After 11 months of building my website, I finally decided to soft launch by reaching out to a handful of content creators/ experienced individuals within my niche.
One guy told me my website is useless and that I clearly know nothing.
Everyone else left me on read.
I also posted some sample content on reddit, but the post was entirely ignored.
I feel very foolish for investing so much time into something that might ultimately be worthless to the community. I really thought that people would see tremendous value in what I’ve built.
I don’t know where to go from here. Do I keep creating content? How do I get meaningful feedback? Should I quit? It feels so bad right now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
There’s a reason why podcasts and blogs etc have a very short lifespan, and the lack of patience by the creator is one of the biggest reasons of them all.
Sometimes the content is completely off the grid, but lack of patience and consistency is the biggest trap of all in regards to bring projects down.
I am not sure how much time you’ve given your project being online before feeling this discouraged but being an avid visitor on the Reddit podcast forum I see so many people feeling so bad cause “no one” is listening to their podcast after they launched it.
If you believe in your content, you’ll need to give it some time to grow!
Keep posting, keep sharing, keep working on it. Even more importantly, keep believing in it! If not, you most definitely will join the 3 month club which seem to be the average survival rate of a website.
I try to work with one year plans when starting a project. My latest project is now on its second year and in a rebooted format. Since I rebooted the format I am now pushing myself to work the project another year. If it has not kicked off “big time” in the end of this year I will give it up.
My definition of kicking off big time is quite open, it could refer to money, a trend of income, and or a huge amount of followers/activities.
I’ve got 22+ years on my site. Some things blow up, but it’s the things I spend a LOT of time on…that end up with 0 hits. So frustrating. I get it. Stick with it, find a way to speak to your audience that is different than everyone else (You aren’t going out out tech somebody like Steve Burke, for instance). Do your own thing, and just keep doing it.
I am a big fan of “The Why Files” on YouTube. The creator (A.J.) recently shared that the site sort of puttered along for two years, then blew up. Now he has 4.5 million subscribers.
Is yours going to do that? Probably not. But, “keeping on keeping on” is one of the keys to success in online work. The other is being brutally honest with yourself about your content vs the niche you’re trying to address. What is reasonable for your niche?
I’ve spent eight years running a web site focused on Kentucky politics from a progressive standpoint. As you can imagine, this is a relatively small niche. But, I’ve learned a lot along the way, and we continue to grow, slowly.
If you are clear on your niche, and are meeting the needs of the readers/viewers in your niche, then you will grow your audience over time.
Like others have said and probably will continue to say; you need to play the long game.
For me personally, I have been doing this for nearly 15 years, over 4,000 pieces of content and still have more to do - the job is never done. Some articles are clear winners, some not and then sometimes you get a banger and you scratch your head.
If the flame to continue burns still, then keep going. Nothing worth going after will ever happen in a moment.
How’s it going? Did you get back on track again?
Myself am suffering from a big dip in self confidence right now. It doesn’t feel like anybody is interested in what I have to say, and it also feels like the only thing that keeps me going right now is the stack of business cards I paid for for this project…
So, I scrapped everything and decided to start over from a different angle. I realized that my content was indeed a bit off the grid. I was trying to introduce a new way of thinking into my niche, and every piece of content revolved around that. I still think the idea/ content is valuable, but it probably wasn’t going to build an audience from scratch…
Right now, I’m focusing on doing things the “basic” way (i.e., writing about the same topics as others but with my own unique delivery, adding bits of value wherever I can). I feel more confident going into round 2, but I probably would have quit entirely if not for the kind words of encouragement from you and the others in this thread.
One thing I’ve realized through my short journey is that there are good days (when you feel inspired, hopeful, and confident), and there are bad days (when you feel dull, disillusioned, and insecure). With 2 years under your belt, it sounds like you’re a very passionate and dedicated creator—you’re just having a bad day.
Even if you decide to pivot or scrap everything like I did, I hope you keep creating. I keep a fortune cookie on my desk that says, “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Although I don’t have the experience or credentials to say this, I believe that if you keep creating, the universe will eventually make way for you.
But, I’ve learned a lot along the way, and we continue to grow, slowly.
