Will The Niche Site Challenge Really Work?

Will The Niche Site Challenge Really Work?

James posted an update on his experience of the Niche Site Challenge.  Read that article before you read this one.

This topic is about whether or not I feel any doubt about the niche site challenge, building niche sites or writing in general.

Do You Feel Doubt?

The answer is, unfortunately, yes. I feel doubt about a lot of things regarding writing business and projects large and small. It used to get to me quite a lot, but the fact of the matter is, if you want to succeed in a self-employed fashion, the downside is that you’re in charge of dealing with the risk and uncertainty of a venture. That’s what I’ve told myself and that’s what –in my opinion – separates the self-employed from people who work for someone else.

As regards the niche site challenge, I definitely doubt myself and what I’m doing… on a regular basis.

At the moment, I’ve had 14 ideas for niche sites. I’ve only bought four domains because I’m still not “ready to go” with most of the ideas. The ones that I have bought sit practically empty with no visitors and I think, “These will never get visitors.”

Sometimes I read my sales letters and they’re terrible.

The following are quick ways I get myself back in the right frame of mind:

Potential Downside Versus Upside

The downside of the niche site challenge failing is… £7 per domain.

Sure, I’m writing about it here, and so it’ll dent my ego to be associated with failure, but that’s not really a cost.

Sure, I’m putting in a few hours into each website… but again, it doesn’t cost anything except my time, which I’d probably be spending watching TV or reading Wikipedia or whatever. (I don’t feel like this about other projects, but the niche site challenge is the very definition of part time and laid back.)

So, the downsides are that I have to pay for domains, spend some time writing some articles (which I’d be doing for practice/skill building anyway) and I have to worry about writing articles about the process should I fail.

Let’s talk about the upsides.

The upsides are unlimited compared to the downsides for anyone doing the niche site challenge. Here’s a quick list:

• More money than Trump (just kidding, but let’s all try and find the ceiling on niche site earning potential)
• Loads of experience with web design, copywriting, SEO and more
• An excuse to indulge in various hobbies. (I’m going to buy some gear to review… I’d put off purchasing it but now I’m looking it as an investment)
• Endless material for our main websites if we get it right. (Seriously, if I succeed in any way shape or form with the niche site challenge, I’m going to go on about it )
• We’ll get better at writing sales letters in a fun and potentially profitable way, writing about stuff we’re (hopefully) interested in.
• Passive income – everyone on the internet wants it, few put themselves through what it takes to get it.

So, as you can see, upsides > downsides.

If that doesn’t motivate you, here’s another trick.

Incentivise Yourself By Creating Shorter Term Goals

I have the goal to create twenty-eight niche sites. James wants to get $100 a month from each niche site within six months. There are issues with these goals when taken in isolation.

I can’t create 28 successful niche sites without creating one successful niche site.

James can’t make $100 a month without making $100 total first.

The problem with long term goals (and the niche site project is a long term project) is that it’s really difficult to inspire yourself to hit a goal that’s miles away. It’s why most guys never get visible abs or become millionaires. We’re wired for short term, immediate gratification.

That’s why people get addicted to drugs, computer games, porn, whatever. Immediate hit of pleasure versus long term gratification.

Luckily, we can always think about ways to trick that primitive part of our brain. Here’s one I thought of earlier. it’s in my comment on James’ article, and I posted on Twitter about it as well, but let’s elaborate.

There’s a guy who I went to Uni with. He’s on my Facebook friends list, and whenever I log in to Facebook (once in a lifetime – I’m not a big social media fan for the reasons I’m talking about here) I see he’s got another handful of trophies on various Playstation games.

Some of them that come up are ridiculous: “Your Friend has saved his game for the first time in X” or “Your friend has collected five sea shells.” Some of them are – for a non-gamer – pretty awesome-sounding though: “Your friend has completed a mission where he killed four thousand monsters, saved a princess and learned how to ride a unicycle.”

Now, I’ve no doubt that the trophies where you achieve loads are more important than the ones where you learn to spell your name, but my point is this: Computer games work because they start off with little rewards right at the beginning. Games usually get harder and the trophies get less attainable as the time you play goes on. However, you’re already hooked at that point: You are addicted to the rush of solving the puzzle and being in the virtual world.

This isn’t a sociology lecture, so let’s end the analogy by saying: We need to do this with our projects.

You might have the goal to earn more than a doctor or get a million visitors to your site. Before you get there, give yourself some really easy goals. I gave a few examples on Twitter:

• Site created (because that’s always the first step ad one to be proud of. Ninety-nine point nine-nine percent of people never do anything to achieve any goal.
• Your first post published.
• Your first five posts published.
• Your first visitor.
• Your first comment.
• Your first tweet/follower, etc.
• The first time somebody shares one of your articles.
• The first time you get ten visitors in one day.
• The first time you get fifty visitors in one day
• The first time you get a hundred visitors a month.
• Your first affiliate link click
• Your first sale.
• Your first affiliate payout
• The point where you make back your investment on domain/hosting/whatever.
• The point where you make enough in affiliate payments to pay for the stuff you’ve reviewed
• The point where you make enough money to buy yourself a cheeseburger or ice cream every week
• The point where you launch your second site and do it all over again.

James also added another great one: Every time you break your visits per month record, you’ve achieved something. You can do this with all the things above; if your website earns $1 in its first month and $2 in its second, then you’ve doubled the value of your site. It might not seem like anything, but it’s an achievement.

Final Thoughts

Thinking about the future upsides of an activity is a good way to give yourself little bursts of motivation when you don’t have any. However, motivation on its own isn’t going to get you over short term thinking. Arguably, we can only get over short term thinking for a short time anyway.

In order to get long term goals, you have to use short term motivation to accomplish short term goals, and have enough of a strategy in place so that those short term goals add up to long term achievements. Hopefully this article has given you some ideas on achieving both!