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

Welcome to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!  This week, Spencer’s flying solo so we’ve got a shorter episode for you. It may be shorter, but it’s still packed with the news, some side hustle shenanigans, and a weird niche site. He starts by talking about Google’s 2024 Spam Update, which was just released on June 20th, and unsurprisingly, Google doesn’t 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’s article about how SEO visibility is shifting away from review sites to eCommerce and UGC sites. Google says that it has worked to “reduce unhelpful content by 45%,” although many small publishers would disagree. Spencer takes a look at Amsive’s 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’ve 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’s 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’s 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’s 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  money? Where is its traffic coming from?  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’s solo episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope you’re up to speed on the latest events in the space and feeling inspired by Spencer’s side hustle and weird niche site. See you next week! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?  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?  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

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

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’s podcast, they decide to lead with positivity, kicking things off with potentially good news for sites pummelled by the HCU.  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.  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.  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.  Spencer reveals how the site has seen its visibility decline following the HCU, potentially losing half of its traffic.  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’s trying to earn $1000 from a new Facebook page in one month. He’s 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’s his ad spend so far? What interesting and potentially profitable advice does Jared offer him? Tune in to hear all the details! When it’s Jared’s turn, he talks about a strategy he’s 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.  He’s also working on a digital product that he wants to sell to his audience. What’s going well and what’s not? Check out the full episode to find out. Then it’s 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.  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.  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’s Jared’s theory about this very niche website? What’s 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?  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?  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

What do you do when the job market looks bleak and you’re tired of waiting tables? You move to China! Well, that’s 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, and his unconventional route to monetization. Robert initially resisted niching down but eventually took the plunge. It’s 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.  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?  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?  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

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’s 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’s API leak, confirmed by Google themselves.  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’s 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’s Jared’s turn, he teases the success he’s having with his newsletter side hustle, but ultimately talks about Amazon Influencer. He reveals how many videos he’s 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’s unique features. He also reveals that it gets 180k organic visitors per month, and in some months over a million organic visitors.  When it’s Jared’s 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?  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?  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

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?  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?  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

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’s 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.   That being said, what strategy does Spencer think could be useful for ranking going forward? And what do they think about Google’s spokespeople? If you want to hear their thoughts on Twiddlers, small personal sites, baby panda demotion, and site radius, and also catch Spencer’s advice to Google, check out the full episode. Moving along, Spencer talks about an experiment he’s working on: a site where the traffic comes from Facebook and Reddit.  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’s currently with Ezoic but his goal is to get into Mediavine or Raptive, start earning $1k per month, and build on that. When it’s Jared’s 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.  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’t 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?  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?  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

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, “an overnight success 10 years in the making.”  Links & Resources Earnifi Starter Story episode  Twitter  Github  Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?  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?  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

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.  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’ 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’s Ads VP being asked about the impact of AI Search on publishers.  And lastly, they discuss an article on the recent results from AI Overviews.  Moving on to their Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer talks about an experiment he’s 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’s monetized with display ads. When it’s Jared’s 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?  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?  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

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.  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’t 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 “podcast” 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?  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?  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