What is a side project you’re currently working on?
A side project doesn’t necessarily have to be a side business. A side project can be….
- …for fun.
- …..for profit.
- …….for learning something new.
- ………for scratching your own curiosity.
Example 1.) My buddy Noah bought a Chrome Extension called Leoh.io and started improving on it. It currently makes no money, but it’s just a small side project for fun:
Example 2.) My buddy JR is doing a side project called “Nom Dudes” where he creates videos about food and posts them to Facebook. It’s not his main thing, but he loves making videos, so he’s trying it out on the side and seeing what happens:
Example 3.) One of my current side projects is busking in San Francisco. I’m hanging out in San Francisco for all of August, and the place I rented is next door to the San Francisco City Hall building, and San Francisco Opera building…..a seemingly appropriate place to practice music:
I bought this craptastic battery operated guitar amp and am going out by myself to busk:
So my side project for the month is coming up with a solid 6-song set list I can play/sing on the side of the road with a guitar.
I’ve done this many times with other people, but going by myself scares me a bit for some reason. In fact just last weekend me and my brother setup on the side of the road and jammed for fun!
Like I said, a side project can be a useful tool teach you something new, get out of a funk, or get the creative juices flowing!
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora
P.S. What is a side project you’re currently working on? Post it below in the comments!
You can either post a link to a website you’re working on, or describe your project.
P.P.S. Bonus points if you lemme know what you hope to get out of it (EX: “I’m doing it out of curiosity” -or- “Hoping to supplement my income with this” -or- “Starting this with hopes to eventually quit my job.”).
P.P.P.S. I “jjuuusstt might” be going through every side project listed here and offering my (un-asked-for) advice to the projects :)
Recently I started a website related to content writing and SEO and it is getting progressing now. I implemented your side projects ideas to it for a better response.
My career prospective is quite different. But here I really thankful to you that my first side project is happen by your inspiration.
I created a Chrome extension that makes it easy for people to share interesting videos, articles, and services with someone without cutting and pasting a link into an email – http://getcatalyst.ca/
Mark
I’m currently working on a prioritization tool that helps distributed product teams to quickly brainstorm and map out their problems into small manageable steps so that they can prioritize their work more effectively. It’s a collaboration tool. I started out using this framework (capability modeling) with my clients in my consulting gags. I found it very useful. But, we were using post-in and excel. It’s pain. That’s why I developed this tool. The tool is free. Signup here. My goal is to help people to learn about this methodology so that they can better prioritize their work to focus on important works.
My side project is spinning up an ML bot that will help members of a tech community discover correct answers faster, find solutions and ideas shared by others easier, and ultimately help eliminate problems by being able to forecast and predict new trends and methods for community members. It’s a lofty idea for a side project for sure, but my hope is that we can make the lives better for those solving complex business problems, then they can help change their communities around them eith the spare time they get back.
Hi Neville – we’re setting out for a long term side project on Thursday – a year-long trip around the world. Looking for the ideal destinations to spend some time living in and to document our experiences in the various countries we’ll visit.
Trip side project – doing the Inca Trail in Peru.
I’m working right now on a platform for nutrition that I hope to become my main job not only a side job in a few months. https://nutritioapp.com/nutritional-profile/
Why I am doing this? Because the legacy that I want to leave behind is the number of people I’ve helped and right now I believe that the only way to improve people’s life on the long therm is entrepreneurship.
One thing that is my way to success is copywriting so I am reading your blog and writing content on LinkedIn, my company’s website and so on.
Hey there,
my side project is investing in domain names which I’m planning to flip later on for a profit.
My side project is userinput.io, which provides on-demand feedback on websites and business ideas. It’s pretty passive, so people just come to the site and order feedback, and I basically just broker it, using Amazon’s digital workforce.
I have a lot of repeat customers and some people rave about how helpful it is, so I feel positive about it, I just have to devote time to improve and market it more.
It can be used for content marketing research too. Just the other day I used the system myself to ask facility managers and property managers what the hardest thing about their job is, and what they’d want to read about, and I got 15+ good blog ideas perfect for that target audience. I need those blog ideas for yet another side project…
When you say Amazon digital workforce are you referring to Mechanical Turk or something else?
Yes! Mechanical Turk.
hi! Thanks for your daily e-mails! I really appreciate the added motivation every morning! I believe in abundance in all things, and I know the only difference between those who are successful (in whatever they are pursuing), and those who aren’t, is their commitment to make their dreams become reality. My current side project is: It’s Cool to be Kind Project. I founded it shortly after a tumor was discovered inside my brain, and I wrote a story about it that went viral. I am Colorado based, and I make and sell simple apparel with my logo, and the proceeds go towards someone in need of a little extra kindness. The recipient changes monthly. I struggle with marketing and spreading the word. I have a lot of pride, and sometimes, I find it difficult to ask for help. :) All my love and gratitude, Halie
http://www.itscooltobekindproject.com
Thanks for this Nev!
The comments and responses in your posts are more helpful than anywhere I’ve seen online.
My sister is a kindergarten teacher and her son was a reading machine at age 4.
I asked her for some pointers to get my boys off on the right foot, and she started making screencast tutorials for us.
They were so good, empowering and easy to watch together, we decided to make it into a whole series — kind of an “online course” for parents and their preschoolers/kindergarteners.
Here’s an early mockup.
https://kickstartreading.com/
Appreciate the community feedback and ideas.
Thanks for all your wisdom, and pushing me out of “wantrapreneur” mode and into making stuff!
Rob
Great tips in the comments.
My side gig is a knife sharpening service (http://www.rowellenterprises.org/americanedge) to fund growing food on my land.
End goal being a property that makes me money, instead of costing me money, so that I can then branch into greater real estate investing.
For freedom.
Nice post Neville. One of my current side projects is to write a short how-to eBook for Polytopia (a strategy game for the smart phone). Polytopia is like a simplified version of Sid Meier’s Civilization. It’s just a fun little project my girlfriend and I are doing :D.
I am compiling some of the love notes that I sent to my wife in the year 2002.
I have secured her consent to convert this to an eBook in PDF format.
This eBook shall be given out free to all our friends and family.
The essence is to “leak” some portion of our love life.
My side projects for this month is to get serious learning about copywriting from this blog and your Kopywriting kourse. I’m re-reading your blog and watching your videos again. Until my brain absorbs it, then apply it by starting a Fiverr gig. :)
My side project at the moment is my blog (https://javacodehouse.com/) which I would like to turn in to a business one day.
I’m old, fat (working hard on that!), broke and alone in a new town. Most of my friends have died or moved far away. I have no family.
After a year of trying to make friends using all the conventional methods everyone tells you about (join clubs, volunteer, take a class, join a church, introduce yourself, ask people to lunch, etc.), I realized I had scored zero. Very discouraging.
It was especially discouraging because I’ve had an unusual life, and I am eccentric, so getting to know people is hard for me in general. (Today they call it social anxiety disorder). I really stretched myself. I introduced myself to my church group, took classes, went for a women’s Bible study event, went out of my way to meet people everywhere I went. But…I’ve had a series of discouraging experiences.
So…my “side project” is to learn how to crash parties and interesting events (or at least a Chamber of Commerce pancake breakfast…). I am giving myself a few months to lose some more weight and to find out about various interesting people and events. Also, I’m reading every article about party crashing on the Internet.
Have an e-hug. That’s gotta be rough.
How do I delete my post here? Can I do that? Or at least delete my name which posted by accident?
I’m developing a bot for foodtrucks and QSRs. The demo is in a state of “dynamic development” but here’s what I’ve got so far: http://m.me/thebotcafe
Pdf-language-lessons.com
This is mostly language learning content and the site upsells language programs via affiliate links.
I’m blogging at HubPages. I want to post there thousands of my poems plus a few essays and other articles. It’s a fine site for poets, writers, experts and hobbyists who have something to say about anything and hope to earn a good income while doing so.
hubpages.com/@lordofpoetry
Hey Neville,
My “side project” is building a Drone as a Service agency, serving the high end real estate market and adding other services as they are requested. I am ready to take the FAA certification exam and will do that in the next two weeks. I also have a few friends properties lined up (providing free service) to build the portfolio quickly. My goal is to have three paying clients by the end of the month.
Thanks,
Matthew
Great post, Neville!
My “side project” is an online clothing, accessories and grooming store for “the modern wild man”. We’re called Labrador Supply Co., and we operate as entirely using a dropshipping business model. We’re based in Western Canada, and have not yet utilized advertising streams like Facebook or Instagram ads. There’s a lot of work to be done still with the site, but interest seems to be picking up and we’re making sales!
My main focus right now is improving the site’s SEO, UX and pagespeed (desktop and mobile), which seems to be a rather daunting task.
I spend a lot of time on the copy but I’m no pro — does it speak to you? I want it to have personal character, but of course also need it to aid in converting viewers into customers. I’m open to any and all suggestions!
Thanks folks!
-Andrw
Neville,
I wanted to wish you the best of luck with your side-project, as that’s certainly something I don’t think I could get myself to do!
For my side project, I recently launched a supplement website (303supplements.com) with the goal of supplementing and even replacing my income from my 9-5 job as I want to eventually quit my job to become a full-time entrepreneur!
The first product I launched is called Brain Hacker, a nootropic stack that can help improve your cognitive function. Specifically in regards to focus, concentration, memory, and energy.
Our nootropic stack, Brain Hacker, is the first of many products that we plan to launch. As my goal for 303 Supplements is to become a one stop shop for all things supplements!
So, this is half for fun and possibly for profit.
I am involved in the cannabis industry and recently discovered that the bible is full of cannabis references as it was a key ingredient in the holy anointing oil that Jesus used and was part of the Judaic tradition.
Kaneh-bosum (or fragrant bush) is widely believed to be cannabis, not Calamus as it was mistranslated in later editions of the king james bible.
I’m not religious in anyway (brought up by hippy leftist atheists) but find the history of the plant and how much it was integrated into religious ceremonies across multiple religions to be fascinating.
Since we produce topical products and have access to premium oil and distillate, I decided to recreate the recipe in the bible (converting Shekles to metric was fun).
The landing page is a first attempt, I know it’s a bit of a mess, but we did sell a few units in the first week with no marketing, so I’m encouraged that there may be a market for this (curiosity mainly, although some devout people may also be interested).
I’d love some thoughts on Kopywriting and landing page, as well as any channel ideas you may have.
(selling these through church groups was a thought, think chocolate bar fundraiser, but more … “in line” with their message) :)
(I know, I’m risking eternal damnation and all my religious friends get this sort of … uncomfortable look when they hear about this plan which started as a bit of a joke, but is quickly turning into something more serious).
I’m also curious as to your opinion as I know you’re also a Zoroastrian. Seriously not intending to offend anyone with this, it’s mostly a historical curiosity thing.
The end product is very heavy on the cinnamon smell (you smell like a cinnabon bun after a treatment) and has a very ‘tingly’ feeling to it, like all other cannabis based topical medicines, it has a numbing and pain relieving effect – although I doubt I can say that on the packaging – I’ll position it as a novelty product).
http://JesusOil.us is the domain name.
I welcome your feedback
Neville!
Good luck on you busking adventure!
You’re a braver man the me.
We’ve talked a little before on my side project, http://www.startupproperty.co.
This is my attempt at finding my tribe of likeminded investors. I want to unite a community of investors looking to improve their investing and life through innovative technology.
Let me know you thoughts.
I always have side hustles going.
I work 8 to 12 hours a day whether I’m at the job site or at home.
Side-Hustle 1:
My wife and I fix band instruments. She works on flutes and saxes, I work on trombones, trumpets, and saxophones. I just overhauled 5 instruments I got dirt cheap – 3 trombones and two trumpets and I’ll sell them either on eBAy or Reverb.
Working on band instruments like this is not easy. You have to go to a good school that’ll teach you all you need to know about it. There is a lot of sensitive dent work, and soldering work you must so that looks pro. That takes quite a bit of time and experience, plus you’ll need about $3000 worth of tools to use.
Side-Hustle 2:
I also make my own courses and sell them on Amazon. I made a video course that shows you how to use Corel’s Paintshop Pro so that you can edit images just as easy as using Photoshop. I actually used that in a classroom environment teaching 7th through 9th grade students. Because the course was on DVD all I had to do was watch my students as they watched the video lessons.
Side-Hustle 3:
The other side-hustle I’ve been doing is copywriting. Even though I’d like to specialize in a particular area, I’ve kind of generalized myself. I’ve done: blog posts, advertising copy, web sales pages, business plans, company manuals, promotional brochures, articles, marketing plans, phone scripts, email sequences, etc.
I also wrote a 200 + page book on the art of blogging and copywriting.
I don’t take on too many clients in this area because most of them want to pay you zilch.
Very few people understand how much research you must do in order to write copy for their products or services. If you do it right, you’ll spend at least 6+ solid hours researching a product or service before you even start writing.
Most people don’t see that part.
Anyway, whatever your side-hustle is, you’ll have clients that will want something for next to nothing. You need to avoid these people like the plague, because they will eat up your time and you’ll never make any living wage working for them.
Personally, I’d rather write for myself and my own products, than write for someone that doesn’t get it.
Anyway, that’s my 3 side-hustles.
Peace out!
Elmo
Hi Nev,
My side-project is a booking site of far-from-city and fully-equipped accommodations located in Spain (on the long run we will be adding more countries).
I am doing this side-project because I LOVE travelling and writing.
Hey, Nev!
My problem is that I started many side projects in the past and abandoned them sooner or later. Sometimes I “reactivate” one or another, but can’t stick only to one that really brings value. Could you provide me a tip on how could I get rid of all the old projects and focus only to one?
Anyway, for the moment I feel like the project I need to work on (and I would like it) is a “contents and reward programs” membership website (and I hope this one will be “the one”). I mean I join every single contest (buy this product, send the codes via SMS to win a prize; listen to the radio station and send a SMS with a specific text to win a vacation, etc.) and also I join every single reward program and make most of them. I feel like I have already accumulated a lot of knowledge in the field and sometimes I can provide valuable info to show people how to save tens/hundreds of dollars by combining offers, rewards programs, credit cards, etc. There really are some moments when some of these combinations can save you hundreds! And very few people know about. I feel like offering 100 (1000?) free coupons for the first registered members for a free 6-months (or less?) subscription to my membership program where I share this valuable information and let the others pay for it. What do you think? Also, do you have any idea of how much could I charge? Also, would it be better to share the knowledge through a “secret posts” on a website or simply create a membership only newsletter?
Thank you!
Preparing for WBFF bikini model competition. I am doing it for .. um… I faced death 3 times in my life. the last thought in my mind was always the same. I have not get the body that I want. very weird feeling. but I just want it .. more definitions. I think also for the respect of human body and the gratitude of having a healthy body. hopefully, my journey can inspire more people to live a healthy life. Ive never taken any PE class before 15 and have never been active, now I do 30-60 mins cardio every day. very intense strength training as well. really enjoy this new life style.
I run a blog where I go and review restaurants in the local area so people know where the best places to grab something to eat.
Im branching out to doing recipes and looking at getting into podcast and youtube to increase my social presense.
I’m working on a massive ebook about how to grow an ecommerce business. It’s shaping up to be about 30K words. The plan is to earn money from selling copies it but I’m really just doing it to push myself out of my comfort zone and try something new. Also, I think it will help my build my personal brand and will hopefully turn into speaking opportunities because public speaking is something I would like to get better at as well.
While 30k words isn’t nothing to sneeze at, that’s actually a short book. You’d have to add about 100k words to that for it to start to qualify as “massive”. Books published by the conventional publishers tend to be 50k–100k words long. Some niche markets are lower, but 50k words is the usual minimum.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with your project—I think it’s a great idea for your purpose! I’m just passing along a heads-up that, when you pitch it, the word count might not convey what you intend if you try to use it as a metric to convey how much content you have. :)
Edit: I meant to say “is nothing to sneeze at,” not “isn’t.” Sorry about that.
Oh, dang, that reminds me of one of my side projects I’ve been forgetting to work on: a book, for recruiters, about how to hire technical people, from the POV of such technical people, focusing mainly on how to stop pissing us off. More of an exercise in catharsis than anything I think will make money, but . . . .
I have a dream…
That one day…
This will become my full time occupation…
I had a dream, ever since i can remember myself, as a grown man, to become a paper engineer.
I know that your initial response will be… “WHAT???… Is there even such a thing as a PAPER ENGINEER???”.
Well… apparently there is, and i want to become one!
I dreamt about it for years, and finally I’m doing the first steps in that directions.
I started creating and developing 3D models that people can print out and assemble from paper. It is just in the first baby steps. No site yet, or fully polished products. The only things online, at the moment, are a facebook&instagram pages.
https://www.facebook.com/papercraftcraft/
https://www.instagram.com/papercraftcraft/
I have a dream… and i will GET my dream!
:)
I’m very passionate about music and working on an internet radio. I really want to promote local musicians here in India. Any advice would be welcome! Thanks for this amazing comment thread!
Love all these hustles! We are Scamper Van, your camping consierge company. We rent premium camper vans and will deliver them to you stocked with bikes, SUPs, hammocks, and more. We’ll even go shopping for you. Just reserve online and we’ll show up and get you on the road. We have two vans now but are growing fast since our April 1st launch. FT job – radio marketing director.
I started a blog just to get my own thoughts out of my head. People seem to enjoy it so I’ve started spending more time on it. I write about how to live better by setting up systems to avoid cognitive biases.
http://www.jamesstuber.com
Me and a buddy started a gaming channel. It’s probably going to suck, and we’ve only committed to publishing 5 videos and a channel trailer in case we both hate it. Got the basics to start, settled on names, started thinking on logos/channel art, and filmed our first one.
I’m not expecting it to ever be financially successful, but we’re ALREADY having fun, it’ll be worth some nice skills (the video editing mainly, publishing on a schedule, youtube sauce for use on future projects), and I’ll get to play some games I wouldn’t otherwise.
More than anything, it’s a nice way for us to bond and make each other laugh … and hopefully other people, like for our first one, we talked about how to trap white people (you use cheese) while playing some zombie game.
It’s also really interesting setting out with the goal of entertaining, rather than selling something. I’m a copywriter by trade, and have been messing with entrepreneur stuff for years now. It’s a big shift to not care about revenue or sales. It’s refreshing and the right thing to balance out the day “job”.
Art + Blog
I’m doing this on the side to improve my drawing skills (with MS Paint) and upgrade my writing skills.
reyesrjt.wordpress.com
Hoping to turn a hobby into a product.
Hey Neville, kudos for busking, that takes some grit.
So my side project is explainBOX.com, a space where entrepreneurs and small businesses show and tell what they do, why they do it, and what software and systems they use to help them.
These are the things I personally love to know about, and I think that others will too.
It’s early days but it would be awesome if the site had some ‘Kopywriting’ style!
Wanna help? We can interview Noah first if you like ;-)
My side project is Story 55, I write 55 word stories. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a sub-genre of micro-fiction and every story is only 55 words.. I started it hoping to use this exercise in mini-narratives as an idea generating tool. I did one every day and just see if it could help me build my idea/narrative muscles. And it did. And I fell in love with the form.
So, I decided to do 365 of them. I’m also toying with the idea of creating a micro-fiction aggregator site out of the site I have built (story55.com) and share other people’s micro-fiction and feature my own. I’m also trying to figure out how to monetize this- tee shirts? They are also works of art, so I could sell the digital images and of course, I could publish a book. I don’t know. I’d love your feedback. Thanks, MR Stuik
Hey Neville,
I am so impressed you are heading outside to play music by yourself! The thought is terrifying to me. My side hustle is two fold: I’m trying to learn how to be better at public speaking (just the thought makes my brain turn off) and I’m using an app to help me with that called Orai. I’m also taking my regular writing gig up a notch and creating landing pages for a new client. I’ve done a lot of FB ads but most of the time the client has landing pages already set up. And landing pages are a whole new beast :)
My goal is to become a fulltime freelance copywriter. I’m currently educating myself and developing my writing skills as my side project. World domination not far away! (Cue Dr Evil laugh)
just wrote and published some short comedy stories that I’m having fun with :)
Animations inspired by your stick drawings!
https://www.facebook.com/CuriousCarly2/
My main project is around art and education revolving around an endangered writing system from the Philippines.
My side project: Currently in Hawaii learning how to do traditional tattoos as a cultural practice.
PS: Nev, I live about 2 blocks from city hall and walk by there all the time to get Greek froyo in Hayes Valley
My side-side project is a simple solution for keeping track of your immunizations. In doing research for my main side project, PersonalHealthCloud.com, this seemed to be a big pain point for everyone. I originally thought of it as a way to build a database of people who will be great prospects for PersonalHealthCloud.com when it launches. They’ll be able to easily import their data into PHC or stick w/ the original solution. Moms will be able to use a single download for multiple family members. So, do I give it away? Or, do I charge a one-time nominal fee, e.g. $3.99 for it?
I teamed up with a coworker and we’ve been creating weekly podcasts for the last 10 months about productivity tools and a bit of social media discussion. It has been mostly a learning experience – how to record, get rid of echoes, edit, publish – but also learning and using the apps we talk about and if/how they work to get more traffic. Right now I’ve been working on messenger bots. I know the kopy is a bit weak, but I’m working on it. We’re at https://productivity.zone.
I’m helping a friend of mine get his first 1000 customers at his startup Leadcheetah.com
I really like sales, and I really like startup environments because everyday is a new challenge. So I help out by writing and testing email and call scripts in my spare time. As well as making a few cold calls and closing sales for him.
I do it for about 2 hours a day, but it doesn’t feel like work. I don’t have any pressure, so I just pick up the phone and have fun for an hour or two.
I’m currently working on a passion project for my house sitting service. While I type this message I have a Chihuahua on my lap, another on my girlfriend’s lap next to me, a Chinese crested running around my feet and an elderly whippet. We are all living together in one of the most affluent areas of Dublin. My girlfriend and I just moved to Dublin and we have managed to house sit for the past 3 months without paying rent! (Bono was even our neighbour in Dalkey briefly)
We have decided to get serious and create a website showcase ourselves & our service so we can keep travelling as we have for the past two and a half years. Let us know what you think of the website and anything think we can improve on.
Cheers !
Our website is https://thetravellinghousesitters.com
Thanks!
I’m working on a web app that will help with saving time with making powerpoint/google slides. I’m hoping to learn more about the business of making software, creating some passive income, and ultimately having a solution to my own problem (I need to make slides twice a week).
I am new to coding so I am just basically learning how to code in my freetime. I am starting with SQL since it seems to be easier than Java o C+. With this I aim to be a freelance programmer or eventually getting a programmer related job.
I’ve got an indie rock band called ON DOLPHIN on the side, which allows me to unleash my music creativity, test out marketing ideas, dabble in website design (www.ondolphin.com), video, and rocking out whenever possible ;) I’m releasing our second album in January and can’t wait to see the results in comparison with our last album.
hope to see you out on the streets of SF!
I replied to your email too, but will comment in case it goes to spam.
Your busking challenge sounds awesome. I don’t know if I would call it a side project, but I’m expanding from just focusing on dating. I’ll be working with people who consider themselves shy and want to improve their confidence and social skills.
I’ve got a huge post coming out shortly with 57 tips on dealing with shyness; mind if I add your busking project?
For some reason I like 57 better than 58, so may delete one ;)
Maybe you like the number of Heinz varieties. :-)
You nailed it. Must be childhood conditioning.
I am in sales/customer service for my main job (over the phone) but am looking to get into like online sales and really just learn more about it and see if I can eventually turn that into something I can do fill time. I put together a shopify site based on all of my friends starting to have children to see if I could make a site really and see if I could grow the traffic to the site. Starting from scratch.. Its pretty basic but I have grew it to 100 visitors/month since May. Hasn’t really transferred into many sales but I’m still working on It.
The site http://www.daddyonesie.con
Correction: http://www.daddyonesie.com
I am working on a complete overhaul of my website, replete with functions that I’ve wanted for years but have been waiting for someone else to make. The capability’s been there for years—for some things I want, the capability’s been there for a decade or more. But I have yet to find any software that does what I want, in the way I need it to work. I can get one of the two, and there are a few things on my website revamp where I might substitute open-source code (that isn’t compatible with the full experience I want) as a shim while I make my own version.
The more of my end goal that I’m able to accomplish, the more efficient and easier my website will be for me to manage and update. It’ll in the very least have my various story covers acting as information cards and estimation calculators for the freelance services I offer. (I have both elements drafted.) I’ve also been working on expanding my personal CSS post-processor (which works a bit differently from the usual ones) so it’ll tie in to AutoPrefixer…though I honestly might end up making my own. Best-case scenario, the estimator will combine with a scheduler and order form, and the book pages will have shuffle sorting based on various features the reader picks, and the contents themselves will auto-generate based on database content (meaning I could just put in something’s publication info and the “Coming Soon” and “New Release” pages would happen automatically without me having to track and update things).
I’m also writing a number of stories (ranging from short through to novel series). I have a half-dozen or so on my “Want or need to finish this year” list. (I release a short story every month on Patreon, so I at least need that.)
My food blog is starting to grow and I haven’t dedicated a lot of my time to it.
I’m leaping off to unemployment world starting today so I’m hoping to treat it more like a main dish. Breaking some personal records this week. Anytime I hit more than 300 likes on instagram I consider that an outlier but one of my posts surpassed 500 likes. Also my last record on FB for impressions on a post was 4700 and in one day one of my posts reached 6000. Kind of exciting for something I’m treating like a side gig.
Side project #3
I have a bicycle-accessory product I want to bring to market, but I’m hitting road blocks with packaging it for retail. Can you help? Where do I find a company who can prototype retail packaging without charging for 1,000s of units. And then, distribution channel-acquisition tip?
Side project #2
I improved a public piece of land, rescued a piano from a garage, and brought the community together for joy and newfound friendships.
http://www.IamForPlay.com
Side project #1
I noticed how the smooth-touch sensation of wood was comforting, so I made a piece for everyone to carry with them at all times to practice curbing daily imbalances of stress, anxiety, fear, etc.
http://www.NeuroWood.com
I have two side projects: one for fun and one for business.
Side Project #1: Restoring a Imperial Kamado grill. I love grilling and smoking food and am always working on dominating a new grill/cooking technique. Since I’ve always wanted to try out a Big Green Egg but didn’t want to pay $800 for the privilege, I found one of the original Imperial Kamado clay grills imported to the US from Japan for $50. This grill is at least 50 years old! It looks like this: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/pz/p206ice6trxn.jpg Except mine is in worse shape and older.
I’ve seen other “restorations” online however, those are more like repairs. I bought a block of clay to recreate some of the pieces that wore/broke off. The metal pieces will also have to be sandblasted and the whole thing repainted. I’m looking to get this all done 30 days from now.
Project #2: I’m hosting my first all day workshop out of state. 18 out of the 25 tickets have been sold so that’s awesome. I still have 31 days to go so I may open a 2nd date if the first 25 slots sell out.
I’m creating a voice operated conversational bot that will allow users to track their FedEx packages simply by talking to Google Assistant. I created a facebook messenger bot last year at http://www.trackbot.net.
Nisar
Ciao Neville,
Totally find your every post so easy to understand and stimulating to read. My side project is building on an Instagram page called SMILEBASSADORS where i find amazing, adorable, cheerful smiles and post them for others to be inspired to keep smiling in all they do! That a simple smile can be so beneficial to ourselves and others :)
Keep SMILING y’all and wishing great success in your side project!
Writing essays about anime because #nerd #animesnob #onlythereallygoodshittho #thinknerdwriter.
I have started a SaaS that is similar to Hootsuite, but in addition to scheduling and posting on all the networks and viewing streams, the MySoPro (My Social Professional) tool also has a built in image composer like canva and a slick content research tool like buzzsumo.
Free for unlimited account profiles, we are using it at my digital marketing agency for our clients and offering it to as many social media managers as possible. Of course there is a pro paid version, but the basic free version is solid. New users enjoy 2 weeks of pro when they sign up, and unlimited accounts/profiles/pages is a feature of the free basic version. Enjoy!
Just trying to help everyone that are dealing with nicks & cuts after shaving. Razor cuts shouldn’t be treated with clumpy bits of toilet paper, chalky styptic pencils or messy alcohol-based roll ons. https://glyder.io
This summer I’ve been building out a free stock photo library with my recent smart phone and GoPro pics. I put a Creative Commons license (free to use with attribution) on every single image.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/massivekontent/
Photography has been my main creative outlet for the past 18 months so I decided to experiment with using my images as digital assets.
Hopefully this will get me
1) an epic blog post on image optimization in Flickr vs. Instagram.
2. some sweet backlinks from usage of my pics (already netted one from a real estate blog).
Hi Neville,
Yes, very scary to do this on your own… I’ve walked the streets of San Francisco with Puppets[1] (my personal hobby), and it is scary.. The way it works for me is to join together with a bunch of friends. That way it reduces the fear and also kind of forces you to do it!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIE6PYnwHpU
My side project is helping software developers to get unstuck on their careers. I’ve been doing this as a side effort and building communities around this for over 20 years, but this past year I’ve been trying to see if I can turn this into a full time thing. You can help people a lot more when you have the actual time to do it! So, I launched this site, https://code4.life, where I add a lot of content for software developers, so they can learn how to share what they know and get unstuck in their careers :-)
Good luck with your street music, it will be fun! Music draws people in! With puppets, sometimes it scares people, and I’ve got some bad reaction ;-)
Cheers!
Hey Bruno, I totally agree, going out with others is simple, by yourself is hard. I actually went out a few times already and did it just fine :)
Interesting side project. I wonder if you could partner or guest post for some of the the coding sites like Codecademy to get some extra exposure.
My side project is selling hair extensions. I’m hoping to make 1200 this month from it. The website is erniepotts.com
The link is http://erniepotts.com/
Cool Ernie!
I would suggest you post a bunch of before/after pics of women without and then with your extensions attached.
That would really show off the product well :)
My “main project” has been running a “one-man-band” web site, so my side projects have been everything from learning SEO to AdWords to Social Media and, of course, Kopywriting for web site and email marketing.
Just did a major site redesign in July for http://shakedowngallery.com. You saw the previous incarnation so I’m curious to know what you think of the revision.
I live in SF so maybe I’ll see you on the street! If not, then I’ll definitely introduce myself at SumoCon!
Matthew
Oh yeah, looks good Matthew! Art is super visual, so just SHOWING it often is the best way to go.
I’ll seeya at SumoCon and we can finally meet!
Many people want to make changes in their lives, but may not know what that change is or where to begin… I’m starting a site where I can offer free articles and sell the book (it’s almost finished) that will take you through several simple activities to see where you are spending your time (and how to get some time back) and then help you figure out your life purpose or what life changes you may like to make.
Jobs, relationships, health, spirituality, bad habits…we could all use to make some changes in our lives. This book is designed to give you a blueprint to help you do it.
I would like to use it to begin a business helping others with online courses and information.
Here is the website to help people make time to change… http://www.maketimetochange.com/
Interesting Mike. Have you thought of maybe documenting your PERSONAL journey from this, instead of dishing out advice right away?
Often that is far more compelling!
Neville! Are you going to tape yourself busking? I bet you’ll be great.
Not gonna tape myself, but I already went out a few times :)
Working with a polyglot friend to develop language learning courses and other materials touching on everything from funny interactions in Japanese and learning the language from anime to the drawbacks of the digital nomad lifestyle and trying to show the real side of this kind of life. Building an audience is slow going so it proves difficult to evaluate the long term prospects.
Develop language learning courses? What languages? Do you have a link?
I’m asking as someone who has a goal to take introductory courses for 15 languages by 2020. I’ve been doing modern Greek this summer and am on-track to finish that this month.
Hey Misti, thank you for asking! The first course is a general language skills course about maintaining a language after you’ve studied it so the skills don’t atrophy and will be up in the beginning of September. The next products will be in a variety of languages (my partner fluently speaks 8+), starting with Japanese. The courses will go up at the company website, polylingualsolutions.com and there is already a free grammar series in Japanese and other resources on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLifeOfRob
Thanks for the URLs, Darren! [hops off to look into them]
Currently working on my side project: Dollarfootage.com – $1 HD royalty-free professional stock videos! ($2 for 4K clips! Hosting costs etc!) Feel free to check it out: dollarfootage.com or snag some free clips at http://dollarfootage.com/free :)
It takes a long time to put the website together, and at just $1 each it’s not exactly making loads of cash yet but I think entrepreneurs and business owners deserve access to quality video content without having to for over $100’s per clip to the standard stock websites.
Oh wow, it’ll be cool to see how you grow this!
Just bought a house and my side project is some installed custom carpentry in the kitchen and bathroom (hanging shelves, wine storage above the fridge and a breakfast nook), plus I am making some of our furniture from scratch. If I enjoy this much woodworking, thinking of parlaying this into some paying side jobs potentially. Who knows. :)
Oh nice, a PHYSICAL side project is often more fun :)
I love doing crafts and projects like that, very engaging for the mind!
http://www.nevblog.com/3d-printing-broken-blinker-support-mount-scooter/
Hey Neville,
My day job is copywriting, which I got into a year ago to finance the side hustle – The Nowhere Men.
I make short videos about inspiring people, every week (about to publish my 29th video). The goal is to turn this into a multi-revenue stream business, but for now, I’m purely focused on nailing the format and growing an audience. Turning it into money comes next.
The mission is to help people see the humanity in others, by presenting the normal lives of people from all over the world (like a Mexican immigrant who sells Tamales on the street, or an African American Muslim bus driver from Brooklyn).
You can check out the videos on my facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/nowheremenadventures
It’s an involved side hustle, but worth it.
Ya dig?
I think it’s cool if A LOT of people like it. Seems you’re doing a good job!
One recommendation is to make sure Facebook isn’t your only channel of distribution. Eventually that exposure will go down, and you’ll need to make sure people are also subscribed to your other platforms like YouTube and email.
Best of luck Alex, awesome job!
Well, I quit my day job to pursue my side projects full time.
I have 2 design blogs & podcasts. One is the local (Israel) called Pixel Perfect, and one is international – Hacking UI. Both started out as side projects, and grew them by automations and some strategic decisions (I wrote all about it here – http://hackingui.com/product-hacking/side-projects/), up to the point where they eventually they led me and my partner to quit our (not so bad at all) dayjobs.
Side projects helped me fulfill myself. They taught me skills that I would have never have acquired otherwise.
Btw- a side project not related but might be super useful to some of the audience here (even to you Neville) is a chrome extension I developed. It’s called Video Speed.
If you watch a lot of videos (youtube, kickstarter, vimeo, online courses) and you’re impatient like me, I made a small extension for myself that eventually I made into an ‘official’ extension that allows you to play videos on faster speed: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ggclgdahipehfjihdifhckmgmkjklnic/publish-delayed
:)
whoops, the right link to the extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ggclgdahipehfjihdifhckmgmkjklnic/
Hey Sagi, looks like your site has some serious traction, congrats! Pretty funny extension, I speed up my YouTube videos by 1.5X usually. 2x I sometimes have trouble hearing properly.
But great idea for other services that otherwise don’t let you watch at an increased speed!
“A side project can be a useful tool teach you something new, get out of a funk, or get the creative juices flowing!”
Yes, yes and yes! As a full-time digital marketer, I have to juggle a lot of balls and be well-versed in all the different areas of online marketing. However, my degree is in journalism and my true passion is for writing/storytelling – something that isn’t a priority for my company which focuses on direct response.
Bored with my day job I finally got the guts (thanks to inspiring posts like yours) to create my own WordPress blog, ibringthehappy.com. Not only am I learning the necessary skills to become a great content marketer, my confidence as a writer is growing with each and every post. While there’s so much more work to do, I’m enjoying the process and even applying what I’m learning along the way to my digital marketing gig.
Thanks Neville!
Awesome Kristen! I highly suggest everyone learn to setup their own blog and write stuff THEY like writing about….not just articles in an attempt to get traffic.
Documenting your journey is better than doling out same-old advice…and way more fun to do :)
My personal blog http://nevblog.com serves this purpose for me, and it’s super rewarding!
Well said Nev.
I was trying to write articles of things i had never gone through and to be honest i felt like a fraud. It’s satisfying to write about your journey and maybe along the way you can make some money rather than writing to next mediocre article.
P.s love the content on this blog
P.s.s also love the content on Nevblog.com
My husband and I recently started a concrete business on the side less than two months ago. We are already booked through the end of September! Our main goal at the moment is to build our savings with this money, but we are starting to shift the goal to allow him to stay at home during the fall through spring with a child. He can run his concrete business in the evenings and weekends (like we are currently doing), while also getting to be with our (future) child, which has been a lifelong goal for him.
We’d love any advice you have! Right now we are trying to consider whether it pays to do trade shows. It’s typically about a $500 entry and we have been fine without it in finding clients. However, we are happy to invest in this if they traditionally deliver positive outcomes.
Hey Candace, I love that you’re doing a real-world service business, this kind of stuff is often easier to sell and more profitable than a lot of online things :) .
I think your website is fantastic and has all the good elements, but one of the MAIN ways you will make sales it through referrals.
Take a good look at this post, it has some concepts you can easily copy:
https://copywritingcourse.com/powerwashing-flyers-copywriting-case-study/
Hey Neville, I love a good side project, always have one going if I can. My main one for the next few months is helping my friend rhondapage grow the membership to her private coaching class. Just getting started at a new job too so taking it slow, but with any luck (and a fair amount of graft) it could turn into quite the side earner. We’re aiming to get out first full membership sales sometime this month!
Keep up the good work – always enjoy your posts.
Cheers
Ben
Glad you’ve got a couple of things going Ben! This will be good experience in learning how to generate more sales and build an audience.
My side project (hoping to become my main project) is a website in Support of the Indie Artist…connecting Fans & Indie Artists. Purpose is to enable Indie Artists to attract new fans. I am in the prototype phase, but am about to sign up for your course to learn how to promote the idea effectively.
Oh nice Barbara, I think the course would teach you some cool ways to approach the project differently. Maybe for now you can try a quick MVP just using your Facebook and a Google Spreadsheet to highlight different artists?
Hi Neville,
My side project is launching my business, where we help Architecture and Engineering (AEC) firms eliminate technology worries. We work with small to medium AEC firms to virtually replace their IT department and provide services from tactical (I need this fixed) to strategic (I’m looking to grow my firm by X, how can technology help me scale?). The site is in progress but can be found here http://getarchit.com
My office is on Vann Ness and Sutter, so If I hear you busking I’ll stop by and say high :)
Oh cool Boris! I bet studying up on how to get leads on LinkedIn (take a day to watch everything on YouTube and google about it, and take notes), and this could really help you reach out to those specific firms that need your service!
My side projects include broketeacher.com which I started as a joke. It got way out of hand and will be my second book, manuscript done.
I’m also in the process of putting up a photography site to sell a few photos for fun. And I’m building my dog’s Instagram, (@longhairedluna) which is currently on course to kick my IG’s butt (@runningdmc) even though I take my photography far more seriously than she does… which makes me a tiny bit envious of her cuteness.
Good luck with busking.
Bahahahah, isn’t it funny how a dog can have a way more popular Instagram account than the owner?? Love it!
http://www.shitexpress.com — great marketing experiment :)
you can read our story at http://www.shitexpress.com/blog/how-we-earned-10120-usd-in-30-days-by-sending-horse-poop-to-people-amazing-kickstart-of-a-marketing-experiment
Babahhahaha, this is so hilarious and crazy. I don’t even want to know how you acquire or package all of this :-p 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Hey Nev!
My side project is, well… ME! http://trentmunday.com/
Working on Brand Trent!
I’m a senior guy in a big spa company and over the years have developed a reputation for being a no BS kinda guy. As you might imagine, in the Peace, Love and Koombaya World of Spa, that can sometimes go down like a lead balloon! Nonethless, am getting a steady following of those that do want listen to the message – ie: The Current Hotel Spa Model is broken! (ooooooohhhhhhhh!!!!!)
Blogging every week – http://bit.ly/2qUktrn
Podcasting weekly too – http://apple.co/2qIam95
Slowly getting folks to subscribe to my mailing list, but getting good engagement on Linkedin so happy to focus on that.
BTW – I got your Kopywriting Course a few years back (I think via an AppSumo Deal?). Got a lot from it. Still refer people to it today from time to time. So thanks!
Cheers!
Trent!
Hmmm, what a unique angle Trent!
This sounds like a cool project where you won’t get wide distribution, but A LOT of attention within your specific spa community!
Coincidentally, my side project is posting signs saying “Beware of Busker” around the San Francisco City Hall building, and San Francisco Opera building area.
Bahahahha…..TOO BAD since I already got away with it a few times :-P
Hey Neville,
I’m an Emotional Eating coach that’s currently working on honing my food writing skills so that I can become a freelance food critic for a major newspaper in my city. They accepted my pitch and I’m working on my story now. If they like it, I’ll be given regular freelance jobs with them. :)
Oh snap, congrats Maureen! That sounds like a sweet gig :)
I’m hosting a 5k charity race for my side project. I’m trying to connect and build my professional network by meeting with sponsors and other people who could help with the race.
The website for it is http://horseyrun.com
Nice James! Although I didn’t see any obvious pictures of horses, and therefore kind of didn’t get the point. Maybe add a big picture of a cute horse :)
I just started a certificate course with the International Association of Professions Career College. I ran a business idea by a friend and she told me about the program two days after. It will really help me and make me better prepared to launch my project which will earn me a side income.
That’s awesome, investing in your education is always a very good thing :-)
Hi Nev!
My current side project is actually inspired by you, I am trying to get a consulting side-hustle off the ground.
I used your Craigslist ad template for creating WordPress pages for $100, and I got Google AdWords certified. Ideally I would like to manage online marketing campaigns using AdWords and Facebook Advertising for small-medium sized businesses, including WordPress website services too (using the three pronged pricing strategy).
The trouble I am having at the minute is going out and finding my first client!
Hey Joseph, just be warned, it’s hard to let someone give you control of all your ads if you haven’t managed a bunch of ads before.
Why don’t you first try making some WordPress websites for people? Maybe post something like this on your personal Facebook page:
For $100 I will setup a full WordPress website for you within 24 hours.
Any website you need (can be a personal blog, photography portfolio, company website), I will make for you. If you’ve ever wanted a running website but didn’t know where to start, I’ll guide you through the whole process. We’ll hop on a call together and within 24 hours I’ll get your entire website up and running.
These websites are designed so:
–You can easily update them.
–They have a chance of getting ranked in search engines.
–You can send people your website link.
I am doing a very limited promotion of a flat $100 fee for this ENTIRE service. Many web developers charge starting at $125/hour, so this is extremely generous!
Sincerely,
Joseph – Phone/Text: 555-555-5555
P.S. If you know anyone that might want my help setting up an entire website, please tag them.
Good luck with your experiments Neville. I’ve been followign Noah for a while and his podcasts are awesome. I’ll also follow your buddy ‘Nom Dude’ going forward.
I’m working as full time SEO in Bangalore. I’ve always wanted to build something on my own. You know the salaries are sub par in India when compared to other countries, myself being in my early 20s – can’t help my less pay.
I have put in my complete effort to build something on my free time, a blog –> http://www.readmebro.com/
The plan is to make a passive income on the side.
I’ve already got ad sense approved, got $70+ in my account.
Started working on the blog from January this year.
The grand plan is to build good traffic and if I’m lucky, will sell the blog to the right person for a good profit.
What do you think, Neville?
hahaha, very cool name :)
I think it’s a cool way to start out and show your SEO skills for sure. Best of luck Hari!
My side project is developing and selling easy to mix cocktails. Currently have Whiskey Sour and Margarita, and other flavors are in development. Working on online traffic, getting into retail stores, and eventually carried by liquor/specialty food distributors. Goal is to expand sales enough to quit my job and move from Fargo, ND to the west coast. Check us out: http://www.todsmix.com
Oh that’s cool Todd! You might have to grind it out in the beginning by showing up to stores and doing taste tests.
That will get you A LOT of valuable customer feedback to see if it’s viable. Then maybe start hitting up some distributors and show them how this product can increase their sales!
Thanks for the feedback, Neville. I’ll be hustling this week!
I’ve been trying to get a shopify site going selling fountain pens and stationery. I’m hoping to learn marketing and transfer that knowledge to all of my other projects.
Hmmmm….sounds cool, but kinda tough if you aren’t selling something unique. Anything that can easily be bought on Amazon is often much harder to compete nowadays than it was 10 years ago.
But I’m sure you’ll learn a TON from projects like this Breandan! I sure did with all my silly projects over the years.
*shudder* Pouring your heart out on the side of the street…
I can’t even karaoke properly. Cool challenge. Have fun, Neville!
My side project is an online email course for learning Japanese.
You can check it out here (VSL –> Checkout):
https://brandonchin.net/raw-japan
Hey Brandon, I actually went out a few times already, just me and a guitar (no amplification) and did it!
Best of luck with your language course!
My side project is pretty much a revamp of my business. First I did a little light UI work on my web site (http://www.Codosaur.us) making it less ugly (UI is not my wheelhouse) and laying out the basics of what I am now trying to shift my business into. (Long story short: less coding, more advising, and mainly on a “package” basis.) When I think I have at least the concepts straight (what packages to offer at about what prices), I’ll probably hire a small local agency to put the finishing touches on the UI and copy, and add analytics, “SEO dust”, and so on. (Yes, I know, one of the biggest things I could probably do for SEO is blog more regularly… been meaning to set aside time for that at least weekly….)
Oh, also learning the Elixir programming language and its Phoenix web-app framework, to improve my knowledge and skill in the “functional” programming style, both to render better advice to my clients and to keep my skills current. I’ve mainly been doing Ruby for the past six years, with and without its Rails framework, and it’s been great, but it’s gotten pretty solidly mainstream. So, it’s probably soon not going to be as profitable as when it had high demand but low *supply*. Elixir seems to be the next big “ahead of the curve” opportunity, at least within the non-proprietary non-front-end world.
Oh cool Dave, sounds like you have a TON of programming skills! This page looks like a good resume for a programmer.
Perhaps you can put a tab showing some different projects you’ve worked on, and how you made them better. That would be great proof of your skills!
I’m a full time high school teacher. My side project is writing and speaking about best practices to help other teachers with literacy instruction, giving feedback, and preparing kids for the modern economy.
Oh wow, that’s cool! I wonder if you can partner with some teaching organizations to get your lessons more widely distributed?
I work on a green project to help the earth to use solar energy and it makes me passive income too.
I’ve started some months ago and this is a really side project yet.
Sounds pretty cool, AND helps the environment, double whammy :)
My side project for the next few months is trading crpytocurrency.
Nice! You might get rich, OR lose all your money. Report back :-)
Right now it’s more of the later with the new circling around China. Hopefully, though everything will sort itself out haha.
We are starting a charter school to improve education for children in the area. http://www.prominencecharterschool.org/
And I am researching raising buffalo. It is my goal to be able to sit on my porch and watch the buffalo. It could also tie into my making dog treats. http://situpdoggy.com
Oh cool Richard, looks like you got your hands full of side projects!
I have a friend who makes fancy dog treats, and goes to a local park to sell them for $4 – $7 each. They sell out every time!
The dog treats are my primary source of income. Looking to expand the dog treats.
The school can be a time consuming task. It can almost be another job.
Love the busking side project. That’s on my bucket list. ;-)
My current side project is Sales for Nerds (https://salesfornerds.io), a podcast to help technical folks who start companies do sales and marketing. Most of the advice in that area seems aimed at people who are already in sales or marketing, and as a former (?) techie, I think we can benefit from more specialized advice.
p.s. If anyone reading this knows a good guest to have on the show– someone technical (doesn’t have to be coding, could be a lawyer or some such thing) who now does sales and marketing, let me know. Thanks.
Oh nice, looks like you’ve got a good repertoire of episodes going already. Great job starting a side project and getting it going so quickly Reuben!
Having a podcasts seems to be a GREAT way of meeting new people.
My side project is about a library of healthy recipes for fitness fanatics. That means no sugar, and maybe other products that I’m not sure yet. Right from the beginning people will know how many calories and other nutritional information without getting inside of the recipe, which is very important to people who are fanatics about fitness and are counting calories as myself.
I’ve never done some site that attracts a lot of users so is going to be interesting making it popular, using marketing, social networks and so on.
Hmmmm….sounds cool, BUT I will say my personal opinion:
This will be hard :-/
There’s a lot of stiff competition in the recipe phase backed by lots of money from cooking ware companies, food companies etc.
However it’s always fun to try something if you’re super into it. Best of luck Daniel!
Side project is a GPS tracking platform for mobile assets using cellular technology.
Nice! Hope you get it up and running soon Sam!
My side project it to run my jewelry store that i’ve just setup (took me 1 week)
its: http://www.rubycarol.com
My goal is to quit my job and start running my own business.
Cool little side project Awais, do you make the bracelets yourself or do you get them from somewhere?
My side project: Video production and editing, especially for, behind-the-scenes & “run & gun” video work.
My website: http://pucknkhaos.com
My hope: I hope to supplement my income with this and eventually quit my job to do this full-time along with some digital marketing work (social media, Facebook ads, community management).
WHOA, that is one cool looking unique website Gigi!
I would suggest you also make a Facebook Page for your business and start posting your work and videos there too, and promote it to all your friends.
My friend Linda does this, doesn’t have many people on the page, but still gets business from it:
https://www.facebook.com/curiousnotionsphoto/
Another friend of mine, Hershey, does this also very very successfully and gets tons of clients from her FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/HersheyJunejaPhotography/
Hi Neville
My side project is an infozine focused on vintage furniture, home accessories and artpieces.. I’m doing it because I’ve all along been interested in how vintage stuff can form a very eclectic and artistic part of any home decor and I hope that eventually it will become something useful and informative for vintage lovers, and also serve as an initiative for me to be involved in upcycling projects.
https://vxotic.com
Hey Bei, this is cool, but you know what might be more useful? Actually showcasing your OWN vintage pieces you made or restored!
Often that kind of stuff gets shared around more than an article with a compilation of pictures taken from the internet.
For example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NewAgain/top/
Even if you post your projects on Facebook to your friends, a great before/after shot will get a lot of attention moreso than an article ABOUT restoration!
Currently working on http://WorldwideCruiseClub.com which is a pre-sales website for an affiliate link to a cruise vacation membership. The goal is to supplement my income, just sell a few dozen memberships or so. Haven’t completely decided how to do it yet. The current website was literally thrown up a few hours before going on a cruise in case the conversation came up. Have been meaning to fix the website, so this was a great reminder.
I’m curious where you got your affiliate links to get going with this?
Here’s Affiliate Partner info Shawn http://worldwidecruiseclub.com/partner
Oh cool, give it a fair shot before giving up on it.
My friend Tynan made something similar called https://cruisesheet.com/ where it shows you a list of crazy-cheap cruises you can take, and he gets a small affiliate commission each time.
Best of luck Al!
Cool! Thanks Nev, I thought of doing something similar, like a Cruise Deals Aggregator. Glad to see someone else working a similar model.
I built this website last year in a hurry and I am going to be revamping it because I feel like I get decent traffic but not enough conversions. Just looking for more parents to reach out to me about dive lessons for their kids. So, in short, my side project is to get more sign ups/interest.
http://fulloutdiveclub.com
Hey Jeremy, sounds cool! I would make sure you get all the pertinent information across in one page. There’s no need to split this website into multiple pages, especially since so many people use mobile nowadays which would make it really hard to navigate:
Tell people about yourself, why you’re qualified to teach, and maybe even show some pictures of kids doing awesome dives! Also make sure to promote your coaching services at local pools or schools where diving is offered.
My side project is an idea I’ve been working in for years. I’ve had freelance developers in Sri Lanka working on it, local developers charging me just to quote that it’ll cost $60k to do it!!.. and now I’m scaling it all the way back. Starting start-up styles with a MVP and am learning how to do WordPress myself to do that.
Awesome, best of luck Clayton! Nowadays with the communication tools so good (like Slack and Google Hangouts and Google Docs) it’s pretty easy to get developers in different parts of the world to help you. Great job!
As a drummer myself I totally relate. Music can really get your creative juices flowing!
As of me, I’m about to leave my full time job as a software engineer and go full time copywriting.
One of the reasons I started learning about writing copy was because I wanted the flexibility to tour with my band whenever I wanted to. Now it turned into something I really enjoy doing and a great looking career path to start.
Flexibility, freedom and not depending on crappy bosses are the main motivators + the ability to travel more (not only for work) :)
Hey Chris, that sounds like a fun adventure: Touring with your band while writing copy on the side!
Seems like you’ve got a great background in tech also which is awesome….I think you can have a pretty lucrative career with your background.
FYI, on your contact page I would suggest you ask for a FEW more small pieces of information from prospective clients:
Thanks Neville! Really appreciate you taking the time. Will consider adding more info and test different variations ;)
My side project is photography, although my day job is freelance copywriter. While writing pays the bills, taking photos is my true passion. I find it enhances my writing because the editing process is similar . . . take out what doesn’t work so the focus is on what it needs to be. It lets me use a different part of my brain than writing does.
Here’s one of my pics: https://www.photographytalk.com/inspirational-photo/414383
I haven’t monetized my photography yet, but I’m considering it. :)
Wow, great photo Norma!
I think you can definitely monetize your photo-taking. My friend Linda did this recently:
https://www.facebook.com/curiousnotionsphoto/?pnref=lhc
….and I also wrote an entire article with scripts on how to monetize your photo-taking abilities!
Try this out: https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-make-money-as-a-photographer/
My side project is walking dogs. My problem was I would join a gym, then not go. But if course the gym wanted it’s money every month!
I finally saw I focusing on the wrong end of the exercise equation. Figured out:
•I need exercise.
•I need a compelling reason to get away from the computer and/or off the couch.
•I waste money paying the gym and not going.
Right now I have two dogs to walk in the afternoon, $20 for 30-min. walk. So I get about an hour’s worth of easy exercise. Haven’t lost weight yet, but I feel more energetic. At the end of the month, I get a few hundred dollars.
I’d like to add two dogs. I’d really love to find two that I can walk together. That would get me double the pay for the same amount of time.
Exercise for pay is working for me. Now I never miss a walk.
Well that certainly is a clever hobby Mary! Not only do you get exercise, but you bonus get to play with some dogs!
Just went on a walk in San Fran with a friends dog:
You may already know this, but there’s apps like “Rover” which is like an Uber for dog walkers service. You may want to consider signing up so you can walk more dogs while making money at it!
Seeing Neville’s photo gives me an idea depending on your area…how about charging more for a more advanced dog walking extreme (package) experience. Like going to a beach and playing in the sand and water…or an extreme hike up a mountain side? Might set you apart from other walkers and give you some more exercise options too…lol.
Oh that’s a super good idea Patrick! It’s so easy nowadays to also take pics of the pups having fun at the beach and occasionally send a pic to the owner. Great idea!
My side project is: http://realestatefinancehq.com/
Teaching people how to get financing for real estate investments.
Would love your advice!!!!!
I would love this site to start paying for my mortgage :-)
Hey Jimmy, do you personally go out and get financing for real estate investments yourself?
I think documenting your personal journey is often far more engaging than just making how-to articles.
I even think doing 1 or 2 REAL LIFE EXPERIMENTS in getting financing can outrank all your other articles combined :)
Best of luck Jimmy!
I have been teaching yoga for 15 years, but leaning into being a spiritual mentor (which I have been all along) has scared the shit out of me. I decided to face it head on as I saw an ever-growing crisis of consciousness with increasing suicide and addiction rates. It’s bite sized and a format I love- podcasting. “Mindfulness Miracles” is on anchor, but once a week, I upload as a podcast.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mindfulness-miracles/id1257177564.
It’s for people who want more out of life, are tired of being tired, are tired of the meanness, want to feel more peace daily, want to do something about the world we live in but don’t know what, and know meditation is good for them but aren’t ready (or perceive aren’t able) to jumb on that bandwagon.
And Neville, if you have any songs up on spotify or apple, I’d love to highlight on my anchor station after an episode! (or any other budding musicians)
Oh cool, looks like you just started the podcast pretty recently Wendy, best of luck with it!
I would suggest you lookup articles on “itunes SEO” or similar keywords. They will teach you how to slightly modify your titles so that people searching for a specific thing can find you. This will be IMMENSELY helpful over time.
For example, if you have titles like:
“Morning Meditation”
“Relaxing Meditation”
“Guided Sleep Meditation”
….and the like, over time more and more people will find you in the “search” function of iTunes. Best of luck Wendy!
I’m trying to launch a side business selling emoji domain URL shorteners for vloggers and film makers. Using the 🎥.ws emoji domain I hope to offer short engaging links. An example might be http://🎥.ws/277 which redirects to Gary Vaynerchuk’s 277th DailyVee episode. I wrote an article on Medium about the idea, how I got through to Gary’s team and why I think they’re powerful marketing tools. https://medium.com/@cjharrison/part-6-access-every-dailyvee-with-an-emoji-ac61d476297 I hope to test my idea using the lean startup method
Oh weird, I didn’t even know that was a thing! Sounds super cool, and could totally work for the right crowd on Instagram and the like.
Super curious how it works out John! 😀 🤑
Hey Neville,
Thanks very much for the reply. I know the dedication it must take to reply helpfully to everyone. Look out for emoji domains in the wild and let me know if you fancy having an emoji link to your videos. I reckon http://🎥.ws/kk would be the most pertinent!
Hi Neville,
My side projects are two blogs I’m working on:
1) http://howtobedapper.com is to help guys dress better
2) http://edmondchan.co.uk is my personal blog
Best of luck with your busking!
Cheers, Ed
Love the name of the first blog!
Hey Edmond, looks like you’ve got a lot content to write with two blogs!
I would suggest on your personal blog to make it more of an “update of your life journey” rather than a bunch of how-to guides.
I mean how-to guides can still totally be part of it, but people are more interested in your journey than a how-to guide.
So you can make a blog post like you did called “How to buy cryptocurrency”…..but what’s more interesting to your friend group as your blog is growing, is how YOU bought cryptocurrency, and your experience with 10x’ing your money or something.
As for your “How To Be Dapper” site, I would suggest you do some case studies where you do makeovers with your friends or paying style clients.
THAT is the most compelling!
Advice is sort of worthless nowadays, actually doing it and showing the results is valuable :)
Hi Neville,
Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and for your advice – much appreciated!
What I really like about your advice is that it’s different from the blogging advice I’ve read that people wanted ‘how to’ guides and not stuff about my actual journey. I will definitely take your advice. Since your reply, I’ve actually spun off the cryptocurrency stuff into a ‘my journey’ type blog and put the other blogs on the back burner for now. The new cryptocurrency blog is http://adventuresincrypto.com/
Thanks again!
Ed
Hi
Must say this marketing psychology thing totally fascinates me!
I’m a creative mom who hated recieving stupid gifts that were totally not my taste when my baby was born. Equally annoying was getting doubles of the same stuff. So I decided to put my creativity to use and make a range of gorgeous gifts, mainly for babies, but also for some other occasions… Main point is, theyre useful to every mom, no matter their taste!
What do you think?
Sorry, heres the link http://www.bloopinkgifts.com/
Hey Hannah, some of these are really creative! Have you been able to sell any so far? I would partner with maternity stores and such in your area to get extra business.
While online sales are great, just remember MOST things are still bought offline, and there’s a ton of money there!
Lately I’ve been paranoid about how risky it is for 99% of my income to come from one source (job).
So to that point I am doing a little entrepreneurial challenge for myself to create some income via affiliate marketing / sales. I use Convertkit for my blog + a client or two so I figured it’s a low startup cost way to generate some money. Started the year at like $9 a month with a goal of $100 by year end. I’m at $121 (humblebrag?) but don’t feel accomplished yet. Like $121 doesn’t impact my life.
Of course I want #passive #income and to never have to work but realistically a better goal is to cover my student loans $500 a month.
Some days I think affiliate marketing is super smarmy but other days I feel like it’s the exact same as doing sales.
I think a good next step for me is to create a post on my blog explaining my goals / stories.
Feedback / suggestions please and thank you!!!!
I think if you’re being an affiliate for a product you believe in and if you are honest and not spammy like so many people I see, you’ll be fine!
Thanks Wendy! I appreciate it.
Hey Mike, honest feedback:
If your plan is to just tell people about ConvertKit and hope you make a bunch of money, you probably won’t. You have to add some value SOMEWHERE.
I also think there’s an easy solution: GO OFFLINE. Yup, a lot of affiliate marketers wanna do zero work and make a trillion dollars. They often don’t have a lot of online marketing experience either.
However with just a LITTLE online marketing experience, you can help offline businesses (such as car dealerships, auto shops, dry cleaners, restaurants etc) make a lot more money by properly setting up their basic website, social media etc.
Best of luck Mike!
Wait. So I don’t just send a link and automatically make money? Why am I even bothering ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(jokes)
Thanks for the feedback, Neville The play wasn’t just “hey Convertkit is cool go use it” more of explaining how it could create value for them over their current solution.
You are so right re: offline. Two of my referrals were from people who had no email list to speak of and it was a much easier sell to get them to add email marketing to their repertoire instead of selling the arduous task of switching email service providers. This is a good reminder to keep doing what is working.
Appreciate you.
LOL…that’s what I do!
I’m working with local businesses (brick and mortar)…mostly service and food industry-go from offline to online. Using direct response copy to help them build an online list and consistent month to month paying customer. My goal is to make their income predictable.
Some clients pay me to also manage their list (segmentation and email) as well as write their direct response copy, auto responders, scripts and/or marketing strategies.
My side project is ramping up my Tarot Reading business. I hope to make a nice supplementary income that provides me with enough $$$ to keep experimenting with different paid media channels. Working on FB at the moment.
Here’s my sales page – copy writing advice would be hugely appreciated!!!
http://readingswithmatt.com/tarot-card-reading/
Nice Matt!
First of all, I think all of this stuff is in a “grey area” between “helpful” and “fake”. With that said, did you know I used to own a palm reading business??
https://copywritingcourse.com/palm-reading-real-or-fake/
I would highly highly highly recommend you SHOW PEOPLE SOME ACTUAL READINGS. You don’t have to go too deep on what tarot is (they probably already know), you just need to show off your skillzzz doing it!
Thanks Neville!
Hi Neville!
My side project is my blog called Create Good Mornings. I’m looking to:
– help others create good mornings with insights, tools and strategies to get more done with less stress
– continue to learn and evolve how I can make the most of each day. I’ve noticed that as I learn and reflect more on writing for the blog, I push my personal growth, creating a positive feedback loop
– become a mildly better stick person artist
– develop a location- independent business
Here it is:
http://www.creategoodmornings.com
Hey Craig!
Just babbling some ideas out randomly:
–What if you created a FB group where in order to stay in the group, people HAVE to list their plan for the next morning the night before. See if it sticks. For example I always write my to-do list the night before, and it super helps me start the morning off right.
–I wonder if figuring out the morning routines of the top 5 writers in the world, or the top 5 athletes in the world could be cool.
–I would openly give away “Good Morning Checklists” or something like that on your site as it’s first getting started so you build up a reputation. Like “The Good Morning Checklist for Runners” or “The Good Morning Checklist for College Students.”
–I would start to integrate all the data we now have from smart watches and phones about sleeping habits, and somehow compile that into awesome experiments.
Best of luck Craig, and GOOD MORNING :)
Hey Craig,
Just wanted to let you know that I really like your content! I found myself drawn in.
I’ll be back for more :)
Cool to hear about the music jams man. My side project this year is to learn spanish. Ahora mi español es okay
Hola, Brice! I’ve been trying to learn, too, via DuoLingo and my housemate who asks me constantly, “Do you know how to say ___ in Spanish?”
Oigo a las canciones en español por YouTube.
…I think that was the right preposition. I need to find my grammar handbook and reread it.
Anyway, if you want more vocabulary flashcards to supplement Duolingo, try Memrise.
If you want a better grasp of the grammar (because, frankly, some common transliterations of Spanish grammar are outright wrong, and Duolingo tends to explain grammar in ways that are misleading unless you already know exactly what they mean), the official reference for Spanish grammar is the Real Academia Española (http://www.rae.es/recursos/gramatica/nueva-gramatica). But if you just want a helpful summary guide in English, the most useful resource I’ve found for that is actually the Bantam New College Spanish & English Dictionary.
If someone else reading this wants to arrange to chat with a native speaker regularly, they might be able to find a barter situation on Simbi (https://simbi.com/; @ I’m https://simbi.com/misti-wolanski/welcome).
Hope that helps with the Spanish!
Hey Brice, good thing you lived in Texas to start :)
I bet you can pick it up relatively fluently in 3 months. Make sure to get a teacher you meet with weekly or more….or just go to a Spanish speaking country and take lessons. You’ll be immersed 24/7 there and pick it up fast while having fun!
2017 – move to Colombia and immerse myself in a new language: check! :)
And yes… it has been super fun!
Hey, Brice. I’m a native Spanish speaker (Venezuelan) and I’d love to help you and anyone learning. Anyone interested just let me know and we can set up weekly sessions and q&a about Spanish.
My side project is my capstone for undergraduate project and servant leadership mission.
Bringing http://www.americandreamu.org to alaska.
Creating a Veteran Community Entreprenuership Education program. I found strong evidence to support that attributes associated w/ successful entreprenuers could have a positive effect on long-term mental fitness.
Business reflects life. Using the narrative of entreprenuership, whether starting a business or finding employment or just quality of life in general Veterans could benefit. We are all self-employed in our lives.
The goal is to end suicide and self-destructive behavior and focus that energy on a common mission. Having a positive affect on Alaska’s dying economy.
If it works perhaps, places like Detroit or Flint… oreven Batswana may be able to tirn their economies (social/fiscal) around.
That sounds awesome and super worthwhile Joe! Sounds like your side project will not only be fulfilling, but help a whole lot of people as well.
Wow…. That sounds like an incredible project Joe. If you ever need music to score promo videos, let me know. I’ll set you up with coupon codes to download and license my tracks for free: https://soundcloud.com/madlassmusic/sets/action-intense-drama.
I’ve got 2 musical projects going “side” by “side” so I say at least one of them counts! :D
My main activity is writing, recording and licensing my music BUT, I recently started teaching other musicians about music licensing (why they should do it and how to approach it).
After the initial wave of enthusiasm that may or may not have been linked to the fact I was offering people to test a 6 months course for free, I realized I was going to have to talk to a LOT of people along the way to make this little side project sustainable AND I’d have to figure out a way to make people visit my website.
Sooooo I started talking to a lot of people and creating a lot of content.
Funny thing is I (re)discovered I LOVE writing AND meeting new people. I used to love both those things but kind of forgot for a while when I was working a full-time interesting but not exciting office job.
What am I hoping to get from this side project?
1- great connections that can help me grow the other side of my business (for example, I’d love to interview a few indie filmmakers, successful crowdfunders, music supervisors, PR people, other creatives, social media experts who would help both my students and me)
2- additional income
3- continued growth…. I know, this sounds lame but I’m really happy I rediscovered how much I like writing and talking to people. It’s good to be back ;)
Right, that’s it for me. I look forward to every one else’s stories!
PS: Love the busking experiment! It’s on my to-do list this year. I’m absolutely TERRIFIED to do it!
PPS: Noah’s project looks like a customizable Momentum. I’ll try it NOW!
Hey Joyce! We’ve spoken before and the number of music tracks you’ve successfully put out AND licensed for $$ is quite impressive.
I think training other musicians how to do the same could be a great step for you, ESPECIALLY since you “walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk” already.
One suggestion I’d have for you is make an “About Page” or a “Licensed Songs” page to show people as social proof:
I would post on there a bunch of cool numbers like:
Songs written in 2015: 75
Songs licensed in 2015: 24
Songs sold in 2015: 12
Songs written in 2016: 49
Songs licensed in 2016: 29
Songs sold in 2016: 18
Songs written in 2017: 102
Songs licensed in 2017: 38
Songs sold in 2017: 24
….this could provide some awesome proof that shows you are the real deal, and the right person to learn from!
Thanks Neville!
Made some adjustments to my about page and added a few images as you suggested (there’s a bit of overlap from the sales page but I tried to keep it interesting).
I’ll need to take the time to dive into the figures more as I only really tracked properly in 2016 :/
Well, it’s good you’re starting to track things now Joyce! At minimum just make sure you have free Google Analytics installed, and at any point in the future you can do a deep dive into your stats :-)
so is this the comment thread that set off the awesome blog post about music licencing? how cool!
Hey Mike, actually, the guest post on licensing came about because I took Neville’s Kopywriting Kourse and we worked on the website I use to license my music during the Kalls. The course and calls were grrrrreat. If you’ve been thinking of taking that step yourself, I highly recommend it :)
Just trying to help people take control of their career. The more people I can change their perspectives on a career related topic the better off I am and they are: https://firemeibegyou.com/
Nice Robbie!
I really like the homepage, but the one suggestion I’d make is kind of “flipping” the bottom two sections around. It’s always best when at the end of the page, there’s also a call to action. You currently don’t have one right at the very bottom:
Just put that “Start Here” section at the bottom to solve it :)
Is there any reason why you wouldn’t have a CTA at the top and the bottom of the page?