[Help Needed] Is It Time to Give Up?

[AdamMcDonald]

So I have been working on my music blog since 2014. It is a very competitive niche dominated by many well-established organizations AKA websites. I thought I might grab a slice of the pie since my genuine interest is in reviewing music.

This is an image of how big the pie is: (This website displays lyrics and is crowdsourced. So can't really compare, but here it is)

I will show some stats of my website below for you to decide on how the website is doing today.

On Alexa.

On SemRush

On Wordpress

Beloved AdSense

I write every day on this website. Music keeps on releasing and I have trouble keeping up with the updates. But I make sure I write at least one article and share it on my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, G+ pages dedicated to this blog. They don't have many likes or followers as I have had a very little budget to spend on advertising.

I'm not complaining on the $100+ revenue I am currently generating off of AdSense with just myself working on the website part-time. I have a full-time day job as well. But for 4+ years now, I believe I should have gotten much further. Especially considering I have 1,500+ articles on the website. I feel like I would have benefited much more with working on CPA or Amazon Affiliate if I put this energy into them. But my passion is here. But then again, passion without ROI is also useless.

I need expert opinion on how my blog is doing and where it is headed. Because honestly, this will probably take another 5 years to make $500 per month with AdSense.

Any tips? Ideas? Thoughts?

Thanking in advance.

 

[DanielOnYouTube]

That's a lot of work for $150 per. month, and the chances of your website progressing are low due to the competition in your niche. If it were me, I would slow down my workload on the website, and I would create a new website in a low-competition niche using the things I have learned. You could also try and find out how much money you could get for selling the website, at least it would be some money to re-invest into new projects.

 

[lacifitra]

If I were you I wouldn't be discouraged, for such a saturated niche you were able to at least make some money and the traffic isn't too bad either. What you can do now is stop everything or rationalize, instead of doing everything that has to do with music, maybe try to go for one genre you're passionate about and write for that only.

 

[hero76]

Sorry bro time is money, you are losing more money than an old lady at a casino

 

[tubeboost]

Try CPA/Amazon Affiliate. If it doesn't work give it up.

 

[MSRP]

As you said you only have time for your site on part time. With that revenue actually you can split for profit and expense. Lets say 40% for profit and 60% for expense. After paying hosting cost try spend your revenue to hire a writer. Even you write one article daily but seem your articles is not attrack visitor to read and visit the site. Maybe try hire real writers who have music passion will have chance getting your articles more attractive.
Try optimize your seo page to give chance your site more visible on search engine.

 

[AdamMcDonald]

That's a lot of work for $150 per. month, and the chances of your website progressing are low due to the competition in your niche. If it were me, I would slow down my workload on the website, and I would create a new website in a low-competition niche using the things I have learned. You could also try and find out how much money you could get for selling the website, at least it would be some money to re-invest into new projects.

Even I was thinking that. I'm good in writing. So my next call would be Product reviews or affiliate. But I have little knowledge on making good articles.

Try CPA/Amazon Affiliate. If it doesn't work give it up.

Any good reading material on CPA??

As you said you only have time for your site on part time. With that revenue actually you can split for profit and expense. Lets say 40% for profit and 60% for expense. After paying hosting cost try spend your revenue to hire a writer. Even you write one article daily but seem your articles is not attrack visitor to read and visit the site. Maybe try hire real writers who have music passion will have chance getting your articles more attractive.
Try optimize your seo page to give chance your site more visible on search engine.

For $100, I can maybe get a good writer to write 2 articles. You think that would be worth it?

If I were you I wouldn't be discouraged, for such a saturated niche you were able to at least make some money and the traffic isn't too bad either. What you can do now is stop everything or rationalize, instead of doing everything that has to do with music, maybe try to go for one genre you're passionate about and write for that only.

Thank you. You think a specific genre would attract more visitors than the whole industry?

 

[SuperCoinsy]

Nowadays, people do not want to waste time reading something they can watch. Sad but true. You did not write exactly what music your page is about, but if you really want reviewing music and want to make money from it (who does not want it), maybe try to create a YouTube channel? If the niche is not overcrowded and you work diligently, after a year you should earn a lot more than at present.

 

[lacifitra]

Thank you. You think a specific genre would attract more visitors than the whole industry?

Well yeah, but also you'd heavily lower your competition.
Most people fail miserably and give up because they sink their teeth into something that's just way too broad.
Be more specific and you'll find success. After all, you're persistent. A trait that many people can only wish for.

 

[MSRP]

For $100, I can maybe get a good writer to write 2 articles. You think that would be worth it?

Sure. There a lot good writers on BHW. Just find them and ask for sample work on your niche. Focus on bring traffic then monitize it.

 

[cham rox]

You already have the traffic. As I believe You could earn average of 100$ per day if you monetize this traffic with amzn affiliate if the keywords are buyer intended. Try a different monetisation method rather than adsense.
Meanwhile start another niche site on a low competition keyword and put your time and money on it.

 

[AdamMcDonald]

Nowadays, people do not want to waste time reading something they can watch. Sad but true. You did not write exactly what music your page is about, but if you really want reviewing music and want to make money from it (who does not want it), maybe try to create a YouTube channel? If the niche is not overcrowded and you work diligently, after a year you should earn a lot more than at present.

Maybe, but the very first picture I put up is from a website that displays lyrics. I'm doing something similar-lyrics annotations.

I have tried YouTube, but got restricted due to copyright issues.

Sure. There a lot good writers on BHW. Just find them and ask for sample work on your niche. Focus on bring traffic then monitize it.

Or do you think that money would be better used on creating a new website for CPA and getting writers to write on that niche?

You already have the traffic. As I believe You could earn average of 100$ per day if you monetize this traffic with amzn affiliate if the keywords are buyer intended. Try a different monetisation method rather than adsense.
Meanwhile start another niche site on a low competition keyword and put your time and money on it.

Music and Amazon Affiliate does not work well. I have iTunes and Amazon links for every song review I post. It has not worked more than $10 per month. I think I will try a new advertising network.

 

[MisterF]

If you're wanting to make an income from this site then you need to re-evaluate the purpose.
Have you considered selling a couple of ad spaces on the front page, if you're getting decent traffic?

 

[suportxd]

I think these websites had content automaticaly scraped from others lyrics websites. It should be automated somehow?

 

[stack paper]

Definitely try to sell some adspace.. Also, are you collecting emails?

 

[AdamMcDonald]

If you're wanting to make an income from this site then you need to re-evaluate the purpose.
Have you considered selling a couple of ad spaces on the front page, if you're getting decent traffic?

I might have to use sidebars, because homepage isn't the one generating most traffic. Traffic lands on posts.

 

[AdamMcDonald]

I think these websites had content automaticaly scraped from others lyrics websites. It should be automated somehow?

I have no clue how to do that

 

[AdamMcDonald]

Definitely try to sell some adspace.. Also, are you collecting emails?

Not actively collecting emails. I do not know how to collect emails without promoting something. And I don't have anything to promote that would tempt someone to give their email.

 

[SuperCoinsy]

Maybe try to run some newsletter on your website? In addition, maybe some contests, where the condition of participation will be an e-mail? We know from experience that even the smallest prize will encourage many more people than the lack of it.

 

[Docks]

Learn from your mistakes and keep trying dude!