Online Business

To make money online, you generally need 3 things:

A website (don’t worry, they’re not that hard to make)
An audience
Something to sell

There will always be exceptions to this rule, like the YouTube celebrities who don’t have their own site, but most of the successful entrepreneurs online (myself included) have figured out those 3 things.

An online business is a great asset; you can work from anywhere and serve people worldwide. Depending on how you have it set up, you can even earn money while you sleep. Ahh that elusive “passive income!”

The location-independent business models you’ll find here include blogging, podcasting, self-publishing, teaching online courses, and more.

If you’re not sure where to start, let me recommend this “Greatest Hits” collection:

207: How to Use Video and YouTube to Grow Your Business

April 26, 2024December 22, 2016

Thomas Frank is the College Info Geek and you can find him at collegeinfogeek.com. Thomas also has a podcast, and a YouTube channel with an impressive following of over 370k subscribers and over 12 million views.

Thomas’ blogging journey started back in 2010 when he applied to join a team of writers on blog in the college niche but was unsuccessful. He decided to publish his post on his own site, started introducing different forms of multimedia over the years, and stumbled across a love for producing entertaining YouTube videos.

3 Productized Service Business Ideas You Can Start Today

April 26, 2024December 12, 2016

Productized service businesses are all the rage these days. They involve packing up a service traditionally sold on a freelance or hourly basis, and instead selling it at a fixed price or on a monthly retainer contract.

Examples include Dan Norris’ WP Curve, which offers unlimited WordPress support for $79 a month, or Russ Perry’s Design Pickle, which offers unlimited graphic design tasks for $370 a month.

These services are popping up in a ton of different niches, and for good reason. They have low startup costs, low overhead, and a simple to understand proposition for customers.

202: Blogging for Recurring Revenue: Turn Readers into Members

November 5, 2021November 17, 2016

Erin Chase is a busy mother of 4, a former teacher, and today runs 5dollardinners.com and the 5dollarmealplan.

Back in 2008, after some number crunching Erin was excited at saving 50% on her grocery bills. She shared how she had done this on her family blog, but with a low amount of interest she decided to start her own blog to help others make savings on their own grocery bills.

Erin says it was ‘‘very shocking to me that it just took off the way it did’’. But with her dedication to sharing lots of free content helping her readers save money on their grocery bills it’s no coincidence.

200: From Content to Cash Flow – Affiliate Marketing and Automated Sales Funnels

January 9, 2024November 3, 2016

As co-host of the #1 marriage podcast in iTunes, the ONE Extraordinary Marriage show, Tony DiLorenzo speaks to a worldwide audience about sex, love, and commitment. Along with his wife Alisa, their goal is to reach as many couples around the world as they can, equipping them with the tools and strategies they need to create an extraordinary marriage.

With a hugely popular blog and podcast, Tony is a little modest in saying, “that’s consistency over 7 years.” Tony and Alisa sell coaching services, their own products, promote affiliate products, and have sponsorships as some of their income streams.

Here’s Everything I Did To Launch a Bestselling Book (and How Much It’s Made So Far)

July 3, 2025October 31, 2016

Last month I launched my latest book project, Buy Buttons, out into the world. On Day 1, it became an Amazon bestseller and has gone on to collect 75+ 5-star reviews and sell more than 2600 copies.

My process was much more involved this time around than it was two years ago for the launch of Work Smarter. A lot has changed during that time so I was excited to put some new ideas to the test.

In this post, I’ll break down the entire writing and launch process, step-by-step, start to finish.

199: Building a Blog to $20k a Month and Beyond

January 8, 2024October 27, 2016

You may remember Rosemarie Groner from episode 142 of the Side Hustle Show last year. She revealed how her blog Busy Budgeter was just a year old and receiving around 400,000 pageviews and making around $5k a month — primarily through Pinterest traffic.

It’s almost a year later now and I had to have her back to see how things were progressing. Rosemarie is now regularly making more than $20k a month, and while her pageviews are still at a similar number she has improved her ROI and diversified her traffic and income sources.

195: How Book Marketing Really Works: Tips from a 6-Figure Self-Published Author

November 5, 2021September 29, 2016

Last month I compiled a killer round-up post with book launch and marketing tips from 25 authors, entrepreneurs, and leaders in the self-publishing space.

When I sent my weekly newsletter out about it, one subscriber replied and said something to the effect of, “That’s cute, but let me show you how it really works.”

As you might have guessed, that subscriber was this week’s guest, Adam Houge.

191: Reverse-Engineering a Bestselling Book Launch

April 26, 2024September 1, 2016

Tom Morkes has worked on the book launches for a number of previous Side Hustle Show guests, including John Lee Dumas, Dan Norris, Taylor Pearson, and Neil Patel.

What I wanted to do in this conversation was reverse engineer some of the steps that go into producing, launching, and marketing a bestselling book, even you don’t have thousands of fans waiting for it.

And selfishly, I wanted to get some insight on what I could do to make my latest book project, Buy Buttons, hit the top of the charts. Tune in to hear Tom’s top tips from more than a dozen different bestselling launches.

187: Traffic Hacks for 2016 and Beyond, with Neil Patel

November 5, 2021August 4, 2016

Before people can do business with you, they have to know about you, and before they know about you, they have to find you.

And that’s universal, whether you’re running a brick-and-mortar shop, an ecommerce store, a blog, or a virtual consulting business.

Neil Patel is a master at solving the first step in that equation: getting people to find you. Through SEO, content marketing, and social media, we go through the traffic generation tactics that are working today.

What Happens When You Post “Epic” Content? My Traffic, Income, and Subscriber Results

May 18, 2026August 1, 2016

What’s the most common piece of advice when it comes to online business? Let’s see if this sounds familiar.

See what else is out there, and create something 10x better.

And while creating the best / most helpful / most shareable / most awesomely epic 10x content ever is supposedly the golden ticket, I thought I’d put this advice to the test and share some results from a recent attempt at “epic-ness” of mine.

Does it really work? Is it worth the effort?

Usually Hustling, Occasionally Social