Well, after 5 years of running my website, I have decided that it is time to shut it down. In its prime I made about $100/day off it, which was plenty for me. Now I make about $0.30/day off it, which just isnt worth it. Anyone else close down their site due to this problem?
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it makes me weep...
- Thread starter illusions
- Start date
Why shut it down? If it has been going 5 years it will be a real shame.
Okay maybe you are not making money from it right now, but surely in time the ad market will pick up again.
This time last year I was making an average of $800 a month, that suddenly dropped to $0 when my biggest money maker dropped overseas affiliates, and two other affiliate programs I was with went bust.
Things are picking up now and I am averaging $90 a month and if I really spent more time at it I know I could double that, but I get a bit lazy
Okay maybe you are not making money from it right now, but surely in time the ad market will pick up again.
This time last year I was making an average of $800 a month, that suddenly dropped to $0 when my biggest money maker dropped overseas affiliates, and two other affiliate programs I was with went bust.
Things are picking up now and I am averaging $90 a month and if I really spent more time at it I know I could double that, but I get a bit lazy
Cheap Bastard
New Member
why not sell your site?
I mean, it wouldn't be under your control anymore but at least it'd live on... Heck, i might even place a bid.
Like Jan says, it'd be a real shame if it's been running for 5 years...
I mean, it wouldn't be under your control anymore but at least it'd live on... Heck, i might even place a bid.
Like Jan says, it'd be a real shame if it's been running for 5 years...
I have to agree with the generous posters above. If you are as attached to the site as you seem, it may be worth keeping it alive as a loss-making hobby, cutting your costs by moving to a shared server (or less expensive package if already on shared), while you either wait out the downturn or work to increase your knowledge of ad sales so as to fully monetize your inventory.
To answer your question, I have shut down sites before that weren't proving profitable, but I also continue to keep a few alive that are losing money because I'm as attached to certain properties as you seem to be to yours, and for that reason it never pains me to pay the bills that support these sites.
BTW, it may be of value to post your URL and ballpark traffic stats in this thread so that the many savvy members here may offer you some guidance as to how best to extract revenue from your audience.
To answer your question, I have shut down sites before that weren't proving profitable, but I also continue to keep a few alive that are losing money because I'm as attached to certain properties as you seem to be to yours, and for that reason it never pains me to pay the bills that support these sites.
BTW, it may be of value to post your URL and ballpark traffic stats in this thread so that the many savvy members here may offer you some guidance as to how best to extract revenue from your audience.
Rick
New Member
Sadly, I've also had to close the most popular part of my web site due to lack of advertising.
At one time, I was receiving about $600/mo. in ad revenue, which when all was said and done, was simply meeting expenses... But every one of my ad carriers have cancelled or gone out of business with the sole exception of popuptraffic, which while actually paying out, was undercounting the impressions by some 500 percent. At the time I made the decision to close it, I was getting in excess of 900,000 pageviews per month, and collecting about $27 in ad revenue. My site was split across two servers to carry the heavy traffic loads and the expense was getting too much for me to take as a loss. But I'm certain I'm not alone. Hopefully, the ad agencies will one day get it through their heads that there are better ways of handling traffic than the current model they insist on using, and I'll be able to resume having content, but until then... It's 'bye-bye website'
At one time, I was receiving about $600/mo. in ad revenue, which when all was said and done, was simply meeting expenses... But every one of my ad carriers have cancelled or gone out of business with the sole exception of popuptraffic, which while actually paying out, was undercounting the impressions by some 500 percent. At the time I made the decision to close it, I was getting in excess of 900,000 pageviews per month, and collecting about $27 in ad revenue. My site was split across two servers to carry the heavy traffic loads and the expense was getting too much for me to take as a loss. But I'm certain I'm not alone. Hopefully, the ad agencies will one day get it through their heads that there are better ways of handling traffic than the current model they insist on using, and I'll be able to resume having content, but until then... It's 'bye-bye website'
lol. What forum are we in, LeX?Originally posted by LeX
Gee, all you peeps care about is money?
I think we all care for more than money, but this forum is specifically designed to house those discussions centered around the business/money elements of running an online venture.
Greetings,
You should be aware that a large majority of cost may be going to hosting/bandwidth fees, for these people.
If these people are serious about the sites, they're not doubt hosted on pay hosts and using, probably, more bandwidth than your average personal website. As such, the money you see them say they make here may be entirely going to their costs.
So, when you look at it from the view that all of your money is going to hosting, it can become quite disaparaging, I'm sure you can see.
Farewell,
You should be aware that a large majority of cost may be going to hosting/bandwidth fees, for these people.
If these people are serious about the sites, they're not doubt hosted on pay hosts and using, probably, more bandwidth than your average personal website. As such, the money you see them say they make here may be entirely going to their costs.
So, when you look at it from the view that all of your money is going to hosting, it can become quite disaparaging, I'm sure you can see.
Farewell,
Hi, Matt. How's Redrival doing lately?
Well, I admit I hadn't thought about his site being hosted on a paid server, and I don't know how much he shells out a month for hosting. I think I misread his post and thought he was profiting 30 cents a day, not making 30 cents.
I still don't think he should close the site, especially after being there for 5 years. He could've chosen to switch to a cheaper host or even consider free hosting, instead of taking it down.
Well, I admit I hadn't thought about his site being hosted on a paid server, and I don't know how much he shells out a month for hosting. I think I misread his post and thought he was profiting 30 cents a day, not making 30 cents.
I still don't think he should close the site, especially after being there for 5 years. He could've chosen to switch to a cheaper host or even consider free hosting, instead of taking it down.
Rick
New Member
I don't know of any free webspace providers that will allow one of its members sites to consume 80-90 gigs/month in bandwidth, or any of the bottom end hosting services with that sort of a bandwidth allowance either.
When my ad revenue was at $27/month, my hosting costs were still over $80/month and it just was not feasable to sustain that sort of a loss month after month. There comes a time when it makes more sense to close it down than to keep shelling out funds to keep it going.
It's not about making money from the site... It's about not losing your shirt over it. My family still needs to eat and the mortgage company isn't very understanding about that sort of thing either.
When my ad revenue was at $27/month, my hosting costs were still over $80/month and it just was not feasable to sustain that sort of a loss month after month. There comes a time when it makes more sense to close it down than to keep shelling out funds to keep it going.
It's not about making money from the site... It's about not losing your shirt over it. My family still needs to eat and the mortgage company isn't very understanding about that sort of thing either.
R. K. Raja
Active Member
Dude, I can't believe all these people make that money out of ad revenue. The most I've ever made was $2 a month and that was only for a month . How do you guys do it??
. How do you guys do it??I reckon more sites will shut down because of falling ad revenue but In my opion people should be able to make any sites pay for them selves, But if they can't then somtimes it is better to shut them down, Not because you hate the site but if hosting is to much it gets tiring trying to scrape togetehr moeny for hosting especially if you are a student.
I guess soem are lucky and some are not, I only pay $100 a month for hosting and I know all i got to do is throw one valueclick banner up to make enough to pay for it evan with there horribly low ctr.
This fails to take into accountt he biggest cost though time, time was ok when you spend tiem on your sites that you love but when you spend more time trying to earn money to pay for the site than you do on the site, It does not become fun.
Some sites can't be hosted for free either.
I guess soem are lucky and some are not, I only pay $100 a month for hosting and I know all i got to do is throw one valueclick banner up to make enough to pay for it evan with there horribly low ctr.
This fails to take into accountt he biggest cost though time, time was ok when you spend tiem on your sites that you love but when you spend more time trying to earn money to pay for the site than you do on the site, It does not become fun.
Some sites can't be hosted for free either.
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