Reader and Twitter buddy Dennis Demori sent me a link a few weeks back:
Entrepreneurial Diworsification
His question was whether I thought that niche sites were an example of what Billy Murphy calls “Diworsification.”
The above blog is actually pretty good. It looked familiar when I read it, and I’m not sure whether I got my expected value ideas from that site, but he sure explains it better than I do, so check out some of his articles.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
Do I think that niche sites are an eample of diworsification?
Diworsification (which I’m going to stop typing because my spell-checker thinks I’m an idiot) is the idea that if you split your attention up in to tons of different goals, you’re actually wasting time and energy as opposed to concentrating on one goal.
My answer to Dennis was “Yes.”
Why Are Niche Sites A Waste Of Time?
I love building niche sites and there’s no way I’m going to stop (until they’re no longer profitable, that is.)
However, Dennis has a point: If you put your attention into ten niche sites as opposed to one authority site, you’re going to have worse results because they’re split across multiple projects.
Now, you might think, “Jesus, Jamie… but I’ve been following your advice on building niche sites this whole time! Have you led me up the garden path here?”
The answer is… no, not really.
Here’s another question which I’m going to springboard off from:
Should You Concentrate On One Project?
I’d recommend picking one major goal and sticking with it. It might be that you want to build a freelance business or learn how to play poker professionally or you might want to be a rock star.
I don’t judge; whatever your goal is, make it your actual goal as opposed to a fantasy. Work on it for several hours a day and make sure you’re good at it.
Absolutely do this and make it the major focus of your day – and all of your scheduling.
Unless you really love and have a real talent for niche sites, this major goal shouldn’t involve building niche sites.
For reasons why that is, check out the tons of articles I’ve written on this site about niche sites. You’ll get the idea.
Now, let’s talk about why I build niche sites and recommend you do too, despite them not being our major goal in life and business.
The Myth Of “Every Waking Minute”
There are certain gurus out there who say, “Your brand is everything. You need to work on that every single moment you’re awake and when you’re asleep.”
Those people are full of it. Seriously.
From the noble science of observational studies, I’ve realised that people who post memes about “Going hard 25/7” and “Push it to the limit bro” fall into one of two camps:
- People who are faking it
- People who define “work” in a weird way – for instance, people who tweet constantly to “build their brand”
For most of us, we’re not going to be able to work constantly from dawn until dusk. I’ve tried numerous times. There is, unfortunately, a limit on how much you can work and still be productive. I mean, you can sit at a computer all day, but ultimately you’ll find that after heavy concentration for a few hours, mistakes creep in and everything takes longer without an increase in quality.
At that point… or slightly before it, you can either stop working or you can shift your focus to easier tasks.
Productive Procrastination And Niche Sites
I like to do what I call “Productive Procrastination.” After working pretty hard at serious projects for a few hours, my brain feels even smaller and I probably can’t be trusted alone with sharp objects or anything.
It’s that point where I think niche sites live. If you’ve got projects which aren’t time sensitive or of any real consequence (nobody is going to fire you or kill you if you write a 60% effort article for your niche site) then you can do those in a relaxed manner with no pressure.
It’s procrastination and it takes you away from your major goal, but it’s productive.
Also, niche sites are good for learning, practicing and whatnot. If you’ve got a major project, you’re hardly going to practice new ideas like yesterday’s article on them.
Also, niche sites are good for other things as well; practicing your sales writing. Explore new hobbies. Find a monetary reason to engage in those hobbies.
(Some of my niche sites literally exist so I can justify spending hundreds of pounds on gadgets.)
Also, and probably my major reason for doing them… I get bored.
Some people are designed to have laser-focus on a single subject for months on end. Take those autistic geniuses that hack NASA at thirteen years old for instance. Those guys can sit in front of a screen to the expense of all else in rigid pursuit of a goal.
Other people are the opposite; they’ll have goldfish attention spans that flit between subjects and can’t ever stick on one thing.
Most of us fall in the middle. There’s nothing wrong with that. But you do have to pay attention to the middle ground, as I’ve found out recently.
Finding The Middle Ground
If you read my niche site challenge updates, you’ll know that in the last one I actually wrote about this subject. I’m finding it difficult to manage the many topics I’ve written about. There’s no overlap and so it’s a lot more work than I really need.
This is bad.
On the other hand, I’ve created a ton of different niche sites with varying potential. I’d rather not miss out on the benefits of that.
So where’s the middle ground with niche sites?
Firstly, I’d suggest putting 80% of your time into major projects that aren’t niche sites. (That said, if you’re new to online business, then starting with a niche site is okay. It’s as good a place to learn the ropes as any.)
That automatically leaves you a couple of hours a day to work on niche sites. I think that’s fair. Remember, you don’t have to work on them every day, come what may. Obviously, they’ll be better if you can work on them regularly.
Now, having 30 niche sites is detrimental here – because you’ll have time to write an article maybe twice a month. Your attention is too spread.
This is what I’d suggest based on my recent errors:
An Exercise For Determining How Many Niche Sites You Should Have And How To Make Them Part Of Something Bigger
I’m going to use an example of an early-to-mid-twenties guy here, because that’s what most of my readers are. That said, the exercise will work with anyone.
Let’s say your end-goal is ten niche sites in a year.
I want you to sit for an hour and write down three “meta-subjects” that you’re interested in. Really interested in, and they have to be really wide subjects.
For instance, if you’re interested in travel… don’t put “Colombia” or “packing light” or “motorbiking in Thailand.”
Those are niches, and probably good niches, but that’s not what we’re looking for here.
We’re looking for the big one. Let’s call it travel.
Our twenty-something guy might have:
- Travel
- Fitness
- Money
Those are meta-subjects, and you’re not going to start a niche site from them. However, you can niche down afterwards.
You could build authority sites – sites with a long-term focus in these areas. If you wanted success, you’d have to plan really long term to compete in those markets. You should want to… that’s what we’re looking for. Things you’ll be interested in five years from now.
Work out from there what you could write a niche site about, because if you ever decide to build something bigger, you’ve already built a base, and if you’re working on something bigger now, your niche site will slip somewhere into the network.
For instance, our guy might say, “I want to be a travel fitness lifestyle guru in five years’ time.”
He could start building his authority site right now: “Beastmodesupertraveller.com”
He doesn’t have to. But what he can do now is think about a baby-step. “I’m taking my first ever trip to Colombia next month… what can I do that’s part of the bigger plan and also good for a niche site?”
Then he creates his Colombia niche site. That’s site one, and he builds it based on a month in Colombia. He then thinks about other interests; fitness and money. He creates two more about two other month-long projects – say, “How to make money on Fiverr quickly” and “How to work out from a hotel room.”
Those can be the focus for his first three sites. Three separate ideas? Sure. But they all add up to a bigger goal and eventually, it all adds up together in terms of a bigger plan. You’re also going to re-use information across multiple sites. For the Colombia site, you could easily turn the subject matter from the other two niche sites into useful, Colombia based articles.
As long as you stick to big-picture related niches, you’ll mitigate most of the flaws involved with running multiple projects.
Final Thoughts
This has been a tangent-laden article that I probably should have split in two.
Are niche sites an example of de-worsification? If you don’t follow the above advice, they are. But if you follow the above advice, then you can think of them as pieces of a whole that you’re uncovering with each one.
If you concentrate for the majority of your day on a major project and then use a couple of hours’ free time to work on other projects, you’re probably not going to kill your success. It’s only when you move between projects without a cause, rhyme or reason that you’ll experience the negative effects of goal-hopping.
Hopefully, this article will put you on the right course.