How should I kill my Frankenstein?

boatBurner

boatBurner

shutup, crime!
Feb 24, 2012
1,521
35
0
Over this last deployment to shithole-istan, I decided to try my hand at web dev (past experience) and Internet marketing (cringingly newb).

Tons of ideas, but decided I'd focus on one. I hit the ground running as soon as I got stateside. Needed money to fund the project, started doing freelance dev and even created an agency web site that landed me a small client.

I think I earned ~$3,000 over 2 1/2 months. Now it was time to wok on the shiny idea. It surrounded a classifieds web app paired with a resource/content web site or a niche I could relate to.

We went live June 26th. On July 26th, analytics reported just under 11k UVs, 17k+ total visits. Our membership count was ~400, but people were posting less and less from launch day forward. Daily visitor count was slowly increasing, and I contributed it to the blog-like content and social media advertising.

The web app quickly became unused, so I removed it (with the intent of going back to the dev drawing board) and brought the content to he forefront in the meantime.

Have a few bloggers who work for free. Motivation is wavering. Made $62 in Adsense our first month, but it seemed like a ton of work.

I'm considering writing off this project and cashing in on the wisdom to use on another idea. The classifieds part of this idea didn't pan out, so should I really move forward as a content site only making $60/mo (probably less next month) or just learn and let go?

I'm butthurt. Maw.
 


Here's a small lesson learned.

For some reason, I'm hungry to create something social & community based. To me, it means longevity. I think creating a community is harder than other ideas. If I said I wanted to sell an ebook, it would be less difficult. Trying to create a community is very possible, but it's harder. And riskier because you might spend 100 hours trying to create a community. Whereas with an ebook, you'd spend 100 hours trying to optimize and convert, and your result would be $. With a social community, your result is people. People can = money, but people don't necessarily = money, and to get people to = money takes additional time. Yes, the payout of successfully creating a social community can be grand, but it's a poor use of time when the first goal of mine is to start finding more automated channels of income.
 
I created a community site. The way I did it was to release a version of the site with just enough functionality to test the idea. The site got visitors so I am putting in more work. It's not an easy path but, when I think about selling the site, I also think about the potential and that I'm building something for the future.
 
The long lasting brand potential makes it hard to abandon this idea.

Woe is me. And why the hell cant I find topics about creating social communities on WickedFire? Oh, that's right. You guys actually like making money.
 
You need to buy and read the Lean Startup, particularly the bit about Innovation Accounting. It will show you how to make the keep-or-dump decision based on hard data, not just gut feeling and hopes of future success.
 
boatBurner said:
The long lasting brand potential makes it hard to abandon this idea.

Woe is me. And why the hell cant I find topics about creating social communities on WickedFire? Oh, that's right. You guys actually like making money.
Click to expand...

There are a few small companies that bank on forums.
 
Johnathan said:
There are a few small companies that bank on forums.
Click to expand...

Figured forums are great, but just seem a little... 2003? I know they're still worthwhile, but I was trying to offer a social experience with functionality.

Ah yes. Futurama with fluffy words.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom