SEO as a side hustle

SEO is a great side hustle because there are multiple paths you can follow to successfully earn extra cash. Below are the ways I have earned money

 with SEO:

• Create niche websites with affiliate links
• Perform SEO website audits
• Consult on SEO strategy
• Execute SEO for clients on a monthly retainer

All of these options can be great, but there is one option that is a bit different from the rest.  The second, third, and fourth options are centered around performing SEO for clients, whereas the first option can be created as your own website that you own.

If you’re first starting out with SEO, the best way to learn is to create your own website and start experimenting! This way, if you screw up, you won’t have an angry client calling you down.  

Reading blog articles and watching YouTube about SEO is definitely one way to learn, but you need to put your knowledge to practice.

By no means am I suggesting not to watch YouTube videos or read blog posts, because I have spent hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours doing this myself.  I am saying to make mistakes with your own websites, celebrate your wins, rinse & repeat! In my opinion, this is the best way to learn when you’re still an SEO beginner. 

Create niche websites with affiliate links

A niche website is as basic as it sounds. A website about a smaller topic or segment (niche) from a large market.  Content and topics from a niche website are highly focused; the opposite of a more general and all encompassing approach. 

Creating niche websites can be done at your own leisure, since this will be your website.  It’s nice to be able to build at your own pace as you learn without having to worry if you’re meeting the needs of a client.

Examples of niche websites:

• Shoe laces (rather than shoes)
• Comic book t-shirts (rather than all t-shirts, or clothing in general)
• Organic pet treats (rather than non-organic pet food)
• Animal outfits for babies (rather than general or all types of outfits)

The biggest advantage niche websites have over websites that cast a larger net is that there is less competition. If you are able to find a niche with low competition, you can dominate search results!  If you can dominate search results, you can drive high intent traffic to your website.

The key for finding a great niche is to identify a low competition topic which people are actually searching.  Sure, you can probably dominate the Queen Elizabeth (rip) themed Duct Tape niche, but how many monthly visitors will your website attract? Probably not many.

Once you have established your niche, built a website, created LOTS of content (I am talking like 100+ articles) around that niche, and started to see some traffic flow in, it’s time to add affiliate links and advertisements. 

Keep building on your website with regular product updates and new content, and your niche site can flourish.

Remember, with all things SEO, creating a profitable niche website takes patience, lots of testing, and an investment of your time.

Perform SEO website audits

SEO website audits are another way to earn some side hustle money, and honestly, they are pretty easy to do once you get the hang of them.

Granted, every website is different and you will encounter different issues the more you do them, but usually the core issues are the same. I’ve done close to 50 SEO website audits and for the most part, they were pretty similar in nature.

This is why developing an SEO website audit template is the key to an efficient audit.  Once you have your template down, you can just run through the checklist.  There might be some outliers you come across depending on the site, and if that’s the case, just make note of it or add another section to your audit template.

My SEO website audit template has the following sections:

• Technical audit
• Content audit
• Backlink profile audit
• Local SEO audit (if necessary)
• Competitor analysis

Within these section, you should be pointing out flaws, while recommending solutions to fix them.  It is also important to note areas that are working, so you aren’t purely delivering bad news about how poor their website is.

The screenshot above is from a template I created about 6 years ago, which I still use today.  It’s not fancy, but it covers almost everything for auditing websites on the simple – complex scale.  

Another thing I like to do within my SEO audits is provide lots of additional opportunities. Clients find this extremely valuable. For example, when it comes to content, I’ll provide recommended topics / keywords to target in their industry / niche that they haven’t yet covered, or that their competitor is excelling at.

Depending on the website, you can easily charge anywhere between $500 – $5,000 for a comprehensive audit.  One of the agencies I used to work at charged closer to $15,000 for their audits.

Consult on SEO Strategy

Another fairly easy and straight forward way to make money is by providing SEO strategy, without actually doing the work itself!

Of course you will need to put work into the strategy, but in this scenario, you will have others perform the tasks that you recommend.

If you are going to provide SEO strategy to anybody, you need to be very clear with your instructions, have an organized plan with timelines, explain why you’re recommending each task and provide the potential ROI by executing the strategy as outlined. 

Web design as a side hustle

If you get good at making websites through a content management system like WordPress or Shopify, lots of people will want your services! 

When I first started learning web design, I made my own sites to build my small portfolio. Eventually, I landed a web design job for a law firm from a friend who worked there.

This is usually how you will get your first web design jobs – as a referral from someone you know.  Over 80% of the web design jobs I have done for other people have come from referrals.  

I highly recommend learning WordPress as a starting point.  There are other website builder options out there like Squarespace and Wix, but I prefer the flexibility WordPress offers. 

WordPress is also the leading CMS in terms of market share, which means it has a massive community of experts who are willing to help if you get stuck trying to figure something out.  

Once you have become adept with WordPress, you can pick a theme with templates that closely resemble the type of site you’re trying to build.  For me, I started off using BeTheme as it has over 650 templates included.

BeTheme is one example of many for WordPress themes that have tons of documentation, tutorials, and templates for almost any website out there. 

I also highly recommend creating your own portfolio website to showcase your work. When pitching a client, they will almost always ask you for examples of websites you have created.  When this occurs, redirect them to your own website so they can see your work and also familiarize themself with your personal brand. 

SEO and Web design in combination as a side hustle

Learning both SEO and web design together in combination will take your potential to earn money to the next level. 

It’s important for a few reasons:

• Understanding how a website works with the ability to make changes or edits will help you implement your SEO more efficiently. 
• A lot of technical SEO issues are discovered by having fundamental knowledge on website architecture. 
• If you’re building a website for a client, you can potentially upsell them on SEO services! 

Arguably, the last point is the most important. If you’re building a brand new site for someone, offer to throw in an SEO package to help get them with search engine discovery.  If they see some initial results from their new site in Google, they might be more inclined to invest in a monthly SEO retainer. 

At the end of the day, the more knowledge you have in both areas, the more doors will open for you. 

What has worked for me

As a side hustle, I would say that when it comes to clients I have made more money through web design than SEO.

On the flip side, when working on my own personal projects, SEO has been the driving factor for earning extra money. 

Mistakes that I have made

I’d say the single biggest mistake I made was when I first got into affiliate marketing.  I created a blog about headphones which had affiliate links from amazon sprinkled throughout.  

I saw great results from my efforts for over a year before I started to get greedy and purchase thousands of low quality backlinks from Fiverr for like 50 bucks.  After I did this, my site got crushed by a Google algorithm update and I lost 95% of my traffic overnight. 

Luckily, this was my own site and not a client site. Even though I ruined my successful niche affiliate site, I did learn a valuable lesson: There are no shortcuts.

I have made other mistakes along the way as well, but I don’t beat myself up over them.  Shit happens, life goes on.

One other thing I want to mention which I think is really important is that if you make a mistake for a client, you can often diffuse the situation by being completely transparent.

Tell them immediately what happened rather than letting them find out on their own.  Own up to it, don’t make excuses, and let them know how you’re going to fix it.  If you do this, from my experience at least, it won’t be so bad.  Good customer service goes a long way with most people!

Other SEO side hustles that I have not tried

I have been in the industry for a long time, but there are a few things I have not tried.  The SEO and web design space is HUGE and there are tons of methods to earn extra money, and if have tried ALL of them, then kudos to you my friend, but you are probably an anomaly.  

Instead of listing all the different things I have not done, I will list the things I have not done, but plan to in the future:

• Create and sell an eBook
• Create an online tutorial or blueprint on a specific methodology like building backlinks or technical SEO
•  1:1 personal coaching – I have actually done this, but always for free!
• Create an SEO plugin (Chrome extension or WordPress)

In conclusion…

SEO and web design as a side hustle is definitely a fantastic way to not only earn extra money, but to learn a valuable skillset that is not going anywhere. As long as the internet is a thing, these skills will be in high demand.  

The great thing about learning these skills is that they can be applied in so many different ways. I only scratched the surface in this blog post as it pertained to my own personal experience.  

Thanks for reading!