{"id":6914,"date":"2023-03-10T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T17:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nichetwins.com\/?p=6914"},"modified":"2023-07-31T14:59:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T14:59:07","slug":"the-real-reason-i-sold-my-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nichetwins.com\/the-real-reason-i-sold-my-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"#02 | The Real Reason I Sold My Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week I shared that I sold my 3 year old blog for high-six figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I never really explained why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That question, “why did you sell”, is a bit like asking “why did you marry your wife”?.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are so many reasons, ranging from the personal to the general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And all of them are valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But usually there’s one reason that stands out amongst the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in the case of selling my site, that “stand out” reason involves a hamster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. Becoming a hamster<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I started my niche site the goal was to make money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing more, nothing less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There wasn\u2019t some passion filled moment, or \u201ccalling\u201d that drew me to write about tech troubleshooting topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw an opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to earn dollars. Pay bills. Better support the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after 3+ years, 300+ articles, and nearly 400,000 words later – I was sick of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And seemingly all at at once it became a job. Something I had<\/em> to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I stopped, the site would suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This incredibly valuable asset I created would die a slow death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn’t let that happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I kept at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though I hated it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But every moment I wasn\u2019t working on the site, I felt guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this cycle repeated itself, day-in-and-day-out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work on the site, and hate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or not work on the site and feel guilty about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had officially become a hamster, in an all-out sprint on the content hamster wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2. She loves me, she loves me not<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Core updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Product review updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helpful content updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spam updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link spam updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google ranking updates have always been part of the SEO game, but the frequency of these updates has been turned up to 100 as of late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every other month Google is changing their ranking parameters – sometimes rolling out two different major updates simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"google<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I get the sense that Google is slowly losing control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s as if Google is the dog walker, and the search results are the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google does have their dog on a leash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that sense, they are still technically<\/em> in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that leash is getting longer and longer each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The longer the leash, the more freedom of movement for the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it just so happens that this particular dog is easily excitable, and has lots of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly, it\u2019s all over the damn place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which might be fine if we were actually talking about a dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we\u2019re not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re talking about your rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Artificial Intelligence (Dun Dun Dun)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The reality is, no one truly knows just how much<\/em> AI will impact Search, but just about everyone agrees that it will<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean, it already has. Hasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand search engines like Bing and Google are experimenting with AI chat bots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on the other hand, creators are actively leveraging technology like ChatGPT to generate content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That likely results in you, the niche site owner, getting squeezed from both sides:<\/p>\n\n\n\n