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.

116: Getting Started in Ecommerce

November 6, 2021June 11, 2015

Travis Marziani is the co-founder of BDancewear.com, an ecommerce store specializing in dance-clothing handmade in the US.

On this week’s show, Travis joins me to talk about why ecommerce is such an awesome business model, especially for side hustlers, and the story behind the dance site — since he is clearly not the target demographic.

He’s got some innovative content marketing ideas for online stores as well as how people can get started in ecommerce without massive overhead or investment.

The Piggyback Principle: The “Lazy” Way to Build a Successful Side Hustle

April 23, 2025June 8, 2015

The Piggyback Principle is a business idea framework that looks at popular market trends or “ecosystems” and seeks ways to support or supplement those trends.

It can be a faster way to start a business because you can capitalize on what’s already hot with an additional or complementary product or service.

Basically, your side hustle can ride piggyback on a larger business or trend.

115: Monetize What You Know: Proven Course Creation Best Practices

November 6, 2021June 4, 2015

Ankur Nagpal is the founder of Fedora, an online course-hosting platform with more than 4000 instructors. From his unique vantage-point, he’s got some insight into what separates top-selling courses from the rest of the pack.

Ankur gives some innovative ideas on how to use free distribution platforms like YouTube and even Udemy to build an interested audience and drive them to your premium course. We get into how to come up with your course topic, the tools to create your course quickly, and some pricing strategies as well.

Do 5-Star Work

August 25, 2023May 26, 2015

Ever since The Lean Startup hit the scene (and probably even before that), there’s been a widespread push in the entrepreneurial community to “just ship it.”

Get your product or service out there, and refine it later based on customer feedback.

But that’s not a license to put out crap.

113: Earning $3000-$4000 per Month on Kindle in Just 6 Months as a “Professional” Author, with Lise Cartwright

April 29, 2024May 21, 2015

Last year, Lise “came out of nowhere” as they say, and published 13 books in 6 months, and now earns between $3000 and $4000 a month in author royalties.

Of course the truth is she didn’t come out of nowhere at all; she came out of New Zealand and had already built a successful freelance writing business. However, the hustle of delivering work for clients all day had her seeking a more time-leveraged use of her skills.

Since she already knew how to write well and write quickly, she figured book publishing was a natural next step.

How to Start a Business in 7 Days: 13 Real Ideas from Side Hustle Nation

August 28, 2023May 18, 2015

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to join John Lee Dumas on Entrepreneur on Fire, a top business podcast.

At the end of every show, he asks guests his famous “$500 question.” Naturally, there are some common threads in the answers, including the elements I touched on of networking, selling some service, or re-creating what you had on the “old” earth.

But since Side Hustle Nation is a creative bunch, I posed the question to in my email newsletter: What would you do?

111: How to Make Money as a Freelancer – Without Competing for Jobs on Elance or oDesk, with Daniel DiPiazza

August 25, 2023May 14, 2015

Freelancing or selling some useful service is one of the fastest ways to earn more money. It may not be as sexy as “passive income” but it does come with instant gratification.

Make deals, deliver awesome work, and get paid.

In today’s show, I’m excited to welcome back Daniel DiPiazza from Rich20Something.com. You may remember Daniel from Episode 35, where he talked about how his “marsupial method” took his tutoring business from $18 an hour to $1000 an hour.

12 Ways to Save Money on Conferences

September 28, 2023May 11, 2015

Last month I attended two industry conferences, ICON15 in Phoenix and New Media Expo in Las Vegas. My total travel and registration expenses were just $249.98 for both shows combined.

(Not including food and drinks.)

No matter what industry you’re in, I believe conferences are a great way to make lasting connections and friendships, and to learn from leaders in your space.

110: Monetizing Your Art and the Path to 1000 True Fans

November 6, 2021May 7, 2015

On this week’s show, I’m joined by Steph Halligan, who runs ArtToSelf.com. She’s a talented cartoonist who began a daily blog and email newsletter with inspirational and affirmational art — all created by her.

The site is 100% supported by donations from her followers, and even though it’s very early in the journey, I think there’s enough validation to say she’s on the path her 1000 true fans doing work she loves.

Beyond $5: 5 Fiverr Gigs with High Average Order Values

December 4, 2020May 6, 2015

Fiverr may have started as the $5 marketplace, but savvy sellers know there’s potential for much higher earnings on the platform.

These opportunities come in the form of gig extras (upsells), multiple orders, and their new custom offer tool. With the custom offer tool, you can now actually make sales up to $10,000, as AnarchoFighter shared earlier this year on The Side Hustle Show.

But if you’re just starting out as a seller, it can be tough to identify which gigs have high average order values.

Usually Hustling, Occasionally Social