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If you ever needed inspiration that a small niche passion could be turned into an income stream large enough to quit your day job, using just a blog, this is the story to listen to.
Lance Nelson had a proper career as a corporate employee for various banks and financial institutions in the UK. He wasn’t happy however and was dreaming of the day he could quit his job and improve his lifestyle.
He was already a regular skier at the Bansko resort in Bulgaria, and decided that was his passion and would be the subject of his blog.
Lance enrolled in my Blog Mastermind training course back when it was first offered. During after-work hours he got busy writing articles about Bansko and skiing.
It was a slow journey, but Lance kept the faith. He continued to work hard and celebrated each small sign of success.
Step-by-step he built up his income streams, which include advertising, selling ski packages and newsletter sponsorships, until he was making enough money to live comfortably in Bulgaria.
Lance quit his job and now lives in Bulgaria full time, continuing to build his online business empire around his Bansko blog. Today he makes over 60,000 Euros a year and enjoys a much better lifestyle in Bulgaria.
I Thought His Niche Was Too Small
When I heard that Lance had picked not just a specific sport like Skiing, or not even a specific country for skiing, but had targeted just one ski resort for his blog, I thought that’s way too narrow a niche to make a full time living from it.
Well, I was wrong.
Lance proved that if you have a subject you are passionate about that includes some aspect of commerce around it – in this case people spending money to go on ski holidays – you can make a living from a very small niche blog.
Listen to this interview and you will hear the exact steps that Lance went through to start his blog, what articles he wrote, how much traffic he attracted and what income streams he uses to make money.
What We Covered During The Interview
Here’s what we talked about during the interview –
- How Lance set up his blog, including what blogging platform he used, what theme and what system he uses for his email newsletter
- What Lance did to attract traffic to his blog during the first 12 months
- Lance talks about how he could work on his blog even while maintaining a full time job
- He explains all the different income streams he set up, including how he sells ski packages, advertising and newsletter sponsorship
- Lance also had an app created for his blog, which he talks about towards the end of the interview
- We review some of the key changes he made to his blog that brought him new visitors, for example doing video weather reports from on top of the mountains
- Lance gives advice for other people who have ideas about very small niches to show you it is possible to make a full-time income
Enjoy this interview with Lance and I’ll speak to you on the next podcast.
Yaro Starak
EJ Podcast
Relevant Links Mentioned in this Interview
- Bansko blog
- The Essential Guide to Bansko
- Blog Mastermind
- Blog Profits Blueprint
- Thesis theme
- Aweber
- Blog Tech Guy
- Google Play Store
Where to Find Lance Online
[ Download MP3 | Transcript | iTunes | Soundcloud | Raw RSS ]
A very inspirational story! It’s great to see someone who stuck with it and is now seeing the rewards for his work. Like you, I would have thought that a blog focusing on one ski resort is too narrow of a niche to make a full-time income, but good for him.
I know, so incredible but in some ways so obvious.
I wonder if any of my Aussie or Kiwi friends who love skiing are going to listen to this and start a Queenstown Ski blog or a Perisher Blog 🙂
That’s Jamaican bobsled team advice :). They came in last place.
Australia and skiing = no.
Australia and surfing = yes.
Hey we have snow down here too! Maybe not a lot of it, but there are mountains and everything.
Yaro
This is so inspiring. I should implement other income streams on my site as well. Thank you so much for this!
Excellent Yaro!
You need to have faith on this journey because the going is slow sometimes. I can attest; it took me 4 years to begin making money, to the point where I could travel the world and do neat stuff.
Blog about something that you fell in love with and you’ll naturally attract like-minded folks, Keep at it, until you get it.
Thanks! Tweeting to my 27K followers 😉
This is great and very inspiring. Truly with passion you can move the world. Passion is the power that gets the seemingly impossible done.
Yes, Lance Nelson might tell to us that “never give up” and always focus on what we do, blogging .etc
Very Inspiring anyway. Yaro!
Such a great and inspirational story. Passion is such a wonderful motivational tool, I’ve seen it improve so many people’s jobs. Thanks for sharing!
Certainly very inspiring. Making 60,000 from one blog is really something and not an easy thing to do. But some of the things you did to attract traffic is quite interesting.
I never thought from ski niche can be a profitable niche in the online world. Very inspiring story.
Just listened to this and have to say its a great story.
Lance is really living the dream. I kept expecting you to say how much 60,000 EUR is in $ or £ as I couldn’t remember the rates, but I just checked and it is a lot.
I hope the app business goes well and he continues to do well with his blog.
Joe
Excellent podcast.. I’m amazed that here’s making that sort of coin from such a small niche… Well done…
Hey Yaro and Lance, great segment you inspire many people thank you for the priceless tips!
Vlad
Ohh Really fantastic interview I inspired lot and going to start online marketing which generate quarter of this revenue at starting. Like to say thanks for it and inspire me.
Great stuff Lance – I’ve actually been skiing for a week in Bansko with my daughter in 2008. Loved it! (from Israel).
I have a travel blog for incoming tourism to Israel. It went online in 2011 with one page and now it has over 250 pages of content. BUT the monetization has been difficult to get up and going and grow steadily.
My bread and butter comes from digital marketing for other people mainly designing and building websites for small to medium businesses.
I have taken notes from this interview re. your channels for earning money and think that I can introduce a couple that I don’t already employ. thanks