Teach What You Know

For many years, Scott Keyes worked as a political journalist in Washington, DC. He wrote about topics ranging from voting rights to homelessness, but most of all, he covered political campaigns.

The job required a lot of travel to political events around the country. Scott realized from the beginning that frequent flyer miles would be a perk of the job, so he set about figuring out how to generate as many as possible and get the most value he could from them. He studied up on the basics of mileage runs and earning points from credit cards, and soon he became a frequent flyer miles evangelist.

Before long, he realized that this compendium of information he’d collected about frequent flyer miles might be useful to others. As he puts it, many frequent flyer programs are purposefully opaque, because the airlines know that any unused mile or point is a savings to them.

Scott decided to start with combining his day job of writing with his side hobby of travel. He wrote a brief, explanatory e-book on how to generate and use frequent flyer miles. The book wasn’t a best seller—it sold enough copies to buy a couple of beers a week, but that was about it.

Despite the book’s meager sales, he enjoyed the process of research and writing about flight deals. Two years later, Scott was living what he calls “a terrible journalist life in Oaxaca, Mexico,” where he freelanced for publishers back in the States.

In the midst of all this travel writing, he’d developed a reputation among his friends and colleagues as a travel expert. This reputation was bolstered when he bought a nonstop, round-trip ticket from New York City to Milan for just $130. When he got back, dozens of friends asked him to let them know the next time he saw a fare like that so they could jump on it.

Rather than try to remember each individual person he was supposed to notify, he decided to make a simple email list and just let everyone know at once. He called it Scott’s Cheap Flights.

Over the next eighteen months, that email list grew by word of mouth from a couple dozen friends to three hundred people, but it was still just a hobby. Everything changed when he posted a map on Facebook showing off the two-month trip he was about to take with his girlfriend. This trip consisted of thirteen countries, twenty-one flights, and twenty thousand miles—all for free using miles.

As luck would have it, a friend forwarded the map to a friend of hers at Business Insider, who thought it would make for an interesting article. The piece got a click-worthy headline—“This guy has gamed the airline industry so he never has to pay for a flight again”—and ended up going viral.

As a result, his sleepy email list for friends grew overnight from three hundred subscribers to more than five thousand.

This explosive growth was both a blessing and a curse. With so many subscribers, Scott would have to pay his email service for hosting costs. He enjoyed sending great deals to his friends, but he didn’t really want to pay out of pocket to do so for thousands of strangers.

During that two-month trip, he thought about how best to monetize the opportunity. Should he put ads in the newsletters, or get paid for referrals to travel agencies?

He finally settled on a “freemium” model, where subscribers can join the basic list for free, but there’s also a premium version with extra perks for those who pay a monthly fee.

This small newsletter continued to experience massive growth. Over the next two years, it grew to more than 275,000 subscribers.

The last time we spoke, Scott had 29,639 premium subscribers and 204,021 free subscribers (233,660 total). Thanks to a Black Friday promotion, he had generated $963,234 in sales that year, all from those premium members. The numbers are now substantially higher.

What’s next? Well, he’s still obsessed—in his words, he plans to “continue to scour for cheap flights like a hungry dog, improve the features and customer experience at Scott’s Cheap Flights, and keep traveling the world.”

These days, he can buy more than just a couple of beers with his profits.

“Just because someone else has a business similar to your idea doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. You might be able to do the idea better, improve the customer experience, or just reach some of the 99.9 percent of customers who haven’t heard of your competitor.” —Scott

FUN FACT One memorable deal featured a mistake fare that offered round-trip flights from the United States to New Zealand for just $390. Thousands of people jumped on it, and Scott’s favorite story came from a couple in Seattle. They had deferred their honeymoon for years, not having much disposable income, but they took advantage of this offer to spend eight days in New Zealand.

ACTION PLAN

1. Select an attractive topic (cheap plane tickets!) that is potentially valuable, yet also misunderstood by a lot of people.

2. Set up a free or low-cost email list.

3. Invite everyone you know to join, and encourage them to spread the word.

4. Focus on finding and delivering great deals or other special information.

5. Introduce a paid membership option that provides additional, premium content.

6. Continue to research and publish deals every day.

CRITICAL FACTOR

Scott selected a topic that has widespread interest, and chose an extremely simple name (“Cheap Flights”) for the project. He then focused on doing only one thing—delivering emails with flight deals—over and over.

LIFELONG GIRL SCOUT EARNS HER SIDE HUSTLE BADGE

NAME

JODI CARLSON

LOCATION

CONNEAUT, OHIO

STARTUP COSTS

$16

INCOME

$2,800/MONTH

WEBSITE

LEADERCONNECTINGLEADERS.COM

After spending twenty-plus years as a Girl Scout and volunteer, a woman creates a series of resources for troop leaders. Selling at just $3 to $5 each, she earns up to $3,000 per month.

The Girl Scouts had been a big part of Jodi Carlson’s life for over twenty-five years. For twelve of those years, she’d been a scout, and for the rest of the time she served as a troop leader. But when her son was born, Jodi decided it was time to step down from the position and focus the time on her young family.

Although she loved the challenge of her new home life, she missed the volunteering and organizing she’d devoted so many years to. She knew she couldn’t commit herself to a schedule with lots of fixed appointments, like she’d have to do as a troop leader, but she still wanted a meaningful way to contribute to the scout community and inspire these young visionaries.

Her local troop was based in a small city in Ohio, located along the banks of Lake Erie. The year before her son was born, Jodi had created a website to share what the troop had been doing and to offer advice to other leaders around the country. She’d also written a short e-book that she offered for sale for $5—just hoping to cover the gas her car used to get to the meetings—and was surprised that after six months, people from the other side of the country were still buying it. She felt that if she could expand her product line, this site would be the perfect way to help the community and make some money to put toward her student loans. She called her upgraded project Leader Connecting Leaders.

Startup costs were a grand total of $16 for a domain name. Jodi was already paying for Adobe software for her day job as a designer, and she had access to a free hosting service. She was ready to go in just a few minutes.

Her first step to growth was to discover where the current traffic to her site was coming from, and how she could increase it. She added Google Analytics to her site and discovered that most of her visits came through Pinterest, from a few images she’d posted long ago.

This played right into her hands as a designer. Jodi created a new image for each of her articles and shared them on Pinterest. The few minutes she spent on this task allowed her to generate traffic for months after the article was initially shared.

She’s also used the power of social media to market the business in other ways. By running competitions, hosting giveaways, and writing shareable articles, Jodi has been able to generate a lot of traffic through Facebook. These results gave her the confidence to try running ads for her products, but this strategy was met with more limited success.

Most of the information on the site is freely available. Visitors can download long-form articles, tutorials, and how-to guides that provide most of the information they need to run a successful and harmonious Girl Scout troop.*1 But Jodi puts a small price of between $3 to $5 on some of the more specific resources—activity booklets, printouts, and games—to help leaders solve specific problems in just a few clicks, and with a quick download from her site.

From these low-priced resources, Jodi is able to generate profits of $3,000 to $3,500 per month.

Two parts to her business have helped her the most: automation and an engaged mailing list. She spends four hours a month using tools to create and schedule social media updates that will go live even when she’s not at the computer. She also sends multiple emails each month, providing extra information to her most loyal readers, letting them know about new articles, ideas, and products. Building this trust, she says, has been integral to her success.

The secret to profiting from a project with such low prices for each item is understanding the average scout leader’s challenges. After twenty-five years in the Girl Scouts, she’s been there and experienced them all. Creating products that would have solved her problems long ago, along with writing the copy in an empathetic way that connects with the struggles of other leaders, has allowed her to grow her business without needing to be pushy.

The best part of this success has been getting feedback from the leaders she’s been able to help. Nothing gives her more motivation on the days she doesn’t want to work than receiving a message explaining how her activity booklets have transformed meetings and excursions for the better. This is especially true when they come from towns and cities she’s never heard of!

Jodi is now toying with the idea of starting a new side hustle to run alongside her current one. Whatever she does next, she plans to continue making useful products for Girl Scout leaders far and wide.

“I’ve tried many different things that have completely failed, but if I hadn’t tried, I would have never known.” —Jodi

FUN FACT Jodi’s mom was her troop leader for a long time, and the family converted their entire basement into the troop headquarters. They even decorated the house like the woods, using tree stumps for chairs.

CRITICAL FACTOR

No one knew the needs of Girl Scout troop leaders as well as Jodi. By providing many free resources, she was able to build trust with other leaders around the country. They then looked to her for help with specific problems, gladly spending small amounts of money that added up to real dollars for Jodi.

PSYCHOLOGIST HELPS STUDENTS MAKE THE CUT

NAME

SHIRAG SHEMMASSIAN

LOCATION

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

STARTUP COSTS

$3,200

INCOME

$74,000 IN YEAR THREE

WEBSITE

SHEMMASSIANCONSULTING.COM

After overcoming childhood barriers, this psychologist leveraged his educational success to help students gain entry to top schools.

Growing up, Shirag Shemmassian did not have it easy. Around the age of eight, he started exhibiting the symptoms of Tourette syndrome. Perhaps not surprisingly, he was mocked by his peers. The teasing, however, was not as tough for him as the lack of understanding and acceptance he experienced from his own Armenian immigrant family.

Shirag remembers one family dinner in particular where his dad wouldn’t stop staring at him. Finally, his dad warned that if he didn’t quit “this habit” of his, people would think he was stupid. “How will that reflect on our family?” he added.

Shirag stormed off, and these kinds of hurtful interactions went on for about a year until he was finally diagnosed.

Though at the time he didn’t fully understand the effects the condition would have on his life, he sensed it would significantly impact him. And it did. During high school and college, Shirag’s interest in mental health and psychology blossomed. He began to realize that he could translate his personal experiences with the disorder to help others.

Despite the early challenges, he went on to a high level of achievement. He studied human development at Cornell and attained a PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA. He was also able to graduate from both schools completely debt free. He now works as a clinical research psychologist, developing tests used to assess children for mental health conditions.

Based on this experience, his side hustle developed organically. While he was in school, his friends noticed his stellar track record of getting accepted and receiving funding from top schools. They began to ask for help with their own applications. He obliged, assisting them free of charge.

When those friends gained admittance to their dream schools, they started telling others, who also requested his services. As more and more people began knocking at his door, Shirag eventually decided to make the project official, launching Shemmassian Academic Consulting.

Though he knew very little about running a business, he didn’t let that stop him. He dove straight into reading books and online articles about everything from business structure to sales and workflow. Between the training courses, books, and domain name registration, his startup costs totaled about $3,200.

He kept expenses low wherever he could, using a free Squarespace website and a free Mailchimp account. Even now, with a profitable business, his ongoing yearly costs are less than $2,500.

During the first full year, the company earned just over $1,200, and in the second year this jumped to $12,000. In the third year, the company’s earnings surged to $74,000.

Admissions consulting is a competitive arena, but Shirag has managed to stay ahead of the game by speaking for free at high schools and colleges.

Available services, which include both advising and application support to prospective college students and graduate and medical school students, can cost his customers anywhere from $300 to $7,000.

The extra income has allowed Shirag and his wife to worry less about buying fancy coffee or staying in nicer hotels when they travel. It’s also given him peace of mind that if he ever loses his full-time job, he could still support his family through the business.

He currently invests at least twenty hours a week into the project, providing consulting and completing various administrative tasks. Though he admits he could probably spend less time on it, he’s always seeking ways to grow the business and reach more students. He’s brought on two consultants to help, and will soon add a third. He says his goal is to never turn away a student who wants support.

So far, Shirag and his team have supported more than two hundred students through one-on-one support and online courses. Their track record is impressive. For college, 90 percent of students have gotten into at least one of their top three choices, and for med school, over 90 percent have gotten into at least one US school.

While the students are acing their exams, Shirag is earning extra credit from his second income.

“People look at mature businesses and don’t realize that it took years to grow to their current states. It’s like staring at a mountain and thinking you have to take a single leap to the top when you actually have to take one small step at a time. Eventually, you’ll make it to the top.” —Shirag

FUN FACT When Shirag learned that his wife was pregnant with their first child, he went on a mission to structure his business to rely less on him personally. After the birth, they spent five days in the hospital, and he was able to run the business by spending only a total of one hour on his phone each of those days.

CRITICAL FACTOR

Mastering the admissions game is a skill that requires strategic thinking and action. Shirag has proven success in helping people gain admission to top schools, both for himself and for others.

PE TEACHER RUNS LAPS AROUND MEMBERSHIP SITE

NAME

BEN LANDERS

LOCATION

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

STARTUP COSTS

LESS THAN $500

INCOME

$45,000/YEAR

WEBSITE

THEPESPECIALIST.COM

A teacher starts a blog to serve other teachers. After selling a series of individual products, he switches over to a membership model.

Ben Landers is a physical education (PE) teacher in Columbia, South Carolina. With two master’s degrees, including one in educational leadership, Ben is both highly qualified and passionate about his job.

There’s a lot more to being a good PE teacher than just playing sports. He says that teaching students the right lessons empowers them to be stronger, healthier, and more confident. It also helps them make better decisions.

A few years ago, Ben started thinking about how he could help more students. He wanted go beyond his own school and even his school district, so he started a resource blog for teachers. It began as a way for him to reflect, answer common questions, and provide materials to help teachers out.

He originally thought he would try to sell reports and online courses to make it sustainable, but he reworked that plan as he went along.

Side hustle success often comes by drawing from a couple of different skills and combining them in some way. In addition to his passion for education, Ben has been a part-time videographer off and on since he was in college. Since he already had some equipment and was comfortable using video, his startup costs consisted mostly of buying a domain, getting website hosting, and setting up an email newsletter service.

The first year he focused on writing and creating other content to get his name out as an authority among PE teachers. He also learned how to write and publish digital products. Even though his primary focus that year was growing the blog, he still made enough from his first report sales to pay for the costs of the site and break even.

When he got his first sale notification, he was on the treadmill at the gym. He immediately took a screenshot on his phone and texted it to his wife. Ben had put hundreds of hours into that $27 sale, but he felt like he had finally begun to unlock the power of the internet.

Next, he made a big change that allowed him to earn a lot more than just $27. He realized that in the long-term, selling one-off reports for a low price was not a great revenue model. He made a shift and decided to create a membership site, where teachers would pay annually for access to resources.

Immediately upon making that shift, he also started to make an actual profit from the business. He began with a “beta” launch and offered it to early users for $97 a year. Then, once he got a few kinks worked out, he launched the official membership at $149 a year.

He currently has around four hundred members, which are now his main source of income for the project. He also makes money from the guides that he still sells at a lower price. Altogether, in year two he made about $11,000 from this project. In year three, he made $45,000—a fourfold increase.

Earning so much money on the side is great by itself, but it also led to another huge benefit for his family. Because of the new program, Ben’s wife was able to leave her job to come home and raise their young daughter.

That change wasn’t possible on his teacher’s salary alone, but the extra income gave them the boost they needed to feel more confident. Also, his wife got inspired along the way—she’s now working her own side hustle, providing day care for their friends’ children.

“Try to go for a hustle that’s a win even if you lose. I’m glad the PE site is profitable, but it’s also great to help other teachers.” —Ben

FUN FACT One of Ben’s free resources, “The Conflict Corner,” became unexpectedly popular. It was about using a management system to teach kids to resolve their own conflicts instead of always complaining about them to the teacher. Some schools have even adopted it as a school-wide initiative.

CRITICAL FACTOR

Ben is both highly qualified and passionate about his topic. Business-wise, making the switch from selling reports to a monthly membership model brought him more predictable income.

CONSTRUCTION INSPECTOR EARNS $200,000 HELPING STUDENTS PASS EXAMS

NAME

GABRIEL KRAMER

LOCATION

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

STARTUP COSTS

$2,200

INCOME

$200,000/YEAR

WEBSITE

SICERTS.COM

A teacher turned construction inspector aces his exams and creates a series of courses to help others entering the field.

Gabriel Kramer’s side hustle story began after a big career transition. A former high school teacher who had burned out due to the lack of support from administrators—an all too common story—Gabe had started a new job as a construction inspector. He’d heard about this opportunity from a cousin, who helped him get a job as an entry-level inspector.

To advance in the industry, you have to earn certifications by passing exams. The more certifications you have, the more money you can make. From his background in education, including a master’s degree he completed independently, Gabe had good study habits. In his first year, he studied for and passed several exams. Even beginning in the entry-level role, that year he made more than he did as a teacher.

Over the next few years he continued to gain experience, take more exams, and increase his earning potential further.

This brings us to his next step, and the side hustle that would eventually exceed the earnings from both jobs. In this industry, SI stands for “special inspector,” a certain kind of construction inspector, and certs is short for “certifications.” Gabe’s hustle would be called, appropriately, SI Certs.

To get SI Certs up and running, he offered equity to two friends, Dee and Chris. Dee worked as an internet marketer, while Chris was an experienced Photoshop hobbyist. Finally, he got Dee’s brother, Allan, to build the site. He says that having these three partners on board from the start was a huge help, because it meant he could focus on his core skill of course creation.

One of the main skills of inspectors is reading building plans. To help his students learn, Gabe shipped physical plans to them that complemented the online teaching. He even added his best teaching notes right on the plans. This teaching aid was unique to the industry. There were a few other people teaching cert study courses, but no one else was sending out physical plans.

Video marketing was another strategy that was little used by anyone else. Therefore, after he created the first course, Gabe shot videos that covered material from the first exam entry-level employees are required to take. He uploaded the videos to YouTube, and the SI Certs channel has produced a steady stream of traffic over the years. It recently reached three hundred thousand total views.

SI Certs was a success from the start. Every year since beginning, Gabe and the partners have averaged at least 60 percent revenue growth. Four years in, they passed six figures in revenue. A big part of this success was because Gabe continued to create more courses, usually around one each year. Many of his students have become repeat customers, and the business continues to benefit from organic search results, as well as all those people who come from YouTube.

Gabe still works 9 to 5 in the construction industry, having switched roles a couple of years ago to take on a marketing director position. He enjoys the job and isn’t thinking about working on SI Certs full-time, but he still invests a few hours each week to continue growing it.

The business is on track to pass $200,000 in annual revenue, and growth doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Brick by brick, he’s building on a sturdy foundation.

“Add value where your competitors are lacking. If you do this in different ways, you’ll have a greater chance of success.” —Gabe

FUN FACT In addition to individual courses, SI Certs offers several “bundled” options where customers can receive a discount for purchasing multiple courses. This strategy is highly effective in increasing sales.

CRITICAL FACTOR

Passing tests leads to higher income, so students are highly incentivized to study and succeed. Gabe’s proven courses can be a no-brainer investment for construction inspectors who want to get ahead.

NYC JAZZ MUSICIAN TUNES UP $40,000 A YEAR BLOG

NAME

BRENT VAARTSTRA

LOCATION

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

STARTUP COSTS

MINIMAL

INCOME

$40,000/YEAR

WEBSITE

LEARNJAZZSTANDARDS.COM

A musician finds financial freedom by growing an online community focused on teaching people how to play jazz.

Brent Vaartstra worked as a jazz musician, playing gigs around New York City. Like many musicians do, especially in expensive cities, he also had a number of other projects to make ends meet.

But over the past two years, his day job has become what had been his main side hustle—a website and podcast called Learn Jazz Standards. It helps musicians get tips, advice, and resources for learning and playing jazz, and it makes money from selling e-books, play-along tracks, and an online course.

The website was the idea of a friend of his named Camden. Camden had started with a basic, quickly thrown-together template, and worked on it for a few months before becoming too busy to continue.

Camden still liked the idea of providing musicians with online resources, and wanted to continue somehow. He thought of Brent because he was then in college studying for a bachelor’s degree in jazz performance and needed some extra income. Camden offered to pay Brent out of the ad money the site was making to continue putting up educational posts.

It wasn’t a jackpot, but it gave Brent some pocket money while he was in school. He eventually became more invested in the site, accepting a fifty/fifty partnership to take over operations. Camden and Brent were now making more ad money, and they’d started selling play-along tracks for people to practice with.

The extra $500 to $600 a month he earned was important to Brent as a struggling musician. He began to think of ways to increase the site’s revenue even further. As part of a transition, he eventually bought Camden’s half of the business. Camden’s other career commitments were too demanding for him to contribute, and Learn Jazz Standards had become Brent’s primary focus.

It was fun having a friend to collaborate with, but the change opened up more doors for him. He started releasing e-books and planned to produce a full course. With increased attention and the added income that came from working solo, his monthly income soared to a livable wage. He then redesigned the site and outlined an ambitious plan for growth.

The best part is seeing how the years of hard work have finally paid off. After several months of work, he launched that first e-course, and in the launch month alone he made $10,000. He was amazed that so many people would sign up simply because they trusted the website. For Brent, it was truly gratifying.

He also says that the financial freedom has been incredible. It’s taken him from a struggling musician to feeling secure. There’s no more worrying if he’ll get enough gigs next month to pay his rent. Yet he still gets to do what he loves, talking about and working on music…just with the security of having most of his bills taken care of.

“The financial freedom has been amazing. It’s taken me from being a struggling musician to feeling secure. No more worrying if I’ll get enough gigs next month or not! Yet I still get to be doing what I love, talking about and working on jazz and music.” —Brent

FUN FACT Unlike almost every other story in this book, Brent didn’t actually start this side hustle—he acquired it from someone else.

CRITICAL FACTOR

As Brent began creating products and focusing more attention on the blog, it blossomed from something that provided pocket money to a real asset paying thousands of dollars each month.

ORGANIC CHEMIST MASTERS EDUCATIONAL ALCHEMY

NAME

JAMES ASHENHURST

LOCATION

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

STARTUP COSTS

MINIMAL

INCOME

SIX FIGURES/YEAR

WEBSITE

MASTERORGANICCHEMISTRY.COM

After hitting a number of career dead ends during a recession, a chemist charts a new course offering online tutoring.

After earning an undergraduate degree in chemistry, James Ashenhurst spent a short spell in graduate school…but it wasn’t meant to be, at least not at first. The best part was getting to go on a six-month study abroad trip to the Middle East.

When he got back home, he started applying for jobs, but nothing came of it. Frustrated with his situation, he moved to Montreal to spend the summer. With no friends or work, he was free to wander about, and he paid attention to how he liked to spend his time. It turned out he spent a lot of time going to the library and doing the problems in organic chemistry textbooks.

It occurred to him that he should spend some time developing this skill. He enjoyed it and was good at it. Furthermore, it was a potentially lucrative career. He joined a lab at the local university, ended up earning a PhD in organic chemistry, and then did a postdoc at MIT.

At this point in the story, our organic chemist was on track to get a position in industry or academia, but then the 2008 economic recession arrived. His job applications went nowhere. He did another postdoc, moved to Israel for a while, and tried starting a business that also went nowhere.

Once again, he spent a lot of time in the local library working through problems in notebooks. That’s when he came up with the idea of tutoring organic chemistry online. At the time, almost no one was doing such a thing.

Several people close to him were skeptical. They asked, “Who would ever want to be tutored online?”

James ignored them. Over the next few years, he earned a good living doing online tutoring—but that’s not really what this story is about. The online tutoring was still a lot like a day job, even though he worked for himself.

In his spare hours, he worked on a related project: a free WordPress blog on organic chemistry. He wrote articles and then used the articles to get search traffic. Over time, this project would become increasingly important.

Two things happened next. First, as he built up the repository of articles and posts, the blog got enough traffic that requests for tutoring came streaming in without him having to seek people out. That was a major accomplishment of its own.

But then, something else happened that ended up being even better. After talking to enough students through thousands of hours of sessions, James had a firm grasp on their common struggles. He also knew that there weren’t many solutions for them outside of personalized tutoring.

That’s when he started creating digital products in the form of detailed guides and reports. Anyone could buy them and study on their own. They’d pay less than they would for an individual session, and James could get paid without being physically present.

To start, his students told him they had a hard time keeping all the “reagents” straight in organic chemistry—so the first product was an e-book called The Reagent Guide.*2 It was a basic PDF, nothing complicated, and he did little marketing for it. He only had one hundred people on his email list at the time, but when he wrote to offer them the guide, ten of them bought it.

That opened his eyes, and he began making more study guides for other common problems that students experienced. To do this, first he’d make sure he fully understood the problems. Then he’d create solutions for them and put them in guides available for purchase on his website. He built out his library of products slowly—let’s say organically—and month by month, more and more people bought the guides.

James now has two young kids at home, and once the youngest arrived, he began renting a small office at a coworking space so he could focus during the day. He talks about being surprised by two things.

First, the fact that he can make a living writing. His college double major in English and chemistry worked out. He gets to think and write about a subject he loves, and he doesn’t have to answer to anyone except his readers. (He also says that he’s always hated committees, so avoiding them completely is a huge plus.)

Second, the reports he receives from his students and readers. Many of them tell him that they wouldn’t have passed the course or have gotten an A if it were not for his website. He also hears from former students who are now in medical school.

Meanwhile, the website continues to grow. It was recently ranked as the tenth most visited chemistry website in the world, with 1.2 million monthly page views. It provides a healthy six-figure source of income—and, yes, much of that income arrives while he sleeps.

Looking back, James is grateful for the forks in the road that led him to where he is now. He’s glad he wasn’t able to get a job at first, because his extended time of exploration provided the foundation for everything that came afterward. He’s also glad he began online tutoring during a time when such things were very new.

He’s especially glad he didn’t listen to those people who said “that won’t work.” Finally, he’s proud that he decided to try a new form of monetization by creating study guides for his students.

Sometimes your strangest experiments lead to your greatest discoveries.

“One of the most important decisions I ever made was to take two to three months and move to a new city, live like a hermit, and see what I would do to entertain myself. That was very useful experimental data.” —James

FUN FACT James first created the site with North American students in mind, but has been surprised to see how many visitors are international. About one-third of them are from India, for example, and he even had a group of readers from McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

CRITICAL FACTOR

Medical students in need of help passing their chemistry courses are a recurring market. Every year, tens of thousands of them enter new programs—and most of James’s material remains relevant over time.

SIDE HUSTLE LABS

How to Create an Online Course

Sharing your knowledge can be one of the most powerful and profitable models for making money on the side. How do you do it?

First, you need the right topic. Choose something specific, and focus on benefits. It doesn’t matter if your course has forty-eight different modules and a voice-controlled system that will give you daily affirmations. It matters if it will make your customer a better person, solve a big problem for them, or otherwise improve their life. Craft everything around these needs!

Next, you need the right platform. How will you deliver your course material to customers? There are a lot of options for this, both simple and not-so-simple. I include some of our current recommendations at the site below.

Last—but definitely not least—you need to spend time and energy on understanding your ideal customer, and knowing how to communicate with them. This is the essence of successful marketing: building relationships, making promises, and keeping them.

For more, visit SideHustleSchool.com/courses.

^*1 Jodi notes that her project is not affiliated with or endorsed by the parent organization that oversees the Girl Scouts. She even pays full price for the cookies!

^*2 From James: Think of reagents like “ingredients” in a kitchen. Students kept forgetting when to use oregano, when to add the basil, whether the recipe called for garlic, and so on.