Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! 

This week Spencer and Jared decided to do things a little bit differently. As the year is coming to a close, they decided to talk about the 3 top Niche Pursuits podcast episodes for 2023, as well as their personal favorites.

Spencer explains how he collected the data to determine which episodes were the most listened to this past year, and then they kick off the episode by talking about the third most listened-to podcast, which was the interview with Grady Hudd.

Grady grew his niche site to $9k per month in 2 years with no SEO experience. Spencer and Jared talk about why they think this was such a popular podcast. Grady’s relatability was probably key, and it’s likely that many beginners connected with his situation.

The second most listened-to episode was Forrest Webber, who talked about how he grew his portfolio to $40k a month after replacing rental properties with websites. They talk about his story, the important mindset shift that brought him so much success, and how he scaled his business.

The most popular podcast for the year was with Shelly Marmour, a travel blogger who grew her monthly income from $700 to $52k per month in 1 year with affiliate SEO. Shelly’s story was also relatable and inspirational, as many people could probably identify with where she was in the beginning and were interested to see how she grew her business so incredibly. 

Then Spencer and Jared share their favorite episodes of 2023.

Jared’s favorite was Cyrus Shepard’s episode on internal link building and he described the interview and the information shared as incredibly succinct and easy to understand. The episode was packed with actionable tips and insightful details about internal linking based on a data-heavy study that Cyrus did, and he talks about everything from Link Whisper to link sculpting.

Spencer’s favorite was how Kevin Espiritu grew his gardening site from $400 per month to 8 figures per year, which is also a story that most people can relate to. He started out like most of us, building his site back in 2016, and today he’s making over $10 million per year. 

He did it by growing his website first, then his YouTube channel and his social media channels, and then he launched his own products. What Spencer and Jared especially like about this episode is his approach to plateaus in his business and how he acquired another website and merged the two into a massively successful brand.

And that brings us to the end of this episode of Niche Pursuits News and the end of another year of Niche Pursuits podcasts that seek to motivate, educate, and inspire. 

Here’s to another year of learning from one another and to a very successful 2024!

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Kurt Schmidt is an extremely successful site owner who is back on the podcast to discuss all sorts of traffic and content-related topics.

Kurt is the owner of a portfolio of Disney-focused sites generating HUGE amounts of traffic.

He is a true expert in Google Discover and other alternative traffic sources. And with all the Google updates, there's perhaps no better time to pick his brain.

One of the big changes he's made this year is shifting focus from prioritizing page views to user engagement metrics like time on page, highlighting the importance of engaging content.

Ingrained in all of his sites is the importance of balancing tried and true, evergreen topics with up-to-date, trending, and conversational content.

His team does a great job of creating content fast for the newsy topics in the niche as well as long-term organic traffic.

There was even a period when they were publishing 90 articles a day, but at such a scale comes issues of quality control and fact-checking.

So, Kurt offers up a ton of wisdom on solutions that will interest and help site owners of all sizes.

For instance, creative ways to tackle the same topic in fresh and unique ways, tips on AI, as well as various new traffic sources to pursue.

Overall, Kurt gives us yet another insightful look into online publishing, with awesome tips and strategies to help you get more traffic and make more money.

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, Niche Pursuits fans, to another episode of the podcast. As always, Spencer and Jared cover the latest news in SEO, AI, Google, and everything content creators and website owners need to know.

This week they kick off the show talking about how Google has been discussing its plans to get rid of third-party cookies for a long time now. The underlying argument is that consumers in the UK, Canada, Europe, and increasingly in the US don't like the idea of Google collecting all of their private data, which is then used for advertising purposes. The main issue is privacy.

But Google has finally announced its plans to really truly get rid of them and it all begins on January 4th. The roll-out is going to be gradual and may be completed by the end of 2025.

The big questions are how will this impact advertisers and website owners? Will display ads decrease? Will RPMs decline? Does this have a connection to the anti-trust suit? At the moment, it's really a speculation game, but tune in to hear what Spencer and Jared think might happen.

Then the conversation shifts to a tweet from Jake Ward, about how he stole millions in traffic from a competitor by using AI to write articles based on all of his competitor’s keywords. The tweet was essentially a marketing ploy to promote his AI tool, and it went viral.

The bad news is that his tweet was seen by Google and his site was hit with a manual penalty because of copied content. Traffic tanked as a result.

Why did Google penalize his website? What alternative strategy does Spencer suggest? Does the fact that it’s AI content factor into their decision? Has Google changed its position on AI content? What are the general takeaways from this story? Listen to hear what Jared and Spencer think.

The conversation shifts to the ever-changing landscape of artificial intelligence and offers an overview of the changes that Google has had to implement since OpenAI appeared on the scene.

They discuss spammy results and the future of spammy AI content as well as the role brands play in ranking. 

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer reports that his Amazon influencer side hustle is going really well. So well, in fact, that he has seen massive earnings in the month, including some $500 days. During the last 30 days, he earned $6800+.

Although he hasn't uploaded any videos since last week, he does have additional videos ready to go and is hoping to break $7k in the next few days.  

Jared shares his experience with the program recently, and he’s seen his 30-day rolling total at slightly under $6k and expects to be under $5k for the month of December. Although he killed it on Black Friday, his earnings have been lower this past month. 

Also, something “happened” to his star product that had been driving the bulk of his earnings until now. Listen to the episode to hear what he discovered, and hear what he and Spencer plan to do with the program next year.

Moving onto their weird niche sites, Spencer shares Elfster, Which is a website and an app that helps you conduct Secret Santa gift exchanges. It can also recommend gifts, which allows it to make money from affiliate sales and sponsored product placements.

He shares its highly seasonal traffic graph from Ahrefs, with 1.5 million organic visitors in December 2022, and appears to be trending up. The rest of the year, they’re still getting incredible traffic and are a multi-million dollar business. Listen to the episode for more details.

When it’s Jared’s turn, he shares Campsite Photos, a site he uses often. You can enter just about any campsite in the US and check out photos so you can decide if it’s the right fit. 

You can answer questions like if it’s flat or not, if your trailer would fit, etc. and is incredibly helpful if you’re into camping. This DR43 site is ranking for 119k keywords, and has organic traffic of 150k, according to Ahrefs.

The site is monetized with ads, and it offers a service where it finds you a campsite if the one you want is booked. Check out the episode to hear more observations about Jared’s weird site!

And that brings us to the end of another great episode. We hope you’re feeling inspired and informed, and don’t forget to come back next week so they can bring you up to speed on the latest happenings.

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

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Prolific site owner James Dooley joins the podcast to give a masterclass into the rank and rent business model.

This is where you rank a website and rent it out to a local business seeking inbound inquiries.

It's an approach that has helped him become a millionaire many times over.

And with over 14 years of experience and over 850 paying sites in 650 niches, he has lots of important advice site owners of all types need to hear.

In general, he emphasizes the importance of having a strategy for your site.

For the rank and rent model, in particular, he suggests starting with a broad domain and creating industry-related content to attract traffic and engagement.

He believes traffic and behavioral signals are key ranking factors. And with this ranking site, you can engage local businesses to understand their needs and discover the most profitable subtopics within the industry.

This strategy involves building location-specific pages targeting niche keywords, using various on-page optimization tools, creating a diverse backlink profile, and foundational links like citations, a social fortress, and internal linking.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of overlap with building affiliate marketing content sites, and the conversation covers the similarities and differences between these types of sites.

James also has a lot of important advice regarding maximizing the profits of all kinds of sites, common mistakes found, and easy solutions.

Overall, this is a dive into the rank and rent model, with valuable insights and strategies all site owners can benefit from. Don't miss 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, Niche Pursuits News fans, to the latest episode of the podcast, where Spencer and Jared break down the most recent events in SEO, website development, and content creation into bite-size pieces.

Get ready for their insightful analysis and actionable tips and, as always, a good dose of inspiration for your businesses.

It’s another episode of the podcast and another opportunity to talk about Google completing, yet again, another of its updates. The November Reviews Update has officially concluded, after about 5 weeks.

Spencer and Jared talk about the extended duration of recent updates and what this might mean for sites impacted by the HCU. 

Will these updates be baked into larger updates in the future? What should content creators who do a lot of product reviews do moving forward? And what happens to you in future updates if your site has been deemed “ unhelpful?” Check out the episode to hear their thoughts.

For a bit of good news, they then talk about how Google’s How-To rich results seem to be returning to Search. Check your Google Search Console to see if you’re getting any clicks and look for ways to optimize it.

Moving along, the next topic is parasite SEO and the fact that reviews are currently appearing on Harvard University’s official website. GoogleLiaison’s Danny Sullivan recently tweeted that Google is aware of this and taking appropriate measures, but still, this raises questions.

If Google previously positioned sites based on their link profile and pagerank, the algorithm no longer works when authoritative sites start publishing review content unrelated to their topical authority and ranking on page one, so how do they fix this? Spencer and Jared discuss a few ideas.

The next order of business is Google’s new AI Studio, a web-based tool for developers to allow them to create Gemini-based chatbots. Jared turns to ChatGPT to find out more about how it works, and they both brainstorm about how they might use it. Tune in for some clever ideas! 

Moving on to the Side Hustle Shenanigans, Spencer and Jared both have exciting updates on their Amazon Influencer Program performance. Spencer reports that he’s published over 1000 videos and has already earned over $5.5k for the month.

When it’s Jared’s turn, he reveals that he’s earned over $6200 for the month so far, and shares some details about which video is bringing in the most commissions. They both talk about their ideas for strategies going forward, as well as the importance of just getting started.

When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, Spencer kicks things off with Keep The Score, a very professional-looking DR40 website that lets you keep score of any type of competition you have going on. Traffic could be between 28k (Ahrefs) and 195k (SimilarWeb) per month. 

They talk about some of the site’s unique features, what keywords are driving the traffic, and how it’s earning money.

Jared reveals his site, Belt Checker, for Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners. You can create a profile and then enter all of your information like competition history and belt promotions, you can track your injuries, and much more. This DR46 site ranks for over 10k keywords and has over 18k indexed pages, so it’s a pretty solid website.

How many users does it have? Was it affected by the HCU? Was the site built for SEO? And, perhaps most importantly, what can we learn from it?

You get all this and more when you listen to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, so don’t miss this one! 

See you all next week when Spencer and Jared tackle new topics and offer even more ideas you can apply to your own projects.

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

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Brock Yates joins the Niche Pursuits podcast to share his journey of acquiring and growing the website AllTurtles.com.

He acquired the site on Flippa in 2012 for $3,000.

At purchase, the site was a forum with 80,000 pages with thin content about specific turtle species, generating $60 per month.

This all presented a whole new world for him, as he had zero prior SEO and site-building experience.

Fast forward to today and AllTurtles peaks at 150-180,000 page views per month, earning mid-five figures a year.

Brock attributes much of the site's success to its history, branding, well-rounded content, and some link juice from a large brand's fun little PR confusion he describes.

He's largely taken a hands-off approach to content production but still manages to produce quality content. Which he emphasizes is the result of hiring good researchers if you can't access subject matter experts.

It's interesting to hear about his mostly outsourced content creation model and his strategy for hiring writers through Upwork.

And its especially interesting to hear how affordable his writing team is, which has stuck with him over a long term.

He also shares insights on content monetization strategy, primarily relying on Mediavine and Amazon Associates, with a 90-10 split in revenue. And Brock highlights how he maximizes ad revenue through content structure and layout, highlighting the importance of ad impressions and reader experience.

He finishes things off with his plans for maintaining the site's stability and growth, including potential future strategies such as video content, email list building, and improving reader engagement. Enjoy!

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

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Hey everybody, welcome back to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast. 

Like they do every week, Spencer and Jared cover the latest happenings in the Google, SEO, and content creation space so you can feel informed and make the best decisions for your business.

The first news item they discuss is a tweet from Barry Schwartz noting that Danny Sullivan and John Mueller from Google had deleted some of their previous tweets about the Helpful Content Update.

What does this mean? 

The HCU is not being rolled back, but what would lead them to delete their previous tweets? Is there a glimmer of hope for the people affected by the update? Is the potential December update actually a “rollback?” Or are we all reading too much into this? Spencer and Jared have a few thoughts to share on the subject.

The next topic is Google’s new update, Gemini Pro, which is already rolled out into Google Bard. A ChatGPT competitor, this is an advanced multimodal AI model that will be part of the Google Search experience very soon. 

Jared and Spencer talk about how Gemini and SGE are actually in conflict with what Google wants and show a few examples. What happens when Spencer pokes around to test Gemini out? What are the implications and how will this look going forward? Listen to hear what they think!

The next news item is how there are continuous leaks of information and tidbits of Google’s strategy that have been coming out as the company faces its major anti-trust lawsuit. 

Most recently, an article was published that offers a ton of insight into how Google works behind the scenes. Spencer and Jared share a few of the highlights, like Google’s many ranking signals, the use of keywords, how websites are rated and tested, and the Navboost system. 

Listen to the tidbits that surprised them in the super-detailed article.

Moving on to the side hustles, Spencer gives an update on the Amazon Influencer Program. He has 967 videos live and he shares a screenshot for over $3k in earnings for the last 30 days.

He talks about the cost of outsourcing his videos, and he and Jared talk about whether they think earnings are up because of the holidays or if this upward trend will continue.

In the ongoing competition between the hosts, Jared talks about reaching the 1000-video mark and his most recent earnings from the program, $4600. This is a great performance for a side hustle he started just a few months ago.

He and Spencer talk about the enormous possibilities of this side hustle and share an inspiring story of a podcast listener who earned $11k in November from the program and started in July!

The big picture message is that there are lots of side hustles out there that anyone can start and potentially earn life-changing money if they’re willing to put in the work.

Spencer then goes on to share his weird night site, which may very well be someone’s side hustle: Flpbk.io. 

This cool, little website lets you submit a 1-minute video and they will turn it into a flipbook and send it to you. 

Although this website ranks for 0 keywords and only gets about 17k visitors per quarter, which is probably direct traffic and social. That being said, if the traffic is targeted, the website could be quite profitable.

Jared shares his weird niche site next: Celebrity Cutouts, where you can buy masks, large heads, and life-size cut-outs of your favorite celebrities.

This DR28 site is doing pretty well, ranking for 47k keywords and getting 17.5k a month in traffic. They discuss how it’s most likely a print-on-demand business and encourage listeners to take advantage of the holiday sales to buy loved ones cutouts of their favorite celebrities.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast. Hopefully, this episode inspires you to start that side hustle and keeps you informed of the latest SEO news.

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

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Today on the podcast, founder of Blackjack Apprenticeship Colin Jones shares his journey from being a professional blackjack player to building a successful online brand.

He's built both a popular website and YouTube channel for his business and combined, they help him bring in 7 figures per year.

He joins us to share a ton of actionable tips based on his own experience.

Initially, he focused on search engine optimization (SEO) for his website, but soon realized the power of video in boosting traffic and engagement. So he began creating high-quality videos for his landing pages, resulting in increased traffic and click-through rates.

Over time, Colin realized he'd have to approach YouTube differently, shifting his focus from ranking in search results to creating content that would engage and retain viewers.

Thumbnails and the first 30 seconds of a video capture viewers' attention and encourage them to continue watching. And to attract viewers, Jones split tests thumbnails, comparing the process to marketing a movie, with the thumbnail acting as the movie poster and the first 30 seconds as the movie trailer.

But he also emphasizes several times - the importance of watch time and delivering value throughout the entire video.

And maintaining quality and value throughout the entire video is essential for retaining viewers' attention.

Understanding the audience and their interests is key to creating compelling video content. Researching successful YouTube videos in the same niche can provide insights and inspiration for creating engaging content.

And Colin shares a bunch of great tips, some of which may surprise you.

For instance how audio quality and lighting trump camera quality.

Short-form content, such as YouTube shorts and TikTok videos, can also be a valuable addition to a video strategy and attract new subscribers.

Monetizing that audience isn't always easy though.

And Colin emphasizes the importance of having a valuable product and creating content that speaks to the ideal customer. Video is found to be more effective in building trust and likability compared to written word alone.

The goal is to provide value through YouTube videos and gradually lead viewers to the website (in a non-salesy way). On the website is where the more sales-focused videos can be found. Even showing how embedding videos have helped his SEO with an increased time on page and EEAT.

Colin even shares how camera-shy people can make use of YouTube to grow their business, such as using voice narration with B-roll or partnering with experienced YouTubers.

Overall, Colin Jones shares a masterclass in how to leverage video to boost traffic and engagement with your business. By focusing on watch time, delivering value, and understanding your audience, you can create compelling content that grows your audience and business.

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 everyone! It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast. 

A lot happened this week so there’s a lot to talk about. Join Spencer and Jared as they discuss and analyze the latest happenings in the SEO, AI, and content creation space.

The first news item they cover is the Google Core Update and the fact that it has finally finished rolling out. 

How long did it last in the end? What kind of movement did Jared and Spencer see? Was there a reversal from the HCU? Are there any updates currently underway or coming in the future? Tune in and find out!

Then Spencer and Jared shift the conversation to a slightly more controversial topic: Sports Illustrated allegedly published a ton of content written by AI-generated writers. 

When the articles were deemed as potentially AI-generated, the team at Futurism pressed Sports Illustrated, which then deleted all of the content and issued a response.

What did they say? What do Spencer and Jared think about the situation? And how does EEAT play into all of it?

The next topic is how the Canadian government has reached an agreement with Google on the Online News Act. Google has agreed to pay online Canadian publishers around $100 million a year to publish their news content on Google. 

This is clearly a win for news publishers, who are going to get paid, but it raises some interesting questions. Why did Google agree to pay? Will other countries follow suit? Will it go beyond news publishers at some point?

In more Google news, the number of companies who have blocked Google from crawling their sites and using their data for Bard has increased by 180%. Jared and Spencer have talked about this situation previously, but in that case it was the GPT OpenAI bot; now it’s the case with Google-Extended.

What about this article really riles up the hosts?

Spencer gets especially riled up sharing that Google Bard is now summarizing YouTube videos. Not only can you get a summary, but you can also get a transcript. Spencer gave it a test drive with one of his videos.

What was the result? Was the summary accurate? The result is pretty funny, so check out the episode to see why. 

Moving along, the next topic is X (formerly Twitter), and how some brands have paused their advertising campaigns while others have stopped altogether. As a result, the platform may lose up to $75 million in ad revenue by the end of the year. 

This is attributable to the fact that Elon Musk is a bit of a loose cannon, he's making offensive statements, and there are also lots of changes to the platform. 

What does this mean for other advertisers? Could this be part of Musk’s overall strategy?

Last but not least is news from Amazon, which has launched a new AI chatbot for companies. This chatbot is not a competitor for consumer-facing chatbots but, rather, for companies to use for their businesses. Think financial projections, policies, and procedures.

What is AWS and how is it involved? And what might the name of the chatbot be a reference to? Listen to the podcast to hear what Spencer and Jared think about it.

Moving into the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks first about his progress with the Amazon Influencer Program. With 954 videos currently published, how did he do during Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Jared then shares his progress with the program. Currently, he has 982 videos live, but how did he do during the big shopping days? After talking with other members of the program, Jared also has an interesting theory about how to increase earnings during this period next year. 

He also talks briefly about Weekend Growth, progress, and new developments. 

As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Katie Goes Platinum—a site that’s more unique than it is weird. Katie documents the process of letting her hair gray gracefully and seeks to inspire others. 

She’s got ads and digital products, not to mention a YouTube channel and a section featuring her web stories. A little research shows that back in 2020, she was earning $6k per month from her site—a figure that has most likely increased since then.

Jared’s Weird Niche Site is Hood Maps, which creates funny maps for different cities. He and Spencer take a closer look at a few of them and share some of the entertaining descriptions.

This DR41 website doesn’t have any display ads but it does rank for 50k keywords. But how does it collect the descriptions for so many maps? And is it making any money?

And that brings us to the end of a jam-packed episode. See you next week when Spencer and Jared tackle the latest headlines and serve up more information and inspiration.   

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