Niche Pursuits Podcast: Find Your Next "Niche" Business Idea!

During the podcast, Brian provided a ton of very actionable tips for anyone starting a new blog or looking to attract more traffic and links to their existing sites.

Some of the most interesting takeaways that I had are related to how Brian was able to grow his blog so much in the past year.  He did this by blogging LESS.  By focusing more on quality posts rather than quantity, and then working actively to promote those posts, he's been able to become a widely recognized expert.

We discuss the exact tactics Brian has used to grow Backlinko.com and how you can do the same.

Direct download: final55.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 1:43pm EDT

When it comes to link building experts, Jon Cooper of PointBlankSEO.com is right at the top of the list.

For that reason, I wanted to bring Jon on the podcast for a second time to discuss link building tactics that are working right now.  In particular, Perrin and I got a chance to ask about our authority site and actually get some personalized advice for how we should approach our link building.

Direct download: episode54.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 6:27pm EDT

Chris Guthrie and I have known each other for a long time.  Back in the day Chris was out building Amazon affiliate sites and I was building Adsense affiliate sites.  I'm not sure where we first crossed paths, but we've been in touch now for probably close to 5 years.

I had Chris on my podcast over 2 years ago.  However, now his business has evolved so much that I wanted to have him on to discuss his latest business venture.

Chris is now actively involved in selling physical products on Amazon through the Fullfullilled by Amazon (FBA) program.  In his first few months with his very first product, Chris has built his monthly revenue to over $12k per month with this business! (Profit is about 50% of that).

I know that sounds almost too good; however, Chris has been kind enough to privately show me his Amazon account with earnings and the product that he is selling on Amazon.  It's a legit business.

Direct download: chrisfinal2.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 7:37pm EDT

About a month ago I was able to attend a conference called Rhodium weekend.  While I was there, I got to meet lots of really interesting people, including Jock Purtle from DigitalExits.com.

I asked Jock to come on the podcast and discuss some of the insights that he has on buying and selling websites.  You see, Jock has been buying and selling websites for his own portfolio for a long time.

In addition, he is a website broker selling websites for his clients through his company, DigitalExits.com.

This interview definitely focuses on buying and selling more established websites.  The type of sites that Jock and his team work with tend to be valued at $100,000 to $5 million.

Direct download: episode52.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 12:08pm EDT

Today, I’m excited to share with you the interview that Perrin and I did with Shane Melaugh of Thrive Themes.

Shane is someone that has been involved in the internet marketing space for a number of years and has seen a lot of success.  In fact, he’s been entrepreneurial his entire life and by his own admission is probably “unemployable” at a traditional job.

Not only has he found a way to bring money in the door, but he’s become very good at creating products and building great businesses.

Direct download: shanefinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 5:22pm EDT

Podcast 50!  I started my podcast a couple of years ago almost as an after thought, but today I'm hitting a major milestone with 50 episodes!

For now I'm excited to share an interview I did with Justin and Joe from EmpireFlippers.com.  These guys are well known for their website marketplace where all sites are listed for sale at 20 times monthly income.

Direct download: 50final.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 5:08pm EDT

Perrin and I were able to sit down and record a podcast based on our last blog post, How to Mange Writers Effectively.

When it comes to starting and running an online business, having great content is so critical.  If you are not writing the content yourself, hiring and managing writers becomes extremely important.

Because of this, Perrin and I felt like we wanted to share some of our best practices for finding, hiring, and motivating writers. 

Direct download: np49.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 12:59pm EDT

In this podcast, we discuss 2 of Steve's sites: SteveScottSite.com and DevelopGoodHabits.com; and of course his Kindle publishing business.  In fact, he was also kind enough to share a link to his author page on Amazon, so you can see a list of all his books!  Check them out at HabitBooks.com.

Steve's advice and story is quite impressive as he is only started publishing on Kindle about 2 years ago and is now making anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000 a MONTH!  He reveals regular income reports and has great business tips over at SteveScottSite.com.

Direct download: stevefinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 11:42am EDT

I'm excited to bring you another podcast today!  Perrin and I were able to recently sit down with Gael Breton of AuthorityHacker.com to discuss all the important elements of building an authority website.

Gael knows what he is talking about.

You'll like this interview because he not only shares very actionable tips, but also gives the URL of his website that is making over $10,000 per month.  I always love having an example website that I can look at and try to replicate.

Direct download: gaelfinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 6:35pm EDT

Wow, apparently my article from earlier this week really rocked the boat!  I made the firm stance that I will no longer be building private blog networks (PBNs), and it garnered A LOT of attention.

In fact, my article was mentioned on SERoundtable.com, SearchEngineLand.com, tweeted by Rand Fishkin, and even Matt Cutts tweeted about the news articles (that I was in).  Then of course there have been plenty of other blog posts, online discussions, and overall a major buzz around the topic of PBNs getting deindexed and whether or not to use them going forward. 

The day of that blog post was the highest traffic day this site has ever had, and there are already over 400 comments on that blog post!  To say the least, I've hit a nerve that lots of people care about.

As a result, Perrin and I only felt like it was appropriate that we record a follow up podcast to dive a bit deeper into the risks vs. rewards of private blog networks.

As you can see from the podcast title, I still think you should NOT build a PBN.

Listen to the podcast for all my reasons why.

Direct download: 46final.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 1:10pm EDT

A few days ago I shared the monthly income report for a few sites that I purchased this year.  The site buying case study is one that I've learned quite a bit from and has helped expand my business.

In total, I've now bought 4 sites this year, and as you can see from the what I've learned from spending $37,100 on buying sites, I've been able to do pretty well!

Today, I'm sharing a podcast that Perrin and I recorded to review our monthly earnings from just a couple of sites along with a discussion of what else we have going on in our business.

Direct download: 45final.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 1:02pm EDT

Perrin and I had the chance to interview Neil Patel of QuickSprout.com.

Neil is very well known for the products he's built (Kissmetrics, CrazyEgg, and others) and for the traffic strategies he's implemented on large websites such as TechCrunch.com and Amazon.com.  When it comes to content marketing and traffic experts, Neil is right there near the top of the list.

So, I hope you enjoy the interview as we discuss his entrepreneurial background, traffic strategies, infographic strategies (that still work), and much more.

Direct download: final.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 4:48pm EDT

Last week, I finally broke the silence about what happened to my survival knife site, from niche site project 1.

As revealed in that post, the site appeared to have been hit with negative SEO.  And then when Penguin 2.1 came out in October 2013, the site finally tanked in the rankings (the spammy links obviously being the reason that it was affected by Penguin).

I tried several tactics for over 9 months trying to bring the site back from the dead without much success.  However, last week some interesting things started to happen: the site started to rank for keywords and the traffic was increasing rapidly.  Perrin and I discuss what's going on.

Direct download: np43final.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 12:25pm EDT

One of the hottest business ventures right now, is publishing books on the Amazon Kindle platform.  I've personally been curious about the prospects of publishing Kindle eBooks, but have never taken the leap.

As a result, Perrin and I jumped at the opportunity to have Jonny Andrews of AudienceHacker.com on the podcast.

We recently interviewed him and had the chance to dig into how he's been able to build a substantial business using the Kindle platform.

Direct download: jonnyfinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 2:01pm EDT

Perrin and I were able to sit down recently and interview Rand Fishkin of Moz.com!  If you have been in the SEO world for any period of time, you are likely well aware of Rand and the company he founded, Moz.

He is one of the most well-known and well respected entrepreneurs in the SEO space.

Perrin and I really relished our opportunity to pick Rand's brain for an hour on SEO, marketing, and his story.

Direct download: randfinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 10:51am EDT

Recently Perrin and I were able to sit down and interview Dre Baldwin of DreAllDay.com.  I'm excited to bring this interview to you today, because well, its different!

Dre is not your typical niche site builder or affiliate marketer (like almost all of my previous guests).  Dre is actually a professional basketball player!

I'll let you read or listen to his entire story below, but he worked his way from basically not playing much in high school to eventually playing professionally overseas.

However, the moment he decided to put one of his highlight VHS tapes from a training camp onto YouTube changed everything for him.  People started to find his videos and he continued to add more, until eventually he decided to start adding daily basketball tips and training videos.

Direct download: drefinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 12:59pm EDT

Our guest today is Dhanish Semar (those of you in the League of Legends community probably know him by his IGN: DiffTheEnder). Dhanish owns Cloth5.com, a site he built by making great connections, writing premium content, and putting it in front of his audience using the platform that was most important to them.

The result? Cloth5 now gets over 1,000,000 visits per month.

Direct download: cloth5.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 2:53pm EDT

Recently, Perrin and I were able to sit down with Matt Paulson of MattPaulson.com for a podcast interview to discuss his amazing business.  Matt is an unassuming guy and you would have no idea how extraordinarily well his business is doing unless you asked him.

Well, we had the chance to ask about his business and the numbers he shares will blow your mind (at least it did for Perrin and I).  Matt owns a financial network of sites including AmericanBankingNews.com, AnalystRatings.net, and a few others that combined get over 2.5 MILLION pageviews per month!

The earnings from those sites is even more impressive than the pageviews in my opinion.

Direct download: np38.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 2:31pm EDT

In the podcast, Perrin and I review the income report from last month, discuss the business potential of buying and selling websites, and then go into more depth in our new authority site project.

While we do cover similar topics to my last blog post, we also have a chance to dive quite a bit deeper and throw in a few other interesting topics as well.  Overall, if want our most up to date thoughts on buying and selling websites, building out niche sites, building large authority sites, and more, then I hope you'll give it a listen.

Direct download: np37.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 4:42pm EDT

I recently interviewed Andrew Youderian of eEcommerceFuel.com.  Perrin and I were able to have a great chat with Andrew to talk about his business and the great success that he has had with a couple of his drop shipping/ecommerce sites; including selling one for $170k at the beginning of 2014.

Direct download: np36final.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 6:18pm EDT

I started the NichePursuits podcast just over 2 years ago.  The most popular episode since the inception of my podcast has been episode 9 with Hayden Miyamoto recorded just over 2 years ago.

 

At the time, he was making over $30k per month from his small niche sites.  However, a lot has happened in the past 2 years and his strategy has changed dramatically.

 

Today I am publishing an interview I did just a few days ago with Hayden Miyamoto from NoHatSEO.com.

So, why did I bring Hayden back for a 4th time on the podcast?  Well, not only have his episodes been the most popular, but a lot has changed over the past year or 2. 

 

In fact, Hayden has changed up his strategies a bit and is focusing more now on building out larger sites.  One of his sites is now doing over $10k per month!  So, I wanted to bring him back on to discuss what has changed and what’s still working for him.

Direct download: np35final.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 1:08am EDT

Perrin and I discuss what passive income is all about and whether or not people actually stop working once they achieve their income dreams.

In addition to sharing the early influence of our fathers, we also discuss some of the wealthiest people in the world and how they spend their work lives.

Finally, I share my own day to day schedule as an internet entrepreneur.

Direct download: np34.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 5:23pm EDT

Perrin and I had the chance to sit down and discuss in detail our new business Vylo.org for Episode 33. 

We dig into the story of the product, how Perrin generated initial buzz, and plans going forward.

The story of how Perrin came up with the idea and how he got over 6,000 people to express interest in the product and get on his email list in 24 hours is pretty remarkable. So, this episode is all about the story of Vylo from idea to launch (which happened about 12 days ago).

Direct download: np33.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 5:02pm EDT

Perrin and I discuss the May income of 2 niche sites that I purchased in January 2014. 

We also discuss whether or not I should sell one of the websites; and share our thought process behind making this decision.

Direct download: np32.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 8:28pm EDT

Perrin and I discuss when its time to stop creating new websites and when to just focus on your existing portfolio.

I discuss my own website portfolio, specific traffic stats, and the decision I have made to stop building new sites for the foreseeable future.

Direct download: np31.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 1:27pm EDT

When it comes to building a niche website that you hope to rank at the top of Google, you could potentially make hundreds of mistakes.  As a result, there is no possible way that I could cover every possible mistake that someone might make when trying to build and optimize their site for SEO.

However, I do believe that there are some very common mistakes that many newer people might fall prey to when building niche sites.  As a result, Perrin and I cover the 9 most common mistakes that people make when building niche sites and doing SEO.

Direct download: np30.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 12:46am EDT

Perrin and I just finished recording a new podcast, episode 29. 

During this episode, we discuss the April income report from my last blog post, and share some additional thoughts and nuances that I didn't have a chance to cover.

Overall, I hope you enjoy the episode!

If you find any value in the podcast and have a chance to leave a rating or review on iTunes here, that would be great.

Direct download: np29.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 6:10pm EDT

I recently wrote a blog post titled, "Wh you Should NOT start a podcast".  This was an opinion piece that I wrote based on some of the frustrations of my podcast.

However, after taking a look at the data and hearing some feedback from others, my opinion has evolved a bit in regards to podcasting.  Listen in to hear what the future of the Niche Pursuits Podcast will be...along with other interesting stats about my business.

Direct download: np28.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 6:01pm EDT

One of the things I did to grow aPennyShaved was to reach out to a bunch of other bloggers in the shaving community, a process I outlined in one of my previous posts. It was a super fun process, the response was spectacular, and I ended up making a bunch of cool friends.

One of those friends was Douglas Smythe, who founded Howtogrowamoustache.com. We exchanged emails about shaving, discussed blogging strategies and ended up collaborating on a guest post, which was a ton of fun.

The more Douglas and I chatted, the more I became absolutely fascinated and blown away by his success in the very same community I was working to succeed in, especially because his site wasn’t just a simple ad-supported site. Douglas was leveraging his traffic to expand his shaving site into a larger, product-driven business.

Direct download: DouglasSmythefinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 1:14pm EDT

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down and interviewing Doug Cunnington for the Niche Pursuits podcast.  He's had some impressive results with one of his newer niche sites that I wanted to share.

Does the name Doug Cunnington sound familiar?  You may recall hearing about Doug because I shared his success story just a few months ago!  At that time he was earning over $1,000 per month from the site already, and he's come back to tell us how well its done since November.

Overall, Doug basically took the techniques that I've shared from Niche Site Project 1 and Niche Site Project 2 and applied it to his own new sites.  And of course, he has tweaked the process and strategies a bit to make them work well for him.

In fact, he's done so well, that his site earned over $6,000 in December alone!

Direct download: dougcunningtonfinal1.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 12:22pm EDT

The January income report for aPennyShaved.com is here!  This is one that I know a lot of you have been anticipating, because of how well the site did last month.

After earning over $650 in December, the big question was whether December was so big mostly due to Holiday shopping.  The clear answer is NO!  January was a much bigger month, and Perrin and I attribute that to simply getting more pages indexed and ranking in Google.

Newer sites can take a few months before Google starts ranking all the long tail possibilities.  And January was the month that aPennyShaved really started to do well in Google.  Below, you can see the full income report along with Perrin's thoughts.

However, this is a special occasion because in addition to just the normal income report, Perrin and I also recorded a podcast to review the entire project!

This is meant to be the final official coaching call for Niche Site Project 2.  This podcast/coaching call is the culmination of the entire project...so we hope you listen!

Direct download: perrinfinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 5:05pm EDT

I had the pleasure of interviewing Justin Cooke of EmpireFlippers.com just a few days ago.  I'm sure you already know about Justin and Joe, as they are pretty popular guys!

In fact, I had both of them on episode 3 of my podcast back in April 2012!  So, its been almost 2 years ago since I interviewed them.  I wanted to catch up on what has changed, and what their business plans are for the future.

Direct download: empireflipperspodcastfinal.mp3
Category:Online Business -- posted at: 12:21am EDT

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