Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared analyze the latest news in SEO, digital marketing, and website building and offer their unique insight.

You won’t want to miss this episode, especially if you were affected by Google’s Helpful Content Update. 

As the update has officially wrapped up, this week Spencer and Jared dedicate a lot of time to talking about its massive impact on the industry. They share common insights and important takeaways from 4 SEO experts: Lily Ray, Glen Gabe, Barry Schwartz, and Marie Haynes.

According to the experts, this update, the 3rd and largest of its kind, looked at over-optimized content and the authenticity of reviews. It also potentially penalized websites with the blogroll on the homepage and sites using too many affiliate links with no context. 

User experience is another big topic, with Google appearing to penalize sites that are poorly-designed, sites with broken links and, perhaps most importantly, sites with aggressive ads and pop-ups.

They also speak about how data reporters have not picked up on the volatility of this update, how niche site owners have been extremely affected, and how UGC seems to have been rewarded as opposed to SEO content.

They discuss the importance of building a brand on multiple platforms, the importance of verifiable credentials, and the need for content from trusted sources that is truly helpful.

Jared and Spencer then talk about the possibility of recovering from the update and self-assessing your site using Google’s guidelines, and they offer sage advice to website owners who have been negatively impacted by this update. 

In the next portion of the podcast, they share and analyze real sites that have been positively affected by the update, talking about why they think that is and what they’re doing right. They specifically look at sites in the finance and travel spaces. They also take a closer look at a few sites that have lost traffic following the update, in the travel niche.

Don’t miss their conclusions about the update, their opinion on the future of the industry, and their advice on moving forward for site owners.

Although they dedicate the bulk of the podcast to talking about the update, they do speak briefly about their current side hustles in the Side Hustle Shenanigans portion of the podcast. 

Spencer speaks about his AI website challenge and how some of those creators are already seeing a little bit of traffic. He’ll also be hosting a second YouTube Live on Monday, October 2nd, along with an AI expert.

Jared briefly talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle and his Weekend Growth YouTube channel.  

As for Weird Niche Sites, Spencer shares his: HowToPronounce, which is getting 1.4 million visitors per month, according to Ahrefs. It’s ranking for lots of keywords with significant traffic, although it looks like it was hit by recent Google updates.

Jared’s site, I Might Be Funny, is a good example of UGC (but not SEO), as it amalgamates and shares content originally published on social media. Although it has a DR of just 6, it ranks for 4k keywords according to Ahrefs, some of which have significant traffic, and gets around 5k organic visitors per month.

As always, talking about these weird niche sites allows Jared and Spencer to share some fantastic advice and inspiration when it comes to picking a niche and building websites.

Tune in again next week when they bring their expertise to talk about the latest news in SEO and beyond.

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In this awesome episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Jim Campbell shares with host Jared his strategies for growing a successful brand in the honeymoon industry.

With a background in entrepreneurship and marketing, Jim saw an opportunity in the market and started honeymoongoals.com in 2019 right before Covid hit!

And despite the impacts of Covid on the travel niche, Jim remained bullish and continued creating valuable content and building authority for the website throughout the pandemic.

He used templates to provide destination and resort recommendations, ensuring that honeymooners had tailored information at their fingertips. To help with content creation, Jim hired writers who were carefully vetted for quality research and information.

The investment finally paid off when travel restrictions eased and people started booking honeymoons again.

Jim monetizes the website primarily through affiliate revenue, partnering with travel agencies and resorts to earn commissions from bookings.

Jim emphasizes the importance of sales and understanding customer preferences to drive conversions and revenue. The travel industry, particularly for honeymoons, relies heavily on bookings and partnerships. Jim has found success with affiliate programs like Expedia and Booking.com, as well as TripAdvisor's program on Commission Junction.

He also sees potential in direct advertising with resorts.

While the Amazon affiliate model doesn't work well for the travel industry, Jim believes that analyzing customer buying patterns and adjusting content accordingly can improve conversion rates. Building a legitimate business with a reputable brand helps establish authority and gain valuable backlinks.

And as a result, he recently acquired the site honeymoons.com, expanding his portfolio in the niche with plans to build a larger website with such a premium domain.

Jim plans to keep the brands separate for now and aims to expand monetization with a booking engine on the site.

He acknowledges the potential threat of AI writing but believes that the human touch and expertise are still crucial in creating high-quality content.

Jim also highlights the importance of secondary strategies like social media, particularly Pinterest, video content, and author expertise for improving the website.

His ultimate goal is to create a more established business and explore opportunities such as a travel agency and YouTube channel.

Jim's story is the quintessential Niche Pursuit and and his strategies are highly valuable for any niche site owner to take notes on!

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 Podcast, where your hosts Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, from 201 Collective, bring you all the latest news and insight in SEO, digital marketing, website building, and entrepreneurship.

This week the hosts focus entirely on one major event in the space: Google’s Helpful Content Update. As this major update has had wide-ranging effects on the niche site community, Spencer and Jared break it down for us and share some words of encouragement.

The update, which came out a week ago, has really shaken up the community. All across X, website owners are sharing graphics and reports that reflect the very negative impact of the update. 

Spencer and Jared highlight the change in Google’s wording, where the focus has shifted from content “written by people” to “written for people” and articles that needed to be “written by an expert” now need to be “written or reviewed by an expert.”

They share the stats behind some of their own websites, which experienced both gains and losses and talk about the chances that Google may include a rollback before the update is fully complete.

They also talk about the sites that benefited from the update, such as Quora, Reddit, and other forums; they share their thoughts on EEAT and UGC; and they discuss the impact on Mediavine sites in particular. 

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer gives an update on his two new Niche Pursuits challenges, one where people (135 at the moment) will build a website with AI content from scratch, and the other where participants (73 currently) will add AI content to an existing website. The challenges are about to begin and Spencer will be hosting a kickoff call. Join the community and follow along!

He also gives an update on his Amazon Influencer side hustle, reporting that Amazon has made changes in the way videos appear, which has in turn affected his earnings. He was about to crack the $2k per month, but these tweaks have kept him from reaching that goal. He has a total of 593 videos at the moment and plans to keep at it, at least through 4Q.

Jared talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle too, sharing that his earnings went off a cliff due to the change in how videos appear. He talks about how he thinks the program will play out in the future and whether it’s worth sticking it out.

Moving on to their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first and shares Apple Rankings, a funny website that ranks apples according to taste. The site potentially gets about 55k visitors a month and has separate pages for different types of apples, which reflects a strong site structure. The site was created by a comedian, and it shows.

Jared’s site this week is Gizoogle, which translates content into “gangster-speak.” They test it out on some Niche Pursuits content with very entertaining results. This DA58 website gets very little organic traffic but has over 14 million backlinks. Although it’s unclear if or how it’s monetized, and even how it works, it’s worth checking out for a good laugh.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. Don’t forget to tune in next week for more inspiration and insight into the world of SEO, content creation, digital marketing, and website building. See you then!

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Want a masterclass in both online marketing and business?

Mar Pages is a former Google employee and founder of Solo Female Travelers who has built a thriving brand in the travel space.

And she joins the Niche Pursuits podcast today to share with host Jared Bauman all about it!

It all started when Mar and her business partner Meg decided to take over a Facebook group as a passion project for fellow female travelers.

When Covid struck, and their own travel blogs took a hit, they were pleasantly surprised to find that engagement in the group went up!

Recognizing the potential, they launched a website and an Instagram account to complement the group.

They also received funding from the Facebook Community Accelerator program which they used to turn their passion project into a full-time business.

They built a team and as Covid restrictions started to lift, they soon began to offer tours.

They're now up to 12 destinations and host 25-30 tours per year. And in her discussion, Mar shares lots of great insights into what she thinks has helped fuel the success of Solo Female Travelers:

For starters, they place a strong emphasis on community moderation, ensuring a safe and high-quality experience for its members.

They take a long-term approach to building a community, understanding it takes time and effort to build trust and grow a loyal following.

They do this via various strategies to attract and engage with their target audience.

• They employ SEO efforts, maintain a weekly newsletter, and actively seek press coverage.
• The Facebook group serves as the top of the funnel, driving newsletter sign-ups and building trust with potential customers.
• The newsletter, in turn, serves as the middle of the funnel, providing valuable content and promoting the brand's tours.
• And finally, the tours themselves represent the bottom of the funnel, where customers make bookings and experience the brand's offerings.

Another great takeaway is Mar's emphasis on data.

With her business background, she prioritizes data from surveys to best understand and serve their audience. This not only helps with content and even creating the tour offerings but also some great SEO benefits she gets into.

In short, Solo Female Travelers has grown into a thriving brand by focusing on safety, quality, and community-building. Their tours are designed to empower women and support female-owned businesses, and along with this, has become a significant source of revenue.

Don't miss the full interview for some great insights from an undeniably smart entrepreneur!

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative, discuss the latest news and important recent events in digital marketing, SEO, and website creation.

The first news item that Spencer and Jared address this week is the rollout Google core update, which concluded about a week ago. They share some of the key takeaways from Lily Ray's analysis, one of which was the importance of EEAT and the massive post-update boost to UCG platforms like Reddit and Quora and dictionary-type sites. 

Is this in response to AI-generated content? Will their rankings change over time? And what about the pre-update volatility that many sites experienced? Tune in to hear what Spencer and Jared have to say.

Moving on, they talk about how tech leaders like Elon Musk and Bill Gates recently met privately with the Senate to discuss how to craft guardrails for AI. This is especially interesting for website owners and content creators because regulations on AI could affect how we create content.

Other news covered in the episode is Google’s announcement that it will no longer be showing how-to results for desktop users. It had previously been removed from mobile search results, along with FAQ results. Spencer and Jared talk about the impact of this move by Google and why they think it was done.

The last news item they touch on this week is an exhaustive State of Digital Marketing report. They talk about the decline in the cost of ads, which is good news for advertisers. On the flip side, RPMs are low, which negatively affects website owners running ads. Will there be a comeback in Q3 and Q4, or is this trend here to stay? Jared and Spencer share their thoughts.   

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the episode, Spencer shares how he launched 2 new challenges. In the first one, people will build AI sites from scratch and document the process. In the second challenge, people will scale an existing site with AI. 

He created a free community to follow along, and the person in each competition who has the most organic traffic after 6 months (new site challenge) and 3 months (existing site challenge) will walk away with $2,500. 

Jared talks about doubling down on his Amazon Influencer side hustle as we move into Q3 and Q4, making 99 videos in the last week. He also shares his takeaway after looking at his August earnings, which had declined, suggesting that consumers weren’t making large purchases during the month. With 638 videos currently on the platform, Jared is ready to earn some serious money as the year draws to a close.

Then it’s time for Spencer to share his Weird Niche Site. The single-page site he found is getting 2.4 million organic visitors per month, ranks for 30k keywords, and is monetized with display ads: Compress JPEG. Although it seems like a very simple tool and website, Spencer and Jared talk about all the work that goes into creating and ranking it.

Jaren then shares his site: Your Novel, where you can submit your story, have a novel written about you, and get it shipped to your house. The books are available in a wide range of categories and come in hardback, paperback, or ebook formats. Although it doesn’t rank for many keywords or get a lot of traffic, they agree that the website has potential if certain SEO strategies were applied to it, and most of all, it certainly qualifies as weird. 

And that concludes another episode of the latest news in the industry. We hope you feel informed and inspired. See you next week!

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Welcome to another great episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast!

Sarah Bond joins host Jared to discuss her journey building the food blog Live Eat Learn.

The site gets over 1 million monthly visitors, and so she has great insights on content strategy and growth tactics.

Sarah started her blog in 2015 with the goal of turning it into a business. She was inspired by the income reports of other food bloggers like Pinch of Yum and knew, as a nutrition major, it was the niche for her.

She actually originally used the blog to document her process of learning how to cook, focusing on a featured ingredient each week. And over time she's not only learned how to cook but inspired millions of others as well.

Sarah's focus is on creating content clusters around specific ingredients or topics to establish herself as an authority in those areas. She emphasizes the importance of SEO in driving traffic to her blog, noting that Pinterest, which was once a major traffic source, has become less relevant.

And she also highlights the value of recipe development and photography in building trust with her audience. She ensures that her recipes are reliable and visually appealing, using her background in nutrition and photography to create high-quality content.

Her site has been around for a while and has over 1300 posts, so Sarah also has some great, quick tips on updating content. She prioritizes retitling posts to make them more appealing and stand out in search results.

She also likes to add social proof, such as positive reviews, at the top of posts to build credibility. And she adds step-by-step photos and videos to enhance the user experience and keep readers engaged.

Sarah then discusses her email list as a crucial aspect of her business and how it allows her to build relationships with her audience and promote her digital products.

She sends regular emails, including seasonal and evergreen content, to keep subscribers informed and engaged.

In addition to Live Eat Learn, Sarah also has two niche sites: Brew Buch, focused on kombucha brewing, and Bone Appétreat, her dog food site.

These sites serve specific interests and allow Sarah to diversify her online presence. She plans to continue expanding and refining these sites while continuing to grow Live Eat Learn.

Overall, this is a great episode on how to take a strategic content approach, prioritize quality and expertise, and adapt to changing trends and platforms.

Don't miss it!

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Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, from 201 Creative, are back with the latest news in niche sites, SEO, and affiliate marketing. 

The first order of business this week is the news that the Google Core Update has finished rolling out. Jared talks about how, instead of looking at his Google Analytics to see how his sites weathered the storm, he looks at his ad networks.

Jared shares information about the impact on a few of his sites and he talks about focusing more on earnings as opposed to fluctuations in traffic. Jared and Spencer also talk about how the update doesn’t appear to have had much of an impact on AI content.

The next news item on the agenda is the upcoming trial between the US vs. Google. Spencer talks about the potential implications of this monopoly trial, which is expected to last 10 weeks, on niche site owners and bloggers. 

The main focus of the trial is whether or not it was illegal and monopolistic to not allow any other search engines to be used by default, although there are many other issues that will also be addressed in this important trial, which is expected to set a precedent.

They also mention quickly how Google is also in the news in the EU, where it’s accused of being a “gatekeeper” and has been ordered to give more freedom to other companies to compete under the new EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), starting in 2024.

The next topic they discuss is how YouTube is making it easier for creators to choose the perfect thumbnail. The platform is coming out with an A/B testing tool and this function could be available next year. This would allow users to upload 3 custom thumbnails and then YouTube would test behind the scenes to see which performs the best. 

Jared and Spencer talk about how this will affect YouTubers and why they think this is a good move by the platform.

Then it’s time to talk about some Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer talks about hiring 6 local people to create reviews for his Amazon Influencer Program account, where he has 453 videos at the moment. 

After earning around $1500 in August, he’s going all-in with this side hustle and expects to see an improvement in September and beyond. He also created a YouTube channel, where he’s going to publish all of his Amazon videos and see what happens.

Spencer also talks about a survey he recently published where he’s looking for people to create an online business and he will document it publicly on Niche Pursuits. The type of project hasn’t been decided yet, so don’t forget to vote for what you’d like to see!

Jared then talks about creating videos for his Weekender Growth YouTube channel, which has about 800 subscribers and 1,000 watch hours at the moment. Although he’s a far way away from monetization, he’s going to dedicate more time to this project going forward.

Then it’s time for everybody’s Weird Niche Site. Spencer shares his, which is HTTP Status Dogs, which combines HTTP status codes with photos of dogs illustrating those codes. The site used to get 20 to 30k in traffic but now only receives about 1000 visitors per month. It’s not monetized in any way, but it’s a good laugh.

Jared’s site this week is Cornify, a unicorns and rainbows on-demand website. Aside from lots of functions like adding unicorns and rainbows to photos, coloring pictures online, and making your own younicorn, the site also has a store linked to Amazon products. Despite this, it only ranks for around 400 keywords and less than 1000 monthly organic visitors, although it does have a DR of 57. Jared and Spencer also talk about what the site is doing right and how it could improve.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of Niche Pursuits News. Tune in next week so Spencer and Jared and keep you up-to-date with everything that’s happening in SEO, website building, and content creation.

What Niche Pursuit do you want to see started next?

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Want to hear how a first-time niche site builder is succeeding in the finance niche... in less than 24 months?

Sammie Ellard King sits down with Niche Pursuits podcast host Jared to share his journey of building a personal finance brand.

Sammie's background is in hospitality marketing, but when Covid hit, he had to reconsider his future. He took the opportunity to dive into online business and started developing a brand centered around his true passion.

Sammie's approach goes beyond just building a website. Perhaps thanks to his traditional marketing background, he's building an entire ecosystem with a website, podcast, YouTube channel, and social media presence.

He's choosing a long-term approach, aiming for a 5 to 10-year project.

And Sammie's brand, Up the Gains, has already started to see success. The site has over 50,000 monthly visits, podcast sponsorship, and a growing YouTube channel.

And today, he walks us through the process of how he's able to scale all of these simultaneously.

User experience is a priority for Sammie. He wants to make personal finance more accessible. So, he prioritizes incorporating visual elements, infographics, and simplified language to engage his audience.

To choose topics, Sammie conducts competitor analysis and covers multiple categories simultaneously, focusing on building topical authority through hub pages.

He also discusses the importance of link-building in this niche.

This includes digital PR, creating stat articles with unique data, and podcasting which he highlights as being particularly valuable for attracting links, leveraging social media audiences, and attracting sponsors.

He also discusses how embedding original YouTube videos improves rankings and attracts organic links.

Email marketing also plays a significant role in driving affiliate revenue for Sammie's brand.

Looking ahead, Sammie plans to scale the website by optimizing affiliate revenue, expanding content, and leveraging different channels.

This is a great interview with a very smart and strategic marketer who's managing to quickly succeed in a competitive niche.

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

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Get ready for another great episode of This Week in Niche Pursuits News to help start your weekend.

Spencer and co-host Jared kick things off by discussing Google's August Core Update. They share whether it has affected their sites and discuss some of the devastating screenshots they've seen from other site owners.

They also discuss a study highlighted in the Search Engine Journal regarding ChatGPT and its reach among USA adults. A shockingly low number of Americans have actually used the tool or feel that it will affect their jobs. So, the guys spend some time weighing in on this interesting topic.

The conversation then gets into the ongoing adoption of AI-powered features in search engine results and the inclusion of links within results.

Plus, Reddit just launched an AI-powered keyword research tool. A development, they discuss, could be very useful for content creators and advertisers looking to optimize their strategies.

After a nice catch-up on the latest news, it's time for their shiny object shenanigans.

Spencer starts by sharing how he's hiring local individuals to assist him in recording product review videos for the Amazon Influencer program. And discusses how this will not only help to create engaging content but also support the local community.

Jared then chimes in with his own Amazon Influencer program update and how he's ramping up video production.

In fact, he just set a personal record by recording a staggering 122 videos in just one week!

As usual, the conversation then goes into awesome and weird niche site discoveries.

First up is a website called Language Guesser. It's a creative and simple game for language enthusiasts to guess the language being spoken in videos.

After that, they discuss another fun little site called Word Unscrambler. This site offers visitors a handy tool for unscrambling letters and finding words, particularly useful for Scrabble players!

As always, they discuss the traffic and potential revenue of these niche sites and give some valuable insights into their profitability.

They also offer suggestions for improvement, such as design tweaks and creating mobile apps.

To wrap things up, they highlight subscribing to the newsletter to get regular updates and stay in the loop on the latest online business news and success stories!

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