#70 | Know when to quit your niche site

I think the most frustrating thing in the world is when something takes longer than you expected.

Think about it…

  • Traffic jams
  • Flight delays
  • Flat pack furniture
  • Being stuck on hold
  • Watching a toddler eat corn on the cob

All annoying AF.

If you knew how long it would take from the start, you wouldn’t mind so much, right?

And you know what?

This annoyed AF feeling is being felt by a lot of us right now.

With those damn Google Updates setting us back.

Has your site been smacked down by Google?

Yeah, me too.

Most of mine have, actually.

And it’s easy to think of that as going backwards.

If you were making $100 per day and now you’re making only $50 it sure feels like you’re going backwards!

But wait a minute…

If you could fast-forward three years into the future and then zoom out at your graph…

You’ll see that it’s just a little blip.

It’s just things taking a little longer than expected.

And while yes, that’s annoying as hell.

It’s certainly not a reason to quit.

No way!

If you have a strong desire to succeed…

If you want to make your website the best website on the internet in your niche,

Then be patient.

Get your head down.

You got this.

I know you can do it.

And I’m rooting for you.

Sometimes though, you should just quit.

Honestly, a bunch of people reading this right now, should throw in the towel on their sites.

Is that you?

If you match one of these four points, I’d suggest so.

1. You have too many sites

If you have 10 niche sites and not much time/resources, I’d probably quit 8 or 9 of them.

Sell, pause, whatever.

If you’re a one-person business or have only a small team, just pick one to work one.

2. Your niche is too broad

If you’ve made yourself a super-broad site, I’d quit that too.

I mean niches like ‘travel’ or ‘sports’ or ‘parenting’.

Peppering it with random underserved topics is a tactic that worked a couple of years ago.

But it doesn’t work so well now.

So if you do keep the site, I suggest picking your best category and lasering in on that.

3. Your site is too large

If you’ve made yourself a huge site with thousands of articles and they’re getting only a handful of clicks each, I’d quit that.

Why? Because updating them all is such a massive task.

Yes, you can ‘bulk publish’. But you can’t ‘bulk improve’.

You may be better to start from scratch.

4. You’re in the wrong niche

If you’re in a niche that you have no desire to participate in in real life, I’d quit that.

You’re never going to have the best pickleball website if you never play pickleball, are you?

Either join your local team, or give the site to someone who actually plays.

Remember…

This is what Google wants you to do.

They want you to create outstanding content, or quit.

You don’t have to listen to me.

I’m not your mum.

You can carry on doing a half-arsed job.

You can argue your reasons for quantity over quality.

You can carry on blaming the algorithm.

You can unsubscribe, block me on Twitter, send me a turd in the post.

Whatever.

(That address at the bottom is my accountant, not my house, so don’t actually do that pls because he’s a nice guy)

Or, you can pick a side

  • Heads – Knuckle down for the long haul and make the world’s best content.
  • Tails – Cash out and start a project that suits you better.

It’s your call.

– NSL


P.S. This email list now has 15,000 people on it. Thank you so much for being part of the gang!

I’m going to announce something in a couple of days – I’ll email you with the details, but I think you’ll like it. ❤️