail Army. This entertaining website shares people’s “fails,” like falling down and running into things. This DR47 website only ranks for 500 keywords and is more like a landing page. The action is over on their YouTube account, which has +16 million subscribers, and Jared talks about the potential they have to grow their website and drive traffic.

When it’s Spencer’s turn, he shares his very weird niche site: Cyberspace and Time. He struggles to explain what this retro-looking website is all about, mainly because the creator also has trouble explaining what it is. What’s really interesting are the stats: 500k visitors per month just a few months ago and 78k clicks from desktop users. All in all, the website is very weird!

And that brings us to the end of another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with a lot of food for thought and no shortage of ideas for listeners!

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter

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Want to hear some exclusive insights into the inner workings of the Amazon Associates program?

Doug Cunnington joins the Niche Pursuits podcast to share with host Jared what he learned after interviewing an Amazon insider!

This is never-before shared access into the biggest affiliate program around.

Because despite being easy to join and get started, there's lots of uncertainty and many pitfalls to avoid. So, it's a real treat to have Doug back on the podcast to keep us informed!

The convo covers a wide range of topics, including:

• Tips for maximizing conversions
• CTA best practices
• Common challenges faced by Associates
• Earning more by promoting Amazon to different countries
• And more...

One key aspect discussed was the need to target the right traffic and create high-quality content to drive conversions.

Doug also mentioned the importance of diversifying traffic and revenue sources to mitigate risks. He shares tips for improving visibility and providing context to enhance conversions, such as using the "mover and shaker" page on Amazon to promote popular products.

The conversation also covers the topic of conversion rates and the types of call-to-action that can be used to drive traffic to Amazon.

Plus the restrictions on linking to Amazon in emails and the rules around using images from Amazon on websites.

Doug also Amazon's desire to expand into other countries and how this brings with it better commission rates for Associates in these markets.

Overall, this is an optimistic look into the future of affiliate marketing. You not only get a comprehensive overview of the Amazon Associates program and a forecast of the future. But also lots of tips regarding various aspects such as labeling requirements, commission rates, traffic targeting, content creation, and the challenges faced by affiliates.

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter

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It’s Friday, so it’s time for another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with your hosts Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman. This week, as always, they bring us the latest in SEO and digital marketing news.

They kick things off with a big news item: Google has announced that it’s testing live links in the Search Generative Experience. The good news is that it looks like an expanded featured snippet that may drive more traffic to our individual websites. Spencer shares an example of what it looks like currently and he and Jared talk about how Google may be testing different formats to see what users prefer.

They also talk about Google’s announcement of “new” things you can do with generative AI in search, the fact that AI-powered overviews are faster, and Google’s focus on article publish dates.

Spencer also shares a look at his SGE and he and Jared talk about whether or not the results they get are relevant and what the future might look like for SGE. 

The next portion of the podcast is Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer begins by talking about his Amazon Influencer side hustle, which earned around $1800 over the last month. He talks about how he obtained approval into the program for a Facebook page he’s been building (and spoke about on a recent episode) and handed over the entire project to his oldest son.

Jared then shares an update on his Amazon Influencer program, which is up to 329 videos and brought in $2870 in July. He only started in May, so growth is quite impressive, and he has plans to continue to add more videos and take advantage of this massive opportunity.

The next topic is the Weird Niche Site they’ve both discovered. Jared goes first and talks about Marcas de Whiskey (Whiskey Brands, in Spanish), a whiskey review site that was started last year. It’s a DR 9 and ranks for over 50k keywords. 

Although it started out in Spanish, it switched over to English and has seen its traffic triple over time, publishing over 1200 articles in a year. Jared talks about how well the author satisfies search intent and how this may be the main driver of traffic.

Spencer nails it this week by finding a site that’s both weird and very successful: Wheel of Names. This site, a DR 71, gets between 11 and 5 million visitors each month, according to Ahrefs and Similarweb, and traffic is growing. It’s ranking for all kinds of “wheel” related queries and is monetized with Google Adsense ads. 

All in all, another great episode from Jared and Spencer with lots of interesting news, ideas, and advice. Tune in next week for more!

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter

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We got a true dose of inspiration for you today.

Founder of The Wayward Home, Kristin Hanes joins the Niche Pursuits podcast this week to share with host Jared her amazing story:

How she started her blog with no prior knowledge of website building and living in a broken-down sailboat to now running a successful online business.

It all began after being laid off from her job as a radio news reporter. She decided to start a blog and share interview-based articles about nomads on social media platforms like Facebook and Pinterest.

With connections at SF Gate, some of her early articles got republished on the site bringing her some quality traffic and links.

After six months, Kristin joined Mediavine and started earning income from ads on her site.

But it wasn't until early 2019 that she decided to prioritize SEO, taking courses to help her improve her website's rankings.

Implementing SEO strategies and updating old posts, Kristin saw a significant increase in traffic, reaching 120,000 page views per month by May 2019. She continued to publish new content while updating old articles, and her website's traffic grew to 300,000 monthly page views by the summer of 2019.

Kristin attributes her success to her focus on SEO, improved writing skills, and targeting low-competition keywords in her niche. Currently, The Wayward Home generally earns between $25,000 to 30,000 per month and has an average of 400,000 monthly page views.

Initially, Kristin wrote all the articles herself, focusing on pushing out as much content as possible. However, as her blog grew, she hired writers to help with content creation. Now, The Wayward Home has around 430 articles, with a team of writers specializing in different areas such as RVing, tiny homes, and van life. To assist with formatting and uploading articles, Kristin also has a virtual assistant.

One key aspect of Kristin's strategy is prioritizing relevant and experience-based content over high search volume keywords. This approach has helped her establish credibility and attract a loyal audience. Additionally, being quoted in major media publications has provided valuable backlinks to her blog. Kristin is also experimenting with AI-generated content on a new niche site, exploring innovative ways to expand her online presence.

Kristin's passion for helping others live a nomadic lifestyle is evident through her blog and social media channels. She offers resources and support to those interested in this lifestyle.

Overall, Kristin's journey from starting a blog with no prior knowledge to building a successful online business is a testament to her dedication, strategic approach, and passion for helping others embrace a nomadic lifestyle.

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter

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