The next phase

It's more clear to me now than ever why launching and running an online business is so attractive. I've been running my own online business for years (content sites for the most part). Toward the end of 2022 I decided to add to my work pile with something quite a bit different. I started the process of launching a local service biz. It launched today; more specifically, the website went live today. Now the marketing can truly begin. ​ --------------------------------------------------------------- -PAID AD- =​ Get a 1000-word sample article for just $15 with ContentWish! [Claim your offer here](=). Are you tired of overpriced content providers? ContentWish offers the best value SEO content in the industry. We specialize in long-form content; listicles, product reviews, how-tos, buying guides, you name it! So why should you work with us? - Carefully selected in-house writing and editing team - Human-made, deeply researched, and proofread content - Lifetime word credits to order content whenever you want - Up-to-date SEO content templates - Ultra-fast delivery in just 8 business days - Prices start at just $0.041 per word ​ The cherry on top? Today you can test our services for only $15! ​[Click here to grab the deal.](=)​ *Available till Feb 7th or until we run out of capacity for the offer. -END PAID AD- Disclaimer: the above is a paid advertisement. It is not an endorsement by me. --------------------------------------------------------------- It has not been a picnic especially for someone accustomed to operating in the almost entirely laissez-faire arena where digital businesses thrive. The red tape never ends for brick and mortar. There's insurance, hiring, Workers Comp, payroll, local business license, all sorts of banking stuff to set up, warehouse, customs broker, supplier accounts, tax number, accounting set up... the list goes on and on. Get this. My application for a local business permit was rejected. I won't go into details because the reason is ludicrous. It's the usual red tape insanity. It boiled down to the address I put on the application. It's nuts. After all this which has consumed much of my time, I'm stunned there are as many businesses operating as there are given what's involved setting them up. And I don't have a physical location to set up. I'm operating out of my current office. I can't imagine what's involved setting up a bar or restaurant or gym or some other biz with an expensive premises to pay for. It didn't help that I was doing it over Christmas which delayed things. All of it is more or less done. Now I can focus on marketing it. Contrast all this with launching a niche site business. If you know your niche, it takes about an hour. If you don't know your niche, tack on an extra five minutes to pick one. One hour vs many weeks. Boggles the mind. No red tape with niche sites. Launch, grow and earn. Running my niche sites seems so easy now. I don't take them for granted. Although keep reading because niche sites aren't problem-free either. Do I regret my foray into a "brick and mortar" biz? Nope, not one bit. I've set it up so I'm not involved in operations. I get to focus on the marketing which is not a whole heck of a lot different than growing a niche site. The main difference is monetization. Instead of display ads or affiliate offers, I'm selling services. The monetization is valuable enough so that paid ads SHOULD be profitable. I'll find out soon enough. Other than that I'm focusing on content marketing, email marketing and social media. That's what I do with niche sites. That's what I'll do for my local biz. Everything happens at once While navigating hopeless red tape and other unpleasantness, my biggest site's traffic hasn't been the greatest. It's been on a slow, long decline since the September 2022 update. Top that off with wretched ad rates and I can safely say January was not the best month. The only bright spot is that Pinterest is good these days for me. Sadly, Pinterest traffic growth does not make up for lost search traffic. Not even close. SEO is trickier than ever thanks to an endless onslaught of Google updates. Helpful content, broad core, spam links... the list goes on. I've lost track of them all. Let's just say through it all, my main site ended up on the losing end. I'm working on rehabbing it. I believe something will work. I've noticed slight improvement recently but it's far too early to conclude anything given traffic usually starts growing in January every year. I'm down compared to last January. Interestingly, across all my sites, there seems to be no pattern. Some sites I own have done well. They're smaller so those gains didn't offset the aggregate loss in traffic. Downs are part of the biz. It's forced me to focus which is fine. I can't say I'm happy about that but it's not the end of the world. I'm focusing the site to be tightly related to my local biz offerings. Am I moving away from niche sites? Nope. Not at all. I'm digging in hard. I love this biz despite the fluctuations and never-ending requirements to adapt. I should clarify that just because I love the niche site model is hardly reason to continue with it. I could love selling fax machines but that would be futile. I'm putting more focus into my main niche site now that it's dovetailing with a local biz in an effort to continue growing it as a brand. Slow n' steady. What about Facebook? Get this! Somebody stole my biggest FB page from me 3 days ago. Right out from under my nose. FB normally drives respectable traffic every day so I lost a few days of FB traffic. I contacted FB. They gave me a laundry list of documents to submit to prove ownership. I did as they instructed. This morning my FB page was returned to me. Lately I've been playing Whac-A-Mole with the FB hackers. It's the second hack in as many months. Good times. Mmmhhh, clearly online businesses aren't all smooth sailing either. Online businesses present their own set of problems. So, how was your January? Jon Fatstacksblog.com [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 2016 Hill Drive, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7H 2N5