wetalknation.net ?

[Floris]

Shaun, in order to run so many sites you simply have to have the experience, and a clear goal as to what you want to achieve, together with a great team of staff you can get there. It went fine for years. And we had some negative years as well. But we got together many times and worked out how to get back on track. However, it didnt' result in the sites going from 25 to 50% or higher, and at some point the stress it created, the unhappy feeling that comes with it and the resources it requires just made me go 'oh f* it' various times, with the health of my parents ahead of me and the other 15 things on my plate, it's just not worth it anymore. Time to say "we had a good run" and move on.

Closing the site hurts the users, but not as much as it hurts me. After all, they dedicated time to it, while we dedicated our life to it. In what shape or form the site continue after November is undecided yet, maybe we will throw it up in read-only mode, maybe we will forward traffic to one of my other still running projects, maybe someone buys the site (declined the last 4 offers from yesterday btw, they were a joke) and maybe we will null the domains and I will just disappear from the net completely as far as online communities are concerned.

 

[CTXMedia]

However, it didnt' result in the sites going from 25 to 50% or higher, and at some point the stress it created, the unhappy feeling that comes with it and the resources it requires just made me go 'oh f* it' various times, with the health of my parents ahead of me and the other 15 things on my plate, it's just not worth it anymore. Time to say "we had a good run" and move on.

Well, that's fair enough. So long as it's not making you ill, just tired and sad. A break will do you good, and allow you to focus closer to home and put your house in order (I'm not saying your home is untidy BTW ... lol ).

I was in a similar position 5 years ago with my web directory business. My ego had got the better of me and I'd split my one directory into many other topic specific ones thinking that the formula would work just as well when copied and repeated.

Technically it did, the software was a doddle to replicate and I soon had 20 directories on the go. What I hadn't figured on was all the extra work required to manage these extra sites. It got so that I hardly wanted to open the browser because I knew to do the full round of work would require a 4 hour stint at the PC.

I tried for a couple of years to make it work - getting nothing out of it because I'd diluted the visitors/ads so much I earned no real revenue to speak of - and eventually had to close them all and consolidate them back into one site again. It really pained me to do it. I soooooo wanted it to work. However, I'm just one man who has a bit of spare time in the week and I now try to keep things to a managable level. (The ego is locked firmly away in the back of the cupboard and not let out to play ... )

Time will sort it out. It usually does.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Lawrence]

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