Up Fuel I work full time for myself and one of the main benefits of this fact is the chance to do nothing but browse the web if I want to and so recently I decided to do just that. In my browsing I came across numerous blogs that I used to read back in 2008 or 2009 that aren’t updated any more. As I began to look at the blogs I noticed several trends that I believe can be correlated with why they failed in the first place and my observations are listed below:
1. Failure to differentiate from the competing blogs within the same niche
This is probably the most crucial issue at stake. If you aren’t covering your subject matter in a way that is different than your competitors you’ll find trouble gaining traction as readers will see little reason to go to your website as opposed to another competitor.
2. Mediocre / Regurgitated Content
It should go without saying, but you should also know mediocre content will only eat up your time and at best only provide a relatively slow moving growth curve. If you’re happy with adding 1 – 2 new RSS readers or newsletter subscribers a day then keep on churning out content just for the point of having something new, but if you want to truly spark interest on your blog and grow it rapidly the best way to do it is with unique and valuable content. (Content is King yes we’ve all heard this before, but people still apparently refuse to focus on it)
3. Noticeable lack of expert knowledge on the subject matter
This is primarily something I see in the make money online niche, but I have seen it in other blogs. The potential profit margins are high and people are often times first exposed to the idea of making money online by a blog discussing the topic so perhaps that’s why there are so many terrible blogs out there on the subject. Worse yet, the people running these blogs either have no prior successes to speak of or are only making a few dollars off of promoting the Thesis theme and convincing more new people to start their own make money online blog.
How I failed before:
I know these three signs of failure all too well because I fit the model perfectly. Three years ago I was still struggling to make money online and like an idiot I turned to writing about making money online as the solution. I did very little to differentiate myself from the other bloggers covering the subject matter and since I had no real major successes in the realm of earning money online I wasn’t able to provide valuable information to my readers. Because I had no true knowledge on the subject it was difficult to get more than 1 new reader a day to subscribe to my blog despite the fact that I was publishing articles three times a week.
Why I won’t fail this time:
Armed with lessons learned from my previous failure I decided to once again come back to this niche now that I was already earning a full time income online and had learned a lot. The fact that I’m a earning a full time income from my websites and discussing it here on my blog is already somewhat of a differentiator as most of my competitors run blogs just like mine 3 years ago, don’t make their living off websites and offer little value in the information they share. To further differentiate myself I run this blog without using any advertisements except for a couple affiliate links from products I’ve found to be helpful to me, which again in this niche is a rarity. I also know these strategies are already working as I now have 4 times as many readers as my old blog did in less than 5 months of going live.
How you can avoid failure:
If you’re already writing in a niche where you aren’t any different than your competitors, you’re wasting your time. Quit now or find a way to be different.
If you aren’t writing truly valuable or unique information that your readers can learn from you’re wasting your time. Quit now or consider spending more time on your articles and publish less of them.
If you don’t have unique knowledge on a particular subject matter you you present yourself as an expert you’re only kidding yourself. Quit now or learn enough about the subject to offer something of value to your readers. Alternatively you can move out to other smaller niches and dominate in those first (that worked well for me).
Wrap Up:
These problems can be applied to any website I run and this is precisely why I scout out the competition and ensure my website does a better job of serving them than the competitors. For smaller niche websites that are only around for getting search traffic all of what I said above doesn’t matter as much (I have plenty of small income producing websites like this). But if you want to build an authority blog, website, service etc. in any niche you need to ensure you’re solving a problem in a way as good (or preferably) better than anyone else is doing it.
What do you think? Am I just on a little bit of a rant and should get back to discussing more hard facts about making money online and writing more case studies or am I onto something? That’s not to say I won’t continue to do that in my future blog posts, but I really am interested to hear what you think about these types of rants articles.
With that said, I have a few exciting things coming up later this week including a review of a WordPress plugin and more importantly a feature post that will help you save some money and time.
It always comes back to that common reader question, “What’s in it for me?” If that question isn’t clearly answered early on, a blog definitely won’t survive long. One thing I think works well in any niche is to be transparent. If you’re not an expert, then fess up to that up front and report honestly on what works and doesn’t work for you along the way. I like how James Richmond (The Infopreneur) does this.
.-= Jean Sarauer´s last blog ..When Bad Things Happen to Good Bloggers =-.
Yes, I should have clarified that people that aren’t experts can’t be successful with a blog (thinking of Man vs Debt blog) and I agree that if you aren’t an expert to make sure that’s clear.
Also, in case anyone was wondering – I don’t think I’m an expert either. I’ve learned enough to be able to support my business, but I’m not pulling in millions of dollars a year either so there’s plenty of room for improvement.
I see where you’re coming from, and you definitely have to be different to flourish. I agree with Jean in that you should be honest with your readers, tell them what worked for you and tell them where you failed along the way. Build some trust and talk to them not at them.
.-= Mike Roosa´s last blog ..Forum Marketing Ninja Tip #4 � How May I Help You? =-.
Hey Mike,
Thanks for stopping by. Yah, I love sharing both successes and failures (especially because some of my failures are pretty embarrassing hah hah)
I see you have the same band of followers as the Infoprenuer. I guess you guys all back each other up by going from blog to blog leaving comments. You would do well to leave this crew behind unless you want to make money off of them.
You’ve been around since 2008 and still haven’t learned that the odds of you or any of your “followers” making money by becoming popular is a losing proposition? Either you do know that or you are trying to mislead them.
Pick keywords, write content, get anchored links. That’s all you need to know. How hard is that?
All your social blogging is a waste of time. I learned that after 6 months and apparently you are still trying to become famous. Good luck with that. LOL (by the way, I make 3-4 times what you make with just keywords, content, and links) and I live outside Seattle just like you do).
Again, that’s keywords, content, and links. None of the other things you guys preach mean a thing. Oh, I forgot, you are trying to “build a list” so you can sell to them just like all the “gurus” tell you to.
Greetings Jack Bauer, I was glad to see you were able to make it out of your busy schedule in the final season of 24 to stop by.
I don’t follow the Infoprenuer but I have seen his blog before. Truth be told I only read a few blogs in this niche and only the blogs of people that earn good money.
I think you must have missed the point where I said I restarted this blog in mid January of this year. I do think that for most people it’s not worth the time and effort to try and becoming popular and that it will never happen. I’m not sure where I am misleading anyone though…
“Pick keywords, write content, get anchored links. That�s all you need to know. How hard is that?”
Yah that isn’t that hard. It’s what I do for all the websites I run including this one. I also like to write about things that I’m using on my other websites etc.
“All your social blogging is a waste of time. I learned that after 6 months and apparently you are still trying to become famous. Good luck with that. LOL (by the way, I make 3-4 times what you make with just keywords, content, and links) and I live outside Seattle just like you do).”
How do you find the time to make money online when you’re out fighting terrorists? Kidding of course, but when I do have 10,000 readers will you stop by to congratulate me?
In any case, Jack if you’re based in WA why don’t you send me an email and we can meet up? I don’t mind taking criticism even from people that don’t want to identify themselves by name, but if you think I’m like every other blogger in this niche than I’m not doing a good enough job showing that I’m different. For one, I’m self employed because of my website earnings and two I’m not constantly trying to sell something to people.
I’ve already said before I make much more money by running websites outside this niche and that’s where I recommend people to start first. You’re right though, it’s really not worth the effort for anyone to blog in this niche if they aren’t already earning a lot of money on other websites (like I am doing) that’s why I failed before and why I won’t fail this time. If you think I’m still going to fail that’s fine by me – just more motivation to succeed.
In any case, I’m sure you can find that contact link if you want to email. I’m still surprised you bother to stop by blogs like mine if you’re already making 20k per month though. It seems odd that someone pulling down a quarter million dollars a year would take time out of their day to be a comment troll. Unless perhaps you aren’t making that much money?
I’m Jack Bauer and I can do any damn thing I want. Anyway I’ve just about put an end to terrorism so I have more time on my hands, now. I choose to entertain myself by comment trolling.
After a long day of killing Russians and Arabs who are trying to take down this country, I like to unwind by seeing what all the other bloggers are up to. I’m already famous so I don’t need a “list” but if that’s what you are after, good luck.
Hey Jack,
I suppose you’re right. I’m too afraid of stopping your comments and so I just have to publish them for fear of the wrath. I don’t think I’ve ever uttered the annoying phrase “the money is in the list” or anything else to that effect. The only reason why I have a list is to be able to stay in contact with readers and provide additional information.
You really don’t think I’m different than any other blogger in this space though huh?
Well, you just put up a Ninja Affiliate plugin review and called it a “must have”. It’s not a must have by any means in my book so no, looks like you are similar to the other “make money” bloggers.
That’s cool if you want to market to other bloggers and Internet marketers but I hope you know you won’t make too much. AND the people searching for “make money on the Internet” won’t be interested in that kind of stuff as they are all trying to make their first dime and probably don’t know one thing about having their own website.
If you are going to rank for all the “make money” keywords, you should be pitching real basic stuff. That’s if you want to make money.
Hey Jack,
I have to hand it to you, the more you comment the more I can see that you know what you’re talking about (Not being facetious here). I think you again are missing the context of my statement about it being a “must have” though. I said it was a “must have” if you want to save some time and make more money (because of the ability to auto convert keywords to aff links). I do use this plugin on other sites not related to this niche.
Yes I agree people searching for “make money on the internet” won’t be interested in the stuff I regularly post which is why once I rank for that term I will readjust the layout of my homepage to cater to new people while still providing content for those already experienced in internet marketing. Then I can write out a free guide (or release a paid one) that outlines all of the stuff people would need to learn in order to try making money online and before you ask – No – I would not be telling them to make a make money online website.
Also, I’d add that I can simply use a plugin or some other custom coded solution to display different information for those arriving from Google from that keyword. So don’t worry, I know about segmenting different kinds of traffic and monetizing it (or not monetizing it) properly.
I couldn’t agree with you more on point number 2. What is the point of wasting time on something that is a waste of time. I must admit that I have been down that track before and am still in the process of getting out of that habit. Life is a little busier for me at the moment so I am not posting much. I have told myself that when I do post, it shouldn’t be a load of BS, it should be something that will be valuable to readers.
.-= Gerri´s last blog ..Personal Tax Refunds DIY | New Zealand =-.
Hey Gerri,
It’s been a while since I last heard from you thanks for coming by and commenting again. I feel like you’ve been reading this blog for at least 2 years or so? Am I right?
Another point I would make is that whilst producing good content is king, you also need to know how to market your blog. I have come across a number of sites over the years that offer real value, but the owner didn’t know how to actually get the word out there about their site.
Most of the sites I have built over the years have a “tipping point”. You work hard to produce a great site *and* to market it to others. You start gaining traction. Links start pointing to your site. You rise up the search engines.
And then one day you reach a point where you’re so well marketed, and have such a quality site, that people spontaneously (sp?) start linking to you and recommending you to others. Your marketing starts happening without you needing to do anything more. But getting to that tipping point can be a struggle and involve a lot of hard work and a degree of faith in your own abilities too.
.-= Richard @ Lifestyle Design Unleashed´s last blog ..Why Materialism Can Only Make You So Happy =-.
I would agree. Most of my time spent with this blog has been more around promoting it than it has been around writing the content. That’s not to say I don’t spend a lot of time writing for the blog, I just spend that much more time getting new people to find me.
Hi chris I agree with you. Yes most of the Niche blogs are looking same other than their domain name and their design. If you gonna like to write a post on any topic, fortunately you just search your “topic” in Google, you will be surprised to see how many blogs are already post the same content. So whatever it is at least try to give some new updated info on the same post(topic) will help you to look as a Unique blog.
Cheers 🙂
.-= Manikandan K´s last blog ..SEO Elite – Best SEO software for sale =-.
It all goes abck to being knowledgeable about the niche that you have chosen.
.-= paul | entertainment tonight´s last blog ..Kitchen Battles on QTV 11 =-.
Hi Chris,
All valid points. This is the main reason I stopped maintaining my personal blog. I didn’t believe I was being authentic enough in my voice and with little success in really generating income, I’ve held off until such time.
There’s nothing like the blind leading the blind.
By the way, do you mind sharing the WordPress theme you’re using for this site. In my browser, there seems to be two different themes for this blog. I like the black and white one with the green font which reads -make money on the internet. This theme doesn’t appear to be one of the free themes included in your package.
Thanks.
Hey Sunshine,
I’m offering the other custom themes I had created for free in the old version of my blog, but since I still use this theme on my blog I wanted to keep it unique and that’s why it isn’t used on my blog.
Sorry, I don’t have any plans to offer this theme out for free anytime soon.
Chris
Pardon me Chris. Follow up to previous comment. The theme I’m interested in is listed as your default theme for this blog. I saw it after revisited the blog in an attempt to locate it.
May I ask why do you rotate your themes? The default theme looks much better and it’s much easier on the eyes with respect to reading and glare.
Thanks again. Great blog and information you’ve provided.
Just go back to the WordPress themes page and click the default theme. This will switch it back to what it normally looks like.
Hey Chris,
You live in Seattle? (I saw your dialogue with “Jack Bauer.”) That’s cool! What part of town are you in? I live on Capitol Hill near Seattle Central Community College.
-Clayton
.-= Clayton´s last blog ..Website Building Update – Week 37 =-.
Magnolia – we’re doing another meet up for local WA people if you’d like to come. It’s a mastermind group through Warrior Forum that I set up.
I think next one will be in June – you interested?