If you’re considering quitting your blog, it’s important you do it for the right reasons. For example, if it’s only been around for a couple of weeks and you’re not getting any traffic, it’s too early to make a rash decision. On the other hand, if it’s been over half a year and you’re still in that same spot, then you may need to do some serious evaluation.
In this article, I’ll talk to you about three scenarios where it makes sense to delete your blog and start anew or focus on another project. Let’s take it from the top.
Quitting Time #1: You’re Not Getting Enough Traffic
It takes time for any blog to start getting a decent inflow of traffic. Even if your website is the best thing to hit the world since sliced bread, you can’t expect it to become a hit overnight.
In my experience, there are two factors that determine how popular a blog can be:
- How much content you’re putting out. If you’re posting new articles weekly, for example, it shouldn’t be long until your blog gets some traction.
- Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. Even if your articles are excellent, you need to pick the right keywords and optimize them for it. Otherwise, people may never find your content.
If you’re tackling both those angles and your blog has been around for at least half a year, then maybe your niche doesn’t have enough traffic to warrant the effort. It might also be the competition is too stiff, in which case you need to think long and hard about how much time you’re willing to put in before you see some good results.
Now, keep in mind that there’s not a universal metric for ‘decent traffic’. If you’re getting 1,000 views a day, that’s excellent, but a blog that receives just 100 visitors may make just as much money. Generally speaking, though, the more traffic you get, the bigger your income. With that in mind, if your website is still in its infancy and you haven’t hit that six-month mark yet, keep your nose the grindstone – it’s too early to call it quits!
Quitting Time #2: Conversions Aren’t Where You Need Them to Be
In most cases, conversions are proportional to the amount of traffic your blog gets. However, it may be that your blog is popular enough, but you’re not earning as much money as you’d expect.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can turn things around. Here are a few examples:
- Tweaking your blog’s design or copy. If you want your website to get more conversions, you need to lead visitors where you want them to go.
- A/B testing your pages. With enough traffic, you can build variations of your pages and drive traffic towards them, to test which ones do better.
- Using mailing lists to promote conversions. If someone subscribes to your blog’s mailing list, chances are they’d be open to hearing about special offers or promotions.
If your site is getting a decent amount of traffic, you’ve already won the first battle. Now, all it takes is for you to find a way to reach more of those users and convert them. Your primary goal should be to have more money coming in than it takes to maintain your website. In other words, you want a positive Return On Investment (ROI) rate.
How much money constitutes ‘enough’ is up to you. However, if your blog isn’t hitting that milestone after you’ve optimized it using the methods above (and given them time to work), then it’s time to look for a better investment. On the other hand, if you see an improvement on your ROI then you don’t want to quit your blog while it’s on an upward trend.
Quitting Time #3: You’re Spreading Yourself Too Thin Running Multiple Blogs
If you’re working on multiple projects at a time, it makes sense to quit your blog if you have a more successful one to focus your efforts on. In fact, it’s downright smart to start working on multiple blogs at once if you can handle the workload. That way, you minimize your chances of failure and get to find out firsthand which niche works for you and which one doesn’t.
However, the amount of work it takes to run two blogs properly is probably too much for anyone to handle. I’m a big believer in not overworking yourself, so it makes sense to focus your efforts on a single blog and here’s why:
- You’ll have more free time. Downtime is essential and doubly so if you’re working from home. If you don’t draw boundaries, you’ll end up answering work emails at 3 AM.
- You’ll be less stressed. Less work means less stress, which should enable you to create better blog posts.
- More time to create content for your successful blog. Without the extra workload, you’ll be able to increase your content output for the blog you stick with.
Of course, this scenario only works if you have another more successful project to focus your efforts on. However, if neither of your blogs is doing so hot after a while, it can still make sense to quit whichever one is performing the worst.
If the blog’s been around for a while, you may even be able to sell it to recoup some of your investment. However, if you don’t have another project to focus on, you can always start a new blog and put your experience to use. If you’re still not sure what went wrong the last time, check out Paid to Blog course, where we share what you need to know to get a successful blog up and running.
Conclusion
If you’re anything like me, you don’t like quitting. However, there are some cases where it makes sense to cut your losses and focus your efforts on new and better projects. If your blog keeps underperforming even though you’re doing everything right, deleting it may be your best option.
Just to be clear, turning a blog around is often possible, so I only recommend you take the exit ramp if you’re in one of these three situations:
- You’re not getting enough traffic after about half a year of work or more.
- Conversions aren’t enough to cover your costs or justify your effort even with solid content and SEO strategies in place.
- You’re dealing with too much work, and your effort is best spent on a different project.
When would you say it’s the right time to quit your blog and start over? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
Image credit: Pixabay.