In this week’s episode, we’re catching up with the 6-figure houseplant blogger, Raffaele Di Lallo of OhioTropics.com. You might remember Raffaele from a blog coaching episode we did last year with the help of Matt Giovanisci from Money Lab. At that time, Raffaele was generating over 300,000 pageviews per month, which translated into around $10k in income, mostly from display ads and a little slice of affiliate commissions as well. The biggest change since I last spoke to Raffaele is that he’s be...
Aug 25, 2022•53 min
To find out what’s working today across a wide range of industries, I’ve crowdsourced some wisdom from Side Hustle Show listeners. I asked listeners to share a marketing tactic that’s working well for them this year, and I got back a ton of great responses. Here are 16 of the best marketing tips that were submitted, many of which you can apply to your business today. Full Show Notes: 16 Marketing Ideas from Side Hustle Nation Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist
Aug 18, 2022•40 min
Today I’ve got an awesome story for you — on the one hand, it’s about matching your interests and skills with a hungry market, but maybe more importantly it’s about documenting your work. When you do those two things, like Craig Odem has, you start to see some fun results. I found Craig through the Side Hustle Nation Facebook group; he’s a pastor in Tennessee but as a side hustle he sells plants out of his backyard. Craig’s backyard nursery does around $10k in sales every year, which is awesome....
Aug 11, 2022•58 min
Rene Delgado started an online high ticket dropshipping store with no ideas and no inventory and went from $0-300k in sales in his first year in business. It was the search for an extra stream of income that led Rene Delgado to consider e-commerce; selling physical products online. (GH = Greatest Hits) Full Show Notes: How to Start an Online Store with No Ideas and No Inventory Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist
Aug 08, 2022•34 min
This week’s episode is about self-publishing, which we’ve covered before. But this week’s guests have turned the success of their book into a full-time business that’s still growing in momentum. In late 2020, Justin and Alexis Black self-published their first book Redefining Normal: How Two Foster Kids Beat The Odds and Discovered Healing, Happiness and Love. Redefining Normal currently has over 200 reviews on Amazon and has sold more than 9,000 copies in the two years since it was published. Th...
Aug 04, 2022•47 min
Starting a pressure washing business may be a great seasonal side hustle opportunity. These types of blue collar businesses tend to have low startup costs and you may already have the skills and equipment you need to get started. Full Show Notes: How to Start a Pressure Washing Business Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist
Aug 01, 2022•15 min
Megan Champion is a mom of 3, a 15-year elementary education teacher, and in the past year, she’s started a side hustle that has brought in $20,000. Megan’s side hustle is in the parenting niche and has 3 main parts: An Instagram account to drive awareness A podcast called On The Hard Days to drive connection And a paid membership to drive community — and recurring revenue. In this episode, you’ll learn how all three of those work and how they work together to build Megan’s business — and how yo...
Jul 28, 2022•53 min
When it comes to sharing your side hustle with your boss, is honesty always the best policy? In this post, we’ll explore whether or not you should clue your boss in about your side hustle(s). Full Show Notes: Should You Tell Your Boss About Your Side Hustle? Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist
Jul 25, 2022•8 min
This week’s guest started his side hustle with the goal of earning an extra $1,000 a month. Four summers later and it’s now a 6-figure business. Blademir Hernandez of LitterFreeLots.nyc is a long-time listener of the Side Hustle Show who was inspired by Brian Winch’s story in episode 266 to start his business. Additional Resource: CleanLots Brian built a $650k a year operation picking up litter and cleaning parking lots, something Blademir told me he knew he could also do. Blademir ended up reac...
Jul 21, 2022•43 min
The most popular side hustles aren't necessarily the best fit for you. In this episode I'm breaking down the pros and cons of 5 common side hustles — and what you might consider doing instead. Full Show Notes: 5 Popular Side Hustles (and what to do instead) Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist
Jul 18, 2022•16 min
With her hours cut due to the pandemic and a new house to pay for, this week’s guest set out an action plan to make 6-figures in 2021. To achieve that, Heather Johnson of HeatherXStudio.com decided to start an Etsy store selling print-on-demand goods like t-shirts, mugs, and other apparel and items. Fast forward two years and Heather is now a former MRI tech who’s taken her print-on-demand side hustle full-time and is averaging $15k a month in revenue and $4-5k in monthly profit. How’d she do it...
Jul 14, 2022•53 min
Matt makes $200+ a month sharing his writing on Medium.com. It's a hobby he genuinely enjoys doing anyway, so the revenue it brings in is a bonus! Here's how to get started making money on Medium. Links and resources: Matt on Medium Matt's site Episode 510: The 6-Figure Bird Blog New to the show? Get your personalized playlist here!
Jul 11, 2022•18 min
We're halfway through the year, and 2022 is flying by! In these quarterly Progress Reports, I break down how the business grew (or shrunk), what I worked on, and other happenings from the last three months. I worked more hours the first half of 2022 than I did in 2021, and (not surprisingly) I feel like I'm getting more done as a result. I'm still struggling to come to terms with a to-do list that's never going to be done, but do feel like I'm making progress on building a business that serves m...
Jul 07, 2022•38 min
“You have a skill, but you’re not using it correctly.” That the tough love advice Vincent Pugliese’s father gave him. Vincent was working what he thought was his dream job as a photojournalist. He’d just won the most prestigious award in his industry (International Sports Photographer of the Year), and he and his wife Elizabeth had a baby on the way. Yet the newspaper job didn’t pay well. With the impending arrival of their son, Vincent took a hard look at his financial picture: he was in his mi...
Jul 04, 2022•38 min
This week’s guest took a pain point she was experiencing - finding a nanny for her 3-month-old - and turned it into a multi 6-figure full-time business with 500 nannies across 5 states. Kristy Bickmeyer started TwinkleToesNanny.com back in 2011 in response to not being able to find a nanny herself. At least not without going through the “traditional” agency model of paying $1,500-3,000 upfront and with few guarantees it will work out long-term. Kristy decided to start her own agency without the ...
Jun 30, 2022•47 min
Play matchmaker between pallet buyers and sellers to flip pallets for profit. Varnie Sambola started his pallet flipping business in 2020, and has already scaled it to $1000 a day (and beyond). He credits another Side Hustle Show guest — John Wilker from episode 274— and his Simplest Biz course with helping him get started. Full Show Notes: Pallet Flipping 101 New to the Show? Get Your Personalized Playlist
Jun 27, 2022•20 min
“Nothing puts a smile on a consumer's face quicker than a good peach.” This week’s guest is Shannon Houchin of RoadsideRepublic.com, and she’s passionate about peaches, fresh produce, and delivering an awesome customer experience. Shannon actually reached out to me and said, Nick, you’ve got episodes on flipping books and mattresses, clearance products, domain names, flea market finds, and a ton of other stuff - but have I got a side hustle for you: I flip peaches. So, of course, I had to call h...
Jun 23, 2022•52 min
Escaping the rat race is simple, but not always easy. In this episode, I break down the 3 most common ways out of the rat race, and the pros and cons of each. (This was originally recorded for YouTube, which explains the faster-than-normal pacing and some video sound effects.) Full Show Notes: How to Escape the Rat Race New to the Show? Get Your Personalized Playlist!
Jun 20, 2022•19 min
Your voice has value — both figuratively, and maybe even literally. To prove this point, I’m joined on the show this week by a side hustling couple who have turned their voices into an income stream worth thousands of dollars a month. Dom and Nicole Draper from TheVoiceoverCouple.com are multi-award winning voice over artists - they get paid to talk. As professional voice over artists, they’ve done all kinds of interesting jobs and worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including N...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Creating the right retirement plan for your business income can save you thousands of dollars in taxes. But between LLCs, IRAs, SEP IRAs, Solo 401(k)s, and more, it's a confusing acronym jungle out there. To help cut through the clutter, Matt Ruttenberg stopped by and schools us on how to choose the right plan for you and the key differences between them. Important Links: Matt's site - Retirement plans for solopreneurs Retirement plan evaluator tool Matt on LinkedIn Matt on TikTok
Jun 13, 2022•16 min
This week’s guest, Scott Keller, left his high-paying but not super satisfying career in insurance to run a bird blog full-time. Scott started BirdWatchingHQ.com as a side hustle back in 2016 and has since turned it into a full-time income with half a million monthly pageviews and more than 1 million monthly YouTube views. But like all businesses, it’s been an evolution to get to that point. Scott started out chasing high-ticket affiliate commissions but pivoted into creating one of the best bir...
Jun 09, 2022•58 min
Do you love weddings? Professional wedding officiants can make $100s an hour and usually do it as a side hustle. In this episode, you'll meet Maria Romano, who's officiated more than 4000 weddings in her career. She shares what you need to get started, how to get your first customers, and more. Full Show Notes: How to Become a Wedding Officiant New to the Show? Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist
Jun 06, 2022•17 min
Quizzes can help you: Grow your email list Serve your audience better Make more money We’ve been talking a bit about the power of quiz funnels over the last few months, and so I thought, why not call up the guy who’s famous for implementing these things and helping others do it as well? Ryan Levesque is the bestselling author of Ask: The Counterintuitive Online Formula to Discover Exactly What Your Customers Want to Buy...Create a Mass of Raving Fans...and Take Any Business to the Next Level, an...
Jun 02, 2022•1 hr 1 min
From serious health issues and being $500,000 in debt to earning 7-figures a year in ad revenue. That’s the short story of this week’s guest, Brandon Gaille. Brandon has been around online business since the 90s, he’s made a ton of money, battled some really scary health issues, and today is one of the top bloggers in the world earning a collective 6 million visits a month across his three sites. Brandon is also the founder of RankIQ.com, an AI-powered SEO tool that helps bloggers find keywords ...
May 26, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Find an expensive problem, and solve it. Jonathan Stark is a pro at finding these expensive problems, and walks us through idea generation and validation, pricing, and growth strategies. Full Show Notes: How to Start a Consulting Business
May 23, 2022•35 min
“If you’re bored walking up the hill, try running up it.” That was what this week’s guest William Wadsworth of ExamStudyExpert.com told me when I asked him about how he got his side hustle off the ground. Four years ago, William was working full-time in a corporate job, but he wanted to build his own dream, not someone else’s. Finding it difficult to balance a full-time job and his side hustle, William left his job and took on some part-time tutoring so he could spend more time on his business. ...
May 19, 2022•55 min
Top podcasts make thousands of dollars an episode, but sponsorships are only one way to ring the cash register. In this episode, I'm breaking down the different ways you can monetize a podcast, including some that don't require any listeners at all. Full Show Notes: How to Monetize a Podcast New to the Show? Get Your Personalized Playlist
May 16, 2022•12 min
There has never been a better time to build an online business around a topic you care about. This week’s guests on The Side Hustle Show are proof of that. Garret Kruger and Sabrina Ricci are the husband and wife team behind IKnowDino.com, which started as a side hustle and is now the world’s #1 dinosaur podcast. Not bad for a couple of non-paleontologists. It wasn’t an overnight success. In fact, it took 6 years for the two of them to feel comfortable going full-time in the business. But they’v...
May 12, 2022•1 hr 11 min
Staci and her husband are earning $3,000-$4,000 month reselling like-new furniture with risk-free inventory sourced from Sharetown. Sharetown is a “reverse logistics” company that helps online, name brand furniture companies deal with customer returns. As a Sharetown rep, you get notified of these return requests, pick up the items, clean and store them, and resell them on Facebook Marketplace or other outlets. Per Staci, you only have to pay Sharetown for your inventory once each item sells. IM...
May 09, 2022•15 min
This week it’s the 500th episode of The Side Hustle Show, which just seems crazy to me. It feels like just yesterday I started this thing in a lot of ways. But it’s been 9 years — I guess time flies when you’re having fun. In honor of the 500 episode milestone, I wanted to reflect back on 10 big ideas and 10 common themes over the last 9 years. It took longer than I care to admit to go back through the archives and pull out some of these forgotten soundbites, but I think you’ll like ‘em. Tune in...
May 05, 2022•44 min
