[PROGRESS THREAD] (24 y/o) Sick and cognitively impaired for 2 years... Doing the work anyway

[jdm667]

Have you ever thought you were really good at a particular aspect of your business, and hesitant to hire out because of it?

"No one can do this as good as me..."

Then, you hire the right person and realize that you were terrible at the job?

I've had this happen many times. I think it's a great sign that you're hiring the right people.

Just hired a content director this week which will be huge for the business if it continues to go well.

I remember following your other thread about the agricultural website a few years back. I didn't know you had this thread until today.

Nice work on the website growth, especially with limited time to devote to it! It reminds me of when MJ sold the limo business, then bought it back again later.

Hope you start to feel better sooner than later.

 

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[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 9/4/2023-9/10/2023
More small health improvements & my biggest hire so far


How the Week Went:

Total working hours: 26

Health updates:
Some more small improvements this week. Nothing in particular that caused the improvements... Mostly just NOT experimenting with many new things at the moment.

For anyone curious, here is my current regimen for addressing my suspected chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS)/mold illness:

• Sauna and cold plunge combo 3x per week
• Minimum 30 minutes of sun exposure daily
• Low-histamine lion diet (unaged meat and salt) + 1 serving of rice per day because my body does not adapt well to fat as an energy source
• NSDR 3-5 times per day
• Brain training exercises 1x per day (using Curable app)
• Castor oil packs 2x per week
• Full body magnesium flake soak 1x per week
• Bentonite clay detox 2x per day
• Quick lymphatic drainage massages 3-5x per week

Business updates:
This week I hired a content director to manage a large portion of my automotive business. This is a huge step for me. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time but knew it would be a challenge.

He is an experienced journalist with an impressive resume in the automotive industry. Just on the first few meetings with him, it's so clear how much improvements can be made to our content.

Since I struggle with creativity and coming up with ideas due to my cognitive issues, he's able to do a much better job planning and executing content than me.

Hiring him will clear up my time to focus on expanding traffic channels, which is essential for this business as we currently rely 80% on Google traffic.

With the time saved from hiring the content director, I will be developing these new traffic channels:

1. Email (most built out, just need to finish and optimize my email sequences and opt-ins)
2. Pinterest (posts started going out this week)
3. YouTube
   • posted a few videos a couple months ago
   • will be writing scripts each week for future videos
   • will rent the vehicles I need and record 4+ videos for a 24 hour rental

Complete:

• Communicate and complete client requests for the website management business
• Complete all overhead company tasks (bookkeeping, freelancer payments, etc.)
• Hire a content director
• Create and send Website #1 and #2 newsletters
• Create 2 Content Briefs for Website #2
• Publish 1 article on Website #1
• Publish 2 articles on Website #2
• Create minimum 3 landing pages for Website #3 (ended up making at least 5)
• Continue adding to email sequence for new subscribers
• Implement changes from SEO meeting
• Analyze Pinterest week #1 results and create content for next week

Plans for Next Week:

Ongoing tasks:

• Communicate and complete client requests for the website management business
• Complete all overhead company tasks (bookkeeping, freelancer payments, etc.)
• Create and send Website #1 and #2 newsletters

Monday - Saturday:

• Publish 1 article on Website #1
• Publish 3 articles on Website #2
• Create 1 YouTube script
• Create a minimum 3 landing pages for Website #3
• Continue adding to my email sequences for new subscribers
• Continue to implement changes from the most recent SEO meeting
• Continue creating and scheduling Pinterest pins

Sunday:

• Relax
• Work on business strategy (max 1 hour of screen time)

What My Team Is Doing:

• Carry out website maintenance on 8 customer websites
• Handle most of our website management customer tasks
• Write 3 articles
• Plan, outline, and research 3 articles
• Proofread and upload 4 articles
• Refresh/update 3 articles

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 9/11/2023-9/17/2023


How the Week Went:

Total working hours: 29

Health updates:
Not many improvements, not any decline this week.

Business updates:

• My content director did a great job in the first week
• I've been creating plans for a 4th website that will be a much more long-term play than the current sites and uses what I've learned from creating them

Complete:

• Communicated and completed client requests for the website management business
• Completed all overhead company tasks (bookkeeping, freelancer payments, etc.)
• Created and sent Website #1 and #2 newsletters
• Publish 1 article on Website #1
• Publish 3 articles on Website #2
• Created 1 YouTube script
• Created 20 landing pages for Website #3, having my VA work on the rest
• Continued adding to my email sequences for new subscribers
• Continued to implement changes from the most recent SEO meeting
• Continued creating and scheduling Pinterest pins

Plans for Next Week:

Ongoing tasks:

• Communicate and complete client requests for the website management business
• Complete all overhead company tasks (bookkeeping, freelancer payments, etc.)
• Create and send Website #1 and #2 newsletters

Monday - Saturday:

• Publish 1 article on Website #1
• Publish 3 articles on Website #2
• Create 1 YouTube script
• Continue adding to my email sequences for new subscribers
• Continue to implement changes from the most recent SEO meeting
• Continue creating and scheduling Pinterest pins
• 1-2 meetings with the Content Director
• Research topics for potential Website #4
• Meet with expert writer for Website #4

Sunday:

• Relax
• Work on business strategy (max 1 hour of screen time)

What My Team Is Doing:

• Carry out website maintenance on 8 customer websites
• Handle most of our website management customer tasks
• Write copy for 35 landing pages for Website #3
• Write 3 articles
• Plan, outline, and research 3 articles
• Proofread and upload 3 articles
• Refresh/update 3 articles

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 9/18/2023-9/24/2023
50% traffic & revenue losses across all assets! Ouch...

How the Week Went:

Total working hours: 32

Health updates:
No improvements or declines.

Business updates:
After recently hiring my most expensive team member (content director), we were hit by the most recent Google algorithm update which has impacted many publishers severely. This update is not over, so it is possible things could shift in the next 4-5 days, but I am not betting on that.
I expect these fluctuations to happen over the course of the business, but did not expect this to happen so soon as I recently covered a 50% traffic loss back in April which lasted several months.
My reason for hiring my content director was so I could spend time developing new traffic channels to protect myself from this risk. Unfortunately, it happened too fast for me to make progress on that, so total revenue will be down 40-50% now.
I'll have to pull back on the content director's workload, which means less of my time and money available for investing in new traffic channels, which means a longer time period before my site is protected from these risks.
I'll still have time to invest in new channels, which is good. I do have concerns about my personal income since my living cost is high because of my health challenges.

Complete:

• Communicate and complete client requests for the website management business
• Complete all overhead company tasks (bookkeeping, freelancer payments, etc.)
• Create and send Website #1 and #2 newsletters
• Publish 1 article on Website #1
• Publish 3 articles on Website #2
• Create 1 YouTube script
• Continue adding to my email sequences for new subscribers
• Continue to implement changes from the most recent SEO meeting
• Continue creating and scheduling Pinterest pins
• 1-2 meetings with the Content Director
• Research topics for potential Website #4 - made significant progress on this
• Meet with expert writer for Website #4 - she is working on two sample articles for Website #2 as a test run

Plans for Next Week:

Ongoing tasks:

• Communicate and complete client requests for the website management business
• Complete all overhead company tasks (bookkeeping, freelancer payments, etc.)
• Create and send Website #1 and #2 newsletters

Monday - Saturday:

• Publish 1 article on Website #1
• Publish 2 articles on Website #2
• Review and approve 3 content briefs
• Create 1 YouTube script
• Continue adding to my email sequences for new subscribers
• Meet with SEO expert once Google algorithm update completes to discuss strategy for traffic recovery
• Continue creating and scheduling Pinterest pins
• 1-2 meetings with the Content Director
• Research topics for potential Website #4
• Meet with expert writer for Website #4

What My Team Is Doing:

• Carry out website maintenance on 14 customer websites
• Handle most of our website management customer tasks
• Write 2 articles
• Plan, outline, and research 1 article
• Proofread and upload 2 articles
• Refresh/update 3 articles

 

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[DoTheWork]

Met with my content director this morning to break the news about the traffic drops. He had great suggestions for how we could cut back his time without my involvement so I could continue to focus on growing new traffic channels.

So looks like I might not have to change much. I'll be dealing with a bit less profit but overall I think we're doing a great job at minimizing the impact of the severe revenue drop.

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 9/25/2023-10/1/2023
Revenue down 60% for the foreseeable future


How the Week Went:

Total working hours: 33

Health updates:
Some improvements. I've been able to tackle more working hours recently which is great.

Business updates:
My primary source of revenue which was spitting out nearly $500/day is now generating only $180-200 per day because of Google's recent Helpful Content Update.

I've developed a plan for fixing this and I can see where my content is lacking. Hopefully, this traffic loss won't last any longer than 2 months.

It has me a bit concerned about my personal income since my health expenses are high. I've been working on building up a solid bucket of savings to protect myself from income loss, but haven't had enough high-profit months to make a safety net that I feel happy with.

Complete:
All tasks from last week successfully completed.


Plans for Next Week:

Ongoing tasks:

• Communicate and complete client requests for the website management business
• Complete all overhead company tasks (bookkeeping, freelancer payments, etc.)
• Create and send Website #1 and #2 newsletters

Monday - Saturday:

• Re-publish a minimum of 3 posts for Website #1 according to new Google guidelines
• Publish 2 articles on Website #1
• Publish 2 articles on Website #2
• Review and approve 1 content brief
• Create 1 YouTube script
• Continue adding to my email sequences for new subscribers
• Meet with SEO expert
• Meet with Content Director, if necessary
• Continue creating and scheduling Pinterest pins

What My Team Is Doing:

• Carry out website maintenance on 5 customer websites
• Handle most of our website management customer tasks
• Manage all content prep, writing, and editing

 

[Edoardo]

Hey brother, healthwise, check out the buteyko method.

 

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[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 10/2/2023-10/1/2023
Rethinking my goals

Total working hours: 27

Health updates:
Had some rough days due to a fire that brought heavy smoke to my area for most of the week. Close back to baseline now.

Business updates:
I am planning to back off my plans to grow my automotive media sites into an empire. I think for this stage in my life and my outlook for blog-style content creation it's not a great fit for me.

I think it may be best for me to take on more content creation for myself rather than hiring someone to handle all of it. My goal will be to rake in the income (once I recover it...) and run it as a "lifestyle" business.

I'm still going to hire out for Website #2, but focus on my primary revenue driver myself, at least for a while.

This will allow me to allocate more funds for future business acquisitions. I feel like I'm always burning through money because I want to grow as fast as possible and reinvest into more content. In my situation, what I really need is an easy business to run that allows me to save a bunch of money as an emergency fund.

I think I'm going to change the format of these weekly updates... the bullet points have been pretty repetitive.

My big win this week was that I pushed out more than 6 pieces of content on Website #1 as part of my traffic recovery strategy. I also did extensive content refreshes on a couple pieces of content. This will be my main focus until I recover my traffic.

 

[MTF]

I think for this stage in my life and my outlook for blog-style content creation it's not a great fit for me.

What is your outlook for blog-style content creation? Do you refer to Google updates, the risk of AI, or something else?

This will allow me to allocate more funds for future business acquisitions.

What kind of business acquisitions would you like to make? Content websites or something else?

 

[DoTheWork]

What is your outlook for blog-style content creation? Do you refer to Google updates, the risk of AI, or something else?



What kind of business acquisitions would you like to make? Content websites or something else?

I actually don't have a negative outlook on blog-style content creation, but any negativity I do have is more about Google and less about AI.

I love the business, but it's not something I would want to grow into an empire based on my latest experience and market trajectory.

But that's just me. There's still tremendous opportunity to win in the space. It's just evolving into a game that I don't want to play.

However, I would absolutely pursue it as a marketing channel for a product or service, but not as a way to drive traffic for display ads revenue or affiliate sales.


For business acquisitions, I would be open to many things. I would consider a content website if there is a strong product or service behind it to sell. Software may be interesting to me as well. I would even consider brick and mortar. I have a particular interest in wellness centers that offer saunas, cold plunges, etc. on a subscription model.

 

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[MTF]

It's just evolving into a game that I don't want to play.

Is this because it's a quantity-based game now? Or a game where each day you may face another 50% drop and need to change your strategy yet again just to get back to the previous level?

 

[DoTheWork]

Is this because it's a quantity-based game now? Or a game where each day you may face another 50% drop and need to change your strategy yet again just to get back to the previous level?

I don't think it's a quantity game at all. I think it's a quality game now, which I absolutely love about it.

What I don't like are:
- big risk of unexpected large traffic drops
- the need to grow in multiple channels
- the increasing importance of backlinks
- having to rely on display ads and affiliate sales for revenue (I want to sell my own product or service)

My SEO expert was telling me how his high authority clients (lots of backlinks) weren't affected by the helpful content update. He then explained how one strategy they've been using is to buy relevant aged domain names at auction to redirect to the primary domain. I'm just not interested in trying to game the system like that, but it's what you need to do in many cases now.

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 10/9/2023-10/15/2023
More health improvements

Total working hours: 23

Health updates:
Had a streak of better health days this week. The temperatures dropped enough for me to keep the windows open all day, which correlated with me feeling better. I'm not sure if that was the cause or just a coincidence.

It's too hot this week so we'll see how that goes, then I'll continue to keep windows open in the following week when the temperatures drop again. If I notice a pattern, that is helpful to know.

I was able to start reading books again with some actual ability to comprehend them, which is a huge milestone! Hopefully I'm able to hold my current state and not fall back too much, but ups and downs are part of the healing process.

Business updates:
Not much new here. Doing what I need to do to recover my lost traffic.

Rented a vehicle for late October to record at least 4 YouTube videos to help diversify my traffic channels. It is clear that people find my Youtube videos very valuable, even though they are very poorly produced.

 

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[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 10/16/2023-10/22/2023
Business as usual

Total working hours: 23

Health updates:
A few ups and downs this week, but nothing too crazy.

Business updates:
Again, not much new here. Grinding out what I need to do to recover my blog traffic (updating old posts).

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 10/23/2023-10/29/2023
Health flare up

Total working hours: 17

Health updates:
Last week's health ups and downs continued into a full-blown flare-up this week. Luckily, my health coach identified the cause. I was taking way too large of a dose of a nasal spray.

Business updates:
Did the usual this week, but did not make much progress moving things forward with blog traffic recovery because of my health flare-up. However, I rented a vehicle this weekend and recorded 5 YouTube videos which was a big win.

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: Week 10/30/2023-11/5/2023
Feeling repetitive...

Total working hours: 14

Health updates:
Recovering from last week's flare-up, which will probably last another 2-3 weeks. Seeing very very small improvements with each day.

Business updates:
Not much progress was made because of my flare up, but I still kept up with all my tasks, including continuing with my recovery plans for my blog sites.

 

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[DoTheWork]

Update: 11/6/2023-11/20/2023
Some new things on the horizon

Total working hours: 40

Health updates:
Still not feeling great. Had a rough past week, probably because I overworked myself. Feeling better today and hoping it continues.

Business updates:
Not much progress to report on. I've been making progress and doing all the stuff I've planned on doing, but simply nothing new to report.

However, I have been busy launching an expansion of my business that I'm not able to share yet!

 

[ZF Lee]

Update: 11/6/2023-11/20/2023
Some new things on the horizon

Total working hours: 40

Health updates:
Still not feeling great. Had a rough past week, probably because I overworked myself. Feeling better today and hoping it continues.

Business updates:
Not much progress to report on. I've been making progress and doing all the stuff I've planned on doing, but simply nothing new to report.

However, I have been busy launching an expansion of my business that I'm not able to share yet!

Thanks for sharing your progress this far...it is heartening to see that you didn't let a health condition take you down.

Even though I don't have any chronic conditions myself, I started to realise how limited my energy and health are.

No longer can I just live hunky-dory and let things slip by...

The wrong foods...the wrong sleep...the wrong social environment...they can already start chewing away at my own drive to work. I don't think there will be a perfect diet and environment to totally clean everything up, so your thread reminded me that I need to plan how to get stuff done with the limited resources and energy I have.

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: 11/20/2023-12/10/2023
Exciting, major strategy changes!

Health updates:
Had a flare-up last week due to some prep I was doing for a medical test. Feeling better this week (and generally improved since my last update). Focusing on my circadian rhythm has been a HUGE win as well as some changes to my eating schedule.

Business updates:
MAJOR CHANGES to my strategy!

I've reflected a lot on my current projects. Something that always bounces around in my head is that focusing on one thing for a long time is a great way to ensure success.

Since I have such little time to work because of my illness, this is even more true for me. I am spread too thin and need to focus more.

So here's what I'm doing about that:

• I've completely relaunched my website management business with a focus on WordPress maintenance. The new website is WPCharger - Run Your WordPress Site at 100%
  • I've realized that this business is working and very stable. My blogs are too volatile and I'm not comfortable relying on them with the major changes that Google has been making in their algorithms.
  • The hard thing with the web management business is getting customers, but I'm dedicated to figuring it out. I developed a strategy, which I will overview below.
• I've sold my non-automotive website for $3,000.
• I am selling my largest website. I'm hoping for $80k-150k. Unfortunately, it's on a downtrend which will drastically lower its value. I was hoping to get at least $300k for that website, but that won't be possible. Luckily, this is more than I ever planned to make with this website and it will still be a life-changing amount. My original goal for the site was to cover my $370/month car payment. Just in the past couple of months, it's paid me over $30k... Plus, I sold the car and no longer have the monthly payments.

My Ads Strategy for the WP Maintenance Biz
I acquired my previous website management customers through Google Search Ads, but my strategy was horrible.

Here's how I screwed up in the past:

1. No strategy – We just targeted the searchers for website management/maintenance and ran basic ads on those to a page pitching our services, just like many of our other competitors.
   1. Poor targeting – We didn’t target any WordPress-specific keywords even though we only worked with WordPress. This was a very inefficient way to run ads because we wasted plenty of ad spend on prospects that would never be qualified.
2. Long payback period – It took many months to earn back our ad spend. This is a huge cash flow issue and makes it impossible to scale ads at a reasonable rate.
3. No commitment – We were erratically raising/lowering the budget or pausing ads entirely.
4. No measurement – We had no dashboard for viewing performance. We still have no idea how profitable those campaigns were.
5. Not enough testing and variations – We didn’t run nearly as many ad variations and split tests as we should have.

What I'm doing this time:
Run Google Search Ads to business owners seeking immediate help with WordPress problems.
Search examples:

• “your site is experiencing a technical issue”
• “wordpress 404 error”
• "wordpress site down"

We will offer a completely free fix to their WordPress problem and they become a lead that we can nurture.

The lead magnet reveals that:

1. they have a problem keeping their website properly maintained
2. their website support system is insufficient

This puts us right in front of our ideal customers at a time when they experiencing pain points that our service can fulfill.

We will provide them with a written and video summary (and free phone consultation) after we fix their site, where we explain why the problem occurred, how we fixed it, and how our services can prevent these errors in the future. We will also offer a free consultation.

I've also created detailed plans for split testing, tracking performance, and collecting a bunch of cash upfront so we aren't operating in the red for 6+ months.

I may create a separate thread with more detail about my ads strategy so people can rip it apart (but feel free to do that here, as well).

The scariest thing about these changes is that I'm living across the country from family now and my web management business is not enough to cover my living expenses (especially when running these ads). However, the sale from my big automotive site should provide me with enough security and time to grow the new brand. I hope to get an offer by the end of this week, otherwise I'll have to auction it via Flippa.

 

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[MTF]

otherwise I'll have to auction it via Flippa.

Try EmpireFlippers first, they may give you a better valuation, even including their brokerage fee.

 

[DoTheWork]

Try EmpireFlippers first, they may give you a better valuation, even including their brokerage fee.

I thought about it and started the initial process with them... I was worried about the fee.

Right now I'm waiting for an offer from MotionInvest. They gave me a good automatic valuation, but a final offer from them is not guaranteed.

I'll definitely give EF a second look before listing on Flippa.

 

[MTF]

I thought about it and started the initial process with them... I was worried about the fee.

You can bypass the process and ask the rep via messages about a rough valuation if you give them your basic numbers. They should be able to tell you a rough price and whether it would be worth it with their fee.

Flippa may be a pain in the a$$ to migrate. Empire Flippers do it for you as far as I know.

 

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[DoTheWork]

You can bypass the process and ask the rep via messages about a rough valuation if you give them your basic numbers. They should be able to tell you a rough price and whether it would be worth it with their fee.

Flippa may be a pain in the a$$ to migrate. Empire Flippers do it for you as far as I know.

Okay, this is great. Thank you. I will reach out to them right now!

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: 12/10/2023-12/16/2023
Tested positive for black mold toxicity; Site listed for sale @ $150k

Health updates:
Received my test results for mold toxicity in my body. My body is filled with trichothecene mycotoxins, which come primarily from black mold. It's great to have some answers and helps guide my strategy for detoxing. There were also a couple of other types of mycotoxins that I may be high in, according to the test results. This is the first actual confirmation that I've had mold toxicity.

I had a couple of random bad days this week, but overall I'm having some of the mildest symptoms that I've had in the past two years!

My current "bad days" would've been my good days 4-5 months ago! Still a very long way to go, but it's promising to see. Will be resuming detoxing in January (taking a break this month because my body has been overwhelmed by the process).

Business updates:
My highest-earning automotive website is now listed for sale, valued at $150k. The problem is that traffic has just taken another 50% hit... Damn. That might impact the sale.

If the site doesn't sell in 30 days, I'll have to relist it on another platform for sale. The valuation will take another huge negative hit with the new traffic drop. Even $100k would be a life-changing amount for me, so it sucks that I could've sold this site for $300-400k a couple months ago. It's also frustrating that I'll lose out on even more money if the site doesn't sell in the next few weeks. Hoping for the best.

For the rebrand of my website maintenance business, I've decided to put my previously-discussed lead gen strategy on hold and revert to something similar to an older Google Ads campaign that I ran in 2021 and 2022. It targets people closer to the bottom of the funnel.

This seems like a better option for me right now because I know it has worked in the past (although not great). It's less risky than launching an entire new campaign. With the things I've learned over the past year, I think I can turn my old campaign strategy into something great!

 

[Edoardo]

Received my test results for mold toxicity in my body

Brother, I saw that this user from twitter posts a lot about mold toxicity and healing it, you might want to check out this twitter profile: https://twitter.com/BioavailableNd

 

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[John Clancy]

@DoTheWork I read through this whole thread yesterday, and I just wanted to say: kudos to you.

You've got a fantastic attitude towards your health, your business, and life in general.

It'd be easy to just lie down and accept your condition for what it is. Or to live in denial of it. But by taking the middle path and engaging practically with it, you're giving yourself the best possible chance of resolving it once and for all.

You're an inspiration - and I'm sure this thread has touched many, many people since you started it. I know it has helped me to see things differently.

--

From reading your recent posts, it seems you're shifting away from your niche content sites and doubling down on your website maintenance business?

Without knowing exactly who you're targeting, here are some lead gen ideas you might like to think about:

1. Local/Industry Networking: If some or all of your clients are in similar industries, it could make sense to double down and increase your presence in spaces where more businesses like theirs hang out. This could be anything from attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting, to trade shows, newsletter/podcast sponsorships and more. If there's a place where your people are already gathering, get in the room.
   
   
2. Client-Led Referral Programs: You already have customers. Is there any way those businesses could send other clients your way - and get rewarded for doing so? Think referral fees (one-time or recurring) at whatever level makes sense for your margins. This can be as low-touch or high-touch as you like. With ~8 total customers, you might not have anyone in your current roster that will send someone your way... But you could.
   
   
3. Offer/Promote Complementary Services to Reduce CAC: Could you lead with a different offer in your advertising? One that people are more likely to want/be in more urgent need of than website maintenance & support? E.g. speed optimization, WCAG compliance, SSL fixes, email issues, design + development. Once you've gotten your foot in the door by providing one service - and doing a great job at it - you'll have an easier time selling something recurring.
   
   
4. Vendor Referrals: Could you become the go-to recommendation made by industry professionals your ideal clients are already working with? E.g. if you know what your ideal client looks like, could you build a relationship with incubators, lawyers, accountants, staffing firms etc. that they work with?
   
   
5. Sell More to Existing Clients: What are you not doing right now for your clients that would be an obvious value-add if you did? Could you help them with conversion/tracking setup? Set up Looker Studio dashboards for their sites? Offer them a discounted rate if they have multiple sites with you? Provide regular audits + tailored recommendations to help them optimize their setup? Leverage your experience w/ niche content sites to run their blog/email list/social channels? Maybe none of these things are suitable. But odds are that there's something hiding in plain sight that they'd like your help with.
   
   
6. White-Label Plans for Agencies: Could you find agencies - think design studios, digital marketing firms and the like - who might be interested in white-labelling your service to resell to their own clients? Again, you need to think about what would work with your margins... but there are plenty of WP support businesses built on servicing resellers. Brands like WPBuffs, for instance.
   
   
7. Complementary Acquisition/Rollups: If your goal is to get in front of more businesses that could benefit from your core services, are there are any WordPress plugins, industry sites, communities, email lists you could acquire (either in full or in part) to do that?
   
   
8. Cold Outreach: Is there any way you could leverage cold outreach (single or multi-channel) to reach the people you need to reach? At scale? For a lower cost than you'd expend on advertising?

--

Eight strategies. None are perfect, or applicable in every situation. But all of them could work.

Once you're clear on who you want to reach and what you do, getting in front of the right people is a whole lot easier.

If you're confident the Google Ads strategy you've used in the past will get you where you want to go, then that's great!

Otherwise, it makes sense to consider how else you might find the people you're looking for.

 

[DoTheWork]

@DoTheWork I read through this whole thread yesterday, and I just wanted to say: kudos to you.

You've got a fantastic attitude towards your health, your business, and life in general.

It'd be easy to just lie down and accept your condition for what it is. Or to live in denial of it. But by taking the middle path and engaging practically with it, you're giving yourself the best possible chance of resolving it once and for all.

You're an inspiration - and I'm sure this thread has touched many, many people since you started it. I know it has helped me to see things differently.

--

From reading your recent posts, it seems you're shifting away from your niche content sites and doubling down on your website maintenance business?

Without knowing exactly who you're targeting, here are some lead gen ideas you might like to think about:

1. Local/Industry Networking: If some or all of your clients are in similar industries, it could make sense to double down and increase your presence in spaces where more businesses like theirs hang out. This could be anything from attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting, to trade shows, newsletter/podcast sponsorships and more. If there's a place where your people are already gathering, get in the room.
   
   
2. Client-Led Referral Programs: You already have customers. Is there any way those businesses could send other clients your way - and get rewarded for doing so? Think referral fees (one-time or recurring) at whatever level makes sense for your margins. This can be as low-touch or high-touch as you like. With ~8 total customers, you might not have anyone in your current roster that will send someone your way... But you could.
   
   
3. Offer/Promote Complementary Services to Reduce CAC: Could you lead with a different offer in your advertising? One that people are more likely to want/be in more urgent need of than website maintenance & support? E.g. speed optimization, WCAG compliance, SSL fixes, email issues, design + development. Once you've gotten your foot in the door by providing one service - and doing a great job at it - you'll have an easier time selling something recurring.
   
   
4. Vendor Referrals: Could you become the go-to recommendation made by industry professionals your ideal clients are already working with? E.g. if you know what your ideal client looks like, could you build a relationship with incubators, lawyers, accountants, staffing firms etc. that they work with?
   
   
5. Sell More to Existing Clients: What are you not doing right now for your clients that would be an obvious value-add if you did? Could you help them with conversion/tracking setup? Set up Looker Studio dashboards for their sites? Offer them a discounted rate if they have multiple sites with you? Provide regular audits + tailored recommendations to help them optimize their setup? Leverage your experience w/ niche content sites to run their blog/email list/social channels? Maybe none of these things are suitable. But odds are that there's something hiding in plain sight that they'd like your help with.
   
   
6. White-Label Plans for Agencies: Could you find agencies - think design studios, digital marketing firms and the like - who might be interested in white-labelling your service to resell to their own clients? Again, you need to think about what would work with your margins... but there are plenty of WP support businesses built on servicing resellers. Brands like WPBuffs, for instance.
   
   
7. Complementary Acquisition/Rollups: If your goal is to get in front of more businesses that could benefit from your core services, are there are any WordPress plugins, industry sites, communities, email lists you could acquire (either in full or in part) to do that?
   
   
8. Cold Outreach: Is there any way you could leverage cold outreach (single or multi-channel) to reach the people you need to reach? At scale? For a lower cost than you'd expend on advertising?

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Eight strategies. None are perfect, or applicable in every situation. But all of them could work.

Once you're clear on who you want to reach and what you do, getting in front of the right people is a whole lot easier.

If you're confident the Google Ads strategy you've used in the past will get you where you want to go, then that's great!

Otherwise, it makes sense to consider how else you might find the people you're looking for.

I'm really glad you found it valuable! I plan to keep this thread up to date for a long time so people can see the progression and outcome.

Can't thank you enough for your list of strategies. This is something I have a very difficult time brainstorming. This will be very useful for me, especially if Google Ads does not work out.

I have made a big note of these strategies for the future. I'd probably start with #6.

 

[John Clancy]

I'm really glad you found it valuable! I plan to keep this thread up to date for a long time so people can see the progression and outcome.

Can't thank you enough for your list of strategies. This is something I have a very difficult time brainstorming. This will be very useful for me, especially if Google Ads does not work out.

I have made a big note of these strategies for the future. I'd probably start with #6.

You're very welcome. Glad to hear you plan on continuing to update the thread!

I think you're onto something great here (professionally and personally): if you're willing to document that journey publicly, it'll be a fantastic resource for the community moving forward.

I'll be following along, but feel free to tag me if you ever need anything.

Best of luck with the pivot - looking forward to seeing how it goes!

 

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[DoTheWork]

Update: 12/17/2023-12/23/2023
Running Google Ads @ $100/day; Dropped site valuation by $30k

Health updates:
Had a bad reaction to some cleaning products so I haven't felt good this week.

But worse than that... a family member is visiting me and immediately tested positive for CV-19 when they got here... That's what initially sparked all my health issues and brought my chronic inflammation and mold problems to the surface. They'll be in my apartment for a full week.

Business updates:
I decided to drop my website listing price from $150k w/ $130k reserve to $120k w/ $90k reserve. This is a Dutch auction where the price lowers every 2 days until it reaches the reserve price.

I am running $100/day in Google Ads for my rebranded website maintenance business. One lead so far with $618 in ad spend. Pretty expensive, but hoping that optimizing and letting the algorithm learn will drastically reduce this.

Does anyone have tips for B2B lead generation with Google Search ads?

I've also been building out a nurture email sequence that these leads are funneled into when they submit the lead form. This was something that my old campaign did not have at all.

I also decided to cut my pricing by 40%. With many of the optimizations I've made to the business, I can afford to deliver a very similar service with significantly reduced labor costs.

 

[DoTheWork]

Update: 12/24/2023-1/1/2024
Google Ads Trouble, Feeling Better, Lots of Biz Changes Underway

Total working hours: 26

Health updates:
Had several great days this week after coming back from the flare up I had last week. I also somehow managed not to get covid, even though I was in close quarters all week with someone infected.

Still a long way to go, but probably would put some of these recent days in my top 20 days out of 2023 (in terms of having minimal symptoms) . I've been able to work longer hours with more mental clarity.

Only negative is that I'm still losing weight. I finally dropped below 150lbs (I'm 5'11") after staying steady around 155 for months. I used to weigh 220lbs at my peak, so I've lost 70lbs which is crazy to think about. I'd say 40 of that was intentional and the rest has been due to my health struggles. Not being able to exercise and light weights has been tough, but I am planning to carefully reintegrate very light weight training.

The good part is that since I'm having fewer symptoms, it makes it easy to eat more. Although I still have reactions to my food that cause me to crash during the day (typically 2pm-4pm). They are much less severe, though.

In 1-2 weeks, I will be restarting my mold detox with a binder called MycoBind and also using a sauna again. This will make me feel worse, but for a good reason. I haven't taken this binder yet, but it is supposed to be quite effective.

Business updates:
Google Ads - My Google Ads are struggling. I've spent over $1k and only received 1 lead which didn't respond to us. For context, I ran a terribly unorganized campaign a couple of years ago. I had no idea what I was doing. It was terrible and low-effort, but it worked. This time around, I've learned and implemented so much and my campaign is so much better, but the results are way off so far (way too expensive). I'm putting in a ton of effort to figure this out.

Rebranding - This week, I'll be transitioning my website management customers over to my rebranded company with optimized processes. This will significantly cut down on labor costs and improve the quality and depth of work that I'm providing. Huge win for everyone.

Content creation - I've started documenting any website management/maintenance tasks that I do and turning them into video (YouTube) and written tutorials. If I see traction with it, I will dive deeper into it. For now, I will do this indefinitely.

Automotive websites - My large website is still for sale and not seeing much traction. I think I made a mistake listing the site for sale on Motion Invest, so I expect that I'll have to relist it on Empireflippers once my contract expires (Jan 20).
I have shifted my strategy for my other automotive site, which is generating sub-$100 monthly revenue and is not profitable yet (which is expected). I am going to go heavier into YouTube (1-2 videos per week) and cut back written content to 1-2 articles per month (for now). The YT channel for my other automotive website already has 100k views over 9 videos, so that shows me that there is good potential in this space. This helps diversify my risk so I don't have a similar downfall like with my other auto site.