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How Swim University Thrived Despite Google's Wrath
Alex Horsman
April 21st, 2024
I had an argument with a friend of mine last week.
He read my post and didn’t necessarily agree with it.
See, he runs 5 - 10 affiliate sites.
He’s “diversified” and if a few of his sites get tanked, that’s okay.
He’s still got a few up and running.
Those who go all in on one site though, and get tanked, they’re done for.
Business is dead.
So in his mind it’s better to have multiple sites and diversify risk.
But he missed a key part of my argument.
Yes, you should diversify.
But diversify traffic sources, not websites.
You’re spread too thin if you run a variety of websites and doing so makes sure you never get compound returns.
Whenever you focus on one website, you can compound your efforts.
Create a lead magnet for your blog traffic?
Now you can run ads to it to grow your email list.
Have a Facebook pixel installed on your website?
Now you can retarget visitors who landed on your blog.
Got a couple thousand email subscribers?
Start pushing them to your new YouTube channel.
Someone who continues to do this well is Swim University.
Swim University is an affiliate site turned business.
It’s run by Matt Giovanisci and it’s a prime example of someone who is good at SEO but doesn’t solely rely on it.
It’s also a prime example of someone who was able to increase his earnings drastically when he decided to focus less on affiliate marketing and more on:
Email marketing
Selling online courses
Selling physical products
As of writing this, Swim University has:
If he gets crushed by Google, he’ll survive.
Yeah it will hurt like hell.
But he’s still got plenty of traffic coming from other sources.
Matt used to share revenue breakdowns on his site MoneyLab (more on this below).
In 2021 he decided to focus more on digital product sales, and less on affiliate commissions.
It paid off for him.
Revenue 2021
Affiliate Commissions: $149,991 ($162,730 in 2020)
Digital Product Sales: $333,841 ($235,962 in 2020)
YouTube Ad Revenue: $54,561 ($34,662 in 2020)
Physical Product Sales: $11,026 (NEW in 2021)
Total Revenue: $549,419 (26.78% increase)
In 2021 his website traffic was down by 16.94%
But revenue went up by 26.78%
Revenue 2022
Matt didn’t share specific revenue numbers in 2022.
But he did share % increases.
Website traffic decreased by 7%
Yet revenue increased 49%
That’s about $818,634 in revenue for 2022.
Again, that’s despite having website traffic taking a bit of a dip.
He achieved this through diversifying.
Adding more physical products, growing YouTube, paid advertising, etc.
Again, a prime example of someone who is diversified and has a solid business in place.
The last thing I’ll touch on is the power of focus.
Spending all your time on one or two sites allows you to focus.
This is something Matt understands too well
See, he used to have a number of different projects.
Swim University
Brew Cabin is a hobby more so than anything.
He likes brewing beer but, best I can tell, only touches it a few times a month.
He’s not focused on building it.
That’s on purpose.
MoneyLab had it all though.
Courses, email marketing, YouTube channel, podcast, etc.
But Matt realized he wanted, and probably needed, to focus.
So he shut it down.
My main takeaway this week?
Less projects.
More traffic channels.
More focus.
Be like Matt.
That’s it this week.
I encourage you to follow Matt on Twitter and check out Swim University from time to time.
It’ll be interesting to see how he continually grows it.
BTW - if you like these breakdowns, let me know.
They take a lot of time and effort but if they’re helpful, I’ll do more.
Until next time,
Alex Horsman