641: Starting Over? Podcasting, Newsletters, Competing in a “No Click” World, and more (10 Questions with Nick)
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Starting over with talking, podcasting news's letters had to compete in a new click world and lots more. What's up? What's up, nick, over here.

Welcome to the site has also show because the money never go style into the listener mailbag we answer your burning sisal questions, starting with gerry, who asks, starting over, how would you grow an audience today? Is IT too late to start a podcast? And how long did they take to start making money from the show? Or gary, starting over, I still think podcasting is a viable path to building a audience, and it's a really valuable one.

There is something to the consistency and convenience and depth of relationship with IT. For as a listener, I get used to hearing the same voices week after week. And I can do while i'm driving, while i'm walking, to pick up the kids, while i'm working out.

There is a certain level of intimacy to that in while there are certainly more podcast, greater competition and truthful ly, Better competition lever of production or that jazz. Then there was ten, seven years ago. The world is only a saturated as you make IT.

I remember JoNathan on the show from choose if a high years ago. He said, look, if you can be first, be different, right? So they weren't the first personal finance per podcast, but they were worst personal finance podcast focused on the fire movement.

So you can you probably can be first anymore, but you can still be different. This is from episode four thirty six with john. I do miss is such thing as being too niche.

I seen some successful podcast we had a guest on recently who had like a launder map podcast, like how to run a launder map business and he was like, it's done surprisingly well. And I said, well, why do you say surprisingly? And he's like because it'll london at broadcast. But if you seen anything where it's like, I don't know if that's a big enough market to transform.

IT is impossible and I mean, impossible to be too niche. People always go the other way because they're scared. They're fearful.

They have their own self doubts and they think I just need to be to serve everybody. I want to relate with everybody. I wanted just create a podcasts, just inspire e other people to inspire other people, to inspire other people.

And that fails is a weak pale ima of other successful podcasts that are out there. They are actually doing something specific, and that's why people lose. Why people win is because they say i'm going to create the best solution to a real problem.

I flip in love that laundry map podcast idea because, guess what? He is the best laundry map podcast in the world. He's also the worst. He's the only. And that's why you win in this world because you become the best. However, that is, if that takes you being the only to be the best, that's giving you a chance to win because people will beat a path to your doorstep. If your number one, if your number two, if you number ten, if you number two hundred, you will lose.

Where can you be? The only that was a line that stood out to me from the book, was like, hey, when you started your fire, I was the best daily interview podcast for. I was the worst to daily to be broadcast for on to.

I was the only and that's an interesting place to play, anybody thinking well. So that's easy for john to say he started in two thousand twelve. But I would start with eating really clear on what niche i'm going to serve, who my ideal listener is going to be and what's the best way to speak to them.

What kind of content are they really onna value? no. Early on, I set out to create the show that I wanted to hear.

Look, realistic ways to make money. Ideas you can start in your spare time. Light on the theory, heavy on the tactics. Now marketing wise, it's still the game. And whether this is a podcast, whether or whatever thing you're building, it's still a game of getting in front your ideal listeners, readers, viewers, customers, clients right where they already are. Maybe it's on instagram, maybe it's on other podcasts, maybe it's on linked in, maybe it's on youtube because of the friction involved.

Specific to podcasting by my podcast APP, I gotta find your show, I gotto find the specific episode you're talking about, and then I gotto find at the time to listen to IT. IT is a really chAllenging medium to grow, but super, super with while and rewarding to do IT, one of the accidental growth tactics that worked for me was becoming known as the sisal guy in the personal finance space. And I got ta give credit to phillip ylang, the founder of vinny, for pulling me into that world where everybody was talking about investing and saving money and paying off that.

And initially I was like A, I don't know, i'm talking about entrepreneurship. I'm not in the personal finance world. And I took a while to see that what earning extra is an real extinction of that more traditional personal finance content, which LED me to guessing on a lot of those types of podcast. And growing leadership for the site has also show.

So the question could be, or what other shows have an audience that would be receptive to your message and how can you be a sort of to those hosts? And if you're going to focus on video first, you've got much Better search and discover ability on youtube than you do on most podcast apps. Plus, you have the added benefit of youtube as this recommendation engine, where if people like your content, the algorithm is likely to show to other people that thinks will like IT as well.

So i'm always trying to step up our game while staying true to the remote recording lifestyle tactics and people have in contact and almost exclusively record in studio, in person in new york. I think I just like staying at home. I mean, that's great for you, but you know that's the logistics and that's not for me.

Now within the first year, yes, about the monitise ation side of things, I started selling a private mastermind group through the podcast, through the you know modest seven hundred person email list. At that time, IT was the you know huge de Price tag, one hundred box a month for three months. But when those first applications started to come in, IT was a really exciting validation that this could be a thing that people were willing to pay to connect with me and with their fellow side hollers.

I don't think I would have gone any applications had had not been for the relationship formed with those early listening ers through the podcast. And as far as sponsorships, the show started to attract more serious sponsorship dollars around years three and has continued to see pretty strong command ever since with some sponsors stick around years in some cases, which is really rewarding to see. Now i've got to turn down more sponsorship request than we can accept because either not a great fit for the audience or it's not a brand i've used or could see myself using.

But anyway, thanks for that question. That's a little bit of of a brain dump on how I would think about growing a podcast starting over today. Question two came from Cathy, who says, I don't have any online presence yet, but i'm wondering would be worth to start a blog or youtube channel, for example, personal finance and lisa, but targeting the australian audience because everything is pretty much written for U.

S. Readers and pretty good with words. I just don't know where to start, overwhelmed with information and fifty years old trying to restart my career OK. I think I love this question. Personal finance and lifestyle for an australian audience is probably a bit too broad.

Even personal finance for australian women is probably a little bit broad, but I could work so even Better might be helping women over fifty prepare for retirement in the sense personal finance and lifestyle like that could check the personal finance and lifestyle components to really set people up for a fulfilling retirement or second act. Now, building traffic to a blog is more chAllenging than I, but doesn't mean you shouldn't neglect having a website. I still is really important to have that as a whole base.

But similar to the first question, my efforts on building content and connecting with other people would be on other channels to start out, right? Maybe that's youtube, maybe linked in or x or thread or instagram intention, enjoy writing. There are lots of content first or written first content channels that are less follower based than ever and more algorithm based, which is helpful for new people starting out is not you don't need to have hundred thousand and describers.

If you have a small but engaged following early on, that means your work can get seen by a lot more people than just those who follow you. If IT resonates and and starts to get picked up by the other of them. So I would probably pick one form, let's say, linked in and really focus my there, learn the best practices, start to build a following and start to have those one on one conversations with those followers on their biggest pain points, struggles.

Those are going to guide future content, but also what kind of products or services that you eventually to serve them. This question three, Britney says he started a free email news letter for artists in southern california. In in three months, i've grown IT to forty five hundred subscribers within sixty five percent open, right by current obstacle.

I want to start zing the newsletter. My problem is I no idea what a reasonable Price is to charge sponsors or even how to approach potential sponsors. So first of Britney, incredible work.

That's some really positive early traction. Forty five hundred sublimes in three months. IT took me probably over a year, like to get damage.

So really good work. And I really like the local niche angle here. So newsletter ads typically sold on a cpm basis as cost per thousand impressions occasions on a cost per click basis.

And that's use some platform ers will help to do that. But really great, really very depending on your nh. So you got a newsletter targeting you exclusively hedged fund managers or fortune five hundred sea sweet executives.

You probably going to command higher rates than one targeting broke college students. Just as one example, you could even begin with experimenting by including a filter links to products that you like. And here's how ryan stein described his advertising options for nap town scope.

This is his local newsletter, focused on a napos, maryland in this lip, from episode to six fifteen of the site, tsl show. The curious how you have a Prices today. I think you mentioned we have five different add slots per day, I guess probably based on placement and visibility and structure .

that that yeah so three different kinds, the bottom kind has three each day. So top one has your logo at the top, a picture up to one hundred and fifty words. It's the first head unless we have a headline story, it's the first thing in the news letter.

So private sixty. The time it's the top thing anybody sees, then in the middle we feature, read and then as a hundred words of photo and the threat in the middle. And then right near our live music section at the bottom, which is our most popular thing, we have three ads.

We got baseline, which are text only seventy words, and headline and link, and everybody, all these can be linked. It's funny. Now at the beginning does ads.

I saw that web dues and guy with headline ads, or what a very early version of those. And IT was five hundred dollars for six of them. Now an individual headline, if anybody wants to buy one, is eight hundred twelve dollars and fifty cents.

And IT goes down with volume. Even by twelve, that unit goes down to twenty four. That ungodly down to go.

Eight crazy spread those over the next two years that the uncover go down. Or we have two advertisers that to do that every single week, they just pay a lot of money. But the Prices are very, very different.

We first started everything is really just pulling out of thin air. I just as much as this cost five hundred dollars for six. Everything is just thrown out.

the rule of sum for x Price based on every thousands subscribers or something like that.

I heard a river back in the day that morning. Brew is charging seventy dollars per thousand. And so I have roughly based on on that and actually still around there are top and it's like very loosely based on that or I don't think it's loosely based on that anymore.

Maybe it's just walked down that way that it's still on there once IT started stabilizing. I used to change Prices every week because we will be adding hundreds of subscribers every. And I ll be like, I just saw that to you for two inter box for eight hundred.

Describes had a really good run of facebook guys. And now I have sixteen hundred. I'm going to charge two dollars again.

So I would change IT every single week. Then I started changing IT, I think like every month. And then I was every couple.

Now I just changed every year, and it's not on any kind of h. We have of this many more subscribers. IT should be this much more. Now I just especially up IT on inventory. If we sell out then and it's like we sell out really easily.

I know it's too low if it's harder, but we still sell out and like, okay, we can do a little bump if we're not selling IT all thankful this isn't happen yet, then maybe we stay the same even where s go lower. Now it's not really based on any kind of formula. It's just based on feel of, oh, last year, we sold all these way too easily.

okay. Well, that with the Price and then we sold them all out again, but he took a longer was like, okay, cool. That's probably good number.

That was two years ago. We told that last year, we just went up by I think was twenty percent. This year, I just got by ten percent and maybe stabilized somewhere around there and just upgrade the Prices every year by eight.

ten percent is the most common to sell like a mule time month, like you're going to be featured eight times over the next three months. Like is that how it's typically structured?

I'd like to sell long packages. We have people who signed on to beyond every other week for two years. We have people who are on there every other week for one year.

We have some people who are just pretty seasonal, but there are on for the same six months and they'll sign two year deals for those six months. I just like that is is easier and also IT ups your average client value. There's I can say too much about this, but there's A A websites that I want to buy right now because I think I can do a lot Better.

I think it's a great opportunity. And their average they have way, way more visibility than I do, way more impressions, way more unique. But their average customer value is like one fifth of mine, which is why I think I can buy IT and do really well with IT.

But i'm just always trying to increase that. Have a dentist client right now who's on just once a month, and our standard is really twice a month. So they're on once a month, but they've been killing IT.

They're been doing really well with that. So rather than trying to go sell a new client, it's way easier to just sell someone already selling. You increase that customer value.

increase their frequent yeah.

I went to them and said, hey, you guys, it's been working up prety well once a month. And do you said you you got a Better unit rate and you'll be in there more and device major money back? And then a lot because I know you tell me how many clients you get kind of guessing what your average customer values worth based on industry comparisons.

And I think i'm pretty, pretty close. And so I just way easier to make those sales in the garden called call new person and get a new one. So i'm always trying to increase customer value. And one way to do that is just raise Prices every year and nobody has ever cancelled because of the increase.

And for yan, he also mentioned, including a little sponsor, this newsletter link at the bottom of every edition, something that would be pretty easy to add if you don't have that in there already. And then aside from that, a lot of community outbound say hello to try and drive long term partnerships.

The other thing that he that might be worth considering is offering what he called category exclusivity, like we can only accept one real estate agent at a time, and we would love for that to be you again. Episode six fifteen in your archives, all about growing in monetizing a local newsletter. Ter, really cool episode.

I'm going to be back with more q and a on marketing monitise ation and the death of the click right after this when you're hiring IT feels amazing to finally close out a job search and hit the ground running with your new but what if you could get rid of the search part and just get matched with qualified candidates? Well, now you can with our sponsor. Indeed, it's simple.

If you need to hire, you need indeed the matching and hiring platform is trusted by over three and a half million businesses worldwide to connect with great talent faster. And ninety three percent of employers agree that indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job size. For my next tire, i'm using indeed to tap into a talent pool of three hunter, fifty million unique monthly visitors. And what else is cool is indeed, matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences. So the more you use IT, the Better he gets.

And how about this sisal show listeners yet a seventy five dollar sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed 点 com slash side hostel show just go to indeed that com slash side hustle show right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this point cast indeed that come slash side hostel show terms and conditions apply need to hire you need indeed here's a quick side， us so you can do today called the substitution game. And it's an easy way to school, or what I call reverse passive income in your life. That's money you're no longer spending every month.

That goes straight to your bottom line, how IT works as you find lower cost alternatives to the things you're already spending money on. For example, I made the switch to our sponsor mid mobile back in twenty nineteen and haven't look back. Mid mobile offers premium wireless for fifteen bucks a month when you purchase a three months plan, and all plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest five g network.

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Cut your wireless built a fifteen box a month at mint mobile side hustle forty five dollar upfront payment required equivalent to fifteen dollars for month new customers on first three months plan only speeds slower of a forty gigabytes on unlimited plane additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply see mid mobile for details. Question forward from a destine who asked, I am looking at starting a consulting business. I want to register a domain so I can have a professional email.

What's the best place to do that? I might make a simple website in the future, but no time soon. Basically looking for good email service and something that I can utilize maybe with gmail or on my phone.

Well, then I think this is a pretty small investment for that little bump up in perceived value. So you're on the right track here. So Better explain what us and is talking about. IT would be like having an email address like a dustin at smart consulting group that com, as opposed to smart consulting group at g mail 点 com。 IT makes you look more legit, especially if you're targeting a customer base who would notice that sort of thing.

And for more, according quote, blue color Operations, I probably wouldn't let that be a barrier to you getting started like nick got or cleaning a gmail that I would probably work just fine over nick. Nx, gutter cleaning the comb. Now I still prefer to the second one, but my customers probably don't care.

They just want to get cleaned, right? So the first step here would be to register the domain. You can get that h through any domain return.

Go daddy pork bond is one i've been using lightly. No affiliation here. Know I like the service. And you can get email service either as an add on to that domain registration or if you like that you eventually want to build out that website.

Some hosts are going to included in the hosting package and get free domain with hosting registration at H A blue host to gonna la for that. But if you don't want to build that website, yeah, you can just register the domain you can add on email. I think pork bun charges something like twenty four box a year for that.

Now the caution if you email me from dusty at smart consulting group that com, i'm likely to go to smart consulting group that i'm just to check out your website. So even building out of that simple placeholder brochure style website could be beneficial. But of course, my online behavior might not be like your target customers.

And then I think there is uh, you can probably do you like six box a month for a google business sweet to have you know that domain or that email inside of the familiar gmail interface. I just set up my site so nation email to forward to my personal gmail. Box early on, and he actually never changed that.

So that's another option as well. Question five was from patra, who asked, is there anywhere on your site that covers ideas that disabled people or people with mobility restrictions can do? So petition at the moment there is is not though IT is on our keyword list of future content to create.

And actually, what I kind of want to do is the every side hustle ever like air table databases, you can filter by the time require the earnings potential, whether it's online, whether it's in person. I think theyll be fund project to try and build out. But like, again, another one is kind of done to get out around.

But in the meantime, just think about any remote or online ideas. So I think you've done by somebody with mobility restrictions. We do have several resources on those on the site that I can link up in the shower notes.

Just follow the shower notes link in the so description will get you right over there. So ideas might include virtual fencing, virtual consulting, anything can do over the internet, virtual assistance service, content creation business, digital products, print on demand, proof freeing freeLance writing, paid market research, lots of options there. One famous example in the blogging world, in the online business world, is john morrow.

He runs a site called smart blogger 点 com， paralyzed from the neck down from birth with spinal muscular atrophy, and still went on to build a super successful online business, earning fifteen million dollars. According to a recent linked in post of his, he uses speech dictation, like speech to text, dragon dictation. Think he's got a special computer mouse that he Operates with his lips, really inspiring guy.

Instead of focusing on the things you can do, we focused on what he could do, and he helped a lot of people in the process. Smart blogger, that com is his site and really inspired by what john is created in the impact that he's at. Question six came in from roth, who asked, i'm struggling to launch my small soling classes for kids.

I run them out of my home. I've advertised on peach jar in my local facebook pages. Does anyone have any suggestions for ruth? This sounds like a really cool, cute side hustle. And to market IT, I think you're on the right track with local facebook pages and maybe even local parenting pages, school groups or home school groups. And we just did a local work shops episode Chloe, when standing episode to six thirty four, SHE was hosting jewelry making workshops.

Definite worth a listen if you missed that one in her business was a little bit different because she's targeting adults and SHE would go to a community center venue, not not trying run those out of her home. But he mentioned having success marketing on facebook and how one ticket sale, in her case, often LED to three or four ticket sales, because people would want to come with their friends. So maybe testing with a limited ad budget might be worthwhile.

Now, a few other people in the site, hazard nation facebook group, mentioned targeting school parents, which I think is a really good fit and also a tighten community where you might start to see some word of mouth benefit you to go a little bit broader. This reminds me a little of the after school programs episode we did a few years ago, where I may got approved by her local school district to host these after school arts and craft in richmond sessions. That is episode two eighty nine in your archives.

A little a long way to scroll to get down to that one, but definitely worth a listen if you're into that sort of thing. IT was a multi week class with the parents would pay you know one hundred hundred fifty box and you could take fifteen to twenty kids at a time. So the effective hourly rate not being really strong.

And if he did monday at one school, he could do tuesdays at another school, wednesday at another school, and really only hala couple hours a day of work. So that could be an interesting option for you. And a lot of these schools already had an approval process in place where they were ready hosting like the lego after school program or the chess after school programme.

And so I was going to like throwing your name in the hat there and following their guidelines. And one final idea, like some people mentioned in the facebook group as well, is to take the sowing class and put IT up on our school. This is a platform specialize in small, safe online group classes for kids.

That's the target audience, right? The biggest benefit is you'd open up your market from just your local area. I don't know how be a town gerin to being able to serve kids from all over the world.

This would be the byblus strategy of going where the cash is already to tap into some existing demand rather than trying to create IT from scratch in your local area. Our school has millions of users. I think that would be perfect for something like this.

I definite encourage you to check out the episodes done on our school, starting with teacher jade in episode four forty two. But we link all of that was up in the shown notes for you for question seven. Chris says my wife and I have been podcasting since twenty eighteen in special needs parenting, which we've built up an audience.

We haven't made any money. We're considering creating an online program to Better serve our listeners. Of course, I admire the longevity of sticking with the show that long. And even if the financial rewards haven't been there, I know creating the content, building connections with listeners has been really rewarding for you. The first thing that comes to mind in this case is to simply bring your listening ers into a supportive community. Similar to what Megan champion for her podcast, also in the parenting age, her shows called on the hard days in here is how he described creating and structuring that membership. In episode five.

twenty four, IT. Turns out there is no community for mother's raising neural diversion. Kids out there.

There are specific things, kids, mums of kids with autism, for example, there are little niched things, but just in general, parents who don't have a diagnosis for their kids, but they are really struggling internally with their child's behaviors and chAllenges and struggles. There is no no place for them together and and meet each other. And so that's where my membership community was born, and it's called mothers together. And IT has completely changed my life and and the trajectory of business.

Well, let's talk about that membership. That's that's great. Is up that looking out in the world that this is the thing that I wish existed.

IT doesn't. So i'm going to be the one to build IT. And by the way, for the last year, i've been building six much.

I been building network through one on one conversations and then one to many conversations through the podcast. So you said, okay, we're going to build these things called mothers together. So what happens like this inside? What's the value proposition for a mom? Say, yes.

I want to join. Yeah, absolutely. So in mothers together, IT is a monthly membership. IT is a support group style membership. And so get three, three pieces.

There is a forum, first of all, that I created in is off of social media. It's not on facebook. IT has a zone up.

Its my network's company, awesome has a zone APP. And on this forum, mum can questions ask for advice, share resources. And it's by category, which makes its sort of stand out from maybe facebook.

For example, people can search by age of child to connect with other moms of teenagers who a nor diversion, they can search by location. They want to find moms who won't be living near them that they wouldn't know about by diagnosis, by behavior, by there's a million different ways, right? So they can connect on the form.

But that's not my big selling point. That's just sort of a little extra. The main piece of mothers together is the support group part.

And so what happens is when a mom signs up, I send out A A follow up email with some questions, where do you live? How old is your child? And most importantly, what do you, the mom? What do you need? What are you looking for for support? What are you not getting right now that you wish you could have? And I will take her and I will personally match her with other moms going through a similar experience.

So it's basically like, i'm personalizing these groups of moms based on the needs. Mms, yeah, IT is like a support group. On the one hand, you know, we do try to me unsupervised that sort of thing, but it's way more than a support group.

We found out very early on that the moms were so over the moon excited to have met each other and connected on that personal level that at once a week meeting was not nearly going to cut IT. And so we decided we need something a little different. We're using mostly the marco polo video messaging up first tech threads, and the form has a chat feature, but mostly marco polo to check in with each other in our little groups, constant daily, sometimes multiple times.

How was that doctor's appoint you had? Jump on and let us know. We're here for you.

We're thinking of you. I had a really tough morning. I need to.

Then what would you guys doing? The situation is personal. These are friends and there's no judgment. This is a completely safe space to share with strugling with because everybody in your group is going through the same thing. And so this magic in that um in that community peace and I have obviously had some success which i'm so grateful for because the moms are so thrilled to have found each other and it's it's really awesome yeah .

is that actually have an interesting one is typically a membership businesses going to be no content plus community. And I hadn't heard to say anything really about content and advice and lessons like I want just support about support and acknowledgement and just like he's eventing early on, I just need somebody to listen versus preaching from on high. It's a look at different from some of the other membership.

Guess that we've had on you got temple computer to sure there's a forum, but it's like more about access to expert material and start like behind the scenes type of stuff. And then this personal matching service, somewhat IT, may be common in the entrepreneurship PS space. Oh, we're going to form these like little mini mastermind and groups you so called based on interest or location or what know what business is working on a similar here know based on to the kids what is ging with maybe where you're located geographically and and it's is that and I understand that of the structure of what happens to behind the paywall .

yeah yeah pretty much. Um we do have one additional little bonus where I do bring a guest once a month and we do alive Q N A on sume. So there's that little bit of advice.

Peace, uh content peace mostly the content on the forum. Is created by the members, right? So I am not pushing forward.

Here are some great recipes for picky eaters here, some sensory activities for sensory sensitive. Kids are not doing that. We are doing that. Is their ship as much as IT is mine. And so if somebody has A A great idea or something that worked in their home, they will push pushed out into the the forum and different categories for the other moms. And so it's kind of like we're all building this plane as we fly IT together and that kind that together in this peace is is where that I think the magic happens again.

That was magan champion from episode to five at twenty four of the I has also show in the on the hard days podcast question eight is how to compete in a no click world. So this comes from several listeners dealing with the fallout of lots of google updates over the course of the last two months in iran. Fishin informally of mos know, he posted this really thought ful article last week, which he opened by saying, surveys, studies, analytics.

They also the same thing, getting traffic on the web is hard other than ever, and it's getting worse, much faster in the last two years than in the decade before. Site owners are faced with two options, compete for the scraps google in the other platforms provide, or play the game differently by engaging in zero click answers, content and luces. So what does that mean to become a center of influence? The downside is, is obviously more work than just anonymous ly cranking out S O content for google in cash in on ad revenue, annihilator commissions IT means creating a multi platform presence with the goal owning your topic wherever somebody might be looking for IT, whether that's amazon, whether that's tiktok, whether that's facebook linked to instream, whatever.

Now I wouldn't start by trying to be everywhere at once. I would take Robert fritz advice from a couple years ago on the show, where he said picked to one has got to be your website, your email list as your home base, something that you have control over. And the next start with one external platform where your attire customer is, and you can learn to play the game and build that trust and influence who tl kEllen cline from the savi couple put IT in episode six five.

You have to build a brand, something that mean you've done a really good job of where people are actually going out and searching our brand and they are going into google and they're giving that, that signal that people are searching for our brands. So I think a lot of the times, eighty, twenty I think eighty percent of the sites that have a really good brand and they're publishing good high quality content all the time.

I think they are definitely right in the wave and they're staying above these updates. And the companies that are were nick sites and they're not really building an entire brand with social media and with an email st. The youtube channel. I think that those are the ones that really got hit, specifically, ones that were just publishing a ton of A I content and not having any expertise or different sharing their experience or authority or trust within their articles in making them Better than the next one. I think that's super important to really understand the users and when they're going to search these terms and solving IT the .

best way possible. The drawback I see to a social first approach is this agal problem of building on borrowed land. You're still subject to the wims of social media algorithm.

And yes, you can roll with those and adapt like we all have to do, but the real key is to bring people into something you have more control over, namely your email list, which is why you see so many twitter threats or linked in posts that end with that call to action eh. If you like this, make sure to grab your free bonus. If you like this, here's the temple to help you do IT on your.

If you found this helpful, I share a story just like IT week up my newsletter, sign up here now. I recently hit twenty years in online business, which hopefully makes me sound a older than I am. But truthfully, over that time, the only constant is change.

Tactics don't stay the same for long, but the broader strategies of serving your audience, of diversifying traffic and income sources, of building your own email or customer list, those have stood the test of time, and how to imagine will continue to do so. A they had the opportunity to hear from joda na. He is the founder of spartan race.

He came, and we hung out of this recent mastermind d event. Where is? Like, come back. We'll this early morning work out with with joe and is the founder of sparrow. That's all I know going into.

But like, how mud are we going to get? Like what what kind of work out does this guy have a story for? Seems like, well, I was climbing staircases in doing perp.

Z IT was not that, but as he was talking to was a sound. But that stood out for me was if you want to win and marketing today, you have to be everywhere, all at once, all the time. And if you have the time and energy and team and budget to do that, go for IT.

But I think that puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on new entrepreneurs. Instead, I think you can pick a that suit you and suit your audience, get IT firing in in you're on additional channels as you go. Not all that wants the sound by from joe that I did really a high club, was the couch kills more people than women with sharks.

Get started. Stay started. And could not necessarily about the couch or something sharks. But I want really did.

Like question nine asks, can you really get paid to be an online friend through a little bit of background? This question comes from the popularity of a site called renter friend, which had a viral moment a few years ago, almost curly, from the novelty of IT. Like wait, you can really be a friend for higher.

And number one and the number two, people are really pain for friends. So short answer is yes. This is something that that you can make money doing.

And there a few sites that facilitate this type of relationship, sometimes online, but more often in personally, for local travel recommendations and companionship while you're in the new city. The longer answer is your odds of making money as a general online friend are probably pretty low. It's really hard to success stories of people actually making money on these sites.

And based on the estimated traffic data I could find from uh h refs and others, IT looks like the supply of available friends, the people wanting to make money for outstript, the demand of people looking to hire an online friend. Now that said, we are more connected than ever before, but there's also data to suggest we're lonely and more isolated than we've never been as well. So there's definitely a need for a connection and campaigning ship.

You just might need to get a little more niche and a little more creative in how you providing IT. Maybe IT is teaching english lessons online. Maybe IT is providing customer support online. One of my favorite examples is devin ricks from miss devin dcom within a couple episodes on her out tule side, hustle of hanging out, play in video games with kids. Most recently, he was on episode to six eleven that I started .

teaching for outside, not calm, and started by teaching english creative writing classes. But I ve always loved video games, so I just put my video game twist on IT. We would do creative writing, but Zelda, or like puntuated, but token on.

And then my students just kept asking me for more classes on how to play the video games, or helped with places where they were stuck. And so I started creating social clubs where kids could come and game in a safe online space together. And I just continue to grow, continue to grow.

And when you and I connected, like you said, are making around four thousand a month. And since then, I ve hired on fourteen teachers to teach with me. And last year we broke six figures.

Devin is someone who util is getting paid to be an online friend. Super inspiring in fund business. Again, six eleven if you want to check that one out and learn more. But a creative example of make a money.

And it's just a little more niche than just offering up an ear to listen to you in a face on a web cam on some these other virtual and type of websites. Question ten, this came up a bunch of times on my recent trip to vin kon. People asked what, what keep you coming back here and what's next? What do you working on? So super blessed to have a network of incredible friends and and colleagues.

It's the people that keeps me be coming back in on. This was my nine year in person and IT is my once a year chance to have a density of conversations packed into just a few days that is unlike anything else for the rest of the year. It's kind of hard to describe.

But because everyone has the shared experience of trying to build something online and spread a positive message online, you you really quickly get beyond the cursy small talk of work and weather and family and what new netflix shows you're into and into the world of goals and visions and chAllenges and obstacles and big ideas. And I would chAllenge you to take stock of something your recent for in conversations and ask whether they are in category one. The more cursy small talk category or category to the deeper, more meaningful variety, there is definitely place for both.

But the chAllenges to surround yourself with more people with him, you can have the second type of conversation and haven't not be weird. That's the but it's that in the creative energy that comes from IT that gives me coming back where people are really open about sharing what's working, what's not working, what new tools, tactics they're using, that I always walk away with more ideas than truth. Ly, know what to do IT IT.

To be fair, you might have to try several different events or groups before you find your people. I went to a bunch of a fillip conferences early on and never quite found that same level connection. Now as for as what's next, what he working on, i'm reminded of a line from joe, from stacking Benjamins, from a talk that he did years ago.

He said, well, i'm embarrassed by the work I did a year ago and a year from now. I hope to be embarrassed by the work I can doing today. He was this call to keep getting Better.

And you can see that joe just talk about a guy who loves his craft, the five hundred, six hundred episodes of stacking Benjamin, and just an incredible job, what the'd done and what they built. I was at a mastery mind event earlier in the year. And my friend change their ball, change their runs, self publishing that com.

He always get the question. What's next what he working on and he's like the same, just more and Better and was like that really, really resonated with me there. There's always this pressure to be working on the next big thing, but it's okay if the correct thing is working and you're happy doing IT, that's okay too.

So the same, just more and Better. I mean, this show is where I love spending my time and the creative constraint that comes with a publishing deadline of every thursday and every other monday. Hey, look, we got to come up with something compelling to publish.

Now I left thinking on, I left the event. Super grateful to still get to play the game, to have been going to those things for nine or ten years, to be able to get paid to do work I love. I can do IT without your so thank you so much fortune and whether you your first time listener or a long time listener.

So what's next? It's continuing to do my best to help people find legit ways to make more money. It's falling in love with their problem, right? So big thanks to everyone who submitted questions this week.

Big thanks to our sponsors for help and make this content free for everyone. As always, you can hit up side hustle nation to come side deals for all the latest offers from responses in one place. Thank you for supporting the advertisers that support the show that is IT for me.

Thank you so much for tuning in. Next time, let's go out there and makes up that happen. And I catch in.

The next edition of the site has also show so on. I'll get another podcast recommendation for you. It's the Young in profiting podcast hosted by hot ha. A good life comes from good choices, but good choices come from experience.

Tune on to learn from how less inspiring guests like Matthew mcconaghy in episode one or one seh golden in epsom eighty seven and even Robert Green on a decoding the laws of human nature in episode forty four. Should I was a guess myself away back on episode to ten backward, the show was still asius sf hoa. Today, the Young and profiting podcast is one of the most popular ultimate urban educational podcast across all listening platforms.

If you're interested in improving your mental state, gaining influence, healing your mind and growing your business and much more than the Young improvin poddar ast is just for you, subscribe bed to yep, Young in profiting podcast on apple, spotify or your favorite podcast platform to help level up your life. That's Young in profiting podcast hosted my holiday. Ha, to learn from the brightest minds in the world, check IT out and let know that you heard about IT from the side hustle show.