A couple of weeks ago, I finally got the site stats sorted on my ‘other’ website – this is a website I set up specifically for my ebook. The idea was that through this website, I would promote this ebook, and boost sales. Now, I knew this hadn’t worked, because sales had not been boosted at all, but I was still persevering anyway, hoping that the visitor numbers were building thanks to the podcast I’ve been doing for the last 14 months and the articles on the site.
But when I got the stats, I realised the sad, ugly truth. Numbers were not building. The numbers, in fact, were dismal. Painful to see. Awful. I had a moment of despondency – I’d done all this work. I’d posted up 63 articles. I’d recorded 51 podcasts. And the numbers were telling me this was just not working. Although I was surprised that the numbers were so terrible (so terrible I can’t even bring myself to tell you about them), I wasn’t expecting them to be that high either – after all, I don’t promote the Banish Money Misery podcast very often, and I keep it very seperate from the Donnaonthebeach stuff. And I am not that interested in it. I love my ebook, I think it’s great, but I wrote it 5 years ago, and my energy has moved on to new and shiny things.
After pondering the dismal figures for a time, I started to wonder whether to just let this go, or whether to give it one last push. I then realised that the website is up for renewal in May. It’s not a large amount of money, but it did put a sense of urgency on the decision. I could of course, renew the domain name for another year, start promoting the aritcles and Banish Money Misery podcast to my Donnaonthebeach list… Or I could decide to let it go, on the basis that it’s not working. I ummed and ahed over the decision for a few days – I hate to abandon a project unfinished (ok, I have a million projects unfinished, but they’re all ‘in progress’!), but I knew it was time to let this go. Part of me still doesn’t want to, but I know it’s the right thing.
The Banish Money Misery website takes time to maintain. The podcasts take time to record and load. Time that could be better spent on other things – projects that I have more enthusiasm for, projects that I want to complete and get out in the world. So I’m chalking that project up to experience. It’s sad, but sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to. I am disappointed, I feel like I’ve failed with this experiment. I don’t like giving up. But it’s the right thing to do. I have to ditch what’s not working so that I can focus on what IS working. It’s never easy to let go of something you’ve put a lot of effort and time into. You can feel like a total failure, feel inadequate and defeated.
But with everything you try, you learn. This is not just some trite cliche, it’s true. I started the Banish Money Misery podcast at the same time as the Dreams to Reality podcast, and it was good experience to run the two together – I practiced my recording skills from a script, which I don’t do in the other podcast. I also built that website from scratch. The biggest thing I learned was to get the stats working sooner, so I know exaclty how many people are not finding this website!
I learned. A lot. The experiment ran for over a year (more than long enough to see if it worked). It’s time to ditch it. I feel like I need some kind of closing ceremony, some way of confirming that it’s over, a way of releasing any energy that’s still caught up in this project – this article is part of that. I wonder if there’s a way to ‘burn’ a website? Anyway, it’s time to ditch what’s not working. Already, I can feel the energy that has been released, the part of my brain that was taken up by this project has been freed, I’ve got more time in my working week…and it also means another idea I had for the ebook, which had been stalled because of the podcast and website, can now go ahead…and it might work better to boost sales.
You see, that’s the thing with flogging a dead horse. It takes your time, your energy, your brainpower. It takes energy to maintain it. It prevents other possibilities from opening up. I firmly believe in giving things a chance to work (hence the 14 months of Banish Money Misery experimentation), but once you have given them a genuine chance to work, and they have not, letting go is a smart move. It doesn’t mean you have failed. It means you tried, you learned, and you moved on. The next project you try for will be more likely to succeed because of the feedback and experience you gained with this ‘failure’. Every successful person ‘fails’ – it’s not the end of the world…in fact it’s usually the start of something new, something better, something that works.
– Something to Play With –
What is not working in your life or business? Is it time to ditch it? I’m not talking about ditching something you started a week ago, but things that have run their course, things you have no energy or enthusiasm for anymore. Consider ditching what’s not working, or at least reviewing the experiments to see if they need tweaking. I’d love to know what you think about this – please leave a comment below.
Love
Donna.x
Comments
10 responses to “OnTheBeach: Ditching What’s Not Working”
That’s interesting Chris, thanks for the perspective. I am still closing it down – I wasn’t expecting amazing stats…but they were SO poor after over a year, that combined with my lack of mojo for the project, I think the time has come to cut it. The decision has also freed up another idea that I had for it, and my instinct is that it’s a good idea.
However, I still have all the content, so I could re-use it in a different way, and perhaps with a different site.
x
The first three years of madontools.com were really, really quiet… I made so little money from it that I sometimes had to go and check it was actually still up!
But I added the articles anyway because I enjoyed the process…
Madontools now gets about 10,000 visitors each month, it’s hardly massive but it does return a nice sum from Google each month.
Why did that happen? Well, I think it’s just Google’s way (most traffic is from Google) that when you write good content that people want to read it takes a while for the statistics to build up…
Do you need to close down your site? Can you just leave it there and see what happens over the next 2 years? It seems like a long time but it will cost you very little and the muse for the subject may return… and you might find that the stats improve too!
Chris
Thanks Jessica! Yes, it is a relief. And I’m still feeling the need for something to close it off properly. I’ve always just put projects onto the back burner, but this one I feel I need to ‘close’ – I like the idea of burning a screenshot. Thanks for that! xxx
I’m sorry that it didn’t take off, but I well know the relief of deciding firmly to move on. And you’ve got me really curious about the idea of a closing ceremony. So much of what we do these days isn’t tangible, and sometimes it can feel a little undecided when we just say, “Eh, done with that. Next!” instead of having something physical to release. What about printing out a screenshot of the site to burn? Or your domain registration info?
This is definitely a challenge of being an entrepreneur–so many experiments!
Absolutely. Thanks Sibylle. Yes, I love that quote too – and now I’ve learnt from that how NOT to do it! x
It’s not failing. It’s not giving up. After all, you’re still working, just not on that particular website anymore. I see this more like Tom Edison said about the ca. 10,000 failed attempts before he successfully invented the light bulb: “I didn’t fail 10,000 times. I just discovered 10,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb!” 🙂
By the way, I much prefer “work in progress” to “unfinished project” too, hehe!
You are walking your path, sorting the wheat from the chaff, keep what works and discard what doesn’t. Sounds a whole lot like life to me 🙂
Much love! xx
Thanks Amethyst! And I love that you knew to play to your strengths rather than stay doing something that wasn’t working. x
Thanks for your honesty and courage in writing this. I had to let go of hosting telesummits and then doing a magazine last year because the numbers were just not as large as I wanted them to be. I had a bit of time where I felt like a failure, but those are just not my strengths. Participating in telesummits and writing articles – I’m really good at that, but for the time I was spending I just wasn’t getting a good return. In the future I could look at hiring people who are better at it, but really it’s best to just to let those things go that don’t work for us.
I’m proud of you!
You’re absolutely right! And having all the information to know when to leave is vital. Thank you. x
I have started and abandoned so many projects because they just weren’t working and I think it’s the leaving it that is as important as the trying it. Sounds like it was a great decision to clear up your time and energy. Kudos to you Donna!