The #1 Side Hustle Blog - Side Hustle Nation

The $7620 Blog Post (Plus, my First Real Facebook Ads Experiment)

December 27, 2021March 7, 2016

In January I published a post called The 134 Best Udemy Courses for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, and Side Hustlers.

The post was a pretty blatant affiliate play, and I made a point to admit that at the very top. Still, it performed very well, earning $7620 in January.

After the first couple days, I realized I was on to something and it only made sense to try and drive more traffic to the page, even if it meant paying for it. So that gave birth to my first real experiment with Facebook ads.

The Pinterest Traffic Experiment: I’m Up 2350% In 60 Days

January 10, 2023February 1, 2016

From September 20th to November 20th, Side Hustle Nation generated 479 visits from Pinterest.

The next 2 months, from November 21st to January 21st, Side Hustle Nation generated 11,733 visits from Pinterest.

Why the sudden 25x increase?

It was anything but an accident.

The Ultimate Side Hustle: Starting a Subscription Business

April 26, 2024January 13, 2016

When most of us think of a side hustle, we think of e-commerce, copywriting or other single-serving offerings.

These projects can be great, but the reality is they can also be highly unpredictable. Sales can dry up and writing gigs can disappear.

For those who want a sustainable side hustle with dependable recurring revenue, there’s a new model making noise: subscription commerce built around monthly boxes.

2015 Annual Review and Q4 Progress Report: What Was Awesome, What Sucked, and What’s Next

December 3, 2020January 11, 2016

Last year I published my first annual review, and have been doing quarterly progress reports since then.

Overall, I felt happier in 2015 than I have in a long time. I think that’s the result of a lot of factors coming together, including lower stress, fun projects, and a growing comfort as to what’s “enough.”

This is my recap of what went down in Q4 and in 2015 overall, plus my wins and losses for the year and my top 10 articles and podcast episodes.

9 Free WordPress Plugins to Make Your Site Leaner, Meaner, and More Profitable

March 25, 2018December 21, 2015

The universe of free plugins is one of the most important benefits of WordPress. If there’s some functionality you’re looking for, odds are someone else has already built it!

Now I’ve been called — and this is true — a bit of a plugin junkie in the past. And there is a dark side to all this delicious free software; installing too many plugins can slow down your site, break some functionality, or even put you at risk for security breaches.

Here are a few I think you should consider, organized by functional area.

My First Pay What You Want Pricing Experiment: $692.27 in 4 Days

October 15, 2018November 30, 2015

In October, I wrote about how I built a membership site on the cheap. Today I want to share a little more about what was “behind” the membership wall and how I found my initial beta testers. I created a curriculum for a 30-day challenge to help people earn their first side hustle income. I … Read more

Should I Get an MBA or Start a Business? 41 Experts Weigh In

April 26, 2024November 9, 2015

A few years ago, I debated getting an MBA.

A lot of my friends were doing it, we have some world-class schools nearby (assuming they’d even let me in), and it seemed to be a solid investment in education.

For the most part, I’ve always been comfortable in school. I was a good student, and the structure of education made inherent sense: you show up, learn what you’re supposed to, and then pass a test.

The Journey is the Destination

May 11, 2017November 2, 2015

As a kid, I wasn’t much into Star Trek, but I was fascinated by the idea of teleportation.

Beam me up!

It’s so elegantly efficient; I mean who wouldn’t want to skip all the transit time and instead just instantly arrive where you need to go?

I was all about the destination, and would have been happy skipping the journey entirely.

Are we there yet?

It’s taken me a long time to realize this, but there is no “there.”

How to Build a Membership Site for $10.95

March 31, 2025October 19, 2015

In this post you’ll learn how I built a membership site for just $10.95.

At Podcast Movement this summer, several friends (Alex, Meron, Bryan, and others) encouraged me “launch a product.”

If that sounds super Internet Marketing-y to you, it did to me too. They argued this was the next logical step for Side Hustle Nation (all the cool kids are doing it!) both from a business standpoint and actually from a helping people standpoint.

Q3 2015 Quarterly Progress Report

November 3, 2021October 12, 2015

This is the third installment of my quarterly progress reports. If you want to travel back in time, you can check out the first two here and here. Why “progress”? Because that’s what it’s all about. To me, progress means forward motion, or actively taking the steps to improve each day. It’s one thing we … Read more

Usually Hustling, Occasionally Social