For about 2 years now, I’ve been wrestling with the issue that content typically lasts around 2 years, give or take, before the site tanks.
You know how love lasts 3 years? Well, content lasts two😀
Fairy tales about 50% annual passive income don’t move me, because I see websites sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars that slide right to the bottom, clearly failing to recoup the investment. Passive income only exists in online courses, complete with a magic pill.
On the other hand, there are websites at auctions that consistently stay in top rankings for years and perform totally fine. Those are the sites I’m interested in right now, and I’m trying to replicate their approach—what are they doing that others aren’t doing, causing the rest to decline?
I take this listing: https://www.motioninvest.com/product/petfishonline-com/
The most important part of it is what the owner says about the site.
For example:
>> How much time do you spend on the site? What tasks do you perform?
- I usually dedicate four to five hours a week to the site.
- I have followed a consistent publishing schedule of two articles per week since the site was launched.
- During this time, I thoroughly research the topic, draft the article, edit it for accuracy and clarity, and complement it with relevant images and YouTube videos to improve its overall quality.
The author understands the topic like an expert + consistently outputs articles. A site like that survives. This is a practice worth adopting as an example—consistently publishing 2 articles a week.
These are the kinds of methods I’m trying to implement on my sites, including doorway sites. Doorway sites, if they are user-friendly doorways, share the same traits as white-hat sites. If you leave them unattended, they slide downhill.
I’ve tried almost everything:
- removed thin content
- added social media profiles hoping for trust
- optimized site speed.
In short, I’ve been wrestling with this for 2 years now, and I’m currently launching new experiments.
At auctions right now, I’d buy up sites that have been around for more than 3 years and ask the owner how they maintain the site and what they do on it. If you put in the work and keep developing it, I think everything will be fine. If you slack off—not fine.
And I’ll leave passive income to online course sellers.