Affiliate Marketing & Side Hustles on the Doug.Show

Nick Loper has been featured on the New York Times, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and more. I interview Nick Loper, the chief side hustler of Side Hustle Nation, and voice of the podcast The Side Hustle Show. I was excited to talk to Nick and hear more about how he turned his side hustle into a full-time business. In this episode, we talk about how Nick got started with a shoe affiliate site on the side that eventually allowed him to quit his day job. Nick shares with us how he got started and a few things you can do to get started on your side hustle by this week. We talk about interesting side hustles that Nick heard about recently. I answer these questions: My choices for images. Read more here. Hosting companies that I like. (Affiliate links…so I get a commission if you sign up. Thank you!) Site Ground Hosting: My favorite hosting company right now because of the excellent service. You can me chatting or speaking with a real tech support person extremely quickly. I’m usually able to get answers in a chat in about 10-20 seconds. And this is a REAL, admin that can actually help you. (Some other companies have you talk to a customer support rep that just follows a script. If anything needs to be done on the server, then the CSR has to open a ticket for the actual tech support.) It’s more expensive, but it’s totally worth it for the high level of support. MDD Hosting: It’s a smaller company with the same level of service as Site Ground. I’ve been able to chat or speak with people just as fast. They don’t have as many hosting options and flexibility since MDD is a smaller company. It’s a tad cheaper than Site Ground in most cases. Bluehost: It’s a really popular company, but the customer support may or may not be good. They’re recommended by a lot of influencers and have been for years. Some of the influencers even publicly admitted that the customer support got worse. I’d avoid Bluehost right now, but I know some people will want to use them, hence, my affiliate link. How do I find a niche?

Adrian is a construction worker and student of Five Figure Niche Site. This interview is from July 2018 and currently, Adrian is making about $300 per month in January of 2019. Look out for an interview update soon. We talk about: The age of the site and traffic stats. How he watched my YouTube channel and wanted to be a success story. A bit of his background: From Romania, moved to Spain, now in London. The massive mistake with Guest Post & how to avoid it. The power of the Keyword Golden Ratio. Tips for finding KGR terms. Quality content and why it’s so important. Most of the posts are ranking on PAGE 1 of Google. The link building strategy & its role. Other mistakes that Adrian made & what you can learn. The transcript is here. Other Success Stories I talk about Success Stories and here is where you can find more of them. Question 1, From Heidi Heidi from ratraceescapeproject.com I am having this dilemma right now. I have one niche site which I started 10 months ago and then in my newbie wisdom (not!) I started a second site in the MMO niche about 6 months ago! Most days I wish I hadn’t because I know I could be writing and concentrating on one site and it would be better for it, instead of having two that have to share my time and efforts. But now that I have two, both of which I really enjoy I feel like I have to just plug along with both. Interested in your thoughts Doug on leaving one without content for say 12 months to age, while I concentrate on the other one? Good idea? Bad idea? I work full time so my sites are a side hustle and I only write about 2-3 posts a week across both of them. Question 2, from Earl I’m YT subscriber and I’ve been going back through the KGR videos. While doing research I’ll find KW that very little all in title completion with some search volume. Below the .25 which makes them ideal. When I search the same KW in google, I’m getting a lot of online stores. The question is: Assuming I’m writing good content 1500+ can I still rank for the term or will the authority of the online shops still beat me out? Question 3, from James I have plans of creating a livable income with niche sites. However, I have one huge worry that keeps me up at night and holds my productivity back. That is… Amazon banning me from their associates program. I’m almost positive I follow all of their guidelines, but I’ve heard that Amazon is pretty unpredictable when it comes to banning people. So, should I worry about getting banned? Do you ever have worries or have you ever been banned? Do you have a plan if it does happen to you? Thanks a ton, James. Other Links Mentioned Alex Cooper at WP Eagle Ubersuggest

Marty tells us about his Amazon Affiliate Site that recently hit the $500 mark in the summer of 2018. As of January 2019, he’s making about $1,000 per month and there will be an updated interview soon. Marty and I talk about: The age of the site and traffic stats. The role of hard work and motivation. The power of the Keyword Golden Ratio. Why low search volume keywords are still great. Quality content and why it’s so important. The link building strategy and its role. Mistakes that Marty made & what you can learn. You can read the full transcript of the episode on Niche Site Project. Here are the questions from the Q&A segment: What’s the BEST WordPress theme for Affiliate Sites? What is the keyword golden ratio? How often should I post content for my niche site?

Our hero tells us about affiliate marketing and provides a high-level overview of starting an Amazon Affiliate Site. Doug’s wife, Elizabeth, joins him to chat about the new year, resolutions, and the lack thereof, and Georgie makes an appearance by squeaking her new toy. There’s a Q&A segment too! Doug answers these questions that were sent in. Should I start an Amazon Affiliate Site How much do Amazon Affiliate Sites Earn? You can download the process as Doug describes it — here — just click the green button and enter your name and email address. You’ll get an email with a link so you can download a PDF with many more details.    

Doug Cunnington finally started a podcast of his own — after threatening to publish the spoken word for years. He’ll talk about: Affiliate Marketing Entrepreneurship Productivity Stories and Adventures Beer And more… About Doug Cunnington I write about SEO, productivity, project management, and niche sites. My work has been featured all over the web, including Ahrefs, Empire Flippers, Niche Pursuits, Side Hustle Nation and more. I am an Internet Marketer and a Project Management Professional (PMP, certified in 2008 by the Project Management Institute). I started my digital career after experiencing great success building Amazon Associate niche websites. I started Niche Site Project to help people create niche sites using project management. If you’re curious about those early niche sites, check out: My first successful niche site Niche Pursuits Podcast as a success story Empire Flippers as a case study Before that, I was your typical worker bee working a 9 – 5 gig, though it was more like 8 – 8. I really didn’t like it very much, but I learned a bunch in a very short time in management consulting. I worked all over the country, traveled full time, and lived out of a suitcase. I’ve been a software engineer, a business consultant, software tester, and of course, a PM. If you’re interested in my professional background, see my LinkedIn profile. I live in Montana with my amazing wife and awesome Border Collie, Georgie. I enjoy running, hiking, Southern barbecue, and homebrewing beer (of course, when the homebrewing is done I get to enjoy drinking it with friends).