Balancing Passion and Dollars?

[animalstyle]

I am in full sponge mode, taking in as much information as I can lately, reading reading and reading. I've been reading Re-Work by the guys from 37signals (basecamp) and the book has really been resonating with me. Basic ideas being strip the unnecessary stuff, think like an individual, focus fulfilling customers basic needs, and making things you are passionate for. All good.

I have also been wanting the success side that I see all the marketing ninjas receiving, the paycheck, the knowledge etc.

I see so many times the advice - actually build something and provide value, are you passionate about what you are doing etc. Right now I feel extremely passionate about growing a sustainable and fruitful income from online marketing and learning everything involved. This is independent of my other passions - things like rock climbing or music. My question is for someone at my point - in the early growth stages how is the mix best approached. In other words is it a safe idea to begin with my focus into profitable shorter term campaigns that I have maybe less personal passion about because I have such a high drive for marketing right now?

Also just to be clear, I am still working on my projects - my knowledge is dated and I missed some big ideas that I need to catch up on (just reading Traffic Leaks for the first time today) - I hope for a quick transition from 30% work - 70% research to 70% work - 30% research.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Sounds like an authority site about Rock Climbing might be a good path for you. I'm guessing that the gear required to do it safely is expensive and ranges from shoes, hand tools, ropes, pulleys and other mechanisms, anchors, clothing, hand chalk, and on and on. Sounds fruitful to me, if you target just the rock climbing niche and become the place to go for consistent updates, news, entertainment, place to find the directory of climbing locations, etc.

You asked the question of whether or not you should start a smaller project for a quick win even if you're less passionate about it, before starting something bigger. I think that question is limiting. I think you could start a small project that you ARE passionate about while still starting a larger project as well.

Here's an example. You could start a micro-niche'd site within Rock climbing, maybe just about how to safely use the equipment, I don't know. But you could take the content you write for that and transfer it to your bigger site for it's category on that topic, with it being re-written and longer, more involved. Same for finding places to get links. Same for relationships you start. Same for any social accounts you start (go broad instead of branded and you can use them over and over).

Basically, you could use a smaller project in a niche you are passionate about as a pre-cursor to a bigger project in the niche. Your goal could be to apply all of the wins and none of the negatives to a bigger site that's growing in parallel and aging, but not actively being marketed. Just take lots of notes. And when the small one is earning, flip it for 30x profits, and then turn around and apply all you learned and gained to the big one.

If you know you have a niche you're very passionate about, don't wait to get something up and aging. You need one long-term asset you don't compromise with spam and low-quality work. Save all of that for smaller projects. You'll learn a lot about what not to do doing those things, but make sure you insulate your main big "get me filthy rich" project from those methods.

 

[animalstyle]

Thanks for the reply, really like the idea of using a micro niche site to accelerate a larger project and removing my limiting ideas.

Right after posting this I began reviving an old site of mine, which I think I have been under-valuing for a long time. Going to re-niche the content on the site a little bit and bring it in to test the market and begin looking at the larger picture and see where I can expand to.

From what I read in your post, you are referencing to smaller projects and bigger projects as being separate, but what about talking a smaller focus project and steadily expanding it to cover more topics and transition it to an authority site? The site I am reviving has a decent 'brand' name/url that doesn't restrict it to the niche that the content is in.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Sure, as long as you anticipate the expansion (like having a non-restrictive brand name, as you've mentioned) then go for it. You can take on a specific micro-niche of your overall niche, one at a time, growing horizontally. If you plan ahead with your site's architecture, you can even end up having each micro-niche be a category-silo in the site.

Going micro might help you in attracting links and building relationships too. Once you tap that community dry, you can move to the next. And as you get bigger and bigger, you'll end up having been on everyone's radar and will continue to be that as you dominate. Sounds good to me.

But as I re-read what you said, I wouldn't have more than one vertical per site. Like, I wouldn't have a site about Cars and Gardening on the same domain. I'd have one about Cars that first starts with accessories, then tires and wheels, then mufflers, then turbo boosters, etc. Horizontal expansion within one vertical niche. It makes more sense to stick to one vertical for your users and for search engines. Unless you're a giant news site, but that's pretty ambitious.

 

[animalstyle]

Excellent. I am already starting to build those relationships and links you're talking about. Ranking well for some keywords, seeing some social shares for a couple articles that I wrote a couple years ago. Just checked back in with the niche today and have a new product that would be perfect to send traffic to - checked my email for the first time in a long time and the creator actually contacted me months ago - hope I didn't loose the connect.

I am going to re-create the site theme and create a structure that can handle new niches making it a goal to be able to instantly 'plug' new content sections in.

But as I re-read what you said, I wouldn't have more than one vertical per site. Like, I wouldn't have a site about Cars and Gardening on the same domain. I'd have one about Cars that first starts with accessories, then tires and wheels, then mufflers, then turbo boosters, etc. Horizontal expansion within one vertical niche. It makes more sense to stick to one vertical for your users and for search engines. Unless you're a giant news site, but that's pretty ambitious.

Wasn't thinking like this at all, thanks for being clear though.