437 episodes

Spencer Haws from NichePursuits.com discusses business ideas that actually work. Learn how to build niche websites, market your website through search engine optimization, and much more. In addition, you'll get interviews with leading internet entrepreneurs that provide insight on: authority sites, flipping sites, using Google Adsense, outsourcing, automation tools, linkbuilding, building a real business, software development, creating iPhone Apps, lifestyle business, small business tips, and more. Overall, get your dose of motivation to move forward with your niche business ideas or take your small business to the next level!

Niche Pursuits Podcast: Find Your Next "Niche" Business Idea‪!‬ Spencer Haws: NichePursuits.com

    • Business
    • 4.8 • 174 Ratings

Spencer Haws from NichePursuits.com discusses business ideas that actually work. Learn how to build niche websites, market your website through search engine optimization, and much more. In addition, you'll get interviews with leading internet entrepreneurs that provide insight on: authority sites, flipping sites, using Google Adsense, outsourcing, automation tools, linkbuilding, building a real business, software development, creating iPhone Apps, lifestyle business, small business tips, and more. Overall, get your dose of motivation to move forward with your niche business ideas or take your small business to the next level!

    Why is Google MANUALLY Deindexing So Many Sites? (And Other News)

    Why is Google MANUALLY Deindexing So Many Sites? (And Other News)

    Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Dig into the latest news in SEO, AI, and content creation with Jared and Spencer!

    They kick off this week’s episode talking about Google’s March Core Update.

    They talk specifically about scaled content abuse and how Google is going in and manually deindexing sites, sharing a study that looked at 79,000 websites on certain ad networks, of which 1146 were deindexed.

    Could this be a scare tactic by Google? Is it doing this manually to save its crawl budget? What exactly is going on?

    Google updated its quality rater guidelines to ensure that they ding those sites that don’t disclose which articles were written with AI, describing AI-generated articles as the lowest form of content when ti comes to EEAT.

    Spencer offers some advice for content creators using AI and says that Google is going after sites with AI-generated content. He does make an important distinction, though. Tune in to hear what he says.

    Then they discuss how Google put out an FAQ on “pure spam” manual action notices, but as Jared notices, there is one important thing missing from the post. What is it?

    They then move on to a funny news item. John Mueller, one of Google’s Search Liaisons, saw his site get dropped from Google, although it was recently reindexed. It’s not clear why this happened or if it was a stunt, but it’s definitely news!

    Spencer and Jared have some encouraging words for listeners about the core update overall, so listen to the episode to hear what they have to say.

    Moving along, they announce Mediavine’s new program, Journey, for sites getting around 10k sessions per month. This is a great alternative for people with smaller sites to allow them to get monetized with Mediavine.

    As this is a new program, Spencer and Jared have a lot of questions about it and about how it will run, and why it’s being launched now.

    Things take a “nerdy” turn afterwards as Jared talks about how Google Search Console has rolled out the new core web vitals. What changes have been made, and what is INP all about?

    Moving along, they share that Reddit has announced a new tool for business growth, allowing companies to spot trends, track mentions, monitor post performance, etc. 

    The goal is to help brands promote themselves organically, and it could be a good platform to use as people consider diversifying away from Google. Tune in to listen to what Spencer and Jared think about this idea.

    And the last item on the agenda is the news that the Associated Press has launched an e-commerce site with product reviews. 

    What is so unsettling about this headline for Spencer? What do they say about presidential campaigns, blenders, and multivitamins?

    As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer gives an update on his Amazon Influencer Program side hustle. He reports that his earnings are steady this month, at $1,600, with no major dips but also no major growth. Jared chimes in with his earnings this month, too!

    He also talks about his new premium Niche Pursuits Community, for which he just did an expert call to talk about the program, sharing all of the juicy details about how he built this income stream. 

    When it’s Jared’s turn, he talks about adding a new, professionally edited video and thumbnail to his Weekend Growth YouTube channel. 

    He also talks about how he’s using SparkLoop to grow his newsletter subscriber list, and after spending +$200, he has acquired +200 subscribers. Tune in to hear all of the details and learn more.

    As for their Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first and reveals Horse Name Ideas. This weird website has hundreds of categories as well as a name generator, and perhaps what’s most surprising is what he reveals when he looks at Ahrefs.

    But when Spencer and Jared discuss the site owner’s photo, the About page, the mission statement, and the contact phone number,

    • 1 hr 5 min
    This SEO Specialist Sold 3 Businesses to Google and SEMrush

    This SEO Specialist Sold 3 Businesses to Google and SEMrush

    Wouldn't it be nice to use SEO to grow businesses to 6-7-figure exits within just a year or two?

    That's what our latest guest on the Niche Pursuits podcast does.

    His name is Dmitry Dragilev, and over the years, he's refined a repeatable process he's used to sell an app, SaaS, and affiliate site to companies like Google and Semrush.

    To accomplish this, Dmitry stresses the significance of employing a well-thought-out exit plan and a consistent approach to business growth - particularly through SEO strategies - keyword research, and backlinking techniques.

    Dmitry candidly discusses his SEO mistakes over the years, such as targeting incorrect keywords and underestimating the ongoing efforts required to rank high in Google.

    He shares some good general advice, like starting with low-volume keywords and gradually progressing to more competitive ones. And emphasizes the importance of niche authority and recommends steering clear of broad topics for enhanced SEO outcomes.

    A particularly interesting insight is how he looks for weaknesses in the SERPs - thin pages and those lacking any helpful content for the desired search term.

    Drawing from his experience of selling businesses to major companies, he underscores the importance of fostering connections and relationships in achieving business success. And some of the value propositions online businesses should target for better sales terms.

    Dmitry also provides valuable insights on pitfalls to avoid when building a business.

    Overall, this is a discussion on good practices for SEO and even business more generally. And it's certainly interesting to hear from someone who has experience like his!

    Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter
    Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper
    Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative
    Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week?  Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com

    • 57 min
    Google Core and Spam Updates Unleashed...Here's What You Need to Know

    Google Core and Spam Updates Unleashed...Here's What You Need to Know

    Welcome back to the Niche Pursuits News Podcast, everyone! 

    This is the podcast for SEOs, content creators, webmasters, and entrepreneurs looking to understand the latest events and get inspiration for their businesses.

    It’s been a crazy week in SEO news, so let’s get right into it! And, as Google suggested, you better buckle up as it’s going to be a wild ride!

    The first (and only) topic Spencer and Jared dig into is Google’s very big news.

    It’s rolling out the March 2024 Spam Update, which will take 2 weeks, as well as its March 2024 core update, which will take about a month. It’s also worth noting that the Helpful Content system is now part of the core updates.

    Spencer and Jared discuss this news at length, covering the main aspects: scaled content abuse; site reputation abuse, or parasite SEO; and expired domain abuse. Google’s stated goal is to reduce the amount of low-quality, unoriginal content by up to 40% and send search traffic to helpful and high-quality sites.

    What does this all mean? And what does it mean for AI content? Who is Google targeting specifically? 

    What cryptic sentence from Google’s announcement does Spencer consider the most interesting? What sort of behavior is Google cracking down on in particular? What types of penalties is Google doling out, and who’s getting hit?

    What step did Google announce that leads Spencer and Jared to suggest Google is biased? And what kind of practices are they cracking down on when it comes to expired domains?

    They also talk about how Google might start to use a page classifier as opposed to a site classifier. What implications would this have?

    Tune in to hear Spencer and Jared discuss Google's latest news and share their thoughts on what's going on.

    The next portion of the podcast is Shiny Object Shenanigans. 

    Spencer goes first with an update on his Amazon Influencer side hustle. He reports a rough number of his videos and his earnings this month to date. The good news is that he is officially in the black.

    He also announces that he’s going to do an in-depth presentation about his Amazon Influencer side hustle for the Niche Pursuits Community, his new, premium membership group, which launched at the beginning of March. 

    Spencer will be sharing just about everything, from his storefront to his earnings to his secrets for hiring people. If you want to check it out, join the community before Monday!

    When it’s Jared’s turn, he provides a brief earnings update on his Amazon Influencer side hustle, and then digs into another project: using paid ads to drive subscribers to his Weekend Growth newsletter.

    He explains how he set it up through ConvertKit, how he’s going to try different ad ideas, and how he is about to go live with the ads. He will be providing more details and results as they come in, so watch this space!

    As for Weird Niche Sites, Spencer reveals that his site is getting 2 million organic visitors per month and 6 million visitors in total. Random lets you generate random things, such as numbers, and they do it using a very unique method. Listen to hear what it is!

    This DR83 site is making some money. Tune in to hear how they do it.

    When Jared’s up, he shares the website for the Stinky Candle Company, which sells unique candles with scents like chlorine, gasoline, and bacon. 

    This DR30 site is not getting much traffic, but Jared does reveal a few interesting tidbits about it. It looks like they could be getting 30k visitors a month. With targeted traffic like that, how much might the site be earning? Tune in to hear what they think.

    And that concludes another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast. 

    There’s a lot going on right now in Google’s world, so come back next week to hear Spencer and Jared break it down all over again.


    Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nic

    • 1 hr 8 min
    How This Newsletter and SEO Writing Specialist Grows Multiple 6-Figure Businesses

    How This Newsletter and SEO Writing Specialist Grows Multiple 6-Figure Businesses

    Sean Markey is back on the Niche Pursuits podcast after a few years, to discuss all things newsletters, aged domains, community, partnerships, and more!

    Sean's been working in SEO since 2011, initially focusing on affiliate sites before transitioning to agency work. And despite facing challenges due to Google updates impacting his traffic, he found success in the CBD and cannabis niches.

    Aside from the actual writing aspects, his expertise lies in using aged domains to scale affiliate sites effectively.

    But around 2020 Sean shifted his focus to writing an SEO newsletter called Rank Theory, offering strategy consultations as his primary income source.

    And he shares a lot of helpful tips on what he's done to grow it into an actual business.

    For one he shares how starting a successful newsletter requires the basics like unique content that resonates with readers and improves over time. And for this, consistency and the value of uniqueness in newsletter content creation are particular keys.

    Thus he advises against relying on AI-generated content for newsletters and breaking traditional best practices to stand out.

    Sean also shares how he acquired the newsletter TheWeeklySEO.com and integrated it into his own, learning from the experience and discussing it as a growth strategy - similar to acquiring an aged domain.

    Sean also discusses the evolution of aged domains, emphasizing quality domains with brand value, sharing how redirect chains may be a thing of the past in today's SEO landscape.

    He's also involved in building a community and other partnerships, including discussing some of the keys for making partnerships successful.

    With this Sean talks about partnering on a lucrative domain project with high authority and traffic potential, aiming to white-label a product as opposed to taking the traditional affiliate route.

    He plans to stay focused on current projects and avoid distractions, leveraging opportunities that target like-minded site builders, entrepreneurs, and SEO enthusiasts and it's definitely interesting to hear his strategies to accomplish this!

    Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter
    Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper
    Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

    • 55 min
    The Gemini Debacle, Google Pays for AI Content, the Future of the HCU, and 2 Weird Sites

    The Gemini Debacle, Google Pays for AI Content, the Future of the HCU, and 2 Weird Sites

    Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast!

    This week Spencer and Jared turn things up a notch and cover many, many news items in the SEO and content creation space. After that they share their latest side hustles, and finish everything off with a weird niche site analysis. 

    You won’t want to miss this one! 

    They kick things off by talking about Google Gemini and issues with its image-generating capacities. It turns out that the platform is not very accurate, which has led its stock price to drop recently. 

    The core of the problem is that users found that the race of the people it was depicting in its images was not historically accurate and people are asking if the programmers behind the program have anything to do with it.

    Does Google have an agenda behind its search results? This has led to a lot of debate and controversy and, as a result, Google shut it down temporarily.

    One person who has been extremely vocal about the Google Gemini debacle is Elon Musk. Spencer and Jared talk briefly about how Musk is leveraging this opportunity to talk about his AI chatbot, Grock, and how he's going very hard against Google on Twitter.

    The next news item up for discussion is the fact that Google is paying publishers to test out a new, unreleased Gen AI platform.

    As part of the Google News Initiative, there's a tool that beta testers are using during the next year to publish their stories, and Google is paying them five figures over the course of the year to publish 3 articles a day.

    What does this reveal about Google’s feelings about AI content? Do the articles need to be labeled as AI-assisted? And does this fly in the face of its antitrust lawsuit?

    Moving along, Spencer and Jared report that Vice has announced lay-offs and its plans to stop publishing on Vice.com in search of new traffic sources. Its authors and journalists are scrambling to back up all of their articles in the event that the website disappears. 

    Is it letting writers go to replace them with AI? What does their new studio model entail? Why are they giving up on their own website? Tune in to hear Spencer and Jared’s thoughts.

    Moving on, it looks like Google is finally rolling out some new Generative AI features for Chrome. Now you can customize Chrome with themes, organize your tabs, and get help writing. What do Spencer and Jared think of these new features?

    They talk very briefly about how the NYT filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for revealing the content behind their paywall, and now OpenAI is claiming the NYT hacked the system.

    In the next news item, they highlight an article by Glenn Gabe talking about what could happen with the Helpful Content Update.

    They highlight another article that did a big study of Google sites and the effect of updates, including the HCU. Spencer reads some of the website attributes that are considered very positive for websites, but check out the article for a more in-depth look.

    Lastly, developers are looking into the possibility of adding micropayments to the Chrome browser so users can pay websites or publishers when they browse their content. 

    Although this is just an idea and there are no plans for implementation, it does raise a lot of questions. What do Spencer and Jared think? Tune in to hear what they say.

    As for Shiny Object Shenanigans, Spencer talks about his new project, the Niche Pursuits Community, which will be live and open to the public as of March 4th. 

    He talks about some of the features, including calls with experts, small mastermind groups, a private Discord channel, and ongoing challenges with monetary prizes.

    When it's Jared's turn, he talks about how he recently monetized his weekend growth YouTube channel. He reveals the earnings from the channel: $11.14. 

    Although that's clearly not very much, Jared shares a few caveats as well as a positive outlook, since his YouTube channel is generating client wo

    • 1 hr 3 min
    How James de Lacey Grew 2 Sites to $10k Per Month Using Memberships and Affiliate Sales (Sites Revealed!)

    How James de Lacey Grew 2 Sites to $10k Per Month Using Memberships and Affiliate Sales (Sites Revealed!)

    James de Lacey is a great example of what you can accomplish in the online business space in just a short time.

    He's a rugby and strength and conditioning coach who, thanks to Covid, got into SEO and online business out of necessity.

    Now he has 2 successful fitness brands, multiple side projects, and is working his way towards 6 figures per month.

    He joins us on the podcast to share lots of important insights into brand building, monetization, and more!

    A key takeaway from James's insights is the emphasis on creating valuable content to establish authority in the industry.

    Thanks to his sports science background, James produces informative and engaging content across writing, podcasts, and videos - including reaction videos and detailed reviews.

    He highlights the necessity of demonstrating expertise and trustworthiness in the fitness niche, stressing the importance of outbound links to reputable sources and in-depth analysis as integral components of his content strategy.

    In terms of E-E-A-T and the HCU update, he shares strategies that helped him enhance his site's visibility and expertise and shares tips on changes in review titles to improve rankings and create unbranded mentions on other platforms for brand recognition.

    James also shares insights into the membership model for stable revenue, highlighting some of the challenges he's experienced along the way. And touches on social media and how Pinterest SEO can still be used to boost impressions.

    Overall it's an inspiring discussion with James showing an impressive ability to juggle multiple projects while still managing to maintain quality and consistency.

    Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter
    Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper
    Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

    • 1 hr 7 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
174 Ratings

174 Ratings

MA Travel Dreamer ,

Wow, this is exceptional

I listened to several episodes before posting this review to make sure- but the Niche Pursuits podcast is exceptional.

Business podcasts, especially those made for bloggers, can get away with rambling hosts, annoying tangents, and poor production quality. But Niche Pursuits clearly puts in the work to prep their guests, bloggers’ biggest pain points/questions, stay on track, and edit well.

I learned a whole lot about how to improve my blog and business through this podcast.

Thanks!

Allnicknamestaken23759 ,

Useful content

Many of the episodes have useful information, but oftentimes the info is drawn out for too long. Hour plus episodes could probably be shortened to 45 min, which would make for an easier listen. The search intelligence ads are sooo repetitive though- I can’t hit the skip ahead button fast enough when they start 2-3x/episode.

Would love more actionable tips for a variety of things they talk about.

NYS listener ,

Fridays becoming a complaining session

The nonstop complaining for the first 20min of the Friday show is making an episode I used to look forward to one that I dread.

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