Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast!
This week Jared and Thomas talk about Google’s March 2025 Core Update, news that AI search engines struggle with proper citation, and the DOJ’s push to break up Google’s monopoly. When it comes to Side Hustle Shenanigans, Thomas reveals a viral Facebook page strategy that netted 22,000+ likes for just $200. Lastly, they share some weird niche websites, including a secret gaming site and a vintage toaster business.
Let’s dive into the details!
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Google’s March 2025 Core Update
Google’s March 2025 Core Update has officially rolled out, and this one comes with an interesting promise: prioritizing content creators. While core updates typically take two to four weeks to fully roll out, early signs suggest that human-created content is seeing a boost.
Key takeaways:
- Google’s announcement emphasized improving visibility for content creators.
- Some website owners, like Thomas, have already noticed significant traffic increases on original human-written content.
- Google Discover traffic is up, suggesting a greater focus on surfacing quality, engaging content.
- This shift may not be purely altruistic—Google relies on high-quality human content to train its AI models.
- Speculation remains: Will AI-generated content see a decline in rankings?
While it’s too early to say for sure how this will play out, initial data suggests that content creators who have been struggling after past updates may finally see a win. However, fluctuations are common during these rollouts, so patience and monitoring are key.
AI Search Has a Major Citation Problem
A recent study by the Columbia Journalism Review analyzed eight AI search engines and found they all struggle with proper attribution and accuracy when citing news sources.
Key findings:
- 60% of AI-generated citations were incorrect.
- One chatbot, Grok3, had a staggering 94% error rate in citations.
- AI tools rarely admitted uncertainty and often fabricated information instead of refusing to answer.
- Some chatbots disregarded robots.txt rules and accessed blocked content, raising ethical concerns.
- AI frequently linked to syndicated versions of news rather than original sources, creating issues for publishers.
This highlights a major flaw in AI-generated search results: they struggle with real-time, breaking news. Unlike Google, which has spent years refining its ability to surface fresh content, AI models primarily rely on older training data and struggle to integrate new information.
For publishers, this raises concerns about AI scraping content without proper attribution and the potential monetization impact. With Google seemingly leaning toward surfacing more human-created content, could this be their competitive advantage against AI-driven search competitors?
The DOJ’s Push to Break Up Google
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is intensifying its antitrust case against Google, proposing a series of drastic measures that could reshape the search and digital advertising landscape.
The DOJ’s key proposals:
- Forcing Google to divest Chrome, which would significantly impact its ability to collect user data.
- Banning exclusive agreements that make Google the default search engine on browsers and devices.
- Requiring Google to open its search data to competitors for a decade.
- Implementing government oversight on AI-related investments to prevent Google from monopolizing AI search.
While Google intends to appeal, the bipartisan support for stronger antitrust measures suggests real change may be coming. If Chrome is divested, Google’s ability to track user behavior across the web could be severely diminished, affecting its advertising dominance.
For digital marketers and website owners, this could have wide-reaching implications. More competition in search could mean more traffic diversity, but it could also disrupt ad revenue models.
Facebook Page Growth for Pennies
Thomas shared his recent success with a Facebook page growth strategy that leveraged viral-style engagement ads.
His strategy breakdown:
- Focused on viral, high-engagement topics (dogs, cats, and religion).
- Used AI-generated ads to create engaging posts.
- Ran a Facebook Likes campaign at $0.006 per like—a fraction of the typical cost.
- Grew the page to 22,000+ likes in under two weeks.
- Experimenting with monetization options, including the Facebook bonus program and external traffic arbitrage.
This experiment highlights the potential of Facebook for low-cost audience building. The next step? Figuring out how to best monetize this audience through either direct monetization on Facebook or by driving traffic to external platforms.
Weird Niche Websites of the Week
What appears to be a site about culinary schools is actually a hub for unblocked games, likely targeting students trying to bypass school internet filters. The site, Culinary Schools, is a kids’ gaming haven.
- The site gets 500,000+ organic visits per month.
- It ranks highly for “[game name] unblocked” queries, helping kids access games even when browsing restrictions are in place.
- Monetization is likely ad-based, given the high page views and engagement time.
This clever pivot showcases how rebranding and targeting a new audience can completely transform a website’s success.
Michael, a vintage toaster enthusiast, has built a business restoring and reselling antique toasters over at Toaster Central.
- His website ranks for terms like “vintage toasters” and “antique toaster restoration.”
- Some refurbished toasters sell for hundreds of dollars.
- He provides educational content on toaster history and maintenance, positioning himself as the go-to expert in the niche.
This is a great example of a passion-driven niche that has turned into a profitable online business.
Final Thoughts
This week’s topics—from Google’s update to AI’s citation failures and the DOJ’s crackdown—underscore the rapid changes happening in search and digital marketing. The key takeaways for content creators and marketers:
- If you produce high-quality human-written content, you may benefit from Google’s latest update.
- AI search still struggles with accuracy, particularly for real-time news content.
- Major antitrust changes could shake up search and advertising—stay tuned.
- Low-cost Facebook audience growth is possible, but the real challenge is monetization.
- Weird niches can be goldmines, whether it’s kids’ gaming sites or vintage toasters.
As always, these developments will continue to evolve, and keeping a close eye on the trends will be key. Be sure to tune in next week for more updates!
