667: 10+ Side Hustle Trends for 2025

0:00:03 Here are 10 side hustle trends for 2025.
0:00:05 What’s up, what’s up, Nick O’Loper here.
0:00:07 Welcome to the side hustle show
0:00:09 because your nine to five may make you a living,
0:00:11 but your five to nine makes you alive.
0:00:14 Today, we’re tackling some side hustle trends
0:00:16 that you should be aware of
0:00:18 because they might impact what business you start
0:00:20 and how you think about scaling it.
0:00:22 And to help me out with these is a longtime friend
0:00:24 and friend of the show.
0:00:25 He’s been covering online side hustles
0:00:29 even longer than I have from nichepursuits.com.
0:00:31 So, Spencer Hans, welcome back to the side hustle show.
0:00:33 Nick, it’s great to be here.
0:00:36 Long time listener, follower of the show.
0:00:39 And of course, we’ve connected a couple of times in person.
0:00:41 It’s always fun to talk about side hustles,
0:00:43 niche projects, if you will.
0:00:45 So yeah, really excited to jump in.
0:00:46 Yes, a couple old timers here.
0:00:48 We’ll go for it.
0:00:52 So almost all of our content starts from the question,
0:00:53 how do I make extra money?
0:00:56 And to answer that, I think it’s important to know
0:00:58 where the market’s been,
0:00:59 where it is today,
0:01:01 and maybe where you see it potentially going.
0:01:03 So that’s our goal for today.
0:01:04 10 or maybe more.
0:01:06 We’ll see what happens as we get going.
0:01:08 10 observations from a couple,
0:01:10 like we said, a couple of old guys
0:01:11 that you can use, hopefully,
0:01:12 to make some more money this year.
0:01:15 And trend number one that I want to bring up
0:01:18 is for the last year and a half or so,
0:01:19 ever since this helpful content update,
0:01:21 is what I’m going to call
0:01:23 the shrinking SEO landscape.
0:01:24 Rand Fishkin has called it
0:01:26 zero-click publishing.
0:01:27 But just in the search results,
0:01:30 you see more AI answers,
0:01:31 AI snippets,
0:01:32 you see more Reddit,
0:01:33 you see more user-generated content,
0:01:38 you see these huge image card blocks.
0:01:40 Like SideHustleNation used to rank
0:01:42 for a lot of listicle type of content.
0:01:44 But now this huge chunk of the page
0:01:44 is getting like,
0:01:46 well, we’ll just parse out
0:01:47 all the items on your list
0:01:48 and put a little image by it.
0:01:50 like, well, it pushes everything else
0:01:52 lower down on the page.
0:01:53 You know, what are you seeing
0:01:54 with niche pursuits?
0:01:55 What are you seeing with publishers
0:01:56 trying to combat
0:01:58 this shrinking piece of the pie?
0:02:00 Plus, user behavior changing.
0:02:02 Like I know from my own personal experience,
0:02:04 like I find myself using ChatGPT
0:02:04 as a search engine
0:02:06 or as an answer engine, rather,
0:02:08 more often than Google these days.
0:02:10 Yeah, quickly changing landscape.
0:02:12 A lot is going on in the SEO world.
0:02:14 I think you hit on that
0:02:15 sort of the zero-click landscape
0:02:17 that we’re entering in.
0:02:18 I’ve seen a lot of publishers
0:02:21 that, yeah, their answers
0:02:23 are being taken by those AI overviews
0:02:25 that Google is putting out.
0:02:26 Not only has there been
0:02:28 a lot of updates, right?
0:02:29 You mentioned the helpful content update,
0:02:31 but a lot of Google core updates
0:02:33 that feel like a lot of small publishers
0:02:36 have been impacted heavily with, right?
0:02:38 But even some large publishers
0:02:40 I’ve talked with privately with
0:02:43 that their rankings in Google
0:02:44 haven’t changed.
0:02:45 Like they still rank number one
0:02:47 for the term or number two
0:02:48 for the term, right?
0:02:49 That they originally ranked for.
0:02:51 But because there’s now
0:02:52 this AI overview,
0:02:55 they don’t get as many clicks, right?
0:02:57 So the rankings technically
0:02:58 haven’t changed.
0:02:59 They still are the number one
0:03:01 organic result for whatever,
0:03:03 but they’re getting less clicks
0:03:04 because people now just read
0:03:06 that AI overview, right?
0:03:06 Yeah.
0:03:08 And so there’s that,
0:03:10 that Google has changed.
0:03:11 And then the other thing,
0:03:13 I’m in the same boat with you,
0:03:14 and I think a lot of people are,
0:03:16 like I am starting to use
0:03:18 ChatGPT a lot more, right?
0:03:20 Because it remembers
0:03:21 what I searched previously.
0:03:22 Like I’ll say,
0:03:23 hey, I’m starting a little
0:03:25 side hustle on this.
0:03:26 And then I might ask it
0:03:27 a series of questions like,
0:03:28 what do I need to get started?
0:03:30 And then I might ask,
0:03:31 you know, later,
0:03:32 what products should I buy
0:03:34 to help me with that, right?
0:03:35 And it’s just like
0:03:36 this ongoing thing
0:03:38 that you don’t really do
0:03:39 on Google very well.
0:03:40 You’d have to type out
0:03:41 like two paragraphs
0:03:42 to do it.
0:03:43 ChatGPT just remembers
0:03:45 your previous searches.
0:03:46 Yeah, you can give it,
0:03:46 you can provide it
0:03:47 a lot more context,
0:03:48 a lot more detail.
0:03:49 We’re like, hey,
0:03:50 we’re visiting Japan
0:03:52 with two boys.
0:03:54 They’re seven and nine.
0:03:55 You know, what do you recommend
0:03:56 for this two-week itinerary?
0:03:57 And it like spits out
0:03:58 this detailed day-by-day thing
0:03:59 where it’s like,
0:04:00 ah, you know,
0:04:01 but it’s frustrating
0:04:03 from the content creator perspective
0:04:04 because somebody had
0:04:04 to create that
0:04:05 for it to crawl.
0:04:06 And it’s like,
0:04:07 well, where are they,
0:04:09 if their business model
0:04:10 was monetizing
0:04:11 with ad revenue
0:04:12 or affiliate clicks,
0:04:14 like where are they left?
0:04:14 And what’s the incentive
0:04:16 to keep creating this content
0:04:18 for the AI to chew on?
0:04:18 Like, where does it,
0:04:20 where does it go?
0:04:21 Like for a time
0:04:24 and I’m still a little bit torn,
0:04:25 like there’s still got to be
0:04:26 some value
0:04:27 in being a primary source,
0:04:28 like scooping a story,
0:04:29 you know,
0:04:32 providing firsthand experience
0:04:33 and review content.
0:04:34 but if it ends up
0:04:35 just getting aggregated
0:04:36 and scraped
0:04:37 and re-summarized,
0:04:38 ah, it’s like,
0:04:39 well, I don’t know,
0:04:41 why are we doing this?
0:04:43 It’s extremely frustrating,
0:04:43 right,
0:04:45 to the content creator
0:04:46 because you’re exactly right.
0:04:47 Somebody had to create
0:04:48 all those different
0:04:50 itineraries to Japan,
0:04:50 right,
0:04:51 that ChatGPT
0:04:52 had to learn on,
0:04:53 right?
0:04:54 so we as publishers
0:04:55 over the last,
0:04:56 you know,
0:04:57 however long you’ve been publishing
0:04:58 have been creating
0:04:59 and researching
0:05:00 and a lot of people
0:05:01 have been traveling
0:05:01 to these locations
0:05:02 and taking pictures
0:05:04 and, you know,
0:05:05 travel bloggers in particular
0:05:06 have been hit really hard,
0:05:08 food bloggers in particular
0:05:09 have been hit really hard,
0:05:10 right,
0:05:11 where AI can now just spit out
0:05:13 the recipe for you,
0:05:14 that sort of thing
0:05:15 and so where does that leave
0:05:16 publishers?
0:05:17 I don’t know
0:05:17 the right answer,
0:05:18 you know,
0:05:19 going forward
0:05:20 other than we’re in this
0:05:22 really big shift,
0:05:24 this big transition phase
0:05:25 of,
0:05:25 boy,
0:05:27 you either need to provide
0:05:28 really unique content
0:05:29 or,
0:05:30 like you said,
0:05:31 maybe scooping
0:05:32 truly groundbreaking stories
0:05:34 or your writing
0:05:35 is just so fascinating
0:05:37 that you can build
0:05:37 an audience,
0:05:38 you have an email list,
0:05:41 people truly following you
0:05:42 for your personality
0:05:43 or for your writing abilities
0:05:45 or for whatever it is
0:05:46 that makes you unique
0:05:48 so building an audience
0:05:49 is just becoming
0:05:51 so important,
0:05:52 right,
0:05:53 because if you’re just there
0:05:54 for that transactional query
0:05:56 and you are making money
0:05:57 with ads in the past,
0:05:59 that may be not
0:06:01 a very strong
0:06:02 business going forward.
0:06:03 Yeah,
0:06:05 it’s a challenging
0:06:06 and changing landscape
0:06:07 and maybe that brings us
0:06:09 to trend number two
0:06:12 in light of the SEO challenges
0:06:13 or the search traffic challenge
0:06:14 challenges.
0:06:15 Like I’m still,
0:06:16 you know,
0:06:17 maybe this is old school,
0:06:17 but like I still think
0:06:18 you ought to have
0:06:19 a website as your home base,
0:06:20 something you truly do
0:06:22 own and control.
0:06:23 But we’ve seen the shift
0:06:24 towards what we might call
0:06:26 social first audience building
0:06:28 or social first publishing
0:06:29 where I’m going to go out
0:06:31 into Instagram,
0:06:32 TikTok,
0:06:33 YouTube,
0:06:33 LinkedIn,
0:06:34 Twitter,
0:06:35 and like try and bring people
0:06:37 back into my world
0:06:38 or try and go where,
0:06:38 you know,
0:06:39 go where my audience
0:06:40 already is
0:06:41 and try and create content,
0:06:42 build up reputation,
0:06:43 authority on whatever topic
0:06:45 it is on these other platforms.
0:06:46 And then,
0:06:47 you know,
0:06:48 question mark,
0:06:49 question mark,
0:06:49 question mark,
0:06:50 step three,
0:06:51 monetize a profit.
0:06:51 Right.
0:06:52 It’s like,
0:06:52 it’s not,
0:06:54 it’s not as simple
0:06:54 as it was,
0:06:54 you know,
0:06:56 just pasting in an AdSense
0:06:57 or a Mediavine script
0:06:58 and saying,
0:06:58 well,
0:06:59 now I get page views,
0:06:59 so I got,
0:07:00 I got revenue.
0:07:00 Right.
0:07:01 Yeah,
0:07:02 exactly right.
0:07:02 For,
0:07:04 for a long time in particular,
0:07:04 as you know,
0:07:06 we talk about bloggers
0:07:07 and blogging a lot,
0:07:08 right?
0:07:09 The model was like,
0:07:09 okay,
0:07:10 get this organic traffic
0:07:11 from Google
0:07:12 and now that pie is shrinking.
0:07:15 I think a lot of content creators
0:07:17 are trying to get that organic traffic,
0:07:18 right,
0:07:20 to avoid having to do paid media,
0:07:21 but they’re doing it,
0:07:22 like you said,
0:07:22 Instagram,
0:07:23 TikTok,
0:07:24 Twitter,
0:07:25 LinkedIn,
0:07:26 pick your platform,
0:07:27 YouTube,
0:07:28 right,
0:07:29 is a big one.
0:07:30 And then what are they doing
0:07:31 with that audience?
0:07:32 It all just depends.
0:07:34 But I agree that,
0:07:35 hey,
0:07:36 that should be maybe
0:07:38 one arrow in your quiver
0:07:39 of like,
0:07:39 okay,
0:07:41 what’s the organic reach
0:07:42 that I can get?
0:07:43 Where am I publishing my content?
0:07:45 Pick a platform,
0:07:45 whatever it is,
0:07:46 Instagram,
0:07:46 YouTube.
0:07:47 Yeah,
0:07:48 and I would probably say
0:07:49 pick one to start with
0:07:51 and like study it,
0:07:51 learn it,
0:07:51 own it,
0:07:53 and go deep,
0:07:53 you know,
0:07:54 simplify first,
0:07:54 diversify second.
0:07:56 But then do lead them
0:07:57 to a website
0:07:58 or to an email list
0:08:00 or some central hub
0:08:00 where,
0:08:01 hey,
0:08:02 you interact
0:08:03 with your audience
0:08:04 on a more intimate
0:08:05 level.
0:08:05 A lot of businesses
0:08:06 do that well
0:08:08 and it’s just,
0:08:09 I used to say,
0:08:10 hey,
0:08:11 go to Google
0:08:12 and get that organic reach
0:08:12 but maybe,
0:08:13 yeah,
0:08:13 it is more
0:08:15 a social approach.
0:08:16 I think that’s,
0:08:17 I’m seeing that a lot.
0:08:19 I think it’s going to lead
0:08:20 to more thoughtful
0:08:21 or more creative
0:08:23 monetization strategies
0:08:24 where it’s like
0:08:25 if the game plan
0:08:26 was to just,
0:08:27 you know,
0:08:28 blanket the web
0:08:29 like trying to target,
0:08:29 you know,
0:08:30 long tail search queries,
0:08:31 you’re going to have to have
0:08:32 a more in-depth
0:08:33 knowledge base
0:08:34 around that topic
0:08:35 to be able to
0:08:37 monetize with a,
0:08:38 you know,
0:08:39 coaching or consulting program.
0:08:40 Like,
0:08:41 somebody’s specific
0:08:41 probably going to have to go
0:08:43 up market in a way
0:08:44 if the bottom end
0:08:45 of that information-based
0:08:47 search traffic
0:08:48 is just going to get
0:08:48 eaten by AI.
0:08:49 Yeah.
0:08:50 And,
0:08:50 you know,
0:08:51 one other thing
0:08:52 for people to consider
0:08:54 that I’m seeing
0:08:57 is video-first content
0:09:00 is a bigger moat,
0:09:01 right?
0:09:02 It’s gaining in a lot
0:09:02 of popularity.
0:09:04 The platforms,
0:09:04 TikTok,
0:09:04 Instagram,
0:09:05 YouTube,
0:09:06 right,
0:09:06 are probably,
0:09:08 if you’re willing
0:09:09 and able to get
0:09:10 in front of the camera,
0:09:12 create great videos,
0:09:13 whether it’s short
0:09:14 or long-form videos,
0:09:17 that is going to
0:09:18 have a little bit
0:09:18 bigger moat
0:09:19 than if you’re just
0:09:20 to do written content
0:09:21 because AI
0:09:23 can spit out
0:09:23 written content
0:09:24 all day long,
0:09:25 but it hasn’t quite
0:09:26 gotten to the place
0:09:27 where it can replicate
0:09:29 you and I
0:09:30 quite as well.
0:09:31 There’s still a moat there.
0:09:32 If you can do
0:09:33 video-first content,
0:09:34 I think you can build
0:09:35 an audience faster.
0:09:35 Okay.
0:09:36 That makes sense.
0:09:37 You played around
0:09:39 with any AI-assisted video?
0:09:39 Like,
0:09:40 are you doing any
0:09:40 Hayjin,
0:09:41 Spencer,
0:09:41 where it’s like
0:09:42 your little avatar
0:09:43 talking,
0:09:43 on the screen?
0:09:44 I haven’t gone
0:09:45 as far as,
0:09:45 you know,
0:09:48 my avatar so much.
0:09:49 AI B-roll,
0:09:50 you know,
0:09:51 elements that I can
0:09:53 add to my videos,
0:09:54 done some things
0:09:55 like that,
0:09:56 or other sort of
0:09:57 silly B-roll.
0:09:58 I had some B-roll
0:09:59 on a YouTube video
0:10:00 recently where
0:10:01 I was talking
0:10:03 to an artificial
0:10:03 intelligence,
0:10:05 you know,
0:10:05 person.
0:10:06 It was quite obvious
0:10:07 that they were not real.
0:10:08 It was sort of
0:10:09 like an inside B-roll
0:10:10 joke or whatever.
0:10:12 so played around
0:10:13 but not like
0:10:14 made it a main
0:10:15 portion of my
0:10:16 videos at this
0:10:17 point.
0:10:17 Yeah,
0:10:19 video first,
0:10:20 social first,
0:10:21 create that
0:10:23 bigger moat
0:10:24 where if you have
0:10:24 that firsthand
0:10:25 experience,
0:10:25 like,
0:10:26 and it’s you
0:10:26 on camera,
0:10:27 you’re building
0:10:28 that relationship
0:10:29 and trust
0:10:30 that is a much
0:10:31 deeper relationship.
0:10:31 And same thing
0:10:32 with podcasting,
0:10:32 like,
0:10:32 hard to build an
0:10:33 audience,
0:10:34 but once you have
0:10:34 people paying
0:10:35 attention,
0:10:35 like,
0:10:35 really,
0:10:36 really valuable
0:10:37 audience,
0:10:37 especially if
0:10:37 they’re going
0:10:38 to spend
0:10:40 45 minutes a
0:10:40 week with you
0:10:41 in their earbuds,
0:10:41 right?
0:10:42 You build that
0:10:43 relationship much
0:10:44 more powerfully
0:10:45 than somebody,
0:10:46 you know,
0:10:47 Googling something
0:10:47 and, like,
0:10:48 skimming a blog
0:10:48 post for,
0:10:49 you know,
0:10:50 90 seconds and
0:10:51 then they’re on
0:10:51 to the next
0:10:51 thing.
0:10:52 Yep,
0:10:52 exactly.
0:10:53 The next one
0:10:54 on my list,
0:10:55 it kind of
0:10:56 relates to this
0:10:57 video first,
0:10:58 and maybe we
0:10:58 could call it,
0:10:58 you know,
0:10:59 short form
0:11:00 videos,
0:11:01 eating everything,
0:11:02 like,
0:11:03 the TikTok-ification
0:11:04 of the planet,
0:11:05 but the one
0:11:06 that comes
0:11:06 to mind
0:11:07 is the,
0:11:08 it’s kind of
0:11:09 like the,
0:11:09 I’ll call it
0:11:10 like the fall
0:11:10 of the follower
0:11:11 and the rise
0:11:12 of the algorithm
0:11:14 where it no
0:11:15 longer,
0:11:16 like,
0:11:17 I’ll give you
0:11:17 the example
0:11:17 of like,
0:11:18 if I log into
0:11:19 Facebook or
0:11:19 Instagram or any
0:11:20 of these platforms,
0:11:20 like,
0:11:21 half of the stuff
0:11:22 in my feed
0:11:23 is from accounts
0:11:24 that I don’t
0:11:24 follow,
0:11:25 have never
0:11:25 followed,
0:11:25 have no
0:11:26 relationship with,
0:11:27 but it’s stuff
0:11:28 that the algorithm
0:11:29 thinks I will
0:11:29 like,
0:11:31 and it does a
0:11:31 pretty good job
0:11:32 of that because
0:11:32 like,
0:11:32 for me,
0:11:33 it’s like a lot
0:11:33 of,
0:11:34 you know,
0:11:34 data visualization
0:11:35 and maps
0:11:36 or baseball
0:11:37 statistics
0:11:37 because it
0:11:37 knows,
0:11:38 it knows I’m
0:11:39 going to stop
0:11:39 and like,
0:11:40 try and figure
0:11:41 this out.
0:11:41 Like,
0:11:42 what is this
0:11:42 thing trying
0:11:42 to show me?
0:11:43 Or on Instagram,
0:11:44 it’s like a lot
0:11:44 of like ski
0:11:45 videos,
0:11:45 like,
0:11:45 oh,
0:11:46 watch this guy
0:11:46 go over
0:11:46 some crazy
0:11:47 jump.
0:11:48 You have to
0:11:49 watch the
0:11:49 landing to see
0:11:50 if he makes
0:11:50 it.
0:11:52 And they know
0:11:52 it’s going to
0:11:53 stop the scroll,
0:11:54 even though I
0:11:54 don’t follow
0:11:55 any of these
0:11:55 accounts.
0:11:55 It’s like,
0:11:56 it’s just a
0:11:57 weird thing.
0:11:58 So the good
0:11:59 news is if
0:11:59 you’re a new
0:11:59 creator,
0:12:00 if you create
0:12:01 something that’s
0:12:01 compelling,
0:12:02 you have the
0:12:02 chance to punch
0:12:02 above your
0:12:03 weight class
0:12:03 and get seen
0:12:04 by,
0:12:04 you know,
0:12:05 more than
0:12:06 your three
0:12:06 followers.
0:12:07 The drawback
0:12:08 is if you have
0:12:08 a bit of a
0:12:08 following,
0:12:10 you still have
0:12:10 to play the
0:12:11 algorithms game.
0:12:12 And,
0:12:12 you know,
0:12:13 unless it’s
0:12:14 really compelling,
0:12:14 even the people
0:12:15 who do follow
0:12:16 you probably
0:12:16 not going to
0:12:16 see your stuff.
0:12:17 exactly.
0:12:18 You know,
0:12:18 on YouTube,
0:12:19 we’ve always
0:12:20 accepted this.
0:12:20 When you go to
0:12:21 your YouTube
0:12:21 homepage,
0:12:22 you expect to
0:12:23 get recommended
0:12:24 videos,
0:12:25 right,
0:12:26 that most of
0:12:27 the videos you’re
0:12:27 seeing in your
0:12:28 recommendations are
0:12:29 not channels that
0:12:30 you’ve subscribed
0:12:30 to, right?
0:12:31 From day one,
0:12:32 we’ve always just
0:12:33 sort of accepted
0:12:34 this on YouTube,
0:12:35 but you’re exactly
0:12:35 right.
0:12:36 It’s creeped into
0:12:37 Facebook,
0:12:37 Instagram,
0:12:39 other platforms
0:12:40 where you go
0:12:40 through.
0:12:41 You’re not seeing
0:12:41 your friends’
0:12:42 posts anymore.
0:12:43 You’re seeing,
0:12:44 you know,
0:12:45 whatever sort of
0:12:45 interest the
0:12:46 algorithm has
0:12:47 assigned to you.
0:12:47 And so,
0:12:48 you know,
0:12:48 hey,
0:12:49 good for their
0:12:50 business,
0:12:50 I guess.
0:12:50 It’s maybe
0:12:52 increasing engagement,
0:12:53 but you’re exactly
0:12:54 right that I have
0:12:55 seen like some
0:12:56 really small
0:12:57 Facebook pages,
0:12:57 for example,
0:12:59 that they can
0:12:59 have something
0:13:00 go absolutely
0:13:01 viral.
0:13:01 They only have
0:13:02 10,000 followers,
0:13:03 but one of their
0:13:04 posts gets like
0:13:06 10 million views,
0:13:06 right?
0:13:07 Just because for
0:13:08 whatever reason,
0:13:09 it’s triggered this
0:13:10 algorithm and it
0:13:10 can get in front of
0:13:11 a really,
0:13:12 really large audience.
0:13:14 So there’s a lot
0:13:15 of opportunity there
0:13:16 if you can kind of
0:13:17 figure out what
0:13:18 types of content
0:13:19 work really well
0:13:19 and you can kind
0:13:20 of game the
0:13:21 algorithms a little
0:13:22 bit on these
0:13:22 platforms.
0:13:24 But as a user,
0:13:25 we may or may not
0:13:26 love this situation,
0:13:27 right?
0:13:27 People call it
0:13:28 brain rot.
0:13:28 We’ve got a lot
0:13:29 of brain rot in
0:13:31 our feeds that we
0:13:32 got to get past.
0:13:33 So, you know,
0:13:35 it’s, which one
0:13:36 wins out there?
0:13:36 I don’t know.
0:13:37 But then it’s like,
0:13:38 what’s the benefit
0:13:39 to the creator?
0:13:39 Like, okay,
0:13:40 I got a lot of
0:13:42 views, but is,
0:13:43 I mean, is Facebook
0:13:44 paying these creators
0:13:46 like based on the
0:13:47 views that you
0:13:47 played around with
0:13:48 their, what do they
0:13:49 call it, like their
0:13:49 partner program or
0:13:51 publishing program or
0:13:51 something?
0:13:52 Yeah, their
0:13:53 performance bonus
0:13:55 program is exactly
0:13:55 right.
0:13:56 And I could talk
0:13:56 about this a lot.
0:13:57 I don’t know if
0:13:58 this is like another
0:13:59 side hustle, you
0:13:59 know, whatever number
0:14:00 we’re on here.
0:14:01 Yeah, go for it.
0:14:02 Facebook performance
0:14:04 bonus program is a
0:14:06 really interesting
0:14:06 program.
0:14:08 So think of it, I
0:14:09 mean, think of it
0:14:09 like the YouTube
0:14:10 partner program,
0:14:11 right?
0:14:11 You know, we all
0:14:12 see Mr. Beast videos,
0:14:14 he has ads in his
0:14:15 videos, the YouTube
0:14:16 pays him, you know,
0:14:18 AdSense revenue, ad
0:14:18 revenue.
0:14:19 That’s exactly what
0:14:21 Facebook is doing that
0:14:23 if you get accepted to
0:14:24 this performance bonus
0:14:25 program and not everyone
0:14:26 gets accepted, but I do
0:14:27 happen to have a
0:14:28 Facebook page that is
0:14:29 accepted so I can talk
0:14:31 intelligently about this
0:14:32 program, that once
0:14:33 you’re accepted, you
0:14:35 get paid based on
0:14:36 essentially views and
0:14:38 interaction of your
0:14:39 posts, right?
0:14:40 So if you do have
0:14:41 something that goes
0:14:42 viral, gets a million
0:14:43 views, gets a ton of
0:14:44 comments, gets a bunch
0:14:45 of, you know, thumbs
0:14:47 up or whatever, you
0:14:48 will make more money.
0:14:49 And so I have a
0:14:50 particular page that my
0:14:51 best month ever was
0:14:53 just over $5,000 and
0:14:54 that was about two
0:14:55 months ago, right?
0:14:56 On average now it’s
0:14:58 doing $3,500 to $4,000
0:14:59 a month and it’s just a
0:15:01 very obscure, random
0:15:03 topic that isn’t like,
0:15:04 you know, popular.
0:15:05 It’s not like mainstream
0:15:06 news or anything.
0:15:07 It’s more like
0:15:08 nostalgic type stuff
0:15:09 like, hey, remember the
0:15:10 80s when this happened?
0:15:12 That’s not really what my
0:15:13 page is, but kind of
0:15:14 in that vein, right?
0:15:16 Nostalgic stuff.
0:15:16 Okay.
0:15:17 So I get some of that
0:15:17 stuff too.
0:15:18 Like here’s, you know,
0:15:19 here was the billboard,
0:15:21 you know, top 12 modern
0:15:23 rock chart from 1994 and
0:15:24 you’re like, I remember
0:15:25 those songs.
0:15:26 Exactly.
0:15:28 Stuff kind of like that.
0:15:29 Remember this, you know?
0:15:29 Okay.
0:15:30 And it might be an
0:15:31 image of something that
0:15:33 was, you know, from 20
0:15:34 years ago or 30 years ago
0:15:34 or whatever.
0:15:35 Yeah.
0:15:36 I remember like blowing
0:15:37 into the Nintendo
0:15:38 cartridge or…
0:15:39 Exactly.
0:15:39 Yeah.
0:15:39 Yeah.
0:15:40 Good stuff.
0:15:41 Is this something that
0:15:42 you’re, someone on your
0:15:43 team is sourcing this type
0:15:45 of material, like coming
0:15:46 up with this on a
0:15:46 consistent basis?
0:15:48 Yes, it is.
0:15:49 I’ve, you know, I
0:15:50 managed it from, from
0:15:52 the beginning, but like
0:15:53 you, I’ve got a lot of
0:15:54 other things going on.
0:15:55 So I found somebody that
0:15:57 they run it, they manage
0:15:58 the entire process, they
0:15:59 source the content, you
0:16:00 know, write up the
0:16:02 descriptions and interact
0:16:03 with the Facebook page
0:16:04 where they are essentially
0:16:05 doing everything at this
0:16:05 point.
0:16:06 Okay.
0:16:07 I’m just, you know, kind
0:16:08 of managing and making
0:16:08 sure everything’s
0:16:09 working well.
0:16:10 So it’s hardly any of my
0:16:11 own time.
0:16:13 So I, you know, pay this
0:16:14 particular person, you
0:16:15 know, VA to, to run it
0:16:16 and manage it.
0:16:17 And I take whatever
0:16:18 profits I get.
0:16:18 Yeah.
0:16:20 Is it mostly image
0:16:21 content, video, like
0:16:22 what’s working well?
0:16:22 Yeah.
0:16:24 It’s pretty much image
0:16:25 content.
0:16:25 Yeah.
0:16:26 Where we might ask a
0:16:27 question about, you
0:16:27 know, do you remember
0:16:29 this or, you know, did
0:16:30 you ever experience this
0:16:31 or whatever it is, you
0:16:32 know, we’ll write
0:16:32 something on it.
0:16:34 We might put a caption
0:16:35 on the image, you know,
0:16:36 but yeah, it’s, it’s
0:16:37 image content.
0:16:38 We don’t do any video
0:16:40 content at this point.
0:16:40 So.
0:16:42 Okay.
0:16:43 That’s an interesting
0:16:43 one.
0:16:43 Yeah.
0:16:45 How many views it took
0:16:47 to make that $5,000 plus
0:16:48 the ramp up period to
0:16:49 get there and more
0:16:50 side hustle trends with
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0:19:13 Yeah, so this particular
0:19:14 page just got into the
0:19:16 bonus program, I want to
0:19:17 say July of last year.
0:19:19 So that’s about nine
0:19:20 months, something like
0:19:21 that.
0:19:22 And I don’t remember
0:19:23 the first one or two
0:19:25 months, but it was under
0:19:25 $1,000.
0:19:28 But quickly after that,
0:19:30 since, you know, late
0:19:31 last year, call it
0:19:32 October, November, it’s
0:19:33 been making a couple
0:19:34 thousand dollars a month.
0:19:35 So only, you know, two
0:19:36 or three months of
0:19:37 getting accepted.
0:19:39 Now, the page was about
0:19:40 a year old before that.
0:19:41 Was it one that you
0:19:42 started or did you buy
0:19:43 it like for the
0:19:44 existing base?
0:19:45 I had started.
0:19:46 I had started this
0:19:47 particular page from
0:19:47 scratch.
0:19:48 Okay.
0:19:49 And I was trying to
0:19:50 send traffic to my
0:19:52 website, you know, to
0:19:53 you know, make things
0:19:55 go viral, send them to
0:19:56 the website, make money
0:19:57 from the ads on my
0:19:57 website.
0:19:59 It was like maybe
0:20:00 making a couple hundred
0:20:01 dollars a month.
0:20:02 But once I got accepted
0:20:03 the performance bonus
0:20:04 program, I went all in
0:20:05 on I’m just keeping
0:20:06 everybody on Facebook.
0:20:08 I’m like hardly send
0:20:10 them to my website at
0:20:11 all because I’m making
0:20:11 a lot more.
0:20:13 And so to answer
0:20:14 another, I think you
0:20:15 asked like how many
0:20:16 views does it take?
0:20:18 So my highest viewed
0:20:18 month where I made
0:20:19 about just over
0:20:20 five thousand
0:20:21 dollars, there was
0:20:24 30 million like views
0:20:25 or impressions.
0:20:25 Okay.
0:20:25 Okay.
0:20:26 Yeah.
0:20:27 Like essentially 30
0:20:28 million people scrolled
0:20:29 past our content.
0:20:29 Wow.
0:20:29 Yeah.
0:20:30 You know, at some
0:20:30 point.
0:20:31 So it’s a lot.
0:20:33 But on Facebook, it
0:20:35 can, I mean, things can
0:20:35 absolutely, you know,
0:20:36 blow up.
0:20:37 It can add up.
0:20:37 Okay.
0:20:38 And the page has about
0:20:39 a hundred thousand
0:20:40 followers just so people
0:20:41 are aware.
0:20:41 Okay.
0:20:42 So yeah, so it’s true.
0:20:43 All those views have
0:20:44 translated into some
0:20:45 people clicking and
0:20:46 saying, okay, we’ll
0:20:46 follow you now.
0:20:47 Exactly.
0:20:47 Okay.
0:20:48 Do you have a sense
0:20:49 of how often your
0:20:51 VA is posting new
0:20:51 stuff?
0:20:52 We post like 10 to
0:20:53 15 times every day.
0:20:55 So, so it’s a lot.
0:20:56 So it’s, you know,
0:20:57 it’s a serious thing.
0:20:57 Oh yeah.
0:20:58 Yeah.
0:20:59 It’s two, three hours a
0:20:59 day.
0:21:00 She’s in there, you
0:21:01 know, posting images and
0:21:02 interacting.
0:21:02 All right.
0:21:03 Yeah.
0:21:04 It’s a legit thing until,
0:21:05 you know, Facebook ends
0:21:06 their performance bonus
0:21:07 program and it’s all
0:21:07 crushed.
0:21:10 But for now, you
0:21:10 know, we’re putting a
0:21:11 lot of effort into it and
0:21:12 it’s working.
0:21:13 Until, yeah.
0:21:14 Until the rug gets, uh,
0:21:15 gets pulled out.
0:21:15 Right.
0:21:16 The one that shows up
0:21:17 a lot in my fee is Jeff
0:21:18 Rose, um, like good
0:21:19 financial sense.
0:21:20 Like his stuff shows up
0:21:20 a lot.
0:21:21 Oh yeah.
0:21:23 And he is like trying to
0:21:24 trigger people politically.
0:21:25 A lot of these, like he
0:21:27 just grabs like screenshots
0:21:28 of somebody, you know,
0:21:29 and he’ll play both sides.
0:21:30 Like I get the sense it’s
0:21:31 like completely agnostic.
0:21:32 I don’t really care.
0:21:33 It’s like, but I want to
0:21:35 spark those engagements,
0:21:36 spark those reactions and
0:21:38 try and get people to, uh,
0:21:39 to click on this.
0:21:41 I bet he, I imagine he’s
0:21:42 doing pretty well with his
0:21:43 bonus program as well.
0:21:43 Yep.
0:21:43 Yep.
0:21:44 No.
0:21:45 And that’s, that’s smart.
0:21:46 We do similar things.
0:21:47 So going to like your, you
0:21:49 know, uh, Nintendo example,
0:21:49 right?
0:21:51 We might post an image of
0:21:53 like nine games and say,
0:21:54 pick your favorite if you
0:21:55 were stuck inside all day
0:21:55 or something.
0:21:56 Right.
0:21:57 And everybody, oh, Mike
0:21:58 Tyson’s punch out, you
0:21:59 know, that’s the one I want
0:22:01 to do, or, you know, it’s
0:22:02 stuff kind of like that.
0:22:03 So it’s fun stuff.
0:22:03 Yeah.
0:22:05 It’s like engagement bait in
0:22:05 a way.
0:22:06 It’s like engagement bait
0:22:07 sometimes.
0:22:07 Totally.
0:22:08 Oh, this is great.
0:22:09 Yeah.
0:22:09 I get people debating.
0:22:10 Oh, for sure.
0:22:11 Okay.
0:22:12 I haven’t applied to do
0:22:12 this.
0:22:14 I, you know, maybe need, um,
0:22:15 I need to find a VA like
0:22:16 yours to come up with this
0:22:17 type of content, even if it’s
0:22:18 side hustle related, that
0:22:19 could be an interesting way
0:22:21 to, to grow the page and
0:22:22 another revenue stream.
0:22:23 If the, if the page views
0:22:24 are going down on the main
0:22:24 site.
0:22:25 Yeah, absolutely.
0:22:26 There’s potential there.
0:22:27 All right.
0:22:28 What’s, uh, what’s next on
0:22:29 the list for you?
0:22:30 Let’s see.
0:22:31 We kind of talked about
0:22:33 artificial intelligence kind
0:22:35 of showing up everywhere, but
0:22:36 there’s people that are truly
0:22:37 starting like artificial
0:22:39 intelligence businesses, right?
0:22:42 So call it vibe coding, right?
0:22:43 We now have people using these
0:22:46 tools that they’re not coders,
0:22:47 that they’re building software
0:22:49 products, they’re building apps,
0:22:51 they’re building little tools
0:22:53 that people are paying for or
0:22:54 using, right?
0:22:56 And so if you have followed
0:22:58 Peter levels on Twitter, for
0:23:02 example, he’s built a game using
0:23:03 artificial intelligence.
0:23:06 It’s like a airline simulator.
0:23:08 It’s a, okay, like a airplane
0:23:10 simulator, uh, type game that
0:23:11 thousands of people can play at
0:23:12 the same time.
0:23:14 So everybody’s like doing flight
0:23:15 simulators together.
0:23:16 So you gotta, I don’t know, I
0:23:17 haven’t played it, but you’re
0:23:19 dodging other planes and it’s
0:23:21 just absolutely, you know, blown
0:23:23 up, but he built it all with
0:23:24 artificial intelligence.
0:23:26 And he has a large following.
0:23:30 So he, uh, has been able to,
0:23:31 you know, get a lot of users
0:23:32 very quickly, right?
0:23:34 That’s a big part of it is
0:23:35 having that built in audience.
0:23:37 And now he has sponsors in the
0:23:39 game that are paying like, Hey,
0:23:41 we’ll sponsor the cloud or we’re
0:23:42 sponsor the building.
0:23:42 Right.
0:23:45 And so he posted, but it’s, I
0:23:46 mean, it’s insane numbers.
0:23:48 Like it’s over $50,000 he’s
0:23:49 made in this.
0:23:51 It’s, it’s like less than a
0:23:52 month old.
0:23:52 Right.
0:23:53 Wow.
0:23:54 And so, but there’s lots of
0:23:56 other examples now of people that
0:23:58 are building tools and apps and
0:24:00 actually selling them or, you
0:24:02 know, allowing people to use
0:24:04 them all using, you know, cursor
0:24:06 dot AI as a tool.
0:24:08 There’s lovable AI.
0:24:10 There’s all these tools you can
0:24:12 use where you basically chat, you
0:24:14 know, you chat with the AI and it
0:24:16 builds the app for you.
0:24:17 Yeah.
0:24:17 Isn’t that nuts?
0:24:19 Just like natural language.
0:24:20 This is what I want to build.
0:24:20 It’s crazy.
0:24:21 Yeah.
0:24:22 We did a whole episode about
0:24:24 this with Pete McPherson from do
0:24:25 you even blog.
0:24:28 He’s built out a handful of these
0:24:29 different tools.
0:24:31 His latest one is like, um, you
0:24:32 know, an email list gadget list
0:24:33 gadget, I think it’s called, but
0:24:36 he’s got several of these exited at
0:24:36 least one of them.
0:24:39 And it was really interesting how
0:24:40 you recommended.
0:24:40 Okay.
0:24:41 I want to start off by asking
0:24:44 chat GPT, like, Hey, I want to
0:24:46 build this big picture.
0:24:47 What do I need?
0:24:49 And it’ll list out like, here’s
0:24:50 what you need to do.
0:24:51 It’s like step two, go to
0:24:52 cursor, natural language.
0:24:53 Here’s what I want to build.
0:24:54 These are the features of
0:24:55 functionality that I want to
0:24:55 have.
0:24:57 Uh, this is what I’m thinking.
0:24:59 It’s like, boom, boom, boom.
0:24:59 You know, it’s like, and now you
0:25:01 have a semi working version and
0:25:03 then you ask, you know, if you
0:25:05 ask it to troubleshoot itself and
0:25:06 do the QA testing.
0:25:06 Yeah.
0:25:09 And now you got to go figure
0:25:11 out the marketing and sales piece
0:25:12 is always the challenge of that.
0:25:14 And his recommendation was to
0:25:15 like, you know, start with your
0:25:17 own pains and problems, scratch
0:25:17 your own itch.
0:25:19 And like, we call the kind of
0:25:21 unbundling of different tools
0:25:23 where I may not need the whole
0:25:25 feature set of an Ahrefs, for
0:25:27 example, but like, if I could do
0:25:28 this one little piece of it, you
0:25:29 know, okay, maybe that’s
0:25:31 something that people would be
0:25:32 worth paying nine bucks a month
0:25:34 for 19 bucks a month for.
0:25:34 Yeah.
0:25:36 Now it’s super fascinating.
0:25:38 And I’ve seen, I’ve seen
0:25:40 several examples, kind of like
0:25:41 you mentioned, of people that
0:25:43 are building tools, maybe
0:25:44 they’re not even selling them,
0:25:45 but they’re building tools for
0:25:47 their own business to just make
0:25:48 their life a little bit more
0:25:50 efficient, like building their
0:25:51 own essentially WordPress
0:25:51 plugin.
0:25:53 Like I want, you know, something
0:25:55 to do this on my website or
0:25:57 fix, you know, a thousand
0:26:00 images, you know, and I, I don’t
0:26:00 know how to do that.
0:26:02 I’m not a programmer, but I’m
0:26:04 smart enough to ask an AI tool
0:26:05 how to do that.
0:26:06 And it spits out code for me,
0:26:07 right.
0:26:08 To improve my own business.
0:26:09 Yeah.
0:26:11 The one that I got all excited
0:26:12 about the other night was maybe
0:26:14 this could just be like a custom
0:26:16 GPT tool is like, so ever after
0:26:19 every episode hit stop recording,
0:26:21 my next step is to look at the
0:26:22 transcript and kind of markup for
0:26:24 the editor, you know, the, the
0:26:26 questions that didn’t really land or
0:26:27 where the conversation went off the
0:26:28 rails, right.
0:26:29 Just to tighten that up a little bit
0:26:31 and provide a better listening
0:26:31 experience.
0:26:33 my thought is to build that custom
0:26:35 GPT, like feed in a bunch of
0:26:36 before and afters.
0:26:37 Like here was the original
0:26:38 recording.
0:26:39 Here’s what made the final cut
0:26:40 learned from this, maybe upload
0:26:41 10 or 15 of those.
0:26:43 And then like, here’s the next
0:26:44 raw transcription.
0:26:45 Like, could you provide some
0:26:48 suggestions on what to trim from
0:26:49 this episode to tighten it up a
0:26:51 little bit and just to see what
0:26:52 kind of results, maybe that would
0:26:55 speed up my review process a
0:26:55 little bit.
0:26:56 Yeah.
0:26:57 Now there’s like so many
0:26:59 applications of different things
0:27:00 that you can do across your
0:27:01 entire business.
0:27:03 It’s a, it’s an exciting time,
0:27:04 right?
0:27:06 But things are changing so fast.
0:27:08 But the, the good news is that
0:27:10 like such a small percentage of
0:27:11 people out there, even though
0:27:13 everybody listening may have heard
0:27:15 that, Hey, I, I can actually get
0:27:17 AI to do some coding for me.
0:27:17 Yeah.
0:27:20 Very, very few people actually take
0:27:22 that step to actually build
0:27:22 something still.
0:27:25 So the opportunities there, you
0:27:27 just still need to be willing to
0:27:29 jump in, take a risk, you know,
0:27:32 build out your idea and, and do
0:27:32 it.
0:27:35 So it’s potentially becoming
0:27:37 cheaper to build a software
0:27:37 business.
0:27:38 And there’s still opportunity
0:27:39 there.
0:27:40 I do think for the next few
0:27:42 years, there’s still only going
0:27:43 to be a tiny sliver of people
0:27:45 that actually take that step and
0:27:45 do this.
0:27:46 Yeah.
0:27:48 This is an interesting one from a
0:27:50 software entrepreneur like
0:27:51 yourself, like, Oh, if we go
0:27:53 back 15 years ago, you know, this
0:27:55 long tail pro just take a fraction
0:27:56 of the development time and
0:27:58 effort and cost to, to build
0:28:00 something, uh, today.
0:28:01 Probably so.
0:28:02 Yeah.
0:28:03 Yeah, exactly.
0:28:05 If I were to start from scratch,
0:28:07 you know, I’d probably still have
0:28:09 to work with a developer, but I
0:28:11 bet I could get it 50% of the way
0:28:12 there.
0:28:13 You know what I mean?
0:28:13 Yeah.
0:28:14 Yeah.
0:28:15 It would definitely be way
0:28:16 cheaper to, to build something
0:28:17 now.
0:28:18 I like this idea of building
0:28:19 something for your own use.
0:28:21 And then maybe with a few
0:28:23 tweaks, it’s almost like white
0:28:24 labeling to a different
0:28:25 audience.
0:28:26 Like if somebody else of
0:28:28 another podcaster wanted to
0:28:30 utilize the same, you know,
0:28:32 editing assistant, you know,
0:28:33 maybe they could do that.
0:28:34 And then maybe someday a
0:28:35 Descript wants to buy that
0:28:37 from me and I’ve got a nice
0:28:38 little chunk of change for my
0:28:38 exit.
0:28:39 Yeah, exactly.
0:28:41 And so here’s another side
0:28:42 hustle trend that I’m seeing
0:28:44 that’s very related, right?
0:28:45 So I think we piggyback on
0:28:48 this is creating free tools or
0:28:51 free websites that perhaps
0:28:53 are, you know, generated with
0:28:55 AI or not, right?
0:28:58 It either way, but I’ve been
0:29:00 covering on my YouTube channel.
0:29:04 I cover a lot of free games or
0:29:06 free tools, you know, free
0:29:08 calculators, a lot of these
0:29:09 things, like for example, a
0:29:11 couple of them are really
0:29:13 simple tools, like a YouTube
0:29:14 thumbnail downloader.
0:29:16 All you do is you pop in the
0:29:18 YouTube URL and it pulls the
0:29:20 thumbnail for you, right?
0:29:23 Another tool I covered is you
0:29:25 upload an image of yourself and
0:29:27 AI detects the shape of your
0:29:28 face.
0:29:29 You know, do you have a round
0:29:33 face or an oblong face or an
0:29:34 olive face?
0:29:35 Like I didn’t even know this
0:29:36 thing existed, right?
0:29:38 But for example, the face shape,
0:29:40 it’s called, oh, what’s the
0:29:40 website?
0:29:42 Anyways, I can’t remember the
0:29:44 exact website that it’s called,
0:29:46 but it gets something like
0:29:48 two and a half million visitors
0:29:49 every month.
0:29:49 Wow.
0:29:50 That are coming.
0:29:51 People just, they want to know
0:29:52 the shape of their face.
0:29:54 It’s a little like face, face
0:29:55 shape quiz thing.
0:29:55 Yeah.
0:29:57 It’s like face shape AI.
0:29:58 You upload an image of
0:29:59 yourself.
0:30:00 It says, oh, you’ve got an
0:30:01 oblong face, you know,
0:30:02 congrats.
0:30:04 They’re just monetized with
0:30:04 ads, right?
0:30:06 But there’s lots of
0:30:07 calculators.
0:30:08 Like there’s a sleep
0:30:09 calculator.
0:30:11 A fun one is snow day to
0:30:12 calculator.com.
0:30:14 You put in your zip code
0:30:16 and it predicts if you’re
0:30:17 going to have a snow day
0:30:17 tomorrow.
0:30:20 Like is it, what, what are
0:30:21 the odds that school’s going
0:30:22 to be canceled tomorrow?
0:30:22 Right.
0:30:23 Okay.
0:30:25 And that gets like 3 million
0:30:26 visitors a month during the
0:30:26 winter months.
0:30:27 Right.
0:30:27 Wow.
0:30:28 So there’s a lot of these
0:30:30 little either free tools or
0:30:31 there’s lots of games.
0:30:33 There’s tons of examples of
0:30:34 games out there.
0:30:35 Like you could just think of
0:30:36 some, you know, silly word
0:30:38 game or shape game or
0:30:39 whatever it is.
0:30:42 You make it free, monetize
0:30:42 with ads.
0:30:44 The thing can be built with
0:30:46 AI or simple coding, right?
0:30:48 So, so a lot of these free
0:30:50 websites, free tools, a lot
0:30:51 of these things I’m still
0:30:53 seeing do, do really, really
0:30:53 well.
0:30:55 And you know the secrets
0:30:57 behind the, what’s driving
0:30:58 the traffic for like the
0:31:00 face shape predictor or the
0:31:01 snow day predictor or anything
0:31:01 like that?
0:31:03 Well, the, like the face
0:31:05 shape one does really well
0:31:05 in Google.
0:31:07 It is getting a lot of
0:31:08 organic traffic.
0:31:09 And this is something people
0:31:10 are searching for.
0:31:12 Like here, if I, if I search
0:31:14 what’s the shape of my face, I
0:31:17 want to get the, oh,
0:31:20 detectfaceshape.com is the
0:31:20 website.
0:31:20 Okay.
0:31:21 Right.
0:31:22 Yes.
0:31:23 People are searching for
0:31:24 this.
0:31:25 I was, I was blown away.
0:31:27 Like the, the keywords, like
0:31:28 it’s hundreds of thousands of
0:31:30 searches every month for a
0:31:30 bunch of these.
0:31:32 So, so that is a Google play.
0:31:33 The snow day calculator one
0:31:35 gets a lot of repeat
0:31:35 visitors.
0:31:37 Once people find it, they
0:31:38 just know, Hey, this is, I
0:31:39 don’t know why so many people
0:31:41 look at this, but people that
0:31:42 want to get out of school,
0:31:44 they’re, Hey, a hundred percent
0:31:45 sounds like something my kids
0:31:46 would check every morning.
0:31:46 Exactly.
0:31:48 There’s clouds today.
0:31:49 Maybe I can get out of school
0:31:49 tomorrow.
0:31:50 Exactly what they’re doing.
0:31:51 Yeah.
0:31:51 And you’re like, well, it’s
0:31:53 54 degrees, so don’t get your
0:31:53 hopes up.
0:31:54 That’s right.
0:31:55 It’s fun stuff.
0:31:56 No, this is cool.
0:31:57 I, this has always kind of
0:31:59 been on the, the back burner,
0:32:00 you know, what, what is kind of
0:32:02 the niche tool or a little
0:32:05 calculator and, and maybe with
0:32:06 the, with the help of AI, maybe
0:32:07 it’s a little simple game.
0:32:09 One that we talked about, um,
0:32:11 after a recent trip, we went to
0:32:13 Hawaii with the family and we’re
0:32:15 snorkeling along and, you know,
0:32:17 my six-year-old will tell you the
0:32:18 story of like, you know, the
0:32:20 giant turtle attack is like, of
0:32:21 course the turtle is paying him
0:32:22 no mind at all, but like the
0:32:23 water was kind of cloudy and it
0:32:24 shows up like two feet in front
0:32:25 of our face.
0:32:25 Oh yeah.
0:32:26 Scary.
0:32:28 So he’s like freaking out and I’m
0:32:29 like, dude, did he see a shark
0:32:30 or something?
0:32:31 You know, it’s a, maybe we
0:32:33 can make, um, like a crossy road
0:32:35 style game, but it’s like turtles
0:32:36 and sharks and jellyfish, like
0:32:37 something where you have to like
0:32:39 go across the ocean this way.
0:32:39 I like it.
0:32:40 There, you know, maybe there’s
0:32:42 something, a little browser-based
0:32:44 game that you could do based on
0:32:44 that.
0:32:45 And who knows?
0:32:46 Maybe people find it.
0:32:47 Yeah, absolutely.
0:32:48 I honestly think there are
0:32:51 thousands of ideas that sometimes
0:32:53 the sillier, the better, right?
0:32:55 Because they might have chance to
0:32:55 go viral.
0:32:57 I either create a really great
0:32:58 game, right?
0:33:00 Or if it’s something silly, that’s
0:33:02 fun that people might talk about,
0:33:04 you know, it’s got the opportunity
0:33:05 to be shared a lot and can do
0:33:06 well.
0:33:08 So lots of opportunity there.
0:33:08 Yeah.
0:33:10 One, there was something, I saw a
0:33:12 Twitter post about this and I’ll see
0:33:13 if I can dig it up for the show
0:33:15 notes, but it was a bunch of like
0:33:17 software or little tool ideas.
0:33:19 And it was, you know, sometimes it’s
0:33:21 something simple, like how to improve
0:33:23 images in Word or like, you know,
0:33:25 maybe you can kind of piggyback a
0:33:28 question-based query with Word, Excel,
0:33:30 you know, some software tool and like
0:33:33 maybe there’s some like layer on that
0:33:36 you could add to that for a workplace.
0:33:37 So, you know, maybe if people are
0:33:39 swiping the company credit card, they
0:33:41 don’t, they think less about it than
0:33:42 pulling out their own money.
0:33:43 So maybe there’s, there’s something
0:33:44 there.
0:33:44 Yeah.
0:33:47 And to piggyback on that a little
0:33:49 bit, you know, we talked about, Hey,
0:33:50 you know, Google is changing organic
0:33:52 traffic is searching for a lot of
0:33:53 content creators.
0:33:56 The one area that I am seeing organic
0:33:58 traffic still do really, really well
0:34:02 are these tools, these games, right?
0:34:05 Because when somebody is searching for
0:34:06 that particular problem, you know, what
0:34:09 is the shape of my face or whatever the
0:34:11 query is, you know, they actually do
0:34:13 need to go to that tool or that
0:34:15 website to, to get that information.
0:34:18 So yeah, that is the one area that if
0:34:20 you want to try and get that organic
0:34:22 search, you need to be thinking more
0:34:26 about tools, actual products or games, you
0:34:27 know, something people can go to and
0:34:29 actually use and interact with on your
0:34:30 website.
0:34:32 Okay, very cool.
0:34:36 The next one that I have on my list is what
0:34:38 I, what I’m calling the death of the online
0:34:41 course in the rise of the higher touch, higher
0:34:42 engagement offer.
0:34:45 And I don’t know if this is a factor of AI or a
0:34:48 factor of just like online course fatigue, where
0:34:53 it’s like that lower ticket, maybe the hundred to
0:34:58 $500 online courses make a really, a really
0:35:00 difficult place to play in right now, in my
0:35:00 opinion.
0:35:03 And what we’re seeing is a shift towards the, you
0:35:06 know, thousand, 2000, you know, maybe two to
0:35:07 $10,000.
0:35:11 Um, yeah, as much as $30,000 for like some really
0:35:12 high touch.
0:35:14 You have a dedicated coach who’s going to hold
0:35:15 your hand.
0:35:19 Maybe there’s some, uh, you know, on-site local, you
0:35:21 know, retreats or workshops that are included in
0:35:24 this, but it’s, um, it can kind of a transition
0:35:29 away from a purely on-demand pre-recorded video
0:35:33 based course to a more, uh, high engagement.
0:35:35 Maybe there’s a community element to this.
0:35:37 Maybe there’s live, uh, live coaching elements.
0:35:39 And so if you’re thinking about structuring an
0:35:43 offer, that’s just something to keep in mind for, um,
0:35:44 you know, going forward.
0:35:44 Yeah.
0:35:47 And I think part of that is that, uh, there’s so
0:35:50 much information for free on YouTube through video
0:35:51 content.
0:35:53 I think that’s part of it, right?
0:35:57 Is that, Hey, maybe I used to buy a video course for
0:36:02 $200 or $500, but now I can get 90% of the way there
0:36:04 just with free content on YouTube.
0:36:08 So, so people are like, eh, if it’s just video, maybe,
0:36:11 maybe I’m not going to do it, but I do believe that
0:36:12 you’re exactly right.
0:36:16 Uh, more and more people are craving in-person type
0:36:20 meetups, uh, or community based, you know, where you can
0:36:24 interact either in, in smaller groups, you know, maybe you
0:36:28 have a mastermind that’s part of this, uh, community that you
0:36:31 can meet up with on a regular basis, or you get that more
0:36:31 high touch.
0:36:34 Like you said, um, that, that’s what I’m seeing.
0:36:38 And, and same with me, you know, I am, I’m part of an
0:36:43 online community that I paid for, for, uh, a few years, but I
0:36:46 don’t pay for the, uh, education part of it.
0:36:50 It’s really just the community part of it, uh, that I I’m
0:36:52 there because I like the people that are in the community.
0:36:56 And, you know, when I have a problem, I have a group of
0:36:59 people I know, and I trust, I know they’re experienced, I can
0:37:01 bring up an issue and I know I’ll get an answer.
0:37:01 Yeah.
0:37:05 This community based, we’ve seen people shifting from like a
0:37:08 on-demand evergreen model to more of a cohort based.
0:37:10 If you’re going to do the course thing, it’s like, we’re all
0:37:11 going to go through this together.
0:37:15 It has a defined start date and a defined end date.
0:37:18 And we, you know, everybody, there’s no working ahead.
0:37:21 Like we’re going to do this, uh, together like that safety and
0:37:24 numbers or strength and community, uh, I think can, can work
0:37:25 really well.
0:37:27 And it makes it probably easier to sell than just something.
0:37:28 Well, it’s, it’s always available.
0:37:29 You can buy it tomorrow.
0:37:30 You can buy it the next week.
0:37:31 Doesn’t really matter.
0:37:32 It’s like, you got to get in.
0:37:34 Cause we’re starting on Tuesday.
0:37:35 Yep, exactly right.
0:37:35 Yeah.
0:37:39 I think, uh, those types of models work well, seems to be the
0:37:39 trend.
0:37:40 That’s what I’m seeing.
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0:40:25 One other trend that I found interesting, or maybe this has been going on forever, and I was just like playing in the organic sandbox too much, but like, you know, more and more entrepreneurs incorporating paid media, paid traffic, paid acquisition strategies, and really trying to break down their value chain of, well, what is a customer ultimately worth at the end of the funnel?
0:40:27 Or, you know, what is a customer?
0:40:28 Or, you know, what is a visitor really worth to me?
0:40:29 What’s an email subscriber worth to me?
0:40:32 How can I go out and profitably buy those customers?
0:40:34 Like, it was insane.
0:40:39 The amount of money flowing through Meta from one mastermind group or coaching group I was a part of last year.
0:40:45 It’s like, everybody in the room was spending thousands, tens of thousands of dollars a month with Mr. Zuckerberg.
0:40:48 And I was like, dude, what an amazing business that they built.
0:40:48 Yeah.
0:40:50 Yep, exactly right.
0:41:09 But, I mean, that’s sort of the golden opportunity that’s always been there, is that if you know that it costs you a dollar to acquire a customer, and you can make $2 for every customer that you get in the door, you’re going to just spend as much money as you possibly can, right?
0:41:21 And I’ve personally never landed on that perfect business where I can just spend tens of thousands of dollars every month, and I know I’m going to make tens of thousands of dollars in profit because I’m buying that traffic.
0:41:22 But some people have.
0:41:23 Some people have.
0:41:28 You know, one of those examples that has been very public about it is Matt Paulson.
0:41:39 And he owns MarketBeat.com, where it’s a financial newsletter business where he spends essentially as much money as he possibly can to get people on his email list.
0:41:44 And he now has, I think it’s, it was either five or six million subscribers that he just passed.
0:41:44 Wow.
0:41:45 On his email list.
0:41:48 So it’s a huge business at this point.
0:41:56 And he’s calculated out, okay, I know I’m going to make this much in the first week, you know, because we send this many emails and this many convert.
0:42:00 We know we’re going to make this much after the first month or lifetime value of the customer.
0:42:04 And so he just keeps pouring gas on the, on the fire there.
0:42:05 Well, yeah.
0:42:08 So you can get that flywheel spin and yeah, spend as much as you can.
0:42:08 Yep.
0:42:09 Exactly right.
0:42:13 And so this might be part B of this side hustle trend.
0:42:19 The trend that maybe has been around for a little while is newsletters, newsletters as a business, right?
0:42:29 I think is what I’ll put that category in is a lot of people are sort of foregoing the traditional website and they’re truly just focusing on.
0:42:36 We just get people on the email list and then we have sponsors that pay to be listed in our email newsletter, right?
0:42:37 A little ad spot.
0:42:46 And so you get 50,000 or a hundred thousand people on your email list and you know you’re going to make a thousand dollars every time you send an email newsletter out to your list.
0:42:48 You do that two times a week, right?
0:42:50 All of a sudden you’re making eight, $10,000 a month.
0:42:59 And so this has been a trend, definitely a side hustle trend that I’ve seen is monetized email newsletters and that is the platform.
0:43:00 Like that’s it.
0:43:01 Yeah.
0:43:02 It’s, it’s interesting.
0:43:05 Well, we create all this content with the goal of getting people on my newsletter.
0:43:16 What if the newsletter is the content and that’s working really well for some people and maybe an even clearer path towards that lifetime value of a subscriber metric that you’re trying to.
0:43:20 Figure out and like, okay, now I can go out and, and buy subscribers.
0:43:26 Essentially, we’ve talked with Ryan’s men on like the Naptown scoop, like local newsletter for Annapolis.
0:43:32 It’s like, well, you know, based on this ad load and this frequency, it’s like exactly what you described.
0:43:34 Like, oh, I, yeah, I can totally go out and buy subscribers.
0:43:38 But like for a local newsletter, it’s like, well, the population is 80,000.
0:43:46 Like I’m going to cap out at some point where it’s like, you know, the market share is only so big, but for something that is a little bit broader than, uh, you
0:43:47 really can go huge with it.
0:43:47 Yep.
0:43:50 Or you go to more locations, right?
0:43:50 It’s true.
0:43:51 Franchise it out.
0:43:51 Yeah.
0:43:53 We do five cities now, you know, or whatever.
0:43:55 So, but yeah, yeah.
0:43:58 It’s super interesting, you know, email newsletters as a business.
0:43:58 Yeah.
0:44:03 And we’ve got a few newsletter based episodes that went with Ryan on the local side.
0:44:08 We’ve done, uh, Cody Sanchez has been on the show like early on in her journey, this journey
0:44:11 to her first, like 50,000 subscribers.
0:44:13 So definitely a viable model there.
0:44:16 If, you know, if the websites are going to be a little more difficult, there’s other ways
0:44:20 to monetize that content, other ways to create and share that content.
0:44:27 The next one on my list is what I’m calling everything as a service.
0:44:29 You know, you can’t just pay for something now.
0:44:30 You got to pay for it every month.
0:44:36 And I don’t know if this is, you know, the product of Netflix or product of, you know, everything
0:44:39 is just, you know, it’s a tiny amount.
0:44:41 It’s just, you know, a little bit.
0:44:44 And it becomes from the consumer side, like, oh, well, this is, hey, sure.
0:44:45 I can afford that.
0:44:47 But at a certain point, it’s like the death by a thousand paper cuts.
0:44:51 So it’s like, oh, it’s just one more, there’s one more little SaaS tool to add on.
0:44:56 But from the entrepreneur’s standpoint, it’s almost baked into your pricing model, this
0:44:59 assumption that it’s going to be a recurring monthly thing.
0:45:04 And so you can lean into that and get people used to, used to paying for your thing over
0:45:05 and over again.
0:45:05 Yep.
0:45:06 Yeah.
0:45:11 And I was just looking at a perfect example of this, a hosting company, you know, where
0:45:16 usually, you know, in the past, you might get a domain along with your, you know, hosting
0:45:16 package.
0:45:23 But now a lot of hosting companies, you get a full website builder, you know, that’s
0:45:26 a visual builder, you get the hosting, you get the domain.
0:45:31 Now some are offering AI tools, you get an AI image generator, you get an AI, you know, writer,
0:45:38 you get, you know, an AI blogging tool, you get, you know, it’s like everything to like
0:45:40 run your online business now.
0:45:44 And it’s just one friendly, you know, monthly fee, right?
0:45:49 But, but yeah, I’m seeing that more and more as you know, these, these companies that are
0:45:51 building in lots of tools.
0:45:55 It’s like, well, I’ll just, you know, spend 10 bucks a month to do all that then, I guess.
0:45:56 Yeah.
0:45:57 Makes sense.
0:46:03 If you’re, you’re providing a consistent service, if there’s a community element to what you’re
0:46:06 doing, like, Hey, you know, it’s 50 bucks a month, it’s a hundred bucks a month.
0:46:08 Stay a member of this community.
0:46:10 We’ve seen people doing paid newsletters.
0:46:10 Sure.
0:46:15 The free newsletter tier offers this, this, and this, but you know, the paid tier offers,
0:46:17 you know, a way you’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
0:46:22 So here’s, you know, more in depth, you know, curated content, whatever is behind the paywall.
0:46:28 Now we talked about it in the context of little micro SAS projects, software tools, lots of
0:46:30 different ways to, to go about it.
0:46:35 But thinking of that recurring revenue first versus a, a one-off purchase.
0:46:37 And this relates to the online course thing too.
0:46:40 It’s like, Hey, I’m going to collect $200 one-time upfront payment.
0:46:42 You got lifetime access to the thing.
0:46:46 We’ve seen a little bit of a shift and maybe it’s the entrepreneurs getting a little more savvy.
0:46:48 Well, that’s great for my launch.
0:46:50 But then what happens 12 months later?
0:46:54 It’s like, and I keep having to serving these, keep having to serve these people over and over
0:46:55 again without collecting any additional revenue.
0:47:01 So we’ve seen people shift that pricing model to more of a community-based or, or add a recurring
0:47:01 element to it.
0:47:02 Yep.
0:47:04 I think that’s smart business.
0:47:07 Anytime you can add recurring revenue, I think that’s smart business.
0:47:08 Cool.
0:47:09 Oh, you got another one?
0:47:10 Yeah, I do.
0:47:12 Um, I’ve got a couple more.
0:47:16 This is a, I don’t know if you call this a side hustle trend, other than I’ve seen this
0:47:16 opportunity.
0:47:18 And I haven’t seen it talked about a lot.
0:47:20 I don’t know if it’s been covered on the side hustle show.
0:47:21 Maybe it has been.
0:47:27 So forgive me if this has been mentioned, but people are publishing content on MSN.
0:47:34 So I don’t know if you’ve seen small publishers, you know, MSN.com truly MSN.com.
0:47:34 Yeah.
0:47:38 A lot of older people tend to still have that as their homepage.
0:47:44 It gets millions and millions of views every month, but you can be a publisher to contribute
0:47:46 content to MSN.
0:47:50 And, uh, I just had a buddy just this last month.
0:47:58 He’s had a few things go really viral and he made, uh, just over $20,000 just from publishing
0:47:59 on MSN.
0:47:59 Wow.
0:48:00 Right.
0:48:06 Uh, and so it’s one of these really unique opportunities you can apply to get your website
0:48:06 approved.
0:48:12 Uh, so if your organic traffic is going down from Google, well, you can publish content
0:48:14 on MSN.com.
0:48:17 They’re still getting a ton of direct traffic, right?
0:48:22 And the population of viewers on MSN is probably skews a little bit older.
0:48:28 Uh, and so if you have content that does really well in that demographic, you can get millions
0:48:29 of views, right?
0:48:34 So it’s, I’ve heard of lots of people doing this, uh, but I happen to have a buddy that’s
0:48:36 been giving me updates, uh, over those last month.
0:48:37 He’s doing really, really well.
0:48:38 Yeah.
0:48:43 We’re a part of the MSN publishing program, Microsoft start program.
0:48:45 It was maybe called, um, early on.
0:48:46 It may have changed.
0:48:52 We’ve never had anything go that viral, but you know, I think our best month is maybe 150,
0:48:53 200 bucks a month.
0:48:59 So it’s not, it’s not 20,000, but it’s another place to syndicate the content that you’re already
0:49:01 creating for pretty low lift.
0:49:07 One of the strategies that was shared with me, it’s like, if you can somehow like sync
0:49:11 your RSS feed and I don’t know, I’ve got like a lot of short code and stuff in my posts where
0:49:14 I was like, I don’t know if that would look right.
0:49:19 Or I don’t know, maybe they would strip that out, but if you can syndicate your RSS and like
0:49:24 if you’re creating listicles, like the top 12 ways to make money online in 2025, like
0:49:26 it will create like a gallery.
0:49:30 And so people have to page through obnoxious from the user standpoint, but MSN is racking up
0:49:33 more page views, racking up more ad views, right?
0:49:37 And so that’s going to improve your take, your, your rev share from that content versus
0:49:40 having a, a scrollable, uh, list post.
0:49:40 Yep.
0:49:45 And I think, um, a lot of people are now publishing content, uh, directly just on MSN.
0:49:48 It’s not even on their website, right?
0:49:52 And so you can create these like image carousels or video.
0:49:53 I can’t remember what they’re called.
0:49:58 There’s a particular thing that you can get that it’s really just on MSN that you have to
0:50:00 scroll through these, yeah, 10 images.
0:50:05 And, um, so anyways, kind of an interesting opportunity that’s been around for a long time,
0:50:08 but I’ve seen, uh, several people doing really well recently with it still.
0:50:09 Yeah.
0:50:14 That’s one of the, it’s one of the income streams, uh, for, for side hustle nation, but maybe there’s
0:50:15 a way like everything.
0:50:19 There’s a way to like triple down on the thing and really, really go for it.
0:50:20 You just got to pick the one.
0:50:20 Yeah.
0:50:22 That you’re going to go all in on, right?
0:50:23 It’s hard to do them all.
0:50:23 Yeah.
0:50:27 Publish, you know, 10 times a day or whatever it’s going to take.
0:50:29 I remember talking with John Dykstra a few months ago.
0:50:31 It’s like a really double down on email.
0:50:33 Like when you say double down, what do you mean?
0:50:35 He’s like, I sent three emails a day.
0:50:36 It’s like, Jesus.
0:50:37 Like, Oh, okay.
0:50:39 And we’re over here doing one or two a week.
0:50:41 Yeah, exactly.
0:50:46 And next on my list is a service based side hustle observation.
0:50:54 And that is the increase in acceptance for fractional support, or maybe a buzzword around
0:51:00 fractional support, fractional CTO, fractional CFO, stuff like this, where if you have expertise
0:51:08 in a particular field that calling yourself the fractional person, I think elevates you above,
0:51:11 Hey, I’m your freelance accountant, or I’m your freelance bookkeeper.
0:51:13 No, I’m going to be your fractional CFO.
0:51:16 And I think it allows you to command higher rates, higher prices.
0:51:23 And plus people are maybe becoming more willing to hire that type of person or agree to a contractor
0:51:29 relationship with that type of person lends itself really well to niche agencies, niche
0:51:30 productized service providers.
0:51:31 Yeah, absolutely.
0:51:35 I mean, we see this all the time, you know, from a user perspective, if I go to Upwork and
0:51:41 I’m looking to hire somebody, and I get people that apply that are sort of generalists, right?
0:51:45 They say, Oh, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, you know, I can do it all versus
0:51:51 somebody that says, I create financial spreadsheets in in Google Sheets.
0:51:53 And that is what I do, right?
0:51:57 You’re going to hire that guy if you’re looking for a financial spreadsheet, and you’re going
0:51:57 to pay way more.
0:51:59 Yeah, I’m going to be willing to, right?
0:52:04 I’m like, $30 an hour versus the $10 an hour guy, but I’m going to do it because that’s what
0:52:05 you do.
0:52:10 So if you can be a specialist, you know, in your field and sort of market yourself as either
0:52:17 the fractional, or, you know, I am the go to email newsletter, optimization person, or whatever
0:52:19 it is, you’re going to command that higher price.
0:52:21 Yeah, yeah, exactly.
0:52:27 I’m the go to person for viral Facebook partner program content in your niche.
0:52:29 Exactly.
0:52:30 And that person does exist.
0:52:31 I know who that is.
0:52:34 And they have a thriving business.
0:52:34 Very good.
0:52:35 Very good.
0:52:43 The next one on my list is what I’m calling influencer marketing partners or influencer co-founders,
0:52:46 where they’re almost like you might have a technical co-founder.
0:52:50 Now it’s on what you might have a an influencer co-founder or influencer partner.
0:52:54 And at the very top of the food chain, you have Mr. Beast and Feastables and stuff.
0:53:01 But like, even lower down, we’ve had examples of e-commerce sellers on the podcast, you kind
0:53:07 of tapping into this really, really broad segment of what they called micro influencers, people
0:53:14 with like 500, 1,000 up to maybe 10, 20,000 followers, like not super viral accounts, but
0:53:16 they’ve got people paying attention to them.
0:53:18 They have been in the content creation game.
0:53:23 They know how to make something compelling and sending them samples of the product and really
0:53:29 leaning into that as a marketing channel versus trying to go out and, you know, find traffic
0:53:31 and buyers the other way or other through other channels.
0:53:33 I mean, it’s smart, right?
0:53:38 Because a lot of times if you have a product, you’ve got a good idea, you have zero followers.
0:53:45 If you can kind of skip that whole step of building things up over the years and partner with somebody
0:53:49 that already has that influence, already has that following, it’s like almost a guaranteed
0:53:51 way to launch to success.
0:53:56 Now you just have to be willing to either give up a piece of your business or give up, you know,
0:53:59 revenue of the business and you don’t figure out a model that works well for you.
0:54:04 But I think it’s a smart business for influencers that, hey, there are a lot of people that have
0:54:07 tons of followers, but they don’t have any good business ideas.
0:54:10 Like they just, you know, they have influence.
0:54:10 Yeah.
0:54:13 And then there’s other people that have really good ideas.
0:54:15 They just, they don’t have any influence.
0:54:18 So if you can partner that up, it’s a, it’s a cool model.
0:54:19 Yeah.
0:54:24 We’ve seen it from the standpoint of, we’ll give you affiliate commission for everyone that
0:54:30 you sell, like through Amazon creator connections or whatever, or we’ll just send you free product
0:54:35 or we’ll pay you a flat fee to create this type of video, but lots of different ways to
0:54:40 structure it, but I kind of the, the secret sauce seemed to be either casting that really
0:54:41 wide net.
0:54:41 Okay.
0:54:47 I’m going to send out, you know, a thousand messages to these different accounts or finding
0:54:51 like that one really influential partner to bring in who, you know, can drive consistent
0:54:52 traffic.
0:54:58 And it was, it was on my first million where Sean was pitching this like virtual assistant
0:55:03 company for a while and it was like, he, he bought a stake in that and then turned around
0:55:07 and used his influence from the podcast to like drive customers to that business.
0:55:08 Yeah.
0:55:09 Really, really, really smart.
0:55:10 All right.
0:55:10 What’s next?
0:55:11 All right.
0:55:14 This might be my last one, uh, that I have here.
0:55:19 And I don’t know if I’m seeing it as a trend, but it’s something that I’m going to try a little
0:55:22 bit and I could see this developing into a trend.
0:55:28 You, you tell me, you know, whether it is or not, but actually going the other way, more
0:55:34 people are going more online, more AI, more technology, going the other way, going back
0:55:38 to physical products, items you can touch, you know, feel.
0:55:45 So, uh, one thing that I am actually going to be trying is reselling items on eBay.
0:55:49 This, you know, has been around for how many decades now?
0:55:50 Yeah.
0:55:52 Everything that’s old is new again.
0:55:53 Everything that’s old is new again.
0:55:58 So part of the reason I’m doing this, I do have older kids that are looking for summer
0:55:58 jobs.
0:56:02 And so I’m like, what’s something that teenagers can run?
0:56:05 And so we just went out this weekend.
0:56:07 We bought Amazon return pallets.
0:56:10 I actually picked them up at a liquidation warehouse.
0:56:12 Is it the, where you been store?
0:56:16 Somebody, I was like, that’s a fantastic name for this bin sale place, but cause I know it’s
0:56:17 in Eastern Washington somewhere.
0:56:17 Oh, okay.
0:56:20 No, there, there actually is in the tri cities.
0:56:26 It’s not a bin store, but it’s, it’s actually, this guy has a bunch of contracts where he,
0:56:33 I mean, he had like 300 pallets of just Amazon returns, Walmart return, you know, big box store
0:56:34 returns.
0:56:35 We bought three of them.
0:56:39 We’re going to unpack it, try and resell it on eBay.
0:56:45 So it’s, it’s not a new business, but I feel like going back to the basics of like, there’s
0:56:50 going to be stuff that people are going to want to buy for cheaper than they can get in the
0:56:51 store forever.
0:56:53 That’s never going away.
0:56:59 So the trend of going to a business that isn’t going to be as impacted by all the
0:57:01 technological changes, I think is a smart trend.
0:57:03 Yeah, exactly.
0:57:07 The local plumbing service is not worried about AI, you know, he’s not going to come.
0:57:09 Computers aren’t going to come and fix your pipes.
0:57:11 Yep, exactly.
0:57:15 If nothing else, you’ll get, you’ll get some, uh, content about the pallet, pallet flipping
0:57:16 pallet return business.
0:57:18 That’s exactly right.
0:57:18 Right.
0:57:22 So I’m, I’m hoping I get a summer job for my kids, maybe get some good content for me.
0:57:26 I expect to make approximately $0 on this business.
0:57:31 I’m hoping that my kids, you know, earn some money, but who knows, maybe it becomes profitable.
0:57:32 We’ll see.
0:57:33 I mean, that, that would be ideal.
0:57:33 Yeah.
0:57:35 But if I can break even on it, I’m happy.
0:57:39 No, that’s a good way to expose them to this buy low, sell high.
0:57:44 And is it, is it worth the work of picking through all these things, listing individual
0:57:44 items?
0:57:49 Like there’s a lot that goes into it and it sounds like a kind of luck of the draw and what’s,
0:57:52 you know, you don’t get to see everything that’s in that pallet before you get it.
0:57:57 But we do have, uh, an episode on pallet return item, pallet flipping.
0:58:01 It’s just cause I, it’s, it’s something that comes up on people’s side hustle lists.
0:58:02 I’m curious about it.
0:58:02 Yeah.
0:58:08 And somebody was, was making it work, but similar, like they made a couple, maybe 25 grand over
0:58:10 the course of a year or two in doing it.
0:58:15 But if they didn’t, it sounded like if they didn’t have the YouTube video of themselves
0:58:19 filming, doing it, it’s like, I don’t know if we would really, it would be really worthwhile.
0:58:21 But, uh, that’s a cool one.
0:58:27 I do want to piggyback on your, well, what are the things that AI isn’t going to impact
0:58:28 or take away?
0:58:33 And part of that is this shift towards, uh, maybe a shift in interest towards local services,
0:58:39 the window washing businesses, the house cleaning businesses, the power washing companies, the,
0:58:44 uh, you know, mobile car detailing, like these blue collar type of side hustles where you could
0:58:52 start relatively low cost, relatively low risk, and don’t even need, like if you have any level
0:58:56 of digital marketing savvy, you’re probably going to be, uh, head and shoulders above the
0:58:57 entrenched competition.
0:59:02 I think that’s, um, definitely a trend worth mentioning because we’ve seen more and more
0:59:06 young people, especially young people being interested in those types of businesses, like
0:59:11 low tech, good old fashioned elbow grease, go, go do the work and get paid for it.
0:59:12 Yeah.
0:59:17 I think a lot of us that have been in the online world for so long, like we, we see all these
0:59:20 shifts and these changes and it’s frustrating.
0:59:23 And we’re like, oh, how are we going to make, you know, this online business work?
0:59:26 Well, there’s this whole other world out there, right?
0:59:32 Where you can go knock on a door and you can, you know, meet people in person and, um, you
0:59:35 know, have a real phone number where people call you.
0:59:41 Like there’s so many opportunities for side hustles, whether it’s local or, you know, in
0:59:48 person or just, uh, you know, the not online business that, Hey, there, there’s a lot of
0:59:53 things that people need and we’re, we’ll always need that won’t be impacted by these
0:59:54 huge technological shifts.
0:59:55 Yeah.
0:59:56 Very true.
0:59:58 Spencer, this has been awesome.
0:59:59 I don’t know how many we were up to.
1:00:01 I think definitely more than 10 at this point.
1:00:03 So probably a good place, good place to wrap up.
1:00:07 We delivered on our promise and hopefully a little bit extra on top of that.
1:00:08 But what’s next for you?
1:00:10 Any projects going on?
1:00:11 What’s the latest with niche pursuits?
1:00:12 Yeah.
1:00:18 I mentioned the one, Hey, I’m, I’m kind of starting a little side business with, with my, with my
1:00:18 kids.
1:00:19 So that’s going to be fun.
1:00:25 That’s kind of something I’m dabbling with the whole palette flipping idea, but, uh, going
1:00:26 all in on YouTube videos.
1:00:29 Uh, my YouTube channel’s done, uh, pretty decent.
1:00:35 So where I talk a lot about different website ideas that might still be working, the type
1:00:37 of trends that are still working online.
1:00:40 So covering a lot of that, um, on my YouTube videos.
1:00:45 Other than that, no, no big shakeups, you know, with, with what I’m going to be doing, I just
1:00:47 keep publishing some content on YouTube.
1:00:49 Got my Facebook page going.
1:00:54 I, uh, have a little Amazon influencer, you know, side hustle.
1:00:56 I’ve got, you know, videos there.
1:00:59 So, you know, kind of keep dabbling on a few little side hustles, keep the niche pursuits
1:01:02 brand going and we’ll see where it goes from there.
1:01:05 I get the impression that, you know, that may be similar.
1:01:07 You probably don’t need to work anymore.
1:01:08 You’ve been doing this for a long time.
1:01:10 You’ve had some exits under your belt.
1:01:12 Like you’ve had some fantastic earning years and months.
1:01:17 Is there a retirement plan or do you just keep doing this?
1:01:18 Cause you love doing it.
1:01:18 Yeah.
1:01:25 You know, I’m still enjoying things, but I am very much, I’ve removed a lot of things
1:01:26 from my business that I don’t enjoy.
1:01:32 So I do have the opportunity and the ability like, you know, my Facebook page VA, I’m not
1:01:35 going to go in and post things 10 or 15 times a day.
1:01:35 Right.
1:01:41 So I do enjoy the strategy of coming up with ideas and trying to plug in a system or people
1:01:42 that can run it for me.
1:01:43 So I enjoy that.
1:01:45 So I’ll keep doing that.
1:01:50 And, you know, I’m actually, I volunteer at a local pickleball organization.
1:01:52 We have a pickleball community, right?
1:01:58 So I’m looking for a more volunteer opportunities, maybe work a little bit less, but still, Hey,
1:02:02 I like the excitement of, Hey, there’s this cool new idea.
1:02:04 Can we make it work?
1:02:09 So I haven’t quite retired yet, Nick, but I’ll, I’ll let you know, but I’m doing all I
1:02:11 can not to work quite as much.
1:02:12 Let’s put it that way.
1:02:13 Fair enough.
1:02:17 You know, the, the love of the game, parse out the stuff that you don’t like and keep
1:02:18 what you do.
1:02:18 Yeah.
1:02:21 That’s, uh, you know, try and play in that same space.
1:02:22 So I’m very cool.
1:02:24 Uh, niche pursuits.com.
1:02:24 Check them out over there.
1:02:26 Check out the niche pursuits podcast.
1:02:28 We’ll link up the YouTube channel as well.
1:02:32 Like I said, going all in on YouTube, more and more guests are saying, Hey, I’m leaning
1:02:34 in on the YouTube stuff, doing more video.
1:02:38 If the website isn’t working as well, I can make, uh, I can make videos and it’s a lot
1:02:39 of fun too.
1:02:41 Thanks so much for joining me.
1:02:42 I think this was, this was a blast.
1:02:48 If you’re listening to this and you want to make some extra money and you’re not sure which
1:02:52 path to take, I want to invite you to take our free quiz at hustle.show.
1:02:54 You can do it right from your phone.
1:02:55 It’ll take a couple of minutes or less.
1:03:02 And then based on your answers, we’re going to give you a custom curated playlist to hopefully
1:03:03 put you in the right direction.
1:03:06 These are going to be eight to 10 side hustle show episodes based on your answers.
1:03:08 Hey, what should we listen to next?
1:03:13 And if you want more Spencer in your life and go listen to his three or four side hustle show
1:03:17 appearances as well, but hustle.show that’s your personalized playlist quiz.
1:03:21 And just again, a few short questions about your interests and goals, and, uh, you can get
1:03:26 that personalized playlist, add it to your device, learn what works, and then go out and make
1:03:26 some more money.
1:03:28 Big thanks to Spencer for sharing his insight.
1:03:31 Thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.
1:03:37 Uh, as always, you can hit up side hustle nation.com slash deals for all the latest offers from our
1:03:38 sponsors in one place.
1:03:39 That is it for me.
1:03:42 Thank you so much for tuning in until next time.
1:03:44 Let’s go out there and make something happen.
1:03:47 And I’ll catch you in the next edition of the side hustle show.