Show notes
Today, we're joined by returning guest Mushfiq - a prolific site owner, operator, and flipper for an all-encompassing look at site operators! With his 15+ years of operations experience and someone who hires lots of site operators for his agency, Mushfiq is a wealth of knowledge from both sides of the equation. The first half of the discussion is all about site operators: Who is best qualified to become one What the ideal operator avatar looks like Some of the reasons someone would become one Mushfiq explains that a website operator is someone who can take a site from zero to a revenue target, focusing on content management, SEO, revenue generation, and finding opportunities. And it's also here that Mushfiq and Jared highlight the important skills needed like: project management, strategy, and working well with a team of content creators, link builders, and virtual assistants. For the motivations for becoming an operator, there are also lots of interesting insights. For instance, operators can mitigate risk by gaining valuable experience working with different types of sites - knowledge that can then be applied to their own websites. And since he runs an agency offering these operator services, Mushfiq also shares his two-tier structure for website operations. PLUS, the max number of projects an operator should manage at one time. There really are tons of awesome insights here for anyone interested in pursuing this as a service provider. But eventually, the discussion moves to the owner's perspective. Hiring an operator can be advantageous for those who lack the time or expertise to effectively manage their own sites. And Mushfiq lists out the 3 typical options for these owners who lack the time: Let the website sit and eventually die, Sell it (although they discuss some challenges for personal brand sites), Or outsource it to an agency or virtual assistants. There are lots of factors to consider - and Mushfiq and Jared do a great job of covering all that's important. For instance, the challenges many feel when handing over a website to an operator. As they discuss, letting go of control and allowing the operator to take over is essential for a successful operator-owner relationship. But of course, trust is a crucial component for this, and it's important to find someone with a trustworthy background and a mix of successes and failures. And Mushfiq highlights successful owners as those willing to walk away and let the operator manage the property, have realistic expectations about quality, and understand the complexities of managing a website. They also break down the typical financial arrangement of this relationship. For both owners and operators, diversification is emphasized as a key strategy. Ideally, this arrangement can afford the owner more time to expand into e-commerce, newsletters, and other areas to build a brand and generate additional income streams. There's really too much value here to properly summarize, but if you've ever considered hiring an operator or supplementing your blogging income, this is a must-listen! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative