Show notes
Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! Are you ready to hear the latest news affecting Google, SEO, AI, and web publishers? As always, Spencer and Jared will break everything down into digestible pieces and share their thoughts, concerns, and predictions. They kick things off diving straight into a particularly spicy topic: who's killing Google Search. They maintain that it's an inside job, and talk about the news that came out this week about an internal meeting at Google regarding the division's "new operating reality" and the decline in search queries and engagement. Word on the street is that the man who heads the Search team is the man who killed Google Search. Spencer and Jared talk about this possibility as well as a little bit about the history of Search, the results of updates over the years, why results have gotten worse over time, how ads have been redesigned, and how Google is trying to squeeze more money out of Search results. What incredible irony does Jared point out? What's Spence's takeaway for bloggers? Is Google going to implode? Spencer and Jared then move on to a related topic: how product recommendations have broken Google. They reference the Housefresh debacle from a few weeks ago, and talk about how the search for products has changed over time. How do we know if the reviews are honest, or if they're sponsored, or if they're authentic? And what does the future hold for product reviews? The last article they discuss is how Google has become defensive when it comes to its Search quality and forum results. Experts are pointing out that the results being delivered by Google on Reddit offer very poor and misguided advice, especially when it comes to health queries. How has Danny Sullivan responded? Why do Spencer and Jared talk about the difference between "trust" and "like?" Moving on to their Side Hustle Shenanigans, Spencer talks about his Amazon Influencer videos going live on YouTube. Before his channel got shut down, he was getting between 100 and 200 views per day, peaking one day at 250. Now his biggest day has been 11 views. He and Jared talk about why this may be as well as his process for getting his videos live on YouTube. What program does he recommend using to automate the process? Jared then talks briefly about his Alt G Conference, which was held just a few days earlier, and he shares some interesting stats and stories from that online event. When it's his turn, he talks about his email newsletter side hustle. He recently launched a second email newsletter using content from one of his sites that was crushed by the HCU. He goes through many of the steps he took to get the project off the ground, so tune in for some great ideas! When it comes to Weird Niche Sites, Spencer shares his, which is Brick Economy, on the economics of Legos. The site offers the current value on lots of Lego sets as well as annual growth of certain themed Legos, and the ability to track the prices of your own Legos. It's monetized with affiliate links and display ads, and according to SimilarWeb, it's getting over a million visitors per month. When it's Jared's turn, he shares his site, Tractor Data, which is a small, family-run business that has been tracking data on tractors for the last 20 years. This DR61 site includes a news section and a directory and gets almost 400k pageviews a month, according to Ahrefs. What keywords is it ranking for? Does it rank first for any terms? Is it making any money? And what kind of potential does Jared see in the site? As both of these sites are doing well in Google, what can we learn from them and their strategies? And that brings us to the end of another informative and inspiring episode. See you next Friday! Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and here from industry experts each week? Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative