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SEO + SaaS = Trust the process?

Should I continue growing the site?


  • Total voters
    37

seomatic

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Hey fastlaners,

I started a new website recently and while I'm seeing some results, it's just a slow grind. Essentially I'm working on improving the site, doing seo and all of that, but I'm not making enough money to live off of it. On the other hand there is huge potential in my opinion.

So I'm unsure at the moment if I should continue growing the site or not. I guess my main issue is a lack of trust in the process. I mean my trust in society is very low and I've been scammed a few times by clients not paying and so on. So I'm thinking twice about putting any effort into something. On the other hands you see complete $!$"F {not so smart people} showering in money, which makes me angry.

My left brain side tells me that it's worthless to work on it and my right brain side says if the growth continues the site will be huge in a few months. I have currently enough money saved to live for 10 years or so without working, but it's still an uncomfortable situation to put all effort, time and energy into one thing and live off savings. It feels like losing ground for some reason.

So I guess my question is how to handle the emotional side of being an entrepreneur?

Screen Shot 2022-05-24 at 18.04.56.png
Screen Shot 2022-05-24 at 18.05.24.png
 
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Last edited:

seomatic

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If you've got enough money to live for the next 10 years whats the risk?
The opportunity costs. It could be a complete waste of time. I don't want to be 10 years older with 0 money left.

Prices already doubled in the last months and might go up even more. So you can't really plan ahead anyway in this kind of unstable society we are living in europe.
 

AmppaDamppa

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Funny you should post this right now as I just updated my progress thread about the same business model (I'm guessing). I'm practically starting out too, but I'm further ahead of you in time commitment. So, check out what to expect with a new website growthwise and how it will grow exponentially.
 
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seomatic

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Funny you should post this right now as I just updated my progress thread about the same business model (I'm guessing). I'm practically starting out too, but I'm further ahead of you in time commitment. So, check out what to expect with a new website growthwise and how it will grow exponentially.
Awesome, great to see your progress and that it's paying off. It seems you are monetizing via affiliate ads. I don't like affiliate that much, so I plan to create my own product to have more control. Can't wait to go exponential :)
 

AmppaDamppa

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Awesome, great to see your progress and that it's paying off. It seems you are monetizing via affiliate ads. I don't like affiliate that much, so I plan to create my own product to have more control. Can't wait to go exponential:)
Yes my first plan was and is to gain traffic with a ton of great articles so I can quit my job first. At this rate, it's achieved by the end of the year, and then I'll dive deeper into products and other forms of monetization.

A product you own certainly is the way to go as an affiliate, and ads aren't in your control. Good luck mate, trust the process, and learn as you go!
 

seomatic

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Yes my first plan was and is to gain traffic with a ton of great articles so I can quit my job first. At this rate, it's achieved by the end of the year, and then I'll dive deeper into products and other forms of monetization.

A product you own certainly is the way to go as an affiliate, and ads aren't in your control. Good luck mate, trust the process, and learn as you go!
How do you find the time to work a job and still do work on your site? And how much time do you invest per day/week?
 
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AmppaDamppa

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How do you find the time to work a job and still do work on your site? And how much time do you invest per day/week?
I worked as a warehouse employee when I started, so I maximized my earnings per hour by doing double shifts and Sundays. Then I could write most of the week, and I'll just push through and show up every day.

Nowadays, I'm working as a digital marketing specialist (I got the job by showing my website), but I'm going to leave soon as I need to dedicate all my effort to this, and the job requires a lot of brain power.

I invest at least 2/hours per day, usually more. Somedays, I don't write at all, but the average is +2h for sure.

PS. All the benefits I have gotten from these efforts in +1 year aren't money. I have gained great skills in SEO, writing, researching, analyzing, and more. Compare that to a school etc, and I think my efforts have paid very well so far, only not in money.
 

seomatic

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I worked as a warehouse employee when I started, so I maximized my earnings per hour by doing double shifts and Sundays. Then I could write most of the week, and I'll just push through and show up every day.

Nowadays, I'm working as a digital marketing specialist (I got the job by showing my website), but I'm going to leave soon as I need to dedicate all my effort to this, and the job requires a lot of brain power.

I invest at least 2/hours per day, usually more. Somedays, I don't write at all, but the average is +2h for sure.

PS. All the benefits I have gotten from these efforts in +1 year aren't money. I have gained great skills in SEO, writing, researching, analyzing, and more. Compare that to a school etc, and I think my efforts have paid very well so far, only not in money.
I know what you mean. When I started, I was doing parcel deliveries just to keep my brainpower for my side hustle. If you work an office job, your brain is exhausted at the end of the day.

The skills are nice, but I don't won't to work for someone else anymore. Corporate jobs are always misery. You make someone else rich in the best case and in the worst case you get involved into some BS office politics.
Never again! I will rather move to the forrest, before taking another job.

That's why my plan is to get enough traffic and then build my own product.
 

AmppaDamppa

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I know what you mean. When I started, I was doing parcel deliveries just to keep my brainpower for my side hustle. If you work an office job, your brain is exhausted at the end of the day.

The skills are nice, but I don't won't to work for someone else anymore. Corporate jobs are always misery. You make someone else rich in the best case and in the worst case you get involved into some BS office politics.
Never again! I will rather move to the forrest, before taking another job.

That's why my plan is to get enough traffic and then build my own product.
Yes a more physical job is better when working on a side hustle. Paracel delivery was probably great for that.

The skills can be used for much more than working for someone else, which is what I meant! I'm done with working for someone else too. It doesen't have any thrill to it either!

A solid plan man I'm sure you'll succeed!
 
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seomatic

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Yes a more physical job is better when working on a side hustle. Paracel delivery was probably great for that.

The skills can be used for much more than working for someone else, which is what I meant! I'm done with working for someone else too. It doesen't have any thrill to it either!

A solid plan man I'm sure you'll succeed!
Thanks man, you really gave me motivation to continue my journey. Great to see your success, it's an inspiration.

I've noticed how important it is to celebrate small milestones. Today my site reached a new all time high in impressions.
22.5% higher than the last high and the day isn't over yet.
Next goal is 2700 impressions/day, because that's 1 million a year :D

I've seen that impressions are an early indicator of success: First impressions go up, then after a while clicks follow.

PS: I think I will post updates here, because it might help to stay consistent.

Screen Shot 2022-05-24 at 20.51.48.png
 

AmppaDamppa

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Thanks man, you really gave me motivation to continue my journey. Great to see your success, it's an inspiration.

I've noticed how important it is to celebrate small milestones. Today my site reached a new all time high in impressions.
22.5% higher than the last high and the day isn't over yet.
Next goal is 2700 impressions/day, because that's 1 million a year :D

I've seen that impressions are an early indicator of success: First impressions go up, then after a while clicks follow.

PS: I think I will post updates here, because it might help to stay consistent.

View attachment 43627
Great to hear! I've gotten inspiration and guidance dozens of times from others and it really helps!

It really is, celebrate all milestones and yes, impressions bring clicks!!

Yes post here or somewhere else but be sure to post them. I'm always looking forward to them haha. I'll be waiting mate!
 

seomatic

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I thought a bit about life and so on and I decided to go all-in on the project. It's already such a big advantage that I can focus 100% of my efforts on it and don't have to work a normal job. I have to stop wasting time and trolling the internet all day and instead get to work.

So I decided to give it all I have for 100 days and if it doesn't work out, then I know for sure and my head is free to try something else. I can live with failure, but not with regret. Thanks again to @AmppaDamppa for the motivation.
 
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AmppaDamppa

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I thought a bit about life and so on and I decided to go all-in on the project. It's already such a big advantage that I can focus 100% of my efforts on it and don't have to work a normal job. I have to stop wasting time and trolling the internet all day and instead get to work.

So I decided to give it all I have for 100 days and if it doesn't work out, then I know for sure and my head is free to try something else. I can live with failure, but not with regret. Thanks again to @AmppaDamppa for the motivation.
That's great to hear, but 100 days isn't even 1/3 of a year. Or that depends on what you determine success for that time. What do you expect to achieve in 100 days?
 

seomatic

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That's great to hear, but 100 days isn't even 1/3 of a year. Or that depends on what you determine success for that time. What do you expect to achieve in 100 days?
Good question, I haven't set a concrete goal. That's a big fail on my part.
I guess to live off the website. Let's say 2-3k a month for a start.

Let's break it down on KPIs:
impressions: from 1 million a year to 1 million a month - 12x
clicks: from 1k a month to 30k a month - 30x (1k a day in clicks)
I assume ctr will increase with better position, that's why clicks should go up more than impressions.

monetization: build my own product and sell for 99/month
30000 clicks * 0.001 conversion rate = 30 sales month = 3000 revenue

if conversion rate is better than 0.1%, then that's a bonus.
 

Kevin88660

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Hey fastlaners,

I started a new website recently and while I'm seeing some results, it's just a slow grind. Essentially I'm working on improving the site, doing seo and all of that, but I'm not making enough money to live off of it. On the other hand there is huge potential in my opinion.

So I'm unsure at the moment if I should continue growing the site or not. I guess my main issue is a lack of trust in the process. I mean my trust in society is very low and I've been scammed a few times by clients not paying and so on. So I'm thinking twice about putting any effort into something. On the other hands you see complete $!$"F {not so smart people} showering in money, which makes me angry.

My left brain side tells me that it's worthless to work on it and my right brain side says if the growth continues the site will be huge in a few months. I have currently enough money saved to live for 10 years or so without working, but it's still an uncomfortable situation to put all effort, time and energy into one thing and live off savings. It feels like losing ground for some reason.

So I guess my question is how to handle the emotional side of being an entrepreneur?

View attachment 43623
View attachment 43624
What is your site about?

The confidence for me always about the size of the sector and industry. If people who have influence in the field are making money in it, then you will make money.

Then you just need to focus on growth.

If you have no confidence on monetization even when you have an audience later then it is probably a bad route to be taken.

I am a small youtube creator btw, working on it part time.
 
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seomatic

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What is your site about?

The confidence for me always about the size of the sector and industry. If people who have influence in the field are making money in it, then you will make money.

Then you just need to focus on growth.

If you have no confidence on monetization even when you have an audience later then it is probably a bad route to be taken.

I am a small youtube creator btw, working on it part time.
It's a service for professionals. That's why we have the up and downs during the week. People search for it more on weekdays and less on weekends.

There is a company doing like 300 million annually in sales in the industry. my project is focused on a niche within that industry. When I divide the revenue by the users on their website, they earn like 3 EUR per visitor. (all of their sales coming from website)

Once I get to 100 clicks per day, I will start doing soft monetization experiments: collecting leads, farming retargeting lists and so on.
 

seomatic

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I am a small youtube creator btw, working on it part time.
I also tried youtube and reached like 1 million views or so, but the downside is that you have to create new content all the time. With SEO it's more like a create it once and profit for years of it. Of course, you still need to put in work to stay ahead of the competition, but the lifetime of content is much longer in general. Also I don't like to be in front of the camera, however some people have definitely talent for it.
 

seomatic

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Just a quick update here. Yesterday, was a fantastic day, the site reached new all-time highs in clicks and impressions.
The impressions count was 2,816 and therefore, it reached the goal of 1 million impressions per year already. The next goal will be 10k impressions/day. With this success, there is no way back anymore. I will focus on the project instead of diluting my focus with other projects.

Screen Shot 2022-05-26 at 20.22.17.png
 
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seomatic

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Day 1/100

Just finished work today, it's half past 12 at night here and I'm exhausted but happy. My accomplishments today:
  • published 10 high-quality articles
  • improved internal link structure
  • researched some related topics for more articles tomorrow
 

seomatic

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Yesterday, most metrics were stable and I'm still on track to earn 1 million impressions per year. What's interesting to see, is that the surge of impressions came from the US, which is my target market.

Screen Shot 2022-05-27 at 15.17.01.png
 

seomatic

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Day 2/100

Finished work today and accomplished the following:
  • 3 new articles published
  • solved some broken links and orphan pages
  • improved meta descriptions (some were too long or short)
  • implemented breadcrumbs for all new articles I'm publishing
 
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seomatic

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Next update, skipped the weekend so the 100 days will be only weekdays.

Day 3/100
  • developed some backend tool to automate some stuff
  • cleaned up my code
  • updated 12 articles, adding new and more detailed information
  • published 2 new articles
Tomorrow is the last day of the month complete, I will publish a monthly report.
 

seomatic

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Yesterday was overall a good day, but US traffic was weak ... probably because of the holiday.
Anyway, the page reached a new all-time high in impressions - almost 3k.
It also reached over 1k clicks overall and the average position is climbing very nicely.

Screen Shot 2022-06-01 at 17.38.59.png
 

seomatic

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Day 4/100
  • created a tool for the users of my page (it's kind of a test and if it works I will create more)
  • created 2 new articles
  • updated some older articles to see if I can improve performance
 
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msufan

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Day 4/100
  • created a tool for the users of my page (it's kind of a test and if it works I will create more)
  • created 2 new articles
  • updated some older articles to see if I can improve performance
Glad you kept pushing with this. Your trends are all in the right direction and I think this is better than starting over.
 

SSTrey

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Day 1/100

Just finished work today, it's half past 12 at night here and I'm exhausted but happy. My accomplishments today:
  • published 10 high-quality articles
  • improved internal link structure
  • researched some related topics for more articles tomorrow
You mentioned earlier your site is a "service for professionals. That's why we have the up and downs during the week. People search for it more on weekdays and less on weekends."

So are these services coming from service providers? Why are you not making money from the value creation here?
How does this fit in to the publishing of articles?
 

SSTrey

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Yesterday was overall a good day, but US traffic was weak ... probably because of the holiday.
Anyway, the page reached a new all-time high in impressions - almost 3k.
It also reached over 1k clicks overall and the average position is climbing very nicely.

View attachment 43770
How much are you spending per 30 days on Advertising to get these page stats?
 
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AmppaDamppa

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How much are you spending per 30 days on Advertising to get these page stats?
I'm quite sure he's doing it with SEO (organic traffic), not paying for Ads.

Correct me if I'm wrong!
 

heavy_industry

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Awesome thread, thanks for sharing.


On the other hands you see complete $!$"F {not so smart people} showering in money, which makes me angry.
Don't be angry or envious of them. There are two reasons for that:
  • Understand that the market does not reward people for being smart. It rewards people for providing perceived value. If you have something that people want, they will throw money at you.
  • As a psychological defense mechanism, you will never become something you hate. Don't hate rich people if you want to become one of them.

My left brain side tells me that it's worthless to work on it and my right brain side says if the growth continues the site will be huge in a few months.
Feeling like it's hopeless it's a natural part of growing any successful business. The numbers on your site are very optimistic however, and they indicate impending exponential growth.
(it's already exponential, but I'm referring to the steep growth curve you're looking for)

So I guess my question is how to handle the emotional side of being an entrepreneur?
  1. Set a goal.
  2. Make a plan. Define a process that will take you to that goal.
  3. Forget about the goal. Focus exclusively on the process and do it as best as you can.
  4. Win.


I would also suggest not looking every day at the numbers. And do not react emotionally to them. There will be a lot of variability in the short term. It's the month to month average growth which is of interest.
 

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