On this call, the group talks about a wide variety of topics.
One member shares his recent acquisition of an email newsletter on remote work opportunities, and they talk about Beehiiv ads, getting leads on other platforms, and newsletter growth.
They discuss the SEO landscape right now and their experience working with clients, the niche site model and whether or not it still works, and the importance of building a brand.
One member spoke about a new site she’d like to launch and the other members offered lots of ideas and suggestions.
Transcript
All right, everyone. Welcome. Um, I am personally going to have to leave 30 minutes early, but the call is welcome to, uh, you know, continue without me. I'll just assign someone who's available or someone willing, just the host. And you know, when I leave, there won't be a problem. Uh, that said, thanks for joining y'all.
Um, I've seen all y'all here before, so y'all know the drill, uh, no agenda. We can bring up anything and everything. We don't have to just be talking about pickleball the whole meeting.
All right, um Brooks, what are you working on nowadays? I don't see you participating as much in the email challenge. So so So I um, I do see you actually in there. Sorry. No, that's okay. That's okay. Uh, yeah, I need to update that dude I just bought I just bought an email newsletter. Um, I I went to a I went to a friends event this past week You As like a favor.
I was like, Hey, look, man, I'm missing, I'm missing a very important call. And it was a, it was with John. So it was the group, the group newsletter call. I was like, if you really want me there, I'll be there to support you. He was like, yeah, man, it'd be really helpful. So anyways. Um, yeah. So, so I missed that. Um, Yeah, so I just got reached out to, it just dawned on me, it was a complete stranger basically.
But it was in the Beehive Slack, so if you're on Beehive there's like a Slack, um, there's a Slack group, um, with like different channels and stuff, so I think a guy sent me a message from that and he was looking to sell his, his newsletter, um, it ended up being Newsletters because he's like, he like ran a bunch of ads and was like starting.
He was like spinning off these smaller newsletters in the same exact thing. He kind of thought if he like diversified his ads, like he would be able to get beehive ads on there faster or something. I'm not really sure what he was thinking, but, um, yeah. So I just snagged a newsletter from him. And so now it's something I'll like talk about in my email newsletter.
Cause it's like another project for me to like talk about, about growing this, um, this email newsletter. Um, I think If things go well, I think it would like break even in like maybe nine ish months. Um, so to me it was like a no brainer to like give it a, give it a go. Um, And it wasn't like, it wasn't like a million dollars or anything.
So I didn't, I didn't have to like take out a, take out a loan per se to like buy this, buy this newsletter. Um, yeah. How big is the list? If you don't mind. Uh, yeah. So the primary one is 10, 000. Um, It's 10, 000 people. And then the other smaller ones that I bought that I'm like trying to figure out how to integrate them into the same newsletter, cause it's literally the same topic.
It's like remote work opportunities. Like, uh, so the other ones are like 3000, 2000 and maybe another 3000. So, um, do it now. He's been busy getting these lists. Yeah. Yeah. He like. Yeah, he showed me, now, unless there's something I don't know, like, I take everyone for face value online, I do my best due diligence, and then I, and then I just trust you, and then I, I take a, I take action.
Yeah, unless there's something weird about the list, but he, um, no, he ran, like, TikTok ads and, um, and Twitter ads to, like, to, like, grow the, to, like, grow the newsletter. Um, and then I think, I think he just got stretched then cause he's trying to like, he's trying to grow an app and some other things. And he's like, yeah, I just need to like, he's, I think this is like more than I thought it would be or something.
So. Well, okay. I'm not as familiar with like TikTok and Twitter ads. Is it, do they have either? I know with like Facebook, like there's two ways you can run like ads to grow your, your newsletter. One is like you run an ad to your landing page. They go to your landing page and sign up. Right. Okay. The other one is they can, just while on the Facebook platform, fill in their information and subscribe or like give you their email that way.
Yeah. And this was kind of actually talked about on the dike John Dykstra call. I know we, we kind of had a snafu with the recording. Uh, we're going to fix that. But if you listen to that, we talk about that a little bit about how John has used both. And, um, usually the idea, the belief is that the quality of emails and subscribers is better when they have to go to the landing page and put in their info as opposed to just filling it out on platform because it's like an additional step.
It's like more intentional. And the reason I bring this up is because, you know, I don't know anything like you said about TikTok and Twitter ads, but like if they have a similar function, um, how were those emails like, you know, acquired, um, because that could affect, uh, you know, deliverability and engagement, et cetera.
Uh, so just something to keep in mind. I mean, maybe they only have one option and none of that matters, but yeah, no, that's a good. That's a good point. Like I, uh, for my local email newsletter, I use the Facebook ad forms. Uh, the main reason why, so like the leads on Facebook and then I, I automate. Pulling them to my newsletter.
The main reason I do that is because I'm not smart enough to figure out tracking for if I send them to my landing page, how to track the cost per lead. I don't, I just don't know how to do it. So I was like, well, Facebook, Facebook measures this for me. So let me just keep it the way it is. Um, so I wouldn't have any data to say one way or the other, if it's a higher quality subscriber, you know what I mean?
I'm not sure. Yeah. The only way I could think of is if you have like a special page. That only Facebook will, that you'll only run ads to like its own form too. And then you just manually calculate, okay, you have 30 signups on this page. It costs you, you know, 60 that's 200 or 2 a signup. Right. Um, yeah, then you don't need like advanced analytics and like tagging and whatever.
Um, Yeah, I mean, you know what? So I'm actually I'm gonna I'm gonna push back on John's thought a little bit. I wish I was on. I wish I could have made that call. I'm gonna push back just with a thought. Here's my thought. Like, um, my thought is, it's the same traffic. So the traffic that would take the extra step to fill out the form is also going to fill out the form on Facebook, unless, unless they wouldn't.
Right, which that that seems crazy to me if they would click through and take an extra step to fill out I would imagine they would do it right on facebook Uh, well, so potentially yes But not everyone who fills out the form through facebook will go to a landing page and sign up so i'm fine with that and the reason why i'm fine with that is because I have like automation in place to like Clean up people over time like if they're not if they're not a good subscriber like to me a good subscriber is just someone that like Reads the newsletter like I think Yeah.
Um, because yeah, if they're not going to open it or something, well then like, yeah, over time they'll get like scrubbed off my list anyway. So if, if, if, if that, if that same traffic is going to see my ad either way, I'm just not sure. I'm not sure it matters. Uh, or maybe I'm missing, maybe I'm missing a part of the, of this math equation.
I mean, I, I think, yeah, long term, maybe it doesn't matter, but it might just affect short term. Like numbers, you know, deliverability and stuff. And then I don't know how that might affect, like, I mean, I think, but then also like, if you're not sure who's engaged and who's not. because you scrub them over time, you don't really understand how much you're spending on a lead.
Yep. So, but, but, but I'm gonna jump in. Those same people that took the extra step to subscribe can also, can also unsubscribe. And, and I don't, yeah, I definitely don't know how to measure any of that over time. Uh, yeah, that's, that's fair. Uh, it's still very possible. I guess the, the idea is that it would be cleaner, but yeah, I guess there's, it's, it's.
I'm sure there's better ways to have better tracking, but yeah, it's beyond, beyond me. I, yeah, I mean, never, never say never, man. I mean, I'm happy to, I'm happy to like consistently like change, you know, what I'm doing and try different things. But yeah, that was just my, that was just my thought back on that.
I'm like, well, um, and I don't, I don't know how the better quality lists and higher open rates. I don't, I don't know like how that affects everything. Um, obviously it's better. But I don't know ultimately how that would affect everything. I guess if we had all the data, then it'd be easy to make. It'd be easy to make that decision, right?
Like, if you could fast forward and be like, Oh yeah, um, this will make your newsletter much better. Um, and you can measure it all. So like, then it wouldn't, then it would make sense. But you know, you never have all the information. Like, welcome to, welcome to business, I guess. You know? Yeah, yeah, I don't, I don't know if there is a definitive way I wouldn't be able to, Say, I don't know, maybe, maybe people more qualified, more experienced in the call.
Um, yeah, feel free to, um, yeah, if not, I don't know. My, my hope is to start a pickleball newsletter, um, try billing out, building that out. So. Cool. I said that would be cool. Yeah. I think there's a, you know, growing space. It's something that I like and I'm passionate about. So like, you know, might as well, I know, uh, a buddy who's trying to start like a long term like pickleball resort type of thing.
So there could be synergy on that, but I think that'd be kind of a fun project for me where I haven't really worked on my own project in a while. I'm not really counting the Amazon influencer. Um, I did like a hundred videos there and I made some money, but. Um, yeah, I think that would be something, something fun, man.
What, um, any, anyone feel free, like just interrupt or whatever. I'm, I'm literally just like now picking Colin with questions. Colin, what's your, um, your, you had, you had niche sites, uh, and you like sold some, right. Um, and then, I don't know this or not, but like you and me had actually, like, I look back on my Facebook message or you and me had like cross paths and some messages.
I think like maybe some link. Some like link exchange or something. I just, I found, I found your name. I don't know if you recall that or not, but, um, Oh, I do not. Um, yeah, yeah. I've definitely done a number of them through Facebook. Um, yeah, I mean. Yeah, I kind of, uh, got my SEO experience, just kind of self taught doing niche sites.
I had a portfolio, had a team. Um, I sold like my biggest one two years ago, and then I used some of those funds and I said, okay, I'm going to grow like this batch of new sites. And I didn't need it to be profitable, but I needed them to, you know, show some, some growth and they were for a while and then the helpful content update happened and it knocked.
Most of them, at least like my, my top, my, the most, the ones I was like most bullish on and said, okay, I think, I think I'll just take like whatever money I made from this and get out and take a break. And, you know, I still do some client stuff, but I wanted a break from my own projects. Like, you know, so, you know, went back, uh, yeah.
Focus more on like client stuff, which is a little more stable, at least for me, um, more predictable, uh, And, uh, you know, just relax a little bit. I find it less stressful than owning niche sites where it's like, you kind of have to like stress out about, uh, you know, Google updates happen and stuff. Um, at least niche sites, just like relying on Google traffic.
Um, and then like, you know, I want to buy a house with like my fiance and stuff. So like getting stable income is nice for the loan process. Y'all, everyone, y'all know that. Um, yeah, yeah. I think, Just hearing about like email marketing, uh, is, is something very interesting to me where I do, and I've thought about growing like a Pickleball brand for a little bit.
Don't know, quite know what that looks like, but I think I'm either some combination, like I for sure want to do email marketing. I kind of want to get into do like a Pickleball Facebook page too, and see how that goes. Um, but lean more into the email marketing, but the face, the Facebook page might be a little too much if I do both at the same time, so I don't know.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I got you. When you, uh, when you say you're doing client work, is it all SEO related? Like the agency stuff? Or is it like different stuff? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All, all like SEO related. Um, yeah. Cool. Yeah. I, that's actually like a, a pretty good revenue stream for me too, is I have a couple of, um, agency.
I guess agency clients, I guess I would call them. Um, but like, I find it interesting. It's kind of weird to have, um, I'd be, I'd be interested to like what everyone's thoughts on this is to like, you almost can't be an expert. I mean, I guess you can, but it's like, it's such a moving business right now, like with, with what's happening in Google, so it's a weird, it's a weird place to like, uh, to put yourself as like the expert and this is what a customer needs to do when in reality, like.
Yeah. Yeah. I was curious if you would chime in. Yeah. Cause that's like my full time job. I get paid for SEO and like, I tell them like, look, Google's broken and we don't know what the hell's going on. I just kind of like say, because we can do all of the right things and you'll see no movement. And it's like.
Yeah. The right now are one of the big sites that we're trying to work on. Um, and it's a potential million multimillion dollar website. And Google has got that tag right on that bitch, like do not rank. And we're doing every, you couldn't have more EAC. You could not have more. This is a real business. You could not, does not rank, does not show up for things.
It gets one click a day and then zero clicks and then two clicks a day. And then zero clicks. And that it's so abnormal, especially for the content we're publishing. So. I make it very clear, like, look, all that we're doing all of the best practices, but Google, it's a Google problem, not an us problem. And I have also some more evidence to back that up.
Uh, I think I mentioned here before that I have on my analytics, one of my other websites that All the search engines love it. Bing and, and DuckDuckGo and Ecos or whatever, they ranked them and it's up there and it's getting a lot of traffic, like thousands of traffic from those others, 12 clicks from Google.
So yeah, so it's just like, no, this is not a problem with the website. It's not the code of the website. It's a Google problem. And that just got the, uh, explain that, but also just one more thing to not, I don't like Ever state that I know everything, you know what I mean? Like, let's, let's, let's do some more research.
Let's figure it out because I always say no one, no one, no one, no one, not even the engineers know what the hell is going on at any given moment. So making that clear is like, we're doing our best, but not, there's not one person that knows how this algorithm works. So we're all trying to work it together.
That's actually well said, man. Yeah. Like not even the, the Google engineers individually can give you the answer. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. That's a, that's, that's a good point. Yeah. Cause I mean, any, like in software, sorry, I'm jumping in, but in any software, right? When you have so many people working on it, no, no one person's going to know how it works.
That makes sense. Yeah. You're right. You're right. Do you, do you do, uh, do you work for a company doing SEO or is it like agency stuff that you're doing? Or is it like a, I'm in house. So whatever I do in house, cool, cool. So you work with one single company doing SEO? Correct. Yeah. Okay. Very cool. I like that because I don't, I don't, I never liked the idea of an agency.
Like jumping around from a task to a task. I can't put my, my heart into what I'm doing. I won't care if I'm gonna be with someone else the next day. You know what I mean? I like to grow a thing. And when I was getting hired, they asked if I wanted to be a 10 99 or um, or a W2. That's tax code. If anyone doesn't know one is like you're an independent contractor.
The other one's like you're part of the team, essentially. And that's what I told 'em. Like, I can't beat 10 99 because. I need to be a W 2. I need to be a salary guy in the team. I don't want to be a labeled as a contractor. Or else I'm not harsh enough to be there. Yeah. Yeah, I could see the difference there.
Like, mentally. Yeah, the mental shift. Yeah, that's uh, that's what I'm basically 1099 for with a bunch of, a bunch of local businesses. And I tell everybody after, well what do you do? Uh, I've got like 50 part time jobs. And that's what I'm doing is like, and, and I basically jumped from job to job every, every, you know, couple of hours, you know, but I'm not going to lie to you.
I I've been trying to, I've been trying to get some niche sites going because I want to, I want to supplement the, this income, uh, uh, you know, with my agency income. And, um, it's, it actually makes me feel better knowing that you had, that you're having some problems because I have, I have tried numerous sites over the years, and I, I can't get any traction on on any of the sites that I've, you know, heck, I've been doing it for a long time.
And I just, like, I can't get any traction. So I don't know if it's, it's just, it makes me feel better than the other people are struggling to, you know, so I'll mention that we're using. So we have 2 websites. We plan on doing more, but these are major, massive websites. And one of them is excelling. The other one is dead and there is the exact same strategy for both of them.
Yeah. It just doesn't make any sense. I've recently purchased a couple of expired domains, um, and they both have decent, uh, uh, backlink profiles. I mean, the one has been down, it was, it was a coupon website, a discount and coupon website for. For a couple of years when it went down a couple of years ago, I bought it.
I don't remember what exchange I bought it off of and I've been trying to build that. Um, I just found out today. I didn't get accepted into impact. I was trying to get in there as an affiliate. Um, no, no, but it's, I don't have, there's no traffic. I mean, there's barely any traffic on that site, but I just started to try and rebuild it and 301 redirect it.
There's, it, there's, it's got like 255 domains pointing to it. Like 14, 000 backlinks. Um, you know, so I think there's potential there, but, uh, it's just a matter of, uh, so I've been filling it with, um, Amazon, um, Amazon, uh, product pages, you know, just, just talking about different products and trying to get some, some money flow there.
So, yeah, if that does work out your expired domains, if they do see traction, consider, you know, selling them and not holding onto them. Expired domains is a risky business to hold on to. I think, um, like my biggest project I sold and I got lucky, but if I had sold it two months later, I would have sold 60 percent less.
Um, because it died after that, or there was an update that affected it, you know, they're, they're quite susceptible to updates and, you know, your, your mileage may vary, but for me personally, uh, I don't like the risk on that. Um, you know, I like to sell things while they're going up and I don't like to buy things when they're going down.
So I, I, you know, I've been on both sides. Um, but as far as niche site, I personally am not a fan of the niche site model anymore. Um, I said this before in a few calls, I think brand is huge, um, for sites nowadays, and it's not working in Jay's case, but I think you do need some brand ability to succeed in the long run.
Well, and I am doing that on some of these other sites, or on these niche sites. I'm trying to build brands. I got social media going on all of them. Um, I've got, um, there's 1 of the sites. Um, I have an RSS feed set up that that just automatically publishes, you know, when I, when a post goes up and just automatically schedules the post on across.
You know, all the social media platforms and stuff like that. So. I do have some, I am trying to build a brand, but so far, none of them have really caught fire. I mean, I guess, so what is like building a brand to you mean? Like, does, do you have a social media? Is it something you're growing? Is this something that's going to help people say, Oh yeah, like I know this site because of X, Y, Z.
Cause like, I, these, these stuff could indirectly like, you know, but like some people will just see like, okay, yeah, I have a social media page. That's a, that's just a checkbox. Is it something that they grow? Cause if it's, if it's just a checkbox, um, then it's not really adding value to your brand. If it's just a checkbox.
Yeah, no, I, I, I do agree with you. I, I mean, I, I probably to some extent it's a, there, there's a, it's a checkbox, right? You know, but I go back and forth because what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to find ways to build at least some sort of following and then, and then get once there's at least a, some, some sort of income coming back in from it, then I'm willing to reinvest that, um, but, um, At this point, I've, you know, I'm at the point now, it's like, I've invested so much money into these, these, um, these ideas and the, that it's just like, I, I've got to see some, I've got to see some return or else I can't just keep throwing money at it.
So, I guess that's what I'm trying to, I'm trying to build up some sort of traffic to it. So that even if I can get, you know. Heck, if I could get 20, 30 a week in even AdSense revenue out of them, you know, just something so that there's some sort of, um, cashflow coming back, you know, cause that's, that's what's happening.
I'm just outspend, you know, I'm just outspending anything that's coming back. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, I've, I've definitely, I've definitely been there before and building up like niche sites in my portfolio. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I get it. I did, I did have a, did, has anybody looked at, um, Microsoft Bing, uh, that hub hub?
Um, they used to have, there was a, they had a, where you can, you could actually, um, submit your RSS feed. I just ran across this last night and they, they used to have it set up that way. That if you were a news, if you were a news website, they had like a news feed that you could set up and they would take your news.
But they, I was just on there last night and I ran across this and it's called being a pub hub and it says both news and non news supported. It's like, I think they, they changed their, their, they've changed their requirements, I guess, so I don't know. I just ran across it. I'm going to submit the sites and see what happens with it.
But I don't know if they're, I don't know what they're. If anybody had even seen that or anything yet, or when it even started. Worth a look. Yeah, if you go into your bing, the bing webmaster tools, and it's, it's, it's in there under.
Hey, Mike, I was kind of curious what you do for, um, like your agency stuff. You're saying you have a bunch of clients. Is it like SEO stuff or, or other? I do, I do everything from building websites, search engine optimization to, um, doing graphic design, just managing their, the brands, the company brands, Um, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm just the kind of the guy that, uh, I've kind of gotten on, you know, I've set up people on almost like a retainer thing and they, they just call me and say, Hey Mike, I need this and I need that and, and I get it accomplished.
And then I work with them to make sure that they're, you know, their online presence is, is. Is doing well, you know? Yeah. Is that, is that something that you've, have you been in that for some time? Like I'm guessing you've kind of like grown that over a long time. Yeah. I've grown it over, over a long period.
It's probably been about 10, 15 years and I've, I've, I've gone the route where I've tried to like expand and, and hire, um, I've had, I had people working for me and then, um, you know, tried to make an, uh, full fledged agency out of it. But, you know, that just brings a lot more headaches that you deal with, you know, and they're, they're not headaches that I enjoy dealing with, you know, because then you're dealing with employees and finances and all that other stuff.
I don't want to deal with that. I like working. I'm, I like. Keeping things close to home. And so I have a couple of people who work for me part time that helped me accomplish tasks, schedules, social media and stuff. And then, um, and then I have, I do have a developer that I, that I've been paying now for a couple of years over in the Philippines that works with me.
And, and he can, he, he's built all kinds of stuff for me. So that's, that's basically it. You're, you're, uh, you're one, one man agency with like helpers, like it can help, you can pull in and do certain things and yeah, you don't, yeah, no, that's awesome. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it works pretty good. I, you know, I, I'm sure there's better ways to do what I do, but you know, that it's, it's just one of those things I'm, I'm comfortable with where I'm at.
And I, I like having that. Hands on control, you know, um, cause every time I've, every time I've tried to expand and hand off control to somebody else, I lose clients, you know, and that's, that's where I'm at, you know, Yeah, that it's, uh, yeah, that's hard, uh, like having a process for how you do things and bringing someone on board and like, they're probably.
Not going to do it as well as you, but honestly, sometimes you can bring people on board that will do it better than you, uh, certain things, which, um, I've, you know, I've had a few of those, uh, over the year on my team as well, which is pretty, pretty awesome. But yeah. Um, Well, there's a developer I work with.
Uh, he's, he's very good and, uh, and he, he works well. And, um, and actually the, the two other people who work for me are family members. One's my daughter. She works for me part time and the other one's my granddaughter. You have a lot of workers who work for me part time. So, you know, that's not Family business.
That's great. Yeah. Family business. Yeah. But I'd like to grow some of these niche sites. You know, I'm tired of watching these, uh, YouTube videos of these guys saying, hey, you could make 5, 000 a day. You know, you know, I just like to make, you know, five bucks a day, you know, at this point, I do have to run. So I don't who intends on staying the whole time assuming all is all as well.
And I can assign host. Is that 230? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I can hang on to 230. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's not good. It's not good. You can head out. But, um, yeah, I would say Mike, for me, name of the game is focus personally and a big reason why I don't like the niche site approach for me as much. Um, you know, I think focus focusing on one might might do you wonders if they don't have any.
Yeah, I know I keep telling myself that. I know. Thanks. Thanks for this. Easier, easier said than done. I know. Yeah, that's right. That's, it's nice that, it's nice that I have these, uh, ma different mastermind groups. Uh, it's good to listen to everybody else how everybody else is doing things and that it's, it's also nice to hear that, keep getting feedback from people.
So I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, I have to hop off, but, uh, as always, y'all, uh, need to reach me. Y'all know where to find me. Yep. Take care. Okay, thanks. Yeah, I'll tell you my two cents for the, for having a bunch of niche sites. I, I think of niche sites, not kind of how Colin mentioned it. Cause I think he has a perspective of it where it's like, here's a cheapo.
Um, AI blog That I kind of recreate no face. No, you know, nothing like that I I used to have that mentality. So I used to have this dream, but I was gonna have 25 50 niche sites And then I was gonna crank that shit up. They're gonna come out like I was going to make all this money and the ACU kind of killed that dream.
Thankfully, because I wasn't, I wasn't proud of any of them. And now I'm bringing it down. I know this sounds like a lot to some people before really for niche sites. It's cycling specifically fixed gear bike cycling. Cause there's a massive culture behind that particular type of cycling. Uh, skateboarding, Um, uh, cocktail making, like, like, uh, mixology, cause I'm really into that, and then, uh, uh, archery.
But I'm also into that. So those are the four websites that I'm working on right now Slowly, and I'm super proud of them and those are niche sites, but I'm making YouTube videos where I was like Hey, welcome to my site, you know, like I'm just gonna be talking about it. I'm not gonna have a whole channel I mean, there will be a channel but it's not like it's just like a real thing Like when you look at the about me, it's my face and I'm holding the equipment That's the niche sites that I'm looking at.
So I don't think you have to kill all your dreams, but definitely wind them down. Yeah. I, I think, I think there's, there's two types of niche sites. There are the niche sites that are, are just like, you're just tossing things up there to see what sticks the sites that I have now. I mean, I, you know, I bought the, the, the one expired domain that was, um, you know, was the coupon site.
And I thought, Oh, maybe I can do that. But the other one is. Um, I have one site that's on about, um, the child care business, um, because I was in that at one point and then my granddaughters and my one of my daughters has been in the child care business. So, it had some stuff on there that one is, I've had the longest.
Um, and then, um, you know, once, once, just on like spy technology kind of stuff. Um, you And, you know, those are, they're things that interest me and, and I'm trying to build, you know, yeah, I'd like to build a brand out of them. You know, there's there, they have brandable names, but, you know, I think there's possibility for that.
And then if they got to a certain point, I'd probably sell them because I don't, I don't want to run a big animal. I don't, I don't want to run a big website with. Bunch of, you know, uh, writers and editors and whatnot. So I just want to try and build some brands that are out there that I can build some traffic to that people are interested in kind of like that.
Um, and if you, any of you guys watch it, Matt Wolfe, um, he does, um, Future tools. Yeah. Yeah. All the AI stuff. I mean, I'm actually, it's funny is at the same time, he started doing all his YouTube videos. I had bought a domain called, um, the AI content news or something like that. And I was gonna, I was going to start writing about all this software that came out.
Um, but it just never, the timing was not right for me, but he's, he's really built up over the last like year, two years. I mean, he's, he's really built. Quite the machine, you know, um, and I think, sorry, sorry, go on, sorry about that. So I think that's, that's kind of like, you know, when I look at the, um, when I say niche site, that's, that's more the direction I would like to go.
That they're, they're good, informative sites. Are you going to be a part of it with your face and name? And, and, um, I would, I, I would like to be, I don't, I don't want to do videos. I, I just, that's just not something that I want to do. Um, I, what would be nice is if I could find somebody else that had an interest in the same thing.
And then, and then then they do videos. I've actually talked to my granddaughter about doing that with the childcare website. Um, you know, so there's, you know, I didn't, I, I'd want somebody else to do it. Okay. It just doesn't look fun to me. Family business. Keep it going. I know that's right in the family.
There you go. Hey, I've, I've hired and fired a lot of family. So,
so
that's cool. Renee, what's happening? How are you? Hey, I just, I see you. I was just saying, Hey, Hey, I'm listening. Just working away. No, yeah. Don't let me bother you. Multitasking. Um, you've been really good on the podcast, Brooks. I've been enjoying, uh, listening to, uh, you guest hosting on, uh, Niche Preach Pursuits.
Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah. They hadn't kicked me off just, just yet. Yeah. They keep coming back. They keep asking you back. So you're doing a good thing. Which ones did you do? I can't, uh, I remember seeing some. Um, so some of the, so the, um, so the episodes where they do like a news segment and, uh, side hustle stuff and, um, yeah, Spencer's been rotating a few different people in that like.
So yeah, I've done, I've been on a few of those episodes. Yeah, I got a, got a, got a few coming up. So they, I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what Spencer wants to do with that long term, I guess. So question for the group. If, um, I'll throw it out here. I'm thinking about setting up a second niche site. Um, and if you were to start it over knowing, you know, just had what Colin had said, like niche sites are kind of.
Yeah. Yeah, your approach has to be different. You have to really think about it as building a brand brand first. And if you were to start out brand new one tomorrow, what would be your kind of best advice on how to do that from day one,
do you, do you have a niche already in mind, like, cause I could, cause I feel like that could, that could, for me, that would change everything on how I would approach growing. Yeah, so it's local travel with, um, dog. Ah, local travel, like, meaning that travels around to different places or just where you are local travel with dog?
Yeah, local as in geographic locations, so, um, near Toronto area, so everything you can do that's dog friendly. restaurants, places to stay, day trips, etc. I thought you meant like a whole website about how to travel with your dog from your house to the vet, from your house to the Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah.
I think it's a great idea actually because there's not much off that. Yeah, also when I was looking for, I look for, for dog friendly things to do. Like one thing is a big one for us is hotels that are dog friendly because a couple of times we had to make a big like two hour drive and we had to stay overnight, but we couldn't leave the dog with any because it was just last second.
So we had to find a specific hotel and yeah, that's good. It's a good idea.
But from building a brand. So like Mike, I don't want to do video because that could be just all encompassing like it's just going to be a time sucker. Yeah. But any other ways, um, that you would start out that type of niche site from the get go that's thinking brand first?
You know, I would, I would start, I would start with the name and, and start looking in, uh, you know, go from the perspective of, of finding the name like the Facebook page. You know, can you find a Facebook page? Of this name, name, you know, can you build a Facebook page using that name and Instagram and x and all the different social medias?
I, I would try and do that first. Like I, I've got a couple of, of brands that I, I own like all the names across all the social medias. Um, and, and I think that gives you a better, um, you know, a better chance because then it's. You know, you're, you're using exactly the same name over and over across the board.
Yeah, yeah, so I've got the, I've got the names, um, and I've checked that out. But I think for that, I wasn't going to go all in social. Like at my other travel site, I'm all in social on every social. Um, but I'd still get, I'd still set the accounts up. Okay, yeah. No, yeah, just get the yeah, get that counts is what I that's what I yeah, that's that was one of the big things when I started like the spy.
The AI spy tech. I went, I went across and just bought as many. Users set up as many users and pages across social media, you know, whatever platform and just, um, just tried to make sure that I owned all those under the same name, I just think in the long run, there's more value. Are you talking about snagging all the domain, all the names?
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, that's, that's basically what I'm saying. Yeah, that is number one, literally quite literally number one thing that I would do if I have to check all of the on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, all of those to see if they're taken or not. And I need the dot com. I don't want dot org that I want anything because i'm i'm catering to people people care about the dot com It's just what it is So i'll keep i'll use shaggy bt to help me find really cool new names that I would have never came up with Um, so yeah, I think that's number one thing finding all making sure everything's not taken.
Yeah, so i've done that check Also, you mentioned your your reluctance for video. I think video is a little You Scary, but it's overhyped because if you watch anything like I was mentioning this on the last the the youtube mastermind That was just uh, like 30 minutes ago. Yeah, or like wpeagle Some of you might watch his stuff because he does uh, niche site stuff But one of the things he does is he just takes his camera And just walks around Spain like this and talks about what we, what you would talk about, about like the Google update.
Cause again, it's really affecting my site. I checked on the site. It's not doing that well at all. And this other one's broken, but blah, blah, blah. And it's, it's not short content. It's maybe three, four, five minutes. It's a story. No, not stories, not stories. Well, full blown videos, full blown horizontal videos.
And he'll just kind of just talk while holding his phone and then publish it with a good, with a good thumbnail. So my point there is, I don't see, I know this is, maybe you could just do this, start this way and then expand your, your production value, but why not say, Hey, in the city, here's the five, not a short, a long form video, make it five minutes long.
Now I've been to, to Texas, uh, in Austin and I visited one place that was really drag friendly. This is the name of it. I really liked it. It was really cool. This other place was not so dog friendly. So stay away from there. Make that five minutes and then just click stop and publish it and just do like 10 of those and get the ball rolling.
And that's it.
Yeah. I was going to do more Instagram, um, but, uh, not necessarily get into kind of production on YouTube. Just a few, a few thoughts, um, on like, like in my, in my mind, nothing, nothing has changed except, uh, we just can't build these like little sites and get free traffic from Google automatically. Like, I think that's the only thing that's different beyond that.
There's like, Really nothing else that's different. I think we always should have been making like a brand, uh, not just like, you know, kind of random sites. And I mean, I too have some kind of random, random sites that, uh, I was like, yeah, man, uh, SEO is great. Google's giving traffic. So like, why, I don't know, like, why, why wouldn't I, you know, have those projects?
But yeah, I don't think anything's different, Renee. I mean, just in my opinion, then like building, building anything, you know, like you're gonna, you're gonna, you gotta start something and just figure out how you're gonna, how you're gonna get track. Yeah. Instagram probably makes sense. Um, yeah. If you don't want to do video, like you don't, you don't have to, but like.
I mean, obviously video is growing online, right? Like even, even further, but like, um, yeah, I mean, I can see, I could see growing, uh, probably potentially solely on Instagram. I mean, you know what I mean? I mean, like people, people do that. People pick single platforms and, and, and grow on those as well. So, um.
Thanks, everyone. Oh wait, another, another random creative idea. What if you could do, uh, if you don't want to do video because you don't want to be on video, what if you could do video in the perspective of your dog? Yeah, like through, through the ideas, uh, through the eyes of, through the eyes of, uh, Of the dog.
Um, that could be actually really interesting that I could see people watching just for that like, like low, low profile on the ground. Like just interesting. I don't know. Like you're at a restaurant full touch. Yeah. Get a GoPro for him, right? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe just gonna say, yeah, that's a money maker right there.
And you could a, put a GoPro on him and then you could, you could put a mic on you and you could be the voice. Yeah, and you could create a, um, AI avatar for the dog as well. If you wanted to create a persona for him, then they can. Yeah. So you don't need to be there. Cause look, Wendy, I mean, sorry, Renee. Um, I, I don't want to be on video as well.
I'm not a fan. So I'm, I'm looking at those options of doing, doing videos without my face. Oh, sorry. My face is actually off at the moment. Hold on. Actually, it's my space and it's actually, um, You know, just being in the moment and kind of talking, you know, being succinct in terms of what you want to get across.
Um, that just doesn't come natural to me. So, even if I was off camera, just to kind of. You know, talk about where I am. I would, I instantly would like clam up and be like, okay, I got to do this again. That doesn't sound good. You know? So that's why I don't want to get into video. Cause I just feel like it's going to be an editing nightmare on top of, you know, I just don't have the bandwidth to kind of take that on.
So I know video is where, where everyone's going. Um, but yeah, I kind of liked the idea of the GoPro. Um, bandwidth is huge. Bandwidth is huge. Like, like only, you know, that, you know what I mean? Like, if like, like, you know, like, you know, when your plate's full and you're like, yep, I can't expand into that, but like, um, I would say, yeah, if you can find a way to create that content where it's, it's easy for you.
Um, but okay, so I'm gonna throw out an idea related to that dog, to the low profile. Maybe it's actual. So look, maybe it's actually a GoPro or maybe it's you like holding a phone, like low to the ground, like a dog and looking up at signs and stuff. I don't know, but like it, If you could figure out the actual GoPro, that would be cool.
But a second thing related to that, um, what if you could have a script, like a written script, uh, potentially you could use 11 labs and give your dog a voice, like an actual character voice. Um, and it, the videos could be in the perspective of your actual dog, like an actual, um, an actual voice created. I think that could be super cool and entertaining and like helpful as well.
Oh, uh, 11, 11 labs. Um, so some of my videos actually use my own voice and I don't even my wife who's ever here. She's sitting on a couch over here. I bet if I played her some of the videos, she wouldn't even, I don't even know if she'd be able to know. It was like, An AI voice of mine. Um, yeah, like AI is getting it's getting nutty.
Um, yeah
On the subject of AI one of the things that we mentioned in the in the last The call the the youtube one 30 minutes ago or so like an hour ago Was, uh, the use of AI and how you could get away with it. And I think you, you're using the level lab that's trained on your voice, right? All right. Okay. So when I, or many people, uh, run into an AI voice, we dip, um, obviously you have one that's a little more original, so you might not be able to tell.
But it is such a like Immediately like get out of them. I I jump out of that video agreed Good get away with it with a real voice and stock footage But the other way is the opposite is not so easy to get away with so i'm gonna throw out I totally agree with you and I kind of do the same thing because it's like it's so common right now And it is easy to do.
Um, here's Here's one of the things I'm doing. I'm, I'm just testing and like playing around with stuff, but one of the things I'm doing is creating an actual hook. So, so, so like one of my issues with video and creating content is, is bandwidth, Renee. Like, so one of my issues is bandwidth. I'm like, I am the holdup of my team in getting out like video stuff.
I have an incredible like editor. He's been with me a while now. And like, The holdup is me like filming and recording stuff. And so. Uh, what I'm doing though in that idea is I'm like, I'm actually recording. I'm actually recording like hooks. So it would be me on, you know, a video for like, maybe the first 30 seconds for like a hook.
Um, and then it's cut to some a, some like B roll and like, uh, my voice. And so we've done that for a few videos. That's been kind of interesting. Um, sounds great to me. Another thing I'm just gonna throw, just throw another idea that I did because again, I'm the whole, I'm the holdup for my team for content.
So recently. Oh, I actually have it right here. There's just a, this Tascam microphone. So I've had this for a while and I started using it and then I didn't. So it's like portable microphone. So I am, uh, I'm literally going on bike rides, like a bike cruise and I'm recording, uh, it's, it's basically podcasts for me, but what we're doing with that is converting those.
Uh, so I basically, all I'm doing is recording audio. Sending it to my video editor and then we're creating, uh, he's, I mean, one, it's a podcast two, it becomes a YouTube video, and then I'm actually sending the, the transcript to my writer to, um, to create content out of that. And I'm going to send you all an example.
That like we literally just put out so y'all can you can see like kind of what i'm talking about. Um, Yeah, this like this video just went live the other day. So this is on youtube. Um, i'm doing that because One I kind of one I kind of think it's cool because I have this little bumper video for like business on a bike With brooks that I created like four years ago because I had this idea But I was just never able to do anything but the real reason why i'm doing The real reason why i'm doing it is because it allows me to create content like whereas I wouldn't do it otherwise Like, because I don't have the bandwidth and my plate's too full.
So like, I'm just all about like figuring out how to like remove the friction of, of content creation. I don't know. I guess that's the whole point of what I'm saying is like, if, if, you know, just keep iterating and if you can figure out how to remove the friction, then like, you'll be able to maybe, maybe do it.
Um, just kind of a thought more of a rant, really. Sorry. That's okay. I, I, I agree with you. Because that, uh, video editing, even with AI is just. It just eats up your time. I mean, it, it takes, it takes a while to go through everything. So, I mean, I've been doing it for clients for years and that's the one thing that I just, it just, it just, uh, yeah, it just burns up time.
Um, I put a link in the chat. I just watched this, the video not too long ago that, but Mark Keese Brownlee. Yeah. Uh, I don't know if you guys are for, for I'm sure everybody's watched some of his videos, but. He actually just did something where he put a GoPro on the back of his, his dog. So check that out.
Nice. Cool. He puts a GoPro Una. Yeah. He puts a GoPro on the dog and Yeah. Yeah. And then, I mean, he goes walking around. So you could, you kind of might like, might give you some ideas. Yeah, no, I really like the idea actually. Um. If my husband could take that project on, I'm all in. So I'm going to serve alcohol with dinner tonight and approach the subject with him.
Blame it on all of us, you know.
No, I think it's a, it's a good idea. It's a huge differentiator for sure. Like, um, first of all, this market is, there's low competition, so that's great. But, I can just, to me, this would be, there's no one else doing this. Um, and definitely not in Toronto area, maybe in the U S I may do it in my city. I may, I may throw a GoPro on my dog.
Yeah. I don't know. Maybe. I mean, cause I have, I have a local brand and I'm like, man, that. Like that would be interesting content. Like, I think, I think people might be interested to watch it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And maybe it's not every single one, but like, it's maybe every fifth video or something, right.
Or every third video or yeah, it can be like a series, right. Um, yeah, you can just make it like a whole, like, uh, just a whole, a bucket of content, like a type of content maybe that you could make, but, um, Well, I think the cool thing too, is you, if you put a GoPro on him, I mean, you Basically just go around town with them, with your dog.
And then, you know, you watch the video later and figure out what's worth talking about, you know, from my perspective, you know, I would just put the video on him. We would go somewhere, we'd go to the thing and then I would do the script and it would just be voiceover. So it'd be editing after. Yeah. To write in some comedy, some dog, some dog humor, you know, like dog jokes for like what the dog CNN stuff.
Yeah. I mean, I think it'd be really cool. And then that becomes a reel too, right? Sure. Yeah. It becomes everything. Yeah. It becomes whatever you want it to be, right? Yeah. Like, you have the content. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks, guys. Heck yeah. Hey, guys. Just remember us when your dog becomes a millionaire. Yeah.
Yeah, right. He'll send us some treats. That's right. I haven't, I haven't got him yet. I'm getting him on New Year's Eve. So, uh. Oh, that's cool. Oh, he's a brand new star. Yeah. Oh, awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So I did. Oh, are you getting it? It's a vishla. I'm not sure if anyone knows that breed. It's a pointer. Oh, yeah.
Pointer. Okay. Yeah. But, um, my older dog, he somewhat was part of doing this, but on a smaller scale and he passed away this year. So, um, we've just thought about now we're ready to get another one. So our breeder has, we've been on the list for a long time. So. Yeah. Finally, the day has come and I've told her he's my little Instagrammer.
So you could totally write that can, this is just me here. This is just me talking. I think all that should be a part of the story of this. Like if you're, if you're open to share that, like, you know, your past dog, you know, that was your, that was your, your, your, your. Your media pal, and now, you know, you guys finally decided you have a new person on the team.
I don't know, like all that's super interesting. I think people would like, love to, like, they would connect with you on, on all that, I think, so if you, if you choose to, if you want to be, you know, like personal in that sense, so I think that's the future of brands and media personally. So.
Yeah, I have that little story in, as part of the website that hasn't been launched yet. It'll launch, but, um, Cool. Speaking of dogs. I can hear a dog, yeah. Sorry, that's me. That's, that's my house. We have, uh, we have two, we have two foster dogs hanging out with us right now, actually. So, I have a house full.
Hey, Mike, I had a question just, uh, that Bing thing you were talking about. Yeah. The hub hub. I can't even get to it. Now I'm trying to find where I, where I saw it. Um, because it was up on my screen and. Well, it, I looked at their thing and it says, Bing News Pub Hub, and if you click on it, site can't be reached, which is interesting.
Um, oh, that's alright. Yeah. But I have got the Bing webmaster tool now, which I hadn't before, so that may be something to everyone else to do as well. If you haven't And I've, I've verified my site while we are talking. Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna submit my, my I if I could. Yeah. If it's working. I don't know.
I, I had it up in front of me and then I. I clicked away from it. Now I can't find it. But yeah, I'll submit it. See what it does. Keep you posted. Yeah, if you find it, because I mean, it's basically pub hub dot bing dot com. But I can't. It just doesn't work for me. So it can't be reached. Weird.
But I mean, doesn't even know what to do to optimize for bing or kind of target bing.
I don't have anything in particular. I mean, some of my sites are, I mean, they definitely, you know, they're doing a little bit better on, on being as far as getting index faster and stuff. Um, but I did just have one just completely fall off the map and I haven't figured out why yet. But, um, I, you know, I don't, I don't do anything specifically for Bing.
Oh, okay. So.
Hey guys, I'm gonna have to go. If I, if I leave, does it, uh, I mean, I know it's kind of the end of the call anyway, but if I, if y'all wanted to stay, I don't know what happens if I close it, close it out. So I, yeah, I think it'll end it. Yeah. But I, I got to go anyhow. I got a, I got a meeting I got to prepare for, so it was good.
Okay. Good talking to everybody. All right, cool. I'll call it in there. See you guys in discord. Good hanging out. We'll see you. Bye.
