How to Restore a Failing Niche Site in Less Than 3 Months

In 2022, I wanted to buy and flip a website as a Money Lab challenge. But I've had a hard time finding a site to buy. Most don't pass my quality checklist. So instead of buying a site, I'm going to fix a neglected site I already own. I'm treating this site as if I just bought it and need to recoup my investment as fast as possible. Essentially, taking every online course I offer and putting them to the test!

Show Notes

Talk to me:

1. Twitter: @MattGiovanisci
2. Email: [e-mail]

Creators & Guests

Host

Matt Giovanisci

Founder of SwimUniversity.com

What is Money Lab?

Matt Giovanisci and friends drop the gauntlet of truth about being self-employed, serial entrepreneurs. They're not "teaching" how to build a successful company. Instead, they run business challenges and experiments offering a transparent view of what it takes to make money online.

Matt: Hey everybody.

It's mad here.

Today, I'm talking about something.

Uh, a new project that I'm working on.

And I want to go over
the details with you.

Along with a few other
updates that are going on.

So.

Uh, let's talk about.

How to restore a failing niece site.

In less than three
months, let's get into it.

Oh, welcome to another
episode of money lab.

My name is Matt.

in case you were wondering if
you're new, that's how you say it,

or at least that's how I say it.

A true Italian would slap me as I say.

Oh, it is, uh, February early February.

And.

In January.

I really didn't do anything.

If I'm being honest.

Uh, You know, I kinda,
I, you know, every year.

In January, I go really hard.

In business or health or.

You know, you know, it's like
that new year's resolution.

Everyone's.

You said that big reset button.

And this year I made a conscious choice.

Not to do that.

I'm like, I don't want to, uh, because
what happens is every year I burn out, I

burnt out by this time every year, because
I'm, I'm trying to work out every day.

I'm trying to, you know,
launch some new, big thing.

And so I decided to take off in January.

I decided not to work.

We're not to, I worked, I
mean, get, give me a break.

I worked.

I love working.

I just didn't.

Do any big, hairy, audacious
projects that would consume.

A ridiculous amount of my
time and turn me into a.

Zombie, which is what happens.

I just walk around the house
and I'm still like in work mode.

And so.

Uh, I decided to make February
that, I guess it's still like, okay.

I am.

Embarking on a few projects in February.

Including my health.

Um, I would like to drop some lbs.

And a lot of LPs I've done it before.

I want to do it again.

Uh, you know, The business is doing well,
everything that I've been doing money lab.

You know, some university and
the other mum will talk about.

They're all doing really well.

And.

So now I think in 2022, as things I guess,
start to get back to normal, we'll see.

I thought that was 20, 21, but we'll see.

I got to work on me personally.

Uh, as a person, you know,
back to like reading books and.

Mental health and physical health
and all that stuff, but that's

not what we're here to talk about.

The project or projects, I
should say that I'm embarking on.

Uh, there are, there are two business
projects that I want to discuss.

Along with some other things.

The.

The one project that I kind of
decided to do, uh, Like two weeks ago.

Is I'm going to launch
another money lab course.

And I sat and the reason I'm doing this is
because for the last, pretty much January,

that the work that I was working on.

You know, the minimal amount of work.

And I want to say a, not a lot of work.

I mean, Hours in the day for me, you
know, I, I took off the weekends.

I worked a normal, like, I
guess in my case, like 10 to

six is kind of my schedule.

So, you know, It's normal eight hour days.

With a long lunch.

Uh, I'll admit.

Uh, I was working on email marketing.

I was doing.

A lot of improvements in active campaign.

I talked about that on the last episode.

And.

All of that work.

I, I, you know, I've been kind of.

Sending out, I send out an email,
you know, to the money lab, audience.

Every week, try it, try
to do it every Wednesday.

And every Wednesday for the
last, you know, four to five

weeks has been kind of email.

Marketing driven.

To the point where I was like, okay,
Uh, even in money lab pro, even in

the community aspect of money lab.

There has been a lot of
talk about email marketing.

And so I thought.

All right.

Maybe it's time to do an
email marketing course.

And.

That's not all you.

So I put it out there.

It is.

It is up for presale right now.

If you go to money,
lab.co/email-marketing, you can find it.

It's going to launch March
1st, perhaps earlier.

Okay.

We'll see.

Um, And so again, I've been
sort of building up this.

You know, I haven't really been
building up the course, but I've

been talking about email marketing
for a month, month and a half even.

And I'm still working on it.

I'm still doing stuff.

And I'm like, okay, I got a
solid, I got a solid plan for how

I'm doing email marketing, you
know, for the foreseeable future.

You know, using active campaign,
but honestly it doesn't matter which

email service provider you use.

You use convert kid, you could use
drip, you could use, you know, a

cheap one, MailChimp, whatever.

The strategy is the strategy.

And.

The course is going to be similar to the
Isana for bloggers course, where it's

going to be just sort of my strategy
and how to implement that strategy.

You know, sign up for bloggers being, uh,
For editorial or running your business,

but mostly editorial calendar stuff.

For writing content on your blog.

Consistently.

So email marketing for bloggers
is the name of the course

it's coming out March 1st.

And here's the kicker for me, not for
you, but here's the kicker for me.

Um, One of the things I'm, I'm
trying to focus on in 2022 with

my business is staying in my lane.

My lane, I have my three
brands and creating.

You know, I've been working so hard.

On.

You know, fixing the email
marketing side of things, the.

Uh, sales side of things.

And I'm calling it, like I've
been plugging up the leaky bucket.

For an entire year.

Now in 2022, I feel confident
that I can just start.

Scaling with content, meaning putting
out a buttload of content to bring in

more traffic and that traffic I know.

And I'll be confident in.

Conversions people will spine my website,
find the articles, find the videos.

And go, I like this.

I want to subscribe.

I want to buy what this
person has to offer.

On all my brands.

So again, I feel like I've
been accomplishing that mostly.

Plucking the bucket, and now
I'm going into content mode.

Part of that is I want to create
more content on money lab.

And last year.

I don't really remember.

I think I may have only
created like four articles.

Uh, actually let me just, I'm going to
pull up my website real quick, cause

I'm pretty sure I didn't do much.

Uh, not that I didn't do
much last year, but yeah.

Uh, the money lab live experiment.

Was in the beginning of the year
of 2021 that didn't work out.

Then I did the gazillion dollar sales
funnel experiment, which did very well.

Uh, that was in April,
March, uh, March, April, may.

And then I kind of took the summer.

Uh, towards the end of the summer, I
did the untouchable business model.

Yana touchable online business model
at that, wasn't just an article.

Based on, you know, my year so far.

And then in October, I did my 31 day
YouTube challenge where I was publishing

a new videos, um, tear down videos,
website, tear down videos, which

I plan on doing again, by the way.

I still have a massive
list to get through.

And I do plan on doing that
part of what I'm talking about.

And then at the end of the year, like
every year I do my annual business review.

Now I haven't had any new content.

I D I haven't published anything
new on the site until today.

Um, but, but before that I had,
I do have two pieces of content.

One is the one I'm talking about today.

And two is this email marketing challenge.

So I've done.

Challenges, I've done three challenges.

Since two 20, what?

2015 is when I started money lab.

Right.

2016.

Those three challenges.

The first one was my
sauna for bloggers course.

I built that I built and
sold it in seven days.

And it's a, it's a
relatively small course.

And I've I've since updated that course.

So now we're really on a
sauna for bloggers 2.0.

Which I think I updated last year.

Uh,

And then.

I did the SEO for bloggers
course in six days.

Right.

Uh, that was.

I forget what year?

That was 2018.

I think it was, um, That
course is still going strong.

Still my flagship course, still
the one everybody talks about.

Then I did another challenge
where I built my hot tub course on

swimming diversity in three days.

Because.

I it's, uh, I think it was only 15
lessons, so it was a relatively small

course, but I did it in three days.

So I thought it.

For this email marketing
for bloggers course.

I'm going to up myself.

And probably what will
be the last of these.

Of this four part series of building
digital courses or building online courses

in, in a very short period of time.

Because honestly, I think.

Uh, You know, the, the goal
is to get the course out.

You can always improve the course.

You can always do that.

You can always improve online stuff.

Okay.

And so this one I'm thinking.

I can do it in 24 hours.

So that means.

And to tell you the truth.

This course that I'm working on this
email for bloggers course has more video

lessons than the Asana for bloggers
course, which took me seven days.

And my hot tub course,
which took me three days.

Uh, so it's I, so I think what
did I have in the SEO course?

The SEO course has like
35, maybe 40 lessons.

This one is roughly.

I outlined to around 25 lessons.

And.

I'm including that outline
in this 24 hour challenge.

Am I literally going to do it in 24 hours?

No.

So that's sort of the caveat and it's
more of a, I'm doing it in 24 hours.

That's two, eight hour days.

So really 16 hours.

And.

I do have a plan for this, and it
will be an article on money lab on

how I'm able to accomplish this.

You know, But it does have some
prerequisites, obviously, like

I've done this three times.

I've done some more than three times.

I have many more courses across all
my brands, so I've done it before.

And I know, and I have a setup.

I have a permanent setup that
I'm speaking on right now.

Where I can get it done.

And all that stuff.

So I have the plan.

I already wrote about half of the article.

I haven't accomplished it yet.

I haven't actually like sat down
and built the course in 24 hours.

But that's going to happen.

I think before.

We'll definitely happen
before the end of February.

So keep on the lookout for that.

I will probably do a podcast episode
about it, just to kind of recap it.

Uh, but not until after I'm done this
episode, however, I've gone long enough.

This episode is about an
article that I released today.

You mean, you might be hearing this later.

But it's something that I've been slowly
thinking about for the, for in January.

On like, what's my 2022 plan.

Right.

By 2022 plan is content that's.

The magic word is like,
Matt creates content.

He's plugged the buckets.

And now he can fill them up.

With the sweet, sweet liquid.

Of traffic.

And visitors.

Uh, and so.

The one brand of all my brands.

So you look at some university.

Kicking ass.

Steph's helping me with
the content side of things.

So she's doing YouTube videos.

She's updating blog posts
and creating new blog posts.

I'm doing graphics, I'm creating ads.

We have physical products.

We have digital products.

We're good to go there.

Things are carrying forth.

If that's a phrase.

Money lab.

I spent a lot of time in
2021 plugging up the bucket.

Right.

I got a good lead magnet.

I got my courses.

I got a new course coming out.

I'm now focusing on content.

What you're hearing the
podcast is part of this right.

Videos on YouTube.

This article that I'm talking about.

But the one.

Brand that is suffering.

Is brew cabin, which is my third brand.

And it's my passion brand.

It's my home brewing website.

I am a home brewer.

I brew beer every week.

I try to brew beer every week.

I built a home brewery in my garage.

I am.

It's the thing that I do.

It's my pastime.

And, and honestly, it's like
my favorite thing in the world.

It's like, beer is my
favorite thing in the world.

Favorite.

Non.

Animated thing in the world.

Uh, and so.

I've sort of committed to this idea
that I'm going to restore this site.

And beef it up and plug the
bucket and, and actually scale it.

And try to do it in three months.

Now the reason I'm doing this
and the reason I'm choosing money

or brew cabin as my project.

At the end of 2021 and even January
one of the ideas that sort of been.

Floated around, well, actually this, this
idea has existed since money lab started.

I want to, I want it to buy a website and.

And flip it.

Essentially.

Uh, and flipping it, meaning like,
What I, what I resell it, like what

I buy a site for say, $30,000, uh,
you know, do all my magic to it.

And then, you know, a
year later sell it for.

I don't know.

80,000 and go here's my profit.

I did it.

Uh, Not really.

My goal would be to buy a crappy site,
do my magic and kind of sit on it and

let it grow and let it earn money for me.

And I'm sitting there going like.

You know, I went on empire flippers.

I've gone through.

You know, these, these deal sites or
these website trading platforms and

every frigging site that I look at.

One, I'm not interested
in it, which I didn't.

That really wasn't a criteria.

Like I saw this site, it
was like a hunting website.

I'm like, I'm not in the,
I've never hunted in my life.

I don't know the first
fricking thing about hunting.

But.

Here's the site, blah, blah,
blah, but every single site.

And I'm telling you, like I was looking
at a relatively inexpensive sites.

And when I say inexpensive and I was
not ready to do this, but like $50,000,

meaning I would have to put up that
kind of capital to get that site.

That is a that's.

I am not, I was not comfortable with that.

Just just as a person and, and, and, and,
and the person who values things, I value.

I value very, very few.

Uh, material things.

And I know what it takes
to build a website.

And I just feel like
that's a lot of money.

So.

Not only that, but when I looked into
these sites, like a couple of sites

that I was able to, you know, get
my hands on the analytics and stuff.

And as soon as you can know, the, as
soon as you know, the main domain.

I just put it in the H refs.

And every site told the same story.

Every site was started in.

Two years ago or less.

And their backlink profile goes
from zero to like a frigging

it's like a rocket ship up.

I'm like, okay.

And then a lot of them would, right
before they were put it on the market,

you see their backlink profile,
just like, you know, skyrocket.

And it's just obvious that
like a lot of these sites are.

Literally built for the
purpose of flipping.

And I just hate that.

I hate it.

I just hate.

I'm.

I hate the whole idea.

I hate the whole idea of having like
a portfolio of sites and, and thinking

about it in the terms of real estate.

It's like.

Don't you give a shit don't
you like care about anything.

It's like it's so.

Just transactional and, and, and robotic.

And it sucks.

If I'm being honest.

So I don't want to buy someone else's
piece of shit website that they

throw up in fucking two seconds.

I don't, what am I, why would I want that?

And they hired a bunch of writers.

Uh, off of Upwork to just
beef it up with content.

Uh, you know, they knew a little bit,
couple of SEO tricks, they got it

up and then they're like, oh, we've
got to beef up the blackened link

profile before we sell this bitch.

So they start, you know, paying
for back links and they're like

GIP, eh, put it on the market.

See if somebody buys it
before it fucking tanks.

That's exactly what I was running into.

No.

I have a site.

Called brew cabin.

I've been sitting on it.

And I haven't added any
new content in three years.

It's just kind of been sitting there.

Now, uh, here's, I'm going to go over
the numbers of this site because, um,

the way that I'm sort of approaching this
sort of this challenge, I'll call it.

Is.

I'm taking every bag of tricks that I
have every trick up my sleeve, every skill

set I have every lesson and every course
that I've ever made and I'm applying.

What I preach, which I've already done
kind of privately at my other sites.

And even in brew cabinet, but
now I'm applying it all at once.

In real time for everyone to see.

Does Matt really know what
the fuck he's talking about?

I do.

I truly believe that I do.

I truly know that I do.

It's not that not to pat myself
on the back or anything, but

been doing this for a long time.

And it's sort of, you know,
I'm very confident in it.

And I, and, you know, brew cabin
has always just kind of been on

the back burner because I've always
considered it a passion project.

And it's a lot of work for me
because I want it to be, as you

know, I care a lot about beer.

I care a lot about homebrewing
and so I want it to be great.

And so when I wasn't able to put
the time and effort into it, I

kind of just let it, let it go.

So.

And, and the site has been failing,
but let me kind of, let me show you,

or just explain to you the numbers.

So.

The story starts in 2017 when
I actually built brew cabinet.

In fact, I came up with a name.

Which is not a hard name.

Uh, and I didn't call it beer cabin.

I didn't call it home
brewing cabin or whatever.

And cabin is just, you know, I
just liked the aesthetic of a

cabin and the idea of a cabin.

It has nothing to do with anything.

Um, But I'm fine with it.

It's it's it's works.

And so I went with Bruce so
that I could expand into.

Uh, kombucha or cider
or coffee or whatever.

Now coffee is a tough one for me, because
not that I plan on getting into coffee.

Um, And I don't plan on getting into
coffee, but since I sold a coffee

website, I, I, I'm pretty sure the.

A noncompete.

Is over, but you know, I'm not starting
a coffee site, just like, and I even

asked, you know, in the non-compete
like, Hey, I have a brewing site.

I need to be able to talk about
coffee and the brewing site,

meaning, you know, coffee Porter
or coffee stout, or, uh, whatever.

And that was completely fine.

Uh, so I started this site in 2017.

And.

I designed it myself, obviously.

And I hired a small team of writers.

Um, I forget how I came
across those writers.

I think I just like put an email out
to the money lab list and was like,

Hey, is anybody interested in home?

Brewing would like to write.

Um, so I had a couple of people,
like two or three people.

And.

The original design of the site
is not what it looks like in 2017.

In fact, I did it.

Uh, I set it all up.

And then I basically bailed on it.

Now.

Uh, during this time.

What's to at 2018.

I don't know what the fuck I was doing.

Some other.

Stuff.

Uh, I fought.

You flash forward to 2018?

Not only like a year
after I built the site.

And I tried to make the site.

A whole new business.

I tried to like really.

Do a whole new thing.

So w I had, I was friends with a guy
who helped me build earnest, which

is my, uh, which was my WordPress
plugin, which I did an article on,

on money lab, which ended up becoming
lasso, which I am no longer part of.

So I build these things
and then give them away.

Uh, so I invited, uh, my partner, JP.

On to brew cabin because
brew cabin was just there.

It was just this brand.

I had originally bought a.co
because I cause the.com was taken.

And then I got offered the.com
and I paid a lot of money for it.

I'm like, all right, I
have this good brand.

I have this good.

Um, idea.

There's some articles,
there's some traffic.

Um, but what, what's the,
what's the move here?

Like what's the, uh,
what's the business model.

And I talked to JP and JP is a developer.

And what I really wanted to do at the
time was I wanted to create homebrewing

software that was web based because
prior to me doing this in 2018,

There was no homebrewing
software that was web based.

And I know what you're thinking.

What was it then?

It's not, it wasn't SAS.

It was all like you
downloaded a D a D N G.

What is it?

I don't know though.

You downloaded it and you
install it in your computer.

It's insane.

Now I think there was like one
crappy one, but it didn't matter.

I was like, I can make a really
good, I can make really good

SAS homebrewing software.

Here was the problem though.

We started by building a recipe database.

And that just kind of really fizzled out
because it was just not, it just didn't,

it wasn't the right place to start.

And so the whole, the whole
project is fizzled out.

Um, Now.

During.

So then we basically, like,
I basically bought JP out.

Because it wasn't my, my wasn't much.

Um, I was like, look, this isn't working.

I just going to take
the site and do content.

I don't want to, I don't
want to build software.

Uh, and.

Then, you know, this then
there's software came out.

That was actually really good.

It was a web based software.

That was really good that I currently use.

And so I reached out to them and I.

I kind of said, Hey, you should
have an affiliate program.

Cause I'd be more than happy to.

You know, promote it.

And they did, but here's the interesting
part about homebrewing software.

And again, you'll be namely
not surprised, but, um, this

homebrewing software that I pay for.

I paid $20 a year.

So.

I don't know, like, as
far as SAS companies go.

Uh, when, when, when do
you make money on that?

Unless it's just like a S unless
you're just like a one man show, which

I believe is the developer of this,
the software that's out there that

I actually love and love to promote.

So.

I was like, okay.

I think I make four bucks every
time I sell one, you know,

it's like, and it's for a year.

So whatever.

Uh, So I basically, since 2018, Have
not done Jack shit with this site.

It is just I've.

I think I've added.

Maybe one new piece of content and
maybe improved another P like, you know,

cause I was, I did my Keezer stuff.

I built a Keizer last year and I, I
upgraded that article, but I mean,

That's that's pretty much all I've done.

The only other thing that I've done since
2018 is I started a YouTube channel.

For the brand.

And I only have five videos.

Now I have a, an episode planned about
just the YouTube channel of brew cabin,

because it's an interesting case study.

We're not going to go into it here,
but I'm going to continue to do that.

The the, the, the.

YouTube channel because I
absolutely love doing that.

So here's the thing, 2018.

The site's kind of at its peak,
you know, none of that's peak,

but it's, it's up and running.

It's been up and running for a year.

And I got about 105,000 unique
visitors the whole year.

Right.

Um, Let me pull up my calculator
because if we break that down, 105.

Uh, divided by 12.

It's about.

8,009,000.

Visitors a month.

So I'm again, no new, like that's the
last time any real content was being.

Actively produced on the site.

2019.

The site goes up a lot
in traffic to 351,000.

I should really say 352,000.

Uh, because it's, I'm
just going to round up.

Uh, For starters, that's about.

Almost 30,000 visitors a month.

That's pretty good.

In 2020.

Right.

The pandemic hits everyone stuck home.

Home brewing.

Huh.

All right.

So now we're at 468,000 unique
visitors or actually 469 valley.

Uh, I'll round up 469,000.

We'll divide that by 12.

Again, that that's, uh, that goes up
to another 10,000 visitors a month

to almost 40,000 visitors a month.

Things are going well.

Now.

Um, Pandemics.

You know, We started
getting vaccines and shit.

Uh, And here's where I swear to God.

It's literally when the vaccines happened.

This is insane.

In 2021, the traffic dropped
from 469,000 visitors a year.

Sorry.

To 197,000.

Visitors a year.

That's a pretty that's half.

The traffic is just gone.

And if you go on the
website, just go to money.

lab.co/restore-site.

This is where this article lives.

You will see the 20, 21 traffic.

At like at its very, very high
February, March, and then April,

we start to see it go down.

May it's going down June.

It's going down July.

It's going down.

And then it just sort of like
stays at this like plateaued level

from July all the way through.

Uh, And so I, you know, maybe it was
like 2019 was a really good year.

And then 2020 was a good year
because everyone was searching

for home brewing stuff.

And then 2021 was like,
we're done home brewing.

We're going back to breweries.

We're drinking out.

You know, we don't have
to make beer anymore.

Um, Maybe I think it's, I think,
you know, I think it's my fault.

I neglected the site.

I think a lot of competition came to the
market because, you know, homebrewing

did become more popular that year.

And I think a lot of there's a
lot of capitalists that come in,

you know, the, you know, those
guys that make those fucking.

Sites.

In two seconds and then beef
up the backlink profile and

then sell it to a sucker.

That those people, they all come
in, they all flood the market.

Same thing happened.

In, in swimming pools.

Same thing.

Uh, so what's the current
status of the site as of today?

Well, um, Here's the
interesting part about it.

In 2021.

Or up until 2021.

So while it was like all growing.

The site made money 100% with
affiliate links and those affiliate

links were from Amazon and then
another home-brewing e-commerce store.

Those are like the two big ones
and they were pretty much equal.

And then just good timing for me,
I guess in 2021 in early 20, 21.

In fact, February of 2021, I decided to
create my first digital course because

I'm like, well, the traffic's good.

Like this is, it can make money.

And I did make money.

I made, you know, about $5,000.

In course, sales.

But then the site tanks.

So I made roughly.

So essentially in.

2021 or sorry, in 2020.

During the height of the pandemic.

I made close to $12,000 a
year for the whole year.

And then in 2021, when
the traffic decreased.

I made roughly.

Uh, 10,000.

So I lost about $2,000 and.

What's nice about it is like the revenue
from affiliate marketing cut in half.

You know, obviously Amazon did
their dumb shit where they cut

everyone's affiliate commissions.

Um, and then there was a lot of, uh,
broken links on my website since I

was neglecting it because supply chain
issues and people were buying up a

bunch of, uh, homebrewing gear in 2020.

And then in 2021,

There was nothing left.

So I, a lot of my affiliate
links are just not available.

There's a lot of slack, a lot of links
are broken and I wasn't paying attention.

Not to mention commissions were cut.

That, but at the same time I launch a
course and then make up the difference.

So I only lost about.

10% of my revenue.

Just despite like, uh, 50% of my traffic.

So this is a similar story that I've
had with some university and other

sites where I saw a, you know, swim
university and money lab, where I saw a

decrease in traffic from 2020 to 2021.

But saw an increase in revenue in both
those websites, because I had done my

job in optimizing and creating my own
products and increasing my margins.

Okay.

So I did the same thing with brew cabin.

Except the traffic's just
like, I need to work on it.

So what's the goal with brew cabin.

Now traffic's down.

Revenue is going to be.

More down in 2021.

If I don't do something about it, because.

At least I had a few good months
in the beginning of the year.

Where I was.

Where I had launched my course so
that, you know, there was a big push

there and I was getting some affiliate
revenue in the early in the year.

So, if I continue, if I don't touch
the site, I'm going to make, I'm

going to get way less traffic.

In 2022, and I'm going
to get way less revenue.

If I don't do something about it.

The site is honestly
in a good place, right?

It's got articles.

It's got 45 articles.

Okay.

It's not a lot, but it's got 45 articles.

It gets a hundred on page speed insights.

So it's, it's fast as shit.

Okay.

It's still getting.

About 10,000 visitors a
month, which is not nothing.

And I'm sure it'll earn.

Maybe $6,000 a year if I did nothing.

So again, we're starting
in a good place, but.

If I were, if I sold this site
right now, I'd make about $30,000.

I could sell it for about $30,000
and that's taking $10,000 a month.

Uh, sorry, $10,000 a year.

So.

$10,000 a year with a three X multiple.

I could maybe get a four X,
multiple, maybe a five X, multiple.

But I don't, I don't think, I
think $30,000 is probably what

somebody would pay for it.

Although.

Yeah.

I don't know, whatever.

It's not bad.

Um, But that's not, that's not
what I, that's not what I want.

I don't want to sell it.

Realistically, I think I
could double the revenue.

I think, um, I think I could take 10,000.

Let's say it makes $10,000
right now by doing nothing.

I mean, I made $10,000 last year.

So let's just take that number.

I think I could get out of
the 20,000 realistically.

Absolutely.

Realistically.

But my real stretch goal, my real
goal, that I'm my ambitious goal.

My Mars goal, if you will.

Is $50,000.

So that's like five X-Wing.

The revenue.

And now let's talk about
how I'm going to do that.

And sorry for this episode,
running a little long.

The bear with.

Um, First things first.

I have a, I have a three-stage process
and this is exactly what I would do.

And I I'll.

Do future episodes about this?

But this is, this is
exactly what I would do.

If I were buying a site.

I'm kind of treating
it the exact same way.

All right.

I bought this hunting site.

And I need to.

You know, five exit.

And, you know, I want to
make $50,000 a year from it.

Personally, just take that money, use
it to fund my habits and my brewery and

make more beer and do all that stuff.

Maybe even use it to
one day, open a brewery.

Who knows.

All right.

So I'm using this as
like, this is Matt money.

Okay, this is passion money.

Side money.

Pin money you don't talking about.

Three stage process for doing it.

Okay.

In three months, by the way, now
I'm going to do all of this work.

In three months.

However, there's obvious.

There's an obvious growth scaling stage.

Which is ongoing.

So after three months, I will continue to.

You know, push it forward, but I
won't be updating money lab about it.

Stage one.

I'm calling.

Fix the leaky bucket.

And I may come up with.

The better.

Uh, Uh, maybe it's just fix the bucket.

All right.

So the idea here is that I have
a bucket, which is brew cabin.

And.

You want to fill it up?

You want to fill up a bucket, I guess.

What's the point of a bucket,
unless you fill it with something.

And if you are filling it, in
my case with traffic, And it's

got a bunch of holes in it.

Well, all that.

Traffic's just going to leak
out and it just becomes this

like stupid thing you own.

So the goal is to fix the holes in the
bucket so that as I'm pouring traffic into

it, I'm actually collecting something.

And I'm not talking about revenue
it's well, I guess I am talking about

revenue, revenue, all that stuff.

So the first age has
fixed the leaky bucket.

That's bad metaphor, but
where are we gonna do?

One I'm going to install
carbonate, reorganize it better.

Internal SEO, faster site, even
though it's kind of already fast,

just better organization, better.

Cross-linking all that stuff.

Then I'm going to improve my sales
page for the only course that I have.

I mean, prove that sales page,
hopefully, um, when the site's

a little bit faster, easier to.

To organize for the traffic
that is currently coming to it.

Perhaps I can get more sales,
just having a better sales page.

Then I'm going to create a more
compelling lead magnet to attract

and increase email subscribers and
send those, send those people to the

sales pages and to affiliate links.

Bye.

Improving the, the subscriber
onboarding automation through my

email marketing platform, active
campaign and an increase core sales

and a boost affiliate commission.

So.

Uh, and that means having an onboarding
sequence where I'm actually promoting

my course and I'm promoting affiliate
products, and then I'm going to

create an evergreen newsletter,
which I kind of already have.

It's just very bad.

Uh, I'm going to improve that again.

Adding affiliate links to it,
adding course links to it.

Improving sales.

And then creating flash sale automations
all of these things, by the way.

Are all things that will be in the email
marketing for bloggers course, all these,

all these pieces that I'm setting up.

That's the first stage.

At this point, I can be confident that
if I put any time and effort with the

harder part, which is the traffic part.

I know that I can safely.

Increase my traffic and increase
the spend because maybe I have

to hire a writer or writers.

To help me.

You know, get the traffic.

I know that if I invest in that I'm
going to get paid on the back end.

Meaning I got my, I got a good sales page.

I got I'm collecting email subscribers.

They're being pitched constantly
automated through email.

I'm good to go.

Now I can invest in SEO.

Stage two.

Filling the bucket that I fixed.

Okay.

So now the first thing I'm going to do
there is I'm going to do a content audit.

I know there's only 45
posts, but some of them.

Suck.

Eh, some of them suck.

For me, according to me.

All right.

I may consolidate a few posts.

I may flat out just remove some
posts that just aren't, that

just don't get any traffic and
just don't help the site at all.

Um, And then improve articles.

So the first step is to improve
the articles that are already

there that are so close to ranking.

So I can start getting that traffic.

Like these are easy, easy improvements.

Then once I've like gotten,
you know, once the site.

I mean, you know, maybe it drops
from 45 articles to 40 articles.

But those 40 articles
better be fucking banging.

You know what I'm talking about and
they better have a good key word.

And they better rank.

That's the goal.

Then I will create an editorial
calendar by doing keyword research.

Using a sauna for, you know, doing
keyword research, using SEO for

bloggers doing, uh, creating an
editorial calendar, using a sauna.

I signed up for bloggers.

Okay.

And then at that point, That's going to be
all built out and I will start to create.

Those articles myself.

Because I know that the
content inside and out.

And I will create.

Uh, you know, little graphics,
maybe a little videos, whatever.

But then once I do that, so that
means I've fixed the bucket.

I've optimized.

What's already in place.

Okay.

I fixed all that.

Now it's time to scale that bitch.

Bye.

Growing the bucket, which is
again, a terrible metaphor.

But I'm going to grow it.

By creating a very tight
process for writing, editing,

and publishing new content.

I may we'll see.

Look into hiring writers just
to help me stay on track.

Even though I will be the
managing editor in chief.

I may have to have first draft people.

You know what I mean?

Get the, get the writing in place.

I can add my own spin and touch to it.

Increase it, improve it.

What have you.

Add graphics, add video, add photos, all
that stuff, because I have the brewery.

I can do all that.

Um, So I may hire, we'll say I'm
not a hundred percent sold on that.

Then add some more courses.

Because I only have the one course and
it's an advanced homebrewing course.

So.

I think if I created some beginner
courses, that would be really helpful.

Um, But adding more options for people
to buy and then getting specific.

So I may do a course on just extract
brewing, which is a very, very beginner

course, but then there's like beginner,
all grain where I have to use my old

equipment go outside and film something.

That's like the basic all-grain process.

And then I can do specific
courses, like micro course.

It's sort of like I do on money lab
where I could do like how to brew this

style perfectly, or how to, uh, master
water chemistry specifically, or.

I don't know.

You know, just fermentation.

Uh, just the, you know, uh, of course
on fermentation or a course on, um,

I don't know.

That just there's.

I can think of stuff as I think
if I'm, but that's the other idea.

So then, then it's adding courses now in
the process of this three month thing,

I'm probably not going to create a course.

So that might be something
I have to update it.

The last thing.

At for scale, which is something
I'm doing at some university,

which is looking at white labeling
products, physical products.

I don't know if I necessarily want
to get into that for brew cabin,

but it is absolutely a possibility.

If I have the audience.

Now when I like going back to
the content side of things.

Yes.

We're talking about articles.

Yes.

We're talking about SEO, but I
also have plans for the rest of

the year to do YouTube videos.

Now, if you go onto brew
cabins, YouTube channel.

You will see that I have five videos.

And when you want, if you watched them.

You know, then thank you.

If you do.

You'll kind of see that, uh, I've kind
of laid this groundwork for not really

being able to create videos every week
or doing any sort of process there.

They're very difficult
to make because there's.

They're highly edited.

They're scripted.

Um, it requires like, so, so this year.

Um, I have four videos.

Then are all sort of like
simultaneously being planned.

Some in my head, uh, some on
paper I've got I've I've so

far I've bought equipment.

To do like three of the videos.

Or sorry for the videos.

And I've bought books to research on
certain videos to like, The first video

I'm trying to come out with, which
I'm supposed to be getting my prop.

At the, uh, this month.

Is a home brewery tour.

So it's going to be the sixth
video on the, on the site.

It's a followup to the first video
that I have, where I do a tour of

my current brewery, which is in the
best state it's been in forever.

And.

Uh, I'm planning on doing it.

Like a episode of Mr.

Rogers, which does have some puppetry
and, uh, some, some ma scale modeling.

It's very ambitious.

Isn't.

It's insane.

Uh, so that's, that's one video I
have, I have in the, in the works.

I have one about Mikey's to which,
you know, if you're at home, if you're

into beer, you might know what that is.

Not, you know, don't concern yourself.

Uh, one about decoction
mashing and check style lagers.

Um, one about.

Um, What was the, uh, aye.

I'm growing my own hops again this year.

And I'm trying to think of the other one.

I have one.

About I have one about Kolsch.

As well, I don't know.

I have all these.

Again, they're all kind of up
in the air, but, um, and I'm

working on getting the equipment.

In place that I can actually perform
these videos, but I have to script all of

them anyways, long story, but, uh, yeah.

That's the plan.

So, uh, go over to money.

lab.co/restore-site to read about
this, to keep, uh, updated on it.

I will send emails to you.

I may do a follow-up podcast
episode, but that's what's happening.

And I think it's interesting.

You know, just to think about it.

Do you have a site that's
being that's neglected?

Do you have, you know, instead of you.

Uh, And this is something that I, I
kind of yell at people for nowadays

where it's like, Hey, the reason
that I'm where I am is because I've

always worked on some university.

I may have had.

I mean, may I definitely have shiny object
syndrome and start many, many projects.

But I've always worked on some university.

It it's always been a priority for me.

For the most part.

But that's why I'm here.

So my university is the reason I'm here.

Money lab is, is, is, you
know, Nowadays it could, it

could technically be the plate.

Why I'm here.

I could, I could certainly
make a living off money lab.

If I didn't have some
university, which is.

And I hope to do even better in, in 2022.

Uh,

I want this to be the
same with brew cabin.

So.

If you have a site that you're that's
neglected or, you know, maybe you started

it, but then you did something else.

Now you have two sites and
none of them are working.

Do what I'm doing.

Take one of the sites.

Okay.

Or if you want to buy a site,
you can buy a site, follow along

with me, do what I'm doing.

It's basically a giant
course on building a blog.

Um, um, I'm not going
to be teaching anything.

I'm just going to be
showing you what I'm doing.

But I'm basically taking every single
course I've ever made for money lab.

And I'm putting it to the
test in this one site.

Now because it's homebrewing,
it's probably not going to like,

do some university numbers.

There's not, there's literally
only a million homebrewers in

the United States and there's
like, You know, 25 million pools.

So the audience is going to be smaller.

But.

You know, I'm not trying to
get up to half a million.

I'm trying to get up to 50,000.

Dollars a year.

So we'll see.

I think we could do it.

Anyway.

Ah,

Send me an email.

Let me know what you think, uh,
and really want to hear from you.

And, uh, With that said, oh yeah.

Money lab [e-mail].

Send me an email again, I
look, dude, the last time.

I sent out an email or I said I did a
podcast episode was because somebody.

Somebody emailed me and was like, Hey,
when's the next episode coming out?

I'm like, oh, now.

Let me just let me hit record.

And do it.

So, uh, yeah.

[e-mail].

I'll see you next time.

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