The Biggest SEO News, Best Side Hustles, and Weirdest Niche Sites of 2024

Spencer and Jared are back for the last episode of 2024 with some very special content: an annual recap. 

They talk about what they think were the biggest and most important headlines of the year, and how the news affected bloggers and content creators. 

Then they discussed their most lucrative, and surprising, side hustles in 2024. They each shared the side hustle that was earning the most in the shortest amount of time, and they share some inspiring and motivating reflections.

Lastly, after featuring over 100 weird side hustles over the course of 2024, they pick their favorites and talk about the things that make them special.

Don’t miss this interesting year-in-review on the Niche Pursuits News Podcast.

Watch the Full Episode

Spencer kicks off the episode talking about how AI is impacting Search. He talks specifically about Google’s rollout of AI Overviews back in May and how AI’s presence in Search continues to grow. 

He also talks about OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT search on October 31st and is now free for all users. In short, it looks like AI in Search is definitely here to stay.

Spencer and Jared compare the two options, talk about AI SEO, and what the future might hold.

Then it’s Jared’s turn to pick his biggest headline from the year, which was when Google lost the anti-trust lawsuit in a landmark decision. 

He talks about the exact practices Google was engaging in to be deemed anti-competitive, what the DOJ wants Google to do, and what role Chrome plays.

Tune in to hear the latest developments in the story and how they think it could unfold.

Do you agree these were the biggest headlines of 2024? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Moving on to the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer talks about many of the different side hustles that were covered over the year, from Amazon Influencer and newsletters to niche websites and Facebook, and many more.

Jared talks about his quest to take an HCU-hit site and turn it into something else, something more profitable. He talks about the demise of his website and its rebirth after driving traffic to it through Pinterest.

He talks about earnings growth, a bit about the Pinterest strategy, and the possibility of selling his site.

When it’s Spencer’s turn, he talks about his experience with the Facebook Bonus Program, which he joined in June.

He talks about his earnings, his impressions, and his biggest months.

They reflect on their entrepreneurial journeys and discuss how they came to start all of their businesses and side hustles. They also share some interesting and inspiring reflections that are sure to motivate listeners.

Lastly, they move on to the Weird Niche Site portion of the podcast. 

Jared talks about his favorite site from the year: one million checkboxes. He gives a bit of the site’s backstory, talks about the features he likes, and shares why he thinks it was a big hit among listeners.

When it’s Spencer’s turn, he shares Tractor Data, a weird niche site that is making good money. He talks about all the data the site offers, the design, and the traffic stats.

He also makes a conservative guess about the income the site is earning and talks about why he chose to highlight it.

Then comes a special surprise: the weird niche sites that get honorary mentions: McBroken, which shows which ice cream machines are broken at McDonalds. 

They talk about some interesting stats, how the site gets its info, and the snarky ads on display. 

Not to be outdone, Jared also has an honorary mention: DudeRanch.com, which was not only a weird niche site featured on the podcast, but the owner was also interviewed on the Niche Pursuits podcast.

And that brings us to the end of the last episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!

Thanks for joining us every Friday in 2024. We hope you'll join us again in 2025 as we continue to take on the latest news headlines, share our creative side hustles, and make you laugh with some of the weirdest niche sites on the internet.

Transcript

Spencer: Hey everyone. Welcome to a very special episode of this week in niche pursuits news. I've got Jared with me, uh, as usual today, and we're going to be doing an end of the year recap, really. We're going to look at the biggest news stories that happened in the industry. And we're going to talk about what those were, what impacted us.

The most, what we thought were the most newsworthy stories of the year. Uh, and then we're going to also talk about a couple of side hustles, our favorite side hustles. Jared and I have worked on a lot of different side hustles this year. And even our co hosts have worked on a lot of other side hustles, but we're going to cover our two favorite one each.

And then finally, we got to talk about weird niche sites. Uh, you know, we do two weird niche sites each year. Each and every week. So we've covered over 100 weird niche sites in 2024. And now that it's the end of the year, we're going to pick out our favorite weird niche site for each of us. So it's going to be a lot of fun,

Jared: Jared, should we do it?

I have to admit, I looking at the agenda today, because we kind of talked, this is a different one, right? So we talked in advance how we're doing this. And I just saw the agenda this morning and not surprised by your story that you brought. Uh, in terms of the news, not surprised by the side hustle you brought, very surprised by your weird niche, had forgotten we even covered this weird niche, had to even go back and look at it to even remember what it was.

Spencer: Yeah, and you know that, the same thing, we covered so many, and when I looked at the list, I was like, oh my goodness, I forgot we did that, and there's some really good ones, like there is just, I should probably just release this list. You

Jared: should make a YouTube video about this. That's what I think. Niche proceeds, YouTube video, all about that.

A hundred over a hundred weird niches. There's some really good ones in there. That's a good

Spencer: idea because there's some that I had truly forgotten about. So I'm bringing a good one. Jared's bringing a good one. So stick around for that. But let's just do it. I mean, it's the end of the year. So happy holidays to everybody.

Happy new year. Uh, you know, hope you hit your new year's goals ramping up for that, but let's jump into the news. Uh, so a lot happened in 2024. Uh, but I think. The biggest story that I would like to talk about here today is really AI search and how artificial intelligence is impacting search. Uh, so in particular, right.

Google rolled out their AI overviews, uh, and they officially rolled it out to everyone. It looks like. May 14th is at least when that was announced. I know they had been testing things and before it was called the search generative experience initially when it kind of rolled out and beta testing, but now it's officially called AI overviews that happened, uh, in May.

And I will just share my screen. Uh, Let's see here. If I've got the right one, uh, that, you know, a, I powered overviews rolled out to all search results and boy, oh boy, over the past six months, that's just continued to increase in the amount of usage that it's getting, or the number of queries that Google is showing these AI overviews for, you know, um, I know personally when I do a search on my phone or on the desktop.

I'm seeing, I don't know what percentage it is, but it's a significant percentage now is showing these AI overviews. And so it's big, it's, it's, you know, it's impacting how search is done. And so not only this story coupled with that, right. Is of course, we also have Google's. What a lot of people would say their biggest competitor in terms of AI search is open AI.

And so open AI introduced chat GPT search officially on October 31st, 2024. So just a couple of months ago. Um, and in fact, just in the last week, uh, I want to say that they rolled it out to all users for free, uh, that you can go to chat GPT and you can use their search function to use. Search GPT. And so now AI search is with chat GPT.

It's in Google. Uh, it looks like it's going to be here to stay. And so it huge story for this year.

Jared: I mean, It's a story that started in 2023 with, like you mentioned, SGE search generative experience. Um, last week on the podcast, um, uh, Thomas brought a bard. There's a name I haven't heard in a while. I remember Bard.

That's right. I turned into Gemini, right? I don't even know when the transition to Gemini happened. That also happened this year, but I think the most impactful thing to your point is Getting AI overviews in the SERPs and seeing that come to fruition, the disastrous rollout they had in May and then the improvements and subsequent pullback they had in June.

They remember they went from it being in like 80 or 90 percent of the SERPs to then 10 percent of the SERPs throughout June and July. And then now I think they've kind of stabilized and they've found a good norm for it. It feels more normal, honestly, as I'm using, um, Google, you know, when I use Google.

And then we had chat GBD search, which. I don't use as much to be quite honest with you, but, um, they just got done with their, whatever their 12 days of announcements, open AI. And, and they, they're, I mean, it's, it's looking more and more like a Google, right? They had, they introduced, um, a ton of localized things for that just last week, a map pack in essence, if you will.

So, I mean, we're going to have like a two, a two horse race here pretty soon. And I know that Google has 90 percent plus market share, but. OpenAI has incredibly deep pockets and really is in the driver's seat of the future, which is, uh, you know, kind of generative AI. So, I mean, 2024 went from, you know, one horse race to a two horse race, and they both made advancements, but we've now got two viable options going forward, really.

Spencer: Yeah. And even though, uh, open AI is really well funded, it does feel like the scrappy sort of startup still, because it's going against the gorilla of Google. Google's just this giant company that, Hey, if open AI can come in and start to gobble up some of that market share, right, that is the big player in the industry.

Um, and now certainly those two feel like they're head to head against each other in terms of going after this AI search market. And, um, so huge year, uh, I think we'll continue to look back at all the changes that happened in this year, um, for, for a long time to come and how that impacts everything,

Jared: you know, in years past, we've always had to evaluate Google's competition up against stuff like duck, duck, go and Firefox and being, uh, and it's, there's never felt like.

They're ever going to stand a chance, right? Like it just, that's, we, you could always sit back and be like, yeah, we have our problems with Google, but like, obviously Bing's not going to give them a run there for their money. And I think for the first time in, I don't even know how long, over a decade, at least.

It feels like search GPT stands a chance, you know, and, and that's obviously they've got a huge mountain to climb, but it feels like they stand a chance for the first time. And I don't even know how long,

Spencer: right? Yeah, absolutely. And so, um, yeah, we'll continue to talk about this in 2025. I mean, we're starting to see people doing anything.

AI SEO, where you, you know, try to get your link or your website mentioned within the AI overviews. And some people are sort of documenting processes, stretch, uh, strategies that you can do to, to, to do that. So it's still fortunately sending traffic to websites, but we don't know the full impact for, for next year.

Um, so, so anyways, huge story. And I think this dovetails actually pretty well, uh, for what you're going to talk about, uh, also in terms of Google and competitors and what that all means.

Jared: I mean, I wrestled with this question for quite a while, at least a week, you know, as we talked about, like, let's. Let's do the biggest, our opinion on the biggest story of the year.

And we covered so many stories. You know, we tend to cover about three to four stories a week. So we talked about how there's been a hundred weird niche sites shared. Well, that puts us at over 200 stories that have happened this year. And it was really tough, but to me, I kept coming back to the same story and that's Google losing.

This antitrust lawsuit that declared that they were a monopoly and while we don't know what that means going forward, it was still in and of itself a landmark decision. We really haven't seen a story like this in terms of a monopolistic ruling going back, you know, 20 plus years ago. Um, and I think also there was so much that was brought forward in this antitrust lawsuit.

And we obviously have a big role in Google as it relates to search, um, and as it relates to SEO specifically. So optimizing for search, but what it really came out and what really got them in the hot water out of all the stuff, I mean the collusion between the ad department and the search department, um, all of the manipulation, all of the stuff they're doing with their data, what really got them in trouble in the end.

Was these deals they cut with Android and Apple devices. And that was what ended up being, uh, the determined anti competitive. Um, and it, I think that it all goes back to the fact that that's the biggest thing that led to them going from what this article on screen says, 80 percent market share in 2009 to over 90 percent by 2020.

And now we're in the 93 to 95 percent range typically is what we just, what we talk about. So. Just a huge deal, you know, a huge deal that Google paying Apple 20 billion annually to be the default search status is, is being ruled as monopolistic. And subsequently, and this has come out almost like you Spencer, you brought, uh, brought something that happened at the beginning of the year or the middle of the year.

And then the subsequent thing, search GPT that came later in the year, what we've now had come from this is that the DOJ is saying, Hey, what we think should happen is you got to get rid of And what we don't know Is what that could mean. If that actually happened, that's their source of data. Like that's where all their data comes from.

And so what does Google do? What does search look like? Where do they earn their revenue? Can they, are they, do they have as much ability to earn revenue? I mean, so to me, yours is all about search as it's happening. I guess this is about the future of search and you're right. They dovetail perfectly together because they're both about where are we going with search?

Is it a new platform because of advancements made? That's more of what yours is about, or is it a new platform because of. Problems that have happened and decisions that have come down on Google. And that's really what this story is about.

Spencer: Yeah. And when you look at it, I mean, by the numbers, it says here that Chrome controls 66.

7 percent of the global browser market share. Uh, that's huge. And so if, if this truly does, uh, come to play here, the Google has to get rid of the Chrome, uh, business. That's this massive source of data that Google currently has that that's going to definitely change up their business quite a bit. Um, and as you stated, like, we don't know when the end of this is going to be, this is going to play out in 2025.

It probably will play out. For years to come. Yeah. Um, so whether they do have to end up getting rid of Chrome, we don't know what, how that's going to change Android and Apple devices. We don't know, but they were hit pretty hard and there's definitely going to have to be some changes that are made.

Jared: There's some change that's going to have to be made. I mean, I know a lot of people are pointing to, you know, new government, um, coming into office and that could change the, you know, the, the way this comes down, a lot of people are also saying, Hey, when we look back at what happened to Microsoft, it was not as heavy handed as was.

Potentially touted. You're right. I mean, all these things could say that maybe chrome isn't split off, but at the same time, something's got to happen because and I'll read a quote here from judge. I think I'm saying the name right meta in the decision says quote Google is a monopolist and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.

I mean, that is what the court has said. That's what the D. O. J. The Department of Justice has come down and said, like, something has to happen here. Some some balls got to drop.

Spencer: Argument that Google has always played is, Hey, there are competitors, you know, there is this, um, open AI, there is search GPT and they mentioned other players and for the most part, it's sort of, you know, Hey, uh, they mentioned a lot of things that Google really is the dominant player here with 90 percent of market share, but, uh, that, that has always been the case with large businesses.

Is that they don't necessarily always innovate as quickly as the smaller, scrappier startups. And, um, that's the way a true open market system is supposed to work. So I'm not saying that nothing needs to change because clearly. Google has acted in a, with monopolistic behavior, but they really could get hit hard with a one, two punch.

What if they do have to sell off their Chrome browser? What if they do have to end a lot of these partnerships that they do have with Apple and others, but at the same time. Open AI just starts sort of eating their lunch anyways, before the consequences, you know, all these actions are taken. Um, it, it's going to be interesting.

I mean, we, we don't know where it's going to go, but, uh, exciting to watch.

Jared: It, it's interesting because again, I love the two stories, the one you brought, the one I brought, because and we, we talked about this. I read this yesterday, uh, yesterday. I read this a couple of weeks ago in one of these news podcasts.

I can't get them straight anymore. I don't know. Feel like it was the beginning of December, but basically this, this idea that Google's search and their product is deteriorating. And, um, and, uh, competitors like search GPT are coming in and, and making something better to the point where this antitrust lawsuit and its subsequent ripple effects might actually not be what takes them down, but the one, two punch, you have to imagine that the market's going to be changing because they're getting it from one side with competitors doing a better job and Integrating AI and the new patterns of search into how they, how they, how they work with, with, with, uh, users.

And then you got it from the other side. And the fact that they're getting this, this, uh, ruling put down on them, and they're going to have to make some sort of change to their core business model. And so you have to anticipate in the coming years, 2025 and beyond, like things are going to change. It's just impossible to predict what's going to change.

Spencer: But of course, we're going to be here each and every week covering that news. So, uh, be sure to subscribe because, uh, if you want your news, this is where we're going to cover it. Um, so yeah, a lot of interesting stories. I think this probably, I, I agree with both these stories is probably being the biggest of the year.

If you're listening and you disagree, we missed a big story. Let us know in the comments. Happy to take that feedback. And it's tough to pick, let's be honest. I mean, it is, it's,

Jared: there were a lot of stories to go through. Um, I didn't go through every one of them, but this one kept coming up in my mind.

Exactly.

Spencer: So I

Jared: bummed none of us went with one of those, uh, uh, off the cuff verge articles. You know, there were, there were a couple of good verge articles in there this year too, that I, that came to mind,

Spencer: there, there were quite a few, you know, we could have talked about, uh, you know, printer reviews. Uh, written by the verge toaster guy, uh, the toaster guy, there's a lot of good stuff.

So, but we are going to move on to our side hustles now. Uh, I find it fascinating that we have continued to try out different side hustles. I mean, we've talked about Amazon influencer. Uh, we have talked about newsletters. We've talked about niche websites. We've talked about, uh, Facebook, uh, Pinterest medium.

I'm sure. You know, there's three or four others for sure. Sure. Uh, that, that we've talked about as well, but, uh, basically all we're doing here is you and I are going to talk about. Our favorite art, either that's an open ended question. It could be the one that's the most successful, the one that you enjoy the most, the one that you see the most potential with, uh, whatever that may be.

So, uh, Jared, I'm going to let you go first. What side hustle did you pick?

Jared: Yeah, it was open ended, you know, we, we did keep this pretty open ended. So. I think a lot of listeners would expect me to pick Amazon influencer. Um, I will say that, you know, it's, it's, it's broken 40, 000 for 2024. In terms of earnings.

It's certainly my. But it's definitely one of my highest earning side hustles up there with weekend growth and the newsletter, um, and kind of what it does and stuff, but that's hard to track cause it really brings business to 201 creative. So hard to say, but Amazon influencer is definitely a kind of the sexiest one that, uh, that I, I like to talk about, but it's, it's not my favorite this year.

I feel like the buzz, the excitement about Amazon influencer for me was last year. Now it's in, You know, now it's one of those things you do and you do it because it works and it's part of your weekly, your monthly repertoire, but it's not as exciting anymore. And that's not to poop out, by the way, that's not to say, but I think we all can kind of lean into that a little bit when you have a side hustle that's new and it's exciting and it's fun.

And then when it turns into just another part of your business and it's something that you do, I mean, I've been doing the influencer program for. Over 18 months nearing, you know, two years now. So my favorite side hustle this year, and I think it kind of under underscores what a lot of us went through in 2024, which is trying to figure out what to do with all that content that was hit by the helpful content update.

And my favorite side hustle is resurrecting one of those websites that was decimated. That site was earning 2, 000 a month or so pre HCU and then it got hit by the HCU and then it got further hit by the March 2024 core update, which I know so many of our listeners have sites, brands, et cetera, that were, that were in that position.

Um, to put in perspective, it was earning 2, 000 a month in April of 2024 after those double updates, it earned a total of 137 and 54 cents. So, I mean, it was down to like. What is that 5 percent of what it was earning? Um, but we, we, we picked up in April and May and started a strategy, uh, for Pinterest, which a lot of people have pivoted, especially in more visual niches, which this one is in have pivoted to doing a focus on Pinterest and Pinterest traffic.

To get that traffic to the website. And this was monetized. This site was monetized by raptive. So display ads and whatnot, and we've totally flipped the script. Um, uh, within frankly, shorter period of time than I was, I was, I was hoping, um, in November, in September, it was earning 2, 000. So it kind of had gone back to where it was.

And then in October it increased. So November was over 2, 600 and, um, uh, December is, is on pace for about 2, 500 a month. So it's weird. Because I would never have wanted this to happen, but ironically, the site's making more per month than it was when we were relying on Google. And I just think that's, for me, such a story of hope.

Like, I've got other content that now I can look to and be like, We have stuff we can do with this helpful content update hit sites and content. And so, yes, it's earning more money. Totally on the side, which fits our side hustle focus, but it's also like so hopeful for what content could look like going forward in 2025 and beyond.

Spencer: Yeah, no, it is incredible. Uh, averaging 2, 500 a month, roughly. Um, and in April, you said of this year, it made like 137. So to see it go from that to 2, 500 in six months. Yeah. Powerfully. Yeah. What is that month forward a month? Yeah. About six months. Incredible. And, uh, the traffic's coming from

Jared: Pinterest. All.

I mean, literally like, I think that there are. I think we're down to about 20 keywords total that Google ranks this site for in the top 100. You could do a brand search, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, the, uh, the, the, the domain name and then add, you know, your keywords to it and it doesn't even show up.

Spencer: Oh, wow.

Right. So it, yeah, it's just not in Google. I mean, it's all coming from Pinterest. Now, is this the site, uh, do you also have a newsletter tied to this site? Is that part of it? As you're getting people on an email list, right. And then emailing them back to the articles to get the display. And that's not driving

Jared: nearly as much revenue, to be honest with you, that's driving a minuscule amount of the revenue.

Um, and, uh, you know, we talk about things we try that don't work well, like, We tried the email thing here and it didn't drive a lot of revenue. We still have email automations. So people still sign up for the newsletter by going to the site and they get on it. And it does drive a little bit and it's, it's, it's set and forget, but we're not doing a lot of new stuff because it just wasn't driving the revenue like the Pinterest traffic was.

So we're just doubling down on the Pinterest traffic instead of adding more emails.

Spencer: Yeah. So it sounds like you have a really good system in place in terms of like number of pins a day or, uh, you know, somebody in place like a VA that is kind of taking care of all of that for you at this point.

Jared: So this is one of those things where we, we, we noticed a lot of our clients wanted to turn to Pinterest traffic.

And so that was one of the reasons I'm like, you know, we should try this out. And so, um, yeah, we have a dedicated VA with training and SOP that's doing it. I'll be honest, if you want a little bit of like, uh, I, I not hope, but, uh, when the agency gets busy, the, you know, we have to pull resources to, to, to handle the client work.

So there have been weeks where this, this, this site has not had any pins go live. Now, more often than not, we've gotten pins live every single day, but there have been moments where the ball got dropped, Because we had to take care of our clients and stuff. And so, yeah. Um, but yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a process.

It's a, a cadence pinning every day. It's um, it's, it's fresh content going live on the site. Pinterest loves fresh content, pinning about that, various pins, all driving back to the website, monetized by Raptive, it's kind of just rinse and repeat. I love

Spencer: it. That's so cool, man. Uh, anytime you can kind of rise from the ashes, take a site that's been down, And, uh, yeah, like you said, resurrected and have it come back and make 2, 500 a month.

Huge win. Um, boy, you are just nailing it. That's like two years in a row where you started with like no side hustle last year and turned it into a nice revenue stream with the Amazon influencer program. This year. You've continued with the Amazon influencer program, but you've sort of created this new 2, 500 per month revenue stream.

I

Jared: can't sell my Amazon influencer account, but I could sell this website.

Spencer: Totally.

Jared: You know, I don't know. That'd be like the full redemption arc. I feel like if we ended up selling this maybe in 2025 or beyond, which is interesting. Um, you can still buy and sell websites. They still sell, uh, For multiples, you know, 30 to 40 X monthly profits and stuff.

So I don't know, we'll see what 2025 brings for this, but, um, it's pressure every week, Spencer, you know, you're not here every single week. I gotta, I can't show up with a goose egg every single week. So, you know, it's a, the pressure makes diamonds, right?

Spencer: I, it does, man. I couldn't handle the pressure, so I'm glad, uh, you know, that's why I can't do this every week.

Jared: I can't handle it. Um, I don't know. You've got, uh, you've got something on the agenda here. I'm looking at that's pretty, uh, pretty noteworthy in terms of side hustles.

Spencer: Yeah. You know, I am still doing my side hustles. That's still my thing. Uh, and of course I've talked about this a number of times throughout the year when I do show up, but the Facebook bonus program has just been so fascinating to me.

Uh, and it really hasn't been that long. I was taking a look back at the historical data that I do have, um, and it was just in June that I had a Facebook page that it was approved to the Facebook bonus program. Wow. And within the first 30 days. It made 2, 950 of getting approved to the bonus program. And of course, this Facebook page in particular, it's, it's been around now for, Year and a half, two years, something like that.

And, um, you know, has a website where we're publishing content and everything like that, uh, where we initially were just trying to drive a lot of traffic from the Facebook page to the website. And we did okay. Some months we would make two, 300 a month, right? But as soon as. I got that approval for the Facebook bonus program and I started to see some of the numbers in terms of engagement and how many views our posts were making directly on Facebook.

I was like, we need to just double down on this Facebook thing. It was in the millions, right? Wasn't it in like 9 million or something?

Jared: 7 million? It was insane.

Spencer: Yeah, 7, 8, 9 million. I may have cracked 10 million sort of, uh, impressions, uh, one of the, the best months and you're right. It's insane just how many people are seeing the dumbest little things that we post on Facebook.

Jared: I'm not trying to hijack or cut in, but like in perspective, like there's what, 300 million people that live in the United States of America. I mean, we're getting into like, uh, like, uh, three to 5 percent of the United States saw your stuff this month.

Spencer: That is crazy to think about that. Nuts. It's nuts. Um, and so when you, you say it like that and to say, oh, I only made 2, 900, you know, 3 percent of people in the U S you know, Hey, but I'm going to take what I can get.

It's very cool.

Jared: No, I know. I.

Spencer: Um, but I've continued to do pretty well. I'm not going to read off every month, but the highest month was October of this year, I made 30, almost 3, 800 just from the Facebook bonus program in November, the last full month of reporting 2, 700 and uh, overall, over the last six months since I was approved, my average income per month is 2, 829.

So just over 2, 800, um, all coming from me, not sending traffic anywhere, just earnings from the Facebook bonus program. Now, of course, this website is making a little bit more money on top of that as well. So these numbers does not include the display ad revenue that is on the site. It is approved to journey by Mediavine.

Um, typically it's, you know, maybe 200 a month. It's, it's much smaller. Um, and so. I'm just, I'm excited about this. It's it's the only Facebook page that I have in the Facebook bonus program, but I've been very tempted, uh, throughout the year to try starting two or three or four other Facebook pages, building them up.

Building them up and trying to get them approved and scaling those as well. Because I think, Hey, if I had three or four pages, the process of essentially outsourcing, all of this is not that difficult, which is what I've done for this page in particular. So it's, it's a fun side hustle. My favorite one of the year,

Jared: uh, that is for sure.

So my story was one of kind of almost like redemption or, you know, rising out of the ashes, but this is a different story that also happens when you take chances in life. And when you go for something where this wasn't the original intent of this website and this project and this happens so often in business like.

I can speak for my business. Like over the years, you, you think you're going to go into business and do this service and provide this service. And then five years later, you look back three years later, you look back and you're like, I'm actually doing more of my energy on this service that happened because of X, Y, and Z.

And this is like a happy accident, but you took a chance. You went for something that you thought was going to work out one way. And then you saw an opportunity and you pivoted. And now you have this whole new business model that you did not Think about one year ago at the beginning of 2024.

Spencer: Yeah, you've stated that beautifully.

And that has been very true for my overall online career, not just side hustles, right. That I've worked on. Um, you know, when I quit my job way back in 2011, I was building niche websites and those niche websites were making more than my day job. So I quit my job. And I thought, Hey, I'm going to just continue to scale these niche websites.

That's going to be my thing. It just so happened that I was frustrated with doing keyword research on other tools that I was using. I was like, you know, there could be something there. Maybe I'll build a little, you know, software tool. Uh, long tail pro, um, and that ended up becoming a bigger business than my niche websites.

Right. And I've replicated that a couple of times with different software tools or other projects that I've worked on exactly. As you said, it may have not been my initial intention. Yeah. You didn't quit your

Jared: job to make software. You quit your job to build niche websites and then you solve the problem.

Because you were building niche websites and yeah, you just, you, you can't underscore how many opportunities. I mean, Airbnb was never Airbnb. Airbnb was started to be a solution for the dream forest conference. And it was all about couch surfing, right? And they wouldn't have become Airbnb if they hadn't started a couch surfing business.

It's just fascinating to look at. And for anyone listening, Who, you know, who's listening? Like there are so many things that come out of taking that chance and starting something. One of which is you don't know what you don't know.

Spencer: Absolutely. And always being willing to pivot, look at where you are in your business and always asking that question.

Could there be a better way? Could there be a better solution? Could I be doing things? A little bit different, you know, especially if you're not seeing the progress that you want, come at it from a new angle, you know, look at it, you know, next week again and, uh, see what happens. So there's a, there's some unsolicited advice here on, on the, uh, niche pursuits podcast.

That's why we do this, right? Jared.

Jared: Every once in a while, we, uh, we get a chance to share opinions. I mean, whether they get a rant on something, it's Christmas. If you can't share your opinions around Christmas time, then when can you.

Spencer: That's right. We got to do it. It's the holidays. So, uh, well, very good.

That brings us here to our final segment. And I hate to say it, this will be our final segment of the year. Oh man. What a year on, on, on the niche pursuits, uh, news episodes. What a great year. And I, I can't think of a better way to wrap up the year than weird niche sites. Uh, speaking of things that I didn't think necessarily would be a Big deal.

Weird Witch Sites has become a fan favorite. People mention it all the time. They love this segment. We keep doing it because of the feedback we get. So thank you, uh, very much. And so

Jared: we're going to, you get pulled aside at conferences and they don't want to talk about. Your business success. They don't want to talk about the software you've created.

They don't want to talk about the 14 year running podcast. They want to talk about the weird niches, right? Is that what you told me? It's true. They

Spencer: pull me aside and they say, Hey, I got an idea for your weird niche site segment. I'm like, sweet. Let's do it. Um, so I love it. It, it sort of, It just encapsulates what this podcast is all about.

Right. Um, so Jared, I'm going to let you go first and then I'll, I'll bring it home with my, my own favorite weird niche site.

Jared: Well, if you thought I was going to go with Amazon influencer for my favorite side hustle, and you were surprised, long time listeners won't be surprised by this one because this was.

Uh, and is my favorite weird niche yet. And it's got, I mean, I would be doing all of us a disservice if I didn't bring it up today. So if you're a long time listener, I went back and looked it up. This was, um, on the last episode of June that we talked about this one. So it's exactly six months old to this week when we released this podcast and it is the 1 million checkboxes.

com website. Now it's, uh, this was a, a challenge. That a developer threw together and basically it was can the greater online world check checkboxes now it was a it was always this delicate balance because it's literally what you're seeing in front of you if you're watching on screen is 1, 000, 000 checkboxes and when this was live.

In real time, people were checking boxes and people were unchecking boxes. And so it was this constant struggle. And if you look in the upper right, you can see now it says 1 million boxes are checked, but at any given time you could log in. And that number could be anywhere from a hundred thousand to 300, 000 to 500, 000.

And eventually the, um, it tipped the scales, tipped to where 1 million check boxes were checked and the project was over, but this website and the, the The just the crazy idea behind it and the oddity of it and the the Uh, I think almost the game the gaminess of it like it really encapsulated us and a lot of the listeners and it was just really fun and watching the story and reading his tweets in real time about how You know, we see the techie, the nerdy side of it, the technical side of trying to keep the site live and, uh, uh, all of the servers he had to spin up and stuff.

So it was just such a fun week to kind of follow along on this. Um, it was, it, it was definitely in my opinion, my, my favorite weird niche side of the year.

Spencer: Yeah. And if people do go back and find that episode, I mean, we were here trying to check the boxes and they would get unchecked as soon as I checked them or, you know, I checked 10 of them and then we'd scroll down and you'd find hidden words of people that had checked boxes to spell something that, you know, uh, and so there was all sort of gamification of this thing that, uh, It's just the weirdest off the wall thing.

You know, it doesn't mean anything. You don't get a prize when all 1 million boxes are checked. You don't get a prize. If you uncheck all the boxes that people checked, it's just like this ingrained human nature thing of like, Oh, I see a bunch of people checking boxes. I'm going to help them or I'm not going to

Jared: help.

We talked about that during the podcast and June, I think like it almost pits. Humanity in like its most raw form, like, are you a box checker or are you a box unchecker? I don't know what that means about you either. I don't either. It's not saying it's right or wrong. It's just fascinating. Like we finally got to a million check boxes, but it was such an interesting like human case study to watch go live.

Spencer: Yeah, and you know, some of the follow ups you said, um, you know, he was kind of tweeting about this. I'll just share his, uh, his, you know, his, his Twitter handle. Uh, oh, wait, no, that's the wrong one. I think, no, this is his, isn't that what this

Jared: is? Okay. I think so. There it is pinned. He talks. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes.

Spencer: Yes, I did get the right one. Um, anyways, he, he talked about this a lot. Uh, this is where he launched. It was on Twitter and there was all sorts of problems, right? Technical challenges, people kind of trying to, to hack it or, uh, I. Anyways, fascinating. Uh, the million boxes got checked. And so it looks like it's, you can't play unless you click this link, it says you can play alone.

Right. And so now I guess I can come in here. And I can try to check 1 million of these.

Jared: I don't know what the Spencer, it looks like you've been playing on your own behind our back. Cause you know, you've only checked five or six boxes, but apparently you've checked 24. So I don't know if you've been playing by yourself.

Yeah, I don't know either.

Spencer: Maybe somebody in my household has been playing without my knowledge. And so that could take a while. This could take a while and still, it's still not monetized. It's not making any money.

Jared: No,

Spencer: but boy, is it a weird niche site? And it's fascinating.

Jared: That was a fun one. That was a fun one.

That was a fun one. And, uh, there were a lot to pick from. I, you saw, um, someone on your team created a list of all the weird niches for us to look through, which is really helpful. And I highlighted three or four that I was really trying to figure out which one I wanted to go with. So. Yeah,

Spencer: well, this is what I'll do over the holidays.

Let's um, See if I can get to half a million you got 48. I think it says 48. There you go Um, so awesome. No great great weird niche site. I love it. It's one that all Remember, think of fondly, you know, when I'm bored, I can check some boxes. Um, okay. So I struggled as well to figure out which one to do, but the weird niche site that I covered is one that is making a lot of money.

And so that's what kind of pushed it over the top for me is that it's not only is it kind of weird, but it actually is making a significant amount of money. And, uh, so this one is tractor data. right. And so tractor data. com is just a bunch of raw data about tractors, about parts of tractors. Um, you can sort by model and power, uh, of engines the year, and you can then click on these and get.

All the data that you could ever want dimensions, transmission, engine photos, tests that have been run. Apparently this is really helpful. A lot of people have old tractors around their farm and, um, they need to figure out what part do they need, or they just need to know the size or yada, yada, yada. Right.

There's all sorts of data in here that, uh, the website creator, um, was created in 1999. Right. Uh, and. He's been collecting, just collecting data, organizing it for the world. And what absolutely blows my mind. I mean, not only that the logo is, I mean, it looks like something was just typed into Microsoft word, right?

Essentially no fancy design. Easy to use though. Easy to use, right? So I'm not knocking on how it looks right, but you don't need a fancy design to do really, really well because this website does extremely well in Google. In particular, um, according to my notes here, it is getting 1. 2 million visitors per month with most of that coming from Google.

Most of it is organic search and people that come to this website, visit, Almost four pages per visitor, right? So they're looking at a lot of things, which I think I already visited more than four pages, right? There's display ads everywhere. And so when you do the calculations, even in a pretty conservative RPM of like 10, uh, and I put, I mean, it could be.

20 or more because I would imagine factors,

Jared: I mean, if you're going to buy it, but I'd put it over 20. Yeah. Yeah.

Spencer: I would think so. But even at a 10 RPM with that data that I just gave you, gave you, it's making, Over 46, 000 per month. And so if you put a 20 RPM and we're talking 100, 000 a month.

Jared: Yeah,

Spencer: just from display ads, which is not incredibly far fetched, right?

Like I'm, I'm looking at this now. The ads I'm getting are for Honda and car, right? Those are expensive products. I imagine these companies pay a lot of money. So. Anything car related and right, if you're going to buy a tractor wheel, you're going to spend 20, 000 on a wheel, right? Like the ads are going to be your point.

Jared: Everyone who reads this has a budget, right? And that's who I just want to target. You know, you're not, uh, the average reader of tractor data. com is, is not there for a science project. They're there because they own and manage and run and very expensive operation and they need expensive equipment to fund that.

Spencer: Exactly. Exactly. And so, um, kudos to the guy. I think it was, his name was Peter out of Minnesota that came up with this website and it's just stuck with it for 20 plus years. Um, just making sure the data is all there on all model makes models, years of tractors that it's easy to use. Easy to find. And, um, yeah, he's, he's making a killing.

So as weird as this sort of niches data on tractors, highly profitable. Um, I put that one at my favorite, maybe not as weird as 1 million check boxes, but it's, it's just so profitable that, that I love it. I had to, had to rank it there at the top.

Jared: I'd forgotten about this one. I'll be totally honest with you.

I don't even know when this, When this was featured if it was earlier in the year, I'm hoping it was it was like March. Okay I'll give myself a little grace then. Yeah, um, but I forgot about this one. I um, I like this one a lot. I remember liking it a lot when you did it. We I don't think you had shared Anything about the how much it was earning, you know, or at least the prospectus on how much is earning, which is even more mind blowing.

Um, uh, I see you have an honor, an honorary mention, which I like, I have one to add as well for a totally different reason I didn't put in the agenda, so I'm going to surprise you there, but I see honorary mention. Love that side as well. I want you to talk about that. Then I've got a little curve ball to throw at you.

Spencer: Okay. I love curve balls. So this one, I know that you love, uh, I know that Thomas loves, uh, and, and I love it. So, uh, this one is mcbroken. com. I put it as an honorary mention because it was just so fascinating, right? That those that don't remember this is, Hey, is the McDonald's ice cream machine broken? So kind of a joke that, Hey, ice cream machines are just always broken.

This website mcbroken. com. Com tracks in real time, whether your local ice cream machine is broken. And I'm happy to report that every single ice cream machine within the tri cities where I live is working. We've got a green dot, but if you're to go to New York, 32 percent of all ice cream machines in New York are currently broken.

That's an insanely high

Jared: number.

Spencer: It's

Jared: crazy.

Spencer: No wonder it's a

Jared: thing.

Spencer: Um, and what is, what is so cool? What I loved is the little segment where Thomas shared this and he was so curious to figure out how they tracked all this. And he figured out, Hey, it must, they must be tying into the API of the app. Right.

You can go in and order an ice cream. And if you can't order an ice cream on the app for the store, you've selected that must mean the ice cream machine is broken and he tested it out. He drove to his local McDonald's that said it was broken. Sure enough, their ice cream machine was broken to verify that, you know, that's how they're kind of pulling the data.

And don't

Jared: leave out the snarkiness of this website because it also features. An ad, the only ad on the site for McDonald's arguably biggest competitor, their ice cream cone, which is, uh, Wendy's frosty. And then conveniently places a location of every Wendy's in that area on their map.

Spencer: When you scroll in, you see Wendy's.

So it, it is, it's snarky. I love it. Um, such a good site. So,

Jared: so my honorary mention is 2024 was the first time we've ever actually had a weird niche operator or owner. As a podcast guest in a subsequent episode, Peter, ask you from do that's calm. And that's a new milestone for

Spencer: us. That's right. We reached out to him and said, Hey, we just like featured your weird niche site.

You want to come tell your story? Sure enough. And what a story it was. He was excited to talk about it. What a story it was. And a very good story. Yeah. A very good story. Uh, the DudeRanch. com story is a good one. Um, so yes. I'll have you

Jared: know, I've been in touch and am actually doing some work. For another, one of our weird niche site owners, uh, as an agency.

And I told him I'd love to have you on the podcast to tell your story. And he said, I'm open to it. So we might have one in 2025.

Spencer: That's very good. In fact, I've had it. Uh, I can think of a few other times where I have communicated with a weird niche site owners. One that has reached out to us and said, Hey, you featured us.

Can you help with our site? Uh, another one actually, um, anyways, he reached out with a weird niche site. And then I said, Hey. We should actually talk about your main site, Political Wire, with Tegan Goddard, actually. Tegan, that's where it started. Yes. He wanted us to feature a weird niche site. And I said, I think we should talk about your main site here.

Let's, let's have you on the, on the podcast. So this segment, it continues to pay dividends, Jared.

Jared: I, you know, when you first came up with the three segments that we do, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's crazy that now, you know, we're almost two years in on this, this news podcast and the same three segments are still here.

The same structure from day one is still here. We've made a little. I mean, I don't even very minor tweaks along the way. It's pretty much, if you go back to the first news episode, it's almost the exact same format as when we, when we, what we did last week.

Spencer: Yeah. If it's a, if it's not broken, don't need to fix it.

So, uh, very good. I think we've highlighted, uh, a pretty good, uh, overview of 2024. It's been a good year. Hopefully everybody's enjoyed listening to the podcast. I hope you all have a good end of the year. Have a great 2025. Thank you so much for listening. A lot of more good things to come here next year.

Jared: We'll see you again throughout 2025 or one. Thanks again. Have a great rest of your 2024.

Spencer: Thanks a lot, everyone.

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