michaelmosesson
Member
Hey guys!
It's been a long time since you've heard from me, but fret not - I'm still around!
This is my 2nd follow along. You can read about my first one HERE.
Introduction
(Skip this section if you just want to read about the new site)
I'll use exactly the same approach as in my first follow along. Why? Because it works. However, you may be wondering what the point of this 2nd follow along is.
Well, when I'd been running my site for close to 3 months, I saw a message from Oliver (K) where he pointed out that my following was small (compared to what could be expected after 3 months I guess).
At first I didn't reflect upon it very much, as I was busy building links. However, as I was getting ready to go to sleep, the short line from K kept being played in the back of my mind. So, knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep, I looked into it.
After 3 months, I had 335 followers on Tumblr, ~100 followers on Twitter, ~2k followers on Pinterest, ~160 followers on G+ and ~40 followers on Facebook. When looking at how few that were sharing my links/posts, it felt like I was putting in lots and lots of effort and got very little in return.
So I decided to do a little experiment. I suspected that my niche was too generic, whereas my products generated little interest in people to pass them forward (kinda like in a "oh, those are cool. let's move along" fashion). I decided to look for a niche where people were sharing way more content than my current audience, and I found one with just a few 1st page competitors.
My New Site
My new niche site was started on Saturday, May 3rd. It's not even been a week yet and let's just say that I love when it turns out I'm right about my suspicions.
The previous site's got visits from 988 users in 3 months time. So far, on this one, I've had 991. I beat my old site in just six days!
But it doesn't stop there. Some of my products are already shown on the 2nd page of Google and my followers are just CRAZY about sharing my stuff. I wish I could show you my stats from ahref, but unfortunately it cannot find stats for the site yet.
Speaking of followers, I'm getting plenty of those too;
The most important aspect I was looking for among followers - when trying to find a niche - was passion. I needed them to be truly passionate about the things they discussed. It had to be a niche they'd defend with the lives of their mothers if somebody questioned/attacked it. And so far it's working out fairly well!
I am now getting significantly more shares on all the social networks than my first niche site got. My most popular product on the previous Tumblr account got 7 notes (yes, after 3 months). The most popular product on my new Tumblr account currently has 70(!) notes. Go figure.
Conclusion
Before you start bashing me about my post, please keep in mind that I did NOT create this follow along to brag; even though it may appear that way. What I'm trying to demonstrate is how bloody damn important it is to target the right niche, which I found out the hard way.
Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly happy that my first site builds really slow. It's allowed me to exercise patience and really challenge myself into never giving up, plus it'll make the following sites that I build feel like a breeze. Furthermore, it's gonna be a lesson I'll never forget and it should keep me from picking really bad niches from now on.
I hope this is useful for some of you, and I hope to see some active users peeking into and commenting on this not so private diary.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
It's been a long time since you've heard from me, but fret not - I'm still around!
This is my 2nd follow along. You can read about my first one HERE.
Introduction
(Skip this section if you just want to read about the new site)
I'll use exactly the same approach as in my first follow along. Why? Because it works. However, you may be wondering what the point of this 2nd follow along is.
Well, when I'd been running my site for close to 3 months, I saw a message from Oliver (K) where he pointed out that my following was small (compared to what could be expected after 3 months I guess).
At first I didn't reflect upon it very much, as I was busy building links. However, as I was getting ready to go to sleep, the short line from K kept being played in the back of my mind. So, knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep, I looked into it.
After 3 months, I had 335 followers on Tumblr, ~100 followers on Twitter, ~2k followers on Pinterest, ~160 followers on G+ and ~40 followers on Facebook. When looking at how few that were sharing my links/posts, it felt like I was putting in lots and lots of effort and got very little in return.
So I decided to do a little experiment. I suspected that my niche was too generic, whereas my products generated little interest in people to pass them forward (kinda like in a "oh, those are cool. let's move along" fashion). I decided to look for a niche where people were sharing way more content than my current audience, and I found one with just a few 1st page competitors.
My New Site
My new niche site was started on Saturday, May 3rd. It's not even been a week yet and let's just say that I love when it turns out I'm right about my suspicions.
The previous site's got visits from 988 users in 3 months time. So far, on this one, I've had 991. I beat my old site in just six days!
But it doesn't stop there. Some of my products are already shown on the 2nd page of Google and my followers are just CRAZY about sharing my stuff. I wish I could show you my stats from ahref, but unfortunately it cannot find stats for the site yet.
Speaking of followers, I'm getting plenty of those too;
- Tumblr: 223
- Google+: 5 (and 425 on a pen name account, which will drive people to my G+ page)
- Pinterest: 105
- Twitter: 65
- Facebook: 0 (just started promoting it)
- WeHeartIt: 330
- TheFancy: 7
The most important aspect I was looking for among followers - when trying to find a niche - was passion. I needed them to be truly passionate about the things they discussed. It had to be a niche they'd defend with the lives of their mothers if somebody questioned/attacked it. And so far it's working out fairly well!
I am now getting significantly more shares on all the social networks than my first niche site got. My most popular product on the previous Tumblr account got 7 notes (yes, after 3 months). The most popular product on my new Tumblr account currently has 70(!) notes. Go figure.
Conclusion
Before you start bashing me about my post, please keep in mind that I did NOT create this follow along to brag; even though it may appear that way. What I'm trying to demonstrate is how bloody damn important it is to target the right niche, which I found out the hard way.
Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly happy that my first site builds really slow. It's allowed me to exercise patience and really challenge myself into never giving up, plus it'll make the following sites that I build feel like a breeze.
Furthermore, it's gonna be a lesson I'll never forget and it should keep me from picking really bad niches from now on.I hope this is useful for some of you, and I hope to see some active users peeking into and commenting on this not so private diary.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
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