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How Shelley Marmor Grew Her Monthly Income From $700 to $52,000 in 1 Year With Affiliate SEO

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How Shelley Marmor Grew Her Monthly Income From $700 to $52,000 in 1 Year With Affiliate SEO

Want actionable tips and strategies to help grow your site’s traffic and affiliate earnings?

Hope so because that’s what today’s episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast is all about.

Shelley is a relatively new blogger who managed to take her travel site earnings from $8,490 in all of 2021 to multiple six figures and $52,604 in just one month by the end of 2022.

She generously shares her revenue breakdown and the changes she made to her site to make this happen.

The discussion includes:

  • The importance of good hosting and a good theme
  • Doubling down on what works (with actionable examples)
  • Using long tail variants to boost earnings
  • Ways to ensure your content is the best in the SERPs
  • Understanding the customer journey to ensure you go after the best topics
  • And much more…

Considering what she’s managed to accomplish within such a short time, this is a truly inspiring episode.

And the fact that she shares specific advice that anyone can follow to reach similar results regardless of niche makes it even better.

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Hope you enjoy!

Topics Shelley Marmor Covers

  • Whether her journalism background helps with blogging
  • Revenue breakdown
  • Airbnb affiliate program getting shut down
  • Understanding the customer journey
  • Building your way up to the pillar page
  • Affiliate program selection
  • The main topics for travel affiliates to profit
  • Proactive link building
  • Internal linking with Link Whisper
  • Content production tips
  • Power of backlinks
  • Why it’s so important to rank keywords
  • When to start a second site
  • And much more…

This Episode is Sponsored by Search Intelligence & Nichesites.com

Watch The Interview

Read The Transcription

Jared: Welcome to the Niche Pursuits podcast. Today we’re joined by Shelly Marmor. She is a successful travel blogger running several websites of her own. Shelly joins us and we joke a ton, the podcast about the theme of this episode being a lot can happen in a year. And boy is she living testament of that today, Shelly and her collection of four websites earns her something like $275,000 a year.

And just surpassed the $50,000 per month Mark. If you rewind just 12 months ago she was earning about $8,000 in a full calendar year from her blog and her website. So a lot has happened in a year. She’s grown her number one travel site to getting a lot of traffic and a lot of revenue, and we go into the depths at the beginning of the podcast on how she quickly transitioned that website from where it was a year ago to where it was.

Now, if you’re looking for inspiration, if you’re looking for a path to go down to grow, your website is a great interview for you to listen to. We talk about a lot of the specifics that she used to get there. We talk. In depth about how nuanced you should go when it comes to your keyword research and understanding the buyer intent behind every keyword.

She gives a lot of examples about what she’s talking about, and I thought she had a really interesting approach about how she really niches down for each topic and writes these really complete articles that end up really making a lot of affiliate commissions. We bounce around and talk about the role of back links, how she builds back links, how early she builds back links to a site.

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We talk about internal linking. We talk about making your post the very best that it can be and making it the very best thing that’s available on the internet for that topic, she shares some of the, the little nuance things she does to make her articles fit that, and then we start talking about why she chose to start sites two, three, and four, how she’s starting sites, how she’s starting to let go of being the only one to write for this site, how she’s scaling out a writing team, and some of the conversations that spin out of that.

Shelly has a a little minicourse and a website you can visit if you want to get her tips for how to do better at affiliate marketing. She shares that website and we put it in the show notes as well. So if you wanna go grab her free minicourse, you can do that. Listen along for a great story of inspiration, but also a great story that gets into the weeds about exactly how to really scale out your website.

I hope you enjoy introducing niche sites.com. Are you looking to scale your niche site portfolio or build your first website? Look no further than niche sites.com. With a portfolio of successful websites and over 700 plus satisfied clients. The [email protected] have the skills and experience to help you succeed From keyword research to link building content writing to done for you websites, niche sites.com offers a full range of services to help your content site grow.

As the sing goes, the trial is worth more than a thousand words, and they’re offering a special trial just for new customers. You get 5,000 words of content completely free with your order of 10,000 plus traffic back links. Don’t miss this opportunity. Head on over to niche sites.com/trial and take advantage of this amazing trial offer.

Again, it’s niche, sys plural, niche sys.com/trial. Go claim your free content today. Before we jump into the podcast, I wanted to let you know that today’s episode is sponsored by Search Intelligence. Here’s a short clip of Ferry from Search Intelligence showing you how their agency built digital PR links to a client’s.

In this video, I 

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Shelley: will show you how we landed a placement on BBC and dozens of links in massive regional online publications such as Wears Online, BOLs, and many more. This PR campaign was about the easiest place to pass your driving test for the first 

Jared: time in the uk.

Shelley:

This is how we’ve done it. We simply went to D Value website, found the latest car driving test data by test center, and downloaded the data in a CSB format. Once we had the data, all we have to do is to look at the number of total tests per test center, then look at the number of. First time passes to calculate the percentage of people who passed their tests for the first time.

Once we had the percentage numbers, we created a press release with our findings. Then we went to Rox Hill and found journalists who talk about driving tests and also looked for journalists who write in regional publications in the uk. In total, we have found about 1,800 journalists and sent them our press list by email within less than a day.

Our story got picked up by BBC Corn Life Wells Online, and dozens of other publications in the UK providing our client a tsunami of backlinks. Perfectly relevant to the audience of the client who is a specialist in Learner Drive car insurance. I hope this video is helpful and it shows you how you can also build links with freely available data from 

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Jared: official.

If you want similar link building PR campaigns for your website, head to search intelligence.co.uk and get in touch with them now.

Welcome back to The Niche for Suits podcast. My name is Jared Baumen, and today we’re joined by Shelly Marmur. Shelly, welcome on board. 

Shelley: Thank you, Jared. I’m so excited to be here. This is my first time doing a YouTube, so. 

Jared: Well, for those of you, I was gonna say, and you are bringing the background to YouTube, if you’re not watching the recording, tell us where this background is and, and what you have up in the background there.

Shelley: The background is Mexico City. Little known fact there is a Chinatown in Mexico City. I mean, what major city doesn’t have one, but most people do not know there’s one in Mexico City. I used to live in Mexico City. I am now living in Oaxaca, Mexico, but I’ve been traveling around Mexico for a while, coming up on five years here.

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So yeah, Mexico City is behind me. 

Jared: Your background sets the stage nicely for today. You are a travel, you’re on a travel website. A couple actually. At this point we’re talking about your travel website and how you grew it and all those sorts of things. And so I love that you’re bringing the theme all the way through the podcast , which is great.

Let’s see, so before we get into to all the nitty gritty about, about your websites and that sort of thing, maybe bring us up to speed on you, your background, who you are and, and those sort, those sorts of things. 

Shelley: Sure. So like many people maybe who are in this universe of like online working, online digital nomad stuff working for yourself, I got my soul sucked out in corporate America, and was like, how do I do it?

What do I do? Oops. You know, and I built it everything up step by step, but I do have a degree in journalism. So some people are like, well, that gives you such a ba a leg up. As far as blogging, and honestly it does not, I had to completely relearn writing for SEO o writing for print, and writing for seo.

O it is comp Su, it’s so different. So, but also like, I like to tell people that everyone has a leg up in some way. We just kind of. Identify them or not. So don’t think like, cuz I did like that is like put me to the front of the class for blogging. It didn’t. But you know, I left corporate America. I was trying to figure it out and one step at a time started blogging, then I started networking Facebook groups, realizing people are actually making money doing this

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And I just was like, what can I know? What can you tell me? And then the kind of, the free content sort of dried up because there’s good free content and bad free content. Put some skin in the game, invested in some courses. And that kind of brings us up to today. I’m now a multiple six figure blogger. I have four travel blogs and a fifth blog about blog.

That I just started. 

Jared: So I wanna ask about the journalism comment because you are right. We do tend, I tend to think, cuz we’ve had a couple journalists on before, I tend to think, oh my goodness, you’ve been trained how to research, you’ve been trained how to write, but you say not an advantage. Why? I mean, I’m curious, why not?

Shelley: So I was a magazine editor, but before that I worked for newspapers. It’s writing to SEO is me talking to Google. Essentially it’s, it’s me talking to a machine. There’s a lot more, let’s say logic or strategy. Writing for a magazine or a newspaper is a little bit more storytelling. I think there’s some people who start a blog because they think they’re wonderful storytellers, and that’s very cool.

It’s harder to make money doing that. That’s honestly, I feel like that really falls more under a lifestyle blog. Like for me, a travel blog is someone puts a question into Google or a query into Google. Google sends them to me, I answer the question, and they most likely kind of go on their merry way.

So I don’t really necessarily see myself as a storyteller in that sense, where I think that’s pretty much what a journalist would do. So that’s, I mean, that’s just my 

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Jared: opinion. Of course. Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense. We have, we have a decent number. I feel like I haven’t kept track, but I feel like there’s successful bloggers who maybe previously were journalists.

I know we also see attorneys and like, so there’s gotta be some characteristics behind maybe what brings you to blogging. But certainly it sounds like you’re right, writing for magazine and writing for the internet is very different. , 

Shelley: well, I write fast, so I guess that skill probably. Well, that would be nice that that translated.

But again, like, you know, you might have, your partner might build websites, so you might have that advantage. I mean, I think everyone has the, some advantage similar to that. Like writing fast is a hundred percent an advantage, but it’s not, you know, a be all end all kind of thing that I had a background in, in journalism.

I honestly think I barely use it doing seo, writing for websites. 

Jared: Well, good point. We all have an advantage. I think that that’s maybe something that everyone should think about if you all have something you bring to the table. I recently realized that my background, for example, in photography as a professional photographer, can be a huge advantage if you use it.

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But if you don’t use it, then it’s not an advantage, you know, if you don’t bother with it. But, well, let’s transition into where you’re at now. You, you kind of hinted at it. Tell us a bit more background on your sites as they are today, and then we’ll unwind how you got there. And it’s quick. I’ll tell you, I’m gonna, I’m not gonna try to jump too far ahead, but you have a very quick path to success.

So where, how many sites and where are they at today in terms of anything you’re comfortable, revenue page views you know, et cetera, et cetera. 

Shelley: I I talk about all of it because, It was seeing other people’s income reports that sort of made me realize it was possible for me. So I talk about money a lot.

Like if you’re like, I don’t, talking about money bothers you, like you, you’re gonna hate me by 

Jared: the end of the video. But listeners love to hear the revenue behind the website. So I think you’re in good. I mean, I think you’re in good hands. It’s 

Shelley: literally like I credit random strangers online with publishing their income reports.

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That helped me see what was actually possible in this world. So I started my first site it’s called Travel Mexico solo, and I started in April, 2020 at the height of the pandemic when no one was traveling. I actually thought it would just be like, or this was a re this is a real story. I was like, it’s gonna be really funny.

One day when I tell people I started a travel blog during a pandemic and it’s now a seven figure business and I’m on my way to doing that, which is kind of crazy in a co almost. Coming up on three years now. So that one I flailed around for the entire first year. 2020 was, you know, just doing every single thing wrong and then cleaning up the messes and then fixing it.

And then, you know, one step forward, two steps back, one step forward, two, subtract. So I actually have no stats whatsoever really, for 2020. But towards the end of that year, I did invest in my very first blogging course, and it was a terrible one, so I won’t name it, but I did realize that I, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know, right?

And I didn’t know everything . That course did not help me learn everything, but it did help me know that I really knew nothing and that there was actually a method to blogging. It’s not just like hit publish and profit. If it was, everyone would be doing it. So I invested in another course, which was a good course, thankfully.

So in 2021, I started. Really keeping track of, of my money, because that’s what business people do. Right. You know, your numbers. So I was like, this is what I want. I want a business. I’m not going back to corporate America. I’m gonna do whatever other business people do. So I started tracking and I, at the end of my first full year blog, I made $8,490.

I’m looking off screen because I actually wrote down all the numbers and I want to give the actual real number to the dollar. Alright. 

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Jared: Right. So 21, you’re, you’re, you’re still on your first site, you’re still on the, the Mexico solo site at that point? One site? One site. All of 2021. 

Shelley: I did start one.

That’s not true. I started one towards the end of 2021, but it wasn’t making any money. So that number has nothing to do with any of the other sites. Mm-hmm. Fast forward another year. 2022 was a big year for me. I did $272,569, an increase of 32 x or 3110% more money. I did a percentage calculator online.

So yeah, that’s where we’re at today. We’re halfway through January. I had my biggest month yet, oh $52,604. Pretty much all from affiliate marketing. Let me like go back like what happened right between 2021 and 2022. Well, I, in 2021, the Airbnb affiliate program still existed. This was the first thing I started seeing bloggers talk about in Facebook groups that they were actually still making money.

The only bloggers I saw that were not crying about losing all their money during the pandemic was this one affiliate program. And it was through Airbnb renting the houses, and I think they were getting a 15% cut at the time. It was a very lucrative program for a lot of people. Mm-hmm. . So I was like, all right, I’m in, like, what do I do?

So I started affiliate marketing and like three months later, I actually did get my first check from Airbnb was for 77. May well have been 77 million. I was on cloud nine, right? And then another, the next month the check came in and the next month the check came in and the next month they shut the program down.

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And , I went into the bathroom, cried said some curse words, but then it, like, it hit me like, wait, well you’re actually making money doing this thing called affiliate marketing, you know? And I truly believe that if you can make $5, you can make 5,000 and then you can make 50,000, then you can make 500,000.

So I was like, just because this program’s done, you’ve proven that you can do this. So just, you know, like, Parlay it into the next thing. So I went really all in on affiliate marketing. I invested in courses on it. I hired a one-on-one blog mentor sort of coach. She no longer does private coaching sadly, but it was just such a game changer.

But, you know, that’s what I did. I started just doing things. Whatever was working, I did it 10 more times, right? Like just basic scaling 1 0 1. So affiliate marketing was the first thing that started making a little bit of money for me, and I was like, all right, I’m in. Let’s do it. So 

Jared: at the end of 2022, as you shared, Absolutely dramatic growth.

You know, I think that’s encouragement for anyone listening who just, like you said, we’re kind of recording this in January of the new year. If you closed out last year, spending a lot of time on your, on your website, , hey, this could be your year. I mean, look at what changes in 12 months. You don’t need to hear that as a fancy encouragement slogan, but just looking at your success now, before we get into, cause I have some questions on how you scaled out that affiliate marketing side of things.

Sure. Tell us about how things break down in terms of your revenue across, now, I think you said four websites. Is that first website the vast majority of the income, or did you also kind of hit big with maybe some other newer projects? How does that, how does that, how it kind of break out? 

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Shelley: Okay. So I have four travel sites and a travel blogging site.

The travel blogging site is, My little baby. It’s only like a month. So that’s really excluded from this. My fourth site is actually only three months old and it is doing close to a hundred dollars a month. Nice on that, but that was a strategic pick. So I would say 70% of the revenue comes from the first site.

I started the big site, that one, and I did my traffic numbers right before last 30 days. Traffic on that 1, 2, 280 2000. So it gets a lot of traffic. The next biggest one, and that one’s on Mediavine for ads. So I do make some money from ads about 10,000, eight to 10 a month on that one. I have another one.

The second one I started. It’s about a year and a half old. That one’s at about 60 k sessions a month. I’m doing about 2020 200 a Mediavine. That one brings in affiliate sales. But that was, I started that one sort of during a time in between realizing how big I could take the affiliates because I think a lot of people in travel don’t, don’t do this, this amount of volume and, and money from affiliates.

I think everyone thinks the B all ends all is the ads on your site. And it’s really, it’s really not. I mean I love Mediavine but I just think people think it’s sort of this holy grail and even, you know, when you’re coming in at 50 k, you’re really looking at 2000 a month. If you have like majority US traffic for travel bloggers, food bloggers, the sky’s the limit for you.

I’m always jealous when I see the food blogger income reports on Mediavine. I think the personal finance does really well too. But the third. I went super affiliate heavy that site’s six months old. It’s at nearing 40 k in traffic, and I’m doing two to $3,000 months on that one. I use an affiliate tracking software, so I know my, my breakdown.

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In revenue per site, but the big one does the, I call it my big kid. My big kid brings in like 70% of, of, of the money. That’s the one with all the traffic that’s, you know, and it helped, that one has helped me build the smaller ones. I can link out to the smaller ones from, from that one, and that’s helped me grow.

That’s how I can have a six month old site doing, you know, 2,500 in getting 40,000 sessions. But it’s also my, that’s my third 

Jared: site, . You clearly have a track record of starting sites and they get traction. I would say relatively quickly, I’m broadly speaking, but I think, you know, most of the time, if you were to ask the average website owner how they would expect to be doing after, say six months, many would say just getting out of the proverbial sandbox.

Many would say, Seen lots of impressions, but not necessarily seen a lot of page views. But you’re doing really well with that. How did you Yeah, let’s, let’s go, let’s go to the, let’s, let’s start with the, the big, the big kid, , the the travel Mexico solo.com, the one that’s earning the lion share, at least at this point of your income.

And I just would love to hear from that, the high level, how you went from 2021 to 2022. Mm-hmm. , like generally speaking, what were the tactics you used? You talked about affiliate marketing and you talked about 10 Xing, the things that were working. What does that look like in, in brass 

Shelley: tax? So I would say, The biggest two things that happened that year was leaving a terrible host and getting onto a good host and getting rid of a theme that was tanking my site in terms of speed to a really fast theme.

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Those things both happened like in July, August, 2021 and my traffic tripled in one month. Like it literally tripled in one month making no other changes. And then from there, like the sites got onto Media Vine, they started just, everything went to like number one in Google. You have to remember also my site is super niche.

Well, Mexico, I mean it’s Mexico niche. Mexico’s a big country. So. But it’s, I only write about Mexico, but yeah, that must have, I must have just got out of the sandbox at about a year and a half in, or a year and three months in. So that was my getting out of the sandbox. But Google started just loving my site.

So some of that I can’t really take credit for. That was just Google loving my site going take cuz it was very slow and I think people are like, oh, I’m not gonna deal with the site speed, I’m just gonna keep pumping out content. But like, you’re just never gonna get, you need to be in number one, number two or number three positions to be like taking all the traffic.

So it started really with there, and then I was able to start doing these just affiliate heavy. Because there’s two ways to get people to your site, right? Paying for ads through Facebook or through Google or through whatever, or SEO traffic. So that’s what I just, then I went even further in on seo, but I was able to kind of just be like, okay, well, Google loves my site now and I’m making a little money with affiliate sales.

I had one article that started doing a thousand dollars a month. I, I will name my site and all that stuff, but I won’t name the article. And that affiliate had oth, I started looking for other opportunities with that affiliate as well, using similar keywords and things like that. And then that’s what I did.

I literally wrote like 10 variants of that same article, and that’s it. Well, like one month my payout was 1200, and the next it was 44. So 

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Jared: what does that look like? Like what does, what do you mean writing 10 different variants of an article? Because it makes sense to me. Mm-hmm. You find an affiliate program that works, talk about mm-hmm.

kind of, you know, varying that. So you continue to double down on what’s working. 

Shelley: Sure. So let’s say you have an article that’s doing a little bit of money about best hotels in la right? So a variant of that might be Best hotels in LA for families, best hotels in LA with free airports, transportation, best hotels in la Let’s see, like what’s a variant of that?

I, I actually do this kind of research on my own, like with a view is like a good variant keyword for like a long tail keyword for hotels specifically. But I don’t know if LA really has anywhere with view that that would, maybe the Hollywood sign, I’m not sure with a view is a good one for a hotel. Luxury hotels in LA would be a variant.

Even boutique hotels in LA might be a variant. Hotels with free breakfast, that one always comes up in, in my key search. Researchings. What else? So, I mean, you know, and then tours in la right? So what’s, so someone looking for tours in la like they don’t really know what they. . But someone looking for food tours in LA like that’s a variant, or walking tours or pub crawls tours of famous people’s houses, you know, like going long tail, I guess is, is one way to do variants.

But yeah, I mean, if you’re doing really well with booking.com, let’s say, you know, something you’re doing, even if you can’t put your finger on it, is working, but sort of the copy paste you know, and everyone’s different. So you kind of have to get creative, but long tail keywords is, is a pretty easy way to go that 

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route.

Jared: So basically, and I’m, I’m just thinking out loud here. You kind of had to stumble into this because the Airbnb program shut down. And so you were looking for other affiliate programs to push, found one that paid well mm-hmm. , and then just thought, Hey, how can I write a ton of content around that now?

Question I have. Sometimes I will see an article like let’s say I’m searching for tours in Los Angeles, and I’ll see in that article they’ll have, Hey, here’s the best food tour. Hey, here’s the best walking tour. Hey, here’s the best beach tour. I’m just making stuff up, whatever. And you went and kind of wrote each article independently and individually.

Did you, did you link all those back together? Was there a strategy behind that? How did you determine to write ’em all? Why not just include ’em all in one big article? I, you know, like, how do people think these things? 

Shelley: Well user intent. So I have been doing this a while teaching affiliate marketing for a while too.

And I think the number one thing that I identify as, like what people are doing wrong is that they’re like, well, I, I put some links in, so I’ve done affiliate marketing. And it’s like, oh no, you haven’t done affiliate. You’ve put links in, you haven’t done affiliate marketing. Right? So like user always come back to user intent.

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Why does the person thinking when they’re putting something into search in Google? So it just started like kind of clicking, like someone putting best tours in la they’re not a hundred percent sure what they want, right? Like, do they want a walking tour? They want a food tour. Do they want a nighttime tour to the best bars?

Do they wanna see the celeb celebs Holmes? Do they wanna go out on a boat? Like, you know, they don’t totally know what they want. So you’re kind of bringing these people, you know, and those are like, that’s what I call the big keyword. Mm-hmm. So like, best hotels in LA would be another thing, but then people are coming to you, to your site, like you f.

Finally got through like the slo, the sl. Is this slaw or slog? Slog, 

Jared: slug, slog. I think it’s slog . 

Shelley: I never know that word. So you’ve finally like done everything to get to the top of Google, and now people are coming to your best tours in LA and they don’t even know the tour that they want. Now you have to kind of be like, well, here’s this one.

That’s great, and here’s this one. That’s great and here’s this one. But people who want best food tours in la, like they a hundred percent know what they want. You know, the intent is to find a food tour. And I just think I put content in front of the people that literally have a finger on the buy button.

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So it’s sort of understanding the customer journey funnel. I don’t wanna get too much billing, buying psychology, but, you know, going after those bottom of the funnel people that I just say literally are ready to, to hit by, and you’re just like, oh, here’s the best one. I’ve done the research for you. I looked through all the Viator tours I, you know, did a comparison.

And this one’s the best one because it includes these three places you must eat at in LA and it’s rated 4.9 outta five stars and 3000 ratings. So no chance you’re not gonna love it too. So it’s, it’s sort of just like putting the right thing in front of the right people. And when you’re doing your keyword research and you see that best hotels in LA has like, you know, 25,000 monthly, right?

But then best pet friendly hotels in LA has 1200. Well, it’s a no, it’s a, it doesn’t matter if the best hotel in la you know, like you walk in and like angels sing to you and like they take you on a cloud to your room. Like if you have a pet, you can’t stay there if they don’t allow pets. It’s just a hard no, right?

So, like, the pet people are, are dying for the, with pets, la hotels with pets content. So, you know, don’t like always go after the big one. So I recommend people start with like the smaller ones, like pet friendly hotels in la with a pool. What whatever your keyword research tells you is the best long tail.

And then once you have like a few best hotels in LA and then everything links back to, to everything. And that’ll get you to the, I mean, best hotels in LA is pretty, pretty competitive. That’s not the best example to be using for this, cuz that’s gonna be hard to rank for. But, you know, a smaller city, obviously that makes more sense for it, but, , 

Jared: first off, it’s clear you still do your own keyword research cuz you are whipping these out , like you have a screen in front of you with with keywords

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I think you bring up such a fascinating point about the buyer intent, and I think you went deeper than most people go when mm-hmm. thinking about it. And, and the reason I said that is because, you know, we’ve talked about buyer intent on the, on the podcast before and like, top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, bottom of the funnel, bottom of the funnel is where people are, are thinking about buying.

And I think it’s a slippery slope because it’s easy to just think that all affiliate keywords, all best of keywords are bottom of the funnel just by the very nature of putting best in. But I I love how you broke down that. No, no, no. Actually there are specific buyer intent keywords that are, they are very hyper ready to buy and then there’s, yes, I wanna make a purchase, but I’m still at the top of mm-hmm the funnel of making a purchase.

And that’s really interesting. Let me ask you a variant of that. Some people would say, well, how do you know whether to write the article on best pet friendly hotels in Los Angeles? Or just include it in a bigger buying guide like Best Hotels in Los Angeles. Some people would say, just go to Google, research it and see what Google says.

When you type in the best pet friendly hotels, do you ever do that or do you just say, I know in my heart that their intent is not to get a big list, but to get a specific article, so I’m gonna write it anyways? 

Shelley: Well, I never go off of what my heart is telling me. I go off of what data tells me. 

Jared: Okay, so you do, you go to Google and kind of say like, Hey, is this article actually something that Google wants me to write?

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Shelley: Well, I mean, I do look at keyword research, you know, key search volume and, and I use a trusts too. But I do look at search volume, but I mean, at the end of the day, like pet travels like a billion dollar industry, like there’s 0% chance whatever key search is telling me. I know people are searching for hotels in LA that are pet friendly.

I mean, and key search would tell me that, I mean, again, I don’t know that LA is like the greatest example for this. But yeah, I defer to data. But if you go to key search and you start looking all these, all the long tail keywords are gonna show, and you can pick the best one and you can, you can see, you know, in that URL column of key search.

Like if no one’s optimized a post for best, you know pet friendly hotels in la. Even if, you know, all the top 10 is like hotels.com, booking.com TripAdvisor, whatever it is, you know, you’re seeing these high das, but like nobody’s actually written that piece of content, so, you know, don’t let that scare you.

It’s never, I’ve never let that scare me. And it’s been working out, but yet I, I defer to data for sure. Let 

Jared: me ask you about the affiliate programs, because I think that a lot of people listening might still be stuck on bigger affiliate programs. We’ll just say Amazon, because that’s the ubiquitous one that a lot of people start off with.

How many travel affiliate programs did you try out? You know, to find one or several that worked really well. Did you have others that you would try out and it, they didn’t work as well, whether it’s from a conversion standpoint or from a option standpoint. Like, I’m just trying to think about the person out there who, like you said, maybe is ad heavy and reticent to trying affiliate marketing.

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And, and trying to think about some of the questions they might have. 

Shelley: I’m actually not in that many programs. People ask me that all the time. I just believe in like, what’s working and how can I do more of that. Have I tried any That didn’t work. I mean, Amazon is it, I think I did like 800 a month that last month on Amazon.

900 a month, something like that. It does. Okay. I mean, don’t like write it off, but I don’t think for travel it’s the best one. Just cuz it’s so hard to rank for any of those, you know, Amazon takes. Or Amazon pays you out. Like what? 1% , something laughable per item. And it’s just for travel.

I’ve never really identified anything that ends up being like so lucrative that it makes so much sense for, or, and lucrative in that I can rank for, cuz like, right, like best backpack for, for travel. Like, I’m not gonna rank for that, things like that. So don’t discount it. But you know, don’t let that be the be all, end all.

I identify like the big five for travel, let’s say, which is like accommodations. Hotels for me, I don’t really do budget travel, but if you did a budget, travel site, hustles would be for you. Maybe car rentals travel insurance and tours. And Amazon is the fifth one, or physical products is the fifth one.

Like if you’re in hiking or outdoors, I you, I would encourage you to look at the R e I program or something like that where the payouts are. Not so laughable . But yeah, I mean, I just stick to what travelers want. I’m not trying to like reinvent the wheel, right? So like the things I just listed, car rental, hotel tour, travel insurance.

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Not everyone gets that, but still physical products, like everyone does need luggage. So, you know, I just went with what was really logical to my niche. 

Jared: Before we jump into the podcast, I wanted to let you know that today’s episode is sponsored by Search Intelligence. Here’s a short clip of Ferry from Search Intelligence showing you how their agency built digital PR links to a client’s website.

Shelley: In this video, I will show you how we landed a placement on BBC and dozens of links in massive regional online publications such as Wears Online, daily Posts, and many more. This PR campaign was about the easiest place to pass your driving test for the first time 

Jared: in the uk.

Shelley: This is how we’ve done it. We simply went to D Value website, found the latest car driving test data by test center, and downloaded the data in a CSB format. Once we had the data, all we had to do is to look at the number of total tests per test center, then look at the number of. First time passes to calculate the percentage of people who passed their tests for the first time.

Once we had the percentage numbers, we created a press release with our findings. Then we went to Rox Hill and found journalists who talk about driving tests and also looked for journalists who write in regional publications in the uk. In total, we have found about 1,800 journalists and sent them our press list by email within less than a day.

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Our story got picked up by PBC Cornwell, life Wells online, and dozens of other publications in the uk providing our client a tsunami of back links. Perfectly relevant to the audience of the client who is a specialist in learner driver car insurance. I hope this video is helpful and it shows you how you can also build links with freely available data from 

Jared: official sources.

If you want similar link building PR campaigns for your website. Head to search-intelligence.co.uk and get in touch with them. Now, you talked earlier, you just kind of teased it a bit. You mentioned that if you’re not in the top three, it doesn’t matter and it’s a good point. You know, data would suggest that only the top three posts that are ranking are really gonna get any traffic.

How do you go about determining if you can get the top three? A lot of software, a lot of keyword research tools will tell you. I’ll say probably more focused on top 10. Yeah. How do you do, do you have any tips for kind of figuring out top three and not worrying about the top 10? . 

Shelley: Well, the riches are in the niches.

That’s what they say. So my site is niche. I have a very authoritative site on one topic, and I can now just be like, oh, okay, I’ll rank for that. I mean, you know, sometimes it takes me a while, but I, I just kind of know. I mean, and then I, you monitor after that, right? So like like 282,000, sorry, look, I wanted to make sure I got the number right.

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282,000 page views in the last 30 days to my site. 50% of that comes from three articles and pretty much the rest of it comes from 10, the, my top 10 traffic post. So I’m, I’m just monitor those to not, you know, lose traffic here and there. I am very aware of what’s ranking, let’s say four through 12 or 13 to see if I can push anything up on page one.

Into numbers 1, 2, 3 you know, especially if they’re like 4, 5, 6. But I’m also looking at what’s like 11, 12, 13, and how can I get that onto page one? And then, you know, a step by, you can build it step by step, but when you have an authority, when you have an established authority and you are doing pretty good in a, in a niche I don’t know if it’s niche or niche either.

Niche, niche, 

Jared: oh man. The ongoing debate , right? 

Shelley: You know, I just know, and my site is a da 31 d R 36, so I don’t have like a number that people are gonna like, you know, I don’t, I don’t have that number, but I, I just know that if I write Mexico’s stuff, it’s going to rank if I then start trying to write LA stuff, it’s, there’s no way, you know, I don’t have a chance.

So I think I just have really carved out a little piece. Of of, of the market, so to speak. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . But I think you can also do that through content pillars. I don’t think you need like a site site that’s super dedicated. But yeah, that’s, I’m, I monitor, that’s, I monitor stuff pretty heavily because most of my money and traffic is on, is coming from five posts, let’s say out of, I think the big site has 170, so that it doesn’t even have that many articles on it either.

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For, for the numbers that I do. But I would say I’m pretty strategic and I wanted to make money from the 

Jared: beginning. Yeah. I was gonna ask you about how many articles the big site had so that that answers that. It isn’t too many. Let’s walk through that. You get an article to number 10. What do you do to get it to number three?

What do you do to get it to number two, what do you do to get it to number one and the things you do, or you, you know because you talk about how, how closely you monitor those, what do you do when you see, when it hits your radar? 

Shelley: You could go through key put, put the main keyword in key search, and it, then it gives you that whole 699 list of keywords.

I would then filter that by volume, make sure I have like those really big ones in there. My, well, it rotates, my top two posts rotate, so it’s either one or two today. I’m not sure. It has, it ranks for like 2,500 keywords which is insane . But all my posts have like a couple hundred keywords at least.

So I’d go through, make sure I, I have all those keywords. I would then put it through the content optimizer and key search as well. Make sure I’m getting like a lot of the lsi, I would go through the rest of the top 10 in Google. Like, do they have a chart? Do they have a map? You know, things like that.

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Do they own an in infographic? Google seems to love infographics. Build a back link. There is a lot of power in a really, really strong back link. I encourage people even to, you know, everyone’s like, well, how do I find, how do I find back links? How do I find it? And I’m like, well, you can be kind of proactive and like, if there’s something you need a, a good back link to, you can write an actual guest post to it, put some photos in it.

Put everything in a Google Drive, optimize it for seo, edit it, make sure you didn’t put any, there’s no like embarrassing typos. Make it completely like print ready. And then go into like some travel blogging, networking groups on Facebook and shop it around. Be like, I have this 2,500 word SEO optimized, post 10 photos ready to go in a Google drive.

I’ll gladly give it to a DA 50 plus. So. Be, you know, proactive in link building interlink. I do use your plugin. Interlinking is super important. It’s just all, it’s all the best practices because I always tell people like, you never really know, like, you know, someone has their secret sauce, right?

But you don’t know the one ingredient that makes it so special. So, you know, just kind of throw everything at it. I’ll, I’ll go hard like a, like a rabid dog on on things like that if I really think it’s like it’s appropriate to do. 

Jared: Yeah. Well, and I think you speak, you speak back to it, but I was noticing in some of your posts, like, I mean, you’ll embed a Google map, you’ll have, you know, really eye-popping images.

So it’s not just about maybe some of the SEO op, you know, the optimization best practices, but you’re right, you have a, you have a lot of internal links, , you know, so it’s clear. You, you, you, you know, I guess you said you’re using Link Whisper for that, but, you know, internal linking, creating that topical relevance.

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And, and we’ve talked a lot on the podcast about how to update articles, how to make them the best available. But you’re right, I mean, I think a lot of people maybe stop at using a little bit of maybe keyword optimization softwares or tools and then, then move on. But I, I, I just wanted to double down on the fact that you really are making it.

I don’t wanna be too dramatic, but we’ll call it the best post available for that topic, you know? Well, yeah. I say 

Shelley: that all the time. Like when you start reaching a certain level, people are like, well, what are you doing? You know, like, and then it’s like, It starts being like, well, you are just special. And I’m like, I’m not just special.

Like I’ve made it hard to not be picked. Number one, . Like, 

Jared: it’s a good 

Shelley: way to put it. You have to. Yeah. Like you, it’s not no one’s special. Like I’m, we’re all just people made of the same people stuff. Like, I’m definitely not special, but I make it so it’s like very hard to be like, no, this one’s not that great.

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Really. Like, it’s like, no, I’ve done everything you’ve said. And of course there’s like a couple articles that like I’ve done that do not rank, like they’re in the wasteland of page two . And there’s like nothing I can do. I’ve been trying so hard and like, you know, I have more victories than failures, but it does happen.

But yeah, you just go hard, go hard at it, throw everything at it, and don’t stop until it gets to number one. I mean, that’s how you Right, that’s succeeding. Like never quitting, . 

Jared: Let’s talk a bit about how you write content and nowadays you have multiple sites to write for. Do you do, did you write most of the articles for your bigger site?

Do you write all the articles for your websites now? Did you transition into having writers? 

Shelley: I have, I have two, like full, full-time, I’ll call ’em full-time writers. I go in and out with a couple other writers. I am able to really turn content into more content, if that makes sense. Things like that.

So I get a little more creative than people do. I am like, what can I, how can I like combine things into another thing? But I don’t write too much anymore. I do have a team now. I have an editor and a blog manager and a layout person and, and things like that. And I’m hiring more writers, so, I don’t anymore, but I do train them in how I’ve done it all along.

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Because again, like I don’t, I don’t know what the thing was that I did, right? All I can do is like keep, and I have to tell like my employees that sometimes, so they don’t think I’m like the most insanely annoying, detail oriented person. I’m like, no, this has to be like this and this has to be like this.

Because I don’t know if that was the thing that led to like my success, you know? So I’m, I go, I go keyword heavy. I guess if that would be the one tip that I would say about writing a post and skyscraper content, I guess is, is how they call it. Like, so if, if I’m seeing, if I’m looking at the top 10 in the.

It’s mostly like top 15 hotels in la, top 12 hotels in la you know, I know I have to do 15 and I’m making sure to include content that’s in every single one of those articles. And then a really big FAQ at the end. So I really do think the outline is the most important. And then go, go hard on keywords.

I mean, don’t keyword stuff. I do see sites that are fully keyword stuffed, but I also think it’s a matter of time for them, like I’m following best practices. But I know that means longevity. I mean, Google could change best practices, but then I would change best practice, my best practices. So the outline’s very important.

Seeing what is ranking in the top 10 is very important. And then just doing better. 

Jared: Are you doing your own outlines or do the writers do the outline? You do the, you do your own outlines yourself, and then maybe hand that off to a writer. So I just hired a blog. I was an emphatic head shake. Yes. So I wanna let you just go on, on that for a while.

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Shelley: Well, you know, it’s, I’m learning to give up control , but I just hired someone. I’m calling a blog manager. I don’t know if I made that up or not. So I’m training her to do the outlines. But it’s something I’ve always done. And even though I’ve had writers for about six months, I’ve always done the outlines because it’s, if you don’t have like that firm foundation putting a bunch of keywords into, it’s not gonna, not gonna make sense.

You know, the headings for Google is, is a big thing. You know, the larger text, whatever you have in larger text obviously gets notice more even for user experience. You know, most people are scrolling your posts, not reading every word. So yes, I think that lines are, are super important and I have always done my own, but hopefully next time we record, I will not be doing that anymore.

Jared: We’ll see, it’s not like they do take up a decent amount of time, but at the same time, they’ve allowed you to scale so that you’re not right anymore. So yeah, I mean, yeah. You know, progress happens in baby steps sometimes. Not in yes it does. Not in full, full sweep. Hey, so let’s touch on it because you did grow your site dramatically.

Did, you did talk a bit about the back links. Would you say that, you know, you’ve done a lot of building of links for these sites or just here and there, how much of a contributor were, was link building to the growth of these websites? 

Shelley: I. And I don’t know if it’s because so many people are like, I’m just not doing it.

I’m, I’m like, backing, smacking, smacking, sparkling, sparkling, sparkling. I did so many collab posts collaborations with other bloggers. I did so many guest posts my first year blogging. And I truly believe in the power of backlinks. I still do it for all my sites. I, I’m, I have a high authority site or higher authority site, I guess.

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So I can link to the other ones through that one, but I know that’s also part of the reason that they’ve grown quickly too. But I’ve still done the same things I do like, or I assign, like collaboration, you know, other my writers to do collaborations and things like that, to, to build links because I think it’s important.

And I also think it’s the thing nobody’s doing or one of the things nobody’s doing, let’s say. 

Jared: When it comes to a newer site, you know, are you starting out outta the get go kind of building links? Even the site is new and doesn’t have a lot of content on it, or you, you know, does have to hit, hit a certain threshold.

I’m curious cuz your new sites, they, they get traction pretty quickly. 

Shelley: Everything starts from day one. I go affiliate heavy and low, let me see, lemme make sure I’m saying this right. Low competition, high, highest volume that I can possibly get with lowest competition keywords. I, I mean, I don’t know this, this, I don’t know, but like in my head, the faster I can get a few things ranking number one on Google, like the faster Google’s like, Hey, what’s this site all about?

So everything’s from day one. I don’t, I don’t think you know, I think we make up kind of those own gl, our own like kind of glass ceilings or whatever in our head and these benchmarks that we have to hit. And they’re, they’re mostly based on hearsay and like someone else’s experience. So I love to be like, no, just start from day one.

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Like, I saw that in a Facebook group a couple months ago, and they were like, when should I get started with affiliate marketing? And I said yesterday like, I believe in that even my, my, well, it’s not my baby anymore now, my fourth it’s only a couple months old and I’m making about a hundred dollars a month in it off of affiliate sales.

And I think it just broke a thousand month in the last 30 days of traffic. So you do not need a lot of traffic. You do need a strategy. So you’re not like throwing spaghetti at the wall like that is a strategy from time to time. But with the new sites Go after keywords, you can get to number one for right away.

And that’s also gonna keep propelling you forward. Those little victories are gonna be what’s possible. I’ve heard it’s harder to make, you know, a hundred dollars than it is to make a hundred thousand. 

Jared: Right? Yeah. You know, it’s interesting you caught roof was on the podcast a couple months, probably a couple months ago now.

Sure. Talking about, and one of the things he said that really stuck out to me was sites that rank for keywords do better in Google’s eyes. Not only now, I think so, but Yeah. But in future future updates with future content. And so it’s about, you know, ranking keywords. So it’s interesting to hear you say that the quicker you can get your site mm-hmm.

I guess your take on that would be the quicker you can get your site to ranking for keywords, the quicker you can grow that site across a whole number of keywords. 

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Shelley: Mm-hmm. , even if it’s like a low, lower volume. You know, that means less people are competing for it. And even hidden keywords is a whole other strategy as well, that my friend Nina was on the podcast a while ago.

I know she talks a lot about hidden keywords. That’s a whole other strategy. Those are gonna show up as zero volume in key search, but you could be getting thousands of pages for that, and no one’s going to even see it, to think to go after it. So, 

Jared: yeah, there’s funny, there’s, you listened to the Kyle podcast.

He talked about zero, you know, volume, keywords, , 

Shelley: I mean, it’s a, yeah, it’s a whole other, it’s a whole other strategy. But yeah, that was sort of my, my thought when I started the fourth one. I’m like, well, what, because my third one and second one we’re pretty lower competition in terms of like, other sites existing for those same niches.

But my fourth site has other competition with similar niche sites. So I was just like, how can I. You know, get out of the sandbox, I guess, as fast as possible. So I just started going after keywords that were lower volume and pretty much that no one else had written about. And I’m, I’ve started there and I don’t know, you know, a lot of this is testing, right,

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So like, I always tell people, like, they’re like, what, what can, what can I do just like you? And I’m like, you can test you can pick one thing and test it for six months, and if in six months, like that is not working at all, you can do another, you do a different thing. But, you know, pick one thing, stick to it for a while, ride it out.

So for me, that was starting with these really low competition keywords on the, on the newest site. And yeah, it just, it’s only like, I wanna say it’s like two and a half, three, let’s say it’s three months old. But yeah, I just broke like a thousand page views in the last 30 days with the little one, 

Jared: the.

A constant question with affiliate marketers is, do I need to write, we’ll call it non monetized, non-affiliate style content. Right. So you had, you know, you used the analogy earlier about the best hotels in Los Angeles. These are all like very buyer intent affiliate marketing type posts. How much info content do you write for your site?

Do you have a, a percentage that you, you think you need to stay within? Do you think that’s all bogus and you don’t worry about it? You know, and, and do you follow that across each of your sites? 

Shelley: I would say, I don’t really think about it too much. Two out of two of my sites are monetized through Mediavine ads, so I do want content that just brings in traffic because I make money that way too.

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But my content, my affiliate content is traffic content. Like I have satisfied search intent on that keyword so much that like, if I took the, the affiliate links out, I still rank number one for really good content. So I liked. I mean, there are for sure affiliate keywords and traffic keywords, but your affiliate posts should be a really, really good traffic post as well.

So I don’t know. I think the line is more blurred for me than I would say, do one and not do the other, or, I do this much of this and this much of it. Like they’re all kind of traffic posts. Just some have more affiliate links in them. Yeah. Yeah. 

Jared: Slowly starting to kind of maybe transition outta the weeds and into this kind of high level conversation that we started with, which is that you have this very successful site earning, I think you said about 70% of your total revenue, and then in 2022, so in the last 12 months or so, you slowly started to pivot and start some new sites, and it’s kind of the age old question, right?

Like I definitely ask this a lot with people who have multiple sites. I don’t wanna get their insights because you had a very successful site. When did you make the decision and why? Between putting more and all of your effort into that successful site versus starting off one, two, and, and three more website.

So 

Shelley: I actually started the second one because it was the city that I lived in for three years. I’ve since moved to a new city, but my intention was to do tours in that city. So I was actually starting the second website more as a selling tool or a traffic funnel to get people to book tours. But I quickly realized that like I can do okay on my own.

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Like I don’t really have to loop the general public into my life anymore. And I work better that way. So I kind of gave up on the thing for tours, but then like I got that site into Media Vine in four months which is really quick. And I just realized I could grow sites pretty quick. So I’m comfortable starting new ones.

I always tell people not to start a new site unless you. Have some kind of, let’s say, goal in mind. Like, don’t start a new site for the sake of starting a new site, especially if you’re not doing, I don’t know, your number is your number, but let’s say like 10 K, like passively, like for four to six months in a row.

And then be like, okay, maybe it’s, I can go all in on a second one because you don’t wanna go all in on a second one and give it like 10% because you’re, you’re never gonna see what you saw with the first one. Mm-hmm. . So I’m a big fan of not doing another site. I do also have, like, you know, these to me are, are digital properties or assets that I can sell one day.

So I’m sort of forward thinking in that way too. But yeah, don’t start a second site to start a second site. That’s a bad idea. 

Jared: Shiny 

Shelley: syndrome, right? Don’t, don’t have it. Do whatever you have to do to not have shiny 

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Jared: so hard to, 

Shelley: so hard to really, I feel like it’s not, I guess I don’t, I guess by nature, I don’t naturally have, I mean, you know, I’m a human.

Like sometimes I do have it, but like, I don’t think that was one of my hurdles to overcome. Just again, like by na by nature. I don’t think, for me that was, I’m more of a like, do one thing. Person, I guess. I don’t know. My f like, focus wasn’t hard for 

Jared: me. You’re, I think you’re well optimized then for succeeding in, in, in website, you know, on websites.

Because oftentimes, I mean, you said it yourself, like as soon as something’s successful, you just did it 10 times over again. And I think there’s some, for many, there’s monotony in that. And so the, for sure, you know, right. So that’s why I think we’re the shiny object center might come in like, but, but you already said this is part of the big reason for your success is, hey, you’ve seen this, this works.

I’m just gonna go do that over and over and over and over, and over. 

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Shelley: Yeah, I like, so when I talk about like having a very niche site, like I have a country site, I have city sites, stuff like that, you know, people are like, well, it’s so limiting, it’s so limiting. And I’m like, you know, what’s not limiting? My income is not limiting.

That has opened a world to me. But I also think like people get into this sort of with very lofty ideas. You know, writing just in is one of those kind of things where it’s kind of like, I don’t know, people see like, what’s that movie almost famous? And I’m gonna go on tour with the Bandman and I’m gonna like, it’s all, it’s very like, Idealized kind of a field.

And I guess I saw the ugly side of journalism having more . It’s a journalist. It’s kinda like if you’re an actor in a movie, it’s glamorous on the outside, but on the inside it’s like, it’s work, right? Mm-hmm. . So I think people start this and they’re like, well, how can I just do whatever I want forever?

And I’m like, well, that’s not a job. I mean, that’s a hobby, you know, you can do that, but, you know, hobbies, bring hobby results. So I just, you know, I’m def I guess I’m not like a tough love kind of parent managing expectations. Like, you know, this is your it, you wanna make job money, you know, this has to be your job.

And many aspects of our jobs are not the, our favorite part of the day. And like, that’s okay. But, you know, I live where I want. I work when I want and I earn money while I sleep. So like, there’s no limit. , there’s nothing limiting about those statements, right? So, 

Jared: I meant to ask earlier, and I got sidetracked with another question.

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Obviously you, and we spent the bulk of the interview talking about the SEO approach you bring. Are you, are you doing anything else for these websites beyond writing optimized content? Are you doing email marketing or social media accounts? Putting any effort into anywhere other than than seo, 

Shelley: I do know social media whatsoever.

Okay. As a conscious choice, I. Dislike it on a personal level. But I also, you know, so like when I got started with this in 2020 early mid or April, 2020 it was right before kind of this big huge Pinterest algorithm change. People have probably talked about that before. Oh, I know 

Jared: the one you’re talking about.

Yep. 

Shelley: Okay. So basically overnight people lost everything. And the same thing when Facebook changed their algorithms and pretty much like shut people out of their groups. And, you know, made everything, you know, ads only Instagram as well. Now we’ve seen it on Pinterest, things like that, like, you know, it’s still rented.

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you’re still on lease land or whatever. So from the beginning, all I ever heard anyone talking about, you know, so I’m coming in at that point, right where everyone, people are losing everything overnight on Pinterest and everyone was, you know, like the money’s in the list. The money’s in the list. So I did start an email list really early.

I still honestly struggle with how to monetize that list for my niche specifically. Other niches might be to monetize an email list, but people are kind of one and done with travel, which is where it’s a little tricky. At least for me, like if anyone listening has tips for me, please slide into the dms I don’t use on social media.

No. No. Like, I just haven’t figured out how to do it. But I do have an email list for my new arm of business, which is travel, like blogging, about blogging. And that’s a really active list, and I can sell to that list pretty naturally and easily, literally just by like recommending things that I love.

So I, Domo marketing, I’m still, I feel like kind of new to it, but email marketing for travel blocking has honestly been a struggle to me. Mm-hmm. . But I did take heed of the warnings I got very early on to not waste your time on social media because it’s just too much of 

Jared: a gamble. Hmm. You know, you mentioned it.

Let’s, as we wrap up, you are you talk a little bit about how you are. You have a website that’s that’s geared towards helping other content creators with affiliate marketing. Share if you can share that website and you know, where people can go to learn more about that. 

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Shelley: Okay. If you would like to see my baby, my newest baby don’t know if it’s a he or she or they the website is travel blogging one oh one.com.

I do have a really good freebie on there. It’s a video kind of mini course on the five programs. I recommend my big five that I make a lot of money off of month after month. So you can go there. It’s the first thing you’ll see when you go to the homepage and grab that video, download and get started.

The first step to affiliate marketing is to affiliate market. Yeah, 

Jared: it’s interesting. I mean, like you said, it’s it’s to the point of what you’ve talked about so far in the interview. It’s not just about getting started on building a website, but also if you’re maybe ad heavy, your encouragement, it sounds like is to, to lean more into affiliate marketing to, to have another channel for, for where you make your income.

Shelley: Oh, well, yeah, for sure. I mean, again, like. I mean the people you know that talked a lot about not being affected so much during Covid just a few years back was like the people who were diversified. So I was always like, okay, well what else can I do? And then I do make a lot of money on Meine. But that’s also cuz I have a lot of traffic, right?

So I think when you’re coming in at 50 k, they require 50,000 sessions in a 30 day period for you to send the app to them. I mean, in, within travel, if you have majority majority US traffic, you’re still looking at like 2000 to 2,500 pre-taxed dollars. And I, I just don’t think it’s really the quit your job kind of money that most people are, are hoping it’s gonna be.

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So. Affiliate marketing is another great way to do it. Sponsorships, which I don’t do, those are kind of hard if you don’t have a social media following. It’s also a lot of negotiation and lawyer stuff that I try to avoid if I can. So yeah, for me, like the easiest way, were the easiest ways were ads and affiliates, and now even with two sites on Mediavine, I’m still doing like 65% of my income from affiliate marketing.

All right. 

Jared: Well, we’ll include a link to your website to show notes so people can hop over there and grab your freebie. That’s a pretty good freebie. A mini course. still. That’s a good one. Hey, thanks so much, Shelly, for joining us. I didn’t say it. Congratulations on your success. You are sitting in a much different position here January, 2023 than you were just one year ago in January 20th, 2020 2022.

And man, congratulations. That’s really amazing. Thanks for sharing your story with with all of us here. 

Shelley: Sure. Thank you so much. And a lot can happen in a year. So wherever you’re sitting today, Next year, you could be in a whole different ballgame too. 

Jared: That’s what we should call this one. A lot can happen in a year.

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That’s a a that’s a really, A lot can happen in a year. Well, you’re proof. We don’t need to , you know, it’s a motivational line, but it’s you, you back it up with truth. So thanks for sharing a very motivational story, but also very tactile story. You were, you were very good with all the details you shared about how people can, can can grow their website, their traffic, and their earnings this year.

So thanks so much for coming on the podcast until we until we talk again. 

Shelley: Thanks for having me. Bye. 

Jared: Introducing niche sites.com. Are you looking to scale your niche site portfolio or build your first website? Look no further than niche sites.com. With a portfolio of successful websites and over 700 plus satisfied clients.

The [email protected] have the skills and experience to help you succeed. From keyword research to link building content writing to done for you websites. Niche sites.com offers a full range of services to help your content site grow. As the thing goes, a trial is worth more than a thousand words, and they’re offering a special trial just for new customers.

You get 5,000 words of content completely free with your order of 10,000 plus traffic back links. Don’t miss this opportunity. Head on over to niche sites.com/trial and take advantage of this amazing trial offer. Again, it’s niche sites, plural Niche sites.com/trial. Go claim your free content today. I wanted to let you know that today’s episode is sponsored by Search Intelligence.

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Here’s a short clip of Ferry from Search Intelligence showing you how their agency built digital PR links to a client’s website. 

Shelley: In this video, I will show you how we landed a placement on BBC and dozens of links in massive regional online publications such as Wears Online, daily Posts, and many more.

This PR campaign was about the easiest place to pass your driving test for the first time in the uk.

Jared: This is how we’ve 

Shelley: done it. We simply went to D website, found the latest car driving test data by test center, and downloaded the data in a CSB format. Once we had the data, all we had to do is to look at the number of total tests per test center, then look at the number of first time passes to calculate the percentage of people who passed their tests for the first time.

Once we had the percentage numbers, we created a press release with our findings. Then we went to Rox. And found journalists who talk about driving tests and also look for journalists who write in regional publications in the uk. In total, we have found about 1,800 journalists and sent them our press list by email within less than a day.

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Our story got picked up by PBC Corn Live Wells online, and dozens of other publications in the UK providing a client a tsunami of back links. Perfectly relevant to the audience of the client who is a specialist in learner driver car insurance. I hope this video is helpful and it shows you how you can also build links with freely available data from official sources.

Jared: If you want similar link building PR campaigns for your website, head to search intelligence.co.uk and get in touch with them.



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How Creators Make Money Is Changing

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In 2021, we reported on a survey that measured creators’ top sources of revenue. At that time, sponsorships with advertisers took the top spot by …

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The Ultimate Guide to Succeeding Alone in Business in 2024

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The Ultimate Guide to Succeeding Alone in Business in 2024

What is a solopreneur? And how do you become one?

Well, in this post, we’re diving into the world of solopreneurship to help you get started.

You’ll learn:

  • The difference between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur
  • Pros and cons of solopreneurship
  • A step-by-step guide to becoming a solopreneur
  • Plus, solopreneur business ideas you can start today.

Let’s get started.

What is a Solopreneur?

A solopreneur is a person who starts a business by themself, without a partner, and the need for hiring employees.

What is a Solopreneur?

Merriam-Webster defines it as:

One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise without the help of a partner : a solo entrepreneur.

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They typically bootstrap their business using their own money and manage all aspects of the business needs to make a profit.

This might involve sales, marketing, product development, managing finances, and customer satisfaction.

Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur

Now, you might be asking, “What’s the difference between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur?”

Solopreneur vs EntrepreneurSolopreneur vs Entrepreneur

Here are the key distinctions between the two. Knowing these can also help you choose which one to pursue.

Purpose

A solopreneur and an entrepreneur have slightly different intentions when launching a business. The solopreneur starts a business so they can work for themselves, make extra money, and work on something they’re passionate about.

Solopreneurs often start a side hustle while working a regular job, hoping their business will take over their salary.

The entrepreneur generally starts a business for growth, scalability, and profit. They may also be driven by having an impact on a market.

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Entrepreneurs might start as solopreneurs in the beginning but with an aim to expand. They may also have an exit strategy in mind from the very beginning, whereas solopreneurs rarely start to sell the business.

Management

Solopreneurs don’t hire employees as they aim to manage all aspects of the business themselves. But, they might hire a freelancer, independent contractor, or virtual assistant for specific daily tasks.

The solopreneur doesn’t usually seek investments either, as their startups are self-funded.

Entrepreneurs will build a team of employees and seek investments so they can expand the business quickly.

Most entrepreneurs don’t want to be working in the business but rather focus on their vision and creative direction.

Focus

The focus of a solopreneur is primarily to create a lifestyle business. They might also want to achieve financial independence and work on things they love.

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Many solopreneurs are simply driven by their interests. For example, an artist might want to spend more time painting, so they research ways to monetize their work.

When their art business makes more money than their job, they can leave and focus on painting full-time. They’ve turned their hobby into a business.

Whereas the entrepreneur might have a passion for growth, innovation, impact, or for business itself. The businesses they start can be varied, and they don’t necessarily have to be passionate about their niche.

Pros and Cons of Solopreneurship

Like any venture, business model, or career choice, there are advantages and disadvantages.

Here’s what you need to know when becoming a solopreneur.

Solopreneurship Pros

  1. The introverts dream. Solopreneurship can be very appealing to introverts or those who like working alone.
  2. Total autonomy. You have complete control over business decisions, projects you work on, and the people you serve.
  3. Flexibility. It provides total freedom regarding the hours you work and your location.
  4. Low startup costs. Many solopreneurs can start with a social media account and free marketing tools like Substack.
  5. Passive income. There’s a lot of potential to earn passive income as a solopreneur. Here are some passive income ideas to look into.

Solopreneurship Cons

  1. Workload. Many roles are required to be a successful solopreneur. These include marketing, sales, accounting, and client satisfaction.
  2. Inconsistent income. Revenue can be slow and inconsistent in the beginning.
  3. Isolation. Running a business alone can get pretty lonely sometimes, even for introverts.
  4. Work-life imbalance. It can be hard to switch between work and play, especially when working from home.
  5. Financial responsibility. Financial management can be quite daunting for some people and may lead to failed startups when not managed well.

How to Become a Solopreneur

Here are 9 steps you can take to make the solopreneur journey a breeze.

1. Evaluate Your Skills

Solopreneurship is all about monetizing a skill or what you know. So, the first step is to know what you’re good at.

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This is harder than it seems because what we’re good at often comes naturally to us. Therefore, we don’t recognize our own talents.

It could be fixing your diet, graphic design, writing a novel, or dealing with stress.

Start by documenting your life and answering these questions:

  • What are you passionate about that you’ll never get bored with?
  • Have you achieved anything significant that came easy to you?
  • What do you spend the most money on?
  • What do your friends come to you for advice about?

Spend some time journalling or brainstorming things that come to you. Just try to keep it simple.

You don’t have to be an expert to be your own boss. Only a desire to help others who are a few steps behind you.

If you’re really stuck, you can choose one of the easiest online businesses to start to get you going.

2. Set Financial Goals

Next up is knowing how much income you want to make.

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Solopreneur financial goalsSolopreneur financial goals

Do you want to make a little extra on the side? Or do you want to replace your salary?

There’s no limit to how much you can make when starting an online business as a solopreneur.

But it’s still important to set business goals. Doing so will help you make better decisions and even choose a business model or product to sell.

You’ll want to establish short-term and long-term financial goals. That way, you’ll stay motivated and maintain focus.

3. Choose a Business Model

Your business model is how you deliver your products or services. Establishing one will give you clarity on the direction you can take.

It will also reveal how you’ll generate income, establish risk, and how you might scale if you want to.

We’ll take a deeper dive at specific business ideas later, but these are the main business models to choose from.

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  1. Service-based. Things like freelance writing or web design services.
  2. Content creator. Teaching through YouTube, blogs, or online courses.
  3. Coaching. Helping people achieve personal or professional goals.
  4. eCommerce. Selling physical or digital products.
  5. Developer. Launching web or mobile apps.

4. Identify Your Ideal Market

So you have an idea of what you’ll be offering and the business model to deliver it.

But now you need to find an audience who needs it. Skip this step, and you could sell something no one needs.

Market research validates what you have to sell and will help you clarify your offer.

It involves understanding the pain points of your target audience and crafting a compelling solution.

Here are some popular ways to perform market research today:

  1. Forums and communities: Join and engage in niche forums or communities like Facebook groups. Use Google to find these forums or the search feature on Facebook.
  2. Social media: Monitor conversations on social media sites like Twitter and Reddit. Search for niche-related tags to find the right people.
  3. Competitor analysis: Research your competitors to see what pain points they focus on. Analyze the copy on their website and social media channels to gather insights into your audience.
  4. Keyword research: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMRush to find out what your niche is searching for. This will help you understand what their needs and goals are.
  5. Start a community: Launch a free Facebook Group or community platform like Skool to get to know your audience on a deeper level.

Niching down will always help you find a more passionate audience, so try not to go too broad. You can also read our posts on the best niche markets to get some ideas.

5. Create a Business Plan

According to a study published in Small Business Economics, people who create a business plan are 152% more likely to launch their business .

Develop a business planDevelop a business plan

Another study revealed that companies that plan grow 30% faster than those that don’t plan.

The downfall when planning is that many solopreneurs can get caught up in all the details. However, it doesn’t have to take weeks or months or need to be perfect.

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What’s important is getting the fundamentals down on paper.

This notion template is a great place to start, or this Udemy course for a more comprehensive and guided approach.

6. Launch Your Brand

Now, you’ll want to define the identity of your brand. This includes the name, logo, and messaging to attract the right people to your business.

The easiest route is to use your name and start your business as a personal brand.

But if you intend on scaling your business or selling it as an entrepreneur, you might want to start a professional brand instead.

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Either way, start by brainstorming ideas and checking for domain availability and social media handles.

You might want to register your business legally at this point, too.

If you have design skills, a simple logo might be sufficient enough. You can also hire a designer on Upwork to design your logo and brand identity professionally.

Lastly, you’ll need to tailor your brand messaging to resonate with your audience. A great book on this subject is Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller.

7. Establish an Online Presence

The next step to solopreneur success is forming a coherent online presence. These will be the places where you market yourself, publish content, and deliver your offerings.

Here are a few things you’ll need to set up:

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  1. A website: You can build a simple site using WordPress or Shopify if you sell products.
  2. Social media channels: Sign up and claim your social media handles on the main sites. These include Facebook, X, Instagram, Pinterest, Medium, and YouTube.
  3. Email list: Use ConvertKit or a newsletter service like Substack to start building an email list. The earlier you start this, the better.
  4. Blog: If you like writing, you can also start to publish articles that attract organic visitors through search engines.

You don’t have to be active on all these channels at once. Just set them up so no one else takes your username, then choose a channel your audience uses most.

As a solopreneur, it’s possible to grow your business by sticking to one channel.

8. Develop a Digital Marketing Strategy

Marketing is how you’ll raise awareness of the problems your niche experiences and how you can help solve them.

Solopreneur marketing strategySolopreneur marketing strategy

To do this effectively, you need a strategy.

You’ll want to decide which platform to spend most of your time on. As a solopreneur, there’s only you, so trying to juggle multiple channels will spread you thin.

The strategy is to publish content at each level of the funnel.

Using the AIDA formula is a good place to start:

A: Grab the audience’s Attention with well-crafted headlines
I: Create Interest by communicating pain points. This will help grow followers or subscribers.
D: Create Desire by emphasizing the desired state for potential customers.
A: Provide a call to Action to drive conversions and sales.

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You can check out the 1-Page Marketing Plan for this. It will help you define a comprehensive marketing strategy on a single page.

9. Never Stop Learning

Lastly, you’ll make your journey so much easier when you become a continuous learner and adopt a success mindset.

You can read the best audiobooks for business, take Udemy courses, or even join an online community.

Some great books for solopreneurs include The Lean Startup, Company of One, and Alex Hormozi’s books.

Solopreneur Business Ideas

There are tons of different types of businesses you can start as a solopreneur.

Choosing one will depend on your skills, passions, available resources, and market needs.

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Here’s a quick look at some one-person business ideas to give you some inspiration:

  • App developer: Creating mobile or web apps like habit trackers or even games.
  • Blogger: Publishing content on Medium, Quora, Twitter, or a WordPress blog.
  • Paid newsletter subscription: Sharing your insights and knowledge through a platform like Substack or Beehiiv.
  • Copywriter: Offering copywriting as a freelancer on Upwork on your website.
  • Digital products: Sell your knowledge in the form of digital products on Gumroad or Systeme.
  • eCommerce: Sell physical products through Amazon FBA, Etsy, or a Shopify store.
  • YouTuber: Share your knowledge and monetize with YouTube affiliate marketing and ads.
  • Start a community: Create a Skool community and charge a monthly subscription.

Solopreneur in Conclusion

Becoming a solopreneur has many advantages when starting a business. Unlike entrepreneurship, you get to work alone, choose your hours, and only work on things you love.

Don’t expect things to go perfectly, though. Achieving success in any business venture takes time and dedication.

If you want to connect with others on their solopreneur journey, consider joining the Niche Pursuits Community. You’ll get access to weekly calls from successful bloggers, YouTubers, and 7- and 8-figure digital business owners.



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27 Passive Income Ideas to Make Money & Build Wealth in 2024

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27 Passive Income Ideas to Make Money & Build Wealth in 2024

In this article, we discuss the 27 passive income ideas to make money and build wealth. To skip our detailed analysis of passive income and its benefits in today’s world go directly to the 7 Passive Income Ideas to Make Money & Build Wealth in 2024.

Passive income can be defined as a side income that comes from a minimal amount of work as compared to your active income. In the current economic conditions, many people are finding it hard to keep up with inflation with a single paycheck. While the US Federal Reserve’s policies have managed to tone down inflation and the bank is expected to cut interest rates, some Wall Street analysts still paint a bleak picture of the US economy in the near future. 

According to a survey by Self, 45% of working Americans have a side gig. Out of the people surveyed, nearly 35% said that they need their side hustle source to pay their bills and other expenses, while over 32% of people use it as disposable income. Around 30% of the respondents put their side gig money toward savings and investments. The survey suggests that these side gigs generate an approximate average of $688 per month. We previously reported that  73% of Americans with side hustles are thinking of leaving their primary jobs. 

Passive Income Ideas with Stocks

Some of our passive income ideas to make wealth revolve around investing in the financial markets. The US stock market is one of the places that have made many people rich. For example, value investors such as Warren Buffett and Seth Klarman have made billions from buying stocks and keeping them for the long term. Their style of investing is known as value investing. It is important to note that these two investors have spent a lot of time and money on their investments, but at the moment we are looking for passive income ideas to make wealth. In that case, you can follow their strategy on a smaller scale by buying quality stocks and letting them grow over a few years.

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Nevertheless, a value investing strategy works best if you have a lot of capital. For example, Warren Buffett has owned 151.61 million shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) since the third quarter of 2013, when its stock price averaged at $75.23. By the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, the company shares were trading at an average price of $160.97. It means that American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) stock made around $17 billion for Buffett’s firm during this time, and that is without counting the dividend income. As of March 7, the company’s stock was trading at $221. Some other value stocks from Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio include The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC).

Use of AI to Generate Passive Income

A survey by GOBankingRates reveals that 45% of the respondents are in favor of using AI to generate passive income, and 8% are already using it to do so. Open AI’s ChatGPT has been responsible for the surge in 2023’s AI revolution. The platform also offers a passive income source with its Bug Bounty Program. The program invites people to find bugs or security flaws and get paid. The rewards start from $200 and go up to $20,000.

 Passive Income Ideas to Make Money & Build Wealth in 2024

Passive Income Ideas to Make Money & Build Wealth in 2024

Photo by nathan dumlao on Unsplash

Our Methodology

For this article, we carefully reviewed several sources, including Time Magazine, CNN, CNBC, and Reddit. Next, we chose the most common recommendations to make passive income across these sources and listed them according to the number of mentions each idea received. The more times a passive income idea was mentioned, the higher it was placed on our list.

By the way, Insider Monkey is an investing website that uses a consensus approach to identify the best stock picks of more than 900 hedge funds investing in US stocks. The website tracks the movement of corporate insiders and hedge funds. Our top 10 consensus stock picks of hedge funds outperformed the S&P 500 stock index by more than 140 percentage points over the last 10 years (see the details here). So, if you are looking for the best stock picks to buy, you can benefit from the wisdom of hedge funds and corporate insiders.

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Passive Income Ideas to Make Money & Build Wealth in 2024

27. Domain Parking

Domain parking is a practice where any person or company registers domain names but does not use them for hosting a website or email service immediately. Instead, they place them “parked” with a domain parking service or a domain registrar.

Revenue is primarily generated through advertising. When visitors click on the ads displayed on the parked domain’s page, you, as the owner of the domain, will earn a small amount of money. To get the most out of domain parking, hone your monetization strategy to direct traffic to the domain. You can optimize the domains via a third party like Newsy, Bodis, and ParkingCrew.

Due to the risks like potential legal issues and low revenue potential, we gave it the lowest priority on our list of passive income ideas to make money and build wealth in 2024.

26. Crypto Staking

Crypto staking is a process used in blockchain networks to validate and secure transactions, similar to how mining works in some cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. However, instead of using computational power to solve complex mathematical problems as used in mining, staking involves validators locking up a certain amount of cryptocurrency as collateral to support the network’s operations. Crypto staking is a good way to earn passive income. However, it also carries risks, such as the potential loss of staked funds in the event of validator misbehavior.

Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) is one of the companies that allows you to stake your tokens. The interest rate return on crypto staking varies between tokens. The estimated reward on Ethereum is 2.94% at the time of writing on March 7.

25. Annuity Set Up

An annuity is a financial product that provides a series of payments to an individual over a specified period. An annuity can be set up in various ways, depending on the terms of the annuity contract and the preferences of the individual purchasing it. 

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Annuities are usually bought through insurance companies. However, they are also provided by financial services businesses like brokerage firms and banks. Fixed Index Annuity is a type of annuity that is tied to broader market indexes such as the S&P 500. It pays you a fixed interest rate along with a variable income, depending on the performance of the market.

There are several other ways to set up annuities, and it is better to consult a financial expert or insurance provider to make more informed decisions before moving forward.

24. Renting Out Things in Your Home That You Don’t Use

Renting out household items has become increasingly popular with the rise of online platforms that facilitate peer-to-peer rentals. While renting out your household items can carry risks, it is a great passive income idea to make money and build wealth in 2024. You can be on your way to building wealth with this idea if you rent out high-value items that people need for only a short duration and/or infrequently. 

Other than keeping your items in good condition to retain and invite new customers, it is important to come up with competitive rental rates and provide clear rental terms and conditions. A few noteworthy sites/apps for peer-to-peer rentals are Rannsak, Fat Lllama, and Yoodlize. Some marketplaces provide insurance to cover damages, loss, or theft. For example, Rannsak offers The Rannsak Reimbursement Program in the U.S., and the insurance is up to $1,000.

23. Royalties From Intellectual Properties

Royalties from intellectual property refer to payments made to the creator of intellectual property in exchange for the use of the said asset. According to a report by the World Intellectual Property Organization, there were 3.5 million patents filed in 2022. 67% of the total patent filings were made by Asian countries.

If you plan on earning royalties from intellectual properties, you must protect them legally, and that can be done through copyrighting, trademarking, licensing, patenting, and more.

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A way to create passive income from royalties would be entering into a licensing agreement with a third party to allow them the use of your intellectual property and receive financial benefits in return. The amount of money you make from these royalties depends on the terms of the licensing agreement. For example, agreeing to a percentage of revenue generated by the sales of the product. Laws regarding patenting in the United States can be found on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.

22. Peer-to-peer Lending

Peer-to-peer lending is a method of debt financing through which individuals borrow and lend money directly, and there is no involvement from traditional financial institutions. It is one of the best passive income ideas to make money as it serves as a source of funding for individuals and businesses while offering competitive interest rates and flexible terms with a streamlined loan process. The above-mentioned factors are not available to most individuals and businesses when it comes to taking loans from traditional banking institutions.

If it is your first time getting into peer-to-peer lending, you can sign up on established websites like Prosper Marketplace’s Prosper.com through which you can invest in consumer loans, and the website will connect you with borrowers.

21. Set Up an ATM or Vending Machine

An individual can set up an ATM or a vending machine to make a profit from them. However, these two things will generate income based on the number of people that use your machines, so it is essential to set them up somewhere with a lot of foot traffic. If you decide to go the vending machine route, there are a few costs that you should keep in mind, including the cost of the machine (secondhand machines cost between $1,500 – $5,000), location fee, replenishment cost, and maintenance. A few Reddit users recommend delegating tasks like re-stocking and maintenance to cut down on work hours.

For ATMs, setting them near cash businesses like casinos or barber shops where people prefer to tip in cash is ideal. To get started, you will need to open a limited liability company, purchase an ATM, find a location for it and draw up a contract with the owner of the location, and install the machine. 

20. App Development

Creating an app can be your way of building wealth because if successful, it will generate revenue for you over a long time. There are many ways you can monetize your app, including paid downloads, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and more. App development is one of the best passive income ideas to make money.

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Mobile apps have the most promise, as 56.1% of all global website traffic was attributed to mobile usage as of December 2023, according to Oberlo. While your income will vary depending on a multitude of factors, including but not limited to which app store you choose, the niche your app belongs to, and the monetization pathway you opt for, mobile apps have more potential to generate passive income.

19. Sell Stock Photos

Selling pictures online that you have captured is a great passive income idea. You will need to start by capturing high-quality pictures. You can then search for different reputable stock photography websites or agencies, like Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK), which hires photographers. According to data collected by Matic Broz for Photutorial, on average, a stock photographer can earn around $0.02 per image per month on average. Moreover, Stocksy United pays the highest, i.e., $200 per standard royalty-free sale and $8,100 per extended license.

18. Video Content Creation

Video content creation can not only generate passive income for you but also be highly engaging. You can create video content for different purposes, like stock footage, subscription platforms, and more. Creating videos for sponsored content is a great way to make a little money on the side. For that, you will need to find brands that will sponsor you to advertise their product or services.

Choosing the right platform for your video content is the most important step, and you can look at Google’s YouTube, TikTok, and Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s Instagram. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, on average, a channel on YouTube gets $0.018 per view or $18 per 1,000 views.

17. Advertising on Your Car

Advertising on your car to earn money is a legitimate way to make some extra cash. This practice, often referred to as car wrapping, involves having advertisements or promotional graphics on your car in exchange for payment. To earn passively through car advertising, you would need to sign up with specialized agencies that hire people for this purpose. 

According to some Reddit users, they have been paid between $100 to $700 a month for getting their cars wrapped. However, some of them have cautioned people to beware of scams. It is essential to remember to do thorough research on the agency you plan on conducting your business with.

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16. Design Custom Products

Earning through custom-designed products can be a lucrative venture, especially with the rise of e-commerce platforms like Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) and print-on-demand services. You would start by identifying the material you wish to work with and your niche and create your designs. From there, you can choose a platform and hire a print-on-demand service. Once you set up your store, you will need to do effective marketing to solidify your customer base. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Merch on Demand allows people to share their designs for their products. Some Reddit users even claim to make $2k to $3k a month from that platform.

15. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the best passive income ideas to make money and build wealth in 2024. According to AuthorityHacker, before consumers make a purchase, 74% of internet consumers in the U.S. go to multiple affiliate websites. Moreover, affiliate marketing contributes to 16% of all internet orders in the U.S.

With affiliate marketing, you can promote products or services through various marketing channels, such as websites, blogs, social media, email newsletters, or online advertisements, and earn a commission for each successful referral or conversion from a business or advertiser. 

The Amazon Affiliate program, or Amazon Associate program by Amazon, is an easy way to get into affiliate marketing.

14. Rent Storage Places

Buying and renting out self-storage space can indeed be a viable way to earn money. Other than that, you will need to be careful to set profitable and reasonable rental terms and conditions and screen the potential renters. According to one source, storage units can generate an annual income between $365,000 to $800,000, depending on size and location.

13. Rent Out Parking Space

If you have a parking space that you are not utilizing, you can rent it out, as it is a lucrative way to make extra money. It can become profitable for you if the parking space is near a venue that sees a lot of traffic, e.g., a shopping mall. Moreover, you can rent it out during specific times, like when a concert is being held somewhere nearby. The money generated from these parking lots mostly depends on your location. Make sure to check your local laws before investing in such ventures.

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Moreover, you can also list your private parking space on platforms like Neighbor, which can generate between $50-$300 per month.

12. Real Estate Investing 

Real estate investing by renting out a spare room is one of the best ideas to earn passive income and build wealth. It involves renting out the room to tenants in exchange for regular rental payments. The amount of rental income you can earn depends on various factors such as location, property type, market demand, and rental rates.

Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) is one of the best online marketplaces for short and long-term homestays.

11. Create an Ebook

Writing an ebook can be lucrative for you as it falls under a digital product. You can get passive income through sales revenue by selling your ebook to an online ebook publishing platform, including but not limited to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple Books, and Google Play Books.

10. Buy a Successful Blog

Buying a successful blog means getting a website that already has lots of people visiting it and making money from it. When you buy it, you get possession of all the work that’s already been done, like writing articles and getting ads on the site. Buying a successful blog is a good passive income idea to make money and build wealth, especially if you know how to grow and improve it. Many Reddit users recommend buying blogs off of Flippa or Empire Flipper. According to them, it is important to remember that the initial investment will be considerable, and they recommend researching blog websites thoroughly.

9. Create an Online Course

Our eighth passive income idea to create wealth is creating an online course. Online courses have become a popular way for people to share their knowledge and expertise with others while also monetizing their skills. You can generate revenue through many strategies, including course sales, offering continuing education credits, etc. You would benefit from looking up e-learning platforms like Udemy, Inc. (NASDAQ:UDMY), as such platforms will provide you with tools for course creation, marketing, and sales.

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8. High-Yield Savings Account

A high-yield savings account is a type of savings account offered by banks or financial institutions, and it typically offers a higher interest rate compared to traditional savings accounts. To take full advantage of high-yield savings accounts, you should leverage compound interest. It can help you grow your savings steadily over time and help you reach your financial goals more quickly.

In 2024, several high-yield savings accounts offer returns of 4% or more in some cases as compared to the 0.46% national average return on traditional savings accounts.

 

Click to continue reading and see the 7 Passive Income Ideas to Make Money & Build Wealth in 2024.

 

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Disclosure. None. 27 Passive Income Ideas to Make Money & Build Wealth in 2024 is originally published on Insider Monkey.

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