Moving on - so what next?
I’m starting to reach my limit when it comes to websites now. Admittedly the recent Google rape of Spy Review from a Google Page Rank of 5 to 0 has been an influence. Although I personally don’t place much value in Google Page Rank, many others do, which affects the potential sale value of Spy Review.
I had been toying with the idea of selling Spy Review for a while, but the progressive changes from PR5 to PR4 to PR3 to PR0 was beyond what I deserved. Spy Review did have some paid links (as the drop in page rank is supposedly based on), but I added nofollow attributes to all sitewide links before the latest drop from PR3 to PR0. Google have not even given me a hint to why the sudden drop either.
That aside, Spy Review does have a solid income each month from Google Adsense, and continues to have solid search engine rankings in the top search engines for the most popular spy related terms. However, I am finding it increasingly difficult to find the time and motivation to write high quality articles for the site. I’d prefer to sell it on whilst it still makes money and I can get some value from it.
If I do sell my portfolio of websites, it then begs the question, “what next?”. I’ve enjoyed having the extra cash from running the sites. But I’ve often resented the amount of time I’ve need to dedicate to them to actually make them profitable. You can’t just make a website and hope it brings in cash… it needs active work and promotion.
I haven’t felt particularly ‘fulfilled’ from running the sites either. Sure the money is useful, but money isn’t everything. If it wasn’t for the extra cash that I’ve had through my sites, I simply would not have been able to afford my own place, nor afford the DIY costs needed to spruce it up. At the end of the day, I achieved my target of getting my own place. Now that my interest is weakening, it appears to be a good time to move on to something else.
The temptation to have a complete break from webby stuff is a strong one. Just sell on, take a break, and see what else takes my fancy!