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Google Offers New Insights in Lengthy Interview?

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.\\xa0

This week Jared and guest host Morgan Overholt take on the latest SEO news and break it down for listeners. They also share the side hustles they\'ve been working on and dissect a few weird niche sites.

The big news this week, an interview with Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan

They talk about an article in Moz claiming that the HCU was not what we thought it was.

Takeaways from a recent podcast by Lily Ray

The last news item they cover is Mediavine\\u2019s decision to ban publishers who overuse AI content.\\xa0

Jared goes first with a DR71 site called Nuclear Secrecy

Morgan shares the site Lipsum

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

How Adam Rosen Makes 7-figures/Year From Cold Email Outreach

When Adam Rosen founded his first tech startup, he learned a lot of important skills before he eventually sold it. One of those skills was using cold email as a sales technique.

Fast forward to today, Adam has his own cold email outreach agency that sends more than a million emails and schedules over 300 meetings each month for his clients. He\\u2019s earning more than $100k a month.

Adam\'s able to run his business from anywhere in the world, which has allowed him to live and work in places like Lake Como, Hawaii, Montenegro, and Switzerland.

Links & Resources

• EOC Works
• adam@eocworks.com
• GPT prompt
• The Nomad Cloud
• Domain Health Checker
• Clay
• Instantly
• Apollo.io
• Adam\\u2019s LinkedIn
• His Instagram

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google RECOVERY! August Core Update Results...

In the end, he gave that page away as part of a contest to a new member of his exclusive Niche Pursuits Community, where growing a Facebook page is the main focus for members for the next 6 weeks.\\xa0

A recent guest on the Niche Pursuits Podcast.

He also talks about his side hustle on Medium, also inspired by another podcast guest

Spencer shares the interesting story of how he came to find Cool Works

Jared then shares I Got Standards, Bro

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

How Thomas Smith Makes $5k/Month Writing on Medium

Links & Resources

• Medium
• His course, Thrive on Medium
• His photography agency
• No Frills Influencer
• His Medium content
• His other Medium content

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Yelp Sues Google. What This Means for Small Publishers

Listed in: Business

I Get Over 1 Million Page Views Per Month from Pinterest

Tony Hill is a digital marketer with decades of experience, but when his sites\\u2019 traffic started to tank, he rolled up his sleeves and started looking for an alternative traffic source. And he found Pinterest.

Tony has gone deep into the rabbit hole on Pinterest, studying how it works and poring over its data, to come up with strategies that work.\\xa0

Currently, he\\u2019s getting a million clicks a month on the platform, and he\\u2019s constantly experimenting with new sites and new tactics.\\xa0

Tony talks about how he believes Pinterest works, how Pinterest SEO is similar to Google SEO, and how he tailors his content to his Pinterest audience.

Links & Resources

• Tony\\u2019s previous podcast
• Theia post slider
• Tony\\u2019s newsletter
• Tony\\u2019s free Pinterest masterclass
• Tony\\u2019s tool, Pin Clicks
• Pinterest trends

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Winners of Google's Core Update and HCU Recovery!?

Welcome back to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!

This week Jared is joined by Brooks Conkle, a member of the Niche Pursuits Community as well as an entrepreneur with many, many income streams, lots of experience in the industry, and plenty of insights to share.

There\\u2019s some interesting news for publishers this week, so get comfortable!

The first order of business is the recently released Google Core Update, for which there is now some data available. Jared and Brooks talk about the absolute winners so far.

Who\\u2019s benefiting the most from the update? Are you surprised by the results?\\xa0

Then Jared shares a particularly exciting promising news item: signs of life after the HCU.\\xa0

They also share information about sites that are recovering, and Jared asks some important questions and talks specifically about HouseFresh and RetroDodo.\\xa0

Then he and Brooks share their thoughts about the current landscape and suggest that there are greater questions to be answered, about Google, the future of search, and AI.

Moving along, they talk about Google AI Overviews and where they\\u2019re pulling their information from.

Then they move on to the Shiny Object Shenanigans, and Jared talks about his focus on earning money from projects he\\u2019s already working on.\\xa0

First, he shares his experience to date with Creator Connections.\\xa0

Then he shares a new side hustle he recently started: publishing the content he\\u2019s already written on Medium. He talks a little bit about how it works and his future plans.

When it\\u2019s Brooks\\u2019 turn, he talks about a new side hustle: domain name investing. He shares all the interesting things he\\u2019s discovered about this world and some of the domains he\\u2019s purchased. Listen to the full episode to hear more about it.

Then it\\u2019s time for some Weird Niche Sites, Jared shares his site first: All 8, a very strange DR47 site with just 3 links on it related to square dancing and beat measurements. Surprisingly, this site gets 30k visitors per month while only ranking for 1k keywords.\\xa0

Brooks then shares a weird site he found called The Pet Psychic, which gets 11k pageviews per month.\\xa0

And that concludes another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope you feel better informed after listening to what\\u2019s happening in the industry, motivated by the stories about our side hustles, and inspired by the weird niche sites people are creating.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

How Dylan Jahrus Grew Her Etsy Business to $1.5 Million

Listed in: Business

Google August Core Update RELEASED! HCU Recovery Guidelines

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

It\\u2019s been a very big week in the news, with Google taking center stage for several different reasons. This week, Jared and Morgan break it all down for us, and they also share the progress they\\u2019re making on their side hustles, and some weird niche sites!

Let\\u2019s jump into it!

The first order of business is Google\\u2019s announcement about its August core update, which the company has been teasing for some time.

Moving along, they talk about an article in the New York Times about how the US Justice Department is considering several scenarios after deciding that Google is a monopoly, including possibly breaking up the company.

Jared shares the timeline and the opinions of Duck Duck Go, and Morgan talks about what happened in the EU when Google was forced to give users a choice when installing their web browsers. It\\u2019s pretty surprising what she reveals!

They also talk about the ways this ruling could change the internet and which of the scenarios they\\u2019d prefer to see. Is Google really resting on its laurels, as Morgan says?

The next topic up for discussion is that Reddit investors are concerned about what all the traffic is doing to its stock price, as company shares have plummeted by 26%.\\xa0

Why are they complaining about the traffic? Why are \\u201clogged in\\u201d users more valuable than \\u201clogged out\\u201d ones? How does Reddit\\u2019s current situation contrast with its attitude just a few weeks ago?\\xa0

Then Jared and Morgan tie the Reddit news to Google\\u2019s announcement about its current core update. What do they predict might happen? Listen to the full episode to hear what they say!

When it\\u2019s time to talk about their side hustles, Jared comments briefly about the course he recently launched on the Amazon Influencer Program, but then dives into the newsletter he recently acquired, The Slice.

He shares his stats, such as open rates, ad earnings, and affiliate income, and his future plans for the side hustle.

He also talks about Creator Connections, in the Influencer Program, and shares his latest earnings.

Morgan then talks about her Amazon Influencer side hustle and shares her experience creating more polished videos for the program and the impact on her video clicks. She also shares a strategy she\\u2019s going to experiment with in the coming weeks.

Jared\\u2019s weird niche site comes with its own personal story this week: San Diego Sandcastles, which he discovered while at the beach with his family.\\xa0

When it\\u2019s Morgan\\u2019s turn, she shares This Person Does Not Exist, which generates AI images of people who don\\u2019t exist.

This site has been around since 2021, and she shares some of its stats.\\xa0

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

I Make $20k/Month Using Paid Ads

If you didn\\u2019t get into paid media before Google changed up the traffic game, you can still get into it now. That\\u2019s what Alex Goldberg is showing us on this week\\u2019s podcast.

Alex started a site as a side hustle, but it eventually grew into a portfolio of sites. Organic traffic was abundant, but he decided to experiment with paid media arbitrage.

In the end, he built up a portfolio of sites earning $20k/month and then sold it for a hefty sum.

For people who are generating a lot of traffic from SEO or social media, Alex outlines a great strategy to diversify, and for people who aren\\u2019t getting as much traffic as they used to, they can also diversify.

Don\\u2019t miss this episode where Alex shares a lot of great advice and tips for getting started and succeeding with paid ads.

Alex starts with a brief introduction of his background, talking about how he always wanted to be an entrepreneur, how he started side hustling, and how he eventually exited one of his main projects, a portfolio of health and wellness sites.

He starts by talking in more detail about his initial site, which he started in 2018 as a side hustle with a colleague. They were reviewing fintech companies, but pivoted to health and wellness when they sensed there was a better opportunity in that niche.

In 2021, he quit his job, eventually bought out his business partner, and went on to create a portfolio of related sites. He also shifted his focus from organic traffic to paid media arbitrage before he eventually sought out, and found, a buyer.

Alex goes into more detail about switching from SEO to paid media arbitrage and why he decided to diversify. He talks about the challenges he faced setting up a paid arbitrage strategy, but claims that once you have a roadmap, it\\u2019s easier than SEO.

He discusses the types of keywords he bids on, how to meet the demand of underlying queries, and future-proofing your business.

Alex had experience before he started using this strategy, but for people who don\\u2019t usually use paid ads, he shares tips and tricks and challenges people generally face.

He reveals the percentage of campaigns that are generally successful and talks about how to talk to brands about using this strategy, what kinds of niches it would work in, and he compares it to SEO, content creation, and organic traffic.

Alex explains social whitelisting and then goes into a lot of detail on conversion tracking, and he also talks about scaling the business and reaching $20k/month in profit while providing immense value for his clients, which was very important to him.

Towards the end of the interview, he talks about being hit by the HCU and how diversified his sites were, and he also shares some stats: how much his business was earning and how much he sold it for.

Links & Resources

• Alex\\u2019s course, Paid Media Affiliates
• Alex\\u2019s LinkedIn
• Alex\\u2019s Twitter

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google Ruled a Monopoly! How this Impacts Bloggers

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared talk about the biggest news in the SEO and creator industry and what it means for you. They also share their inspiring side hustles and some weird niche sites they\'ve discovered.

Today they tackled the biggest news item we\\u2019ve seen in a while: Google\\u2019s antitrust lawsuit.

Google has been in the news for a while now as the courts have been trying to determine whether or not it\\u2019s a monopoly and a decision was finally handed down, stating that the company does have an illegal monopoly on search.

What did the company say on Twitter and how did others respond? And what are the potential outcomes?\\xa0

Spencer and Jared talk about how Google got here, what it might be asked to do in the future, and what they really think about Google\\u2019s claims.

Moving along, they head into the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, and Spencer goes first. He talks about his experience with the Facebook Bonus Program, of which he has been a member for the last 2 months.

His first month in the program, he earned $3k, and he was on track to surpass that in his second month. What happened at the end of July? How did it all play out?\\xa0

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about the Amazon Influencer Program.\\xa0

Although he had a few complicated days, his monthly earnings were in line with his usual performance. He also announces the release of his new course, which walks you through the process of getting started in the program.

He shares some interesting data, comparing his performance with Spencer\\u2019s and another member of the Amazon Influencer Program, who recently joined. He looks at how much they\\u2019re all earning and how many clicks each of their videos are receiving per month.

He also talks briefly about his experience with the Creators Connection program.

Then they move on to their Weird Niche Sites.

Spencer goes first with Spot the Difference which, as the name suggests, shows users two photos and they have to find 4 things that are different. It\\u2019s monetized with a lot of display ads and gets around 23k organic visitors a month.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he\\u2019s excited to share Where Is My Milk From, indubitably a weird niche site that helps you locate the origin of your milk.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope you\\u2019re feeling informed and inspired.

Don\\u2019t forget to catch Spencer and Jared next Friday when they tackle the latest news and provide updates on their projects.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

I Make $3k/Month Posting Short Videos to Amazon

This week on the podcast we have a familiar face!\\xa0

Spencer Haws comes on to talk about a very interesting, and surprisingly lucrative, side hustle both he and Jared have been working on for the last year: the Amazon Influencer Program.

In this episode, Spencer and Jared talk about their experience with the program, discuss the different strategies they used to grow this side business, and share some insider tips for succeeding.

Jared also reveals that he teamed up with Authority Hacker to create a course that helps people through the entire process.

They begin with a brief overview of what the Amazon Influencer Program is all about: creating shoppable videos and posting them on Amazon\\u2019s product pages. By doing this, you get a sliver of Amazon\\u2019s massive traffic.

But before you can participate, you need to get accepted into the program.\\xa0

Jared gives a rundown of the primary requirements, and then he and Spencer talk about the path they each took to get accepted into the program.

Spencer even shares an Amazon Influencer Program secret he hasn\\u2019t shared before!

They talk about making the first three videos for your account, and why they\\u2019re important. If your videos get rejected three times, you won\\u2019t be able to participate in the program.

With that in mind, Spencer talks about what makes a great first video and lets listeners know what not to do.\\xa0

He and Jared also talk about whether or not you need to show your face in the videos, what type of product features to discuss, and how to approach Amazon\\u2019s long list of rules when making videos.

They also share some of the mistakes they made, which got some of their videos rejected.

Then Spencer shares his personal journey on the program, which he joined in January 2023, and talks about adding videos gradually. By December of that year, he peaked at $6k for the month.\\xa0

To give an idea of how passive the program is, now he\\u2019s earning an average of $1500 a month and hasn\\u2019t added any videos for the last 7 months.

Jared shares his story, too.

He got accepted in May 2023 and frontloaded a lot of the work, publishing +200 videos in his first month, which led to earnings of $1000.\\xa0

He continued to gradually upload videos, and he\\u2019s currently earning around $3k to $4k consistently per month.

Then they move backwards slightly, and Spencer talks about how he got his videos done. The first ones he did himself, and then he outsourced the next 1000.\\xa0

He shares where he found people to create the videos, how he paid them, and how much he paid them. He also shares some of the pros and cons to this approach.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares his strategy for growing his Amazon Influencer account. Jared did the bulk of his own videos, reviewing products that he had around his house, his neighbors\\u2019 houses, and his parent\\u2019s house.\\xa0

He even shares a cool hack for accessing even more products for videos.

Equally importantly, he talks about how long he spent doing his videos and how he became super efficient for the best possible ROI.

To close out the interview, they share some important insights they\\u2019ve gathered about slightly over a year in the program.\\xa0

These revolve around reviewing higher priced products, showing lots of close-ups, skipping long winded introductions, seasonality, creating SOPs, among others.\\xa0

All in all, this is a fantastic, information-packed episode if you\\u2019re curious about the program and looking to get started, or if you\\u2019re already using it and want some fresh ideas.

Links & Resources

• Upwork
• Amazon Influencer Program
• Product Review Profits (Jared\'s course)

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Reddit Blocks Search Engines but NOT Google!

Listed in: Business

I Make $20k/Month Posting Memes on Facebook Pages

Listed in: Business

The End of Google? OpenAI Launches SearchGPT

Listed in: Business

My Niche Online Clothing Site is a 6-Figure Success Story with Over 90K+ Monthly Pageviews

Listed in: Business

Google Pampers a Blogger...Here's What Happened

Listed in: Business

How Sammie Ellard-King Make $40k/mth with Instagram Videos and Automation

According to financial blogger Sammie Ellard-King, Instagram is one of the biggest opportunities right now because of the way the platform allows for exposure and brand awareness.

In fact, he has developed several strategies that are allowing for the exponential growth of his brand, Up The Gains, on that platform.

Last month, Sammie earned $40k from Instagram alone.

In this interview, he offers a close-up look at some of the strategies he\\u2019s using, which can be applied to Instagram as well as other social media platforms.

This chat is chock-a-block with golden nuggets, so grab paper and a pencil as you\\u2019re going to want to take notes!

Sammie begins by sharing his background and talks about how he got into the finance niche and started his business.

Although he wasn\\u2019t hit too badly by the HCU, a subsequent Google update did affect his traffic, but the fact that he takes an omnichannel approach to the business and was able to pivot so easily has allowed him not only to stay afloat, but to thrive.

He became laser-focused on social media, in particular on Instagram, and he talks in detail about growing his business on that platform.\\xa0

First, he shares his main strategy and highlights the importance of developing customer avatars, understanding their problems, and creating content buckets.

Then Sammie shares his current Instagram metrics (134k followers, 150 million views since January) and how the platform contributes to his business.\\xa0

He earned $40k from Instagram alone last month with affiliate links and digital products, using automation software.

He dives deep into his video content creation process, touching on the use of different types of hooks and the importance of getting viewers to watch the video until the end. He talks about the different kinds of content you can create and how to validate your niche for social media.

Sammie then shares how he creates mobile-optimized funnels, the tools he uses, and some of the low- and high-ticket items he sells. He also shares his thoughts on what makes a successful product and talks about growing his email lists through quizzes.

He concludes the podcast with a 30-day action plan anyone can implement to get started on Instagram, full of invaluable tips and insight.

Links & Resources

• ManyChat
• Stan Store
• His website, Up The Gains
• His Instagram
• His Twitter
• His Facebook
• More of Sammie\\u2019s resources
• His YouTube
• His podcast
• Link to his course (coming soon)

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google AI Overviews DECREASE to an All Time Low!

This week\\u2019s Niche Pursuits News Podcast features Jared and guest host Morgan Overholt, who dive directly into the latest news stories, share their side hustles, and talk all about some weird niche sites.

The first thing they dig into is news that AI Overviews is only appearing for 7% of queries. Jared shares a helpful summary of how this Google feature has evolved over time, and he and Morgan share their opinions.

How big has the decline been? What was their personal experience with AI Overviews? And which industries have been the most affected? What kinds of queries saw growth and declines?

And how did AI Overview citations from Reddit fare? And what do they think is going to happen down the road? Tune in to hear the discussion.

Moving along, they talk about Google and Meta\\u2019s investment splurges in AI, according to interviews with people from leading investment banks who essentially expressed shock.

But how much are Google and Meta planning to spend? What do the financial analysts liken the situation to, and do Morgan and Jared agree? Do you think we\\u2019re in a bubble?

Then they move into their Side Hustle Shenanigans. Morgan talks about how she was inspired by Spencer\\u2019s Facebook page project and decided to try it out herself.\\xa0

She created a brand new Facebook page for her freelancer brand and hit 7k likes and followers after about 30 days.

How did she do it? What are her plans for the group? And how will it be different from her previously successful niche sites?

She also shares her experience in the Amazon Influencer Program. She shares her journey: how many videos she has, how much she\\u2019s earned, and how she\\u2019s doing it.

The conversation then shifts to Jared and his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle. He recently released a video about his experience after completing a full year in the program.

He shares his processes, talks about crossposting, and divulges some of his \\u201cediting\\u201d secrets.\\xa0

Then it\\u2019s time to reveal their weird niche sites. Morgan goes first with My Instants, a site with funny sound buttons.\\xa0

How much traffic is the DR58 site getting? And where\\u2019s the traffic coming from? As Morgan says, it\\u2019s a great reminder that sometimes the simplest of ideas can be the most profitable.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares Bored Teachers, a DR56 site that gets 55k monthly visitors. But he reveals something really interesting about it after he consulted the Wayback Machine.

What did he find back in 2016? And what about during Covid? What does the site teach out about pivoting? Tune in to find out.

That brings us to the end of another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.\\xa0

We\\u2019ll catch you next week when we explore the latest happenings in the space and share our ideas and inspiration for all you entrepreneurs.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

I Create 6-Figure Websites Using FREE Pinterest Traffic

Mo Mullah is an entrepreneur with an impressive track record.\\xa0

Back in the day, he was orchestrating 6-figure exits and bringing home up to $75k per month from email marketing campaigns.\\xa0

In the middle of it all, he started his own agency, Niche Website Management.

After the HCU, like many others, Mo decided he didn\\u2019t want to be a slave to Google, so he started testing out strategies on alternative platforms.

Today he\\u2019s killing it on Pinterest.

In this interview, he shares his Pinterest tips and tricks, how he\'s combining Pinterest traffic and email marketing, and other strategies he\'s using to make money online.

Mo begins by talking about his experience with email marketing back in the day, the success he was having, and how he came to start his own agency.

At the moment, his main focus is Pinterest.

He talks about his 3 content sites at the moment, how he\\u2019s growing traffic, and how it\\u2019s different from SEO, and he shares why his sites do well on Pinterest and what niches he believes will succeed on the platform.

He talks about his clients\\u2019 accounts and he works with them on Pinterest. He talks about the amount of pins he creates, the general idea behind them, and where they get the ideas.

He also shares his strategy for seasonal content and talks about how he monetizes his Pinterest traffic: through email marketing. Then he goes into detail about connecting with email subscribers, understanding where they are in the buying journey, and they key to getting them to buy from you.

Mo also talks about using AI in his email campaigns and on Pinterest and the AI tool he uses the most.

He shares some alternative traffic strategies as well as some of the ways he\\u2019s making money online, such as through the Amazon Influencer Program.

Then Mo talks about what he would do if he were to start a business today, which includes website creation, digital products, and Pinterest and Facebook.

To wrap things up, he shares some of his best efficiency tips.

Links & Resources

• ChatGPT
• Bing Webmaster Tools
• RankMath
• ElevenLabs
• AI Studio
• Amazon Influencer Program
• Mo\'s Twitter account
• momullahconsulting@gmail.com
• Niche Website Management

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Only 36% of Google Searches Go to Websites: New Zero Click Report

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! As always, Spencer and Jared break down the latest news about Google, SEO, AI, and beyond for listeners.

They kick things off this week by diving into a zero-click search study by Rand Fishkin on SparkToro, talking about where clicks go and the difference in what happens after someone in America clicks vs. someone in Europe.

After the spam update finished rolling out at the end of last week, someone reported seeing a slight recovery.\\xa0

The author of the report is seeing almost a 50% rebound in traffic on her affiliate marketing website since March 2024, and she details the 4 main steps she\\u2019s taken since her traffic tanked, which included disavowing spammy backlinks and upping her internal linking game.

Moving along, they talk about Google Search Console\\u2019s data freeze which, at the time they recorded the podcast, was 87 hours long.\\xa0

It\\u2019s then time for Shiny Object Shenanigans and, as usual, Spencer goes first with an exciting update about his first 30 days in the Facebook Bonus Program.\\xa0

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he reveals that he bought a newsletter! The Slice, which is geared towards solopreneurs, seemed like the perfect fit.

When it\'s Weird Niche Website time, Spencer shares a site that\\u2019s doing really well. In fact, year-to-date it\\u2019s earned 4 million GBP. Car Mats is an ecommerce site that\\u2019s gone very niche as it focuses on a single car part: floor mats.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he reveals Keybr, a weird and quirky site that offers typing tests and helps you improve your typing skills.\\xa0

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

I Make $20k/month with Real Estate Courses and Affiliate Marketing

Seth Williams is an entrepreneur with a passion for land investing.

After he got a few years of experience under his belt, he decided the time had come to share his expertise, so he created his website, REtipster.

He went on to create some digital products, including a course, to diversify his income. He peaked at $60k in one month, but he normally brings home $20k-30k a month.

In this interview, he talks about building his brand and creating his course and podcast, but perhaps most importantly he talks about leading with value and giving priority to creating great content that helps people.

Seth Williams begins by sharing his backstory and talking about how he initially got into real estate investing and land investing.

After his initial success, he decided to launch a blog, REtipster, and with it, a brand.

He shares the story behind his first digital products and what led him to eventually create what was probably the first online course in land investing.\\xa0

Seth talks about diversifying his business as well as the challenges of staying on top of the best techniques in an industry that is constantly changing.

He shares what he thinks it takes to be successful in the industry today, which is totally different from what it looked like when he started.

He then shares more about his brand, from the blog to the podcast, his metrics, and the type of content he creates.

Seth also talks about the surprising thing that happened when he lost 40% of his traffic overnight.

He shares how he knew it was a good idea to create and market his land investing course and, importantly, how he decided to price it.

He also shares advice for other people interested in creating their own course, along with his plans for the future.

Links & Resources

• REtipster
• Land Investing Masterclass
• The Storyland Podcast

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google Spam Update COMPLETE with Positive Results?

Welcome back to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared share everything that\'s happened related to Google, SEO, and publishers in the last week.

Spencer and Jared kick off the episode talking about the Google Spam Update, which has concluded after a week. They share the chatter on Twitter, where people are seeing positive results and upticks in traffic.\\xa0

What do Spencer and Jared think is going on?

Moving along, the conversation shifts to AI Overviews and a change in Google\\u2019s strategy where it\\u2019s posting the link cards above the AI answer. As Spencer says, this is great news for publishers, and Jared agrees that it\\u2019s a best-case scenario in the current situation.

Although this is a test, Jared makes a great if not sad point. Tune in to hear what he says.

And last in the news for this week, they talk about Google\\u2019s decision to drop the continuous scroll in search results.\\xa0

This feature originally launched on mobile in October 2021 and on desktop in December 2022, so it hasn\\u2019t been operational for that long.\\xa0

Spencer shares why he thinks the continuous scroll might have been advantageous and how he feels about this change, and Jared shares his opinion as well. What did Google say about it?

Before you know it, it\\u2019s time to move on to their Shiny Object Shenanigans.

Spencer goes first, and admits he can\\u2019t stop checking his Facebook stats.\\xa0

He talks about a Facebook page he\\u2019s had for about a year, with 65k followers, in a far-out niche. On June 3rd, he got accepted into the Facebook Bonus Program and started to post 15 times a day in an effort to get more engagement on the platform.

Since he got into the program, his earnings have exceeded his expectations and he\\u2019s had about 3 posts go viral.

How much did he make and how many people saw his posts? How did he come up with the ideas for the posts? He shares a lot of details, but if you want the whole scoop, consider joining the Niche Pursuits Community!

Spencer offers some great advice and also offers an update on a site that recently got accepted into Mediavine Journey.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about incorporating Pinterest into his strategy. He shares what he\\u2019s doing, where he\\u2019s getting the images, the templates he\\u2019s created, how he\\u2019s testing pins, what he\\u2019s doing with boards, etc.

He shares his stats to date, even though he just started, and also gives an update on his newsletter.

Both Jared and Spencer highlight something important to remember when building a business. What mistake do most people make?

Then it\\u2019s time for some Weird Niche Sites. Spencer goes first and shares Get YouTube Thumbnail which, as the name suggests, lets you see the thumbnail for any YouTube video. He explains how and why he has used the site in the past.

The site has tons of display ads, has 9k organic visitors per month and, most interestingly, has a ton of competitors.

How much do they think the site is making per month?

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he gets ready to share what he believes is the weirdest niche site ever featured on the podcast. That site is One Million Checkboxes, which is totally fascinating and indeed very, very weird.

Jared shares the backstory about the creator, some of his funny tweets, and shocking stats behind this viral site, so tune in to hear all about it.

And that concludes another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Let us know your thoughts in the comments. See you next Friday!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

My Local Email Newsletter Makes Over $200k/Year...Here's How

This week, Jared interviews local newsletter expert Ryan Sneddon, who shares a ton of great information.\\xa0

He shares the strategy he used to get his newsletter, Naptown Scoop, off the ground and he offers a ton of valuable tips for anyone thinking about starting a business like this.

He talks about everything from validating his idea and growing his subscribers to connecting with advertisers.

Ryan\\u2019s goal at the moment is to reach $400k in revenue (he\\u2019s already surpassed $300k) and to extend his local newsletter concept to other cities across the US.

Ryan begins by talking about his life prior to creating his local newsletter and how he got started in the newsletter industry.

After quitting his job and taking a leap of faith, he buckled down to try to figure out what he wanted to create.

When he saw someone else was building a very successful local newsletter for several different cities and he figured out how much they were making, he dove right in and launched his own in his hometown of Annapolis, Maryland.

Ryan talks about how he got Naptown Scoop off the ground, and details the first steps he took to get started, which involved a combination of Mailchimp, Instagram, and Facebook ads.\\xa0

He also shares the steps he took initially to grow his subscribers and how he maintained that growth while finding sources of information for his newsletter.

Ryan discusses the changes in his publishing schedule, and why he decided to publish daily.\\xa0

He shares his thoughts on lead magnets and talks about how he narrowed down his ad campaigns, how much he spent in total on Facebook ads, and his current subscriber numbers.

When Jared asks him about evaluating a local market to see if there\\u2019s a viable opportunity to create a local newsletter, and Ryan shares a lot of insight and the characteristics he deems as important for a newsletter to be successful.

Then he walks us through the content he includes and where he gets all of his information, and he explains how he knows what type of content his audience wants.

Moving onto monetization, Ryan talks about ads as the primary method he uses to monetize Naptown Scoop and shares information about who buys the ads, how much they pay, and package deals he\\u2019s working on.

When Jared asks him about advertisers, Ryan offers great advice as he explains what kinds of businesses he looks for to advertise in his newsletter.

To conclude the interview, Ryan shares his final words of advice about the value of showing yourself as the face of your brand and the importance of networking and attending events in your city.

If you\\u2019re considering starting a local newsletter, or you already have one, it would be a crime to miss this episode!

Links & Resources

• Naptown Scoop
• Ryan\\u2019s Twitter
• Ryan\\u2019s other newsletter

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google UNLEASHES June 2024 Spam Update

Welcome to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!\\xa0

This week, Spencer\\u2019s flying solo so we\\u2019ve got a shorter episode for you. It may be shorter, but it\\u2019s still packed with the news, some side hustle shenanigans, and a weird niche site.

He starts by talking about Google\\u2019s 2024 Spam Update, which was just released on June 20th, and unsurprisingly, Google doesn\\u2019t offer a lot of information about the update, except that the rollout will take just 1 week.

What implications could this update have for your site if you were hit by a previous update? Is this part of the site reputation abuse update? And what did Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan say about it?

Keep your eye on your rankings (as you probably are) to see how this all unfolds!

The next topic on the agenda is Lily Ray\\u2019s article about how SEO visibility is shifting away from review sites to eCommerce and UGC sites.

Google says that it has worked to \\u201creduce unhelpful content by 45%,\\u201d although many small publishers would disagree.

Spencer takes a look at Amsive\\u2019s study, which compared the SERPs from May of 2023 and May of 2024 for various queries. What did they find? What other results does the article share? What does this mean for review sites?

Spencer offers some advice if you\\u2019ve been affected by this. Tune in to hear what he says!

Then he gives a quick update on his Facebook challenge side hustle, in which he\\u2019s trying to make $1000 from a brand new Facebook page.

He shared his recent stats on Twitter, sharing his number of followers, his current earnings, and his current costs.

How many clicks has he got to his website? What\\u2019s his new strategy going to be moving forward? How much engagement is he getting? How often is he posting? Check out the episode to get all the details.

When it comes to his weird niche site, he shares For Eternia, which is dedicated to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which Spencer admitted made him feel slightly nostalgic.

The site covers the latest news (there\\u2019s a new movie coming out) and has an official podcast, an official late-night show, a YouTube channel, and a community with a forum.

Spencer talks about how niche the site and topic are. How well is it doing? How are they making\\xa0 money? Where is its traffic coming from?\\xa0

Does this site give you any ideas that you can apply to your own site or business? What can you learn from this successful and weird niche site?

And that wraps up this week\\u2019s solo episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope you\\u2019re up to speed on the latest events in the space and feeling inspired by Spencer\\u2019s side hustle and weird niche site.

See you next week!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

How Andy Skraga Made Over $500k from Facebook Traffic

Andy Skraga, also known as The Facebook Traffic Guy, has had massive success driving traffic to his websites.\\xa0\\xa0

He currently manages 9 Facebook pages and 5 websites, driving millions in traffic to those sites.

In this interview, he shares a ton of strategies, offers advice on how to get started, and explains his exact approach to getting page likes, creating content, going viral, and much more.

His interest was originally inspired by a site called ViralNova.

All in all, Andy offers an absolute ton of value in this interview and it\\u2019s a must-listen to anyone looking for an alternative traffic strategy and a lucrative side hustle.

Links & Resources

• Hike Your Likes
• Andy on Twitter
• Andy on LinkedIn
• Strevio
• Canva
• The Dodo
• PostPlanner

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Hope For Google Helpful Content Update Recovery?

Welcome back, everyone, to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!

As always, Spencer and Jared offer a quick overview of the most important news items affecting content creators, publishers, SEOs and entrepreneurs.

On this week\\u2019s podcast, they decide to lead with positivity, kicking things off with potentially good news for sites pummelled by the HCU.\\xa0

Recent comments from Danny Sullivan and John Mueller suggest that sites may see a recovery with the next core update, whenever that may be.

Should we believe them? Find out what Jared thinks about all of this.\\xa0

Also, Spencer has some very interesting insider details about this, so check out the episode to find out what he knows that may or may not affect you and your site!

Moving along, they talk about Google usage over time.\\xa0

Studies show that people are spending more time looking at search results compared with 5 years ago. So what does that mean exactly? Are people dissatisfied with the initial results, or are they more savvy? Or, is this a strategy from Google?

Spencer and Jared have a few theories about this. And Spencer shares some stats that are completely shocking to him. Tune in to hear it all.

The next news item is about the site The Wirecutter, which is owned by the NYT and has come to be an example to follow in affiliate marketing over the years.\\xa0

Spencer reveals how the site has seen its visibility decline following the HCU, potentially losing half of its traffic.\\xa0

According to Jared, they are seeing a very slight uptick recently, according to Ahrefs, which could be a sign of hope for others.

As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about the challenge he announced last week where he\\u2019s trying to earn $1000 from a new Facebook page in one month.

He\\u2019s currently 10 days in and nowhere near $1000 in earnings, but he does highlight some positive results of his experiment so far.

How many followers does he have? What\\u2019s his ad spend so far? What interesting and potentially profitable advice does Jared offer him? Tune in to hear all the details!

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about a strategy he\\u2019s using to try to revive traffic to a site hit by the HCU with a newsletter and a Facebook page.

He also shares his stats and progress from the last 7 weeks: Facebook followers, ad spend, email subscribers, cost per lead, etc.\\xa0

He\\u2019s also working on a digital product that he wants to sell to his audience. What\\u2019s going well and what\\u2019s not? Check out the full episode to find out.

Then it\\u2019s time to discover some weird niche sites. Spencer shares Million Dollar Homepage, which was created by an entrepreneur in 2005 with the goal of selling pixels on the homepage to earn a million dollars.\\xa0

As it was an unusual idea at the time, the creator got some press coverage and was able to sell out all the pixels and he did, in fact, earn a million dollars.\\xa0

What happened after he reached his goal? How is his site doing now? What did he go on to create? And did his success streak continue or did it die? Check out the podcast to find out.

Jared then shares his site, US Beer Labels, a DR19 website created in 1999 by a guy who collects and trades vintage beer labels. It only ranks for 242 keywords and gets minimal traffic.

What\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s theory about this very niche website? What\\u2019s so fascinating about it and what can we learn from it?

And that concludes another episode of Niche Pursuits News. Thanks so much for tuning in! We hope you feel informed and inspired, like every week.

See you next Friday!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

How This Blogger Makes $10k/month Traveling in China

What do you do when the job market looks bleak and you\\u2019re tired of waiting tables? You move to China!

Well, that\\u2019s what Robert Schrader did. He set off on a giant adventure that would eventually lead him to create 4 successful websites earning more than $10k per month.

After being in the business for 15 years, Robert has a wealth of experience to draw on and offers a unique perspective. In this interview, he shares his blogging strategies and philosophies, some clever monetization techniques, and much more.

He begins by offering a great overview of how he got started traveling and writing travel-related content, and how he came to create his very first site, Leave Your Daily Hell, back in 2009, although it was not a travel blog at that time.

He talks about his fortuitous participation in a blogging contest that helped him realize the business potential of blogging,\\xa0and his unconventional route to monetization.

Robert initially resisted niching down but eventually took the plunge. It\\u2019s a good thing he did, because his first niche site, Japan Starts Here, is currently his most profitable venture.

He has a unique approach to content that he talks about, even sharing the exact formula he uses for his articles along with his anti-keyword research strategy.

Robert talks about his reasons for starting his two other niche sites, Thailand Starts Here and Taiwan Starts Here, and reveals some of his productivity hacks for managing 4 different sites.\\xa0

He shares his strategy for planning his trips as well as his thoughts on updating content.

Robert has a somewhat unconventional philosophy when it comes to blogging, and this interview will absolutely provide some great food for thought.

Links & Resources:

• Leave Your Daily Hell
• Leave Your Daily Hell Instagram
• Japan Starts Here
• Japan Starts Here Instagram
• Thailand Starts Here
• Taiwan Starts Here

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google DROPS AI Overviews to Just 15% of Searches

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

This week, like every week, Spencer and Jared dive deep into the latest news affecting SEOs, publishers, and entrepreneurs relating to Google, AI, and beyond.

The call kicked off with AI Overviews and a letter from Google\\u2019s VP/Head of Search, Liz Reid, in response to pushback from the public about the crazy answers users have been finding.

In the last few weeks, the amount of queries for which AI Overviews has appeared has dramatically dropped, and Spencer and Jared share a graph that shows the niches where it has the largest and smallest presence.

Moving along, they return to a popular topic of late: Google\\u2019s API leak, confirmed by Google themselves.\\xa0

Spencer and Jared share some of the latest and most interesting discoveries from the leak, like how YouTube comments are a ranking factor for YouTube, whether or not small personal sites are really being torched, and how baby Panda is not the HCU.

They also share tips on how to approach SEO going forward, such as author authority and a focus on short, original content vs. longer, regurgitated content.

If you want to hear their thoughts on what you should do differently in SEO, knowing what we now know, check out the episode!

Moving along to their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about a challenge he recently revealed where he\\u2019s trying to drive traffic from a brand new Facebook page to his website to earn $1000 in just 30 days.

Listen to the episode to find out these details, and if you want to see the actual Facebook page, join the Niche Pursuits Community!

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he teases the success he\\u2019s having with his newsletter side hustle, but ultimately talks about Amazon Influencer. He reveals how many videos he\\u2019s uploaded recently and how much he earned in May.

He also did some digging into a drop he experienced in his earnings and made a funny discovery. Check out the episode to hear what he discovered.

As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer reveals r74n, a site with lots of mini-games. He plays around with the most popular one and talks about monetization and the site\\u2019s unique features.

He also reveals that it gets 180k organic visitors per month, and in some months over a million organic visitors.\\xa0

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares Green Screen Memes, the largest memes download website for green screen video templates. This DR27 site ranks for 6k keywords, gets some good branded traffic, and has done particularly well throughout all the updates.

He talks about how it works and how it would be relatively easy to set something like this up.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

How to Build High PR Links That Work (in 2024)

Chris Panteli takes us into the fast-paced world of linkbuilding in this interview packed with tons of actionable tips. Chris, who runs the agency Linkifi, is on the front lines and shares a wealth of knowledge that nobody looking to build a brand should miss.

In this interview, Chris brings us up to speed on everything new in the linkbuilding world and covers a range of topics, from new platforms and what journalists want to winning strategies for 2024 and beyond.

Links & Resources

• Chris\'s previous interview
• Linkifi (use the coupon code nichepursuits20 for 20% off)
• Chris\'s Twitter
• Prowly
• Connectively
• Qwoted
• Source of Sources
• Google Alerts
• Talkwalker

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google Lied! What the Google Search Leak REALLY Tells SEOs

Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared offer their interpretation of the most recent events in the SEO, content creation, and online marketing space.

It\\u2019s been a big week with a massive leak coming out of Google, so get ready for a jam-packed episode where Spencer and Jared break it all down.

They kick things off by giving a bit of the backstory behind the leak and the scope of the leak before diving into the details of the leak.

\\xa0

That being said, what strategy does Spencer think could be useful for ranking going forward? And what do they think about Google\\u2019s spokespeople?

If you want to hear their thoughts on Twiddlers, small personal sites, baby panda demotion, and site radius, and also catch Spencer\\u2019s advice to Google, check out the full episode.

Moving along, Spencer talks about an experiment he\\u2019s working on: a site where the traffic comes from Facebook and Reddit.\\xa0

With 50k followers on his Facebook page and 11k visitors in a single day from Reddit, his site got 55k pageviews in the last month. He\\u2019s currently with Ezoic but his goal is to get into Mediavine or Raptive, start earning $1k per month, and build on that.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle and how he has had success creating videos about the products he uses when he stays at Airbnbs. Then he shares a fantastic hack for making those videos.

Moving onto some weird niche sites, Spencer shares Search Craigslist, a search engine for Craigslist. He shows how it works and shares a funny story about his own personal experience with this kind of site. This site gets over 100k visitors a month, a mix of direct and Search traffic.\\xa0

Are there any other sites you could create a search engine for or make other websites easier to navigate? Why does Jared call this idea brilliant?

Jared then reveals his site, Tree.fm, which lets you enjoy the sounds of random forests and stunning photography. This DR50 site doesn\\u2019t rank for a lot of content, obviously, but they do have a clever monetization strategy.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

I Indie Hacked a $1M/Yr. App Idea in a Weekend

What does it take to build a million-dollar business? Just ask Dawson Botsford, the developer behind Earnifi.

Dawson is a crypto entrepreneur who leveraged a unique opportunity in the space and turned it into a highly profitable company. He built it in a day, started out with no following, and used some counterintuitive strategies to grow his audience.

In this fascinating interview, Dawson tells the story behind building his business, \\u201can overnight success 10 years in the making.\\u201d\\xa0

Links & Resources

• Earnifi
• Starter Story episode\\xa0
• Twitter\\xa0
• Github\\xa0

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Will AI Overviews Crush Small Publishers? Google CEO Responds...

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared bring you the most important headlines in the SEO space.

Spencer wastes no time this week and dives headfirst into an important video published on The Verge.\\xa0

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is interviewed by Nilay Patel, and he asks him some very direct, hard-hitting questions and comments, including ones about the future of niche sites.

He also asks him directly about Google using publishers\\u2019 content for its AI answers and talks about the catastrophic loss of traffic for independent publishers.

He discusses two sites that Spencer and Jared have discussed on several occasions: Housefresh and Retrododo, and he asks him about the availability of data from AI Overviews in Google Search Console.

Moving along, Spencer shares a supplemental article about Google\\u2019s Ads VP being asked about the impact of AI Search on publishers.\\xa0

And lastly, they discuss an article on the recent results from AI Overviews.\\xa0

Moving on to their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer talks about an experiment he\\u2019s conducting with one of his sites where he received 11k visitors from Reddit in a single day.

Neal.fun is full of absurd and entertaining games which have likely gone viral, and it\\u2019s monetized with display ads.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he reveals Caffeine Informer, a DR73 site with 818 pages, a lot of helpful blog content, and organic traffic of 141k per month.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

The Most Consistent Way to Make Money on the Web

Blair Williams is an experienced developer who has been in the membership site game for well over a decade, so he knows his way around the space.\\xa0

Back in the day, he looked at existing membership plugins and was unimpressed, so he decided to scratch his own itch and create his own. He called it MemberPress.

As of today, his plugin has generated more than a billion dollars in revenue for his customers, of which there are thousands.

Over the years, he has built it up to become one of the best, most powerful membership plugins on the market.

Don\\u2019t miss this interview with Blair as he shares many of ways to incorporate a membership component into your business, how to get started, and many other tips and tricks for adding an additional income stream.

Links & Resources

• MemberPress
• 100 Membership Site Examples
• WP Beginner
• All-in-One SEO
• Monster Insights
• Use coupon code \\u201cpodcast\\u201d to get $15 off Link Whisper to build smarter internal links fast

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google Launches "AI Overviews" for All US Users

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared offer an overview of the week in news related to SEO, AI, and Google.

As is usually the case, this was a news-heavy week, especially in terms of AI.\\xa0

They kicked the episode off by talking about Google\\u2019s O/I event, where the company revealed everything it has been working on, much of it revolving around AI.

The biggest announcement was that SGE has now been renamed AI Overviews, which will be available to users in the US immediately.

What\\u2019s the full impact of these AI Overviews? How often do they show up in search results? Does the change in name mean it\\u2019s going to work differently?

AI was definitely the theme of the presentation, but how does Google\\u2019s offer measure up with that of OpenAI?

Jared highlighted information about AI Overview as it relates to publishers and content creators. What interesting (and promising) data did he share?\\xa0

And what happens if you don\\u2019t want Google to use your information for its AI results? Why does Spencer call this a \\u201cfrustrating state of affairs?\\u201d Is this really what users want?

And is anyone fighting for small, independent publishers?

Moving along, Spencer and Jared talk about their Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer talks about his experiment getting Reddit traffic.\\xa0

He shares a bit of his strategy, talks about Reddit and RPMs, and his efforts to join Mediavine\\u2019s Journey program.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about growing his Facebook page, his current cost per like, his cost per lead, and his plans for video ads.

Moving along to the Weird Niche Site portion of the podcast, Spencer breaks all the rules (which is okay, because he also makes them) and reveals a weird YouTube channel, Tiny Cakes.\\xa0

With more than 6 million subscribers, their videos are getting millions and millions of views. According to Social Blade, the site has received 960 million lifetime views, he and Jared talk about the thumbnails,\\xa0

Jared shares the site Famous For A Day, which allows you to hire a paparazzi for the day. He talks about the packages available on the site, whether this is real or a prank, and how it might be used by people.

He also talks about the keywords it\\u2019s ranking for and potential marketing techniques it\\u2019s using.

And that concludes another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope you\\u2019re feeling more informed about recent events in Google\\u2019s sphere and feel inspired by the side hustles and weird sites and channels we covered.

See you next Friday!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

I Grew a SaaS Acquisition from $11k to $40k/mth in 14 Mths

From working remotely while traveling around the world - to acquiring a business for 43% of its asking price and 4x\'ing its revenue within a year, Mike Swigunski has a lot of cool insights on deal-making, delegation, pricing strategies, and more.

In short, Mike is an inspirational example of a remote worker turned entrepreneur.

Drawing from his time working at Empire Flippers, Mike gained valuable insights into the intricacies of the acquisition process for a software business.

A key takeaway from Mike\'s experience is the importance of understanding seller motivations and using factual data to structure deals for effective negotiation.

The acquisition he gets into was structured to enable a quick return on investment.

Again, thanks to his experience brokering several big deals with Empire Flippers, he has a deep understanding of monetization opportunities in the online space.

Pricing psychology and benchmarking were crucial in the immediate aftermath of acquiring the business. As he outlines, he prioritized testing prices, optimizing the pricing page, optimizing customer service, and ensuring mobile-friendliness for enhanced user experience.\\xa0

He also chose to add a free trial of the full suite of tools, remove a free basic plan, translate the site into multiple languages, and focus on improving its conversion rate optimization.

His success is also attributed to his focus on lean operations and strategic outsourcing for important tasks like code auditing.

And he stresses the importance of hiring the right talent, mastering delegation, honing managerial skills, and possessing marketing and sales expertise.

All of this helped the site go from $10k in monthly profit to nearly $40k per month at the time of recording\\u2014all within a period of approximately 14-15 months!

Links & Resources

• Global Career Book - How to Work Anywhere & Travel Forever w/ Digital Nomad Jobs
• How To Travel & Work Remotely Forever | Mike Swigunski | TEDxVake (youtube.com)
• Use coupon code \\u201cpodcast\\u201d to get $15 off Link Whisper to build smarter internal links fast

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google's Site Reputation Abuse Penalties Begin...

Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.

The first news item they cover is Google\\u2019s move to\\xa0enforce site reputation abuse, also known as parasite SEO.

He also shares a tweet from Glen Allsopp with early insights into these measures.\\xa0

In positive news, Spencer and Jared talk about a potential correction from the recent Google updates.\\xa0

Still talking about Google, it looks like the company\\u2019s market share has taken a dip, and Spencer shares some of the recent stats.

By how much did its share of the global market shrink in the last year?

Speaking of a declining market share, Google may see itself up against a new search engine, launched by OpenAI. Although it\\u2019s not official, rumors suggest that it\\u2019s in the works.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer shares an experiment he\\u2019s doing with a small website trying to drive traffic from Reddit.

He talks briefly about some of the things he did to get that traffic and what he plans to do moving forward.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks briefly about his newsletter side hustle but goes into more detail on a YouTube side hustle he\\u2019s working on.

One of his channels has seen a boost in traffic thanks to the Amazon Influencer videos he uploaded there; in fact, it now has reached the threshold for monetization.

As for Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with James Bond Lifestyle, a DR57 website that provides exhaustive information about all things James Bond\\u2014clothing, accessories, gadgets, etc.\\xa0

According to Ahrefs, it gets 20k monthly organic visitors, and according to SimilarWeb, 200k. Spencer also takes a look at its keywords and its optimization opportunities and reveals if it was impacted by the HCU.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he reveals his weird site: This Is Why I\\u2019m Broke.\\xa0

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

How Liz Wilcox from Survivor Makes $40k/Month With Email Marketing!

Looking to grow your email list?

Liz Wilcox is here to help. She\'s worn many hats:

• A former Survivor contestant (yep, the reality TV show)
• RV blogger
• Virtual assistant

But above all - she\'s an email growth expert joining us with awesome tips and tricks to help you connect with your target audience and make good money doing it!

And she\'s an absolutely great example to learn from - she was featured as a Niche Pursuits\' success story in 2023 (link below), making $20k per month, and has since "doubled that!"

Email marketing helped revolutionize Liz Wilcox\'s business.

Over the years, she\'s scaled her email marketing efforts, refined her lead magnets, and boosted conversions.

During this process, she developed her innovative "email staircase method." This is a strategic approach to converting followers into friends by building authentic and lasting connections with subscribers and, ultimately - lasting customers.

Infusing personality and relatability into email content is crucial for fostering these connections with an audience.

She has lots of practical tips to help, like crafting effective welcome sequences and evaluating performance to enhance engagement and conversion rates.

This not only helps with connections and authenticity but also with finding your own niche.

She also discusses the importance of setting clear expectations, sharing values, and offering a mix of free and paid products in welcome sequences to nurture a loyal subscriber base.

Tripwire offers transparent communication and strategic sales placements within newsletters to help her nudge subscribers from passive to paid. And she prioritizes products that address the needs she\'s found interacting with her audience.

Check out the episode to learn all about the transformative effects of starting with a well-crafted welcome sequence, engaging newsletters, and more!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google March Core Update Complete: Here's the Winners and Losers

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

This week Spencer and Jared cover all the latest happenings in the SEO and content creation space and share their opinions and insight. Then they share some very interesting and inspiring side hustles they\\u2019re working on, and they wrap things up with some weird niche sites.

They jump into things with the news that Google\\u2019s March Update is finally complete!\\xa0

It finished rolling out on April 19th, and Spencer and Jared discuss the update in general, how long it took, and why its conclusion might not have been announced by Google until later.\\xa0

They talk about Google\\u2019s original ambitions with regard to the update and the feedback form they created as well as the site reputation abuse update that\\u2019s going to get underway.

They also discuss why nobody has recovered from the Helpful Content Update, whether Google even knows how someone might recover, and what this all means.

They move on to discuss the winners and losers from the March 2023 Core and Spam Updates, looking at different types of traffic losses and naming some surprising sites on the list as well as looking at some of the winners.

Of course, Amazon, Reddit, and YouTube come up, as do dictionary sites, Etsy, and Quora.

Moving on, they share an article on HouseFresh about how it no longer appears in Google Search and how Google is killing independent review websites.\\xa0

They show the article\\u2019s graph, which reflects a giant 91% decline in traffic, and discuss interesting topics it covers, such as the rise of Forbes in Search and keyword swarming.

Spencer and Jared then share a public plea from Marie Haynes for Google to help publishers hit by the update.\\xa0

Why is this unusual? How does Jared summarize the situation?

As for their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer talks briefly about his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle.\\xa0

He shares his earnings for the last 30 days and talks about his future plans for it. Although this project provides passive income, Spencer actually gave a highly detailed presentation as part of his Niche Pursuits Community program where he talked about all the work that went into the side hustle in the beginning.\\xa0

Jared then goes on to talk about his Amazon Influencer side hustle, talking about the new videos he\\u2019s uploaded in 2024 and his total earnings for March and April.

How did he do? How do his stats measure up to Spencer\\u2019s?

He also talks about his most recent newsletters side hustle, which of the 2 is getting the most traction, his Facebook page lead generation strategy, and his current number of email subscribers.

Tune in to hear more about his strategy.

As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Secret Fan Base, which takes a closer look at the story and clothes from well-known brand Banana Republic.\\xa0

As the clothes are now more mainstream and mass produced, the site covers its original safari style and is created by a group of original fans.

Although it doesn\\u2019t get a ton of traffic, the site has a unique story and is a true labor of love.

Jared shares his site, Passport Waiting Time, and shares some of the site\\u2019s interesting aspects, like a forum. This DR27 site is ranking for 2k keywords and gets 3k in organic search traffic per month.

They discuss potential strategies the site could use, its current monetization, and why they think the site wasn\\u2019t impacted by Google\\u2019s updates.

That concludes another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.\\xa0

We hope you learned about the latest events in the space and that you\\u2019re feeling inspired by the conversation.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

I Survived the Google Updates Using Authority Stacking

Today, we're being joined by Brian Winum, a long-time digital marketer who started affiliate marketing in the late '90s...

He runs a marketing agency in New York and specializes in building websites as sustainable and valuable business assets - specifically focusing on securing Google News approval and executing effective monetization strategies.

And he's got a lot of tips on the topic and others that may interest you, including:

• Authority stacking,
• Tips for using AI-generated content,
• Adhering to Google Quality Rater guidelines,
• And taking a strategic approach to digital marketing.

Listed in: Business

Meet the Man Killing Google Search...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Are you ready to hear the latest news affecting Google, SEO, AI, and web publishers?

As always, Spencer and Jared will break everything down into digestible pieces and share their thoughts, concerns, and predictions.

They kick things off diving straight into a particularly spicy topic: who\\u2019s killing Google Search.

They maintain that it\\u2019s an inside job, and talk about the news that came out this week about an internal meeting at Google regarding the division\\u2019s \\u201cnew operating reality\\u201d and the decline in search queries and engagement.

Word on the street is that the man who heads the Search team is the man who killed Google Search.

Spencer and Jared talk about this possibility as well as a little bit about the history of Search, the results of updates over the years, why results have gotten worse over time, how ads have been redesigned, and how Google is trying to squeeze more money out of Search results.

What incredible irony does Jared point out? What\\u2019s Spence\\u2019s takeaway for bloggers? Is Google going to implode?

Spencer and Jared then move on to a related topic: how product recommendations have broken Google. They reference the Housefresh debacle from a few weeks ago, and talk about how the search for products has changed over time.\\xa0

How do we know if the reviews are honest, or if they\\u2019re sponsored, or if they\\u2019re authentic? And what does the future hold for product reviews?

The last article they discuss is how Google has become defensive when it comes to its Search quality and forum results.

Experts are pointing out that the results being delivered by Google on Reddit offer very poor and misguided advice, especially when it comes to health queries.

How has Danny Sullivan responded? Why do Spencer and Jared talk about the difference between \\u201ctrust\\u201d and \\u201clike?\\u201d

Moving on to their Side Hustle Shenanigans, Spencer talks about his Amazon Influencer videos going live on YouTube. Before his channel got shut down, he was getting between 100 and 200 views per day, peaking one day at 250.

Now his biggest day has been 11 views. He and Jared talk about why this may be as well as his process for getting his videos live on YouTube.

What program does he recommend using to automate the process?

Jared then talks briefly about his Alt G Conference, which was held just a few days earlier, and he shares some interesting stats and stories from that online event.

When it\\u2019s his turn, he talks about his email newsletter side hustle.\\xa0

He recently launched a second email newsletter using content from one of his sites that was crushed by the HCU. He goes through many of the steps he took to get the project off the ground, so tune in for some great ideas!

When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, Spencer shares his, which is Brick Economy, on the economics of Legos.

The site offers the current value on lots of Lego sets as well as annual growth of certain themed Legos, and the ability to track the prices of your own Legos. It\\u2019s monetized with affiliate links and display ads, and according to SimilarWeb, it\\u2019s getting over a million visitors per month.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares his site, Tractor Data, which is a small, family-run business that has been tracking data on tractors for the last 20 years. This DR61 site includes a news section and a directory and gets almost 400k pageviews a month, according to Ahrefs.

What keywords is it ranking for? Does it rank first for any terms? Is it making any money? And what kind of potential does Jared see in the site?

As both of these sites are doing well in Google, what can we learn from them and their strategies?

And that brings us to the end of another informative and inspiring episode. See you next Friday!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

How Ben Rojas Grew an SEO WordPress Plugin to 3,000,000 Users

Listed in: Business

The Verge Trolls Google...Again!

Welcome back to a new episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast!\\xa0

Jared and Spencer, as always, offer an insightful take on the latest happenings with SEO, publishers, Google, and AI, and give a peek behind the curtain at their latest projects. Stick around for a laugh when they reveal the weird niche sites they found.

The first order of business is to mention that the March Core Update has still not finished rolling out and Spencer and Jared decline to guess when that might be.

Moving along, they jump into the first big news item: The Verge trolling Google, once again.The Verge published a new article for 2024 \\u201creviewing printers,\\u201d when in reality the article is just mocking Google for how they rank articles.

Did The Verge actually test the printers? What outbound links did they include? What did John Mueller have to say about it?\\xa0

And most importantly, how\\u2019s the article ranking? Find out the amusing, and depressing, story behind this news item.

Moving along to another article in The Verge, Spencer and Jared talk about how Google is experimenting with a small subset of news publishers, removing their links from Google News. It\\u2019s doing this because California is thinking about forcing Google to pay its news publishers.

What are the implications for publishers? Is there any precedent in these types of situations? What happened in Australia? And will Google extend this to other areas?

In other Google news, the company is launching a new ad product whereby ads appear inside your content, as hyperlinked text, which takes users to advertisers\\u2019 products. This is optional for publishers within Google AdSense.

What does Spencer think? Would he enable this on his own websites? What scenarios does Jared share where this might work? Tune in to find out.

The latest news item is that Brave Search has released an Answer with AI feature.\\xa0

What do Spencer and Jared think of it and its impact? What does it remind them of?

Moving along to the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle and his decision to publish those shopping videos on YouTube.

Incredibly, his channel disappeared! What happened? How did it turn out and what\\u2019s happening now?

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he announces a new side hustle: an email newsletter. He talks about how he plans to build it, why he decided to dive into this project, and his experience in this area.

When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, Spencer reveals Pets or Food, a very entertaining tongue-in-cheek website that does get some traffic, according to Ahrefs. It doesn\\u2019t have a lot of ads but it does have merch, which may be a source of revenue.

Jared then reveals Line Rusher, which allows people to hire someone to wait in line for them at places like the DMV, Apple, and at restaurants and amusement parks.

They offer some interesting services and are constantly hiring line sitters, which may be an interesting option in the current gig economy.

What do the stats in Ahrefs reveal? What spin would Jared put on this service?

And that brings us to the end of another episode! We hope you learned from the latest headlines in the space, felt inspired by our side hustle projects, and got ideas from this week\\u2019s weird niche sites.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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

Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Listed in: Business

How This "Gear Nerd" Grew an 8-Figure Media Brand

Stephen Regenold is a true digital media success story.

Around 2010, when print media was starting to really feel the effects of the Internet, he decided to start his own outdoor blog.

Early in his online journey, Steven made wise decisions in the site\'s revenue model for direct ad sales, affiliate commerce, and SEO strategies.

These, combined with some viral luck when a term they helped coin was being considered for the Oxford Dictionary, helped the brand become a massive success.

(He also touches on how video content, from shorts to documentaries, played a crucial role in their strategy.)

Gear Junkie\'s achievements led to multi-million dollar revenue and partnerships with major brands, positioning the site and its editors as an influencer proposition. They engaged audiences through influencers like YouTubers and Instagram personalities, along with their SEO success.

In 2018, acquisition offers started pouring in, and Gear Junkie eventually sold to Lola Digital in 2020. Post-acquisition, the company rebranded as All Gear Digital, raising $40 million, making eight additional acquisitions, growing into an outdoor media conglomerate, and bringing back Stephen to help them grow.

This was well-timed as the outdoor industry saw surprising growth during the pandemic, with a surge of interest in outdoor activities and gear.

Stephen discusses how All Gear Digital\'s brands are doing today, providing numbers and sharing strategies for adding value to conversations and maintaining a unique voice in a competitive space. As a result of all this, you won\'t believe how long their dwell time on site is.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google CEO Predicts the Future of Search

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!\\xa0

Come join Spencer and Jared as they take on the latest news in SEO, AI, Google, and beyond.

This week\\u2019s episode kicks off with some big news from Google\\u2019s CEO, Sundar Pichai, who talks about the future of Search.\\xa0

The main pivot he focuses on in the interview is the shift to AI, which he expects to serve the company well over the coming decade. He notes that AI has been working behind the scenes for a long time now and that Google has to evolve to meet the changing needs of users.

What does he say about chatbots? And what does he say about websites? Are they going away and is SGE going to take over? Tune in to hear what Spencer and Jared think about his comments.

Moving along, they talk about a LinkedIn post from Lily Ray on the SEO visibility growth of Reddit and the mindblowing statistics she shares.\\xa0

What theory does she share that Spencer doesn\\u2019t agree with? How does this all play into Google\\u2019s antitrust lawsuit, problems with Gemini, and its declining share price?\\xa0

And what about Reddit\\u2019s poor-quality results in Search? Listen to the episode to hear the ridiculous Reddit response to a weight loss query.

Spencer then shares a tweet from a series by Glenn Gabe on the March Core Update, talking about whether the update has finished or not, the role played by the HCU, and the lack of recoveries from these updates.

What did John Mueller say about the core update? What do Spencer and Jared think about the updates and when they\\u2019ll finish? Check out the episode to find out.

The last topic is that Bing usage is on the rise, having gained some footing recently, and Spencer and Jared note from the article that Bing actually powers several other search engines, including DuckDuckGo and Yahoo.

What do they recommend when it comes to optimization? Who uses Bing and why does it matter? What\\u2019s happening with desktop search?

As for their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer highlights two of his side hustles, the Amazon Influencer Program and his Facebook traffic project, neither of which rely on search engine traffic at all.

Jared then announces the Alt G Online Conference: Unleash Your Content\\u2019s Potential Beyond Google, which will bring together people earning money on alternative platforms. It will be held on April 25th, and both Spencer and Jared will be speakers.

In line with the conference, the Niche Pursuits Community is welcoming a series of expert speakers each week who are also talking about using alternative traffic sources.

Jared talks briefly about his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle and then teases a new side hustle he\\u2019s about to launch. Come back next week for all the details!

As for the Weird Niche Sites, Spencer reveals iScrap App, which reports local scrap prices. They\\u2019ve got a blog and a directory and they\\u2019re doing well in search: 300k visitors per month according to SimilarWeb.

They monetize with display ads, they have a store, they sell directory space to scrapyards, and the owner probably has a nice little side hustle with this weird niche site.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he reveals Live Oasis, which lets you research the toxicity of many water brands and rates the water quality in different municipalities. It has a subscription model, which provides access to more information and research, but is it earning money?

Beyond that, this brand-new website is doing quite well and ranking for lots of keywords. What does Jared discover when he digs into the backstory? And where is all of the data coming from? And what if they were to change the model a bit? Hear Jared and Spencer\\u2019s recommendations.

We hope this episode helped bring you up to speed on the latest happenings in the SEO and content creation space and gave you some new ideas when it comes to your own businesses.

See you next week!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Meet the Flipboard Master that Gets 1 Million Views a Month

Michael Dinich has had tremendous success with Flipboard as a traffic source for his site Wealth of Geeks.

Thanks to this focus, he gets about one-third of his traffic from the platform and avoids much of the pain and stress felt about Google updates.

Flipboard is described as a less time-consuming Pinterest and offers a broad approach suitable for diverse industries beyond strictly visual-centric ones.

It\'s platform that caters to a diverse demographic, slightly leaning towards males, and supports a wide range of niches such as finance, muscle cars, and video games.

And he\'s got tips on how we can follow in his footsteps.

For starters, he emphasizes the importance of participating in the community, and optimizing content for the platform. Things like:

• Creating magazines,
• Flipping trending content,
• And joining group shares.

Success on Flipboard hinges on strong headlines, engaging images, and community interaction to drive high-quality traffic and engagement rates.

And strategies like cloning posts with seasonal variations and maintaining SEO titles on website URLs can enhance visibility.

He also suggests following influencers, and adding a Flipboard button to your website are recommended for growth. And highlights how consistent effort and experimentation are key to seeing significant gains on Flipboard, with the process taking around six months.

He gets quite a bit deeper into the specifics though and if you\'re in the market for a new traffic source you won\'t want to miss this one!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google Considers Charging for AI Search (Search Generative Experience)

Welcome to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! This week\'s news podcast is brought to you by Jared Bauman and Thomas Smith, who\\u2019s filling in for Spencer.

As always, they\\u2019re bringing you all of the latest news related to SEO, Google, and AI, along with their analyses. Stay until the end to hear about their side hustles and weird niche sites!

The first item up for discussion is the fact that Google is thinking about charging for its AI-powered features, such as the Search Generative Experience (SGE).\\xa0

Jared and Thomas talk about SGE and the reasons why Google may consider this path, and if they do go ahead with it, what it might look like. They also discuss a Tweet from Glenn Gabe, sharing his predictions about where this is headed.\\xa0

Moving along, they discuss how Google\\u2019s search engine market share has declined by around 2%, which may not sound like very much, but it is, and it most likely has Google worried. It looks like Bing\\u2019s market share is growing, and Jared and Thomas talk about potentially optimizing for the platform.

The conversation then shifts to Microsoft Start, which is Microsoft\\u2019s version of Discover, and its\\xa0 recently-announced and very interesting AI policy. Thomas shares his experience using Microsoft Start and his interpretation of their stance on AI. What do he and Jared think about this policy? And how is it different, or similar, to Google\\u2019s?

Moving to a lighter topic, Thomas talks about a musician named Matt Farley, who essentially mined Spotify for keywords and created songs around them. Today he\'s earning $200k a year. Tune in to hear his excellent advice around this story as well as the stats behind Matt\\u2019s \\u201cbusiness.\\u201d

When it comes to Shiny Object Shenanigans, Jared starts by talking about his Amazon Influencer side hustle. In March, his earnings totalled almost $4k and, inspired by this progress, he uploaded another 66 videos. He shares some of his stats and talks about how passive this business model really is.

Thomas shares his Medium side hustle, explaining how the platform works, its stance on AI, and how he makes money from it. Last year he was earning $500 or $600 per month from it, and last month he made $3k.\\xa0

Listen to hear him explain his thoughts on that growth and what Medium is doing right.

He also recently started an Etsy store for fun? Find out what he\\u2019s selling!

As for Weird Niche Sites, Jared shares his first: MeetWays, which helps you find a spot in the middle when you\\u2019re meeting up with someone. This DR34 site has seen its traffic grow from 15k last year to 30k this year and ranks for 188k keywords.

They talk about how the site is monetized, how it was potentially built, and whether or not it\\u2019s helpful.

Thomas shares the site Antipodes Map, which lets you see what\\u2019s on the exact opposite side of you on the earth.\\xa0

He plays around with some locations to show how it works, and then shares the stats: DR52, 4k organic search traffic according to Ahrefs, and 113k searches per month according to SimilarWeb.\\xa0

Is it monetized or is it a passion project? Listen to find out!

That brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! We hope you enjoyed this episode with Jared and Thomas and feel informed and inspired in your own business projects.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

I Make Money Online Selling Dude Ranch Vacations

Want to escape the 9 to 5 rat race but struggle to come up with good business ideas?

This episode is for you.

Peter Askew got into the internet business working for .com startups in the late 90s. Due to a series of bad experiences though, he was pretty much forced into entrepreneurship (his words). Thanks to this, over time, he developed an awesome ability to create opportunities by acquiring strategic aged domains.

This is what he dives into today which you don\'t want to miss!

Peter\'s strategy is really cool and the interview covers a lot of interesting stories and insights from his journey.

It all started when he acquired the domain duderanch.com, which became the cornerstone of his success.

And while growing it - he learned a lot of lessons about diving into a niche that have continued to help him in all sorts of ways. He talks about attending industry conferences and fostering relationships with ranch owners. And how these real-world relationships translate to online business growth.

Over time, Peter continued to grow his site\'s directory-style business by improving rankings and revenue. And he discusses some key insights from various metrics, regarding his site\'s design, imagery, and brand reputation.

It hasn\'t been all successes though.

He also shares how important the niche is for success with this model - highlighting the expensive lessons he learned after acquiring \'birthdayparties.com\'.

Peter also discusses the growth of his job board in the ranching industry, and his DTC onion project.

These are projects that highlight his ability to compete with comparatively massive companies thanks to his domain strategy.

Overall his story is really inspirational. And one that highlights the sometimes overlooked techniques that can be used to grow nearly any business. And is an episode that is absolutely worth watching.

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

These Goliath SEO Sites are Seeing MASSIVE Growth

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared break down the most recent news in SEO, AI, and content creation into smaller, digestible pieces.

Let\\u2019s get started!

Spencer first digs into Glen Allsopp\\u2019s recent report on almost 50 companies\\u2019 SEO performance, sharing some of his research for companies like NextDoor and Chegg, which are publishing massive amounts of AI-generated content and answering questions with AI, respectively, with a lot of success.

On the flip side, they share how many large content sites are also seeing a decline in traffic following the updates, just like smaller sites are experiencing.

They talk about the lessons we can draw from who\\u2019s really winning in affiliate marketing these days, the Asia-focused version of websites that are killing it, and more, but you\\u2019ll have to tune in to hear what they think.

Moving on, they talk about how Google has offered advice to those people affected by the HCU.\\xa0

What kinds of things are people doing to show Google they\\u2019re legit, and should they keep doing it? What does Danny Sullivan say? Were the penalties delivered really at page level or site level, and why do people think Google\\u2019s response to this was contradictory?

The next article they address is from Glen Gabe, featuring hundreds of websites that Wikipedia has deemed as reliable or not, and what we can take away from this information as website owners and content creators.\\xa0

What popular sites did they find on the list and what was surprising about their standing? Listen to the episode to find out!

Moving along to their Shiney Object Shenanigans, first Spencer talks about growing his Facebook page, which currently has around 60k followers.\\xa0

Is he able to achieve his goal, which is to drive traffic from the page to his website? He shares the stats, as well as a unique strategy he\\u2019s using that is starting to bear fruit, albeit just a little. He\\u2019s still in the weeds with this one, so stay tuned to hear how it evolves.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about a new experiment to grow 2 TikTok channels, one in the fashion niche and the other in the travel niche.\\xa0

How did they do? How did he promote them? And what can we learn from this? And what does it have to do with the Amazon Influencer program?

Moving into the Weird Niche Site portion of the podcast, Spencer goes first with 1920s Fashion and Music, which dives into the 1920s celebrity fashion industry.\\xa0

What\\u2019s especially surprising about this site is that it got a traffic bump from the HCU and has been doing better ever since. Spencer shares the site\\u2019s very interesting and inspiring backstory. What can we learn from this?

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares Box Cycle, a platform for buying and selling used boxes. It has a Craigslist-esque look to it, but is it ranking at all? How popular is it? And how is it performing? It\\u2019s a DR40 site with several number 1 rankings, but is this an actual niche? Listen to the full episode to find out!

This brings us to the end of another great episode full of information and inspiration. See you next Friday for more of the same!

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

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?\\xa0 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

Listed in: Business

Google Will Find Your AI Content Heres What to Do Now...

Listed in: Business

The Google Spam Update Just Finished: Here's the Winners and Losers

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared talk about the biggest news over the last week in Google, SEO, and AI.\\xa0

They also give an update on some of their side hustles and top it all off with some very weird and entertaining niche sites.

They kick off this week\\u2019s call by announcing big news: Google has just finished rolling out the spam update, although the core update will continue to be rolled out for another two weeks.

The spam update targeted three types of abuse: scaled content, expired domain, and site reputation (also known as parasite SEO), though the latter will technically be targeted in May.\\xa0

They share a tweet from Lily Ray, where she details the winners and losers from the update, and then Spencer looks at a handful of their data in Ahrefs.\\xa0

If you take a closer look at the \\u201cwinners,\\u201d you can see examples of sites that are crushing it and do your own deep-dive analysis. They also look at sites that were absolutely crushed in the update, as we can learn from both.\\xa0

Listen to the full episode to see their analysis and which sites are doing well and poorly.

Moving along, the next news item is that Google is shaking things up a bit internally, replacing the Head of Search, among other roles.\\xa0

What do Spencer and Jared make of this? And what does the new head, Liz Reid, talk about primarily in her announcement? What does she see as the future of search? And what\\u2019s motivating these changes at Google? Tune in to hear what they think!

During the Side Hustle Shenanigans segment of the podcast, Spencer goes first and talks about his Amazon Influencer business. He reveals his current earnings and reports that his earnings have become almost entirely passive since he hasn\\u2019t really uploaded videos since December.

Jared just finished his call with the Niche Pursuits Community, where he talks in detail about his business and how he\\u2019s grown it. Spencer did a call the previous week where he shared all the details behind his Amazon Influencer business as well.

If you want to see those videos and enjoy many other aspects of the Community, you can join right here!\\xa0

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about deleting 18% of the subscribers to his Weekend Growth newsletter. He shares the process for culling the list and trying to re-engage with disinterested subscribers, and the resulting open rate after the process.

Spencer then shares his process for managing the people on his list who are disengaged. Which approach resonates the most with you? Check out the episode to hear how their strategies differ.\\xa0

When it\\u2019s time to talk about Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Ling\'s Cars. From the psychedelic background to Ling\\u2019s bobbing head, the site definitely leans into its weirdness.

The owner also uses some unique real-life marketing strategies but doesn\\u2019t have a very strong SEO game. Most of its traffic is direct or comes from social media, reaching 84k visitors last month.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares the personal website, Tyler Vigen. The section that has gone viral is called Spurious Correlations, where he shows correlations between two completely random things, like Amazon\\u2019s stock price and the popularity of the name Stevie.

There\\u2019s a very entertaining AI component to this DR74 site, although it\\u2019s not ranking for a lot of keywords or getting much traffic, and the owner is not monetizing in any way.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared break down the latest important news in the sector and seek to motivate listeners with their side hustles.

See you next Friday!\\xa0

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com\\xa0

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter\\xa0

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

Listed in: Business

Meet the SEO Who Tested and Solved Google (Kyle Roof EEAT Interview)

Want some help understanding what content and site features Google seems to reward in today\'s SEO landscape?

Friend of the show, Kyle Roof is back on the Niche Pursuits podcast to help us all make sense of it all.

The last time he was on, he talked all about EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) but now there is also the added E for Experience factor to account for.

And the obvious elephant in the room where recent Google updates have wiped out traffic to tons of sites overnight.

So Kyle brings some much needed insights into what Google prioritizes and timely recommendations for how we can adapt accordingly.

Kyle stresses the importance of showcasing genuine human experience and expertise on our websites, advocating for:

• First-person language
• Author bios
• And validating experience through linking

He also discusses how the use of user-generated content (UGC) through site blog comments can potentially be a helpful tool to demonstrate experience and trustworthiness - with a focus on curated blog comments and discussions to validate expertise.

The rise of UGC platforms like Quora and Reddit are also referenced as helping you build a digital footprint of experience as well as enhancing your overall credibility and trustworthiness in your niche.

And there is significant time spent on highlighting the "E" for experience in the HCU update has influenced website rankings, favoring tangible businesses and eCommerce sites that complete transactions on-site rather than acting as the standard \'doorway pages\' of the standard affiliate and content sites.

And with Google favoring these websites that facilitate on-site transactions, building Trust becomes a significant challenge for these affiliate sites.

Another important topic discussed is building authority - not necessarily in the standard way of links - although that certainly doesn\'t hurt - but rather in growing the number of keywords your site ranks for.

Along with this is the importance of updating content and monitoring SERP changes, with tools like Page Optimizer Pro (POP) for their watchdog feature playing particular importance.

This is another excellent interview with Kyle Roof. Don\'t miss it!

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?\\xa0 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

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

Listed in: Business

Why is Google MANUALLY Deindexing So Many Sites? (And Other News)

Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Dig into the latest news in SEO, AI, and content creation with Jared and Spencer!

They kick off this week\\u2019s episode talking about Google\\u2019s March Core Update.

They talk specifically about scaled content abuse and how Google is going in and manually deindexing sites, sharing a study that looked at 79,000 websites on certain ad networks, of which 1146 were deindexed.

Could this be a scare tactic by Google? Is it doing this manually to save its crawl budget? What exactly is going on?

Google updated its quality rater guidelines to ensure that they ding those sites that don\\u2019t disclose which articles were written with AI, describing AI-generated articles as the lowest form of content when ti comes to EEAT.

Spencer offers some advice for content creators using AI and says that Google is going after sites with AI-generated content. He does make an important distinction, though. Tune in to hear what he says.

Then they discuss how Google put out an FAQ on \\u201cpure spam\\u201d manual action notices, but as Jared notices, there is one important thing missing from the post. What is it?

They then move on to a funny news item. John Mueller, one of Google\\u2019s Search Liaisons, saw his site get dropped from Google, although it was recently reindexed. It\\u2019s not clear why this happened or if it was a stunt, but it\\u2019s definitely news!

Spencer and Jared have some encouraging words for listeners about the core update overall, so listen to the episode to hear what they have to say.

Moving along, they announce Mediavine\\u2019s new program, Journey, for sites getting around 10k sessions per month. This is a great alternative for people with smaller sites to allow them to get monetized with Mediavine.

As this is a new program, Spencer and Jared have a lot of questions about it and about how it will run, and why it\\u2019s being launched now.

Things take a \\u201cnerdy\\u201d turn afterwards as Jared talks about how Google Search Console has rolled out the new core web vitals. What changes have been made, and what is INP all about?

Moving along, they share that Reddit has announced a new tool for business growth, allowing companies to spot trends, track mentions, monitor post performance, etc.\\xa0

The goal is to help brands promote themselves organically, and it could be a good platform to use as people consider diversifying away from Google. Tune in to listen to what Spencer and Jared think about this idea.

And the last item on the agenda is the news that the Associated Press has launched an e-commerce site with product reviews.\\xa0

What is so unsettling about this headline for Spencer? What do they say about presidential campaigns, blenders, and multivitamins?

As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer gives an update on his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle. He reports that his earnings are steady this month, at $1,600, with no major dips but also no major growth. Jared chimes in with his earnings this month, too!

He also talks about his new premium Niche Pursuits Community, for which he just did an expert call to talk about the program, sharing all of the juicy details about how he built this income stream.\\xa0

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about adding a new, professionally edited video and thumbnail to his Weekend Growth YouTube channel.\\xa0

He also talks about how he\\u2019s using SparkLoop to grow his newsletter subscriber list, and after spending +$200, he has acquired +200 subscribers. Tune in to hear all of the details and learn more.

As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first and reveals Horse Name Ideas. This weird website has hundreds of categories as well as a name generator, and perhaps what\\u2019s most surprising is what he reveals when he looks at Ahrefs.

But when Spencer and Jared discuss the site owner\\u2019s photo, the About page, the mission statement, and the contact phone number, what happens? Listen to find out.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares Healthy Wage and even reads from its Wikipedia page. This DR60 site is only ranking for 3.6k keywords, but it does have social proof and is very popular.

How can the principles of this page be used by other site owners? Check out the episode to hear what they say.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. See you all next week for another hour of inspiration and information from Spencer and Jared.

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?\\xa0 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

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?\\xa0 Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

Listed in: Business

This SEO Specialist Sold 3 Businesses to Google and SEMrush

Wouldn\'t it be nice to use SEO to grow businesses to 6-7-figure exits within just a year or two?

That\'s what our latest guest on the Niche Pursuits podcast does.

His name is Dmitry Dragilev, and over the years, he\'s refined a repeatable process he\'s used to sell an app, SaaS, and affiliate site to companies like Google and Semrush.

To accomplish this, Dmitry stresses the significance of employing a well-thought-out exit plan and a consistent approach to business growth - particularly through SEO strategies - keyword research, and backlinking techniques.

Dmitry candidly discusses his SEO mistakes over the years, such as targeting incorrect keywords and underestimating the ongoing efforts required to rank high in Google.

He shares some good general advice, like starting with low-volume keywords and gradually progressing to more competitive ones. And emphasizes the importance of niche authority and recommends steering clear of broad topics for enhanced SEO outcomes.

A particularly interesting insight is how he looks for weaknesses in the SERPs - thin pages and those lacking any helpful content for the desired search term.

Drawing from his experience of selling businesses to major companies, he underscores the importance of fostering connections and relationships in achieving business success. And some of the value propositions online businesses should target for better sales terms.

Dmitry also provides valuable insights on pitfalls to avoid when building a business.

Overall, this is a discussion on good practices for SEO and even business more generally. And it\'s certainly interesting to hear from someone who has experience like his!

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

Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? \\xa0Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

Listed in: Business

Google Core and Spam Updates Unleashed...Here's What You Need to Know

Welcome back to the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, everyone!\\xa0

This is the podcast for SEOs, content creators, webmasters, and entrepreneurs looking to understand the latest events and get inspiration for their businesses.

It\\u2019s been a crazy week in SEO news, so let\\u2019s get right into it! And, as Google suggested, you better buckle up as it\\u2019s going to be a wild ride!

The first (and only) topic Spencer and Jared dig into is Google\\u2019s very big news.

It\\u2019s rolling out the March 2024 Spam Update, which will take 2 weeks, as well as its March 2024 core update, which will take about a month. It\\u2019s also worth noting that the Helpful Content system is now part of the core updates.

Spencer and Jared discuss this news at length, covering the main aspects: scaled content abuse; site reputation abuse, or parasite SEO; and expired domain abuse. Google\\u2019s stated goal is to reduce the amount of low-quality, unoriginal content by up to 40% and send search traffic to helpful and high-quality sites.

What does this all mean? And what does it mean for AI content? Who is Google targeting specifically?\\xa0

What cryptic sentence from Google\\u2019s announcement does Spencer consider the most interesting? What sort of behavior is Google cracking down on in particular? What types of penalties is Google doling out, and who\\u2019s getting hit?

What step did Google announce that leads Spencer and Jared to suggest Google is biased? And what kind of practices are they cracking down on when it comes to expired domains?

They also talk about how Google might start to use a page classifier as opposed to a site classifier. What implications would this have?

Tune in to hear Spencer and Jared discuss Google\'s latest news and share their thoughts on what\'s going on.

The next portion of the podcast is Shiny Object Shenanigans.\\xa0

Spencer goes first with an update on his Amazon Influencer side hustle. He reports a rough number of his videos and his earnings this month to date. The good news is that he is officially in the black.

He also announces that he\\u2019s going to do an in-depth presentation about his Amazon Influencer side hustle for the Niche Pursuits Community, his new, premium membership group, which launched at the beginning of March.\\xa0

Spencer will be sharing just about everything, from his storefront to his earnings to his secrets for hiring people. If you want to check it out, join the community before Monday!

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he provides a brief earnings update on his Amazon Influencer side hustle, and then digs into another project: using paid ads to drive subscribers to his Weekend Growth newsletter.

He explains how he set it up through ConvertKit, how he\\u2019s going to try different ad ideas, and how he is about to go live with the ads. He will be providing more details and results as they come in, so watch this space!

As for Weird Niche Sites, Spencer reveals that his site is getting 2 million organic visitors per month and 6 million visitors in total. Random lets you generate random things, such as numbers, and they do it using a very unique method. Listen to hear what it is!

This DR83 site is making some money. Tune in to hear how they do it.

When Jared\\u2019s up, he shares the website for the Stinky Candle Company, which sells unique candles with scents like chlorine, gasoline, and bacon.\\xa0

This DR30 site is not getting much traffic, but Jared does reveal a few interesting tidbits about it. It looks like they could be getting 30k visitors a month. With targeted traffic like that, how much might the site be earning? Tune in to hear what they think.

And that concludes another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast.\\xa0

There\\u2019s a lot going on right now in Google\\u2019s world, so come back next week to hear Spencer and Jared break it down all over again.

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

Listed in: Business

How This Newsletter and SEO Writing Specialist Grows Multiple 6-Figure Businesses

Sean Markey is back on the Niche Pursuits podcast after a few years, to discuss all things newsletters, aged domains, community, partnerships, and more!

Sean\'s been working in SEO since 2011, initially focusing on affiliate sites before transitioning to agency work. And despite facing challenges due to Google updates impacting his traffic, he found success in the CBD and cannabis niches.

Aside from the actual writing aspects, his expertise lies in using aged domains to scale affiliate sites effectively.

But around 2020 Sean shifted his focus to writing an SEO newsletter called Rank Theory, offering strategy consultations as his primary income source.

And he shares a lot of helpful tips on what he\'s done to grow it into an actual business.

For one he shares how starting a successful newsletter requires the basics like unique content that resonates with readers and improves over time. And for this, consistency and the value of uniqueness in newsletter content creation are particular keys.

Thus he advises against relying on AI-generated content for newsletters and breaking traditional best practices to stand out.

Sean also shares how he acquired the newsletter TheWeeklySEO.com and integrated it into his own, learning from the experience and discussing it as a growth strategy - similar to acquiring an aged domain.

Sean also discusses the evolution of aged domains, emphasizing quality domains with brand value, sharing how redirect chains may be a thing of the past in today\'s SEO landscape.

He\'s also involved in building a community and other partnerships, including discussing some of the keys for making partnerships successful.

With this Sean talks about partnering on a lucrative domain project with high authority and traffic potential, aiming to white-label a product as opposed to taking the traditional affiliate route.

He plans to stay focused on current projects and avoid distractions, leveraging opportunities that target like-minded site builders, entrepreneurs, and SEO enthusiasts and it\'s definitely interesting to hear his strategies to accomplish this!

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

Listed in: Business

The Gemini Debacle, Google Pays for AI Content, the Future of the HCU, and 2 Weird Sites

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast!

This week Spencer and Jared turn things up a notch and cover many, many news items in the SEO and content creation space. After that they share their latest side hustles, and finish everything off with a weird niche site analysis.\\xa0

You won\\u2019t want to miss this one!\\xa0

They kick things off by talking about Google Gemini and issues with its image-generating capacities. It turns out that the platform is not very accurate, which has led its stock price to drop recently.\\xa0

The core of the problem is that users found that the race of the people it was depicting in its images was not historically accurate and people are asking if the programmers behind the program have anything to do with it.

Does Google have an agenda behind its search results? This has led to a lot of debate and controversy and, as a result, Google shut it down temporarily.

One person who has been extremely vocal about the Google Gemini debacle is Elon Musk. Spencer and Jared talk briefly about how Musk is leveraging this opportunity to talk about his AI chatbot, Grock, and how he\'s going very hard against Google on Twitter.

The next news item up for discussion is the fact that Google is paying publishers to test out a new, unreleased Gen AI platform.

As part of the Google News Initiative, there\'s a tool that beta testers are using during the next year to publish their stories, and Google is paying them five figures over the course of the year to publish 3 articles a day.

What does this reveal about Google\\u2019s feelings about AI content? Do the articles need to be labeled as AI-assisted? And does this fly in the face of its antitrust lawsuit?

Moving along, Spencer and Jared report that Vice has announced lay-offs and its plans to stop publishing on Vice.com in search of new traffic sources. Its authors and journalists are scrambling to back up all of their articles in the event that the website disappears.\\xa0

Is it letting writers go to replace them with AI? What does their new studio model entail? Why are they giving up on their own website? Tune in to hear Spencer and Jared\\u2019s thoughts.

Moving on, it looks like Google is finally rolling out some new Generative AI features for Chrome. Now you can customize Chrome with themes, organize your tabs, and get help writing. What do Spencer and Jared think of these new features?

They talk very briefly about how the NYT filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for revealing the content behind their paywall, and now OpenAI is claiming the NYT hacked the system.

In the next news item, they highlight an article by Glenn Gabe talking about what could happen with the Helpful Content Update.

They highlight another article that did a big study of Google sites and the effect of updates, including the HCU. Spencer reads some of the website attributes that are considered very positive for websites, but check out the article for a more in-depth look.

Lastly, developers are looking into the possibility of adding micropayments to the Chrome browser so users can pay websites or publishers when they browse their content.\\xa0

Although this is just an idea and there are no plans for implementation, it does raise a lot of questions. What do Spencer and Jared think? Tune in to hear what they say.

As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer talks about his new project, the Niche Pursuits Community, which will be live and open to the public as of March 4th.\\xa0

He talks about some of the features, including calls with experts, small mastermind groups, a private Discord channel, and ongoing challenges with monetary prizes.

When it\'s Jared\'s turn, he talks about how he recently monetized his weekend growth YouTube channel. He reveals the earnings from the channel: $11.14.\\xa0

Although that\'s clearly not very much, Jared shares a few caveats as well as a positive outlook, since his YouTube channel is generating client work for his agency.\\xa0

When it\'s time to talk about some Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Next Episode, which lets you keep track of the TV shows and movies you watch and see when the next episodes are.\\xa0

This site was going really well, almost reaching 1 million organic visitors per month, but it got hit hard by the HCU and is now averaging less than 200k, according to Ahrefs.\\xa0

However, Similarweb shows the site is getting about 3 million visitors per month, in January for example, and the traffic is mainly direct.

When Jared\\u2019s up, he shares Jedi Temple Archives, a comprehensive resource dedicated to not just the movies, but also to toys and collectibles. This DR43 site is ranking for over 13k keywords and just 3k in organic traffic, according to Ahrefs.

It\\u2019s monetized with ads and affiliate links and a lot of the traffic is direct, and they talk about how much it might be making and what strategies appear to be working.

And that brings us to the end of a jam-packed episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast. Tune in next week for another thorough run-down of all the latest news, and more.

Listed in: Business

How James de Lacey Grew 2 Sites to $10k Per Month Using Memberships and Affiliate Sales (Sites Revealed!)

James de Lacey is a great example of what you can accomplish in the online business space in just a short time.

He\'s a rugby and strength and conditioning coach who, thanks to Covid, got into SEO and online business out of necessity.

Now he has 2 successful fitness brands, multiple side projects, and is working his way towards 6 figures per month.

He joins us on the podcast to share lots of important insights into brand building, monetization, and more!

A key takeaway from James\'s insights is the emphasis on creating valuable content to establish authority in the industry.

Thanks to his sports science background, James produces informative and engaging content across writing, podcasts, and videos - including reaction videos and detailed reviews.

He highlights the necessity of demonstrating expertise and trustworthiness in the fitness niche, stressing the importance of outbound links to reputable sources and in-depth analysis as integral components of his content strategy.

In terms of E-E-A-T and the HCU update, he shares strategies that helped him enhance his site\'s visibility and expertise and shares tips on changes in review titles to improve rankings and create unbranded mentions on other platforms for brand recognition.

James also shares insights into the membership model for stable revenue, highlighting some of the challenges he\'s experienced along the way. And touches on social media and how Pinterest SEO can still be used to boost impressions.

Overall it\'s an inspiring discussion with James showing an impressive ability to juggle multiple projects while still managing to maintain quality and consistency.

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

Listed in: Business

Reddit's Spammy Results Dominate Google and 2 Weird Niche Sites

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared break down recent events in the SEO, publishing, and niche site space.\\xa0

It\\u2019s been a very busy week and there\\u2019s a lot going on, so sit back, get comfortable, and get ready for a packed episode!

They get things started with a report from Glen Allsopp, which takes a closer look at who\\u2019s ranking for affiliate queries at the moment.\\xa0

He goes into great detail in his article on Detailed, for which he handpicked product review terms to look at. Who\\u2019s dominating organic search for these very valuable affiliate keywords?\\xa0\\xa0

But it\\u2019s not as straightforward as that!\\xa0

Jared reveals a twist to the plot that\\u2019s affecting search results, rendering the results from the dominant ranking website full of spam.\\xa0

But what is the definition of spam, exactly? And when a spokesperson for that website denied that the results were poor quality and offered an example of quality search results, what happened?

Is this an overcorrection by Google? Are they aware of what\\u2019s happening? Check out the episode to find out all the drama!

Moving along, Spencer and Jared discuss an article that seems to have gone viral about how Google is killing independent sites.\\xa0

The article was published on the website Housefresh, which reviews air purifiers and was hit hard by the HCU, and looks at how large publishers are ranking for affiliate keywords with less in-depth content and without actually putting in the work to review the items.

If this trend is glaringly obvious and offers a poor experience for users, why isn\\u2019t Google doing anything about it? How did Danny Sullivan respond?\\xa0

Is there a silver lining on the horizon? Jared and Spencer have a lot of thoughts on this, so check out the episode to hear more.

Moving along, but closely related, they talk about how Housefresh\\u2019s article about Google killing independent sites is, ironically, being outranked by everyone, from Search Engine Land, Twitter, and Reddit, for its own article!

Hear what they have to say about it!

And along the same lines, they share a tweet from Glen Allsopp with the same problem: not ranking for his own article. In short, the smaller guys are getting beat by the bigger guys, for no good reason.

For their last story, Spencer and Jared talk about the big deal that went down between Google and Reddit. Google has agreed to pay Reddit $60 million a year to train its AI models.\\xa0

Why is this an important moment for Reddit? By how much would this increase their revenue? But what makes this situation so incredibly ironic? Jared gives a great breakdown of recent events.

When it\\u2019s time to talk about their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and reveals he\\u2019s launching a premium Niche Pursuits community.\\xa0

His goal is to create a community where users can connect with each other, discuss what\\u2019s happening in the industry, and learn from and bounce ideas off one another.

The group will include weekly expert calls, mastermind groups, group challenges with monetary prizes, among other elements. It will open to the public on March 4th, so check it out!

Jared talks about his Weekend Growth newsletter side hustle, which is now1 year old. He set an initial goal of getting 1000 subscribers in the first 3 months, and 1 year in he has 4600+ subscribers.\\xa0

He\\u2019s earned slightly less than $40k during that period, from newsletter ads, affiliate earnings, and the services he offers. He offers some great motivational advice for listeners and talks about what has worked for him when building up this side hustle.

Spencer then shares his weird niche site, Let Me Google That, and shares a funny story about how he found the site. He gives a demo of how the site works and recommends sharing the link when someone asks a \\u201csilly\\u201d question.

Not only does the site sell merch, but Ahrefs says they\\u2019re getting 111k organic visitors per month while SimilarWeb calculates a million per month. How much might they be earning per month?

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares Throx, the cure for the missing sock. What started out as a pitch on Shark Tank many years ago has actually grown to become a popular brand with tweens and teens making $1 million a year.\\xa0

That being said, his SEO could be improved and his website is kind of sparse. Are his products expensive? Is this a gag-gift type of product? Hear what Jared has to say.

And that brings us to the end of another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. As always, we hope you\\u2019re feeling informed and inspired by today\\u2019s jam-packed episode, and we\\u2019ll see you next week for more!

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

Listed in: Business

How I Vetted 744 Marketing Providers and Match Agencies and Clients

Behdad Jamshidi is a former engineer turned marketing consultant. A few years back, he decided to adapt his problem-solving skills to vet over 700 marketing providers and joins us to share his findings.

Why is this helpful?

He helps businesses understand marketing and marketers understand the business side of things.

In other words, his insights give those looking to hire - helpful tips to make better decisions.

And on the flip side, he helps service providers gain a competitive advantage by better understanding where businesses are directing their marketing budgets.

For those looking to hire, he stresses the significance of understanding business goals before hiring out to an agency\'s services.

When vetting agencies, he suggests inquiring about their growth story, longevity, and team structure, recommending stable agencies with 5-15 employees or niche agencies with strong pod structures. And he highlights the importance of passionate team members for ensuring quality work and advises building relationships with the team members you\'ll be working with.

He also explains how marketing trends are shifting toward building brand presence and customer connections. And shares great insights for agencies on how key investment areas are trending toward email marketing, SEO, and influencer marketing. He also highlights content repurposing and social media as increasingly attractive marketing strategies for businesses.

Another interesting area Behdad discusses both for businesses and agencies are the red flags he highlights.

Things like:

• Agencies claiming to be full-service,
• Boasting rapid growth rates,
• And showcasing big-name clients without clear involvement.

Overall, he shares how successful businesses exhibit long-term thinking, have a dedicated marketing budget, and possess internal staff who understand marketing language.

As he covers, marketing is a journey where we need to test strategies and continuously improve over time, and with advice like what\'s shared in this episode, we can have the confidence we\'re heading in the right direction.

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter\\xa0

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/linkwhi...\\xa0

Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201crea...\\xa0

Listed in: Business

Is Recovery From the Google HCU Possible? AI Challenge Update + Weird Niche Sites

Welcome back to another episode of The Niche Pursuits News podcast,\\xa0where Spencer and Jared break down the latest and most relevant news for SEOs, content creators, and business owners.

They kick things off by talking about the Helpful Content Update, which was rolled out in September 2023.

There has been lots of chatter of late\\u2014in Twitter threads, in Facebook posts, and beyond\\u2014 where people are looking for signs that recovery from the HCU is possible.\\xa0

Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan explains a little bit about the helpful content classifier and how it works, although his explanation certainly gives rise to more questions.\\xa0

How does Spencer interpret his explanation? Does he think it\\u2019s possible to see a recovery in the short term? Have Jared and Spencer seen any sites make a full recovery?\\xa0

What interesting statistics does Jared reference in terms of HCU recoveries? If the classifier is constantly being updated and tweaked, what does that mean for content creators?\\xa0

Since no one can truly define what is and isn\'t helpful content, the big question remains: Is there hope? Listen to Spencer and Jared\\u2019s predictions.

The next order of business is the fact that web stories are no longer visible as Google is deprecating the carousel view of web stories in Discover.

What are the two takeaways from this brief news story?

And last but not least, Spencer and Jared talk about the recent news of an upcoming Google algorithm update.

Lots of people have noticed an uptick in traffic as well as volatility, and suspect there might be an update brewing. Have Spencer and Jared noticed anything going on with their sites or the sites they manage?\\xa0

Next up on the podcast is the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion. Spencer goes first, but instead of talking about one of his side hustles, he shares an update on the AI content competition underway on Niche Pursuits.

This competition was launched after the HCU and the goal is to grow a new site with AI content. He shares the 4-month leaderboard, and there\\u2019s no shortage of interesting things to talk about!

The person leading the pack is getting 24,000 organic visitors to his site with around 7 million articles, and after just 4 months, the top 10 people in the challenge are getting more than 1000 organic visitors per month, which is impressive considering these are fresh domains.

If you want to hear the backstory, check out the full episode and also the Niche Pursuits community.

When it\'s Jared\'s turn, he provides an update on his public speaking side hustle, reporting that he has reached out to more than 50 different conferences to see if he can speak. How many did you hear back from? And what did they say?\\xa0

He also gives an update on his Weekend Growth YouTube channel, which recently reached the thresholds for monetization. Jared shares his stats as well as some useful advice for YouTube content creators, and reports on how much he\'s earned to date from that channel.\\xa0

When it\\u2019s time to reveal their weird niche sites, Spencer goes first with Snow Day Calculator.\\xa0 This site, which does have a social media following, allows users to calculate the number of snow days according to their zip code and type of school. It also offers predictions of future snow days.\\xa0

The DR42 site is monetized with display ads and has a relatively strong backlink profile, thanks to links from news outlets. As it\'s a seasonal site, the traffic spikes in winter but dies during the rest of the year.\\xa0

How much money might it be making during those peaks? And what other clever strategies are they using to earn money? Listen to the episode to find out what Spencer and Jared discover as they poke around.

Things take a morbid turn when Jared reveals his weird niche site, Aerial Ashes, a company that uses drones to scatter people\\u2019s ashes over land and sea in the UK.

The site, which is clearly for a local company, is a DR8 and is ranking for just 45 keywords, so it\'s difficult to say how successful it is.\\xa0

However, Jared makes a great point about this section of the podcast: Every day, people are executing on their business ideas and using their skill sets, passions, and hobbies to create something unique. And you can too!

Well, that brings us to the end of another interesting episode! join us next week for a look at all the latest news, and updates from the hosts, more weird niche sites and, above all, lots of 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

Listed in: Business

How Noah Kagan Started an $80 Million/Year Business From a $12 Sale

Appsumo founder Noah Kagan joins the podcast today to remind us that we all start small.

Noah\'s own path to success began by experimenting with various small online niche ventures, a few of which eventually led to the creation of several multi-million dollar businesses.\\xa0

He shares his process of experimenting with different ideas to find product-market fit, highlighting some failures along the way, and the valuable lessons they taught him.

But as he mentions - business is the one game where you only need to win once.\\xa0

You just need to start to have a chance.\\xa0

He acknowledges the importance of time though and urges the rapid validation of ideas, offering solid examples of how to do this efficiently.\\xa0

He also shares invaluable advice on generating business ideas and stresses the importance of interaction with people throughout the process.

A key part of his message is the power of asking for what you want, exemplified by starting with small acts like requesting a 10% discount on coffee to help build resilience.\\xa0

Some other key takeaways are:

• To focus on basics,

• Revisit successful tactics,

• Employ an experiment mindset,

• And persist with what actually works.

By experimental mindset, he means running short experiments, identifying problems as opportunities, and validating ideas through quick tests - offering up concrete examples

He discusses learning the "language of making money" as a skill that fosters financial success over time and underlines the importance of self-belief and action to achieve your goals.

Overall, persistence and consistency are major themes, and Noah advises you to give an idea with potential at least 100 tries before considering quitting.

He also highlights optimism, intelligent risk-taking, and pitfalls to avoid when starting and growing a business - with personal experiences and insights from tested strategies to help you on your journey.\\xa0

And don\\u2019t forget to check out his book The Million Dollar Weekend for more in-depth insights into his awesome and inspiring success.\\xa0

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

Listed in: Business

Google SEO Starter Guide Updated, Here's What Changed + 25k Pageviews from Facebook

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!

This is the place to hear the latest news in the SEO and content publishing industries and it\\u2019s where Spencer and Jared break it all down. This week, as always, they also share progress on their side hustles as well as two very, very weird niche sites.

The first topic up for discussion is Google\\u2019s decision to rebrand Bard as Gemini. Google certainly is putting a lot of effort into building out AI tools, and this will be one of their flagship products.\\xa0

What do Spencer and Jared think of the company\'s decision? And what new features will this tool have?\\xa0

The next topic is how Google\'s updated its SEO Starter Guide.

The guide originally dates back to 2008 And is a guide specifically for beginners. Although there\'s probably nothing meaty there for people that are familiar with SEO, Spencer and Jared did highlight a few interesting items, in particular, from the section on things you should not do.

What kind of advice did they share? What does Google say about article length? And how about PageRank and EEAT? And what about business cards?\\xa0

The last news item they discuss is how Google won\'t be able to proceed with third-party cookie deprecation. This means that the phasing out of third-party cookies may or may not be delayed as Google has been asked to comply with additional safety requirements in the UK.

This is big news because it could potentially affect content creators\\u2019 earnings, Although it\'s true that advertising is Google\'s bread and butter and it will likely do everything it can to maintain it, this is definitely a topic you\'ll want to keep an eye on!

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer goes first with an update on his Facebook traffic side hustle. He was able to reduce the cost of his likes campaign to grow his page. He shares a lot of the data behind the campaigns, but the real question is whether those likes are driving traffic to his website.

Is it working? What does his Google Analytics reveal? And what is he going to do moving forward?

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he provides an update on his Weekend Growth YouTube channel, which officially qualifies for monetization. He shares the stats behind his growth and reveals that the site is less than a year old.\\xa0

He also offers an update on his public speaking side hustle with an exciting announcement. Check out the episode to hear what it is!

When it comes to weird niche sites, Spencer takes the lead with a very weird site called Is It Friday Yet. According to Ahrefs, the site doesn\\u2019t get any traffic, although there is a very entertaining video on YouTube that reviews the website, so tune in to hear more about that.

When it was Jared\\u2019s turn, he revealed a 1-page weird niche site: The Office Stare Machine, which lets you input an emotion and it will show stares from Office characters conveying that emotion. They test it out, and the results are pretty funny!\\xa0

This DR30 site ranks for just 28 keywords, but it does have 49k likes from Facebook. It doesn\\u2019t get a lot of organic traffic, and Spencer and Jared talk about the potential strategies the owner might be using on Facebook. Where does it have the potential to do well?

And that brings us to the end of another great episode of The Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope this weekly dose of the latest news has brought you up to speed in the SEO and content creation space and you\\u2019re feeling inspired by Spencer and Jared\\u2019s side hustles.

See you next Friday!

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

Listed in: Business

I Enjoyed a Multiple 7-Figure Exit After Starting This Community!

You can probably list loads of reasons why starting a community could be valuable.

And Chris Yates, the founder of Rhodium, is on the podcast to share a BIG reason with his awesome success story.

He talks about his journey of transitioning from owning a digital marketing agency to buying online businesses and eventually founding Rhodium to connect with others in the industry.

He emphasizes the importance of building a community and the benefits it brings:

• Learning from others
• Making deals
• Forming partnerships

Chris also highlights the value of community in providing tactical ROI for businesses - like how engaging with a core group of customers with direct feedback can lead to valuable insights and improvements on everything from pain points to pricing.

He gives lots of examples but the stand out is definitely his own experience.

He was offered to buy a business from a Rhodium member for 5 figures thanks to the inherent trust from shared beliefs. He then grew it with help from the community and sold it to another Rhodium member for a multi-7-figure exit.

Overall, this is a discussion that is both a great success story and guide to the benefits of building and nurturing a community of like-minded people in your niche.

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter\\xa0

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/linkwhi...\\xa0

Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201crea...\\xa0

Listed in: Business

Google CEO Reveals the Future of Search + Google Bard Now Creates AI Images

Welcome back everybody to the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. Join us as Spencer and Jared tackle the latest headlines about Google, SEO, AI, and content creation.\\xa0

Get inspired hearing about progress with their side hustles, and learn about some weird niche sites and the unique strategies they\\u2019re using.

The first news item up for discussion is Google\'s own reporting on the future of SGE during its recent earnings call. Although Spencer and Jared have hypothesized in the past that SGE might hit a dead end, this call confirmed Google leadership\'s commitment to, and belief in, this new tool.\\xa0

The company is investing heavily in SGE and expects it to be extremely useful and popular in the future. Spencer underlines the diversity of results using this feature, where the first 10 SGE results are different from the first 10 organic search results, and Jared shares a few highlights from the article about the breadth of search and Google Assistant.

How do Spencer and Jared interpret the CEO\\u2019s comments on SGE? What do they think about his comments about long tail searches? What did the company have to say about publishers? And how did its ad revenue perform?

Check out the episode for their take on these questions.

The next topic up for discussion is Google Bard\\u2019s ability to now create images. What happened when Spencer played around with it? What happens if you use them on your website? And how good are the photos it generates? See the images it created for Jared and judge for yourself!

The last article they share features a podcast guest, Brandon Salt, who asked for help on Twitter when his traffic tanked. Surprisingly, Danny Sullivan from Google Search Liaison answered him directly and their exchange was highlighted in an article on Search Engine Roundtable.

What do Spencer and Jared think about Danny\\u2019s response? Is his feedback useful and do they agree with his comments? What do they say about embedding videos? And what advice do they give to publishers who like to update their article dates each year?

As for their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer once again spoke about his experiment where he\\u2019s to grow his Facebook page and drive that traffic to his website.

How does he run a Facebook likes campaign? What does it cost and entail? He recently launched several campaigns and he shares the results and a little bit about the strategy.\\xa0

How many likes does he have at the moment? And how would he use this strategy to get into the Amazon Influencer Program? Listen and find out!

When it\'s Jared\'s turn to talk about side hustles, he shares the latest on his efforts to land public speaking gigs. He has discovered that there are more opportunities than he had anticipated and he talks about his plans going forward.\\xa0

Both he and Spencer share an update from their Amazon Influencer side hustle. How did they do in January? What do they expect in February?

Moving on to their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer shares his site which, unlike the usual sites he shares, is not a content website. Weather Embed is a SaaS tool with a very simple website that is very niche as it\\u2019s specifically for embedding in newsletters.\\xa0

Who might use this type of tool? Who might have built this tool? And can it be used beyond newsletters? How do Spencer and Jared think people could use this for their businesses?

He doesn\\u2019t know how much they\\u2019re making and it barely gets any traffic from Google Search, but it is a very cool, very niche website.

Jared then shares his Weird Niche Site: IMCDB, an internet cars movie database. It\\u2019s essentially a Wikipedia of every car that was ever used in every movie.

Although the site is not very user-friendly, it is extremely extensive and includes information and photos about all the cars.

It\\u2019s a classic, old-school directory with a DR of 68, it ranks for 95k keywords, and it gets around 32k organic sessions per month. Which keywords are getting the most traffic? What kind of affiliate program is it using? Listen to find out!

And that wraps up another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! Thanks for joining us, and we hope that you\\u2019re feeling informed and inspired to keep on building, creating, and publishing. See you next week!

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

Listed in: Business

How I Grew My AI Site to $21k Per Month In Under 12 Months

Ready for a masterclass on how to survive and thrive with an AI site in today\'s Google?

Casey Botticello joins us on the podcast to share how he took an AI site from zero to $21k+ monthly in under a year.

To explain his approach, he dives into all sorts of interesting topics:

• AI content production advice,
• Careful niche selection when using AI,
• Tips for avoiding the Google sandbox,
• The importance of adding value and new information in the chosen niche,
• His process of topical mapping,
• Focusing on broad research,
• Coupled with in-depth analysis to identify important topics,
• And much more!

Casey shares that AI played a role in content ideation and the generation of article drafts, but how extensive editing and fact-checking were essential before publishing.

He highlights the importance of maintaining high-quality content and strategic planning to avoid appearing AI-generated.

As well as the increasing dangers of obvious optimization and over-reliance on popular keyword research tools.

There\'s also a discussion on multimedia with some advice that seems to work even in an age where Reddit and other forums are seeing an advantage on Google.

Overall, this is an excellent and actionable look into how to successfully harness

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

Listed in: Business

Are Google AI Results (SGE) Going Away? Getting Traffic from Facebook + 2 Weird Niche Sites

Welcome back to this week\\u2019s episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Spencer and Jared report on all the latest news in SEO.\\xa0

It was a busy week, so tune in to hear what\\u2019s new at Google and how changes there effect content creators and webmasters. Stay for the latest updates on their side hustles, and don\\u2019t miss the weird niche site discussion at the end.\\xa0

The first news item is a big one. Based on a post on LinkedIn, there\'s speculation that Google\'s SGE might not be rolled out now, or maybe not even at all. That\\u2019s obviously great news for SEOs.

Spencer and Jared dissect this news item and try to understand what Google\\u2019s future plans are. Are there really going to be changes? What\\u2019s behind the gradual shift in the language they\\u2019re using? Listen to the episode to hear what they think is actually happening.

The conversation continues to revolve around Google, but the topic shifts to what\\u2019s going on behind the scenes there. Another LinkedIn post gives a bit of insight into the company, suggesting that the company has no real leadership and is plowing ahead with AI while slowly killing organic search.

Is Google really done innovating? Does the company need new leadership? Hear what Spencer and Jared have to say about the situation.

The next news item up for discussion is Google\\u2019s announcement that its contract with Appen has ended and it has cut thousands of search quality rater jobs.\\xa0

Although there was confusion about whether or not Google was getting rid of all of its quality raters, the company confirmed that it\\u2019s simply cutting ties with Appen.

How did this news initially come to light? Spencer has the scoop!

The last news item today is that Sports Illustrated\\u2019s publisher has laid off most of its union staff. You might recall that SI was busted recently for using fake AI-generated personnel on its website and, as a result, the CEO got fired.

Want to hear more of the drama at SI and with AI and the world of publishing? Listen to the full episode!

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer revisits a website he started about a year ago, the goal being to drive traffic from Facebook. His Facebook page has 45k likes, and he shared the strategy he\\u2019s using to get people to his site.

How\\u2019s it doing? Does it have potential? What happened when he applied to Mediavine? He shares some Facebook page metrics, including link clicks, and he fields several questions from Jared about his strategy.\\xa0

Jared reveals a new and exciting side hustle he\\u2019s got in the works: a public speaking side hustle. He\\u2019s set a goal for the year to speak at 4 conferences, and he\\u2019s already got a few lined up. But what does he hope to earn or achieve from this new side hustle?

When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Let\\u2019s Learn Slang, and he looks at a few of the articles and shares their stats from Ahrefs.\\xa0

How could the site have established more topical relevance? And what do Spencer and Jared think of the About page?\\xa0

Jared then shares his site: Easy Toilet Tips, the number one source for lavatory bias-free reviews.\\xa0

The site has a ton of content but hasn\\u2019t put a lot of thought or effort into UX. Although it seems like an AI-generated website, Ahrefs reveals that it\\u2019s been around longer than that. Traffic peaked at one point, but it was devastated by the HCU.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. We hope you\\u2019re feeling up-to-speed on all the latest SEO news and inspired by Spencer and Jared\\u2019s side hustles and general insight.

See you next Friday!

Listed in: Business

"I Make $10k to $30k Per Month From My Sweet Food Blog"

Want some timely tips on how to grow an audience and brand from the ground up?

Jessica Holmes is on the podcast to share the surprisingly unique perspectives she\'s gained from growing a successful food blog.

Just as a sample:

• She wants direct traffic more than SEO traffic
• She uses the principles of quality customer service to help grow her audience
• She rarely looks at keyword tools to source topics
• And she doesn\'t shy away from showing the good, the bad, and the ugly when testing the recipes she shares on her blog

It all started back in 2014 while juggling a full-time job as a copywriter. Jessica wanted a creative outlet, so she started up her blog sweetestmenu.com.

Initially, she knew nothing about SEO or turning her site into a business so it was a true hobby blog.

She\'d promote her content mainly on social media until a pivotal moment in 2016 when she transitioned to an SEO strategy after an audit with Casey Markee.

But this is not your traditional \'SEO\' story.

Her content strategy heavily prioritizes the actual reader over any search engine algorithm, and it seems to be working.

For instance, Jessica emphasizes the importance of creating content based on reader demand and feedback rather than the usual keyword research approach.

She looks to the reader, then her own interests, then the season, and then if necessary - a keyword research tool.

She also speaks openly and honestly about the challenges of maintaining a successful food blog, including the need to update old posts and the importance of engaging with the audience and providing excellent customer service.

And the cherry on top is that she does all of this while working \'part-time\' on the site!

It really is a wonderful discussion and Jessica has a lot of great advice we could all start testing on our own blogs.

Enjoy!

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

Listed in: Business

Is Google Really Getting Worse? + Weird Niche Sites About Arcade Sticks and Emojis

Welcome back! We\\u2019re here with another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared highlight what\\u2019s happening in SEO, content creation, website creation, and beyond.\\xa0

Listen in if you want to hear the latest about Google, SGE, unique side hustle strategies, and some weird niche sites.

The first news item this week that Spencer and Jared discuss is a recent report that says that Google\\u2019s results are getting worse. It\\u2019s based on a year-long study of product review queries.\\xa0\\xa0

How did Google respond? What exactly did the study assess to come to this conclusion? And what do they consider \\u201clow quality?\\u201d Spencer and Jared have many thoughts on this topic, so tune in to find out whether they think it\\u2019s legit or not.

The next topic up for discussion is Google\\u2019s SGE. A recent article states that 94% of Google\\xa0SGE links are different from organic search results. So now we have about 10 links in the SGE results plus another 10 from organic search and most are not the same.\\xa0

What does this mean for publishers? Is this good news or bad news? How does this affect you if you\\u2019re ranking first in the organic results but have an SGE pack ahead of you? And what does this mean for you if you\\u2019re not appearing in organic results? Are there 2 different standards at play here?

Talk about Google SGE continues when Spencer and Jared discuss an article about the impact of SGE by industry, which reveals that the sector most impacted by the SGE is healthcare as those queries have triggered the most responses. In contrast, finance is at the bottom of the list.

What\\u2019s interesting about the difference in performance between these YMYL niches? And what conclusions do Spencer and Jared come to as they analyze the SGE performance statistics by industry?\\xa0

As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about his new YouTube channel, where all of his podcast episodes will now live. Although he was initially worried that people wouldn\\u2019t be able to find the channel, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the first episode published there got over 1200 listens in just over 24 hours.

With over 350 subscribers already, Spencer\\u2019s confident that he made the right decision to separate the channels and that people will still be able to find the podcast episodes.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about a strategy he\\u2019s using for his Weekend Growth newsletter that\\u2019s allowing him to increase his agency business by providing a new service. Essentially it\\u2019s a side hustle on top of a side hustle! It\\u2019s definitely an idea that anyone with their own email list and business can adapt to their niche.

He also gives an interesting update on the Amazon Influencer Program and his family. Check out the episode to hear the latest developments.

When it comes to Weird Niche Sites this week, Spencer comes with a sub-niche of a niche with his site: The Arcade Stick. Arcade sticks can be customized and plugged in just about anywhere. The site, which is just a DR8, could be getting around 100k visitors per month, which is pretty interesting considering how niche it is, plus It\\u2019s monetized on Mediavine.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares a site called Emoji Combos. Although it\\u2019s in beta, it still works perfectly. This DR43 site ranks for 140k keywords and gets over a million organic visits per month.\\xa0

What unique keywords is it ranking for? How is the site monetized? And how much money do they think the site is making per month?

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. Now you\\u2019re caught up on all the latest SEO news and, hopefully, you\\u2019re feeling inspired and motivated to continue to work on your side hustles.

See you next Friday!\\xa0

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

Listed in: Business

Valuable Lessons Amy Aitman Learned From Managing 150+ Niche Websites

Amy Aitman, the COO of Venture Fourth Media, joins us on the Niche Pursuits podcast to share her journey from a freelance writer to leading a prominent media company.

Venture 4th Media manages around 150 websites with a massive writing and editing team of subject matter experts.

And Amy is an open book regarding the operational insights and challenges that have come along with this experience.

For one, over the years, she has been involved with hiring 500+ writers and thus has seen it all.

To build a quality team, she emphasizes the importance of a thorough hiring process and how advantageous, particularly in the age of AI, it can be to have writers and editors with genuine expertise, opinions, and passion in their niche to \'talk shop\'.

As she mentions, it\'s what can separate us from AI.

She highlights her operational approach of going slow to grow fast - making rational, data-driven decisions every step of the way.

So, she also gets into Venture 4th Media\'s strategies for diversifying content and brand building, including adding email marketing, newsletters, podcasts, and Twitch campaigns to their sites.

And with so many sites under management, Amy has some valuable thoughts about the Helpful Content Update, including how the company is navigating the aftermath, how they\'re evaluating content, and prioritizing growth opportunities.

Overall, Amy is a great source of optimism. Her tips and experience are invaluable. And her insights into the evolving landscape of content creation and audience engagement are sure to help site operators of all levels. Enjoy!

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

Listed in: Business

How Google Shapes the Internet + Google Debunks Ranking Factors and 2 Weird Niche Sites

Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of The Niche Pursuits News podcast!

Spencer and Jared are back this week to bring you all the latest happenings in the world of SEO and to break the news down. There\\u2019s a lot to talk about, so let\\u2019s get started!

The first topic of discussion is the latest article in The Verge about Google.\\xa0

According to the article, content creators and website owners have essentially created their websites with Google in mind, with the result that they all look and feel the same. As a result, Google has shaped how we build our websites.\\xa0

Do Spencer and Jared believe that the article\\u2019s premise is accurate? Is there too much homogenization going on? Should we really be preparing people-first content? And what about the use of Reddit in content creation?

They also talk about the response from Danny Sullivan, sharing a particularly thought-provoking tweet from the Google Search Liaison about \\u201cchasing the algorithm,\\u201d EEAT, and the \\u201cperfect\\u201d page formula.

The last news item they cover is an article about Google\'s efforts to combat spam. There are still a lot of spammy results in the SERPs and Google reports that it\'s aware and is working on\\xa0the situation. Spam is a huge problem, and it\'s only increasing with the rise of AI. Google certainly has its work cut out for it!\\xa0

When it\'s time for the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer kicks things off by explaining that he\'s going to put all of his podcast videos on a new YouTube channel going forward.\\xa0

But what are the reasons behind his decision? And is he going to move existing videos to the new channel?

When it\'s Jared\'s turn, he wants to continue to grow his Weekend Growth newsletter, but he flips the script this week. Instead of talking about his future plans, he asks for Spencer\'s input on new actions he can take. They have a productive brainstorming session with several interesting ideas!

As for this week\'s weird niche sites, Spencer shares a directory site for dude ranches. His site this week is a little bit different in that he knows the backstory because he discovered it on Twitter.\\xa0

He shares the interesting story behind the site, which has excellent visuals and branding and\\xa0makes money through its paid listings.

Jared\\u2019s weird niche site is certainly a sight to behold: Dogica. This DR12 site ranks for 10k\\xa0keywords, including lots of first-page rankings. He and Spencer agree that the very old-school design might be holding it back, plus it doesn\\u2019t seem to be on top of many modern monetization methods, although it does offer a dog rental service.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of The Niche Pursuits News podcast.\\xa0

We hope that we helped catch you up to speed on all the latest news in SEO, website development, and content creation. See you next Friday!

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

Listed in: Business

How This Broke Backpacker Built and Scaled a 7+ Figure Brand

Will Hatton, founder of thebrokebackpacker.com, shares his remarkable journey and true entrepreneurial spirit with us on the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast.

At 18, he embarked on a journey, spending two and a half years in India with almost no money. This was where his entrepreneurial journey began, selling items collected during his travels back home in England.

He initially started The Broke Backpacker as an email list, later evolving it into a site in 2013 focusing on budget travel information.

Will\'s travel experiences in less touristy countries like Iran and Pakistan led to unique content that when combined with his outreach efforts, attracted media attention and high-profile backlinks.

He began earning income from sponsored posts and later ventured into small group tours, providing a cash injection to go all in scaling the website and team.

The site gained immense popularity, reaching 1.5 million unique users a month before COVID caused a significant setback.

But despite some struggles and his carefree demeanor, Will Hatton proves to be a wizard in his entrepreneurial pursuits.

He discusses his strategies for brand building, systematizing his content needs for maximum results, and following through to reach his goals.

He covers the importance of building real relationships with affiliates, managing the team and content creation process, updating old content, and addressing the impact of Google updates on their approach to content creation.

Will also shares his plans for the future, including focusing on the backpacker lifestyle, launching a podcast, and expanding his coworking hostel brand in Bali.

If you\'re interested in hearing from a truly memorable entrepreneur with a lot of interesting stories and helpful insights - this one\'s for you!

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

Listed in: Business

Open AI Sued by New York Times Over Copyright + Google Update on NYE?

Welcome back everybody to the first Niche Pursuits News Podcast of 2024!\\xa0

Jared and Spencer kick off the year with another great episode, offering a close-up look at all the news in the SEO, AI, and website creation world.

This week they start off discussing the Google update on New Year\\u2019s Eve, with people noting volatility in the SERPs and even upticks in traffic in a reversal of the effects of the HCU.

How difficult is it to gauge SERP changes that happened around the holiday period? What changes in traffic has Spencer noted on Niche Pursuits between December and January? Listen to find out their thoughts.

The next topic Spencer and Jared cover is The New York Times\\u2019 announcement that it\\u2019s suing OpenAI and Microsoft.

Millions of articles from the NTY were used to train the OpenAI model, and a lot of the content that was used was behind a paywall. Meanwhile, the media outlet spends millions of dollars to have professionals write and produce its content, and now OpenAI is using that information freely and making it available to everyone.\\xa0

Notably, this includes information from The Wirecutter, with the result that the NYT isn\\u2019t collecting the affiliate commissions.\\xa0

But what\\u2019s at the heart of this lawsuit? Could this set a precedent for how copyright law is interpreted? Does the media company have a strong case? Tune in to hear the discussion.

Still on the subject of OpenAI, Spencer and Jared talk briefly about its offer to pay publishers between $1 and 5 million in compensation for their content. They agree that it\\u2019s far less than what publishers should get, especially considering that the NYT could be earning over 2 billion a year.

What\\u2019s going to happen moving forward? Can AI be contained at all?\\xa0\\xa0

Google seems to be moving ahead with, and making changes to, Bard, and now it\\u2019s going to implement its Google Assistant with Bard. Bard will power the Assistant to make it smarter and to make better recommendations. But how will this affect content creators?

In other Google Bard news, a paid version of the tool is coming, which hasn\\u2019t even been announced officially by Google. How was the move to a paid model discovered? And how might the payment plans work? Listen to hear Spencer and Jared\\u2019s predictions.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about his year-long experience in the Amazon Influencer Program. He made $6179 in December, and his entire revenue for the year is $17k+. Although he officially started in January, it took him a while to ramp up video production.

What is Spencer\\u2019s plan moving forward? Listen to hear what he has in store and why he\\u2019s approaching his side hustle in this way.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shares some surprising stats from his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle. Although his December numbers were good, coming in at $4026, his November earnings were higher. Overall, for the year he earned $18k+ and although he started in May, he took a different approach to video production than Spencer.

He also talks about progress with his Weekend Growth newsletter and YouTube channel and how he has finished the year with just under 4.5k subscribers. He shares some of his monetization methods as well as his inspiration for starting this side hustle.

As for the Weird Niche Sites of the week, Spencer goes first with an Online Stopwatch, a simple website with a free stopwatch and countdown timer. It has ads everywhere and also offers a premium paid stopwatch feature. Who might this type of subscription appeal to?\\xa0

With 2.2 million organic visitors per month, according to Ahrefs, and double that according to SimilarWeb, could this site be generating around $50k per month in ad revenue?

Jared\\u2019s Weird Niche Site is National Today, which highlights the current holidays around the world. This DR81 site ranks for 1.4 million keywords and has organic traffic of 4.4 million, but what does Jared discover when he scrolls down the homepage? What type of content are they publishing? Don\\u2019t miss their thoughts on this ultra-successful site.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the podcast. We\\u2019re hoping you feel up-to-speed on the latest happenings in the industry, excited to start your side hustle today, and inspired by some weird websites that are killing it online.

See you next week!

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

Listed in: Business

Your Survival Guide to SEO in a Rapid Google Update World With Gael Breton

Want some expert help reaching your online marketing goals?

Authority Hacker co-founder Gael Breton is back on the podcast to shed some light on the ever-changing SEO landscape.

Google\'s Helpful Content Update (HCU) had a big impact on many niche sites, and so Gael dove into the data to decode what is and isn\'t working to share some pretty surprising insights with us.

He first discusses the evolution of SEO practices, emphasizing the challenges of creating content based solely on search intent and the need for more user-friendly and engaging content.

And he has some great examples of sites doing this that have grown traffic by as much as 2000+% despite the updates.

These aren\'t your typical niche sites publishing 3000-word \'SEO\' articles based on what existing articles say.

They\'re doing real reviews, including tons of visual content to be more like a \'comic book\', and being rewarded for it.

The role of YouTube and social media in building credibility and trust with real people is also discussed, and Gael emphasizes the increasing importance of transparency and identity in your online presence.

Of course, the impact of user-generated content (UGC) on Google is also discussed, including probable future changes in the SERPs and potential effects on site traffic.

Overall, it\'s an important discussion about the online marketing business model, its ongoing evolution, and what we should all likely be doing to adapt, overcome, and ultimately succeed.

Enjoy!

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

Listed in: Business

The 3 Most Popular Podcast Episodes of 2023...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast!\\xa0

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\\u2019s relatability was probably key, and it\\u2019s 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\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

Then Spencer and Jared share their favorite episodes of 2023.

Jared\\u2019s favorite was Cyrus Shepard\\u2019s 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\\u2019s 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\\u2019s making over $10 million per year.\\xa0

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.\\xa0

Here\\u2019s to another year of learning from one another and to a very successful 2024!

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

Listed in: Business

How This Disney Blogger Gets 35 Million Monthly Pageviews

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\\xa0

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/linkwhi...\\xa0

Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201crea...\\xa0

Listed in: Business

Google Removing 3rd-Party Cookies, an SEO "Traffic Heist," and a $13 Million Weird Niche Site

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\\u2019s 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\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

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.\\xa0\\xa0

Jared shares his experience with the program recently, and he\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

Also, something \\u201chappened\\u201d 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\\u2019re still getting incredible traffic and are a multi-million dollar business. Listen to the episode for more details.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s 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\\u2019s the right fit.\\xa0

You can answer questions like if it\\u2019s flat or not, if your trailer would fit, etc. and is incredibly helpful if you\\u2019re 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\\u2019s weird site!

And that brings us to the end of another great episode. We hope you\\u2019re feeling inspired and informed, and don\\u2019t 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

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

Listed in: Business

He Has 56 Million Rankings on Page 1 and Makes MILLIONS

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

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

Listed in: Business

Google Responds to Parasite SEO, Amazon Influencer Side Hustles, and a Belt-Checking Website

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\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

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 \\u201c unhelpful?\\u201d Check out the episode to hear their thoughts.

For a bit of good news, they then talk about how Google\\u2019s How-To rich results seem to be returning to Search. Check your Google Search Console to see if you\\u2019re 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\\u2019s official website. GoogleLiaison\\u2019s 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\\u2019s 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!\\xa0

Moving on to the Side Hustle Shenanigans, Spencer and Jared both have exciting updates on their Amazon Influencer Program performance. Spencer reports that he\\u2019s published over 1000 videos and has already earned over $5.5k for the month.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he reveals that he\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

They talk about some of the site\\u2019s unique features, what keywords are driving the traffic, and how it\\u2019s 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\\u2019s 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\\u2019t miss this one!\\xa0

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\\xa0

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/linkwhi...\\xa0

Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201crea...\\xa0

Listed in: Business

He Bought a Site With ZERO SEO Knowledge and 50xed Earnings

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

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

\\xa0

Listed in: Business

Google Search Team Deletes Tweets, Gemini Pro, Amazon Influencer, and 2 Weird Sites

Hey everybody, welcome back to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast.\\xa0

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?\\xa0

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 \\u201crollback?\\u201d 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\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

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\\u2019s strategy that have been coming out as the company faces its major anti-trust lawsuit.\\xa0

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\\u2019s many ranking signals, the use of keywords, how websites are rated and tested, and the Navboost system.\\xa0

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\\u2019re willing to put in the work.

Spencer then goes on to share his weird night site, which may very well be someone\\u2019s side hustle: Flpbk.io.\\xa0

This cool, little website lets you submit a 1-minute video and they will turn it into a flipbook and send it to you.\\xa0

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\\u2019s 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

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

\\xa0

Listed in: Business

My Blackjack Side Hustle Turned into 450k YouTube Subscribers and a 7-Figure Business

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

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

Listed in: Business

Sports Illustrated Caught Publishing AI Content, Amazon Influencer Update, and 2 Weird Niche Sites

Welcome back everyone! It\\u2019s Friday, which means it\\u2019s time for another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast.\\xa0

A lot happened this week so there\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

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.\\xa0

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.\\xa0

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\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

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.\\xa0

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.\\xa0

What does this mean for other advertisers? Could this be part of Musk\\u2019s 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.\\xa0

He also talks briefly about Weekend Growth, progress, and new developments.\\xa0

As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first with Katie Goes Platinum\\u2014a site that\\u2019s more unique than it is weird. Katie documents the process of letting her hair gray gracefully and seeks to inspire others.\\xa0

She\\u2019s 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\\u2014a figure that has most likely increased since then.

Jared\\u2019s 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\\u2019t 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.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0

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

Listed in: Business

How Julian Goldie 10x'ed His Productivity and SEO Results With ChatGPT

SEO, YouTuber, and AI expert Julian Goldie joins the podcast to give us a masterclass in AI jam-packed with actionable tips and free tools to help boost our productivity.

He begins by discussing two ways to scale content using AI: one-click article generators and AI-assisted editing by virtual assistants.

Julian recommends using ChatGPT and its plugins, such as Web Pilot, to generate optimized content outlines for articles. He explains that training ChatGPT involves inserting custom instructions to make it act in a certain way, such as using personas or following specific writing styles.

API access to ChatGPT is another useful tool for scaling content production, as it allows for the generation of hundreds of articles per day. Julian also explores other applications of AI in content creation, including density analysis, expert citations, and topical maps to build topical authority. He highlights the power of using ChatGPT for various tasks, such as creating topical maps and generating keyword ideas.

Furthermore, Julian emphasizes the importance of using AI tools like WebPilot and Dali3 to enhance content by adding videos, images, tables, and other forms of media. He shares his personal experience of leveraging AI to streamline his marketing efforts, replacing a five-person team with himself and a few virtual assistants empowered with ChatGPT.

To implement AI effectively, Julian suggests taking a systematic approach, starting with a time audit to identify tasks that can be automated for maximum efficiency. He encourages content creators to focus on one high-leverage task at a time and gradually incorporate AI into their workflow. Julian concludes by recommending his YouTube channel for actionable insights and real-world examples of using AI in content creation and marketing.

In summary, Julian Goldie provides valuable insights into the impact of AI on content creation and SEO. He discusses various AI tools and techniques, such as ChatGPT and its plugins, API access, and AI-assisted editing. Julian emphasizes the importance of using AI to enhance content with media elements and shares his personal experience of streamlining marketing efforts with AI.

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

Listed in: Business

The Open AI Drama, New Google Features, the Best Black Friday Deals, and a Weird Cloud Niche Site

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, where Spencer and Jared cover the latest news in SEO, AI, affiliate marketing, and content creation.

As always, there\\u2019s a lot that happened since the previous episode, and they talk about the best Black Friday deals, so don\\u2019t miss this one!

The first news story they cover was the major upheaval at OpenAI over the last few days. Essentially, the board ousted Sam Altman as its CEO due to a lack of confidence and trust in him.\\xa0

This led to a whirlwind of events: other employees quit in solidarity, he was hired by Microsoft, and then the board at OpenAI changed course and hired him back.\\xa0

What does this all mean and how will it eventually play out? How did Sam and Microsoft really fare in this debacle? And how does this ultimately impact content creators? Tune in to hear Spencer and Jared\\u2019s takeaways.

The next bit of news they cover is that Google is testing out a \\u201cSimple Search\\u201d function, which would allow users to filter their search queries and simplify them.\\xa0

How exactly does it work? What does this mean for the Search Generative Experience? What is Google really doing as it implements all of these changes? And what does it mean for bloggers? Listen and find out.

The next topics are about shopping, which could not be more appropriate, since it is Black Friday after all.

Google is now using AI to help people shop for their holiday gifts. Spencer and Jared discuss how it works and show the demo. Essentially, AI will help refine gift categories and help people find exactly what they\\u2019re looking for. The new functions even let you virtually try on clothes!

In other shopping news, Amazon has announced that, on Black Friday, its Prime Video will feature shoppable ads, allowing users to scan QR codes to make \\u201cinstant purchases\\u201d during the NFL game.

Speaking of shopping, as it\\u2019s Black Friday, Spencer and Jared forgo the usual Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast to share some of the biggest and best deals they\\u2019ve seen this season.

They talk about special discounts on Spencer\\u2019s tools, like Link Whisper and Rank Logic, as well as on Jared\\u2019s photography course. To save big on the best tools, check out the Niche Pursuits Black Friday Deals page!

As for this week\\u2019s Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first and reveals Rhyme Zone which, as the name suggests, identifies words that rhyme with your chosen word. The extensive results are organized by syllable. But what\\u2019s really shocking is how much traffic the site gets! It\\u2019s off the charts!

How is it monetized? And what could it do better to earn more from ads? Listen to the episode for all the details.

Jared\\u2019s site is a bit more whimsical: Cloud Appreciation Society. This weird site features everything from the cloud of the day and cloud of the month to a \\u201cRecent Clouds Spotted\\u201d section.

It also has a very cool UGC feature that Jared and Spencer discuss, as well as the possibility of buying a membership. Is this DR69 site ranking for a lot of keywords? How is it probably doing in terms of revenue?\\xa0

And that brings us to the end of another episode! Hopefully, you feel like you\\u2019re in the loop and caught up on recent happenings with Google and SEO. See you next week for another jam-packed episode!

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

Listed in: Business

How to Grow an Email List Faster and Make More Money from Subscribers with Matt Molen

The importance of email marketing in today\'s digital landscape is front and center in this excellent podcast episode.

Matt Molen is an expert in email marketing and shares his background and experience in helping content creators grow their email lists.

And the conversation is particularly timely with the changes in Google\'s algorithms and the disappearance of cookies, highlighting the need for building a brand and owning your audience through email marketing!

Three avatars are identified:

• Those not doing email marketing,
• Those doing the bare minimum,
• And those making a go of it but not seeing significant results.

The key to growing your email list is to identify your biggest source of traffic and create lead magnets that address their specific problems.

And Matt emphasizes the importance of using existing website traffic (be it SEO, Pinterest, etc.) as the source for list growth and suggests creating targeted lead magnets that solve specific problems for visitors.

Lead magnets can include quick start guides, PDFs, eBooks, calculators, quizzes, and more. Even repurposing existing content and making it relevant to the audience landing on your page or post can help improve email list growth.

The success of lead magnets depends on the message and solution they provide rather than the specific conversion tool used. Segmenting your audience allows for more targeted and personalized email marketing, leading to higher engagement and conversions.

Monetizing your email list requires serving your audience with relevant content and building trust before presenting offers. Consistently sending valuable free content helps establish trust and credibility, making it more likely for subscribers to purchase paid products or services.

Other successful monetization strategies include creating communities, courses, physical and digital products, affiliate offers, and getting sponsorships.

It\'s important to create a sense of urgency and scarcity in your email offers to encourage action. To grow your email list faster, consider using tactics like pop-ups, calls to action, Facebook or Instagram ads, YouTube pre-roll ads, and partnerships with other creators.

Trial and error is necessary in email marketing to find what works best for your audience.

And Matt also dives into the best tools he believes can help with email automation campaigns as well as the biggest mistakes people make in email marketing!

Hope you enjoy!

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

Listed in: Business

Apple Gets 36% of Google Ad Revenue, New Google Experiments and Updates + Weird Niche Sites

Welcome back to Niche Pursuits News, where Spencer and Jared share the most important and recent news in SEO, digital marketing, content creation, and website building. Grab something to drink and get comfortable\\u2014there\\u2019s lots to cover this week!\\xa0

The first topic they cover is Google\'s antitrust lawsuit. One of Google\'s witnesses made a mistake on the stand and accidentally revealed that it pays Apple 36% of the revenue earned via search ad activity on Apple\\u2019s Safari browser.\\xa0

Essentially, Google is paying billions of dollars to Apple to ensure that it\'s the default browser on all of its products and it did not want this data to be revealed. What does this mean for other search engines? Does Google have a monopoly in the search engine market?

Or, maybe a better question is, how good is Google really? Does it need to go to these lengths to become the default browser? Is the quality of its search actually getting worse? And what is the science behind being the \\u201cdefault?\\u201d

The next news item up for discussion is Google\'s announcement about new ways that users can find what they\'re looking for on Search.\\xa0

Google is testing out three features: allowing users to follow topics that they\'re interested in by adding a follow button, adding a perspective filter to allow users to get the best first-hand knowledge on a topic, and including information about content creators to highlight their expertise.\\xa0

What other potentially controversial announcements has Google made with regard to new features? What\\u2019s the role of AI in all of this? Tune in to find out!\\xa0

Jared and Spencer then talk about Danny Sullivan\'s recent presentation at brightonSEO. The Google Search Liaison essentially told attendees to get ready for even more changes, tweaks, and improvements to Google\\u2019s search rankings.

To get a peek at his full presentation, head on over to Twitter, where he posted all the slides and see for yourself. But what were the overarching themes? Listen to the podcast to hear Jared and Spencer\'s impressions.\\xa0

When it comes to Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer goes first and talks about his adventures building a faceless YouTube channel.\\xa0

He offers a summary on Twitter, but the gist is that he started uploading videos and one video went viral in May and got 474k views. He started to earn money and was making plans for the future when his viral video got hit with a copyright notification and had to be taken down.

How have things gone since then? What\\u2019s in store for this side hustle? Listen and find out what Spencer\\u2019s doing now!

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he gives an update on his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle which, if you\'ve been tuning in over the last few weeks, has been particularly volatile. The good news is that earnings appear to be picking up, so stay tuned to see if he sees a full recovery.\\xa0

He also talks about his photography course on Weekend Growth and the importance of having high-quality photos, particularly in view of all the changes in Google. His course, which offers useful tips for non-professionals, is celebrating its 1-year anniversary.\\xa0

Don\\u2019t miss out on the chance to get it! Jared\\u2019s offering it for 50% off with the code \\u201cNiche Pursuits.\\u201d

When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, the co-hosts really capture the weirdness of the web. Spencer reveals his \\u201890s-looking website, Disk Prices, which is essentially a list of hard drive prices and their different characteristics.\\xa0

All of the links are Amazon affiliate links, and search engine traffic varies according to the source: 2600 organic searches per month according to Ahrefs, 20k according to SimilarWeb.

How is the website updated? How is it doing on mobile? How did it fare during the HCU? What are the key takeaways from this website?\\xa0

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he shows his love for cats with Cat News Headlines. It\\u2019s a repository of daily (and probably) manually updated cat news from all over the web. This DR4 site only ranks for 250 keywords. The main articles it\\u2019s ranking for are cat food reviews and, in general, the site isn\\u2019t doing especially well.\\xa0

What do they think of the design? What is the site doing correctly (if anything)?\\xa0\\xa0

And that brings us to the end of another great podcast. We hope you feel informed of all the latest news in the SEO space and inspired to launch or continue your business projects and side hustles. See you next week!

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

Listed in: Business

Portfolio vs Single Brand: Brad Wayland Shares Insights From 80+ Exits & 20+ Years in Online Business

Brad Wayland from Quiet Light joins the podcast to share his expertise and insights into whether it\'s best for you to grow a single brand or a portfolio of sites.

With over 2 decades of experience in all aspects of the online business world, he offers a TON of value to all site owners.

The conversation kicks off describing various ways to own web or digital assets:

• A solopreneur with one website
• A solopreneur with a portfolio of sites
• Having a team for one website
• Having a team for a portfolio of websites

He highlights some of the key perks and pitfalls of each approach, emphasizing that owning a portfolio may not be for everyone.

The solopreneur lifestyle allows for complete focus and dedication to one project, which can lead to potential success. However, being a solopreneur also requires managing limited time and responsibilities, which can be challenging.

Brad says that successful solopreneurs often have a long-term commitment to their work and prioritize it over other activities - emphasizing the term \'grind\' several times.

As a result, this model can lead to significant financial success and high levels of achievement. The key though is to resist the ever-present temptation to chase shiny objects.

Brad describes how diversification of projects and thus focus can be a pitfall for entrepreneurs, and buying and acquiring multiple businesses without proper management can lead to failure. And Brad shares his personal experience buying businesses in niches he wasn\'t passionate about and the negative impact it had.

He emphasizes the importance of dedicating time and energy to rethinking strategies and staying passionate about the topic.

Operating at a high level and achieving long-term success requires a special mindset and creativity. Simply following a checklist of industry trends and best practices is likely not enough to stand out to the best in your niche.

In short, Brad recommends doubling down on focus and intentionality in business. He encourages you to prioritize and not spread yourself too thin.

If you\'re an exceptional entrepreneur (such as Syed Balkhi - the example he uses) who can attract excellent people and manage several projects at once - then great! But it\'s best to reflect honestly on your abilities - and most people will find they\'re best served focusing on a single project and grinding to the finish line (in the form of a big exit to financial freedom).

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

Listed in: Business

More Google Updates, The Verge and AI, Feedback for Google, and Wirecutter Making $6 Million/mth

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, where Spencer and Jared cover all the latest relating to SEO, digital marketing, affiliate marketing, and website creation and break it down into bite-size pieces for listeners.\\xa0

Spencer and Jared kick things off by talking about how the November Core Update was rolled out about a week ago. Spencer reveals how Niche Pursuits has fared thus far and Jared talks about how site owners he\\u2019s in contact with have been affected by Google\\u2019s latest update.\\xa0

Did most websites see a recovery or more of a decline? What will happen as the update concludes?\\xa0

They also announce that the Reviews Update has also been rolled out. Will site owners be able to determine which update affected them and how? How is this latest update different from the HCU? How is Google going to handle update announcements moving forward? And will there be another update before the end of the year? Tune in to hear what Spencer and Jared think.\\xa0

Changing gears, Spencer shares an affiliate article in The Verge that is clearly written with AI with no human editing. Listeners of last week\\u2019s episode will recall the discussion of a different article in The Verge complaining that the internet is overloaded with poor-quality SEO content.\\xa0And here it is, spamming the web with SEO-optimized unedited AI content!

Is their article ranking? And if it is, is it outranking truly helpful content written by humans who have actually tested the products? What do Spencer and Jared think about this case of parasite SEO? Listen to find out!

Next up on the agenda is a very interesting tweet from Danny Sullivan from Google Search Liaison on how he brings people\\u2019s feedback back to Google. Jared lauds this moment of transparency and Spencer wonders if this feedback could impact the way that Google Search works.\\xa0

Another tweet that made it into this week\\u2019s news is about the New York Times\\u2019 3Q revenue numbers. Glen Allsopp did an excellent write-up after analyzing The Wirecutter, the Times\\u2019 affiliate website. How much does he estimate it\\u2019s bringing in per month in affiliate commissions? It\\u2019s clear that \\u201cthe little guys\\u201d can\\u2019t compete with The Wirecutter, but what are Jared and Spencer\\u2019s takeaways from this situation?

In the last news item of the episode, Spencer shares that Elon Musk and Twitter recently revealed their ChatCPT competitor, Grok. Premium Twitter subscribers can currently sign up to the waiting list to test it out. Where will this go? It remains to be seen, but as Spencer says, it\\u2019s always interesting when someone with very deep pockets gets into the AI game.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about the tool he created, Rank Logic, and its latest addition\\u2014a Google Analytics integration, which will be available for current users as early as next week. He talks about the different ways users will be able to analyze data and create custom reports, and how much easier it will be compared with using GA4.

When it\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about recording more videos for the Amazon Influencer Program, most of them seasonal. His goal is to hit 1000 videos by the end of the year. He also talks about celebrating the anniversary of the Photo Course on Weekend Growth and how his side hustles, and the opportunities that come with them, continue to grow and surprise him as well.

Spencer shares his Weird Niche Site first: Miss Rachel Networth. He gives the backstory about Miss Rachel, a popular teacher on YouTube, and shares stats for the 3-month-old site, which has a DR of 63 and organic monthly traffic of around 30k. Is it a 301 from an older domain? What else does he discover when he digs deeper? What\\u2019s his and Jared\\u2019s theory behind the website?

Jared\\u2019s find this week is The Measure of Things, a very, very weird niche site that lets you enter a measurement and then compare that measurement to other \\u201cthings.\\u201d For example, 829 square centimeters is about 1/15th as big as a bath towel. Isn\\u2019t that great to know?\\xa0

This DR52 site ranks for 17k keywords and has an organic search volume of 24k per month. What\\u2019s super unique about this website? Hear Jared and Spencer break down the data they see in Ahrefs.

And that brings us to the end of another great episode. We hope you\\u2019re feeling informed and inspired, as always. See you next week!

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

Listed in: Business

How Aaron Anderson Builds 150+ Free and Relatively Safe Earned Links Per Month

Want a masterclass in effective link building strategies?

Aaron Anderson joins the Niche Pursuits podcast to share all the tricks of the trade he\'s learned over the years.

Aaron\'s journey into marketing came as an offshoot of his time cold calling and doing door-to-door sales.

He figured link building in particular matched his skillset and he was right.

His agency focuses on earning links through outreach rather than paid or guest post links. And they have found success with broken link building, resource page link building, and unlinked mentions as their core strategies.

In fact, Aaron\'s agency has managed to earn links from top-tier sites like the New York Times and Men\'s Health through broken link building alone.

The key challenge in this strategy lies in actually finding the broken links, which can even be best accomplished without tools - Aaron describes how.

Then comes the process of manually finding the right person to contact. And Aaron also does a great job of explaining how the outreach email template used should be short, straightforward, and avoid fake flattery.

The focus in broken link building is on finding broken links with intent problems rather than just 404 errors. The goal is to provide a replacement for the broken link that aligns with the original intent. And conversion rates can vary, but campaigns with recent broken links tend to have higher success rates.

Then when it comes to resource page link building, the value of resource pages varies depending on the number of external links and the credibility of the curator.

To be successful with this approach, brands need to have something of value to offer. And positioning the brand as altruistic and offering free resources can increase success rates.

Unlinked mentions can also be an effective strategy, but it requires using multiple tools and search operators to find all opportunities. But Google search operators can help identify unlinked mentions and refine the search for better results.

These types of earned links don\'t work for every industry though. And Aaron is honest about where it doesn\'t.

Overall, Aaron does a great job of sharing ways you can get powerful and free links with tons of actionable tips to help along the way.

And as he says, link building is merely one part of the equation. His focus is on finding opportunities where Google already likes the content and using links to accelerate or solidify Google\'s opinion to maintain a high ranking in the SERPs.

Hope you take notes!

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

Listed in: Business

Who Ruined the Internet? Google Core, Adsense, and Discover Updates & a Weird Niche Video Site

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. This week\\u2019s episode is seriously packed with a ton of important and interesting headlines in the SEO, digital marketing, and content creation space. So grab some popcorn, get comfortable, and let\\u2019s get started!

Spencer and Jared kick off the episode by talking about Google\\u2019s latest announcement about an impending November core update, which started to roll out on November 2nd. We can expect to see the effects over the weekend. They talk about Google\\u2019s explanation for the latest update and how there\\u2019s also a review system update coming next week.

Moving on, they share an article in The Verge accusing SEOs of ruining the internet. Spencer summarizes the 8000-word article and he and Jared discuss whether the author ultimately blames SEOs or Google itself for bringing down the quality of the internet.\\xa0

What does Jared think about the article? Is The Verge hypocritical for publishing an article like this? What happened to Danny Sullivan, the Google employee who responded to Spencer\\u2019s tweet? Tune in to find out!

The conversation then shifts to an article on Detailed, and a tweet, by Glen Allsopp, about product review affiliate keywords. Allsopp shares his findings after analyzing 10,000 search results and he shares some staggering statistics for sites like Reddit and Quora.

The next news item on the agenda has to do with Google\\u2019s efforts to fix a bug from the October 2023 update, which impacted Google Discover traffic. Does that mean people who got massive traffic from Google Discover recently will see it disappear? Will people without much Google Discover traffic see it increase?

Continuing with news about Google, Spencer and Jared share an article that shows how Google is inserting paid ads among organic search results. They talk about the implications of this move and how it may or may not affect publishers.

Then Spencer shares an article about updates to Google AdSense, as the network is shifting to per-impression payments for publishers. How will this impact their earnings? Why is Google doing this? Since the network has always been pay-per-click, this is a major change to how it functions. Tune in to hear what Spencer and Jared have to say.

Jared geeks out on the last news item on the agenda, an analysis of Google\\u2019s EEAT Knowledge Graph. A recent article took a deep dive into how Google understands what is and isn\\u2019t expert content and the importance of getting into the Knowledge Panel and building a brand. Jared shares some good ideas on how to get Google\\u2019s stamp of approval, so don\\u2019t miss them!

When it comes to Side Hustle Shenanigans, Spencer provides an update on his second faceless YouTube channel, for which the stats are underwhelming. As he is completely hands-off in this endeavor, his advice for anyone looking to do something like this is to be very involved and detail-oriented. Listen in to find out what he thinks about this business model.

Jared reports on his Amazon Influencer side hustle, noting that October was his worst month ever. Why was this? What\\u2019s driving all the volatility? What does he expect in the coming months?

There\\u2019s just a little bit of time left, and Spencer shares his weird niche site first: Astronaut.io. This fascinating site features videos from YouTube that have zero views. With 105k visitors over the last three months according to SimilarWeb, it seems that some people (mostly in Russia), are enjoying them.

Jared\\u2019s weird site is in the celebrity niche, Who\\u2019s Dated Who, which offers the dating history of every celebrity you can think of. He and Spencer discuss the site\\u2019s ranking system, how it might be getting its data, its use of a forum, and how it\\u2019s monetized. This DR56 site is ranking for over 600k keywords, and monthly estimated organic traffic of 1.2 million.

And that brings us to the end of another great episode. Thanks for tuning in for another week and getting the latest in SEO news. See you next Friday!

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

Listed in: Business

Delegate to Dominate: Find the Perfect Website Operator to Skyrocket Your Growth

Today, we\'re joined by returning guest Mushfiq - a prolific site owner, operator, and flipper for an all-encompassing look at site operators!

With his 15+ years of operations experience and someone who hires lots of site operators for his agency, Mushfiq is a wealth of knowledge from both sides of the equation.

The first half of the discussion is all about site operators:

• Who is best qualified to become one
• What the ideal operator avatar looks like
• Some of the reasons someone would become one

Mushfiq explains that a website operator is someone who can take a site from zero to a revenue target, focusing on content management, SEO, revenue generation, and finding opportunities.

And it\'s also here that Mushfiq and Jared highlight the important skills needed like: project management, strategy, and working well with a team of content creators, link builders, and virtual assistants.

For the motivations for becoming an operator, there are also lots of interesting insights.

For instance, operators can mitigate risk by gaining valuable experience working with different types of sites - knowledge that can then be applied to their own websites.

And since he runs an agency offering these operator services, Mushfiq also shares his two-tier structure for website operations. PLUS, the max number of projects an operator should manage at one time.

There really are tons of awesome insights here for anyone interested in pursuing this as a service provider.

But eventually, the discussion moves to the owner\'s perspective.

Hiring an operator can be advantageous for those who lack the time or expertise to effectively manage their own sites.

And Mushfiq lists out the 3 typical options for these owners who lack the time:

• Let the website sit and eventually die,
• Sell it (although they discuss some challenges for personal brand sites),
• Or outsource it to an agency or virtual assistants.

There are lots of factors to consider - and Mushfiq and Jared do a great job of covering all that\'s important.

For instance, the challenges many feel when handing over a website to an operator.

As they discuss, letting go of control and allowing the operator to take over is essential for a successful operator-owner relationship.

But of course, trust is a crucial component for this, and it\'s important to find someone with a trustworthy background and a mix of successes and failures.

And Mushfiq highlights successful owners as those willing to walk away and let the operator manage the property, have realistic expectations about quality, and understand the complexities of managing a website.

They also break down the typical financial arrangement of this relationship.

For both owners and operators, diversification is emphasized as a key strategy. Ideally, this arrangement can afford the owner more time to expand into e-commerce, newsletters, and other areas to build a brand and generate additional income streams.

There\'s really too much value here to properly summarize, but if you\'ve ever considered hiring an operator or supplementing your blogging income, this is a must-listen!

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

\\xa0

Listed in: Business

Google Responds to Controversial SEO Tweet, Reddit Blocking Google, and 2 Weird Niche Sites

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! You definitely don\\u2019t want to miss this one as it\\u2019s packed with interesting insights and thoughts about events over the last week in SEO.

After Spencer talks briefly about his positive experience promoting Link Whisper at FinCon, he and Jared dive headfirst into the big news of the week: Spencer\\u2019s unexpectedly controversial post on X about how Google is slowly killing blogging.\\xa0

Much to his (and everyone\\u2019s) surprise, Danny Sullivan, from Google, responded to his post and offered a few helpful tips and takeaways from the HCU. This exchange generated a lot of debate about the topic\\u2014over 130 threads on Spencer\\u2019s original post.\\xa0

Spencer and Jared talk about the general confusion among site owners and content creators over the HCU and their efforts to understand what Google wants, and although Danny references this document to help people, people remain very confused and frustrated.

They also talk about the difference between the HCU and previous updates like Panda and Penguin, and encourage everyone to check out the original post on X.

Moving on, Spencer and Jared talk about the latest news about Reddit, as the platform is threatening to block Google. This decision hinges on Reddit\\u2019s ability to reach deals with generative AI companies to pay for its data.

What might happen to Reddit if it goes through with it? What would be the ripple effect? And what about the other 500+ companies that have already blocked their content from being scraped by AI? What would Spencer and Jared do if they ran Reddit? Tune in to hear them discuss the possibilities.

The next big news is that the DALL-E 3 image generator is available in ChatGPT and it\\u2019s free. With the right prompts, you can create whatever images you want.\\xa0

Spencer shares a few images he created using the tool, Jared talks about using it to successfully create YouTube thumbnails, and they discuss the quality of the images it creates.

As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer starts by talking about his most recent results with the Amazon Influencer Program. He shares that his videos are back in the carousel and his earnings are around $2k for the month.\\xa0

Although he\\u2019s finally cash flow positive with this side hustle, with 767 videos currently, what will the coming months hold in terms of earnings? Also, who\\u2019s making more at the moment, Spencer or Jared? Listen to the podcast to find out which host is in the lead.

Jared then talks about growing his Weekender Growth email list, which is now at 3k subscribers.\\xa0

He shares his challenges growing the YouTube channel, which has about 12 videos, +1k subscribers, and 2000 watch hours. He hopes to monetize it in the coming months, so stay tuned to see how that evolves!

As for weird niche sites, Spencer\\u2019s find of the week is the very colorful Sound Buttons World, which receives 575k visitors per month from organic search and has tons of sounds that users can download or link to.\\xa0

He and Jared look at the site\\u2019s exponential growth and discuss why that may be, and they look at the types of keywords the site is ranking for.

Jared shares his weird niche site, Day of the Week, which provides a lot of information about the days of the week, everything from the zodiac, birthstones, historical events, and more.\\xa0

This DR26 site ranks for 60k keywords, and Jared and Spencer are very surprised when they take a closer look at those keywords and at the type of ads running on the site. Listen to find out why!

And that brings us to the end of the latest episode of Niche Pursuits News! Hopefully, you\\u2019re feeling informed and inspired. Tune in next week when Spencer and Jared take on more SEO, digital marketing, and niche site creation news.

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\\xa0

Listed in: Business

How Jesse Cunningham Uses AI to Create High-Quality Content At Scale

In this episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, SEO expert Jesse Cunningham joins us to give us a masterclass in AI content creation (at scale).

Jesse runs a successful SEO agency and shares helpful experiments regarding AI and SEO on his YouTube channel.

In his interview, we\'re lucky to hear him summarize some of his most important findings.

For one, he\'s all about topical authority. And shares how AI has helped make this easier than ever.

To do this with AI in a way that ranks, Jesse emphasizes the need for a comprehensive content map and well-organized page structure.

And he gives some pretty interesting insights into what he does for this which may surprise you.

Besides ChatGPT and Claude.ai, he shares two AI tools that he trusts: WordGalaxy.ai and especially SEOWriting.ai, the last of which, he even uses to automate image creation and alt text.

These tools can help streamline the content creation process and make it more efficient and scalable for both agencies and individual website builders.

But of course, Jesse also highlights the importance of editing to publish concise and relevant content, as well as fact-checking, especially in YMYL niches where accuracy is of utmost importance.

He then gets into how to create beautiful, data-based content with AI to attract links.

And how he believes the priority for content creators should be on dominating topical authority and providing valuable content.

By increasing their output through implementing a process that leverages virtual assistants, content creators can scale better and cheaper than ever before.

The talk then winds down with a high-level look at The Helpful Content Update (HCU).

This has changed the landscape of website creation, requiring websites to present themselves as businesses within Google\'s ecosystem. And Jesse suggests adding services, consultation options, or even emulating real companies in the footer to align with the HCU.

In short, Jesse shows how with the help of AI tools, optimizing content structure, and focusing on topical authority, content creators can not only survive but flourish in today\'s SEO landscape.

Please enjoy!

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

Listed in: Business

Sites Hit With October Core Update vs HCU, Growing Google Discover, and a Graveyard Site

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast!

This week, Jared plays hosts alongside his guest Tony Hill, a niche site expert with about 2 decades of experience. Come along as they dissect and digest the latest news on SEO, digital marketing, Google, niche sites, and beyond.

They kick off the show talking about the October core update, which just completed its 2-week rollout. Tony talks about how many sites got hit by both the HCU and this update, and Jared talks about whether or not the second update was a rollback of sorts by Google.\\xa0

What\\u2019s the current status of UCG sites? When do sites generally experience volatility during an update? Is Google demoting content that it thinks users don\\u2019t need as much when they have access to AI resources like Bard? Is Google taking a different route in interpreting users\\u2019 search queries? Tune in to hear their thoughts.

The next topic is Mediavine\\u2019s assessment of Google\\u2019s Helpful Content Update. The ad company reports that just 5.8% of its sites were negatively affected, but would Mediavine site owners agree with that statistic? How transparent is the company\\u2019s analysis? And was ad density one of the characteristics targeted by Google in the update? Find out what Tony and Jared think.

Moving on, they discuss an article on Reuters about Google, AI, and its Search Generative Experience. The news outlet calls the search tool a \\u201cred flag\\u201d in the lengthy relationship between publishers and Google, and quotes experts who confirm that SGE is going to decrease publishers\\u2019 organic traffic.\\xa0

Jared and Tony talk about the importance of the situation being reported in the mainstream news to create more awareness. They agree that it\\u2019s still the very early days and time will tell how it all plays out. Will the lite version of SGE remain? Will the antitrust lawsuit Google\\u2019s facing be a determining factor? Listen to find out what Jared and Tony think.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Jared talks about the Amazon Influencer Program and how it had taken a turn for the worse. His videos weren\\u2019t appearing anymore and clicks had plummeted\\u2026 until a few days ago. Everything seems to have turned around: clicks are up, his videos are back, and his fingers are crossed for 4Q. Stay tuned to find out how it all ends!

Tony talks about Google Discover and how many websites are seeing a boost in traffic, which can happen after updates like the recent ones. He discusses brand new sites getting Google Discover traffic and sites that have been getting traffic for years going down to zero. He also mentions that Google is now considering a desktop version, and talks about his own experience with his sites on Google Discover.

As for weird niches this week, Jared goes first with Halloween Jokes. This seasonal site ranks for just 1300 keywords, some of which are in the top 10. The site is making some ad revenue and would be relatively easy to recreate using AI. They also talk about the possibility of making a series of sites for different holidays as a way to maintain traffic year-round.\\xa0\\xa0

Tony shares a weird site as well, Find a Grave, which is like a Wikipedia with information about people\\u2019s graves. This well-done directory contains information that is crowdsourced and contains a lot of relevant pictures and an active forum with more than 47k people.\\xa0

They talk about the site\\u2019s smart monetization techniques. Aside from ads, users can send flowers to the gravesites in its database, essentially making it very useful. All in all, a weird and clever niche site.\\xa0

And that brings us to the end of another information-packed episode. Join us next week when they analyze the very latest in SEO news and bring some inspiration and laughs with their side hustles and weird sites.

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

Listed in: Business

Nathan Gotch Shares Valuable Tips He's Used To Become a 7-Figure SEO Entrepreneur

Nathan Gotch, founder of Gotch SEO and true thought leader in the space joins the Niche Pursuits podcast to share valuable tips on keyword research and content creation.

He takes us through his entire journey. Starting with learning SEO back in 2011 building his own sites, to how he got clients, diversifying his income, and what he sees working today.

And Nathan\'s insights are important for any site owner to take note of.

His approach to keyword research is centered around driving revenue and providing valuable content to users.

He recommends starting with transactional, bottom of the funnel topics that have high buyer intent or relevance to your core offer in your niche.

And suggests researching keywords by looking at products being sold on platforms like Amazon to determine which ones generate the most money.

If necessary, he recommends using keyword research tools to identify clustering opportunities and build a database of keywords.

And offers a great criteria for prioritizing keywords based on intent, relevance, and other important and sometimes overlooked factors.

From here he recommends creating high-value pages and supporting content at a granular level.

He also emphasizes the importance of having expertise or enthusiasm in the niche you choose for your website.

Nathan also shares a great 80/20 principle he uses. Meaning outside of the 80% targeting SEO traffic, 20% of content can be experimenting with trending keywords and creating link bait assets to attract attention and gain an authoritative advantage.

For existing sites, Nathan advises starting with existing keywords that are already ranking and optimizing them to improve their positions and increase clicks. He even highlights the value of keywords in positions 50 to 100, as they can still provide opportunities for growth and relevance.

He also highlights the significance of external signals, such as high-quality backlinks, in determining the helpfulness of content.

Nathan emphasizes the need for a long-term vision and building a brand rather than just a niche site.

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

Listed in: Business

Helpful Content Update Analysis, Google Antitrust "Leaks", SGE Lite, and Weird Niche Sites

It\\u2019s Friday, and that means it\\u2019s time for another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast, where Jared and Spencer break down the latest SEO news into bite-size pieces. Buckle up people, because they cover many, many topics on today\\u2019s episode!

It\\u2019s been one week since Google announced its core update for October, plus the spam update was rolled out, so Jared and Spencer first talk about how to know which may be affecting your site.

For those affected by the HCU, they look at a very exhaustive, data-heavy resource and highlight some of the conclusions, including what type of content performed better, how new sites fared in the update, how article length importance has shifted, and conclusions about AI content. They also share their opinions on some of the author\\u2019s theories and touch on the future of updates.

Moving on, Spencer and Jared address Google\\u2019s antitrust lawsuit and the recent news reveals that Apple was in talks to buy Bing or DuckDuckGo. They talk about the money that was exchanged between Apple and Google and how Apple negotiated the deal.

The next topic is how a recent op-ed on Wired claiming Google alters users\\u2019 search queries was recently pulled from their website for \\u201cnot meeting their editorial standards,\\u201d and Jared and Spencer discuss why it might have disappeared.

In the latest SGE news, they talk about how Google appears to be testing a lite version, where the results are taking up less space at the top of the page. They share a few theories about why this is, how the experience has changed over recent months, and what this means for website owners.

In other SGE news, the conversation shifts to Google\\u2019s AI-powered search and its ability to generate images and drafts. They also talk about how AI images are something we should be paying attention to.

The next topic is how Google is using clicks to rank websites, contrary to what the search engine has said for years. They talk about the implications for privacy data and how this information may change the way we operate.\\xa0

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about a website in the news niche he created with his kids, the goal of which is to get traffic from Facebook. He built up a Facebook page to 30k followers and the website has traffic of 27k over the last month. His goal is to get into Mediavine in the coming months, and he\\u2019ll report back as he and his writer make progress.

Jared then talks about a spreadsheet he created to help website owners, SEOs, and content creators with prompts relating to the HCU. It\\u2019s free over the weekend and then he may start charging for it, so grab it now!

When it comes to weird niche sites, Spencer shares Cake Wrecks, which documents cake fails and adds some funny titles to the cakes. The DR59 site, which has been around for many years, is making money through ads and the author also has a book.\\xa0

As for Jared, his site is History Colored, which adds color to traditionally black-and-white photos. What probably started as a personal project to add color to photos eventually expanded into a bigger website that targets informational topics and gets more traffic. They talk about how some pages might go viral. With 515k followers on Facebook and 355k subscribers on YouTube, this is a topic that does well on social media.

And that brings us to the end of another jam-packed episode of the podcast. See you next week!

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

Listed in: Business

How Brock McGoff Grew 2 Blogs with SEO To $30k Profit Per Month and a Big Exit

Brock McGoff joins us today on the Niche Pursuits to share his experience selling his menswear websites, The Modest Man and The Slender Wrist.

Throughout the talk, he highlights key points that helped him grow to an average of $30k per month and offers valuable pointers for others looking to sell their sites such as:

• Frequently asked buyer questions
• Keys to his site\'s growth
• Branding tips
• And more...

Plus Brock\'s story includes growing a site he started and one he bought.

The Modest Man was a menswear site Brock started around 10 years ago, while The Slender Wrist is one he bought in a private sale a couple of years back.

And to ensure the success of his websites, Brock focused on hands-on reviews and buying guides.

He emphasizes the importance of quality content and building genuine relationships in the industry for backlinks. It\'s these factors that he believes played a significant role in attracting advertisers and generating revenue.

Speaking of revenue, he found that individual product affiliate networks often converted well and offered higher commission rates. He also actively negotiated with brands for better rates and terms by forming strong relationships with them.

But in the end, he decided to sell the sites because he no longer enjoyed the day-to-day operations and wanted to pursue other opportunities.

So, in preparation for selling his sites, Brock took steps to remove himself from the business and diversify revenue streams. Again, he recommends the importance of reaching out to brands and forming relationships instead of relying solely on Amazon or other standard affiliate platforms. As this approach helped him create a more sustainable and attractive business for potential buyers.

He initially tried to sell it privately, jumping on loads of sales calls which led to great insights:

Buyers were particularly interested in the content\'s quality, the business\'s stability, the presence of a team, and standard operating procedures.

And Brock shares many of these frequently asked questions.

But he ended up using a broker to facilitate the sale process and found their guidance and support to be worth the fee. The listing process was relatively quick, and he immediately received multiple offers.

He also decided to keep his YouTube channel separate from the sale and managed to facilitate a true win-win site exit.

Overall, it\'s another great, insightful interview you don\'t want to miss!

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

Listed in: Business

More Google Updates, How to Thrive After the HCU, the Future of Search & AI, and 3 Weird Sites

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. This week Josh Blackburn fills in for Spencer, and he and Jared sit down to discuss the most relevant news in SEO, digital marketing, website creation, and beyond.

The first order of business is the 2 additional updates Google recently launched following the Helpful Content Update that essentially left the niche website community battered. Jared and Josh weigh in on what they think will happen. Is this Google\\u2019s way of \\u201ctweaking\\u201d the results of the HCU? What should website owners do with their sites during these updates? Tune in to hear what they think.

They talk about a series of things website owners can do to improve their rankings in the wake of the HCU, touching on topics like ad density, usability, pop-ups, and article word count. They also share their observations about the update\\u2019s winners and losers and the importance of looking at your website as a business and emulating the features that Google looks for in a business.

Jared and Josh move on to talk about Google\\u2019s antitrust lawsuit and the revelation that it might be altering search results to get better ad results. They talk about some shady emails that were leaked that give an inside look at how Google operates, but the truth is that there are a lot of changes going on now in search and it remains to see how everything will play out.

The next topic is how more and more publishers are blocking GPTBot, with news outlets following suit. Jared asks, \\u201cWhy would you not block it?\\u201d Will partnerships be the way forward? What does the future look like for content creators in the world of AI? Jared and Josh share their thoughts and concerns.

In the Side Hustle Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Jared reports on his Amazon Influencer side project. September earnings exceeded his expectations in the first half of the month only\\xa0to drop off a cliff in the second half.

Although he still earned over $2k, it\\u2019s unclear how profitable this \\u201cexperiment\\u201d will actually be. What\\u2019s Amazon doing? What does the future of the program look like? Is it worth starting to make videos if you haven\\u2019t already? Tune in to find out what happens in the months to come.\\xa0

Josh then talks about a DR32 site of his which saw a massive drop in clicks over time. He recently added 4000 unedited AI articles to it as an experiment and he started to see an improvement; however, with the HCU, it got crushed. He\\u2019s going to wait and see if it bounces back or not and how future updates affect it.

They move on to talk about their weird niche sites. Jared\\u2019s is Cuddle Comfort, which was first created in 2011. This DR32 site ranks for just 2k keywords but may be getting up to 1 million visits per month. He and Josh talk about how it creates trust and they talk about its monetization techniques.

Then it\\u2019s Josh\\u2019s turn, and he shares Sunglasses ID, which identifies all the different sunglasses worn by celebrities and in the movies and includes an affiliate link for users to buy them.\\xa0

This DR31 site with just over 1000 pages is 14 years and 260 days old and gets 70k visits per month. They talk about how the publisher might get all the data for all of the sunglasses. Then Josh reveals a second site, WatchID, which follows the same concept. This site was created about 17 days after the first site and has a lot of scope for improvement. Are there similar ID sites out there? Maybe!

That brings us to the end of another great podcast on the current SEO landscape. Come back next week to hear the latest news and get plenty of 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

Listed in: Business

How Tim Stoddart Nets $250k Per Year With His Side-Hustle Directory Sites

We have a special treat today on the Niche Pursuits podcast.

CopyBlogger owner and Sober Nation founder, Tim Stoddart joins us to share some awesome tips and insights from his success in building multiple income streams online.

You do not want to miss this one as Tim\'s story is sure to inspire.

He learned about content marketing and SEO by reading the site Copyblogger. He then applied these strategies to his own site, Sober Nation.

He initially used these strategies to gain traction through Facebook by sharing user stories. But, he soon realized that traffic doesn\'t always translate to revenue.

So, Tim decided to transition Sober Nation to a directory model to generate revenue, listing treatment facilities and generating revenue through exposure.

This allowed him to monetize the website in a creative and effective way. And also sparked the idea to start an agency to help related facilities with their marketing needs.

Tim explains how he used Sober Nation as a branding tool to build his agency, Stodzy. And by leveraging the success of Sober Nation, Tim was able to establish his agency and attract clients.

He did a similar thing after acquiring CopyBlogger. Again, instead of taking the traditional ad and affiliate route, Tim takes a different approach.

He uses Copyblogger as a lead generation site for his agency, Digital Commerce.

Tim also highlights the importance of having a core group of trusted employees and a systematic workflow. This ensures that the business runs smoothly and efficiently. He discusses the different revenue models he uses, including free media, front-end products, and high-end services. By diversifying his income streams, Tim has created a stable and sustainable business model.

In conclusion, Tim Stoddart\'s journey and projects demonstrate the significance of building a business with multiple income streams. By leveraging the success of Sober Nation, Tim was able to establish his agency and attract clients.

He emphasizes the importance of measuring success based on client goals and delivering results. Tim\'s specialization and finding unique angles in the marketplace have been key to his success.

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

Listed in: Business

Winners and Losers of Google's Helpful Content Update + 2 Weird Niche Sites

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

You won\\u2019t want to miss this episode, especially if you were affected by Google\\u2019s Helpful Content Update.\\xa0

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

According to the experts, this update, the 3rd and largest of its kind, looked at over-optimized content and the authenticity of reviews. It also potentially penalized websites with the blogroll on the homepage and sites using too many affiliate links with no context.\\xa0

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

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

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

Jared and Spencer then talk about the possibility of recovering from the update and self-assessing your site using Google\\u2019s guidelines, and they offer sage advice to website owners who have been negatively impacted by this update.\\xa0

In the next portion of the podcast, they share and analyze real sites that have been positively affected by the update, talking about why they think that is and what they\\u2019re doing right. They specifically look at sites in the finance and travel spaces. They also take a closer look at a few sites that have lost traffic following the update, in the travel niche.

Don\\u2019t miss their conclusions about the update, their opinion on the future of the industry, and their advice on moving forward for site owners.

Although they dedicate the bulk of the podcast to talking about the update, they do speak briefly about their current side hustles in the Side Hustle Shenanigans portion of the podcast.\\xa0

Spencer speaks about his AI website challenge and how some of those creators are already seeing a little bit of traffic. He\\u2019ll also be hosting a second YouTube Live on Monday, October 2nd, along with an AI expert.

Jared briefly talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle and his Weekend Growth YouTube channel.\\xa0\\xa0

As for Weird Niche Sites, Spencer shares his: HowToPronounce, which is getting 1.4 million visitors per month, according to Ahrefs. It\\u2019s ranking for lots of keywords with significant traffic, although it looks like it was hit by recent Google updates.

Jared\\u2019s site, I Might Be Funny, is a good example of UGC (but not SEO), as it amalgamates and shares content originally published on social media. Although it has a DR of just 6, it ranks for 4k keywords according to Ahrefs, some of which have significant traffic, and gets around 5k organic visitors per month.

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

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

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

Listed in: Business

How Jim Campbell Survived Covid and Grew His Honeymoon Business to Nearly 7 Figures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He also sees potential in direct advertising with resorts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Listed in: Business

What's Going on With Google's Helpful Content Update? Plus 2 Weird Niche Sites...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, where your hosts Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, from 201 Collective, bring you all the latest news and insight in SEO, digital marketing, website building, and entrepreneurship.

This week the hosts focus entirely on one major event in the space: Google\\u2019s Helpful Content Update. As this major update has had wide-ranging effects on the niche site community, Spencer and Jared break it down for us and share some words of encouragement.

The update, which came out a week ago, has really shaken up the community. All across X, website owners are sharing graphics and reports that reflect the very negative impact of the update.\\xa0

Spencer and Jared highlight the change in Google\\u2019s wording, where the focus has shifted from content \\u201cwritten by people\\u201d to \\u201cwritten for people\\u201d and articles that needed to be \\u201cwritten by an expert\\u201d now need to be \\u201cwritten or reviewed by an expert.\\u201d

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

They also talk about the sites that benefited from the update, such as Quora, Reddit, and other forums; they share their thoughts on EEAT and UGC; and they discuss the impact on Mediavine sites in particular.\\xa0

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

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

Jared talks about his Amazon Influencer side hustle too, sharing that his earnings went off a cliff due to the change in how videos appear. He talks about how he thinks the program will play out in the future and whether it\\u2019s worth sticking it out.

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

Jared\\u2019s site this week is Gizoogle, which translates content into \\u201cgangster-speak.\\u201d They test it out on some Niche Pursuits content with very entertaining results. This DA58 website gets very little organic traffic but has over 14 million backlinks. Although it\\u2019s unclear if or how it\\u2019s monetized, and even how it works, it\\u2019s worth checking out for a good laugh.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. Don\\u2019t forget to tune in next week for more inspiration and insight into the world of SEO, content creation, digital marketing, and website building. See you then!

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

Listed in: Business

How Mar Pages Turned a Facebook Group into a 7-Figure-a-Year Travel Blog & Business

Want a masterclass in both online marketing and business?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another great takeaway is Mar\'s emphasis on data.

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

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

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

Listed in: Business

Winners and Losers of Googles Core Update, 2 AI Content Challenges, and a Weird Novel Site

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

The first news item that Spencer and Jared address this week is the rollout Google core update, which concluded about a week ago. They share some of the key takeaways from Lily Ray\'s analysis, one of which was the importance of EEAT and the massive post-update boost to UCG platforms like Reddit and Quora and dictionary-type sites.\\xa0

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

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

Other news covered in the episode is Google\\u2019s announcement that it will no longer be showing how-to results for desktop users. It had previously been removed from mobile search results, along with FAQ results. Spencer and Jared talk about the impact of this move by Google and why they think it was done.

The last news item they touch on this week is an exhaustive State of Digital Marketing report. They talk about the decline in the cost of ads, which is good news for advertisers. On the flip side, RPMs are low, which negatively affects website owners running ads. Will there be a comeback in Q3 and Q4, or is this trend here to stay? Jared and Spencer share their thoughts.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the episode, Spencer shares how he launched 2 new challenges. In the first one, people will build AI sites from scratch and document the process. In the second challenge, people will scale an existing site with AI.\\xa0

He created a free community to follow along, and the person in each competition who has the most organic traffic after 6 months (new site challenge) and 3 months (existing site challenge) will walk away with $2,500.\\xa0

Jared talks about doubling down on his Amazon Influencer side hustle as we move into Q3 and Q4, making 99 videos in the last week. He also shares his takeaway after looking at his August earnings, which had declined, suggesting that consumers weren\\u2019t making large purchases during the month. With 638 videos currently on the platform, Jared is ready to earn some serious money as the year draws to a close.

Then it\\u2019s time for Spencer to share his Weird Niche Site. The single-page site he found is getting 2.4 million organic visitors per month, ranks for 30k keywords, and is monetized with display ads: Compress JPEG. Although it seems like a very simple tool and website, Spencer and Jared talk about all the work that goes into creating and ranking it.

Jaren then shares his site: Your Novel, where you can submit your story, have a novel written about you, and get it shipped to your house. The books are available in a wide range of categories and come in hardback, paperback, or ebook formats.\\xa0Although it doesn\\u2019t rank for many keywords or get a lot of traffic, they agree that the website has potential if certain SEO strategies were applied to it, and most of all, it certainly qualifies as weird.\\xa0

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

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

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Listed in: Business

How Sarah Bond Grew Her Food Blog to 1M+ Visitors and $30-40k Per Month

Welcome to another great episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In addition to Live Eat Learn, Sarah also has two niche sites: Brew Buch, focused on kombucha brewing, and Bone App\\xe9treat, her dog food site.

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

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

Don\'t miss it!

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Listed in: Business

US Government Takes Google to Trial, a New Public Project, and Weird Niche Sites

Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, from 201 Creative, are back with the latest news in niche sites, SEO, and affiliate marketing.\\xa0

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

Jared shares information about the impact on a few of his sites and he talks about focusing more on earnings as opposed to fluctuations in traffic. Jared and Spencer also talk about how the update doesn\\u2019t appear to have had much of an impact on AI content.

The next news item on the agenda is the upcoming trial between the US vs. Google. Spencer talks about the potential implications of this monopoly trial, which is expected to last 10 weeks, on niche site owners and bloggers.\\xa0

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

They also mention quickly how Google is also in the news in the EU, where it\\u2019s accused of being a \\u201cgatekeeper\\u201d and has been ordered to give more freedom to other companies to compete under the new EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), starting in 2024.

The next topic they discuss is how YouTube is making it easier for creators to choose the perfect thumbnail. The platform is coming out with an A/B testing tool and this function could be available next year. This would allow users to upload 3 custom thumbnails and then YouTube would test behind the scenes to see which performs the best.\\xa0

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

Then it\\u2019s time to talk about some Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer talks about hiring 6 local people to create reviews for his Amazon Influencer Program account, where he has 453 videos at the moment.\\xa0

After earning around $1500 in August, he\\u2019s going all-in with this side hustle and expects to see an improvement in September and beyond. He also created a YouTube channel, where he\\u2019s going to publish all of his Amazon videos and see what happens.

Spencer also talks about a survey he recently published where he\\u2019s looking for people to create an online business and he will document it publicly on Niche Pursuits. The type of project hasn\\u2019t been decided yet, so don\\u2019t forget to vote for what you\\u2019d like to see!

Jared then talks about creating videos for his Weekender Growth YouTube channel, which has about 800 subscribers and 1,000 watch hours at the moment. Although he\\u2019s a far way away from monetization, he\\u2019s going to dedicate more time to this project going forward.

Then it\\u2019s time for everybody\\u2019s Weird Niche Site. Spencer shares his, which is HTTP Status Dogs, which combines HTTP status codes with photos of dogs illustrating those codes. The site used to get 20 to 30k in traffic but now only receives about 1000 visitors per month. It\\u2019s not monetized in any way, but it\\u2019s a good laugh.

Jared\\u2019s site this week is Cornify, a unicorns and rainbows on-demand website. Aside from lots of functions like adding unicorns and rainbows to photos, coloring pictures online, and making your own younicorn, the site also has a store linked to Amazon products. Despite this, it only\\xa0ranks for around 400 keywords and less than 1000 monthly organic visitors, although it does have a DR of 57. Jared and Spencer also talk about what the site is doing right and how it could improve.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of Niche Pursuits News. Tune in next week so Spencer and Jared and keep you up-to-date with everything that\\u2019s happening in SEO, website building, and content creation.

What Niche Pursuit do you want to see started next?

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

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Listed in: Business

How Sammie Ellard-King Grew a Finance Brand to 4+ Figures/Month in Under 2 Years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter\\xa0

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/linkwhi...\\xa0

Listed in: Business

Google August Core Update Results, Reddit AI Keyword Research Tool, and 2 Fun Niche Tool Sites!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Listed in: Business

How Will I.O. Went From Teacher to 6-Figure Site Flipper in Just 3 Years

Want a great story filled with practical insights from someone who successfully jumped into online business without any prior experience?

Will I.O. joins the Niche Pursuits podcast this week to share with host Jared how he transitioned from teacher to full-time site owner.

It all started with a teacher training program he started growing prior to 2020. He started the side hustle because it was about something he knew well. But then Covid hit and he was forced to pivot and move his business online.

This was all new to him but with the help of Project 24 he managed to get started and building momentum.

Soon he was building his site and email list to sell info products and teacher training courses.

His email marketing strategies were crucial for this. Will even says that 50% of his revenue came from his email list.

And the email strategies he shares are very practical for any niche.

Eventually, he sold that site for over $100,000 and used the profits to start buying and selling more sites.

He now has a portfolio of five websites but primarily focuses on three.

His strategies are working though as he recently enjoyed a successful flip after buying an outdoors site for $5k, improving it, and selling it for $82,000.

Some of the best tips he shares is how and where he finds sites to buy.

He emphasizes the importance of backlinks and domain authority when evaluating sites for sale. He looks for low-hanging fruit opportunities, such as improving ad revenue and utilizing underutilized email lists. And he prefers niches that are less competitive and seeks out sites with steady or increasing traffic.

When it comes to content production, he emphasizes the importance of keyword research and creating tightly clustered content around successful topics. Will also mentions using AI tools like ChatGPT for content creation, but heavily edits the output to make it sound more human.

He plans to continue buying, building, and flipping websites while maintaining a measured approach to minimize risk and ensure profitability.

Overall it\'s a great success story. And it\'s interesting to hear how a relatively new site owner is finding success with. strategic approach to growing a profitable portfolio.

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

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Listed in: Business

Google August Core Update Announced! NYT Blocks OpenAI and a Funny Book Review Site

Spencer is back this week so everyone\\u2019s favorite duo is together again for the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. As always, he and Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative, bring listeners up to speed on the latest in SEO and digital marketing news.

Spencer begins by sharing that Google has announced a brand new broad core update, the biggest kind of update Google does. It kicked off on August 22nd and usually takes about 2 weeks to complete. It\\u2019s too early to say how it\\u2019s going to pan out, so keep an eye on your rankings!

The next news item they cover is the article in The Verge reporting that The New York Times has blocked OpenAI\\u2019s web crawler. But not only has this huge news media outlet rejected OpenAI crawling its site and training its models for ChatGPT, it\\u2019s also considering legal action against OpenAI for intellectual property rights violation.\\xa0

Spencer and Jared talk about the implications of this decision and what this may mean for content creators. Spencer shares a study whch shows that 9.2% of the top 1,000 websites in the world are currently blocking the GPT bot. They talk about what this means for Google and, potentially, the future of AI.

The conversation then shifts to SGE. Spencer shows his search page results, where the information now has down arrowhead symbols next to it, allowing users to access the sources for additional information. Is this good news or bad news for content creators? Hear what they have to say.

Jared and Spencer then move on to talk about their Shiney Object Shenanigans. Spencer kicks it off by talking about the latest news with his WordPress plugin Rank Logic and some new features he\\u2019s adding, which should be ready in about 2 months\\u2019 time. These include a Google Analytics 4 integration and the ability to update your content using AI.

It\\u2019s Jared\\u2019s turn, and he talks about his Faceless YouTube channel, for which he now has over 5k subscribers, unlocking some monetization features, but not all of them. He also talks about the Amazon Influencer Program and how Amazon is offering bonuses to influencers who create product comparison videos. Jared and Spencer share their thoughts on the program, a tip or two, and where they think it\\u2019s headed in the future.

In the Weird Niche Site portion of the podcast, Jared starts by talking about the site Always Judge a Book By Its Cover, which covers books that are \\u201cconfusing.\\u201d The DA30 site is monetized with display ads and affiliate links but doesn\\u2019t rank for many relevant keywords, and probably isn\\u2019t making too much money. That being said, it does have scope for growth, and it can serve as inspiration for anyone looking to set up a humorous website or something that\\u2019s off the beaten path.\\xa0

Spencer shares his weird niche site, Watermark Remover, which likely gets 5 million visitors a month, both organic and direct, and is monetized with display ads. This well-designed website removes watermarks for free, although there is pricing available, and is owned by a larger company that has several image-related tools. Spencer and Jared talk about launching a single-tool website and the strategies that can be used to do so successfully.

That wraps up another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. Tune in next week for the latest news and a large dose of inspiration!

Listed in: Business

How Jason Wilson Went From Banker to 7-Figure Site Owner & Director of Search at Epic Gardening

In this week\'s episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, host Jared is joined by Jason Wilson, Director of Search at Epic Gardening.

Jason originally worked with Spencer in banking before diving into online business with his own sites and working on Niche Pursuits.

Today he discusses a couple of his 6 to 7-figure site sales, his current role, and the entrepreneurial adventure that got him here.

It\'s awesome, and Jason shares a ton of valuable advice you don\'t want to miss.

But it hasn\'t been a linear road to success. And he believes success doesn\'t require you to leave your day job to become an entrepreneur.

He emphasizes the importance of finding a job you enjoy which also affords you the time to pursue your passions. This way, your salary can pay your bills and be used to invest in scaling your site\'s content production.

He also recommends you set manageable goals, celebrate wins, and define success based on your own values and goals.

Jason\'s approach to goal-setting and breaking down content needs into manageable daily targets has been key to his success.

And his latest venture, merging his gardening site with Epic Gardening and joining them as Director of Search, proves his process works.

Jason started All About Gardening after his big 7-figure exit. He chose gardening as a niche because it was a passion and hobby for him and his wife. He allocated a significant budget for content creation and hired experts in the gardening field to ensure high-quality content. And despite the competitive nature of the gardening niche, Jason was willing to bet his user-focused mindset would pay off.

And it worked. The site took off and quickly grew to generate several million page views per month.

The merger between Epic Gardening and All About Gardening was simply the next logical step, as their focuses were complementary - Epic Gardening on edibles and All About Gardening on ornamentals.

Soon the two sites will combine to become one of the biggest authorities in the gardening niche, continuing the strategies and guidance Jason shares in this excellent interview.

Hope you enjoy 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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Listed in: Business

Google SGE Now Summarizes Content + AHREFS Gets Roasted on Reddit + 2 Weird Niche Sites

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. This week\\u2019s show is hosted by Jared Bauman, from 201 Creative, and Jacky Chou, the digital asset investor entrepreneur behind Indexsy, Far & Away, and several other businesses.

The episode kicks off with the latest about SGE, which can now be used when browsing and also offers users the option of summarizing the article they\\u2019re reading. Jared shares a small experiment he did to see how well the summarization function works, comparing SGE with Claude and ChatGPT4, and they talk about the implications for content creators.

Will this reduce the time on page? Will it lower ad or affiliate revenue? How will it affect smaller sites vs. authority sites and article length? Is this good news for end users or site owners?

The conversation then shifts to how Tim Soulo, from Ahrefs, recently asked for feedback on Reddit. The company received a lot of backlash on the platform from unhappy users and Jared and Jacky talk about why they think that is and whether or not they believe it\\u2019s justified.

The next topic is a highly controversial tweet by Google\\u2019s John Mueller, who says \\u201cA page doesn\\u2019t have to be on a site that\\u2019s \\u201crelated to the niche\\u201d in order to be useful and helpful. You don\\u2019t need to have a niche site in order to rank in Google, in fact, sometimes that\\u2019s a good way not to rank.\\u201d

His tweet really waded into a ton of topics and, perhaps most importantly, contradicts the concept of topical authority. Jared and Jacky talk about why Google may have said this, if they think it\\u2019s true or not, and whether or not users should pay attention to it or ignore it.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Jared begins by giving another update on this faceless YouTube channel which, sadly, still doesn\\u2019t have enough subscribers to qualify for monetization. He does share some interesting statistics about the videos embedded on his website, he and Jacky talk about different aspects to improve on his channel, and he discusses his future plans on YouTube.

Jacky then talks about parasite SEO and one of his side hustles where he\\u2019s spinning up sites on Outlook India and redirecting penalized domains to them, the goal being to earn through Amazon Affiliates. If you want to know how it goes, follow him on Twitter. He also talks about a cold outreach strategy he\\u2019s using at the moment and how it\\u2019s going.

As for their Weird Niche Sites, Jared shares The Hotdog which is, unsurprisingly, all about hot dogs. This DR31 site ranks for 12.8k keywords and has over 140 pages live. Although it doesn\\u2019t appear to be monetized, it does look like a brand play.

Jacky shares the site he found, Beaming Health, which helps users find specific therapists for their kids. He talks about how the autism services market is worth $7 billion and growing, and how search volume for these terms has been increasing by 50-60% each year. He shares a few business ideas related to this niche that he sees as potentially profitable.

Thanks for tuning into another great episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. We hope you\\u2019re feeling informed and inspired. See you next week!

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

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Listed in: Business

How Michael Jackness Bought, Grew, & Sold an ECommerce Business for Multiple 7-Figures Via SEO

Wanna hear tips on how to use your SEO prowess to grow a multi-million dollar eCommerce business?

Michael Jackness joins the Niche Pursuits podcast today to tell host Jared everything he did to buy, grow, and sell an Amazon FBA and Shopify store in 3 years.\\xa0

They dive into a ton of awesome points that are crucial for success in this endeavor.\\xa0

And to illustrate the effectiveness of SEO in growing the store, Michael shares his personal experience.\\xa0

He transformed a 100% Amazon business with a minimal website presence into a successful e-commerce brand across organic search and Shopify. With the Shopify store reaching 20% of the business, significantly increasing the overall enterprise value when it came time to sell.

His strategy involved thorough keyword research, focusing on terms with decent search volume, low keyword difficulty, and strong buyer intent (he shares some awesome tips you don\\u2019t want to miss).

Of course, creating high-quality content is key to turning this plan into a reality, though.\\xa0

And luckily, he doesn\\u2019t give a vague explanation of what that means.\\xa0

He highlights the importance of hiring writers and a graphics person to produce original and engaging content for the website - including discussing how powerful Midjourney has become.

The use of AI in content creation and social media marketing is also mentioned. And he discusses how AI can assist in generating content ideas, optimizing content for search engines, and automating social media marketing tasks.\\xa0

However, he expresses concerns about increasing competition and the potential impact of AI on the e-commerce industry.\\xa0

As more businesses adopt SEO strategies, the competition for top rankings becomes fiercer. And, of course, the rise of AI may disrupt traditional SEO practices, requiring businesses to adapt and stay ahead of the curve.

Overall this is an important discussion with tips to help a business of any kind improve its SEO and enjoy the profits that come along with it.\\xa0

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

Listed in: Business

Google Changes FAQ Schema, Word Agents Down 70%, and 2 Really Weird Niche Sites

Welcome back to another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman of 201 Creative. This week, like every week, the hosts serve up the latest SEO news as well as inspiration for listeners.

They started by addressing the changes Google announced to the how-to and FAQ rich snippets. Specifically, Google will be limiting how-to rich snippets to desktop results and reducing FAQ rich snippets, and the roll-out should be completed by next week.\\xa0

They talk about what this means for niche site owners and content creators, whether FAQs generally drive significant traffic, if this is Google\\u2019s attempt to use SGE to provide that information, and whether or not creators should still include them in their content.\\xa0\\xa0

Then Spencer shares a post on LinkedIn from the COO of Word Agents, David Peterson, where he talks about how AI put them out of business, causing them to lose 70% of their revenue. He talks about how Make Lemonade suffered a similar fate, as discussed in a previous episode.\\xa0

They talk about this unprecedented shift in the way content is created and how it\\u2019s having a major impact on content agencies. Whether website owners are using AI to create their own content or taking a wait-and-see approach until the dust settles, major changes are happening and who knows what the landscape will look like in 8 or 9 months.

The last news item they tackle is that Google is in talks with the Australian government as it wants to be able to scrape publishers\\u2019 content and use it for AI training unless publishers specifically opt out. Spencer and Jared share their opinions on how they think they may affect content creators.

In the Shiny Object Syndrome portion of the podcast, Spencer begins by giving an update on his faceless YouTube channel. His channel was doing very well initially, earning about $1800 in display ads in the first month, in particular thanks to a video that went viral.\\xa0

When Google found that video to contain copyrighted material, it had to be demonetized. Although Spencer appealed the decision, he could not reverse it.\\xa0

He talks about how he recently started adding more content to the channel, and earnings over the last month were $1.66. Spencer\\u2019s not throwing in the towel, though. He\\u2019s going to keep working on the channel though and is even starting a second faceless channel on YouTube.

During Jared\\u2019s turn, he talks about his faceless YouTube channel that he started and completely forgot about. He shares the strategy he used when he first created the channel. It currently has 23 videos and hasn\\u2019t been touched in almost a year, yet it\\u2019s got 400+ subscribers and 219k video views. He\\u2019s very close to fulfilling the monetization requirements and he shares his strategy to move forward with this channel.\\xa0

Jared and Spencer then talk about their weird niche sites, and Jared goes first with Fail Army. This entertaining website shares people\\u2019s \\u201cfails,\\u201d like falling down and running into things. This DR47 website only ranks for 500 keywords and is more like a landing page. The action is over on their YouTube account, which has +16 million subscribers, and Jared talks about the potential they have to grow their website and drive traffic.

When it\\u2019s Spencer\\u2019s turn, he shares his very weird niche site: Cyberspace and Time. He struggles to explain what this retro-looking website is all about, mainly because the creator also has trouble explaining what it is. What\\u2019s really interesting are the stats: 500k visitors per month just a few months ago and 78k clicks from desktop users. All in all, the website is very weird!

And that brings us to the end of another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with a lot of food for thought and no shortage of ideas for listeners!

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

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Listed in: Business

Doug Cunnington Shares an Exclusive Insider Look Into The Amazon Associates Program

Want to hear some exclusive insights into the inner workings of the Amazon Associates program?

Doug Cunnington joins the Niche Pursuits podcast to share with host Jared what he learned after interviewing an Amazon insider!

This is never-before shared access into the biggest affiliate program around.

Because despite being easy to join and get started, there\'s lots of uncertainty and many pitfalls to avoid. So, it\'s a real treat to have Doug back on the podcast to keep us informed!

The convo covers a wide range of topics, including:

• Tips for maximizing conversions
• CTA best practices
• Common challenges faced by Associates
• Earning more by promoting Amazon to different countries
• And more...

One key aspect discussed was the need to target the right traffic and create high-quality content to drive conversions.

Doug also mentioned the importance of diversifying traffic and revenue sources to mitigate risks. He shares tips for improving visibility and providing context to enhance conversions, such as using the "mover and shaker" page on Amazon to promote popular products.

The conversation also covers the topic of conversion rates and the types of call-to-action that can be used to drive traffic to Amazon.

Plus the restrictions on linking to Amazon in emails and the rules around using images from Amazon on websites.

Doug also Amazon\'s desire to expand into other countries and how this brings with it better commission rates for Associates in these markets.

Overall, this is an optimistic look into the future of affiliate marketing. You not only get a comprehensive overview of the Amazon Associates program and a forecast of the future. But also lots of tips regarding various aspects such as labeling requirements, commission rates, traffic targeting, content creation, and the challenges faced by affiliates.

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

Listed in: Business

Google Adds Live Links in AI Search (SGE)! + Side Hustle Updates and 2 Weird Niche Sites

It\\u2019s Friday, so it\\u2019s time for another episode of Niche Pursuits News, with your hosts Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman. This week, as always, they bring us the latest in SEO and digital marketing news.

They kick things off with a big news item: Google has announced that it\\u2019s testing live links in the Search Generative Experience. The good news is that it looks like an expanded featured snippet that may drive more traffic to our individual websites. Spencer shares an example of what it looks like currently and he and Jared talk about how Google may be testing different formats to see what users prefer.

They also talk about Google\\u2019s announcement of \\u201cnew\\u201d things you can do with generative AI in search, the fact that AI-powered overviews are faster, and Google\\u2019s focus on article publish dates.

Spencer also shares a look at his SGE and he and Jared talk about whether or not the results they get are relevant and what the future might look like for SGE.\\xa0

The next portion of the podcast is Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer begins by talking about his Amazon Influencer side hustle, which earned around $1800 over the last month. He talks about how he obtained approval into the program for a Facebook page he\\u2019s been building (and spoke about on a recent episode) and handed over the entire project to his oldest son.

Jared then shares an update on his Amazon Influencer program, which is up to 329 videos and brought in $2870 in July. He only started in May, so growth is quite impressive, and he has plans to continue to add more videos and take advantage of this massive opportunity.

The next topic is the Weird Niche Site they\\u2019ve both discovered. Jared goes first and talks about Marcas de Whiskey (Whiskey Brands, in Spanish), a whiskey review site that was started last year. It\\u2019s a DR 9 and ranks for over 50k keywords.\\xa0

Although it started out in Spanish, it switched over to English and has seen its traffic triple over time, publishing over 1200 articles in a year. Jared talks about how well the author satisfies search intent and how this may be the main driver of traffic.

Spencer nails it this week by finding a site that\\u2019s both weird and very successful: Wheel of Names. This site, a DR 71, gets between 11 and 5 million visitors each month, according to Ahrefs and Similarweb, and traffic is growing. It\\u2019s ranking for all kinds of \\u201cwheel\\u201d related queries and is monetized with Google Adsense ads.\\xa0

All in all, another great episode from Jared and Spencer with lots of interesting news, ideas, and advice. Tune in next week for more!

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

Listed in: Business

How Kristin Hanes Grew Her Blog to $30k Per Month While Living in a Broken-Down Sailboat

We got a true dose of inspiration for you today.

Founder of The Wayward Home, Kristin Hanes joins the Niche Pursuits podcast this week to share with host Jared her amazing story:

How she started her blog with no prior knowledge of website building and living in a broken-down sailboat to now running a successful online business.

It all began after being laid off from her job as a radio news reporter. She decided to start a blog and share interview-based articles about nomads on social media platforms like Facebook and Pinterest.

With connections at SF Gate, some of her early articles got republished on the site bringing her some quality traffic and links.

After six months, Kristin joined Mediavine and started earning income from ads on her site.

But it wasn\'t until early 2019 that she decided to prioritize SEO, taking courses to help her improve her website\'s rankings.

Implementing SEO strategies and updating old posts, Kristin saw a significant increase in traffic, reaching 120,000 page views per month by May 2019. She continued to publish new content while updating old articles, and her website\'s traffic grew to 300,000 monthly page views by the summer of 2019.

Kristin attributes her success to her focus on SEO, improved writing skills, and targeting low-competition keywords in her niche. Currently, The Wayward Home generally earns between $25,000 to 30,000 per month and has an average of 400,000 monthly page views.

Initially, Kristin wrote all the articles herself, focusing on pushing out as much content as possible. However, as her blog grew, she hired writers to help with content creation. Now, The Wayward Home has around 430 articles, with a team of writers specializing in different areas such as RVing, tiny homes, and van life. To assist with formatting and uploading articles, Kristin also has a virtual assistant.

One key aspect of Kristin\'s strategy is prioritizing relevant and experience-based content over high search volume keywords. This approach has helped her establish credibility and attract a loyal audience. Additionally, being quoted in major media publications has provided valuable backlinks to her blog. Kristin is also experimenting with AI-generated content on a new niche site, exploring innovative ways to expand her online presence.

Kristin\'s passion for helping others live a nomadic lifestyle is evident through her blog and social media channels. She offers resources and support to those interested in this lifestyle.

Overall, Kristin\'s journey from starting a blog with no prior knowledge to building a successful online business is a testament to her dedication, strategic approach, and passion for helping others embrace a nomadic lifestyle.

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

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Listed in: Business

Google CEO on the Future of SGE, Twitter's Rebrand & Free Tool Niche Sites

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! This week Spencer sits down with Josh Blackburn, a growth marketer at Link Whisper with an extensive background in SEO to talk about the latest news for affiliate marketers, website owners, SEOs, and content creators.

They kick off the show by talking about how Google recently released its earnings for Q2 and the CEO, Sundar Pichai, said that the Search Generative Experience is going to gradually get better, faster, and more accurate and that user feedback has been extremely positive so far.

Spencer and Josh put those comments into context and were skeptical of his statements, but one thing is abundantly clear: SGE is here to stay. Spencer does a few searches using SGE and he and Josh talk about the results.

The next topic is Twitter and Elon Musk\\u2019s rebranding of the company as X. Musk has a broader vision for Twitter as a massive brand where, in the future, users would be able to send payments, message others, shop, etc. Spencer and Josh talk about the future trillionaire\\u2019s plans and whether or not they think he\\u2019ll be able to pull it off.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer starts by talking about his new software, Rank Logic. He shares that it has done better than he expected since its launch and talks about how it works. He also mentions two new features that were recently added which allow users to see how content is performing based on their category or tags.

Josh then talks about a niche site he\\u2019s been working on. It had been growing until it got hit with an algorithm update and lost most of its traffic. Josh is currently experimenting with that site by uploading AI content, sometimes up to 200 articles per day. He reveals that his traffic has increased not from the new content but, rather, from the old content. He and Spencer talk about why this may be, how he does it, and what his plans are for the site.

Then it\\u2019s time to talk Weird Niche Sites. Spencer\\u2019s site is not that weird, but it is very successful: PDF2go. The site ranks really well for PDF-converting keywords and has lots of display ads. It\'s probably getting 10 million visitors per month and may be making 6 or 7 figures, also per month. Spencer talks about how the website probably started out with a one, simple free tool and, over the years, grew into a very lucrative business.

Josh shares his site for the week: PercentageCalculator. This is just a simple, free, 3-page website that gets between 220k visits per month, according to Ahrefs, and 2.4 million, according to SimilarWeb. Along the same lines as Spencer\\u2019s example, they talk about the possibility of replicating these sites\\u2019 success.

And that brings us to the end of another great episode of Niche Pursuits News. Thanks for listening, and don\'t forget to join us next week!

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

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Listed in: Business

HARO Link Building Masterclass: How Chris Panteli Builds 100 High Quality Links a Month

Ready for a HARO (Help a Reporter Out) masterclass?

HARO is a platform that connects journalists with \'experts\' to include their insights into articles. This is great for link building but can lead to a lot of questions on how to do it right.

Thankfully, Chris Panteli joins the Niche Pursuits podcast this week to shed light on:

• How and when you should respond to HARO queries,
• What you should say,
• How to vet reporters,
• How to follow-up,
• And a whole lot more...

All to save you time, increase your success rate and land more links.

Chris runs a purely white-hat, digital PR link building agency that averages 100 links per month.

And he has a ton of awesome insights to share.

He starts off by explaining some context. How valuable HARO links are for building credibility, increasing domain authority, and improving search rankings.

And how to succeed with HARO, it\'s important to position yourself as an expert in your niche and have a well-optimized LinkedIn profile and website homepage.

Success rates vary depending on the niche and competition, but having expertise and credentials increases the chances of winning pitches.

He suggests starting by targeting websites your competitors have featured on their homepages and then expanding to high DR (domain rating) and high-traffic publications.

Chris also believes vetting HARO queries is crucial to save time and increase success rates. The key is to look for relevant queries from reputable domains and avoid low-quality websites. Engage with journalists and editors to ensure your link is included in the final article. And don\'t be afraid to follow up to convert unlinked mentions into links.

Timing is also important in HARO link building.

And while subject lines are not a major factor, it\'s important to follow any specific instructions from the journalist.

He even gives an awesome tip on how to use AI to assist with research and generating pitches in a way that\'ll work like a charm.

It\'s really a great and valuable discussion you don\'t want to miss.

And Chris also offers a free vetting resource (in the shownotes below) and a 20% discount for Niche Pursuits listeners on link building services and a HARO masterclass course with the code NichePursuits20.

Hope you enjoy!

Links & Resources

• Home - Linkifi
• freebie - Linkifi
• And as always, this podcast episode is hosted by Jared Bauman, co-owner of 201 Creative SEO Agency

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

Listed in: Business

Ezoic Cuts Affiliate Program and Lays Off 28% of Staff + Serp Volatility and Weird Niche Sites

This week\\u2019s episode of Niche Pursuits News is hosted by Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative, and Shawn Hill, a previous podcast guest and the brains behind The Grilling Dad.

The first topic they dive into is Ezoic\\u2019s announcement of the end of its affiliate program and its plan to lay off workers. They talk about the blow to affiliates but also mention how it created an interesting juxtaposition in providing a financial incentive for referring people.\\xa0

They talk about the statement from Tyler Bishop, the company\\u2019s CMO, about the discontinuation of the program, in which he shares some interesting data, as well as the letter from CEO Dwayne Lafleur about the layoffs. They also discuss whether there needs to be an entry-level ad provider for website owners.

Jared and Shawn then move on to a different topic: the Claud 2 launch, by Anthropic. Claud is an AI language model which is gaining attention for having more human-like responses. Claud also allows users to upload files and ask questions about different documents, which is a unique feature.\\xa0

Shawn shares his thoughts on it after using it a little bit and comparing it with ChatGPT, and Jared has some ideas about how to leverage Claud for SEO. Listen in to hear what they have to say!

Moving on, Jared and Shawn touch on the recent volatility in the SERPs, suggesting that a Google update is underway. While the exact cause of the update remains unclear, there is evidence that changes are happening in the search engine landscape.

The next topic on the agenda is Wix\\u2019s launch of its AI website generator. The tool allows users to create complete websites with just the press of a button. Jared and Shawn discuss the implications of this new tool and its target market, noting that it will help certain types of businesses establish a web presence.\\xa0

In the Shiny Object Syndrome portion of the podcast, Jared goes first with an update on his progress with the Amazon Influencer Program. He continues to rake it in and recently surpassed the 300-video mark. He also talks about taking a brief break from his Weekend Growth newsletter.

Shawn talks about helping a friend build his first niche site and documenting the process publicly, and he also has a positive report on The Grilling Dad, which continues to grow and do well despite spending less time on it.

As for the weird niche sites, Jared kicks things off with HEIC to JPG, which is a great tool for iPhone users, as photos are sometimes saved as HEIC files. They talk about the site\'s clean design and ease of use. It has a DR of 62 and only ranks for 5200 keywords, but it has a ton of number-one rankings and ranks for keywords with very high search volumes. They also talk about the idea of creating a tool that adds to your business or your website.

Shawn then shares his weird niche site: Cooler Spy. He highlights how the site is dedicated to just one product, how it has lots of addictive YouTube videos, and has just 24 pages. He estimates traffic of around 10k and earnings of up to $1k per month, and although it\\u2019s a small site, its quality is off the charts.\\xa0

And that concludes another thought-provoking and inspiring episode of the podcast, where you can learn about the latest in SEO and niche site news and what it means for you!

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

Listed in: Business

How Noah Bragg Built a SaaS in Public And Sold It for $300k After Only 2.5 Years

Have you ever considered building a project in public?

In this week\'s episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Noah Bragg shares his journey of launching, growing, and eventually selling Potion. It\'s a website builder built on top of Notion that lets users create optimized sites in minutes.

Noah started by using the "build in public" approach, sharing his progress and journey on Twitter. And with the support of an open-source community, his own software development experience, and a strategic marketing strategy grew the success story he shares today.

Here\'s a quick rundown of Potion (although you\'ll want to jump down the page to watch the full interview):

Noah initially priced the product at just $6 per site and gained his first 75 customers through Twitter.

Of course, he wanted to further expand his customer base and continue building awareness. So, he strategically launched on Product Hunt once he already had a bit of a community to help him promote and upvote it.

As Potion continued to grow, Noah focused on compounding growth and reducing churn.

There were lots of ups and downs throughout this process though and Noah does a great job of highlighting what seemed to work best for him.

In the end, he managed to reach $6k MRR (monthly recurring revenue) and sell it for $300k after just 2 and a half years of work.

Noah is now working on a new project in the crypto space called TrustScore which aims to provide data and content to help users evaluate and trust different crypto projects. He plans to share his progress on Twitter and YouTube, and may even continue the build-in-public approach that worked so well for him with Potion.

Noah\'s story is a great example of strategic planning and execution. And the way he thinks about things and solves problems will certainly help get the gears moving for your own projects.

Hope you enjoy!

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

Listed in: Business

Did Google "Steal" AI Content? Thoughts on the SGE, a Viral FB Post & 2 Weird Niche Sites

It\\u2019s been another busy week in SEO news, and Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative, explain it all here!

Don\\u2019t miss the latest edition of the best news podcast for SEOs, people in the digital marketing and niche site development space, and everyone in between.

First, they talk about how Google was recently hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming that it stole data from millions of users to train its AI tools and seeking compensation. Jared points out that we\\u2019ll have to wait to see how this all plays out and how we address issues like copyright infringement and content rights and ownership.\\xa0

They predict that, even if the suit moves forward, it won\\u2019t stop AI or make much of a difference in the long run. That being said, lots of people are suing AI tools and there could be quite the legal battle ahead.

Jared and Spencer then move on to talk about how Google has sent out emails notifying website owners of Core Web Vitals and INP issues on their sites, giving them until March 2024 to fix the issues.

Then Spencer talks about how he was invited to use Google\\u2019s new Search Generative Experience. By the end of the year, around 30% of all users will participate in a gradual rollout, and the remainder will be provided with access over time. Then Spencer and Jared do a few search queries live and talk about what it looks like, how it seems to work, and what they think of it.

Spencer goes on to share a few podcast reviews before shifting to the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast.\\xa0

He starts by discussing a niche website he created with his kids, who eventually lost interest. However, he\\u2019s been working on it for the last 6 months and has been able to build up a Facebook page to +30k followers. His strategy is to post short articles on the website, share them on his Facebook page, and drive traffic back to the website, which is monetized with ads.

Although he hasn\\u2019t seen much success so far, he did have an article go viral, registering 48k users in about a week. Spencer\\u2019s still wondering what to do with this project and he offers listeners the chance to reach out and partner with him to take it to the next level.

Jared talks about his side hustles, focusing on his experience with the Amazon Influencer Program. He talks about the impact of Prime Day on his earnings and clicks, and how he\\u2019s increased his earnings to more than $2k in the last 30 days. He also gives some ideas of unique places to go to get content for your videos.

Jared also talks about the YouTube channel he\\u2019s developing with his wife and the progress they\\u2019re making, particularly with regard to copyright issues. He briefly mentions a WordPress plugin he\\u2019s considering developing. Stay tuned to hear more about it!

In the Weird Niche portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about a single-page website with approximately 3.3 million visitors a month, Sleep Calculator. The simple site helps you figure out when to go to bed and explains the various sleep cycles and it\\u2019s monetized with display ads. He and Jared talk about sleep as a niche and the potential it has as a niche.

Jared shares his weird niche site, Dash Lights, which focuses on dashboard warning lights and what they mean. The design is quite generic, it has a DR of just 8, and it\\u2019s monetized with ads, but it\\u2019s ranking for 27k keywords, 2000 of which are number 1 rankings, and probably gets over 100k visitors per month. Jared\\u2019s theory about the success of this website is the great way it has established topical authority, and he thinks it could be earning up to $5k per month.

And that concludes another informative edition of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. We\'ll see you next week!

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

Listed in: Business

How Thomas Smith Makes $8k Per Month Via Amazon Influencer Program & Repurposing Reviews For YouTube

Want to learn how to create a profitable media business via the Amazon Influencer program?

Then don\'t miss the episode below!

Thomas Smith joins the Niche Pursuits podcast today to share how he\'s making good money with the Amazon Influencer Program.

He doesn\'t stop there, though, as he also profits by repurposing those videos for YouTube and transcribing them into a blog!

He\'s a long-time Youtuber, an Amazon Influencer Program member, and an expert in creating effective content.

And luckily for us, there\'s no shortage of tips he\'s willing to share. Here are just a few examples:

He discusses how the information conveyed in the videos far outweighs the importance of production values.

And he suggests finding low-competition or long-tail products to review, as they have a higher chance of standing out and driving sales (with examples that may surprise you).

To create better shoppable videos, Thomas advises focusing on using the product in its context of use and sharing genuine thoughts and opinions. Demonstrating how the product is used in real-life situations helps contextualize it for viewers and converts better.

Thomas also mentions how he uses Jungle Scout as a helpful resource for product research. And he emphasizes the value of authenticity and relatability in videos, as viewers prefer real people\'s opinions over highly produced content.

He also mentions that the Amazon Influencer program offers various opportunities beyond shoppable videos, including live streaming, shoppable photos, and brand deals.

And to maximize reach and monetization potential, Thomas repurposes influencer content for other platforms like YouTube and blogs.

Overall, Thomas Smith provides really valuable insights and resources for creating successful influencer content. And his tips on authenticity, low-cost production, and providing useful information will help aspiring influencers stand out in the competitive market.

Check out the full interview below!

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

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Listed in: Business

A New Search Bill in Canada, Twitter's SEO Fail, Threads, AI & a Pizza Site for Weirdoughs

Are you ready to tune into another exciting episode of Niche Pursuits News with Spencer and Jared Bauman?

This episode was actually recorded live on YouTube, so if you missed it, you can check out the replay below. In this episode, Spencer and Jared talk about a new bill in Canada, Twitter\\u2019s SEO fail, the new Threads platform, and how AI has run a known content agency out of business. They also share updates on their side hustles and discuss some weird niche sites.

Let\\u2019s jump in!\\xa0

The first topic they discuss is a new bill in Canada that was passed where digital properties and media outlets are able to charge Google to display their news. In response, Google has said that it will remove their news links from its search results and will stop sending traffic to their websites. They talk about the possible repercussions and how Canada might be the first country to take this step, but it might not be the last one.

Spencer and Jared then move on to discuss Twitter\\u2019s massive SEO fail when Elon Musk tried to reduce the number of bots crawling it and accidentally limited Google\\u2019s access. This led to a massive drop in Twitter\\u2019s search visibility in Google, which Twitter then tried to reverse.

The next news item they discuss is Mark Zuckerberg\\u2019s launch of a Twitter rival called Threads. With 30 million people signing up after its launch, Spencer and Jared talk about the use of a .net domain and a mobile model for the new platform and their plans to use it.

Then they talk about niche-specific news, sharing how Niche Website Builders, which rebranded as Make Lemonade, has essentially filed for bankruptcy. The agency, which specialized in content creation for niche website owners, was overtaken by AI and run out of business. The key takeaway for Jared and Spencer is that content agencies must step up their game by offering unique strategies and top-notch content to stay ahead of the curve.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Jared talks about his YouTube project with his wife, copyright issues, and demonetization as that project moves forward. He also talks about the remarkable success story of the Weekend Growth newsletter, sponsorship opportunities, and his Amazon Influencer side hustle progress.

When it\\u2019s Spencer\\u2019s turn, he talks about his RankLogic launch and his recent Facebook Live on using AI content and tracking its performance.

In the last section of the podcast, Jared shares his weird niche site: Weird and Wild Pizza for Weirdoughs, which caters to people who like interesting pizzas. The pizza recipe site has a low DR but ranks for 4700 different keywords and a ton of images and has a solid social media presence.

Spencer shares the site he found, Know Your Meme, which is a huge database of all memes ever created on the internet. It has a DR of 85, ranks for 3.9 million keywords, and gets over 50 million page views per month. Jared chimes in with some very interesting details about the site as well and both he and Spencer talk about using a similar strategy to create a niche website.

Another episode filled with a wealth of advice and inspiration. Don\\u2019t miss this week\\u2019s Niche Pursuits News!

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

Listed in: Business

How Matt Donley Makes $4k Per Month in Passive Income Via The Amazon Influencer Program

Want the full rundown on the Amazon Influencer Program?

Matt Donley joins the Niche Pursuits podcast this week to deep dive into this exciting opportunity.

The Amazon Influencer Program is still relatively new and evolving, but as you\'ll soon learn, it provides great opportunities for content creators to make significant passive income.

To apply for the program, you just need to link a social media account like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram with a following of around 1,000 or more.

Then once approved, you must upload three videos for manual review to be eligible for onsite placement.

Once these are approved you\'re off the races!

Remember, the videos you make are placed on the product pages. Meaning the people watching them are highly qualified and almost ready to buy.

The key to success according to Matt lies in creating videos that provide valuable information and help customers make purchasing decisions. And so, videos should focus on answering customer questions and showcasing the product in a conversational and authentic tone.

And since people on the Amazon pages can be swayed by real people showing off the actual product, the quality of the videos don\'t even need to be high production, and can be shot using your phone.

Earnings are based on commission percentages for each product category. And so, if your goal is to reach $100 per day, you\'ll want to start reviewing high-quality and profitable products from the start.

This is why product selection is crucial, not only in terms of price, but also focusing on products that have a demand for video reviews and may require more explanation or demonstration.

Starting with products you already own is a good way to get started and gain instant validation.

And Matt also forecasts, and shares important advice on what sorts of content he believes Amazon may crack down in the future.

Currently, the program is only available on the US Amazon site, but there are plans to expand to other countries in the future.

For those interested in learning more about the Amazon Influencer Program, Matt has created a great Amazon Influencer course to help you get started and set up for success.

But don\'t miss the full episode below to learn the full scoop!

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

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Listed in: Business

Google's Answer to "Reddit" Queries? Amazon Influencer Updates and a Weird Niche Site About Goats

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast with Spencer and co-host Jared Bauman, of 201 Creative.

This week they talk about the latest problems for Google, their side hustles, and some very strange niche sites. You won\\u2019t want to miss this one!

They kick off this episode by talking about how Google employees recently expressed their dissatisfaction with search results after the Reddit blackout.

In response, Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the issue and introduced a new feature called "perspectives" to address it, a move that shows that Google is trying to balance AI-generated content with human perspectives.\\xa0

Jared and Spencer discussed how bloggers who provide unique human perspectives and hands-on experiences can benefit from this change, highlighting the importance of honesty, expertise, and authenticity in search results.

Spencer also shared his thoughts about Google\\u2019s plans with its search generative experience, as it\'s clear that people want well-researched human reviews in the search results. Also, the fact that the Reddit debacle has got Google\\u2019s attention is great news for content creators and bloggers.

Jared and Spencer then talked about more bad news for Google.\\xa0

Google is getting in hot water on YouTube and across the web as they haven\\u2019t been complying with the agreed characteristics of the ads they display on websites. This is relevant for content creators and niche site owners as they often have ads displayed through Ezoic, Mediavine, or AdThrive.\\xa0

Tons of companies, large and small, have been paying for video ads and Google has been charging them but hasn\\u2019t been complying with the agreed characteristics of the ads and hasn\'t been transparent or accurate in how the videos are being displayed.

The big question that Spencer and Jared ask is how this affects us as website owners and content creators. Listen in to hear more about their thoughts on this topic.

Then Spencer shared some reviews of the podcast on Apple Podcasts Reviews and asks people to leave a review and he will read your name and website on their next podcast episode.

In the Shiny Object Syndrome portion of the podcast, Spencer begins by talking about his new WordPress plugin, Rank Logic, which is now available. He talks about the challenges behind creating a plugin and preparing for the launch. Rank Logic offers users a better way to track their SEO performance.

Jared talked about his side hustle using the Amazon Influencer Program, of which he has officially been a member for 30 days. He was happy to report that he broke the $1000 mark in his first month, a trend that will likely continue even if he doesn\\u2019t keep uploading videos. He also talks about his daily earnings and the possibilities of growing his income even further.

In the Weird Niche Site portion, Jared goes first and talks about Hire Goats, a site that lets you rent goats and have them come and manicure your property.

The site was created in 2017 and has a DR of 26 although it\\u2019s only ranking for 260 keywords. The 7-page site does, however, rank number one for all keywords related to renting goats, and although it\\u2019s a very glitchy experience and it\\u2019s a directory website, it\\u2019s very possible that they\\u2019re earning some money from it.

When the hosts click around, they see that the goat landscaping website links to HireSheep.com. It\\u2019s a whole world of possibilities!

Then Spencer talks about his weird niche site, Random Word Generator which, as the name suggests, lets you generate random words, numbers, and phrases with certain characteristics. It\\u2019s monetized with ads and gets 1.3 million organic visitors per month from Google and potentially 3 of 4 million visitors per month in total.\\xa0

It has a DR of 72 and has really capitalized on all kinds of random generators, from dinner ideas to Bible verses, and could be earning at least $50k per month. As Jared and Spencer dig a little deeper, it looks like the creator has a whole network of successful sites.

This conversation and Spencer and Jared\\u2019s ideas are sure to get the creative juices flowing, so don\\u2019t miss this episode!

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

Listed in: Business

How Garrett Yamasaki Makes $4M Per Year After Adding Amazon FBA To His Niche Site

Interested in 10x\'ing your niche site profits?

Garrett Yamasaki joins the podcast today to share how he started a dog site in 2018 and grew it into a massive success thanks to his strategic use of Amazon FBA.

In the first three months, he wrote close to 100 articles targeting low-competition keywords before and after work.

He saw exponential traffic growth around months four through six and knew it could be a viable business long-term. So he started hiring others to scale the business and started putting money into it. By 2019, he had 10 writers, one editor, and one virtual assistant.

(He also lays out the simple yet effective workflow he uses to this day that any site operator should take note of.)

In 2020, the Amazon affiliate side was growing rapidly, and by 2021, they were earning around $10,000 per month. That\'s when Garrett realized they could create their own product and make more money.

He chose to go the private label route for a faster time to market.

He identified manufacturers and branded the products for their market. And chose middle-priced products on Amazon to avoid competition from affiliates and generate external traffic to sell their products.

To make it all work, he went with Amazon FBA for logistics, fulfillment, and storage and hired a VA to handle customer service.

Garrett explains how Amazon FBA offers you 30-40% profit margins, compared to the 2-4% commissions as an affiliate. Plus, with Amazon\'s Brand Referral Bonus, you get 10% back for external traffic to their site, making it more profitable than going with a Shopify store.

He also shares what the most effective type of Amazon ads are for generating sales and bestseller status.

Plus, he discusses how adding FBA to his business has helped build a brand and traffic source outside of SEO. A much more profitable alternative to say, focusing on social media for brand building.

It hasn\'t always been easy though, and expanding this business requires some experience.

He discusses how going from one to now eight products have benefited from hiring a mentor and outsourcing to agencies to help with PPC and listings.

Inventory management has also been difficult due to unpredictable sales curves. But he mentions that ordering a lot can help prevent stockouts.

As such, Garrett keeps inventory in his garage in case of emergencies, as selling out affects his bestseller rating on Amazon.

Overall what started out as a dog site has become a full-blown business. And although he\'s already making great money, he\'s still in growth mode. He reinvests much of the 20% profit margin he could be taking home back into the eCommerce side of things.

And on top of all of this, his website generates at least $500,000 a year in passive income from ad revenue.

This is a really great success story. Garrett shares tons of valuable tips, strategies, and things to consider adding to your own business to make way more money!

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

Listed in: Business

NP News: Google's AI Content Policy, Amazon Influencer Earnings, and 2 Very Weird Niche Sites

Get ready for an exciting new episode of our podcast, where Spencer and co-host Jared Bauman of 201 Creative dive deep into the fascinating world of AI, SEO, and website building! \\xa0

First up on their agenda is Google\'s policy on AI-generated content and EEAT. At the moment, Google does not distinguish between AI and human-generated content and is not requiring creators to label their content. The hosts talk about why this may be and about how Google has also shifted its position on this topic and will probably continue to do so.

They also discuss EEAT and AI, as artificial intelligence-generated content can\\u2019t claim any kind of experience. As this is a topic that is constantly evolving, they agree to discuss it as changes arise.

The next topic Jared and Spencer talk about is OpenAI\\u2019s potential plans to open an AppStore for ChatGPT. This could include customized AI chatbots, which several companies are already selling.

The hosts then briefly talk about how the INP report has now been added to Google Search Console and is now a part of the Core Web Vitals report.

GA4 comes up when Jared asks Spencer about his thoughts on the new analytics, and the hosts talk about their experience using it.

In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the episode, Spencer talks about his new side project, the WordPress plugin Rank Logic, which helps users track their SEO performance. It\\u2019s a real game-changer that enables content creators to understand what\\u2019s working and what\\u2019s not and tracks changes they make as well as content and author performance. He\\u2019s even considering incorporating GA4 into the app to make it the data user-friendly. The launch is imminent, so stay tuned!

Jared talks about his new side hustle using the Amazon Influencer Program, reporting that in his first month, he will have made around $1000 from 229 videos. He talks about how daily earnings from the program fluctuate a lot and how inspiring it is to be able to build such a lucrative income stream in just one month.\\xa0\\xa0

As for Weird Niche Sites, Jared goes first and talks about the site People of Walmart, which features user-generated photos of the people that shop at Walmart. He talks about how a site like this could be created for any number of stores, although he and Spencer point out how normally it\\u2019s very risky to use the name of a company as part of your domain name.

Spencer shares his site, which is Psychic High School, a humorous site. It\\u2019s updated actively but is a low-traffic site that\\u2019s ranking for very few keywords. The hosts talked about why the site might have been created and they have a good laugh about the content.

You won\\u2019t want to miss this episode, where the hosts share insight, opinions, and a few surprises along the way!

Listed in: Business

How Alan Silvestri Uses Link Building to 2x the Organic Traffic To Content Websites

Want the step-by-step strategy a link-building expert uses to exponentially grow the traffic of sites?

Alan Silvestri of Growth Gorilla joins the Niche Pursuits podcast to share some of his awesome growth tips.

He got into SEO and affiliate marketing in 2013 after searching for ways to make money online. He started with affiliate websites and was eventually hired to help the same course creator Alan followed to learn SEO...

From there, he found his passion for link-building and started Growth Gorilla. He now works with 10-15 clients in the B2B, SaaS space and has ranking content down to a science.

In his interview, he breaks down his holistic approach.

Alan describes the 3 main reasons pages may end up in the "content graveyard" (bottom of page 1, page 2, etc.):

• Not having backlinks
• Targeting the wrong keywords
• Not matching search intent or content type with the top 10 ranking results.

And he stresses that content quality is important and should be optimized before building backlinks.

To fix all these issues, he describes his content promotion roadmap. It\'s a quarterly process that helps prioritize target pages to build links to over the next 3 months.

First, there\'s the backlink analysis of competitors. He recommends analyzing two competitors, one realistically beatable and the other a North Star competitor that can represent an authority in the niche.

This backlink data will help show the difference in percentages of backlinks pointing to the homepage versus internal pages. If competitors are being more proactive with content promotion, they\'ll likely have more links to their internal pages. But if a website is not ranking, it could also be the site has a lower domain rating (DR), which can be improved by building more backlinks to the homepage.

From this data, he describes how you can put together a link analysis report. He uses a three-step process for this, including identifying the link gap, identifying the type of backlinks, and identifying the topical relevance of those backlinks.

One tip is to prioritize both page relevancy and domain relevancy for backlinks, but if you can\'t get both, prioritize page-level relevancy.

Plus, he shares that while no follow links may not have a direct impact on rankings, they can bring in a trust signal that is important for a website to have. Building nofollow links can help dilute the backlink profile and build trust for the site. Good places to get nofollow links include directories, social media links, forums, and Q&A sites like Quora.

He also shares how to spot and avoid bad links from link farms by looking at content quality, links that the content has, and the main business model of the site.

And he also has some great tips on anchor text which can be classified into four main buckets: exact match, partial match, URL, and generic. To improve anchor text, export the backlinks of the top 10 ranking pages for target keywords and classify them into the four buckets to determine the ideal distribution.

Throughout the episode, Alan has a lot of great tips and tactics to share and isn\'t afraid to get into the nitty-gritty details.

So be sure to check out the full episode below!

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

And as always, this podcast episode is hosted by Jared Bauman, co-owner of\\xa0201 Creative SEO Agency - https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Listed in: Business

YouTube Reduces Monetization Requirements, Time Removes Paywall, and 2 Weird Niche Sites

Interested in setting up a YouTube channel?

Spencer and co-host Jared Bauman of 201 Creative explore some exciting updates for content creators today on Niche Pursuits News.

First up is a new announcement from YouTube that they\'re lowering the threshold for channel monetization!

While content creators used to need 1000 subscribers and 4000 long-form watch hours, now you need just 500 subscribers and 3000 long-form watch hours in the last 12 months to start earning money on the platform.

Jared and Spencer talk about why they think YouTube changed the rules, and they also discuss other ways to monetize using the platform, such as channel memberships.

Then they move on to talk about how Time magazine announced its plans to remove its digital paywall and give everyone their content for free. Their plan is to monetize with display ads, using the same model many bloggers and content creators are using.\\xa0

The hosts move on to discuss data in a SEMRush report that revealed interesting statistics about search engine users, like the percentage who change their keywords before clicking and how very few searches led to clicks on the first result in the SERPs in 2022. It\\u2019s clear that user patterns of search are changing. What does this mean for us?

Jared and Spencer also discuss a recent article in Search Engine Journal about Google making its feedback form more robust. According to Twitter, this move will set the stage for more negative SEO, and the hosts share their thoughts on the implications. Will the positives outweigh the negatives with this new move from Google?

In the Shiney Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about recent developments with his faceless YouTube channel.\\xa0

Although the channel was making $80 to $90 a day, a copyright claim has almost eliminated all of his earnings. His appeal was ultimately denied, and he talks about his plans for moving forward, as well as other ideas for faceless YouTube channels.

Jared finally reveals more details about his YouTube project, which will revolve around read-alouds for social-emotional learning by his wife, a seasoned school counselor. She\'ll be working on this project all summer and Jared will report back on their progress.

In the last section of the podcast, Spencer talks about a weird niche site he found years ago based on a scene from Star Wars where Darth Vadar screams. The site was getting around 30k visitors per month back in 2015.\\xa0

Although the original website no longer exists, there\'s a copycat site now, but it only gets a few thousand visitors per month.

Jared talks about the site he found called\\xa0Awkward Family Photos, created with user-generated content. He talks about how the site is monetized using ads and how it\\u2019s ranking for 20k keywords even though it\'s just a photo site.\\xa0

As it turns out, Spencer and his family play the Awkward Family Photo board game all the time. This example certainly makes you think about creative monetization opportunities you might not have thought about before!

Once again, Niche Pursuits News is coming at you with a thought-provoking episode on YouTube, legacy publisher strategies, changes in Google, unique side hustle ideas, and creative monetization techniques.

Don\'t miss out! Tune in and listen now!

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

Listed in: Business

How Shaun Els Builds an SEO Content Strategy That Drives Conversions

How do you balance your focus between driving traffic and conversions?

If you ever struggle to find a happy medium for your SEO and CRO efforts, you\'ll want to check out this great convo with Shaun Els.

Shaun has been building online businesses and helping others with web design since he was 18.

Over the years, he\'s tried all sorts of marketing tactics. But as an agency and niche site owner, he\'s found SEO and content creation to be the key foundation for success.

And because of his background in design, he takes an interesting design-first approach.

He recommends building a pyramid structure for a website, with the homepage at the top, followed by money pages, and then supporting content. The supporting content adds tons of design and content value by building internal links and what he calls \'themed content\', which helps create a useful resource for users and increase your site\'s authority in Google\'s eyes.

Shaun discusses how many people are hesitant to engage with marketing content that is too sales-focused. And so blogging can be a solution to this problem, as it provides valuable information to potential clients. By creating blog posts that address common problems or questions in your industry, you attract search traffic and more.

He also shares a framework for getting the most out of this content by repurposing it into smaller pieces for easy sharing. These include posting counter-arguments, summaries, and bulleted lists. The process of repurposing content for social media takes about half an hour and can be done using tools like ChatGPT. And he mentions how it\'s important to intersperse blog post links with other types of content on social media to avoid penalties.

Shaun uses this content structure to funnel visitors to money pages with great lead magnets to grow mailing lists.

He uses email marketing to stay in touch with potential clients and nurture relationships. He argues that emails should be informational and include quick resources to help readers achieve their goals. And the ultimate goal of email marketing is to build trust with potential clients.

So while his strategy is grounded in SEO, he understands that marketing requires several touch points before earning a conversion.

But by building a content ecosystem that includes search engine optimization, social media, and email marketing, you can create a flywheel of lead generation.

Don\'t miss the full interview to get his tips on how to turn this strategy into a reality!

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

Listed in: Business

WordPress Releases an AI Writing Assistant, SGE Concerns, and a Business Competition on YouTube

Want to hear about the latest developments in AI and the potential impact on website owners?

Don\\u2019t miss the latest episode of Niche Pursuits News!

Once again, Jared and Spencer team up for an engaging and informative discussion that covers a range of exciting topics.

They start by talking about how the WordPress Jetpack plugin incorporates an AI assistant directly into the editor. This feature will allow users to generate text directly in WordPress and also correct spelling and grammar, generate titles, and uses several different prompts for tone, all for $10 a month.

Then they discuss a report on the Search Generative Experience, the \\u201cnew featured snippets,\\u201d and how quotes may be pulled directly from websites without any attribution or backlinks. This would cause quite a stir among SEOs and publishers, and Jared and Spencer discuss the implications and concerns surrounding this development.

On a potentially positive note for some, they share a recent tweet by Cyrus Shepard, who crawled millions of URLs to compile a list of 7 categories of searches that are unlikely to trigger AI results in the SERPs.

Google Bard is also a topic of conversation in this episode. Jared and Spencer discuss the new location settings, which have been added to help localize queries, and new developments in exporting tables to Google Sheets, which is now easier than ever.

The discussion then shifts to Spencer and Jared\\u2019s side hustle projects.

Spencer talks about his idea for a YouTube series, where he acts as a mentor and host in a competition between two or three people.

Their challenge?

To start a small online business in just 30 days, with the winner taking home a monetary prize. The journey would be documented in a single, well-edited, and inspirational video.

Speaking of inspirational, Jared and Spencer share their experience being part of the Amazon Influencer program. Both believe this is a great program for quick financial wins, and they talk about content ideas as they continue to upload videos to see where this side hustle leads.

Jared briefly shares his other side projects, including a YouTube channel he\\u2019s working on at the moment. In subsequent episodes, he expects to give listeners a better status update.

In the final segment of this episode, Jared and Spencer talk about some of the weird niche sites they\\u2019ve discovered.

Jared reviews a website called Best Love Text Messages. It was likely originally created as a source of messages for loved ones but eventually expanded into a wider variety of messages, quotes, and captions.

The website used to get 300,000 organic page views until a Google update, and although it still boasts a substantial number of keywords and page views and could be easily replicated with AI nowadays, there are also areas for improvement.

Spencer shares a website with several web-based games he used around 2010: QWOP. It\\u2019s a video game that was extremely popular back in the day and still manages to attract almost 50,000 organic visitors per month. With a DR of 64 and a substantial Twitter following, Jared and Spencer discuss the potential of supporting it through a Patreon-like platform.

As always, this is another episode filled with thought-provoking discussions, innovative ideas, and actionable tips.

Don\'t miss out on the opportunity to learn and be inspired by this episode of Niche Pursuits News.

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

Listed in: Business

"Google is at War with Affiliate Marketers": Mordy Oberstein's Key Insights to Win at SEO

Is Google at war with affiliate marketers?

Head of SEO Branding at Wix and SEO Consultant for Semrush, Mordy Oberstein, joins the podcast today to share his high-level perspective and valuable insights to help you mitigate risk and save your rankings.

In the last 12 months, there have been core updates, review updates, and spam updates. And he believes it\'s important to look to data for patterns to better understand the SEO ecosystem.

In his roles, he has access to huge swathes of data, and to help site owners succeed, he has a vested interest in unpacking what Google seems to value in the content it rewards.

Here are just a few examples of important recommendations he shares in the interview:

• Read the content of competitors who outrank you after an update to understand what replaced you.
• Use the brand sniff test to determine if your content is of high quality.
• Use internal linking and semantic understanding to build topical authority.
• Hire a content marketing agency if needed to help translate your expertise into digestible content because readability is important for user experience.

He also discusses the continuing rise of AI-written content that is largely generic using similar language structures. And how adding real human experiences is key to providing unique insights and quality content.

He even offers a great example people can use in product reviews to accomplish this.

But Mordy says quality is a domain-level analysis, not just at the page level. And so, to improve domain-level quality scores, it is important to focus on technical health, content, and user experience.

Predicting and understanding user needs is crucial.

He believes quality content means targeting the audience and offering the right amount of nuance to predict their needs.

And while links are a secondary signal, they may become less important as Google gets better at understanding content, with relevance and domain quality playing a more significant role in ranking in a scenario where content is generic across the web.

He does believe that leveraging AI can help automate tasks that were not possible before though.

AI can be used for research, understanding topics, organizing information, rewriting content, and automating tasks like writing headers and product descriptions. However, users have become more skeptical of web content due to issues such as data privacy and fake reviews. As a result, the bar for acceptable content has risen, and web content creators need to up their game.

So if you\'re a site owner or online content creator, you\'ll definitely want to check out the full interview and take lots of notes!

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

Listed in: Business

Is Google's Search Generative Experience (AI) any Better Than Normal Search? + Weird Niche Sites...

Will Google\'s new Search Generative Experience (SGE) help or harm site owners?

Spencer and Jared kick off the latest episode of Niche Pursuits News pondering this question with some interesting findings as they look at various examples of search queries.

They also reflect on a recent Twitter poll by Lily Ray and contemplate whether or not SGE seems to be an improvement over the existing Google search experience.

For instance, in the event it turns out to be a glorified featured snippet and not so much AI as it is displaying site content directly on the SERPs, will Google provide attribution to site owners?

They also consider how this GSE may work in YMYL niches.

But in hopeful news, Bing AI has added links to sources of information within their AI results which could help put pressure on Google to do the same.

The discussion then moves onto their shiny object shenanigans.

Spencer shares some recent troubles he\'s run into with his faceless YouTube channel and what they\'re doing to fix it.

Plus, he discusses how his upcoming plugin Rank Logic is coming along after beta testers finally got to use it.

Then Jared gets into how he decided to jump into the Amazon influencer program and how he and his 201 Creative business partner Kaitlin managed to create 100 videos within a few days reviewing items in their homes.

And as always, they close things out with some great niche site discoveries.

Jared starts with Snake Dreams, a site that focuses on interpreting dreams about snakes. And although it\'s not doing so well these days, according to Ahrefs - back in 2017 it was receiving an average of 56,000 organic monthly visitors.

Then it\'s onto Spencer\'s site highlight, Dimensions.com.

This is a reference database for product dimensions founded by an architect that provides dimensions for various objects and people, including celebrities and fictional characters. The site is monetized via display ads and a subscription service that offers 2D and 3D downloads, no ads, easy download access, and support. And it appears the site is getting lots of traffic!

So, it makes you wonder what\'s an problem or issue that people like have that could be turned into a helpful niche site!

Overall, it\'s another helpful episode to wind down for the weekend, hope you enjoy.

Listed in: Business

Tony Hill's Journey to 8 Million Monthly Pageviews After Bouncing Back from a Devastating Google Update

Tony Hill joins the Niche Pursuits podcast to share his experience recovering a website from a Google update.

Tony\'s been building niche websites since 2005 and is very familiar with core updates.

For instance, he had some health sites doing big numbers wiped out by the Medic Update. However, it was the May 2020 core update that was particularly devastating, causing his main 18-year-old site to lose almost half its traffic in just a few weeks.

To recover from the update, Tony and his 10-person team formulated a bullet-proof game plan to recover the site.

The strategy included a comprehensive process to improve the site\'s existing 1200 pages.

They started by using Google\'s NLP API to analyze their content and improve its salience score. They found that word order is crucial to help the algorithm better understand your content. So at the sentence, paragraph, and article level, they made a deliberate effort to put the subject first.

An academic tool called Sketch Engine also helped them to analyze language patterns in top-ranking articles on some of the biggest sites in the world. And found that using second-person language and specific, confident wording can improve content quality.

So Tony and his team then reviewed their content to make it clearer and more confident, using specific and directive language. They didn\'t delete any articles but rather cut out fluffy sentences and paragraphs and added more information when needed.

Other specific tactics included improving readability, adding more visuals, and updating outdated information.

They also added more categories and subcategories to their website to help users navigate content.

By focusing on updating content one category at a time, they continuously experimented and tested to see what worked. They also read competitor\'s articles word for word to see how they structured their content to make improvements to their own.

They also worked with expert writers and editors to ensure quality and establish a persona for the site. They also created a contributor\'s page, an Ask an Expert section on the site, and paid experts to answer questions on Quora and Reddit.

He also made a point to flesh out the schema of every article, going above and beyond the typical author schema and entity data.

They also made great use of internal linking, aiming to include at least one internal link in every paragraph of an article, sometimes even linking to the same article twice in an article.

Considering their substantial success in Google Discover, they also analyzed their most successful articles and found that related topics were being featured, so they created new articles on related topics and grew their success in Google Discover.

And after a year of consistent effort and multiple Google updates, Tony\'s site not only recovered its lost traffic but experienced significant growth, now receiving nearly 8 million page views per month.

Tony\'s interview is a high-level masterclass in site operations and site recovery that can help site owners at all levels. The way he thinks outside the box to improve the strength of his content will not only inspire you to do the same but also give you actionable steps you can start using today!

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

Listed in: Business

NP News: Bing Integrates ChatGPT, Google Bard Supports Images, & A Tooth Fairy Site

Welcome to another great episode of Niche Pursuits News.

This week Jared is joined by his 201 Creative agency co-founder Kaitlin Cooper to unpack all of the latest developments from the week that may impact online publishers. And there was surprisingly a lot to go over.

They start by discussing the integration of ChatGPT and Bing, which is powered by Microsoft\'s Prometheus and offers current results. Kaitlin highlights the composition feature in Bing, which allows for AI writing prompts, while Jared dives into the Expedia and Zapier plugins and their various, exciting use cases.

The conversation then turns to Google\'s public acknowledgment of topical authority in the context of news sites but most certainly all kinds of sites. And they share some interesting takeaways you won\'t want to miss.

They also discuss some of the unfortunate issues happening this month regarding video searches. A reported Google search bug has caused a drop in video traffic, and Google seems to now only show video thumbnails next to search results when the video is the main content of a page.

Google\'s testing reportedly shows that the recent change in video thumbnails will have minimal impact on publishers, but there is still debate about the actual impact.

But in more hopeful news, Google Bard is now including relevant images in responses and highlighting the source of the image. Bard is emphasizing the importance of images in communicating ideas effectively. And as a reward, Bard is even sourcing smaller sites for queries that larger websites typically dominate in image search or regular web search.

This a potentially cool development if publishers can manage to improve their images for Bard.

Next up, they dive into their shiny object shenanigans. Jared shares an update on their newsletter where they\'ve managed to surpass their goal of reaching 1,000 subscribers in 12 weeks. And they get into how it is they\'re able to average 40-50% open rates and what their next goals may be.

Kaitlin shares how she\'s transitioning her side hustle wedding photography business site Kaitlin Cooper into a content affiliate site, and discusses some issues that others may relate to.

As always, they close out the show by discussing a couple of fun and weird niche sites found.

Kaitlin shares Hold The Magic, which is certainly not your typical niche site. It\'s a site created by a mom who wanted to give her daughter something other than money from the tooth fairy. The website sells tooth fairy gifts, has an influencer program, and they even set up booths at dental conferences.

Jared then shares his website which specializes in treehouse rentals. Treehouse Trippers is a site dedicated to finding good treehouses to rent for vacations. At first they debate what qualifies as a treehouse and whether some of the site\'s offerings fit the bill. But then they praise the site\'s targeted approach to SEO. The site does a good job of producing long-tail targeted content specific to certain states and types of vacations and monetized by offering affiliate links to online booking platforms.

But as always, it\'s possible that these sites are leaving money on the table and so the hosts brainstorm some ways they could boost monetization.

Overall, it\'s another great episode of Niche Pursuits News, covering a wide range of topics related to SEO and niche websites. So be sure to watch the full episode below!

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

Listed in: Business

How to Create High-Converting Affiliate Content that Also Ranks in Google with Kevin Meng

Ever wonder how to improve your affiliate content and boost conversions?

I\'m sure we all do.

That\'s why we asked Kevin Meng to join the Niche Pursuits podcast today to share his insights.

Kevin\'s been a web content and copywriter for 7-8 years. During that time, he\'s honed his skills and reputation for writing content that sells.

He\'s worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, and today, he lets us in on some secrets you don\'t want to miss.

Things like:

• The general checklist he follows for affiliate content
• A formula for describing the benefits of features
• Importance of clarity in web content
• How to sprinkle in personality
• And much more...

He also explains the importance of being honest with readers and not presenting a product as perfect. Allowing you to build trust and overcome consumer objections.

The discussion also includes tips on how to find the sweet spot between writing for Google\'s algorithm and actual humans. Plus, ways to scale this out with a team using SOPs.

And of course, AI is brought up regarding content production and velocity. Kevin shares how the job of an SEO content writer may likely evolve to become more like an editor for quality assurance, with some hopeful and comforting perspectives for writers in the industry.

Overall, this episode provides valuable insights and techniques for improving your web content writing regardless of whether humans or AI creates it.

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

Listed in: Business

NP News: ChatGPT vs Google Bard, Sam Altman Visits Congress, Unnecessary Inventions, and Reality Steve

Don\'t miss this week\'s episode of Niche Pursuits News!

Spencer and Jared kick things off by discussing new ChatGPT plugins brainstorming the various ways they can help users automate everything from email to SEO. Plus, the new opportunities for entrepreneurs with plugin ideas.

They also discuss OpenAI CEO Sam Altman\'s hearing before Congress earlier this week concerning the possible risks and implications of AI. A four and a half hour testimony covering everything from the dangers of misinformation to political fallout, with one conclusion being that \'AI is more dangerous than you think\'.

But since Google Bard is now available to the public, the guys were able to test it out with some fun prompts including asking it to compare itself to ChatGPT with some surprising results.

They also unpack Google\'s upcoming Core Web Vitals metric InP, which will offer insights into the \'interaction to next paint\' rather than just \'first input delay\', which could change the game in user experience metrics.

Then it\'s onto the side hustles, where Spencer unveils his year in the making WordPress plugin, Rank Logic, a powerful tool for tracking keyword rankings and content performance which is now open for a limited number of beta testers.

Meanwhile, Jared introduces his new service on Weekend Growth that creates email newsletter funnels for niche websites and is already receiving orders and positive feedback!

And as always, they wind things down by looking at peculiar niche sites starting with Unnecessary Inventions. A site created by an inventive content creator who turned his unique thinking into a profitable business followed by millions of fans on YouTube and Instagram.

They also discuss Reality Steve, a site dedicated to spoiling the results of the dating reality show The Bachelor.

In both cases, the sites have sparked interesting careers for their creators but the guys ponder the various ways they could boost their monetization.

So, sit back and enjoy another episode of industry insights, personal projects, and peculiar niches to help you get ready for the weekend!

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

Listed in: Business

How Shane Dutka Makes Millions From Lead Generation & Affiliate Marketing

Want some unique insights on what\'s working for high-earning affiliate and lead gen sites today?

Shane Dutka joins Niche Pursuits podcast to discuss his journey going from an accountant to a successful site owner making $50k+ per month.

He discusses how he\'s sold sites for 7-figures, and what he does now to grow sites as VP of SEO for a company generating $100-200 million from affiliate and lead generation offers!

You\'ll learn the interesting story of how he got into the business and how he\'s managed to consistently grow successful sites faster than most.

He shares how to uncover a keyword goldmine through data analysis and tracking conversions on affiliate platforms.

Plus how he\'s managed to compete even in tough niches like jewelery by focusing on the fundamentals of high-quality content and links. And Shane is very generous with tips on what strategies you can use to get both!

Shane shares invaluable insights on serving diverse user avatars and the SEO benefits that come along with this. He emphasizes the significance of matching keyword intent and targeting one keyword per page and sheds light on the importance of fresh content and routinely updating to maintain relevance.

He also shares how he builds engaging, newsworthy content for successful link-building, helpful to mitigate the potential pitfalls of paid links.

When discussing paid links, Shane shares strategies to overcome toxic links with the use of 410 and 404 pages. And really a ton of helpful and actionable tips and tactics to help sites of all sizes grow.

So don\'t miss this awesome episode.

You\'ll learn what\'s working today, from someone with unique access to massive data and exactly what you as an independent site owner can do to grow and profit!

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

Listed in: Business

How Amanda O'Brien Earns $25k/Month from 4 Sites Monetized with Mediavine

Listed in: Business

What Google Generative AI in Search Results Means for Bloggers + Faceless YouTube Earnings

Curious how Google\'s upcoming AI search engine may affect site owners?

Today\'s episode of Niche Pursuits News has you covered with an in-depth and wide-ranging discussion between hosts Spencer, Jared, and guest-host and MarketMuse founder Jeff Coyle about Google\'s recent unveiling of Magi.

The guys consider how this new generative AI search feature will account for:

• Intent
• Links
• Biases
• Learning curve
• Authenticity
• And more...

And, of course, they brainstorm how these changes may impact site owners and the display ad networks that so many rely on for income.

The discussion then goes to the increasing importance of brand and community building through various channels, such as email and social media marketing. And the benefits these technological evolutions bring for those willing to persevere.

And as a special bonus, listeners can sign up for MarketMuse using promo code \'niche20mm\' for a 20% discount!

Spencer also shares an exciting update about his faceless YouTube channel and how it\'s now consistently earning over $100 per day - far exceeding his expected earnings of $80 in the entire month of May.

And Jared discusses how he recently launched a free tool during his latest interview on the Niche Pursuits podcast, which has had some excellent results.

The discussion then gets into weird niche sites where Spencer shares a super niche site called Western Mining History with a DR 59 and monetized with both Mediavine ads and a membership option.

Jared then shares his niche site find PenVibe.com, which focuses on pens and related products. The site has a basic design and appears to have quite an interesting history, but it started picking up traffic in 2018, with a surge in March and April 2023.

Overall it\'s a fascinating discussion with lots of nuggets of wisdom forecasting the future of blogging and search in the age of AI.

So make sure to listen to the full episode to learn more!

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

Listed in: Business

How to Improve the Technical SEO of Your Website (After Analyzing 1,000+ Sites) with Thomas Jepsen

Thomas explores the secrets behind low DR, high traffic websites and how they can be used as models for content structure.

Sharing the importance of internal linking, recommending Link Whisper to quickly help for improve crawlability and avoid orphan pages.

He shares a glimpse into his site audit process, including understanding clients\' goals, analyzing their website and competitors, and presenting his findings.

He also addesses issues of bloat \\u2013 like tags, category pages, and thin content pages being indexed. Shares insights into indexation issues found in Google Search Console, like crawled currently not indexed, discovered currently not indexed, and duplicate pages.

And advises when it\'s best to delete or improve content that doesn\'t drive organic traffic or impressions from any keywords in Ahrefs.

You\'ll also learn about the Google Sandbox and its connection to core updates, link accumulation, and quality content creation.

In a nutshell, Jepsen\'s expertise on website quality and optimization offers indispensable knowledge for website owners and SEO professionals alike. In the age of AI he emphasizes the importance of white-hat practices, believing high-quality content, natural links, and internal linking to enhance crawlability and site structure, will help. And don\'t overlook indexation issues \\u2013 delete or improve content that fails to drive organic traffic or keywords.

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

Listed in: Business

How Mark Valderrama Grew His Aquarium Site to $20k & 300k Visitors Per Month

Listed in: Business

NP News: The State of Google Search Annual Report, Amazon Influencer Business Breakdown, and A Mai Tai Niche Site

Listed in: Business

How Jared Bauman Acquired a Site Averaging $2.5k Per Month & 3x'ed Earnings To $9k Within 2 Years

Listed in: Business

NP News: Results From April's Review Update, ChatGPT Incognito, A Winning Donut Site, & More

Listed in: Business

How Pat Flynn Makes $50k Per Month From His 2-Year-Old Pokemon YouTube Channel

Have you ever wondered what it takes to create truly engaging content that keeps your audience coming back for more?

If so, you\'re in luck.

Because the hugely successful and inspiring online entrepreneur and founder of Smart Passive Income (SPI), Pat Flynn, is back on the Niche Pursuits podcast to share his valuable insights.

This time, it\'s all about YouTube and how to succeed on the platform.

Pat\'s a family man and joined his kids down a Pokemon Rabbit hole.

Eventually, his YouTube suggestions were monopolized by related content, and after reading through comments in the community, he discovered there was still untapped potential.

So he started his Pokemon-focused channel Deep Pocket Monster in January 2021 and, within a year, had 100k subscribers.

Fast forward to today, and his channel has well over 600k subs and has become his most profitable venture to date.

In today\'s interview, he dives into how he did it.

He provides tons of actionable advice on:

• Why he chose the niche
• The importance of community and connection in the age of AI
• How to hook an audience at the beginning and end of a video
• The 2-3 most important YouTube metrics to focus on
• Whether you should focus on long-form or short-form content

And also deep dives into the power of story - and how it will always outshine production value.

He recommends keeping a close eye on performance after publishing and gives tips on when to try different thumbnails and titles for a second wind in the algorithm.

And Pat offers sage advice on what metrics really matter for your success.

Pat\'s phenomenal success as a YouTuber in the Pokemon space can be (at least partially) attributed to his deep understanding of YouTube\'s inner workings and his audience\'s desires.

His strategy of continually experimenting with video formats and analyzing data has paid off in spades. Even with a lean team behind his YouTube channel, he\'s managed to amass a loyal following and generate impressive profits.

And this is an excellent interview to inspire you to do the same.

Don\'t miss it!

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

Listed in: Business

Adthrive Rebrands as Raptive: What Does This Mean for Bloggers? + 2 Weird Niche Sites

Listed in: Business

The SEO Strategies Cyrus Shepard Discovered After Analyzing 23 Million Internal Links

Listed in: Business

The Ezoic Heist: $9 Million Stolen From Ezoic, Ad Network Comparisons, Weird Niche Sites, & More!

Listed in: Business

How James Beattie Pocketed 6+ Figures From His First 2-Year-Old Niche Site

Do you have e-Commerce or dropshipping experience and want to learn how to leverage your knowledge to grow profitable niche sites today? Or how about some tips and prompts to create great AI-powered content?

If so, you\'re lucky because James Beatty is on the Niche Pursuits podcast with tons of golden nuggets to share.

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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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

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James has been building online businesses for years, mostly with dropshipping and YouTube.

But when 2020 disrupted the global supply chain and Facebook ad costs, he started looking for something more passive and hands-off.

And so, in 2021, his niche site was born, ticking all the right boxes for his ideal business model.

He focused on tutorial-style articles, answering questions related to the niche, and later hired a writer to create affiliate content. The website\'s main source of revenue was Ezoic ads, with some income from Amazon. James hired writers to scale up content production and reinvest profits from the website.

While James says he was in no way an SEO expert, his site reached 96,000 page views in its first year generating $3,000 in monthly profits. It eventually peaked at 365,000 page views, $7,700 in revenue, and $5,000 in profit.

Then the site got hit by a Google update, and James decided it was time to sell. He soon after successfully exited for just over six figures, with an ongoing 6-month performance bonus.

And in his interview, James shares lots of great advice and insights into:

• Why you should have a passion or some prior experience in your niche.
• How incorporating video content can boost rankings and engagement.
• Handling the emotional rollercoaster of growing and selling a site
• Deciding when to sell
• How he now decides what niches to go after in the age of AI
• And more...

He believes anyone can create content if they are one step ahead of their audience and can provide value.

He also discusses his use of AI in content creation. He\'s been testing out GPT-4 and shares some tips he\'s been using to produce surprisingly good articles.

And he shares some great prompts you don\'t want to miss!

So, tune in to the full episode to learn more and get inspired to scale your niche site today.

Topics James Beattie Covers

• Why he transitioned from eCommerce to content sites
• Differences between paid and organic traffic
• How his eCommerce experienced helped his current work
• His first content site revenue numbers
• The ups and downs of SEO
• How he chooses a niche
• Being one-step ahead of the audience
• Using video content
• Creating helpful and logical topical silos
• The emotional involvement when building content sites
• Diversifying content types
• Selling after a Google hit
• Tips for using AI for written content
• And more...

Links & Resources

• James Beattie (@jamesybeattie) / Twitter
• James Beattie on YouTube
• LowFruits : Analyze the SERPs faster
• Empire Flippers - Website Brokers | Vetted Marketplace

Listed in: Business

NP News: Google's March 2023 Update: Winners & Losers, New AI Tools and Tips, and 2 Weird Niche Sites!

Ready for another update, \'This Week In Niche Pursuits News\'?

Guest hosts Jared Bauman and Josh Blackburn join the podcast while I\'m away this week to cover a wide range of topics related to AI, content creation, and dive into some fun niche site discoveries!

You\'ll learn how to use Google Trends as a tool for researching and creating content around landmarks and historical events.

Also, in relation to my new faceless YouTube channel reaching the 1,000 subscriber milestone, the guys discuss the benefits of creating this style of channel, that focuses more on content rather than any personal branding.

And if you\'re interested in improving your website\'s SEO and user experience, there\'s a deal for the Link Whisper WordPress plugin with a special coupon code offer for listeners you don\'t want to miss.

The use of AI in content creation is also discussed at length in this episode.

You\'ll learn how Midjourney V.5 can create realistic photos and can replace the need for stock photos.

As well as discussing the AIPRM plugin, which provides expert prompts for generative AI tools. You\'ll hear about its success in the market, including some speculation on the potential for there to be paid prompts in the future.

The winners and losers of Google\'s March 2023 core update are also discussed with tips on highlighting the relatively new Experience element of E-E-A-T on your websites.

You\'ll also hear about unique niche websites, including a Canadian candy store that freeze-dries candy and a website dedicated to the Titanic. And, of course, the guys discuss the potential for creating content and building businesses around these niches!

Overall, the episode provides useful insights and tips for creating successful websites and content using AI and other helpful tools.

Hope you enjoy it!

Listed in: Business

How Steve Chou Grew Both His Blog and E-commerce Business To 7+ Figures a Year Working Only 20 Hours Per Week

Listed in: Business

Noah Kagan Makes $189k on YouTube + Traffic Impacts From the Google Core Update + 2 Weird Niche Sites

Listed in: Business

How Emil Shour Grew His Agency Profits to $250k in its 2nd Year While Also Growing 3 Niche Sites

Are you dreaming of launching your own profitable online business? If so, you need to listen to this week\'s episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast!

Emil Shor joins us to share how he leverages his SEO and website-building expertise to grow a business that\'s largely outsourced.

He left work as an in-house SEO and started his own agency in 2021. And with the smart and crafty business structure he\'s used from the start (which he touches on), he\'s enjoying big profits while living and working on his own terms.

There are a ton of nuggets of wisdom here:

• He emphasizes the importance for niche site owners to build quality links to establish a brand that\'s better protected from Google updates.
• He suggests choosing the easiest keywords to build a cluster within a niche rather than just going after the lowest competition keywords.
• He reveals his strategy for creating assets and investments outside of his agency.
• He highlights the criteria he uses to choose which sites to buy.
• And a whole lot more...

Emil provides valuable insights for those looking to start their own online businesses. And his advice can help you achieve long-term rankings in search and potentially fast-track you to success.

So, if you want to learn the secrets of building profitable online businesses, don\'t miss it!

[toc]

Topics Emil Shour Covers

• His background in SEO
• Starting his own agency
• How his agency is set up
• Pros & cons of being an in-house marketer vs business owner
• Revenue numbers
• Building his sites on the side
• Acquiring a site
• Topic clustering
• Content growth strategy
• Tips for buying a site
• Digital PR campaign
• Niche sites vs brand sites
• Gambling in the parenting niche
• Balancing agency work while growing niche sites
• Plans for the future
• And much more...

Links & Resources

• Catalyst Content - SEO-Focused Content Agency by Emil Shour
• Seeking Profit
• emilshour on Twitter
• Fat Stacks Blog
• Lasso

This Episode is Sponsored by Search Intelligence & Nichesites.com