What if your passion project could transform into a full-time income source in just a few short years?

Turning a blog into a lucrative business takes time, effort, and know-how. But by consistently publishing high-quality content, building backlinks, and monetizing through ads and affiliate offers, you can tap into income streams in your niche.

That’s exactly what Shelley Marmor did when she started her travel blog on a whim. The former corporate worker and travel magazine editor turned her websites, Travel Mexico Solo and Travel Blogging 101, into a thriving online businesses.

Today, Shelley’s ventures generate over $50k monthly in revenue. She now manages a team to handle the day-to-day operations of the sites.

Tune in to episode 573 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

Step-by-step process for building authority and ranking your content
How to monetize through affiliate links, ads, email marketing, and digital products
Tips for outsourcing writing and editing tasks to scale the business
Why you should niche down and “cut the line” with micro-sites

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Starting a Travel Blog

It was the spring of 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shelly found herself at a career crossroads after 15 years working in corporate America. Like many people, she felt “chewed up and spit out” by the corporate world and she knew she had to figure out a new path.

Her first foray into online business was dropshipping dresses with pockets through a store called Pockets on My Dress. But when the pandemic hit, dress sales dried up as people stayed home. Shelly wondered, “What am I going to do with myself?”

Around that time, Shelly had been traveling solo in Mexico for about a year. She joined some Facebook groups for travel bloggers, noticing that some were still earning good money with affiliate marketing during the pandemic—getting paid commissions by Airbnb when readers booked long pandemic getaway stays.

Shelly thought, “If they can do it, I can.” She registered the domain in March 2020 and launched the site a month later.

How Did You Get Your Initial Traction?

Initially, Shelly wrote posts about her own travels in Mexico. But she soon realized, “Nobody cares about me traveling around Mexico. They care about how I can help them travel Mexico.”

On advice from other successful bloggers, Shelly invested in blogging courses to learn SEO and how to please “the Google gods.”

Unlike general travel blogs, Shelly niched down to just Mexico. She said, “I can’t compete with 15-year-old sites like Nomadic Matt’s. But in a niche, I can cut to the front of the line and find ‘unicorn’ keywords with high search volume but low competition.”

Shelly focused on questions and keywords travelers search for when planning Mexico trips—where to stay, what to do, is it safe, and packing tips. She didn’t earn money in 2020 but started seeing profits in 2021.

Within 3 years, Shelly grew her site into a business consistently earning $50,000+ per month.

What is driving the traffic and sales?

Shelly didn’t rely on ad revenue as her main source of income. She focused first on affiliate marketing commissions.

She had three sites on Mediavine and Raptive (former Adthrive). These are two premium ad networks for sites that offer industry-leading RPMs (revenue per thousand impressions).

By leveraging multiple ad networks, Shelley benefits from competition between the platforms and diversification. If one network’s RPMs decrease or they lose major advertisers, she has a backup flow of ad revenue.

Shelley uses Affilimate, an affiliate management plugin for WordPress, to track links and affiliate earnings. One helpful feature is a heatmap showing where readers are clicking, so Shelley can optimize placement.

Shelly said, “I started making money before I had much traffic. The income came first, then traffic grew over time.” She never had a viral “traffic explosion” moment. Instead, it was many small wins that compounded.

In that first unprofitable year, Shelly persevered thanks to her “why” – never having to ask a boss for time off again. She knew she couldn’t be happy without control of her own time.

Seeing mediocre 10-year-old YouTube channels succeed also motivated Shelly. She realized that sticking it out for years leads to success. Quarantine left her with time to focus on the site.

Keyword Research

For keyword research, Shelly uses KeySearch for $14/month. For new sites, she suggests filtering for competition levels below 30. “I don’t care if it’s a 10 monthly search volume.”

If monetizing with affiliates, Shelly will optimize for buyer keywords even if it only has 10 searches per month. She ranks quickly for high-ticket tours that pay $500 commissions.

Shelley has written 180 posts, focusing on topic clusters such as “things to do in Cozumel with kids / at night / when it rains.”

She says you have to “crawl before you walk.” Ranking #1 for any keyword builds momentum faster than waiting for big keywords. Traffic and income grow through small, compounding wins.

When Airbnb shut down its program, Shelly had to pivot. She bows to Google’s algorithm changes, adapting her content accordingly.

Growing Her Team

After about a year and a half, Shelly started hiring writers to help create content. She now has a team of 4 writers, an editor, and a blog manager.

Shelly focuses on writing content herself for Travel Blogging 101, where she shares firsthand experiences and reviews products she uses.
Travel Mexico Solo is now 3 years and 3 months old. It has about 180 published articles and gets 300K monthly pageviews.

Shelly estimates that’s about 1 article per week on average over 3 years. She advises starting with what you can sustainably write yourself without burning out.

Do just one quality post every two weeks if that’s your limit because the articles compound over time.

Shelly explained that you can optimize content for specific audiences even within a broad topic. For example, “Hotels in New York City” may get 100,000 searches, but pet owners only care about pet-friendly options. Parents want hotels that allow kids. Balconies or free breakfast might be deal-breakers for some.

So even if “pet-friendly hotels in New York” is a smaller slice, it perfectly matches what those searchers want. Shelly says you don’t have to convince them if you put that exact content in front of them. Whereas a general “best hotels in New York” article makes them dig through options.

By creating content tailored to specific audiences, you can recommend affiliate hotels that perfectly match their needs. As Shelly says, “The riches are in the niches.”

Top Affiliate Opportunities in the Travel Space

Here are the top affiliate opportunities in the travel space:

Travel tours
Hotels/accommodations
Travel Insurance
Physical products
Car rentals

But it depends on your niche – hiking bloggers may focus more on gear.

To get accepted into Mediavine’s ad network, you need 50,000 monthly sessions (individual people visiting the site).

Link Building Strategies

Early on, Shelly did lots of guest posts to build backlinks, even though many avoid it because it seems like extra work for little payoff.
Backlinks signal authority and trust to search engines like Google. The more reputable sites linking back to you, the higher you’ll rank.
Writing guest posts got her backlinks from established sites essentially “voting” for her site.

Now Shelly gets organic backlinks as her content ranks well. HuffPost and Time Magazine have reached out for quotes and info from her site. But she first had to work hard on backlinks to reach this point.

Shelly hosted a podcast called Dream to Destination podcast in 2020 but stopped because blogging took priority. Podcasting is a full-time job itself. As a new business without profit, she couldn’t split focus. “You only get to do one thing.”

Nevertheless, the podcast did provide some backlinks from platforms like Spotify and Stitcher, which added value to her site’s backlink profile.

Leveraging AI Tools

When asked if she uses AI content, Shelley mentioned that she has not yet ventured into using AI-generated content for her websites, but thinks she should try it as the technology keeps rapidly improving.

She saw a competing site using ChatGPT before that jumped between topics incoherently.

“I looked at one of their articles once and it just was, like, jumping around from talking about Mexico. There was even some mention of some desert oasis in Iraq.”

She believes that the AI landscape is constantly evolving, and she wants to ensure that any AI content she incorporates is of high quality and relevance to her audience.

Why You Should Have an Email List

While she initially created an ebook as a part of her email marketing campaigns, she admits that it did not perform as well as she expected.
She believes that ebooks are outdated and that alternative products like video courses may resonate better with her audience.

For email marketing, Shelly has about 8,000 subscribers total across her sites. Her travel blogging list of 1,500 subscribers is more monetized than her Mexico travel list so far.

Shelly has multiple opt-in offers tied to specific guides and content topics. A generic opt-in hasn’t generated as much success for a vast region like Mexico. Opt-ins designed for specific niches deliver better conversion rates.

Shelley has seen tremendous success through her weekly email campaigns. She structures her emails with a 50/50 split – delivering free, helpful tips to readers as well as promoting relevant products.

This balanced approach keeps her community engaged while also driving revenue (She recently generated $3,500 in sales from a single product launch to her list).

The travel niche tends to be “one and done” visitors from Google. But email subscribers engage ongoingly regardless of algorithm changes.

Google rolls out hundreds of updates per year. If your website gets caught in one, your organic search traffic could vanish even if you did everything right. You may never know exactly why.
Facebook adjusted its algorithm years back. Facebook pages went from reaching all followers to only reaching a fraction without paying.
Pinterest updated its algorithm, and bloggers lost massive amounts of traffic literally from one day to the next. These weren’t spammers or low-quality sites; Pinterest simply deprioritized their content.

While social and search algorithms are out of your control, Shelley emphasized email marketing as the most direct audience connection.

Collecting emails from website visitors allows ongoing communication regardless of future algorithm changes.

Suddenly losing social traffic overnight has happened to her multiple times over the years. “The email list is the closest thing to a guarantee.”

Niching Down to Rank Up: Destination-Specific Sites

Shelly started additional niche sites on specific Mexican destinations because she knew competitors would make those sites anyway. A site solely about Tulum or Oaxaca can outrank a broader Mexico site for those specific topics.

Shelley has created several niche sites focused on specific destinations within Mexico:

Travel To Merida – This site covers the Yucatan city of Merida. Shelley actually started this site while she was living in Merida. She got it into Mediavine’s ad network in just 4 months, scaling 25x faster than her main Mexico site. One reason niche sites can rank faster is laser targeting of keywords. This site is doing $5,000/month in affiliate revenue because of its hyper-focused niche.
Travel To Oaxaca – Oaxaca is an increasingly popular destination in southern Mexico known for its archeological sites, colonial architecture, and crafts. With its own site just for Oaxaca, Shelley doesn’t have to compete against broader Mexico sites for rankings. The niche allows her to “cut the line” with SEO.
Tulum Travel Secrets – On Mexico’s Caribbean coast, Tulum has exploded in popularity in recent years. Shelley knew other sites would pop up focused solely on Tulum, so she claimed this niche first.

When asked if she would start a micro-niche solo city or state site today, or go broad first like she did before, Shelley said it depends on the country’s size.

For instance, in a very small country like Luxembourg, starting hyper-specific may not work since there’s low search volume. The niche has to have enough tourist interest and volume to be viable.

Not every site will be a 7-figure business. But you can be happy with a 6-figure site, then replicate it. This means multiple 6-figure sites can equal a 7-figure business.

What’s Next for Shelley?

With her growing team, Shelley focuses on quality control and providing photos, spending around 20 hours a month depending on the article.

The blog manager handles a lot of the day-to-day operations and keyword research. The writers tackle creating content based on the keyword research and upcoming publishing calendar.

Shelley likes to work in content clusters, building out a destination with related articles each month. Her time is now spent more on her Travel Blogging 101 site, creating courses and working one-on-one with students wanting to learn how she scaled her sites so quickly.

Shelley’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“No one starts perfect. But no one who’s successful didn’t start.”

3 Key Takeaways

Take what’s being given to you – Leverage your existing authority and topic clusters that you’ve built up in Google’s eyes. Double down on those toeholds.
Invest in education – Shortcut the learning curve by paying attention to those who’ve gone before you. Courses and mentors can accelerate your progress.
Niche down – Get very specific with topics and keywords. Even if low search volume, highly targeted content can still convert at high rates for affiliates.

Links and Resources

Travel Mexico Solo
Travel Blogging 101
Travel To Merida
Travel To Oaxaca
Tulum Travel Secrets
Airbnb
Nomadic Matt’s
Mediavine
Raptive (former Adthrive)
Affilimate
KeySearch
HuffPost
Time Magazine
Dream to Destination
Spotify
Stitcher
ChatGPT

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Summer is a great time to start a side hustle and make extra money. The question is, which summer side hustles would be best for you?

Check out the list below to spark some ideas and inspiration!

I selected these based on:

Interviewing over 500 side hustlers and entrepreneurs
15+ years of my own side hustle experience

New to the show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Ready? Let’s do it!

1. Be a Lifeguard

In my area, lifeguards earn around $20 an hour — and get to hang out outside all day. Community pools and beaches hire seasonal lifeguards to keep swimmers safe.

You’ll typically need to be a strong swimmer and take a training and certification class to get hired. Look for a certification program like The Red Cross‘, which is accepted nationwide.

2. Pressure Washing

Summertime inspires homeowners to take care of their properties, which could mean an opportunity to offer a pressure washing service.

It’s a simple, low overhead, spring and summer side hustle that’s just plain satisfying to do!

Scott Anderson reported earning $3,000+ per month washing houses part time, and was able to recoup a good chunk of his equipment costs on the very first job.

To get customers, you can advertise online or put up flyers around your neighborhood.

3. Officiate Weddings

Summer season is wedding season! Did you know that professional wedding officiants can earn $100-800 per wedding, for as little as half an hour worth of work?

Maria Romano has officiated over 4000 weddings over the last 10 years, and stopped by to share her advice in this video.

Research your local wedding officiating requirements and get ordained. From there, you can begin to network with other professional wedding vendors and venues to begin booking jobs.

4. Online Surveys

These won’t make you rich, but you can get paid for your opinion on different topics by participating in online surveys. It’s an easy way to make a little money during your downtime or while you’re lounging at the pool.

Here are a few of the most popular (and credible) online survey sites:

The average pay for online surveys is $0.50 to $5.00 per survey, which may not be much but it can add up. It’s also convenient because you can do these anytime and anywhere.

5. Car Detailing

A mobile detailing side hustle is a great summer side hustle, especially if you’re a “car guy.” Not only can you choose your own hours and work around other commitments, but the job itself is simple yet rewarding.

With the right set-up and some basic knowledge of car care, anyone can get started in this side hustle.

Typical rates are $200-400 per car, and you can stack 2-3 jobs up on a Saturday and make pretty good money. For example, Josh Belk reported earning up to $6,000 a month with the detailing business he started with his brother.

6. Create and Host a Local “Experience”

If your town is a summer travel destination, one interesting side hustle is hosting local tours or “experiences.” That could be things like:

Walking tours
Beer tasting tours
Guided meditation workshops
Cooking classes
Foodie tours

One Side Hustle Show guest had hosted hundreds of guided meditation experiences through Airbnb — at $50 a pop!

The cool thing here is you can set your own rates and availability. Take a look at platforms like Airbnb Experiences to get a sense of what’s already available in your area. What’s missing? What could you improve or pivot on?

A friend of mine posted an “unplugged” (smartphone-free) hiking tour in Tennessee, and began to get $50-100 bookings right away.

7. Yard Sale Flipping

The warm weather brings with it a rush of garage sales and yard sales. A simple reselling side hustle follows the familiar “buy low, sell high” business model.

This side hustle is ideal for people who love the thrill of the treasure hunt — looking for undervalued items and finding those diamonds in the rough.

My friends Rob and Melissa Stephenson of Florida are pros at this, and earn a full-time living finding “odd” items and flipping them for a profit. The cool thing is you can get started with whatever level of inventory investment you’re comfortable with.

Stop by your local flea market or thrift store this weekend to see what’s out there. Have the ebay app handy on your phone to see what items are selling for online.

Check out my latest conversation with Rob or watch their free online training for more.

Related: Flipping Books for Profit: How to Make Up to $4000 a Month

8. Loan Signing Agent

This summer side hustle has been super popular in Side Hustle Nation the last few years. Nearly every home sale needs a notary to verify the mortgage documents, so during the summer selling season, demand is at its peak.

For their time, expertise, and attention to detail, loan signing agents typically earn $75-150 per appointment.

To become a signing agent, you’re essentially starting a specialized mobile notary business. That means researching the requirements in your state and probably investing in some training.

Once certified, you can begin to accept signings that fit with your schedule through various signing services (databases of other signing agents), or by building your own direct relationships with real estate and escrow offices.

In this video interview, I sit down with a mobile Notary earning $8000 a month to learn more about how the business works.

9. Moving Service

As home sales increase for the summer season, so does demand for movers. Joining or starting a moving service is another way you can make money this summer.

Several startups help match people with trucks to those who need help moving.

For example, Dolly is always looking for Helpers, and pays up to $40 per hour if you have a pickup truck and can shift over 75 pounds. Simply build your schedule by using the app to find and accept jobs.

With Dolly, you even get to keep 100% of your customer tips.

10. Local and Online Gigs

Steady is a cool app and website that consolidates all sorts of “gig economy” opportunities. For example, you can find work from home gigs, flexible “anytime” options, and even regular full- and part-time jobs.

Browsing through the listings, I found the usual array of delivery and rideshare gigs, but was pleasantly surprised by some of the other offerings. There were a number of local opportunities I’d never heard of in:

brand ambassadorship
political advocacy
mystery shopping
transcription
and more

Steady acts as a portal to all these gigs and gives you a convenient central location to browse. After you create your account, you’ll be able to see everything available online and in your local area.

Related: Our Top Money Making Apps of the Year

11. Tutoring

Some students — well, let’s be real … their parents — use the summer to get ahead academically.

To start your tutoring business, first decide what subject(s) you’ll specialize in. Test prep can be particularly lucrative, and there’s a huge demand to learn English worldwide.

Tutors can earn $15-100+ per hour, depending on the subject matter and location.

You can tutor students locally or online. In fact, spending on online tutoring grew 17% in 2022!

Where to Find Gigs

You don’t always need a professional teaching certification, but a TESOL/TEFL certificate can come in handy to get hired by certain online English teaching companies.

Here are some places to get tutoring and teaching jobs:

BookNook – Teach math and writing online and earn $18 an hour plus potential bonuses
Wyzant
Tutor.com
Verbling
EF Education First

For other subjects, you might consider partnering with local school counselors or parenting groups.

12. Window Cleaning

While he was a full-time college student, Johnny Robinson built his window cleaning business to almost $700k a year in revenue.

He and his partner started with just $150 worth of equipment, and landed a mix of commercial and residential customers.

13. Lawn Care

If you like the idea of working outside, you might consider a yard care business.

Of course you could get lawn mowing customers the old-fashioned way, by wheeling your lawnmower up and down the neighborhood and knocking on doors, but that’s old school.

The modern alternative is to sign up as a vendor on GreenPal, “the Uber for lawn care.”

GreenPal has over 11,000 lawn mowers and other yard care providers in 49 states. Per CEO Bryan Clayton, the average GreenPal vendor makes around $55 per hour mowing lawns on its system.

14. Childcare Service

Another good way to earn extra income over the summer is through babysitting, child care, or even elder care.

You can create a free profile on sites like Sittercity.com and Care.com, big platforms that help connect families with caregivers like you. The work hours are flexible and with the nationwide average rates are in the range of $14-18 an hour.

If you love kids and you and have time to spare, babysitting would be a pretty easy side gig to consider.

A teacher friend of mine actually ended up connecting with a celebrity client in New York through Sittercity. You never know!

15. Become a Camp Counselor or Sports Coach

With school out for summer, it’s time for youth day camps and overnight camps. These often have themes like soccer, ballet, acting, science, or basketball.

The hours for day camps may be tricky to do as a side hustle, but you could set up your own sports clinics or group classes after hours.

We’ve known friends to teach swimming lessons, piano, and arts and crafts for kids in their spare time.

16. Set Up a Roadside Stand

When Shannon Houchin reached out to share her peach flipping business, I was intrigued! Over the last 10 years, she’s built quite an empire of roadside produce stands — and says you can flip $300 worth of peaches into $1000 in a weekend.

“Nothing puts a smile on a consumer’s face quicker than a good peach,” she explained. She likes to set up in high traffic areas like convenience store parking lots, and relies on roadside visibility for most of her marketing.

What kind of local summer produce could you resell?

17. Pet Sitting

With many families going on vacation during the summer, there’s a high demand for pet sitters and dog walkers.

To set up shop, try Rover.com, the leading marketplace that connects pet owners with pet sitters. Typical boarding rates range from $20-60 per night per dog, depending on location.

Several Side Hustle Nation readers report earning $1000 a month watching other people’s pets!

18. Photography

Between weddings, BBQs, company picnics, and family reunions, there are lots of occasions for photography work over the summer.

This is actually my wife’s side hustle of choice, with her and her partner earning around $4,000 per wedding. Their strategy was to start at a very low cost to build their portfolio, and scale up as their skills and comfort level improved.

One great source of steady business is partnering with local venues as a preferred vendor.

19. Personal Training

Nothing like swimsuit season to make everyone self-conscious about their bodies, right? Up to 42% of people report feeling pressure to have a “beach body” for the summer, which spells strong demand for fitness and diet professionals.

Could you start an outdoor bootcamp, group fitness class, or personal training business?

20. Pool Maintenance

Many homeowners have pools that need regular cleaning and maintenance during the summer months. This can be a a great side hustle because:

Each pool doesn’t take a ton of time
It needs to happen regularly, which means recurring revenue

The average pool maintenance cost is $180 per month. Build a roster of clients around town and knock out the jobs on a weekday evening.

21. Rent Out Your Pool

If you have a pool of your own, Swimply can help you turn it into a money-maker.

The “Airbnb for pools” platform lets you rent out your backyard pool by the hour, with top hosts earning $5,000 a month!

Which Summer Side Hustle Will You Choose?

Hopefully this list of summer side hustles sparked some ideas and inspiration!

And if nothing resonates with you, don’t feel guilty about that. Personally, I like to scale back work during the summer. Here in the Northwest, we wait all year for the weather to get warm and I want to enjoy it!

I find the time away from my business often sparks new creative energy and a renewed sense of purpose.

As with anything, keep your lifestyle goals in mind and choose the path that best serves those goals. Cheers!

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Serious About Making Extra Money?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
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