When Do you Give Up on A site?

MikeD · #1 (**permalink**) 02-15-2008, 01:51 PM

I'm looking down the road and wondering if i rteally want to go foward with the next few blogs on my list. They're all similar to the BCP blog and stand a good chance to make some money but I'm just not feelin' it. They would be done or the sole purpose of making money even tho' I have some experience with the topics.

I learned a lot with BCP and expect to get better at it applying what i learned but i' wondering...

When and why have any of you gave up on a site? What were the reasons? Business reasons, personal, hated the topic...whatever

--mike

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 02-15-2008, 02:06 PM

GRRRRREAT question. I've had many failed sites so I'll touch upon a few...

1) Internet Marketing Site
I gave up because the niche was overcrowded and I could never get enough traffic no matter what I did. I could never get over the 150 visitor per day hump for nearly 3 years.

I kept pushing products that helped people make money when I wasn't making money myself. So my content was stale, and pretty much a re-write of what was already out there.

I got very bored. The site stayed around for about 4 years but I was working on other sites at the same time.

2) Reality TV Forum
Big mistake starting off with a forum and no traffic foundation. I tried to use another site I owned to promote it but that site was only getting 200 visits per day and it wasn't enough to keep the forum going.

I only had the site for about 6 months.

3) Soap Opera site
I used to be an avid Days of Our Lives fan so I created a site that focused on the humorous aspects of the show. I had some javascript face warps where people could warp the character's faces with their mouse, etc. but it was very hard to monetize that site because it was visited largely by teens.

Teens don't have a lot of buying power so when I would promote products they never bought. Plus it was really hard to get to know what kind of products to push. Even though I knew my site was largely visited by stay at home moms and teens, I found it was difficult to monetize an entertainment site. (This was before AdSense, by the way)

Traffic was also another issue. I couldn't get over the 200/visitor per day hump. I also got bored with the show and finally stopped watching so of course I had no motivation to keep the site going.

The site lived about 4 years.

This is a wonderful question, Mike.

attackdepression · #3 (**permalink**) 02-15-2008, 09:05 PM

I gave up on my first site that was about HD technology. Even though I like electronics, big screen TV's etc. I wasn't motivated enough to write enough content. So I got bored and I never saw a lick of traffic. I don't think my content was unique enough. I was just basically regurgitating the info that was already out here, just in my words.

Penguino · #4 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 06:17 PM

As a newcomer, I've yet to actually give up on a website. I have, however, given up on a couple blogs. I realized that I just wasn't entertained by writing about the topics anymore, it was just getting old. I didn't think it would be worth it to keep it up if I wasn't having fun with it.

BumbleBeeWare · #5 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 11:05 AM

One of the critical rules of SEO is AGE.

The longer the content stays online the more attention it will get. if you write articles daily even if only a few a month, over several years you will get people to the website.

I have one website that pumps out $25 a month in google ads and the site has under 200 pages and I have not changed anything in over 2 years. Sure it's not making me rich, but its free money as far as I am concerned. I don't do anything with it.

If you give up, you will never ever make money.

If you lost interest, move on and keep the site open. It will only cost you $10 a year for the name and you can host it for pennies a year or on a host that has unlimited domains for the same price.

Then you move on to a new idea. In time you hae a handful of sites each making a few dollars a month and before you know it, you have 50 sites each making $10 a month each.

Don't expect to get rich on one website. You can, but it reqires tireless work and marketing. The trick is to have a bunch of little ideas that all failed but continue to get a few visitors that can make you money.

mobiiart · #6 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 05:22 AM

I have been tending to create my sites on more of a "set them and forget them" type of style. Yes, we do need to update sites, but there are many that you can pack with great content, and then just let them do their thing. Some subjects seem to have a rather limited amount of info available. If you can gear your sub niches in that to that, you don't have to give up on a site. Just set it and forget it.

MikeD · #7 (**permalink**) 03-07-2008, 12:58 AM

Thanks for all the great comments.

BTW, just as I was going to put a bullet in BCP site and the 3 others I had on the back burner until I noticed it has a page rank of 3...I started it at the end of October. I've STILL got affiliate problems with that site (which means i have problems with the other 3 sites) but I've found a new program that satisfies 80% of what I'm promoting so I'm going to make the switch.

That blog and the others have a ceiling on content...then there's commentary and news. If it works, I can live with that.

--Mike

nixwebo · #8 (**permalink**) 03-10-2008, 08:37 PM

Hey, its this simple, some people are starters and some people are finishers. I'm not going to go into the personality profile categories now, but you get my drift. I don't want you to think from the title of my post that there are no loosing battles, because I more than most know that there are. However, just because you are pumping you time and possibly hard earned money into a site does not mean that you have to just give up.

There are many things that the site can become useful for other than your original idea.

1. You can use the domain for a file dump, like putting all of your web adds, banner images, or downloads there.

2. You can always come to sites similar to this to get a fresh new view of your site, it is amazing what a new perspective on the same situation can bring to the table. Just ask others to take a look and suggest what can help/constructive criticism, and you shall receive just that.

3. You can resell the domain as is with you work and the little, but important traffic that you have already generated. You would be amazed how much some sites like this bring on ebay.

4. Start using a manual traffic exchange site to force new exposure, and if you are trying to sell the site don't be afraid to advertise it on the site itself, it works!

WB Sponsors