My Content Business Doubled Revenue With Two Strategic Moves [Update]
This is a follow up story for Side Hustle Nation. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 2 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I started Side Hustle Nation in 2013 (as a side project, of course!), and it’s grown into the leading resource for aspiring and part-time entrepreneurs to learn creative ways to make extra money and how to start a business in their spare time.
Today it’s primarily a media/content business, focused on evergreen written content, actionable podcast episodes, and the occasional YouTube video. We monetize primarily with sponsorships, advertising, and affiliate partnerships.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Since the last update, there have been a few important new initiatives.
The first has been outsourcing podcast ad sales to YAP Media and making the transition to modern, dynamic ad insertion for The Side Hustle Show. In just a few months, they’ve landed far bigger brands and ad deals than I ever did.
The shift has at least doubled revenue directly from the podcast, which is a big win because it still takes roughly the same amount of time and cost to produce each episode.
Another big financial win was adding Mediavine display ads to the site. I was always hesitant to do it, because, well, ads are annoying. But on the flipside, users expect to see ads on the Internet, and the majority of traffic is from Google. Doing so added an instant $6k-9k/mo to the bottom line.
Probably should have done that years ago…
Other than that, I’m just trying to get more intentional about what I spend my time on and delegate parts of the business that don’t light me up.
Where are my target customers already hanging out and who are they paying attention to? If you can connect with those “hubs”, you’ll be drinking from “lead fountains” instead of trying to find one-off customers.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
One of my biggest challenges is trying to transition from Side Hustle Nation as a “personal brand” to Side Hustle Nation as a standalone media business. I’ve enjoyed being “the side hustle guy” for the last 10 years, and still get a kick out of sourcing and scooping new business ideas, but would love to set up the business to be less dependent on me.
To that end, I’ve made some investments in coaching and am trying to remove myself as the bottleneck for certain processes, especially as it relates to blog content.
I still do a lot of the writing myself, and even when I hire other writers, I find myself spending too long editing their work because it’s not strong enough or not how I would have presented it.
I’ll be the first to admit I have a hard time giving up control and delegating what gets published on the site!
What's your biggest lesson?
At the end of the year, I wrote down a few key learnings. Among them:
Are you chasing mice or antelopes? That is, are you tackling projects that are going to move the needle? I spent quite a bit of time creating content around low competition keywords last year, but they also had pretty low search volume. So even if you win, it’s like the lion chasing the mouse -— he’s still gonna be hungry.
Curiosity drives everything. It’s taken years to fully embrace this, but I think the reason the podcast works is I’m inherently curious to learn more about the businesses my guests are running. And on the website side, almost all of my best performing content started from a place of curiosity.
For example, I got paid to do this in-person focus group in San Francisco about family air travel and thought it was a really fun and unique way to make money. So when I got home, I started researching all the other companies that do paid market research and turned that into a blog post.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
A couple of things are in the works for this year. The first is getting serious about building out the blog/website side of the business with a high quality SEO writer/team. Doing it myself isn’t sustainable.
The other thing I’d like to explore is building out some sort of community and/or coaching program for side hustlers to scale their projects to a full-time income level. I think it would be cool to track success by the number of people we help quit their jobs!
In a recent survey, I asked the audience what their biggest struggle was. Among those looking for a side hustle, lack of time and finding the right idea topped the list.
But among those who already have a side hustle going, growth and marketing are their biggest challenges. I’d love to figure out a way to support their growth. We have 100s of marketing examples and case studies to pull from, so there might be something there to build out the playbook for different businesses.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
My favorite read of the last year was this book called The Wager. It’s a true story of an 18th Century British navy mission gone wrong, and the ensuing struggle for survival. It’s crazy to read about what these men went through and made me super grateful to be alive today.
On the business and personal development side, I’ve been working my way through Arete by Brian Johnson. Brian’s been one of my favorite content creators for years, and this is a collection of ancient wisdom and modern science on how to live your best life.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
The most effective “growth hack” I’ve seen from the side hustlers and entrepreneurs I’ve talked to lately has been to tap into other complementary audiences. Maybe that means doing podcast promo swaps, newsletter shoutouts, or guest workshops.
It’s going to be different for every business, but the question to ask is where are my target customers already hanging out and who are they paying attention to. If you can connect with those “hubs”, you’ll be drinking from “lead fountains” instead of trying to find one-off customers.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
A content writer with SEO and affiliate marketing experience is on my short list! I haven’t fully fleshed out what this position would look like (either hourly or monthly retainer), but imagine someone who can take over the day-to-day of the website to drive profitable traffic growth.
That would involve creating new evergreen content and keeping the existing library up-to-date.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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