Business Casual

Hot links, coming through! Matt and Andrew make most of their income through affiliate marketing, so it makes sense to give their links a little love once and awhile. They discuss how they're optimizing, testing and tracking their affiliate links. What do you do when you start to look at your click data? How do you manage your affiliate link inventory and clean up what's not working and double down on what does? Every link counts, and this episode explores how to make each one count more. Enjoy!P.S. If you want to step up your affiliate link management game, check out GetLasso.co!

How do you launch, market and sell a new product without going totally crazy? Corbett Barr, the founder of Fizzle.co and Palapa.co, joins the show to chat about his new SaaS business and how he approaches sustainable and sane business growth. Matt and Corbett discuss how to find new customers, how to close sales in the software world and how to gather initial feedback while you’re still iterating on a product. Whether you’re a software developer or an entrepreneur thinking of launching something new, this is a great episode for diving into the nitty gritty of marketing and growing a business. Enjoy!P.S. You can find Corbett's work at Fizzle.co and Palapa.co. Fun fact: Matt and Andrew met through Fizzle!

Matt's been running an experiment to increase his YouTube ad revenue and sell more of his digital products through his videos. And guess what? It totally worked! In this episode, Matt and Andrew dive into all the techniques Matt's using to increase YouTube views, watch time and subscribers and explore why this new YouTube content strategy is paying off (literally -- Matt's made over $12K because of this optimization experiment). If you want a deep-n-nerdy dive into YouTube SEO, thumbnail designs, playlists and end cards, this episode is for you. Enjoy!P.S. Want to see the behind-the-scenes of all this work (and the extra loud Hawaiian shirt Matt sports in all his videos)? Check out the entire experiment write up at Moneylab.co/Youtube-Optimization

Being weird pays off. Jason Zook, the King of Weird Business Models, joins the show today to talk about all of the crazy businesses he’s started over the years and to celebrate his new book, Own Your Weird. Jason has sold his last name (twice) for a total of $100,000, created a business where he wore other people’s t-shirts for money, and sold his entire “future” to his audience. Jason and Matt explore how being weird in their businesses pays off and debate how to keep the weird stunts going without burning out. If you don’t already know Jason’s story of weirdness, this one’s worth the listen. Enjoy!P.S. You can check out Jason and order his book at WanderingAimfully.comP.P.S. Yes, Matt has a rap album. Enjoy: Moneylab.co/Rap

The ultimate dream: spend a dollar in your business, earn ten dollars on the other side. But calculating business ROI isn't such simple math. Matt and Andrew discuss how they justify making big business purchases and figure out whether or not their large recurring expenses are worth it. How do they know if hired contract work will pay off? How do you put a price tag on things like mental health? And how do you make sure your business can handle a new monthly expense? It's simple, really: Phase 1: Spend Money. Phase 2: ? Phase 3: Profit. Enjoy!P.S. Like the show? Let us know what topics you'd like us to discuss on the show! Send us a note at matt@moneylab.co

Should you try turning a hobby you love into a money-making website? Sean Ogle, founder of BreakingEighty.com and LocationRebel.com, joins the show to talk about turning a hobby into an online business. Both Sean and Matt run websites based on hobbies they love: Sean runs a golf site and Matt runs a homebrewing website, BrewCabin.com. So how do they approach monetizing their hobbies? What does it take to create a paid community around something you love? And how do you make sure you keep the passion alive with your hobby when it's a business? If you've ever considered turning a hobby into an online business, this episode is for you. Enjoy!P.S. You can find more about Sean at LocationRebel.com and BreakingEighty.com.P.P.S. If you want to see a behind-the-scenes look at how Matt monetizes own hobby-based site, check out his course SEO for Bloggers: Moneylab.co/SEO

It's listener question time! Matt and Andrew answer everything from how to keep on top of the changes to the Google algorithm, how to treat nofollow vs. dofollow links and how site performance affects for SEO. Oh, and what happens to your website when you die? Matt and Andrew answer all your questions about optimizing your site for speed and prepping your website for the day you kick the bucket. Enjoy!P.S. Want to organize your business as if you were a ghost? Check out Matt's Asana for Bloggers course: Moneylab.co/Asana

Good news: SEO isn't as complicated as you think. Digital content editor and writer Michelle Lowery joins the show to share her best practices for SEO writing and editing. Matt and Michelle chat about how they approach creating content that ranks on Swim University, including clever ways to incorporate keywords and how to optimize text for both robots and humans. Michelle also shares some of her favorite strategies for researching keywords and how she weaves a human-centered approach into her work. This is a behind-the-scenes look at Swim University's entire SEO process and how Michelle creates articles that are more likely to rank. Enjoy!P.S. If you want to learn more about writing SEO friendly content, check out Matt's course SEO for Bloggers: Moneylab.co/SEOP.P.S. You can find Michelle on Twitter @MichelleDLowery

Why is it so dang hard to ask for help? Matt and Andrew debate why they have so much trouble reaching out to their network and asking for favors -- even though they both have entrepreneur friends who would gladly help. How can they start leveraging their networks without coming across as fake or needy? They discuss everything from how to craft emails and how to stop procrastinating with pitching their work. Enjoy!P.S. Have you seen the new Lasso sales page? Matt and Andrew are pretty proud of how it turned out. Check out the experiment here: Moneylab.co/MRR

Earning thousands more a month with just a flip of the switch? It's possible. Small changes can pay off in big ways in the online business world. Matt and Andrew talk about the tiny tweaks they've made that have lead to more money. And we're talking really tiny tweaks, like moving around existing links, adding new featured images and making minor updates to existing products. It can take lots of tracking to figure out what changes work, but it makes for a better business in the long run. Maybe it really is the little things in life. Especially if they make you more money. Enjoy!P.S. One of Matt's biggest payoffs? A small change to how he tracks his revenue. Check out his write up about his Lean Business Model at Moneylab.co/Lean-Business