I’ve Decided To Forefeit the 50 Site Challenge (Go Me!)
Why? I just don’t have the energy to create an interesting site each day. Sure I could’ve continued pumping out spammy sites for the next month and a half but I just don’t see the point. I can’t really think of a better way to burn yourself out than to stick to a routine like this. It seriously zaps all of the fun out of web design.
It was pretty much all hype in the end. But it was worth a go. Even if this was a bit of a disaster I now have 5 sites that are showing a lot of promise. I wouldn’t have developed those if I hadn’t thought of this challenge in the first place.
“Guess Who’s Not Joining the $100+ Club” Heh. Well at least not for a while yet.
What have I learnt from this?
- It’s worth trying out new techniques to increase your motivation. Even if it crashes and burns.
- Don’t rely solely on the possibility that you’ll look like a fool if you fail in front of a community. You should instead work out in your own mind what you want to achieve and go for it for the right reasons.
- Never be afraid to admit you are wrong. Stand by everything you do. Even if you sense you look like a real fool in front of everyone. The only person you have to answer to you is yourself. Unless of course you’ve just pissed $2000 of investors money down the drain. Then it makes things that little bit trickier..
- It definitely is better for me to create 5 sites that earn $20 a day rather than 50 that earn $2.
- If you have one good idea that captivates you, run with it! If you come across another, take note of what exactly that idea entails – as the chances are you’ll forget parts of it whilst you are implementing your current project.
- You can’t learn everything from practice. Sometimes you need to turn to the theory too to progress. As I mentioned before Aaron’s SEO Book helped with this. I’m sure there are countless other resources out there too.
- Breaks are as important as periods of activity. In music, inspired use of silence can turn a mediocre song into a world beater. Don’t underestimate rest – some of my best ideas have came during naps, days out with the family or even at the bar.
- There is no point in burning yourself out and neglecting your social/family life especially over the holiday. Life is too fucking short.
2 comments for this entry:
December 25th, 2006 on 11:39 pm
Know how you feel and perfectly understand but sorry to see you forfit the challenge. I have put mine in the freezer too but stil building.
Looking at what you have build till now I hope you don’t mind me saying but maybe you were looking at the wrong categories to build sites around. Tryumph starts with try and as long as you see this as a learning curve you have not failed and were not wrong
Succes and merry x-mas
February 20th, 2007 on 6:55 pm
[...] I think we can all agree that the 50 sites in 50 days campaign was an absolute disaster. Most of the sites created during that period are lying completely stagnant and it’s proving hard to sell them on for anything over $50. My advice now would be to concentrate on developing one or two sites that capture your interest and increase your revenue that way. If you’re just starting out and you don’t have any websites in your network, buy an established one off Digitalpoint. [...]