The Open AI Drama, New Google Features, the Best Black Friday Deals, and a Weird Cloud Niche Site

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, where Spencer and Jared cover the latest news in SEO, AI, affiliate marketing, and content creation.

As always, there’s a lot that happened since the previous episode, and they talk about the best Black Friday deals, so don’t miss this one!

The first news story they cover was the major upheaval at OpenAI over the last few days. Essentially, the board ousted Sam Altman as its CEO due to a lack of confidence and trust in him. 

This led to a whirlwind of events: other employees quit in solidarity, he was hired by Microsoft, and then the board at OpenAI changed course and hired him back. 

What does this all mean and how will it eventually play out? How did Sam and Microsoft really fare in this debacle? And how does this ultimately impact content creators? Tune in to hear Spencer and Jared’s takeaways.

The next bit of news they cover is that Google is testing out a “Simple Search” function, which would allow users to filter their search queries and simplify them. 

How exactly does it work? What does this mean for the Search Generative Experience? What is Google really doing as it implements all of these changes? And what does it mean for bloggers? Listen and find out.

The next topics are about shopping, which could not be more appropriate, since it is Black Friday after all.

Google is now using AI to help people shop for their holiday gifts. Spencer and Jared discuss how it works and show the demo. Essentially, AI will help refine gift categories and help people find exactly what they’re looking for. The new functions even let you virtually try on clothes!

In other shopping news, Amazon has announced that, on Black Friday, its Prime Video will feature shoppable ads, allowing users to scan QR codes to make “instant purchases” during the NFL game.

Speaking of shopping, as it’s Black Friday, Spencer and Jared forgo the usual Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast to share some of the biggest and best deals they’ve seen this season.

They talk about special discounts on Spencer’s tools, like Link Whisper and Rank Logic, as well as on Jared’s photography course. To save big on the best tools, check out the Niche Pursuits Black Friday Deals page!

As for this week’s Weird Niche Sites, Spencer goes first and reveals Rhyme Zone which, as the name suggests, identifies words that rhyme with your chosen word. The extensive results are organized by syllable. But what’s really shocking is how much traffic the site gets! It’s off the charts!

How is it monetized? And what could it do better to earn more from ads? Listen to the episode for all the details.

Jared’s site is a bit more whimsical: Cloud Appreciation Society. This weird site features everything from the cloud of the day and cloud of the month to a “Recent Clouds Spotted” section.

It also has a very cool UGC feature that Jared and Spencer discuss, as well as the possibility of buying a membership. Is this DR69 site ranking for a lot of keywords? How is it probably doing in terms of revenue? 

And that brings us to the end of another episode! Hopefully, you feel like you’re in the loop and caught up on recent happenings with Google and SEO. See you next week for another jam-packed episode!

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