At least I just wanna have fun.
And I am.
Writing this email is fun.
Writing my hotel reviews is fun. Almost as much fun as staying in them.
Writing about my car is fun. I like that car.
Writing about my athletic and recreational pursuits is fun.
What could be better than building a lucrative business around our favorite things and pursuits?
I can’t think of anything.
Let me put it this way.
In the past, people would joke “writing hotel reviews is such a dream job” or “imagine being a restaurant reviewer and getting paid to eat at fancy restaurants every night.”
That’s what blogging is, or can be.
No, you don’t have to write hotel or restaurant reviews.
You can write whatever floats your boat, including your boat if you have one.
You could literally earn a good full-time living writing about boating, RV’ing, luxury travel, crafting, Minecraft, tennis, self-help, stamp collecting and so much more.
I think too many people get too wrapped up about monetization; so much so it takes the fun out of blogging.
They let the money pick the niches and topics.
While this can be the more lucrative approach, it’s not always the best approach.
There’s the fun factor.
At least for me, there is.
It’s also easy for me to say as well.
I have the luxury of choosing less lucrative niches now.
That said, none of my niches other than Fat Stacks falls into any of the hyper-lucrative niches.
Every niche site I own earns mostly from display ads which put them toward the bottom of the earnings spectrum.
High-earning niches rake in bucks from selling products and affiliate promotions.
The fact I like my niche sites gave me staying power.
And staying power is how you build up huge sites.
And huge sites are how you earn hyper-profits. Your overhead as a percentage of your business becomes less and less as your site grows.
More importantly, your absolute growth can be mind-blowing in the long run.
In the beginning, getting to 5,000 daily page views is seemingly impossible. It’s a ton of work and time.
Down the road getting from 60,000 to 65,000 page views is merely a good day. 5,000 page views up or down is nothing.
While percentage growth year-over-year may slow, the absolute growth is nothing short of awesome.
Let me illustrate with a SAMPLE website timeline:
End of year 1: 500 visitors per day
End of year 2: 5,000 visitors per day: 1,000% growth
End of year 3: 10,000 visitors per day: 200% growth
End of year 4: 25,000 visitors per day: 150% growth
End of year 5: 40,000 visitors per day: 60% growth
End of year 6: 65,000 visitors per day: 37.5% growth
End of year 7: 80,000 visitor per day: 23% growth
End of year 8: 100,000 visitors per day: 25% growth
End of year 9: 120,000 visitors per day: 20% growth
End of year 10: 150,000 visitors per day: 25% growth
Normally there would be ups and downs but the above is not beyond the realm of possibility over a ten-year period.
In the early years, the percentage growth is astronomical but the absolute growth is low.
From year 1 to year 2, a site can enjoy 1,000% growth but the actual number of visitors increases far less than in future years.
The same occurs each successive year.
From year 9 to year 10, the sample site enjoys 30,000 more visitors per day, yet that represents only 25% growth.
Another interesting observation is it took over 4 years, in the beginning, to get to 30,000 visitors per day. Down the road, that kind of growth happens in one year.
So while charts would show a slowing growth trajectory (decelerating), the actual absolute growth is awesome.
If that doesn’t excite you, I don’t know what will.
Stick with it.
Easier said than done unless you’re having fun.
Jon Dykstra is a six figure niche site creator with 10+ years of experience. His willingness to openly share his wins and losses in the email newsletter he publishes has made him a go-to source of guidance and motivation for many. His popular “Niche site profits” course has helped thousands follow his footsteps in creating simple niche sites that earn big.
