I'm making a change

Building niche sites has become my hobby and is no longer my career.

As I’m sitting at my computer typing this… it hurts to say, but it’s become the truth.

Today, March 15, marks about 8 months since I bought a niche site.

That is AGES for me. I used to buy 7-10 a year.

But things have changed, and I want to share why.

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But first, the elephant in the room… SEO still works remarkably well.

A partnership I’m working on just crossed $100k in total revenue just last month. So, it still works.

But it has definitely changed. At least for smaller, less authoritative sites.

So much so that I don’t trust it to give me a return on my money like it did in the past.

It’s simple investing 101. I only want to dump time, money, and resources into something I will get a return on, an ROI.

SEO used to be soooo easy that I could drop $10k on a site and get 10X back. I can still do this, but the volatility is just too much for my heart (and wallet) to take.

Let me give you an example…

If you bought a house with the plan to turn it into a rental property and the whole house burned down… you still own the property and whatever is left of the house. You can invest money back into the house, and at the end of the day, you still have a house!

Not so much with a niche site.

If the site burns down, it’s gone. There's not really anything you can do about it. ( I understand you could concentrate on other traffic sources, but sheesh… I don’t trust Zuckerberg either based on past experience, but maybe that is just on me)

So what am I saying here, really…

For the first time in nearly 10 years of doing SEO, I would NOT recommend someone start a niche site.

There are other side hustles that can replace your income, and they are more predictable and won’t leave you flat.

I speak to you not from a place of hurt. I had a couple of sites that were hit, but nothing crazy. I also sold 2 of my niche sites literally days before the HCU hit.

Anything you do is going to be risky, in fact, the definition of entrepreneurship is, “someone who starts a business willing to take on more RISK than others”

That said, I fear that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth here, but I’m still running 2 niche sites at the moment, and they seem to be growing sideways.

I’ll still be here reporting wins, but don’t be surprised to see what else is working in marketing as time goes on.

Chat soon,
Chris Myles
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