Day 16: The wall

Well, the last few days have been… emotional.

I don’t say that lightly. I don’t really get emotional. But when you’re trying to do stuff and stuff doesn’t work and you feel like you really, really want to achieve something big, it’s hard.

Hard days come.
They feel like crap.

But they also go. I always find myself coming back to the line: this too shall pass.

Didn’t I say in the last newsletter that a dip was coming?!

Well, it did — DIP I did.

I’ve built 7 websites in the last 7 days. Blur. It’s been a blur.

Two got ranked on the first page within a day (I was very excited), and by Saturday, the unthinkable happened.

I logged onto my dashboard and saw a little blue 1 on the form I was using to collect email addresses.

I was jumping around the kitchen because I GOT MY FIRST LEAD. AKA A stranger on the internet wanted to know how I could solve their plant infestation problem (obviously I cannot solve said problem but getting a company to pay me for that lead comes next, and spoiler alert, it’s not a good outcome).

Anyway, I was riding high!

Then, on Sunday, it all fell apart. Usually this happens to me when things are going well; I always know something else bad is coming…

Well… it happened. Problem after problem. The 6 other sites’ domains weren’t connected; then they were; then they weren’t. Pages wouldn’t index. Site maps wouldn’t work. The views dropped off.

This morning, I was losing my cool.

I also realised that the site I’d built (that had got the lead) taught me a sour lesson. One that I should have learned long ago. Before you build the thing, validate that someone wants it.

Admittedly, this is all chicken and egg because I really didn’t know if I could get leads, and somebody saying no is a lot different from giving them 10 leads a week and then taking them away.

Anyway, one enquiry taught me that the company that could fulfill said service didn’t pay for leads. So essentially, I’d built a site that got a lead, but right now that lead sits valueless.

Not a complete disaster; there are other companies to target, but it’s a bit of a kick when you’ve spent 2 hours building a site that maybe was a bit pointless.

You know how it goes. Head in hands, deciding none of this is ever going to work, I’m a fool; I don’t know what I’m doing; I’m a complete disaster. This is all a pipe dream. Etc. Etc. It lasted a little while, too.

But of course, there are some mega wins here:

• 2/6 sites ranked on the first page of Google within a few days of launching

• 1 lead

• lots of learning

I’d never built a WordPress site like this before, so that was a positive, and I’d certainly never scored a lead, so one within 4 days felt like a real win.

I must remember to be impatient with action, patient with results.

Some context on the websites.

All the websites are lead-generation sites - the idea is simple: create a website for local niche services, rank top in Google, get leads, sell leads.

I have created 7 sites with that in mind.

Websites and SEO take a little longer to see results, so I’ll report back in the next month or so (depending) on results.

1. Butts&Boots - ❌ high effort, little interest from me

2. Days with Grandma - ❌ no demand

3. Digital product mockups - ❌ no demand

4. Micro-digital product prompt - ✅ picking up

5. Lead magnet prompt generator ❌ weak demand

6. 101 micro-digital business ideas - 🤔 tbc

7. Smart Growth Labs - ❌ high effort, little interest from me

8. AI Admin Kit — 🤔 tbc - need to test

9. Days with Grandma (v2) - ❌ no demand - bin

10. Micro-digital product prompt - 🤔 tbc

11. Site 1 — 🤔 tbc - low search volume likely to be ❌

12. Site 2 — ✅ high-ticket, sticky problem, 1 lead (let’s see how the week goes)

13. Site 3 — 🤔 tbc - low search volume likely to be ❌

14. Site 4 — 🤔 tbc - low search volume likely to be ❌

15. Site 5 — 🤔 tbc - hard to rank likely to be ❌

16. Site 6 — 🤔 tbc

17. Site 7 —🤔 tbc

This week I’m back to creating B2C. The focus will be on niche hobbies that I can create a subscription business out of. More on that later this week, depending on how it goes- the next update… when you’re building one thing a day, it’s hard to keep up with all the writing!

One thing I’ve realised during this experiment is that I love building.

Building, experimenting, learning, testing ideas. Most don’t work, but some, some do, and when they do, the feeling is unreal.

So, this newsletter is changing.

The Part-Time Creator Club will now be operating as a 5-day sprint. After this 30-day experiment, I will be running weekly sprints on building a business in 2 hours a day. You can join me; it’s pretty simple.

Each sprint will look like this:

1. Day 1: Research & data — pick a problem, a position & a model

2. Day 2: Build MVP — outline and the majority of the idea

3. Day 3: Finish MVP

4. Day 4: Marketing strategy & asset creation

5. Day 5: Launch

That’s the model. Each week I’ll launch something new. Using Micro-digital product prompt and 101 micro-digital business ideas, plus some other fun bits, I’ll decide, build and launch each week.

The idea is simple: 5-days, 1 business, every number shared.

I know how hard it is to build alongside your day job, so now, the Part-Time Creator Club will be dedicated to exactly that. Putting theory into action, every week.

It will be a paid newsletter from now on, with the occasional round-up or snippet for free subs.

That’s the plan. It starts on July 20th. Prices go up to $25/month on the 20th.

You can join here: