hey what's going on welcome to the Doug
show my name is Doug Huntington and in
this episode I am going to be answering
a reader / listener / viewer question so
I take questions from all over the place
from my blog niche site project from a
YouTube channel it's just called Doug
Huntington but you could find it out
there or from the podcast and this is a
fairly common one although it takes a
little while for people to come around
and ask this question but here it is
when is it okay to decide that a site is
not working out so what can you do when
you figure out that maybe this isn't
working out or how do you know if a site
isn't working out and never will or
should you stick with it so the reality
of answering this question is it will be
almost impossible to give a correct
answer there are just too many variables
involved there are too many different
kind of sites and it's just impossible
to know if you are in a dip or your site
rather is in a dip and if you just keep
at it it will work out or if you truly
should just move on but instead of
trying to answer the question accurately
and exactly right for everyone I'm just
gonna tell you some of my thoughts about
you know my experiences like personally
and some of the observations that I've
had just adding people sites looking at
sites that didn't work out for a while
and then maybe they did that sort of
thing so that's how we're gonna tackle
it today hopefully you'll be able to you
know see some of the you know common
characteristics that I'm gonna describe
and maybe some of the feelings that
you're having is you're working through
it and maybe it'll bring you a little
bit more clarity I hope before I get too
deep into the details here and start
answering the question I want to just
tell you to check out niche site project
com if you haven't yet I highly
encourage you to sign up for the email
a lot of templates with you like right
off the bat and the first email I send
you basically all the templates that I
use I update them over time and
generally those are going to be pretty
accurate at least has a starting point
additionally check out my youtube
channel where you can find a bunch of
tutorials there are a lot of Q&A type
live streams that I do
this could drag on for an hour - some of
them have been like two hours long when
I apparently didn't have all that much
to do or maybe I was just super enjoying
answering those questions and there are
tear downs tutorials and all sorts of
other videos including some like vlogs
where maybe a long vacation or something
like that or I'm just rambling on like a
crazy person so do check those out and I
would appreciate it if you did all right
on to the questions here so I should you
know give you an idea of you know my
experience I started creating niche
sites and like online businesses I guess
starting in 2013 and since then if I had
to I don't keep a tally but if I had to
guess I've probably started between say
twenty and forty different sites that is
just kind of off the top of my head so
quite a few right a couple few dozen but
not insane amount that quite a few and I
can tell you that only a very small
number of those ended up being like
successful at all
the good part is you don't need that
many to be successful you just need like
one or two wins that's it and then once
you once you have that you're okay so
it's a pretty poor percentage when you
look at it but over time I've gotten
better and the you know the wind
percentage goes up and basically I've
realized that the fewer things that I am
working on the better I do unto things
that I am working on so keep that in
mind as well when I first
I think probably the first three dove
five sites that I created weren't that
great so I made the mistake like a lot
of people do where once I figured out
that I could host a wordpress site and
then host multiple sites on my hosting
account that I've already paid for that
I started buying like domain names for
ideas but I had that I was gonna get
around to sometime in the future which I
never did by the way a lot of those just
sat there idle for a year and then I
just you know didn't do anything with it
or even worse I published like three or
four articles on a site and then didn't
do anything so I ended up wasting a
little money and time trying to work on
those projects so the point is I had a
few sites like right at the beginning
that didn't do much now the other thing
to keep in mind is that nowadays if you
start a new site like generally it's
probably gonna be about six months
before you're like making any sort of
significant money which I will just say
that that's about a hundred dollars per
month you know for most people if you
can make a hundred dollars per month if
you tell your friends about it if you
tell your spouse your family friends
your partner if you tell someone you're
making a hundred dollars a month
relatively passively that's cool like
people like that like a hundred dollars
a month you could do something with
right you potentially depending on how
you vacation but you could potentially
take a vacation on the twelve hundred
bucks right maybe a long weekend and
like really really do some cool stuff or
you know if you're more economic or you
have Hotel points or whatever you could
go on vacation for like a couple weeks
right so there's a lot of factors
involved that $100 a month is what I
would consider significant so the point
is it's going to take probably six
months before you're making much money
and what I can tell you also is you're
going to be investing over that six
months so it's probably going to be at
least a few hundred dollars of just
investment so you're gonna have to spend
money on hosting you'll have to spend it
potentially on content maybe some tools
like keyword research tools that sort of
thing you know you can use a lot of free
things but many times if you pay for a
tool something like semrush or kW finder
or a premium theme you'll be able to get
more work done in a shorter amount of
time and potentially have that work that
you've done like be a little bit more
accurate and a little bit more effective
so using tools even if it's expensive
isn't always a bad idea if you
eventually get the ROI from it now of
course the hard part is you don't know
which pieces are really gonna provide
the ROI but if you could save time in
general that's a really good thing so a
keyword research tool typically is gonna
be able to save you a lot of time
especially with like competition
analysis so again a tool like kW finder
is really going to be helpful so that
said I'm just gonna quickly summarize
I've had a bunch of sites that didn't
work out that well if you end up in that
position that's fine you only need one
or two to work out and then you're in
great shape and then the other thing is
if you're in that first six month period
you potentially could be in the Google
sandbox if you're brand new to SEO
making money online affiliate sites ad
based sites if you're brand new to this
area then your learning curve could be a
little bit higher right or a little bit
steeper so it could take you a little
while to figure things out so even if
you've made it through the sandbox
period it may take you just a little bit
longer so those are a couple things to
note now moving on to you know the part
where it's like should you give up
should you move on how can you you know
figure that out so number one I'm gonna
assume that you've been doing you know a
relatively good job executing a process
right so hopefully you've had some
guidelines on like what to do and when
so you have a relatively good idea on
where you should be spending your time
and the steps that you should be
executing if you've just been randomly
doing things where maybe maybe you're
following a bunch of people online this
is super common right I did this so if
you're following a bunch of people
online and everyone has a little bit of
a different strategy and you're sort of
piecemeal picking things to execute and
try out and see if it works for you that
may or may not work out now the risk is
you could be picking the things that
aren't very effective or maybe you're
missing a piece of the puzzle in that
particular strategy now if you follow
just one person which I recommend
whether it's me or someone else or a
different you know just methodology it's
it's a good idea to kind of stick with
one methodology one framework all the
way from the beginning till the end so
that you can kind of figure out how that
one works now obviously it's very
important to pick one pick that
framework or pick the person that you're
following to like make like you got to
make sure that person is like getting
the job done right you got to make sure
that person has a good framework if you
pick a bad framework then and you do it
then it's not going to work out for you
so the point is find someone who
actually knows what they're doing so
that you'll be able to execute what you
know what they say and get good results
so little example one of the reasons why
I freely give away the key word golden
ratio right kgr and it was a very hard
decision by the way but I knew that if
people tried the key word golden ratio
and it worked they would probably trust
me right they would probably trust the
other things that I'm telling them too
and if it actually works they will
probably tell other people as well and
it's been a slow grind but over time
people have discovered like by testing
the key word : ratio that it actually
works and it works pretty well across
the board across different industries
across different kind of sites and
everything so it's been you know one of
the best marketing things I could do is
just to give away the best idea that
I've had
so that said you got to make sure that
you're following a process that works
otherwise I mean it's just not gonna
work just by definition right so you got
to make sure you're following something
that's gonna work so if you're following
a process that should work because it is
actually effective it's from a reputable
person or company or whatever then and
it's still not working out you're not
getting the traffic that you expect
you're not getting the earnings that you
expect you should probably find someone
who has more experience than you to have
a look at your site now you can hire
someone right so I do this for some
people if I really think that I can help
them out but you can hire me to like on
at your site right so I can go through
give you some idea about my impression I
can look at some keywords for you and
just evaluate what you're doing and
whether it's gonna work or not you know
I can only tell you what I know based on
my experience and that sort of thing but
if you can get someone who knows more
than you it has at least a couple more
couple more years of experience than you
do it's probably really valuable
feedback and me personally I charge at
least at the time that I'm recording
this like 250 per hour so $250 for like
an hour of like one-on-one time but I
can tell you for a fact that if you are
spending a lot of time on your site and
you're investing in it generally the 250
dollars is going to be cheaper than you
continuing to spend time on something
that is not going to work or anything
like that not a sales pitch I don't do
many of these I actually turn most
people away and ask about this sort of
an audit because I can point them
towards like free information other
resources that I've already created and
just save them the money point them in
the right direction and if they still
have questions and maybe you know I
maybe I do this session but the point is
you don't have to hire me right you can
also potentially find people in like a
Facebook group although I don't really
like Facebook groups but you may be able
to find like a knowledgeable more
experienced person who is very helpful
and perhaps they have more time than me
right so I mean part of it is because I
have a blog and a platform and all that
stuff I get many requests to review
sites and I just can't do it right I
can't I don't have enough time in the
day to review people sites for free so
to you know I guess curb the demand
I charge for it right so and you know to
be honest with you if I were to do it
for free actually you know what I
learned this the hard way
right so I used to back in the day you
know a while back a couple years ago I
would actually look at someone's site
and give them tips and say hey why don't
you do this why don't you do that and
then you know what they would do nothing
they wouldn't do a damn thing so I would
waste my time give them tips and
then they wouldn't do it and basically
it was just wasting my time so the moral
of the story I'm going on a rant here
thank you for indulging me the point is
if someone pays for a service they're
more likely to take it seriously than if
I just show up and give you know free
information to someone and then they
don't do anything with it cuz they
didn't pay for it so if you have some
skin in the game you will actually pay
attention so moving on the point on the
point that I'm trying to make is you
should have someone with more experience
have a look at your site potentially
they can give you tips right they can
give you tips they could tell you hey
you actually went after a bad keyword
this is an area where the products are
way too cheap and the commission rates
too low so it's going to be really hard
for you to make money in that way you
know another insight a person may have
is maybe if you shift it over to an
information-based site you don't worry
about the affiliates
like products and affiliate reviews then
maybe you're going to be able to you
know pivot keep your same domain keep
the same topic you can repurpose the
content there
a lot of options out there and you you
may just not be aware of them yeah so
again very very valuable to you know
seek help seek an expert's opinion to
save you time now I know there's a lot
of people out there who actually don't
have you know they don't have the
resources to pay for an expert to have a
look and that's fair so again that's why
you know maybe you can get help from
someone that doesn't charge but at the
same time you know you may be giving up
some confidentiality on your site again
if you're not if you're not paying then
who knows what they're gonna do with the
information that they get from you right
but at the same time it could be
valuable if you don't have any other
options the next thing you can look at
is the competition so if you can go and
you know research and find competitors
who are out there that are you know buy
the evidence that you could find they're
making it work out and they are making
money they're getting traffic on their
site and generally you think it's
profitable then you know that it is
possible in that particular niche then
from there you know I'll backtrack in a
second but from there you can sort of
reverse engineer what is working for
competitors and then see where the gaps
are so this is sort of a classic like
gap analysis and competition analysis
exercise so now that I'm saying it out
loud it totally reminds me of my
consulting days where you know a company
would hire hire you know consultants to
come in do an evaluation on like the
current state of where things are have a
look at some competition and then
provide a gap analysis so that decisions
could be made on the direction that you
know the company wants to go to or the
direction that they want to go in rather
so the point here is really around you
know finding what's working for your
competitors and then figuring out you
know what you need to do so in this
yes you know scenario I would recommend
a tool like semrush to check out your
competitors what keywords they're
potentially ranking for based on like
real actual data you can get an
estimation of the traffic that they're
getting and from that you can have a
pretty good understanding if are they
ranking for like keywords that are
affiliate oriented and they're probably
making money you you can use those
estimates as a pretty good gauge now
it's not going to be a hundred percent
accurate and if you have a site that is
getting traffic then you know you could
easily you know check and see like what
does semrush estimate the traffic to be
and what you actually get and usually
sites are getting more traffic if I just
had to guess you know sometimes it's you
know thirty percent more traffic up to
like three to four X more traffic
depending on the number of longtail
keywords that they're ranking for so you
know that said you can get an idea like
our sites in this niche in this category
are they actually getting a lot of
traffic or is is everyone getting a
small amount of traffic so once you have
that sort of idea you can see like how
other people are doing it that means I
can do it now you do have to execute the
gap analysis part so at that point you
have to look at the content they have
the quality of the content like the
amount of content the length all on-page
SEO you know ideas there but you can go
look and get a pretty good idea of what
they're doing the next thing that you
would want to do is have a look at the
backlinks that they have so again some
rush is a good tool to use for that
if you have access to like a draft or H
refs is a I guess they're calling it now
H refs is very good as far as backlink
analysis so you can see do they have a
ton of backlinks or just a few if you
know you're probably going to find areas
where you know there are pretty big gaps
whether it's in the
tenth the quality of the content or in
the backlink profile so you could figure
out like is this something that I can
emulate can I you know slice this down
to a small scale so I that I can execute
on like a small little test and see if I
can maybe get traffic to one or two
posts and then from there you know you
can expand based on what's working
versus what's not working so pretty
straightforward like once you you know
say it out loud conceptually look at the
competition or other people doing it if
so what are they doing what are they
doing with their on-site SEO what are
they doing with their off-site SEO
obviously it gets complicated really
quick but at that point like you have an
understanding like is this possible or
is this like too much my in over my head
now what you may find out and this is
the case where you would bail is if you
you know you find a couple sites that
are competitors that seem to be you know
executing well as far as like the
content that they have on their their
site and if you find that they aren't
even ranking well and no one is in that
particular category then it's probably a
no-go
however you know if you find that there
are a handful that are getting quite a
bit of traffic that's probably a good
sign so if other people are doing it I
mean you can - and it's just a matter of
figuring out like what to do now
the finally like if you're going down
this route and it looks like you know
you're not you're not in a niche that is
gonna get much traffic or maybe the
competitors are just like really really
amazing and you're not going to be able
to do much with them you may need to
bail so there's a couple options when
you want to bail one would be
potentially just selling your site right
selling your site maybe on Flippa maybe
to a private individual but that is not
without its downside so unless you're
skilled in like migrating a site and
taking care of like all the loose ends
that are
very apparent once you start trying to
migrate a site if you're not skilled in
that you may want to just not do it or
work with a broker now the thing is a
broker probably needs you to have a site
this is making pretty good money
typically they're going to take a
percentage so working with a broker may
not really be an option flippa is you
know an option for sites that aren't
making any money and it could be that
you're able to find someone that you
know see something in your site maybe
they have a similar site or maybe it
just fits what they're looking for for
some reason or another and you could
sell it to them but again like I said
there's a whole migration from like you
know your hosting to there hosting
transferring the domain name and all
that stuff so if that sounds scary to
you you may not want to get into it
technically it's not that crazy not that
difficult if you've done it before but
if you haven't it can get messy pretty
quick and you know when you're dealing
with with Flippa and you're dealing with
money in escrow and all that stuff
there's just a lot of moving pieces
where at some point you may just want to
like move on so this is maybe your
second option here just to eat the sunk
cost and just move on so the funny thing
with sunk cost which I should do a whole
episode on sometime is you've already
spent the money yet we're hanging on to
it hanging on to whatever it is even
though it would actually be better off
for you to just move on and just like
lose the money so let's just make up
some examples let's say you've invested
a thousand dollars over the past you
know eighteen months on a site and
you're trying to figure out whether or
not you should you know work on this new
site which you've already started and
things are sort of working out well or
if you
split your time like you have been by
working on this old site that doesn't
seem to be working out and you know also
working on your new site which seems to
be working out and you may think mana
you know I invested that thousand
dollars over the past eighteen months I
have been working on it I spent so much
time on it you know hundreds of hours
and I really hate to just throw it away
but it turns out it may actually be
better for you just to throw it away
just get rid of the content let the
domain expire just move on and work on
that new site because the thing is like
you're splitting your attention you're
splitting your time and if you focus on
the one site you may be better off
typically when I've talked to people who
really are doing well a lot of times is
they started doing even better when they
you know cut off projects that were ok
they cut off their projects that were
good but not great and then they only
worked on the great things it's really
hard to do and I know a lot of people
out there maybe be are shaking
their heads at me
maybe you're yelling at me through
through the speaker but I mean it's
really hard to move on but a lot of
times moving on is just better so leave
those sunk costs behind and just move on
to the next thing that's working out a
little better
maybe you can you know figure out the
lessons you learn through you know the
project that didn't work out and moving
on will be even better you'll start
working on something that has more
traction maybe you already have a site
that has more traction and moving on to
that you'll be a little bit more
motivated you're not going to be wasting
you know your time on this
you know project it has all these sunk
costs so again I say that and I've had a
really hard time letting go myself
so one strategy you may be able to use
which I've done personally is not to cut
it off completely but to just let it sit
and effectively I'm
I've cut off some projects these are you
know sites that I've started loaded him
up with content and I've just let them
sit and I was I was thinking hey I can
always come back in six months whenever
I do have time you never have time by
the way so you know six months turns
into eighteen months turns into three
years and at that point you have an aged
aged site which you actually can come
back to at some point if you want to or
you know I may actually get rid of some
of these you know projects that I
haven't touched in a while but the point
is you can like you could move on
without actually like killing them
completely if that makes sense so I've
done that where I just let them sit so
if you can't if you can't take my advice
like I can't take my own advice all
right I get the irony there but you can
you could effectively stop working on
something so that you can spend your
time on the things that really are more
effective so the other thing that like
the sub question the person asked is
around like how to make some money back
so that maybe you can you know at least
not lose everything so depending on
where you know this act came from if
it's the if it's like a site that you
created from scratch it may be a little
tough to sell it out there but you know
flip it could be an option one thing you
could do if you happen to have purchased
a done-for-you site which I know a lot
of people out there have purchased
done-for-you sites you may be able to go
back to the broker that you purchased it
from and potentially sell it back all
right so if you if you bought a site and
it really didn't catch catch on for you
you may be able to sell it back to the
broker that sold it to you so I haven't
heard anyone specifically do this but
the thing that I know because I really
purchased an aged site is that you know
people sell age sites so there's a value
in having the you know content out there
for a while potentially some backlinks
you
actually tried to work on it and they
were you may be able to get a pretty
good maybe not a you know profit but you
may be able to reclaim a lot of the
money that you spent by selling it back
to whoever you bought it from now like I
said I've never heard of an example of
that but it would be worth worth a shot
and generally a company that is selling
done-for-you site doesn't want you to be
like unsuccessful so they may lend a
hand give you a little bit more support
maybe you didn't get enough support or
maybe you didn't ask for enough support
initially but you know is it's worth it
to check right there's no harm in asking
that company if they want to purchase
the site back and like I said I'm doing
this case study where I just purchased
an aged site and I'll be you know doing
the typical stuff that I talk about
keyword research adding content adding
backlinks to see how quickly an aged
site will you know start making money
and how quickly it can grow so I'm very
interested to you know get rolling with
that the time that I'm recording this
right now
I have just purchased it the site's
being migrated over to my hosting and
I'm gonna be you know starting to work
on it very soon here so if I'm gonna
round out this sort of meandering
episode basically you can you can
potentially try and sell a site on you
know marketplace like Flippa or you
could try and sell it back to a broker
and maybe if you've figured out that you
know the site isn't gonna go anywhere by
talking to an expert maybe you just need
to move on let the site go away
just it's a sunk cost it's in the past
and you could move forward with what
you've learned and work on a site that
maybe is getting more traction for you
right now or just to move on and start a
new site again with more knowledge than
you had before I think it could be very
important to you know get
the input of someone more experienced so
you could you know hopefully not make
the same mistakes surely you've made
some observations yourself on things
that you can do better but it's always
good to have a second or third pair of
eyes you know looking at something so
that you can get other opinions out
there and by the way that's another
great reason to have a mastermind group
so that you have people that you can you
know talk to about these sort of ideas
to give you inputs from a different
perspective so I've rambled on a lot and
if you have questions yourself you can
reach me I don't have the phone number
right here but you could check the the
show notes you could actually leave a
voicemail and I will play it on the air
probably if you want me to or you could
shoot me an email at feedback show we
will catch you next time I hope you
found this episode helpful and have a
great day all right thanks a lot for
joining me on the Doug show I really do
appreciate you taking the time if you're
not subscribed please consider
subscribing I have a ton of other
episodes out there covering lots of
different topics sometimes I just tell
stories if you are a long time listener
I appreciate you too if you haven't left
a review that is awesome because now you
have an opportunity to leave a review
and that would be totally cool and I
would really appreciate it if you're
looking to get started with affiliate
marketing or making money online or
anything like that you should go over to
niche site project comm that is my blog
once you're over there you just click
the green button enter your name and
email address and then I'll send you a
bunch of cool stuff also new templates
some motivational emails and I think
there's probably just some random emails
that I send out there also so we'll
catch you next time on the Doug show
Thanks
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