The Modest Man

My Blog & YouTube Channel Now Generate Nearly $50K Per Month

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Brock McGoff

Founder, The Modest Man

$4K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

The Modest Man

themodestman.com

from Tucson, Arizona, USA

started May 2012

$4,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

Discover what books Brock recommends to grow your business!

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Want more updates on The Modest Man? Check out these stories:

1. Starting A Men's Style Publication Reaching A Million People Per Month (2018) ➜

2. Lessons Learned From A Blogger Trying To Build A YouTube Channel (2019) ➜

3. How We Focused On Content Creation And Doubled Traffic And Revenue This Year (2021) ➜

This is a follow up story for The Modest Man. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published about 6 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

I’m Brock McGoff, founder of McGoff Media LLC, a portfolio of digital media properties.

My flagship product is themodestman.com, a men’s lifestyle publication that reaches over 500k readers each month.

Technically, the “customers” are advertisers and affiliate partners, although the business wouldn’t be possible without a large, engaged audience of readers.

Collectively, my websites and YouTube channel generate $40-50k per month (full income reports here).

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Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?

Since we last spoke, website traffic has almost doubled due to a more aggressive and intentional publishing schedule. This meant hiring more writers and staff to help format articles, process images, build affiliate links, and do all the other behind the scenes stuff that goes into running a content business.

Collectively, my websites and YouTube channel generate $40-50k per month.

We went from publishing 1 new article a week and sometimes 1 new video, to 3 new articles each week.

I also purchased another site, theslenderwrist.com, to house all of the watch-related content (there’s some audience overlap, but it’s a big niche on its own).

This was my first foray into growth via acquisition, and it was an eye opening process. In the future, I’d much rather buy than build from scratch, especially if a website has some low-hanging fruit (easy wins).

I put a bit of time and money into TikTok, just to test the platform, but until there’s a better way to monetize that audience (other than sponsored content), I won’t be investing any more energy into building a presence there.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

Unless you have a plan for some other non-SEO traffic source, there’s really no point in publishing anything on a website that doesn’t have organic potential.

If you can drive traffic from social or an email list, that’s another story.

But for most sites, you need to make sure you’re doing good keyword research upfront, before investing in content.

Also, content sites are a numbers game. Big sites all have one thing in common: they publish a ton of content.

For me, the trick is publishing as much GOOD content as possible without sacrificing quality. It’s definitely a balancing act, but to build a big (7 figure) content business, you’ll need to publish hundreds or even thousands of articles, eventually. The sooner you can do that, the better.

Much of my time and energy lately has been spent finding good writers, editors and formatters, and making sure our processes are solid. If the process and research is good, there shouldn’t be many quality control issues toward the end of the publishing lifecycle.

It’s not about time management tactics; it’s about changing your relationship with time and, frankly, letting go of the need to optimize every second of your life.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

I’m investing a larger portion of profits into new content. If my larger site gets to the point where an exit means financial independence, I’d consider selling it.

Until then, I want to make sure the audience is delighted with the content, and I want to get the new site (The Slender Wrist) to a more meaningful level of traffic.

I’m hiring more help, which means I can spend more time on things that I’m uniquely qualified to do, like produce YouTube content, plan future website content, and explore better ways to monetize existing traffic.

Have you read any good books in the last year?

Time Management for Mortals was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It’s not about time management tactics; it’s about changing your relationship with time and, frankly, letting go of the need to optimize every second of your life.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

Be honest with yourself. Most people know what they need to do, or what they’re not doing for some reason or another (fear, laziness, lack of actual interest).

For me, hiring people - spending the money and letting go of control - is always tough. I have a lot of resistance in this area.

But I almost never regret delegating, and oftentimes the people I hand tasks off to do a better job than I can (even if that means just finishing the tasks more quickly).

You probably know what you have to do. Do you really want to do it? If not, maybe find something else. If so, figure out a way to get motivated, and just go do it.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

I’m always looking for great writers and/or photographers with an interest in men’s fashion, grooming, interior design and wrist watches. I’m also looking for a social media manager and graphic designer with the same interests. If that’s you, hit me up!