MARKETING MUNCH
Brain Food for Savvy Marketing Minds

The Last Post?

By Michael Wong | 6 Comments

I have decided to take an indefinite break from writing new posts.

Why?

Because despite some nice comments from a few subscribers, the response in terms of traffic (442 visitors/month), Twitter subscribers (23), and email subscribers (23) has been pretty disappointing to say the least.

So why did it fail?

There are many reasons. But the main ones I think are: (1) it didn’t offer anything new; (2) I tried to cover too many topics; and (3) I didn’t really add a new voice to the blogosphere.

I started enthusiastically enough writing 6 new posts a day. Within a couple of weeks I soon realized I couldn’t keep up that work rate, and still have time for the rest of my business. So I reduced it to one post a day. But the lack of traffic squeezed any enthusiasm out of me that I had left for the blog.

I like to fail fast (this is one of many). And when I realized the site wasn’t going as well as I had hoped, I started to spend more time on new projects.

If by some miracle the site traffic picks up in the future, then I will look at it again.

For now, thank you for supporting the site.

Best wishes,

Michael

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6 Responses to The Last Post?
  1. Frank Irias
    February 10, 2011 | 9:23 pm

    Too bad to see you go. I just joined last month or so and found your posts very relevant to us.

    Best of luck

    Michael Wong Reply:
    February 11th, 2011 at 10:09 am

    Hi Frank,

    Thanks for letting me know that you found the posts relevant. There were times when I wondered whether anyone found the stories as interesting as I did.

    I may post the occasional interesting story that I come across, so don’t unsubscribe if you wish to hear from me.

    Thanks again for taking the time to write.

    For now, take care.

    Michael

  2. Andy Smith
    February 9, 2011 | 8:56 am

    Michael,

    I have always enjoyed following you and your online ventures, since back in the day when I worked for Marc Harty at Search Engine Patrol (remember me? I was the main SEO guy in the office). Anyways, best of luck to you!

    - Andy

    Michael Wong Reply:
    February 9th, 2011 at 9:16 am

    You are too kind, Andy.

    I do remember you.

    What are you up to these days?

  3. Greg
    February 9, 2011 | 2:35 am

    So what are your other projects? Anything we can continue reading from you?

    Michael Wong Reply:
    February 9th, 2011 at 8:23 am

    Thanks for your questions, Greg.

    The answer to your first question is:

    1. I am devoting more time to my core business, affiliate marketing, which provides about 90% of my income.

    2. I am working on building more content to attract advertising revenue. I began re-optimizing all my websites 3 months ago and ad revenue has gone from virtually zero to about 7% of revenue. I would like to increase it to 25% of total revenue.

    3. I took on my first internet marketing client since 2002. I quite enjoy helping other people, and may open the door to a limited number of clients in the near future.

    4. I also plan to develop a digital product later this year. My last digital product was my SEO ebook that I wrote and self-published in 2002. It had modest success, generating over $100,000 in sales and profits. With another 9 years of experience under my belt, I hope this new product will be even more successful.

    Let me be honest with you: Basically I had gotten ahead of myself. I was wasting far too much time trying to come up with that big idea, and ignoring the bread and butter of my business. I forgot what I did best, which was SEO and affiliate marketing.

    This all came about after being slapped by Google for the umpteenth time. My revenues plunged by 50% to a 4 year low within a 3 month period.

    I finally realized that I could and should no longer rely on Google and a few big affiliate clients for the majority of my income. I had been in love with Google for far too long.

    It was time to diversify my business. I had to expand the product line, and diversify my traffic and revenue sources.

    As a result of the changes I had put into action, for the first time in many years, I feel far less pressure and far more at ease with my business.

    Greg, I am humbled to hear that you are interested in wanting to read more of my writing. Sadly, my blogging doesn’t seem to be help pay the bills.

    However I do intend to write more content for new websites. So if you subscribe or stay subscribed to this blog, you will hear about my new websites when they launch.

    Thanks again for taking the time to post your questions, Greg. I wish you all the success with your business.

    Best regards,

    Michael