Don’t fall into these traps

In 2015, I graduated from university with a physics degree and felt like I was staring down the barrel of a gun.
The prospect of following my plan to carry on for another 4 years to get a PHD was not as appealing as it was when I’d decided it 3 years earlier.
So I did what any Scottish person might do. I eloped with my fiance to Hawaii before going to Australia to work for a year.
You know, normal stuff.
And while I was away, a thought occurred to me:
“What if I could make a living online?”
So began an incredible nine-year journey as a solopreneur that I took full-time in 2017. I’ve been around so long that we didn’t even call ourselves solopreneurs yet. We didn’t have Justin Welsh making the term cool.
During that time, I sold two six-figure niche sites, published 1,000,000 words online, and started a popular Scottish history podcast.
But I’ve also had some regrets. Things I did wrong. Mistakes I should have seen coming. And, of course, problems that are clear with 20:20 hindsight.
I’ve been doing this full time for seven years, and here are my seven regrets you can learn from so you don’t make the mistakes I did.
7. Not doubling down when things were working
I have an uncle with a mysterious business past that I still don’t know all the details of. But I have managed to learn that it was based around fishing and at one point he had 3,000 people on his payroll.
I was telling him about my success building niche sites, and he said:
“Be smart with your money now. It won’t last forever.”
This was coming from a man whose business ended because the Soviet Union collapsed and the seas started running out of fish.
And so I told him in full smug mode “yeah of course, I’m already getting ready for when the niche site train stops.”
Six months later, I got caught with my pants down when a Google update killed the niche site.
Trends end, and technology changes. Build something that will last without relying on outside factors or prepare to feel the consequences like we did.
6. Not starting complimentary projects
Spending 9 years building one project just doesn’t sound fun to me, I like to have a couple of projects going at once that I can swap between across the year.
But where I went wrong was starting completely unrelated projects.
I had one site about sleeping and bedding, then another about coffee, and a third about household appliances. Then I disastrously started trying to sell on Merch-By-Amazon which I’ll get to later.
Those three sites were each reasonably successful, but they were catering to completely different audiences. That meant I had to start building audiences for each one from scratch.. I also started each one under a fake name making it even harder to cross promote.
What I should have done, and am now doing, is create projects that are at least loosely related.
I run a Scottish History podcast, which I then talk about in my newsletter for Podcast Marketing Puzzle. And I’m growing my personal blog kieranmacrae.com where I talk about solopreneurship and growing my podcasting business.
Three different projects that all perfectly align with the others goals. And as I build out my new endeavour, the Slow Writers Club, I can promote it to all three audiences.
5. Not focussing on connections
The community around building niche sites is secretive. The money is being made behind closed doors, and the most effective strategies are jealously guarded like a dragon over his treasure.
It’s for good reason. There are only ten results on a Google search, and some keywords can earn you thousands of dollars a month in commissions, so if you find a way to get that top spot, you absolutely don’t want anyone else to find out how.
But for me, instead of finding my way behind these closed doors and into the insider communities, I kept to myself. And if it’s true that your network is your net worth as Tim Sanders says, my networth was a big fat zero.
Jay Clouse recently said that: ”Whenever you have the choice of spending an extra hour creating content or cultivating relationships, choose relationships.” and he’s made more money online than I ever have.
Businesses are made up of people. Make connections, and you can make money.
4. Trying to work like I was in a factory
I was lucky enough to avoid ever being stuck in an office job. The thought of working like I was in a factory creating emails for a living has always been a disturbing one.
But I still took the office worker factory mentality when it came to working: Work when the bell rings, be there 9-5 or more, be sat at your computer for as long as possible.
But my journey as a solopreneur has been more like a creative. It was the deep work that had the biggest impact and at most I can only manage 2-4 hours of that a day. But I’d feel bad at calling it a day after 2 hours of work. I’d tell myself, “you have to hustle! Get after it! Be at your computer till your eyes bleed like Gary V says!”
The result would be that I’d exhaust myself trying to put in an 8 hour day of creating and be too exhausted to work for days after.
Instead, I’m showing up every week day and doing the important work that propels my projects forward. I’m going for walks during the day and reading, and getting coffee. I’m fueling myself creatively so that when I sit down to do my deep work I can attack the project in front of me like a jackhammer into the concrete.
Work is only as important as the quality you produce.
3. Chasing trends that I don’t have skills for
I’m not a designer. I don’t understand color theory. I don’t have a good eye for composition. This was the first logo that I ever made:
So, why I decided to hop on the bandwagon and start creating T-shirts when Merch-By-Amazon launched, I don’t know. There was so much hype! I dove in and spent three months trying to create and sell T-shirts through Amazon. The only one that ever took off was this monstrosity:
It’s a niche reference to a subgenre of Metal called Djent. Surprisingly, One or two of these still sell each month, earning me about 5 bucks every quarter. Whoopie.
Meanwhile, I was developing as a writer, and I never thought to head over to Medium.com and start writing. Sigh…
If you’re going to chase a trend. And I don’t recommend it. At least make sure it’s a trend that compliments your skill set.
2. Not separating work and home
It’s the classic meme that goes around: “I gave up my 9-5 so I could work 24/7 7 days a week!”
It’s true if you let it. When you work for yourself, it’s easy to make work your whole life. I know I did. I gave up all my hobbies, all my friends, and my health to make it work as a solopreneur. And yes, you need to reach a certain escape velocity to make it work as an entrepreneur. But the mistake I made was keeping up that pace.
It was years before I started playing guitar again as a hobby. And it’s only in the last 12 months I’ve really found the benefit for treating your home as just that, your home. I’m working outside my house. I’ve taken all work off my phone, I leave my laptop shut away in another room. And I am finally able to relax at home.
And, of course, that means working is getting easier and more effective.
Even if it’s separating where you sit when you work and where you sit when you relax, keeping the two apart will make every aspect of your life easier and more enjoyable.
1. The Person Excited to Work will outlast you
It doesn’t matter how profitable the project could be, or how well your skills match up to its potential. If you aren’t excited to work on it, you’ll be beaten by a competitor who is, even if they aren’t as good as you.
Being a solopreneur is hard. And while you don’t have to love every single moment of the journey, you at least have to be excited about where the project is heading. My first profitable niche site allowed me to quit my job as a shoe salesman. But it didn’t leave me excited to get out of bed in the morning and I found myself falling into depression slumps all too often.
And slowly but surely, competitors would spring up and before long they’d have more content published than me. They’d build more links than I had and start to inch away the SEO progress I’d made.
Nine times out of ten, excitement defeats talent over time. And you deserve to be excited for your work. Why quit your job to work on something that does nothing else but leaves you feeling energized to come back tomorrow?
The to-do list
Here’s the breakdown of things you can do to avoid all of my regrets:
- Only start projects that complement your existing ones
- Do work that excites you over long periods of time
- Work like a creative and respect deep work
- Double down when projects are working
- Separate your work from your home
- Focus on connections first
- Don’t chase trends
I embody all of that in my latest project, the Slow Writers Club: a paid community for writers, podcasters, and solopreneurs committed to craft, quality, and long-term success. If that sounds like you, click here to join the waitlist.
Leave a Reply