Welcome to Niche Pursuits! My name is Spencer Haws, founder of Niche Pursuits and family man with 4 kids.
So, what in the world is a “Niche Pursuit?”
Well, I created this blog originally as a way to discuss the various niche business ideas I was trying out. I wanted a way to share what I was learning by experimenting with all these different ideas, or “niche pursuits”.
I created my very first website in 2006, but since that time I've launched dozens of different online businesses.
After trying, failing, and sometimes succeeding with my “crazy” online business ideas, I finally found enough success in 2011 to quit my full-time job as a Business Banker.
Here's a few of my Niche Pursuits that I worked on over the years:
Over the years, I've also tried many other small businesses including: a mobile phone app, a WordPress theme and plugin, purchased other sites, and I've invested and advised in several additional online companies.
The best place to keep up to date with all my business ventures is by subscribing to my email newsletter below.
Besides staying active on my blog, you can also find me in other places:
I grew up in sunny Mesa, Arizona and love to get back and visit family and friends when I can. I now live in Richland, WA (where my wife grew up).
My dad started his own company when I was about 21, and this had a huge influence on me deciding to finally graduate in Business Management from BYU in 2002.
I was in college during some of the dot com boom/bust years and this also had an impact on me. A couple of years after I graduated – around 2005 – I started dabbling around with creating websites.
I was pretty bad at it.
But after a few years I finally figured out how search engine optimization worked. I also discovered that I could rank my websites in Google much easier for low competition keywords than high competition (pretty amazing stuff, huh?) and this directly led to my success.
However, it didn't come all at once. From about 2005 to the middle of 2009 I basically made no money, but just learned a lot about websites and SEO. During that time I worked as a Business Relationship Manager for Wells Fargo Bank and also got my MBA from Arizona State University in 2007 (my back up plan).
Then towards the end of 2009 I really started to find some success building niche websites. In 2010 I went a little nuts with it and built almost 200 websites (which is a really bad idea to try nowadays) that year targeting low competition keywords.
Well, I had some lows, but I also had some highs. I learned how to build better quality sites and prevent future problems with Google. All in all by the end of 2010, I was ready to quit my job and pursue my business full-time.
However, being the over cautious person financially that I am (okay my wife had something to do with it too); I decided to wait until March 11th, 2011 to quit my job. Since that day, I have been working full-time from home!
My income has been well above what my day job income was and I'm enjoying building my online business. Now its time to go out and try some more “niche pursuits”!
I'm also a runner and have run over a dozen marathons. I qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon in 2018.
If you would like to contact me, you can do so here.
– Last Updated: March 2024