How long do you give a website before deciding its not profitable?

[shaggard]

I have seen many people on here giving all kinds of recommendation on making successful sites. But I havent seen how long people give these sites.

So How long do YOU give a site before chunking it as a bad idea?

[AidanKay]

At least 6 months if you're working with SEO and all that. You need time for your backlinks to work, to rank higher for your keywords and even the age of your site helps.

So.. it depends.. can you be specific with how you're trying to make money?

If you're selling an ebook and you're not looking for traffic via the SE's, just relying mainly on the traffic from backlinks.. then your 'trial' time would be much less. Seeing as yo uwouldn't have to wait for your SEO efforts to kick in. For that method, you can measure it by the views your salespage receives. I'd reccomend 5000+ views.

But, as I said, please elaborate on how you're trying to make money.

-Aidan.

[shaggard]

First, I was just curious as what other people were doing. In general, I was wondering how long people wait.

Second, I am going the way of article writing. But I was only wondering what other people did.

Third, thanks for your answer. I wouldn't think people woud put in daily effort for6 months before deciding. I should though. With my background of Special Ed, I would put years into a child before seeing results.

[Traffic-Bug]

You never get immediate or overnight results with any new internet product or service. It takes time to build up. There is no set factor of elapsed time before an internet-only business can 'wind up' like tr.im did. It depends on future forecast levels of product / service demand. Different in each case.

[AidanKay]

Did you know it took MySpace 5 years to before it was what it is today?

Myspace has been around since 1997. First it was something like a hosting site.

Now it is what it is; I giant social website. Generating millions a year (don't hold me to that).

The moral of the story is;

Like with a good wine, Maturity can bring a richer, fuller investment =].


-Aidan.

[jasonmorgan]

Generally, I give a site six months before I make any judgements on it. At that point I should start seeing some results and it gives me an idea of what I need to do, what I may have done wrong and what potential the site might still have.

After a year, has the site at least paid for its domain renewal cost? If it has, might as well keep it around and see where it goes, at least I'm breaking even on it.

I rarely ever drop a domain. If project A was a failure that doesn't mean that I can't reuse the domain for something else in the future.

Now if you're talking about a product and it's a lemon... after a year, it may be time to pull the plug on trying to sell the bud light grooler



tailgate tested! tailgate approved!

[mattlaclear]

Before I launch a new product I send out a solo broadcast to my opt-in list of 25,000 + subscribers and past customers. If I don't generate at least 25 - 50 sales from the mailing I usually sulk a bit then nix the campaign. It's my experience that if folks in whom I have built credibility with won't buy it then taking the time to reach cold prospects is usually a fool's errand. But that could be just my emotions making the decision. But this also means all my products usually cater to the same niche too.

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by jasonmorgan

Now if you're talking about a product and it's a lemon... after a year, it may be time to pull the plug on trying to sell the bud light grooler



tailgate tested! tailgate approved!

You'd probably sell some if it had a Coca-Cola logo instead.

[ramone_johnny]

Even if you find a site isnt that profitable - BE SURE TO LEAVE THAT BUY BUTTON THERE!

[mattlaclear]

Or take the button off and replace it with a web form into your autoresponder!

[ramone_johnny]

Originally Posted by mattlaclear

Or take the button off and replace it with a web form into your autoresponder!

Never!

If a site isnt profitable, sure dont waste any more time or resources trying to market it. But ALWAYS be sure to leave that buy button there. I have plenty of sites that were flops, but every now and then ONE of them makes a sale!

I always include an optin form on all of my sites regardless, it never replaces a "buy" button???

[Rhett]

Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert

You'd probably sell some if it had a Coca-Cola logo instead.

Hell, I'd buy it the way it is

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by ramone_johnny

Even if you find a site isnt that profitable - BE SURE TO LEAVE THAT BUY BUTTON THERE!

Same thing for affiliate websites.

It's always nice to get a random check in the mail from some affiliate program running on one of your webpages you've long forgotten about...

[SolomonHuey]

You shouldn't be basing your decision on time but rather exposures and conversion rates.

If your site only gets 100 visitors in 6 months for example, you couldn't accurately say your site won't make money.

Also, you could have 10,000 visitors and not make any money due to poor conversions. Maybe the market your in is profitable, but your website just isn't converting those visitors into sales.

Solomon Huey

[mattlaclear]

Originally Posted by ramone_johnny

Never!

If a site isnt profitable, sure dont waste any more time or resources trying to market it. But ALWAYS be sure to leave that buy button there. I have plenty of sites that were flops, but every now and then ONE of them makes a sale!

I always include an optin form on all of my sites regardless, it never replaces a "buy" button???

The beauty of IM is there are so many different ways to market your business. I personally believe if an eBook isn't making you money it should be building you an optin list and building your credibility up. So if I have an eBook that is generating 2 sales a month at $25 a pop that equates to $50. But if I offer it to my list as a freebie I build more than $50 worth of credibility up with my list, Which will equate to more sales of my more popular products. If I share the product as a giveaway to my friends on the social networks then that equates to opt-ins. Which is always a good thing!

I view my main focus with my IM business to be a list builder and credibility banker. When I do those things well sales just naturally come in.

But I hear ya Johnny!

[mikeyman120]

You have to get massive targeted traffic to the site to see if it converts before you make any decisions.

Mike

[cclou]

Well, I don't use paid traffic, so I can give a website a full year to make back its domain name. Since I focus on SEO and articles, I'll still get traffic if I stop working on a site. So I'll get Amazon sales and Adsense even on sites I've given up on. If I put several months work into a site and see little return I'll put my focus elsewhere. But I can't imagine not making enough to justify domain renewal.

[Tom Brite]

I never stop!

Everything i setup makes me some money... the amount it makes is the key factor!

I spend about the same amount of time one each site i make and each one is then setup for a lifetime of earnings!

There is no way any of my sites cannot earn me any income at all, after all all you need is traffic and a way to earn from it, be it adsense, clickbank product or even just an autoresponder!

However then i do put more time afterwards in the ones that make me more money to increase that and the ones that have more potential.

Make any sense?

Tom Brite

[Danny Cutts]

Hello to be honest I normally see a return on my sites within a month sometines sooner.

However I have had some that flop and well I just leave them well alone and yeah the occasional sale is good but when the domain comes up for renewal I need to look to see if it made a profit, more often than not its worth just renewing.

A lot of my older sites are .co.uk domains which are only pennies!

Danny

[shaggard]

I must say. Those were not the answers I expected. But still well thought out plans of action.

[bromper]

What will be the average price for the massive targeted traffic to the site?
Mykola

[ramone_johnny]

I think the best peice of advice I can give is not to continue pouring money or time into something that is obviously not providing a decent ROI. Over time you learn, (usually through trial and error ) what is a great site and what isnt.

Being able to identify the differences takes time, and a few mistakes along the way.

[dave147]

just leave it running - even 1 sale should pay for the domain

[geekology]

The best advice I hav received is to continue re-investing money for at least 1 year. So if you make $50 the first month reinvst , make $75 next reinvest ...so on and so forth.. time lines would definitely vary

[M Thompson]

It depends what you mean by not being profitable.

A site costs me less than $20 and a few hours of my time.

If it makes a few cents a day it's probably profitable.

If it makes $1 a day it's more profitable than 99% of bricks and mortar businesses based of % ROI

If it's one of my sites that make $30 to $50 a day it's hugely profitable.

It's all a matter of perspective.

Whats your business model? 1 or 2 sites or 100 or 200 sites?

Do you Article Market or Use PPC

[shaggard]

Right now I am trying to get one site to make $1. I don't want to spend alot of cash until I learn how to get a site to make money. Once I get a site to make $1, I will change my goals. Until then, I have a $1 goal.

Currently I am writing articles as a means of support. However, I am looking to eventually switch over to the residual income that comes from building profitable sites.

[cobra tatham]

You can always sell your site on Flippa and make money even if it's brand new and generates zero income. The niche and content on your site alone can make a decent amount of money.

Andy

[Danny Cutts]

Hello,

Its good to see people are stilll setting goals this is the best way to get a head!

TO make a dollar....hmmm so you are already article marketing? thats good (it taken me 8 years to get to do article marketing) you could put adsense on the site which would make you a dollar but would take you a lot of clicks.

Depending on your niche, I would put maybe an affiliate product or even a cpa offer?

(I have been doing a bit of research on CPA I might hit this soon)

Or you could flip the site ----> I tend not to do this as I like to see how a site does first if it struggles then I will flip it!

Good Luck

Danny

[jitterbug978]

I'd say a solid 6 months, if there is no money generated after 3 months I also begin on my "Next big idea"

[Danny Cutts]

is there many sites that dont see any traffic??

I think I could build a site and not even promote it and it would generate traffic!

Hmmm got me thinking that quote

Danny

[shaggard]

I am a solid month in and have made a told of 19 cents LOL

I am need to do some artcile writing for my site. I really didnt do much. I was really busy writing for other people trying to make a living. However, I did get enough to get it on the first second page for most of the month for my keyword.

However, I only got made the 19cent. People didnt click the adds. Really I only got about 10 hits a day. I need to work on traffic.

[Charann Miller]

Originally Posted by shaggard

I have seen many people on here giving all kinds of recommendation on making successful sites. But I havent seen how long people give these sites.

So How long do YOU give a site before chunking it as a bad idea?

Seeing as you're a War Room member I highly recommend you check out Trevor Somerville's website flopping course, even if your site's not a huge money maker and you're wanting to throw in the towel, you can still sell it on for profit and then move onto the next one. That way your efforts weren't wasted.