Welcome back to the latest episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!  This week Jared and guest host Brooks Conkle take on the latest headlines revolving around Google, large and small publishers, and SEO. They also talk about what's working and what's not for their side hustles, and they share some (successful and not-so-successful) weird niche sites. They discuss the couple that took on Google - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr431lr72jo They discuss how to get your brand to appear...

Taegan Goddard’s been in the blogging game for a long time, launching his first website before WordPress even existed.  He went on to create his current website, Political Wire, which has been not only running but growing consistently for the last 25 years—no easy feat. Taegan has built “the anti-website,” using non-SEO strategies to win over his political junkie readers and convert them into diehard fans while using several different business models. He has a different approach...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!  This week Jared and guest host Thomas Smith talk about the latest news revolving around Google, large and small publishers, and SEO. They also share their (lucrative) side hustles and a few very weird niche sites. They talk about the changes at Google - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-has-a-new-boss-prabhakar-raghavan-steps-down/530361/ They share some thoughts on Raghavan -...

Mads Singer has a passion for management and for helping companies increase their revenue exponentially by tweaking and improving their business practices.   This Danish entrepreneur travels the world, speaking publicly and consulting privately with businesses and individuals to help them think creatively and “do more with the same.” He has grown his own business from 0 to 200 employees in just a few short years, and in this interview he talks about his own online experiments, how he sets...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.  This week Jared and guest host Morgan Overhold discuss the latest news as it relates to SEO, small publishers, and Google. They also share their side hustles and talk about a few weird niche sites. They talk about the repercussions of Semrush buying Search Engine Land  They discuss a tweet about that acquisition They share a video about the quality of Google Search They talk about AI Overviews and HCU-hit sites They...

Jamie Northrup is no stranger to the “make money online” scene. He’s been doing it for almost 20 years with varying success, depending on the strategy.  For years he has been developing different income streams, focusing particularly on side hustles with no customers, with considerable success. When he was laid off, he was lucky he didn’t have to worry, because he had a solid hustle or two to keep him afloat. Fast forward to today, and Jamie runs the Minimalist Hustler brand, where he...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.  This week Spencer and Jared discuss the big news related to SEO, small publishers, and Google. They also share updates on their side hustles and more than a few weird niche sites. The big news is that Google might be sanctioned   They talk about severe sanction scenarios  Google responds to the ruling  They discuss the WordPress vs. WP Engine drama  They talk briefly about Automatic’s role Syed Balkhi’s tweet of...

After close to 2000 podcast episodes, Joe Saul-Sehy knows a thing or two about growing an audience.  In fact, his finance podcast, Stacking Benjamins, has amassed a massive following of 180k listeners, with shows averaging around 40k listens/episode. Joe’s no stranger to awards, either.  Stacking Benjamins was named Best Personal Finance Podcast 3 times by the Plutus Awards, it was called Best Personal Finance Podcast by Kiplinger and Bankrate, and it was awarded the Best...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.  This week Jared and guest host Thomas Smith discuss the main news affecting small publishers and SEOs. They also share their side hustles and some weird niche sites. The big news this week is that the Forbes Advisor parasite SEO scandal   They talk about Forbes Advisor getting a penalty from Google They share a Lily Ray tweet on Reddit  Jared shares a weird niche site: MCBroken Morgan shares the site Starbucks Melody ...

When Dave Chesson was in the US Navy, he would spend lots of time away from his family. And he hated it.  He decided to create a portfolio of niche sites in an attempt to earn enough to quit his job, but his path took a different turn. He got the idea to turn one of his websites into a book and self-publish it. As it turned out, it was the start of something big, and it allowed him to eventually quit his job to be with his wife and kids. Today, he’s the author of 10 books which...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.  This week Jared and guest host Morgan Overholt discuss the most important and recent news for small publishers and SEOs. They also share their side hustles and some weird but useful niche sites. The big news this week is that we’re seeing a reversal in traffic gains from the Google Core Update They share another open letter to Google and talk about some of the important points the author, Cyrus Shepard, made Their...

This week, SEO expert Brie Moreau doesn’t share his business results but, rather, the results of an incredibly in-depth study he did analyzing 260k search results to find an answer to a major question: what does Google want exactly? Using SurferSEO data and a data scientist, he and his team set out to use a data-driven approach to understanding how Google evaluates content and they were able to draw many interesting conclusions, which he shares in this episode.    He talks about a...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.  This week Jared and guest host Brooks Conkle 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, OpenAI’s launch of its most sophisticated AI model They share an open letter to Google and talk about the position of small publishers after the updates. Takeaways from a study on data from Google’s...

While Mike Heroux worked professionally as a financial planner, he always had a financial blog side hustle. It took some time to finally make the decision to go all-in, but he eventually dove headfirst into blogging. In fact, he grew his portfolio to about a dozen sites.  And then the Panda Update came along. Suffice to say, Mike’s multi-year journey into entrepreneurship has had its ups and downs. Today, he runs a membership website—Dividend Stocks Rock—with almost 4,000 members...

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

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’s 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...

This week Spencer and Jared are at it again, breaking down the latest news items in the SEO world, sharing their progress with their side hustles, and analyzing some weird niche sites. The big news this week is that the August Google Core Update has finally finished rolling out, after 19 days, and overall it was a pretty impactful update.  they talk about a site that Google has shown considerable favor to in recent times: Reddit. The last news item is again about Google, and how the...

When Thomas Smith started publishing articles on Medium back in 2019, it was just a side hustle. Over the years, however, he’s been able to develop a strategy to succeed on the platform, and today Medium is extremely valuable for him, providing a large part of his monthly income as well as countless business opportunities. Although he did peak at $17k in a single month, his recent earnings are in the $2k to $5k neighborhood and has had several 5-figure months. Links & Resources ...

This week Jared and guest host Thomas Smith take on all the latest news on this episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.  Yelp is suing Google - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/technology/google-yelp-lawsuit.html Yelp's gripe? https://www.searchenginejournal.com/yelp-sues-google-over-local-search-dominance/525687/ A new Lawsuit - https://searchengineland.com/google-adtech-antitrust-judge-business-practices-446086 HCU hit sites - https://x.com/glenngabe/status/1828798317960061090 ...

Tony Hill is a digital marketer with decades of experience, but when his sites’ 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.  Currently, he’s getting a million clicks a month on the platform, and he’s constantly experimenting with new sites and new tactics.  ...

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’s 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...

Dylan Jahraus started working in corporate e-commerce, but eventually had to quit while trying to climb that ladder. She tried her hand at Etsy as a side hustle, and was pleased to see that she could apply her extensive e-comm experience to the platform.  She’s been killing it on Etsy for years now, selling $1.5 million to date. In this interview, she shares some of her best strategies and tips, explains best practices in everything from product pricing to thumbnails, and walks us through...

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! It’s 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’re making on their side hustles, and some weird niche sites! Let’s jump into it! The first order of business is Google’s announcement about its August core update, which the company has been teasing for some time. Moving...

If you didn’t get into paid media before Google changed up the traffic game, you can still get into it now. That’s what Alex Goldberg is showing us on this week’s 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...