At what point do you wave the white flag?
Update: Pedro (I-Pedro-I) sent me some great links about E.A.T., which is something that Google is looking for now, especially with health and money sites. EAT means Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust. I'm going to post the links here in case this helps anyone else.
Thank you, Pedro!
- https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/08/core-updates.html
- https://www.mariehaynes.com/eat/
- https://www.pathinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/docs/Lily_Ray_-_Leveraging_EAT_for_SEO_Success_-_Brighton_SEO-_compressed.pdf
- https://neilpatel.com/blog/googles-advice-for-seo/
New question: how do we show that we're authorities in our niches? I don't know about you, but I haven't personally written any books on the topic on MMO (something they look for) and I don't have a degree in it. Any ideas?
At what point do you evaluate your webiste and say "This clearly isn't working?" and move on?
I know most people say "Just keep going, just keep going!" but there has be a point when it doesn't make sense to keep going anymore?
I've put a lot of time and effort into my site, but traffic is getting worse and worse by the day.
I had a total of 30 people on my site yesterday. Just a couple of Google searches. This is great if you're just starting out. Not so much when you're 11 months in.
I'm just wondering if you have a set point where you decide it's not working and you need to move on to something else?
I would hate to spend even more time and effort on this and be in the same spot a few months from now.
What are your thoughts?
- Christina
P.S. To anyone new, this is not to discourage you. Thisis a great business. But not everything you do works out perfectly and sometimes you need to adjust.
P.P.S. I don't recommend starting with the make money online niche. :)
Recent Comments
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In the ocean we call the Internet a piece of advice Warren Buffett has to share is,
“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”
Just try to look at using social media, if you haven't already, in other words try different angles and avenues, have built a decent list?
Just a few ideas,
Stuart
Thanks Stuart. I do use social media, but probably not enough. I have to get back to YouTube videos. I use Facebook and Twitter but they're not going anywhere... I don't have enough followers at this point. Story of my life! haha
- Christina
Am trying Pinterest at the moment, but hit a brick wall today, it keeps me young. lol
If you need a chat do pm more than happy to try to help, also want to get earning serious money.
Take care,
Stuart
Hi Christina. I agree that at some point we have to review and revise. Something you did, in the beginning, clicked when people started visiting your site. Have you looked at your competition to get ideas so that you can find ways to improve?
I do have one site that I have let idle for some time while I am working on another but I just can't seem to give up on it yet.
Hope you find an answer.
Ray
Hey Ray! I do look at the competition often to see if I'm close to what they're doing and what I can do better. I don't know. I think the sites that are ranking just have more authority, I guess?
- Christina
You might want to check AJ's recent post it has a lot of info that might help you make a good choice.
Ray
In the same boat as you, I am about to pull the trigger on a blackhat campaign as a last resort to jump-start my MMO site. I feel kinda lucky that I started with non MMO site which has been far better, it gives me something to fall back on.
I agree with your last sentiment, I would advise anyone against getting into the MMO niche, it's just way too competitive and Google is definitely making it harder to rank these sites.
Google is absolutely killing us these days. I hope that campaign works out for you... let us know!
- Christina
I'm sorry you're experiencing this, I'm sure it's difficult. Instead of "waving the white flag," maybe you should have your site evaluated by Jay or someone else with some good SEO talents and see if they can point out what the issues might be.
At 11 months in, you've put in a considerable amount of work and energy into the site. I would try every avenue and fix every little issue before considering a different niche, especially if this is a topic you're super passionate about.
That's just my 2 cents.
I really hope things work out for you and your site!
All the best, Shannon
Thank you for this, Shannon! I keep thinking about Jay's coaching program, but then it's just more money into something that may or may not work out...
- Christina
The traffic on both my MMO sites sucks and it seems to get worse every month. I put 4 years into one site, but no more, and the same with the second. There's no point putting energy into something that's going backwards. You're better off focusing on your niche site.
Yep it's sucking right now, traffic seems to constantly be decreasing for me too. I'm probably gonna slow down on the production for my bootcamp site and work another website at the same time that'll hopefully be less competitive and profitable sooner.
At this point focusing on the mmo niche isn't the greatest because the updates by Google seem to constantly be dragging us down. This is why it's probably in our best intrests to work on a slightly less competitive niche whilst and updating the mmo site less regularly.
I think you've hit a key point - have we chosen a highly competitive niche to throw all our time into??
If so, we're fighting an uphill battle towards the top 10 rankings, and 1st page of Google searches.
Yeah it's definitely a highly competitive niche, you've got to put in a lot more work than other niches to bare the fruits of your labour.
I've been going really hard for the last year or so (right now I'm on 281 posts) and at one point I was on a constant upwards trajectory however, since the June update my website seems like it's getting worse every month.
I wouldn't suggest you give up on it but I would definitely recommend dabbling in another niche that's got as much potential as the MMO niche but less competition.
I was thinking of making this my strategy too. Slow down a little on the MMO site and work on a different one that's less competitive.
- Christina
Perhaps a shift in how you approach the niche will be more effective. I mean by this using other channels for traffic i.e. social platforms that are congruent with your overall business plan.
You may have to go back and reevaluate your overall business plan and methods and messages you are using. They all need to tie together, and each piece of content can support and refer the reader to that message(s)...
It might be good to get an objective analysis of your overall business operation and have that person provide some advice. You can take it or leave it, but it might be just the ticket...
The MMO niche is not so easy to attack, and it is so broad that it may pay to further narrow the focus somewhat to one means of MMO...
There are many ways other than affiliate marketing too that can complement one another. Some niches span several market segments, i.e. training, or tools that are used by all online marketers...
I wish you luck, after 11 months of work, it may just be some tweaking that is required to make it all take off. Most certainly you can go back and edit the content a bit to have it point to whatever direction you decide to go, no sense wasting all that work...
Cheers!
Dave : )
I agree with Dave here. Keep the site. Re-evaluate your business plan.
I'll also add, think about what part of your business you actually enjoy, and focus on that.
Thanks so much, Dave! This gives me a lot to think about and ways I can maybe narrow my focus a bit.
I do use social media some, but not enough and I know I can improve with that.
- Christina
Well, I love writing. I actually enjoy doing reviews. I have been doing that. But it's not getting me very far at this point. I'll just keep plugging away at it...
- Christina
Quitting a site that isn't working isn't surrender. It's smart. otherwise you just end up wasting a lot of time and energy and suffering burn out on something that's going backwards. That's just demoralising.
Better to change battle tactics and find something that's more successful.
Hello Christina! I am new to WA and I know nothing of internet, SEO etc. But I do know something about business and life.
In the short time that I have been here, your tenacity, your positive attitude and you smile has been a joy to me.
I would say that when a project or a situation gets too overwhelming, before throwing in the towel, step back for a minute. catch your breath, find everything in your life that you can be grateful for. For the love of your two beautiful children, for the air that we have to breath, for the shelter we have and the food that we eat. For Gods peace that is always there underneath any noise or confusion. Do whatever you do to go back to that peace, that love, and rest there for awhile.
Then after that, take a fresh look and evaluate your situation. Perhaps put a small or comfortable amount of effort in deciding what to do with your current niche. Perhaps find another niche that you love and do some work on that while letting your current website set for awhile.
Don't give up on it yet. You love that niche and we all know that its a good one, though probably one of the most competitive. Let it mature while starting a new niche that you love and that comes natural for you.
I don't really know the answer, but I know you can and will find it.
Take care. Ken
He has good quotes! :) Thanks for this. And I saw your other message and I will respond to it in a little.
- Christina
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I really hope its a rut that you'll come flying out of and the numbers will pick up. Selfishly as well as I'm 3 months (and lots of hours!) in to my mmo site!
Thing is you are asking questions of the right people here and those that are making a success of the niche so there must be something somewhere although no idea what.
But like everthing there comes a point where you have to draw a line under and move on.
Be really inerested to see how other peoples sites were at 11 months with a similar amount of posts. Those who made it to Vegas last year for example. Was traffic all organic, were they doing something different.
Easy for me to say but stay positive. I feel a bit like that with my niche site as my ideas for articles have dried up and I'm not monetising it. Hence why I'm focusing on the new MMO one for the next few months and just adding a post a week on the niche one.
Really hope you get some motivational responses and more importantly some that will give you the confidence that you will succeed.
Kev
Thanks so much, Kev! I have looked at other sites from the Super Affiliates, and they all had way more traffic at this point. (Well, that's easy since I barely have traffic!)
For instance, I think I looked at Grace's numbers and in her 10th month I think she had over 10k visitors per month.
I know most of them use organic traffic.
I hope your MMO site does better than mine! I would definitely think of using YouTube.
- Christina