What advice would you give your 18-year-old self? Here’s my actual valedictorian speech from 20 years ago!
Author: The Side Hustle Show
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449: $10,000 a Month Selling Digital Products on Etsy
Creating assets you can sell over and over again — that’s the passive income dream, right?
This is exactly what Rachel Jones at MoneyHackingMama.com has done by creating and selling downloadable printables on Etsy.
This year she’s averaging over $10,000 a month in sales, all while balancing a full-time job and two young kids.
Rachel has only been doing this for two years, and she’s planning on leaving her full-time job in the near future and going in full-time on her Etsy business.
Big thanks to Cody from Gold City Ventures and The FI Show for the intro!
Note: I call this the Buy Buttons strategy. To kickstart your business, find the mini-marketplaces your target customers are already shopping at. Go where the cash is already flowing!
Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn:
- how to find profitable niches to sell digital products in on Etsy
- some of the categories Rachel likes
- the tools and technology she uses to get it all done
Full Show Notes: $10,000 a Month Selling Digital Products on Etsy
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448: Rank and Rent: $1000 a Month From Simple Local Websites
What if you could rent out digital real estate just as you would traditional real estate, but without all the headaches that come with maintaining a property?
That’s exactly what Luke Van Der Veer is doing with his digital “Rank and Rent” business.
I found Luke through the Side Hustle Nation Facebook group, where he shared a unique take on online business, kind of at the intersection of service businesses, SEO, and real estate.
Really taking a page out from all of those playbooks.
What Luke does is he builds a local service business website, then “rents” it out to a local, less digital-savvy business that is more than happy for the extra leads.
Luke has been doing this for several years but said it took about 6 months to replace his day job income, and 12 months to hit 6-figures.
Today he runs a portfolio of over 100 different websites using this “rank and rent” model, earning predictable recurring revenue taking up just a few hours per week.
Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn:
- how Luke picks a niche and evaluates the competition
- how to price your service
- how to find qualified “tenants” for your digital properties
Full Show Notes: Rank and Rent: $1000 a Month From Simple Local Websites
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447: $10k a Month Going to Parties
Earning up to $2,000 for 45 minutes doing something you love — who wouldn’t want to do that?
That’s exactly what Brian McGovern of McMagical.com does. Brian is a party entertainer — he’s been practicing magic and performing since he was in high school.
The success of the side hustle allowed him to walk away from a well-paying, but stressful, career on Wall Street.
Despite the pandemic forcing him to perform shows from his living room, he’s still making up to $2,000 for an hour’s work.
Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn how to:
- Get started, even if you don’t have any experience
- Attract event producers and party planners for high-paying events
- Turn something you love into something that can make you an extra $1000-2000 in just a few hours on weekends
Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Going to Parties
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446: From Kickstarter Success to a Sustainable Brand [Side Hustle Coaching]
“Apples to Apples meets Shark Tank” in SideHustle, the party game for entrepreneurs.
After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the team behind the game is looking for ways to raise awareness and stand out on the crowded Amazon marketplace.
In this coaching episode, you’ll meet co-founders Darby Rollins and Tomer Soran, who (along with a 3rd co-founder, Tim Palladino) are looking for some ways to expand on the initial traction and grow a brand in the “productive play” space.
To help out with this one, I enlisted Side Hustle Show alumni and e-commerce and branding pro, Scott Voelker.
Full Show Notes: From Kickstarter Success to a Sustainable Brand [Side Hustle Coaching]
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445: $80,000 in Etsy Sales: How to Grow from Here? [Side Hustle Coaching]
With a full-time job, a baby at home, and a thriving side hustle, Troy Parker was becoming a master juggler.
He was excited about the growth of his Etsy shop, Goober Prints, but was beginning to reach the ceiling of his own capacity.
Troy specializes in fun, quirky, customizable direct-to-garment printing. Goober Prints had a breakout year in 2020, jumping to $80,000 in total sales — up from about $10,000 in 2019.
Could it become his full-time focus? Is it possible to scale sales without sacrificing even more sleep?
I reached out to Side Hustle Show alum and Etsy growth pro Melissa MacDonald, because I knew she’d have some great ideas for Troy.
And she didn’t disappoint!
Tune in to check out our full conversation.
Full Show Notes: $80,000 in Etsy Sales: How to Grow from Here? [Side Hustle Coaching]
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444: $10k a Month Blogging: How to Grow from Here?
Side Hustle Show listener Raffaele Di Lallo has built a successful house plant website, earning $10k a month — on the side from his day job.
Still, he explained that 90% of that income was from advertising, and he wanted to diversify his revenue sources and earn more from affiliate marketing.
To help me talk through Raffaele’s business is a long-time friend and online business mentor of mine, Matt Giovanisci.
Matt runs SwimUniversity.com, BrewCabin.com, and MoneyLab.co and the Money Lab Pro membership community.
I knew he’d have some suggestions to grow the income pie and “future proof” Raffaele’s business.
Tune in to check out our full conversation.
Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Blogging: How to Grow from Here?
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443: 10 Life and Business Lessons from Mom: The Best Mom Advice
With Mother’s Day coming up, I wanted to share some of the best advice and lessons I got from mom growing up. Most of the time, this was pretty literal advice, but I found a lot of it has a broader application to entrepreneurship.
Mom has always been probably my biggest advocate and supporter. For background, she essentially had a couple different careers, first in nursing and then as a library assistant.
(At the library, she actually helped me get one of my first jobs in high school.)
Lots of wisdom I hope to be able to pass along to our little ones!
And if you like this format, be sure to check out the companion list/episode on dad’s advice!
Full Show Notes: 10 Life and Business Lessons from Mom: The Best Mom Advice
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442: $10k a Month Teaching Online Part-Time
$10,000 a month working 20-hour weeks sounds like a pretty sweet gig! And for Jade Weatherington, it’s been a dream come true to make a living in education–while working from home.
Her financial success didn’t happen overnight. She had months of earning less than $100 from her online private tutoring.
But when she discovered a then-new platform called Outschool, things really started to take off.
In her first month on the platform, Jade made $32. Still, she was encouraged by the possibilities and scale of teaching online classes there.
By the third month, she made almost $5,000.
Today she’s making $10,000+ from a combination of online classes, pre-recorded courses, and other teaching products — all while working around 20 hours a week.
Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn:
- how to decide what topics to teach
- the online teaching platforms Jade likes
- how to price and market your courses or classes
Full Show Notes: $10k a Month Teaching Online Part-Time
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441: $225k in 18 Hours a Week: The Path to High-Paying Consulting Gigs
Last year, Brad Rice booked $225,000 worth of Salesforce consulting work. That’s impressive on its own, but what’s crazier is he only worked an average of 18 hours a week.
Brad took his existing skills and experience with a popular software product, and pivoted to become a remote freelance consultant.
This is the “SWAS” strategy: Software with a Service.
(We’ve heard from guests following a similar path with Asana and Quickbooks.)
If you’re not familiar with Salesforce, it’s the #1 CRM (customer relationship management) software in the world.
Businesses and non-profits of all sizes use the software to organize and manage the back-end of their sales efforts.
And on the other side, there’s a community of salesforce professionals who support those customers … and earn up to $230 an hour to do so.
Why are the rates so high? Supply and demand — there’s a gap between the popularity of Salesforce and the number of experts like Brad who can help with it.
That’s the opportunity I think you should know about.
To learn more and see if Salesforce consulting is the right career upgrade for you, check out Brad’s Free 5-Day Salesforce Challenge.
Tune in to hear:
- why there’s such a high demand for Salesforce professionals
- how you can get started today earning your Salesforce certifications
- the progression steps Brad took to go from $40,000 a year to $225,000 part-time
Full Show Notes: $225k in 18 Hours a Week: The Path to High-Paying Consulting Gigs