Nick Loper

Nick Loper is a side hustle expert who loves helping people earn more money and start businesses they care about. He hosts the award-winning Side Hustle Show, where he's interviewed over 500 successful entrepreneurs, and is the bestselling author of Buy Buttons, The Side Hustle, and $1,000 100 Ways. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Forbes, TIME, Newsweek, Business Insider, MSN, Yahoo Finance, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Hubspot, Ahrefs, Shopify, Investopedia, VICE, Vox, Mashable, ChooseFI, The Penny Hoarder, GoBankingRates, and more.

171: How to Get Paid to Create Content – Even When You’re Just Starting Out

August 25, 2023April 28, 2016

Want to get paid to create content? Jason Zook is the undisputed king when it comes to sponsored content.

You may know Jason as the IWearYourShirt guy, where he earned over $1,000,000 wearing t-shirts for various companies. He’s even sold his last name (twice — each for $40k+), formerly going as Jason Surfrapp and Jason Headsetsdotcom.

In this episode, he shares his tips for getting sponsors for your work, even if you’re just starting out. I think you’ll like it!

Quarterly Progress Report – Q1 2016

September 9, 2019April 25, 2016

For the past year, I’ve been doing these quarterly progress reports.

Business-wise, the Side Hustle Nation audience has grown, but other projects have taken a back-seat.

I feel like I’ve been in “maintenance mode” for most of the year.

And while happiness is hard to measure, I have to admit it’s gone down since last year. To be sure, there are moments of elation but on average, I’m feeling more stressed, anxious, and tired. Is this the price of parenthood?

170: Side Hustle Idea Brainstorming: The 7 Rules of Business Idea Generation Plus Live Listener Feedback

August 25, 2023April 21, 2016

In my recent annual member survey, one of the biggest challenges named was coming up with the right side hustle idea.

Over the years, I’ve been on both ends of the idea spectrum: feeling hopeless in search of a business idea, and (more recently) feeling like there are more ideas than I could ever hope to tackle.

Still, if you’re in the brainstorming stage, I think this week’s podcast session with Don “The Idea Guy” Holliday will help.

The Most Important Number You Won’t Find on Your Tax Return

January 31, 2025April 18, 2016

Your tax return will show you your total income, your adjusted gross income, and your taxable income, but those numbers don’t show the most important figure of all.

Your “taxable income” is meaningless.

So what’s the most important number the IRS doesn’t care about but you should?

Your net profit.

169: The Best Passive Income Model: Raw Land Investing Update (Part 2)

October 14, 2024April 15, 2016

This is the second in what will (at least) be a 2-part series on side hustlers earning income from their land investment endeavors.

In this special Friday edition of the show, I’m joined by Chris Pritchard. Chris is a software developer by day, but has built his land investing business up to $1500/mo in recurring revenue.

In addition, Chris does the occasional cash flip and also has more than $70,000 worth of land payments under contract. Not bad for a year of dedicated focus and effort!

168: The Best Passive Income Model: Raw Land Investing Update (Part 1)

October 14, 2024April 14, 2016

In episode 108 of The Side Hustle Show last year, we met Mark Podolsky, a real estate investor specializing in raw land. He called it “The Best Passive Income Model,” because there are no products to build, no tenants or toilets, and you can start without a huge upfront investment.

This year, I wanted to feature a couple listeners who took action based on that episode. The first is my friend Josh Brooks, an Army Battalion Commander and founder of The Enduring Charity Foundation.

State of the Nation: 2016 Member Survey Results (Plus How to Run a Survey For Your Audience)

January 10, 2023April 4, 2016

One of the best ways to figure out how to better serve your customers or your audience is to, well, ask them.

So I set out to create my (annual?) member survey and see if I could get some insights into where readers and listeners are at in their side hustle journey, what types of businesses you’re working on, and what your biggest challenges are.

I also wanted to find out about how you were interacting with the Side Hustle Nation content; the blog, podcast, and email newsletter.

166: $10k a Month Blogging Part-Time

September 25, 2023March 31, 2016

We first heard from Robert Farrington back in 2013, on episode 10 of The Side Hustle Show. At that time, he was earning $3-4k a month from a portfolio of different sites, and looking to expand his online empire.

This week, we catch up on what’s changed since then. Robert’s doubled down on his main site, TheCollegeInvestor.com, narrowed his focus, and roughly tripled his earnings.

Oh, and he’s still working full-time too.

165: How to Earn an Extra $1000 a Month as a Brand Ambassador

November 6, 2021March 24, 2016

Kenny Azama has worked with massive global brands like Nike, Samsung, Apple, Chevrolet, and Coca Cola, but he’s not an ad agency or a top secret marketing mogul.

He’s a professional brand ambassador, “someone who is temporarily hired to represent a brand in a positive light, and provide consumers with a memorable face-to-face experience.”

I think this in an interesting side hustle, and one we haven’t covered on the site before, because as Kenny explains, there are always gigs nearby, they’re fun, and they can actually pay pretty well.

15 Things To Do When You’re Broke, Angry, and Feeling Trapped

March 31, 2025March 21, 2016

Last month I received an email from a reader I didn’t really know how to respond to. It was about growing up in poverty and what he could do to lift himself out of a bad situation.

I think an important thing to remember is that every expert was once a beginner, every champion was once a rookie, and that with a few exceptions, most successful/wealthy individuals weren’t born that way.

They all took incremental actions over time to build their knowledge, skills, network — and eventually their net worth.

But I was curious what advice the Side Hustle Nation community had for this reader, and wow, did they come through big time.

Usually Hustling, Occasionally Social