Reminder: Goal
My goal was to start a website, grow it to a valuation of $100k, sell it, and – you guessed it – create ten more. I was hooked from that first $2 commission, and from that point on it was incredibly fulfilling to watch a business grow, even being the grind that it is. My craziest dream was doing this thing full-time. It also helped that my wife was incredibly supportive, even though I didn’t take a salary. And I was actually on track to reach $100k in 2021 with 30% MoM growth – until the December update hit.
Numbers
Here’s the good stuff.
| Month | Posts | Users | Affiliate | Ezoic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December | 4 | 17 | ||
| January | 1 | 4 | ||
| February | 1 | 3 | ||
| March | 15 | 267 | ||
| April | 9 | 1635 | $2 | |
| May | 5 | 5483 | $118 | |
| June | 1 | 7380 | $119 | |
| July | 3 | 10918 | $211 | |
| August | 2 | 14845 | $336 | |
| September | 11 | 18988 | $858 | $125 |
| October | 10 | 23849 | $1065 | $126 |
| November | 22 | 31745 | $1548 | $198 |
| December | 16 | 22905 | $1108 | $237 |
The December Core Update
Just as I was making progress, the update hit and decimated my revenue. I have lost rankings for 7 of my 9 main keywords that have been bringing in 80% of the money. At the same time, I’ve reached the top 3 (and many times top 1) for a lot of very small traffic keywords.
My guess is Google has devalued relevancy and search intent in comparison to links. The SERPs for my main keywords are now populated exclusively with high-DR behemoths like The Spruce and the NYTimes, and a specific competitor that has built an affiliate website on three semi-relevant high-DR expired domains. What’s interesting is they run low-quality roundups that don’t even have real-life photos or anything. I saw them all and had been able to outrank them in the past because my content was very query-focused, I had accumulated topic relevancy, and I was providing a lot of value. Now, I’m ejected into page 3.
What I think about this
- If my analysis of the update is correct, then I will have the most ROI if I start actively building links. I am dialing down publishing and zeroing in on outreach. I have started by putting everyone except one writer on hold, canceling my tool subscriptions, and hiring a full-time VA for outreach.
- I was under the false impression that if I stick to providing top-of-the-class content, somehow I will be able to keep up with the big dogs, and though this has been working for me, the top 10 are now a crapfest bulked up with loads of links with which I am less optimistic about competing. I will refocus on lower-competition keywords as I build links and hopefully regain my foothold on the big keywords.
- The update sucks, but I am in this game for the long haul. I can’t imagine my week without building something and growing a website further. This is the ultimate business slash hobby for me. Some people like to build furniture in their garage, I like to build systems.
