Spencer Haws and Jared Bauman, from 201 Creative, are back with the latest news in niche sites, SEO, and affiliate marketing.

The first order of business this week is the news that the Google Core Update has finished rolling out. Jared talks about how, instead of looking at his Google Analytics to see how his sites weathered the storm, he looks at his ad networks.

Jared shares information about the impact on a few of his sites and he talks about focusing more on earnings as opposed to fluctuations in traffic. Jared and Spencer also talk about how the update doesn't appear to have had much of an impact on AI content.

The next news item on the agenda is the upcoming trial between the US vs. Google. Spencer talks about the potential implications of this monopoly trial, which is expected to last 10 weeks, on niche site owners and bloggers.

The main focus of the trial is whether or not it was illegal and monopolistic to not allow any other search engines to be used by default, although there are many other issues that will also be addressed in this important trial, which is expected to set a precedent.

They also mention quickly how Google is also in the news in the EU, where it's accused of being a "gatekeeper" and has been ordered to give more freedom to other companies to compete under the new EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), starting in 2024.

The next topic they discuss is how YouTube is making it easier for creators to choose the perfect thumbnail. The platform is coming out with an A/B testing tool and this function could be available next year. This would allow users to upload 3 custom thumbnails and then YouTube would test behind the scenes to see which performs the best.

Jared and Spencer talk about how this will affect YouTubers and why they think this is a good move by the platform.

Then it's time to talk about some Shiny Object Shenanigans. Spencer talks about hiring 6 local people to create reviews for his Amazon Influencer Program account, where he has 453 videos at the moment.

After earning around $1500 in August, he's going all-in with this side hustle and expects to see an improvement in September and beyond. He also created a YouTube channel, where he's going to publish all of his Amazon videos and see what happens.

Spencer also talks about a survey he recently published where he's looking for people to create an online business and he will document it publicly on Niche Pursuits. The type of project hasn't been decided yet, so don't forget to vote for what you'd like to see!

Jared then talks about creating videos for his Weekender Growth YouTube channel, which has about 800 subscribers and 1,000 watch hours at the moment. Although he's a far way away from monetization, he's going to dedicate more time to this project going forward.

Then it's time for everybody's Weird Niche Site. Spencer shares his, which is HTTP Status Dogs, which combines HTTP status codes with photos of dogs illustrating those codes. The site used to get 20 to 30k in traffic but now only receives about 1000 visitors per month. It's not monetized in any way, but it's a good laugh.

Jared's site this week is Cornify, a unicorns and rainbows on-demand website. Aside from lots of functions like adding unicorns and rainbows to photos, coloring pictures online, and making your own younicorn, the site also has a store linked to Amazon products. Despite this, it only ranks for around 400 keywords and less than 1000 monthly organic visitors, although it does have a DR of 57. Jared and Spencer also talk about what the site is doing right and how it could improve.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of Niche Pursuits News. Tune in next week so Spencer and Jared and keep you up-to-date with everything that's happening in SEO, website building, and content creation.

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