The Side Hustle Show

"To build income you can hustle, but to build wealth you need to build something that doesn’t require your hands." That's what this week's guest told me, and then walked me down an interesting path in building that elusive "hands-free" business. His angle? Product licensing. Product licensing is essentially selling your ideas to larger companies for a percentage of future sales. You don't have to worry about the design, manufacturing, marketing, distribution, or anything outside an initial pitch and perhaps a prototype. Stephen Key is a master of this and has been doing it decades. He's the author of One Simple Idea, the bestselling licensing book, and the founder of InventRight. In this conversation, Stephen shares how you can get started in product licensing without any big upfront investment, how to protect your intellectual property without a patent, and how to get big companies to take you seriously. Full Show Notes and Free Bonus: Turn Your Ideas into Recurring Revenue Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist!

With a ton of ways for people to make money, Amazon is at the center of lots of side hustles these days. The innovative—if not controversial—Seattle company still has its core retail business, but has expanded in many different directions. For entrepreneurs, side hustlers, and everyone else looking to earn some extra cash, Amazon probably has an option for you. In fact, I have several Amazon-related income streams myself! It's the 4th most popular website in the country, and 13th most popular in the entire world. That means there's a huge volume of traffic--and buyers--visiting every day. Let's dive in and explore some of the many ways to make money on Amazon. Full Show Notes: 20 Ways to Make Money on Amazon

AI is rapidly revolutionizing the business landscape, offering a wide range of benefits from task automation to better customer service. Despite concerns about job displacement and ethical considerations, I’m curious to learn what tools are out there and how we can best use them to work smarter and drive better results. To help with that, I’ve crowdsourced some wisdom from Side Hustle Show listeners on how you’re using AI in your businesses, and you delivered big time. Stick around to hear creative suggestions on how you can boost your side hustle using AI tools or ignite a new income stream altogether. Ready? Let’s do it! Full Show Notes: 27 Ways to Use AI in Your Business

This week’s guest learned how to tap into the massive viewership of YouTube and make viral, cash-flowing videos on autopilot. Tony Lysandrides runs several YouTube channels, and what’s unique about his videos is he’s not on them. They’re faceless videos intentionally engineered for virality. Tony now brings in up to $14k a month in ad revenue from his videos. With a little practice and a little patience, there’s no reason you can’t do the same. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear: Full Show Notes: YouTube Automation: Up to $14k a Month w/ Faceless Viral Videos

I love a good rental business: buy something once and get paid for it over and over again. It’s a cool model, and this week’s guest found a creative approach to it in the mobility scooter niche. Lenny Tim from LAMobilityScooterRentals.com is a serial side hustler and entrepreneur involved in the e-commerce and YouTube space. He built his scooter rental to $3k a month in his spare time. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear how: Full Show Notes and Bonus PDF: $3k a Month Renting Out Mobility Scooters Part-Time

Today, we’re doing another round of business idea giveaways with Side Hustle Show listener and serial entrepreneur Steve Chou. Steve built not one but two 7-figure businesses — MyWifeQuitHerJob.com and BumbleBeeLinens.com — and started both as side hustles. We did one of these episodes back in September, episode 530, so check that out if you enjoy this format. Without further ado, let’s get into it! Full Show Notes: 19 Business Ideas Free for the Taking

Last month, I did an episode on the 17 different income streams I was working on. One of the smallest on that list generated the largest response, and that was the Amazon Influencer Program. At the time of that recording, I made only $9.50, but I mentioned it was the easiest $9.50 I ever made online. A month later, I earned over $100. Now, there were a lot of questions about the program, and we’re going to attempt to answer those in today’s episode to see whether the Amazon Influencer Program could be a new income stream for you! To better explain how the program works, I’ve enlisted the help of two Side Hustle Show listeners who’ve been in the program for longer and are now earning around $2k a month from their product review videos. The first is Jon Corres, who encouraged me to test the program. You might remember him from episode 413 where he discussed how he made $10k on YouTube without being on camera. And second is Tyler Christensen from TylerChristensen.com — a serial side hustler, university instructor, and father of four who has also been doing well with the program. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear: Full Show Notes: From Zero to $2k a Month w/ the Amazon Influencer Program

In his book “Start From Zero,” Dane Maxwell shares a simple framework to use as an engine for coming up with both business ideas and your first sales: CPSO (Customer → Pain → Solution → Offer). Thanks to this framework, Chris Panteli from Linkifi.io found a common pain point and started selling the solution from zero to $50k a month in recurring revenue. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear: Full Show Notes: From Selling Fish and Chips to a $50k/mo Online Business Download Your Free Bonus: 101 Service Business Ideas

I love a business where you can get paid over and over again for work you do once. That’s exactly what Emily McDermott from PrettyArrow.com has done by selling spreadsheets online. Emily is a top 0.1% Etsy seller who went from selling $2 printables to $20 spreadysheet templates. She now helps entrepreneurs earn passive income by selling digital products, even if they’ve never made one before. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear how: Full Show Notes: $250k Selling Spreadsheets on Etsy in Under 2 Years New to the Show? Get Your Personalized Money-Making Playlist

This week’s guest took inspiration from a previous guest — Alex Goldberg from FinvsFin.com — but more importantly, took action. In episodes 367 and 410, Alex broke down the model of the modern comparison shopping site: in-depth product reviews and comparisons that help buyers make informed decisions, and earn affiliate commissions on those referrals. Matt Oney from ZenmasterWellness.com saw what Alex was doing and how much he was earning, and thought he could do something similar. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear: Full Show Notes: Affiliate Marketing Example: From Pandemic Side Project to $40k a Month New to the Show? Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist

Today’s guest is your friendly neighborhood forklift driver turned e-commerce entrepreneur. Over the last nearly 10 years, Ben Knegendorf from DropshipBreakthru.com has started, grown, and sold several different online stores. (Check out the free on-demand webinar for more.) Ben advocates for a model of “high ticket dropshipping,” where he acts as a virtual retail storefront for brands. Those brands or their distributors ship products to his customers without him ever having to touch the inventory. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear how: Full Show Notes: High Ticket Dropshipping: From $40k a year to a $40k payday Get Your Personalized Side Hustle Show Playlist!

Can you live for free? That’s what The Side Hustle Snowball framework tries to answer. The idea behind this framework is to slowly erase or eliminate monthly expenses — starting with your smallest expenses and working your way up — with new income streams. Most of the income streams I’ll share in this post are not huge but they are snowball-worthy, and I think you can use them to build momentum toward that ultimate goal of financial independence. This is the 3rd installment of the series, so check out the previous episodes if you like this format: 63: The 8 Income Streams I’m Working on Right Now303: The 15 Income Streams I’m Working on Right Now (I’m going to follow the snowball framework and roughly go in order from smallest to largest.) Let’s do it! New to the show? Grab your personalized playlist here! Full Show Notes: The 17 Income Streams I’m Working On Right Now

I’ve got another 20 Questions episode for you today, diving into the ol’ listener mailbag. As is customary on these episodes, I’ve pulled out questions from the Side Hustle Nation community from over the last few months and will attempt to answer those for your benefit and listening pleasure. This is the 14th installment of this series so feel free to check out the older ones: 498: Profitable Podcasting, Getting Clients, and $50k/mo in Passive Income: 20 Questions with Nick451: Affiliate Marketing, Early Retirement, and Side Hustle Shifts Over 8 Years of Podcasting: 20 Questions with Nick431: Fear of Selling, Protecting Ideas, Podcasting and More412: Side Hustle Ethics, Charging Your Friends, the Side Hustles I’m Most Excited About, and More365: Market Saturation, Mind Mapping, Miracle Mornings, and More346: The Con of the Side Hustle, Beanie Babies, Affiliate Marketing, and More320: Multiplying Money, Morning Routines, and $100k Side Hustles291: Email, Ebooks, Platforms, and Conferences271: Brilliant Blogging, Ruthless Productivity, and Guaranteed Success245: Network Marketing, Imposter Syndrome, My Side Hustle Mistakes, and More219: Growing Traffic, Monetization, List-Building, a Day in the Life, and More198: Blogging, Branding, Book Writing, and Finding the Right Side Hustle for You181: SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Self-Publishing, Udemy, and More A common piece of advice you’ll hear is to take audience questions and turn them into content, so here’s a meta example of that in action. We’re talking pricing, podcasting, pre-aged domains, privacy, personal growth, permission to go full time, and lots more. Enjoy! Full Show Notes: Pricing, Podcasting, Permission to Quit, and More: 20 Questions with Nick

Today, we’ve got a killer case study for you, where my guest has built his business to almost $300k in revenue — all on the back of local SEO. Kody Smith from AwwCrap.com started his pet waste removal service as a side hustle, earning $26k his first year. He did $187k after quitting his day job and nearly doubled that last year without any paid ads! Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear how: Get Your Personalized Money-Making Playlist Full Show Notes: From Side Hustle to $300k a Year: Building an In-Demand Business with Local SEO

One of my favorite side hustles is buying low and selling high. This is the business model of Amazon, Walmart — pretty much every store in the history of stores. You buy inventory at one price and resell it at a higher price. It works great, but you still have to buy that initial inventory. What if you wanted to start with super low upfront costs? Turns out, there are lots of ways to get “free” stuff to resell, and I want to walk you through 10 of those methods in today’s show. Let’s get right to it! Your Free Bonus: The Best Items to Flip for a Profit Full Show Notes: Free stuff to flip for a profit

Turn the skills you already have into a new income stream! Shannon Weinstein is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) who turned her fractional CFO (Chief Financial Officer)/tax strategy service at KeepWhatYouEarn.com into a full-time income stream — while still working a full-time job. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear: Free Bonus: 101 Service Business Ideas Full Show Notes: How I Built a Multi 6-Figure Business While Still Working Full-Time

AI (artificial intelligence) is one of the hottest topics of the year. And today, we’re going to explore some of the actionable ways that you can capitalize on this new technology to either start a new business or grow one that you’ve already got. To help me talk through these is Matt Wolfe from FutureTools.io and the FutureTools YouTube channel. Matt’s a long-time friend who’s been doing a deep dive on this stuff for the past few months and I’m anxious to get caught up. Last week, Matt shared some of his advanced affiliate marketing strategies that helped him earn over $900k from ONE affiliate product — if you missed it, be sure to check that one out as well, but that’s where I want to start this list. Full Show Notes: AI Side Hustles

Affiliate marketing is a great business. You: But most affiliate marketers — myself included in a lot of cases — don’t put as much effort as they could into their campaigns. And as a result, we cut ourselves short of the results we could have seen if they just went a little deeper. Today’s guest is Matt Wolfe from FutureTools.io, and he’s going to break down what that looks like in practice and the specific tactics you can use to earn more commissions and better serve your audience. Because the difference isn’t a 15% incremental improvement — it may be a 10x gain or more! Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear how Matt: Full Show Notes: Advanced Affiliate Marketing

Making a sale? That’s great. But making a recurring sale? That’s even better. This week’s guest is Ryan Golgosky from 180Sites.com. (Use promo code HUSTLE to get your first month free!) He took what is typically sold as a one-off service — web design, in this case — and repackaged it for recurring revenue in a really creative way. Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear: Your Free Bonus: 50+ Web Design Niche Ideas Full Show Notes: Setting Your Side Hustle Up for Recurring Revenue

Ancient wisdom + modern science to help you live your best life. In 2021, I sat down with Brian Johnson from HEROIC. He's a serial entrepreneur who has helped thousands of people discover their true passions, purpose, and potential. If your New Year goals are starting to wane a little, I guarantee this conversation will kick you back into high gear! Full show notes