Need Help Making a Tough Decision

by Ofthemix

Posted: 13 years ago 21 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I currently own and operate a forum that is not profitable at all. As in, the niche itself is not profitable. The forum has 2474 pretty much non active members, minus 3 of them which are active, myself included. The forum receives about 2,000 unique visitors a month and should receive 3,000 unique visitors this month. There is a dating site on a subdomain of the forum that has 88 members.

It's on the first domain that I ever bought. The domain is 2 years old.

Why am I giving you all of this information? I have no idea. All I do know is that in order to keep it running, I had to buy a VPS. I don't make enough money from the forum to cover the expense of running it, I've been thinking about selling it for a long time, and the two active forum members are begging me not to sell it.

In the last two months I just started making enough money from affiliate marketing to cover my hosting expenses and a bit more . . . but . . . blegh, it just burns me up to spend $50/month for 1 forum that usually doesn't even make $1 a month when I could be spending $10/month for hosting instead and actually be running a greater profit on my business.

I hear on here very often that if a project isn't making money, it's best to ditch it and move on. However, the domain name has sentimental value to me and I'd feel guilty for selling it.

I guess I'm just looking for someone to tell me that it's okay to let it go. While I've been thinking about selling it off and on for a long time, this weekend I had to spend $1,000 to fix my car and it really made me want to re-evaluate my expenses.

What would you do?

#decision #making #tough

cindybidar 13 years ago

Why not give it to the two active forum members who are begging you to keep it? I just don't see the point of putting energy into a non-profitable project. Unless, of course, you really love doing it.
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- Kay King 13 years ago
  
  Of the 2400+ "members" - how many have posted at all?
  
  On the dating portion - is that 88 FREE members?
  
  Unless you can come up with a plan that will put some life into it - it comes down to how long you are willing to eat the monthly loss. It's a resource hog and I'd try to sell it - or would just shut it down.
  
  If you are sentimentally attached to the domain name - renew the domain each year for $10 but drop the site.
  
  kay
  
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  Ofthemix 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Kay King
  
  If you are sentimentally attached to the domain name - renew the domain each year for $10 but drop the site.
  
  kay
  
  lol Even the domain is more than normal. $14/yr at Gigapros *cringes*
  
  I used to host with them too. When I first added the forum, it was fine, but as soon as people started adding YouTube videos and pictures, GigaPros sent me a notice that it was eating up too much CPU space and that I needed to switch to a VPS or they'd shut down my account. Not really knowing much about it, I ordered a VPS from HostGator and moved all of my sites over to them instead.
  
  The forum runs on the Simple Machines Forum script. I'm thinking about creating a Simple Press forum on the blog that it's attached to and moving all of the members and posts over to that.
  
  There are 2581 posts and 262 topics. It will be a real headache to move, but I think it would be worth it if I could keep the forum itself and knock my expenses down at the same time. Plus, right now it's not very search engine friendly, and if I moved it to WordPress . . . on a blog that already gets 10,000 monthly unique visits, I imagine that would benefit both the forum and the blog as I know that Simple Press is very well SEO optimized. The forum itself is a year old.
  
  I recently applied with NeverBlue to see if I could give CPA offers on it a try.
  
  Strange how I've been internally bitching and moaning about this for a long time, and I post my issue on here and then magically get a torrent of brain storming ideas. The blog at least makes about $30 a month. If I integrated the forum with it, it could probably bring in extra income.
  
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Ofthemix 13 years ago

The two active forum members are underage. Niether one would be able to afford to keep it running.
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- SantiSantana 13 years ago
  
  Would it be possible to have a look at it? If for some reason you don´t want to post the link here I would be grateful if you PMéd me it. I´m a little curious after recently going thru something that reads more or less " how to monetize the unmonetizable" (I don´t think that word eve exists but you get the idea).
  
  Thanks in advance for your reply.
  
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RentItNow 13 years ago

The way u ultimately make money is to find something that works and do it only. Refine it making more and more. Upscale it making more and more. If it does not work in the first place, sentiment or not, it is never going to be profitable and drains your money and more importantly time.
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Fraggler 13 years ago

If you are looking at letting it go anyway, why not share the forum here and try and brainstorm some ideas to make it profitable? For starters, a VPS to host a site that only gets 3000UV/month seems a bit extreme. Is there a reason you can't cut the hosting back?

What type of threads are being discussed? - anything that indicates they might be interested in reports solving their FAQs?

How search engine friendly is the forum? YOu might be able to utilise that to attract new members or to sell your products.

What are they searching for to find the forum? - You might be able to boost your site for those keywords and also get a better idea what the general public (non members) are after.
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robd1302

13 years ago

What monetization methods did you use?

If you can post the URL, I'm sure many of us would be glad to give you advice, and let you know if the site is salvageable. If it's not, you may feel better about selling it.

Robert

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Ofthemix

13 years ago

Originally Posted by robd1302

Clickbank, which is horrid for the niche. I've recently applied with NeverBlue and am awaiting their phone call . . . which I'll probably miss due to my jobs new no cell phone policy. T_T

I'd rather not post the URL in the open forum, will send a PM.

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BlondieWrites

13 years ago

It it was me with the situation you mention, I would first do away with the forum. Then I would perhaps try making the site into a blog about the topic and post to it daily. Monetize it with text link advertisers like Chango and Infolinks, sell reports and/or ebooks on the topic, etc. If THAT doesn't do anything in say, six months, then let the domain go.

As for the hosting, I am not sure why you would be having a high hosting cost. With no more traffic than you are getting to it and no more active members than you have, I would think you could use a basic hosting package at much less cost.

Cindy

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Ofthemix

13 years ago

Originally Posted by BlondieWrites

As for the hosting, I am not sure why you would be having a high hosting cost. With no more traffic than you are getting to it and no more active members than you have, I would think you could use a basic hosting package at much less cost.

Cindy

That's what I thought. I actually just talked to Hostgator a few minutes ago about moving my blog over to a baby plan. It gets 10,000 uniques a month and they said it shouldn't be an issue.

Maybe it was something with the Simple Machines Forum script . . . or a bug of some sort that has caused it to eat up so much CPU space? Idk, hosting is obviously something I'm not very knowledgable about. All I know is I've been paying $50/month for almost a year now and I'm tired of it.

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donb01 13 years ago

What does your "gut" tell you, your first instinct is usually right. and there are ways of cultivating the knowing from the feeling
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nelaffiliate 13 years ago

I suggest you change your hosting plan to something more affordable. You don't need to sell the website off yet. Change from VPS to something cheaper and find other ways to monetize the site.
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J Bold 13 years ago

Just set up those 2 members with a blogspot blog or something like that where they can chat with each other and post stuff for each other to their hearts content. It's not worth it all for that number of people.

Maybe even a Facebook page with the forum function and if they don't want others in there than you can just lock up the page and forum and only those 2 can have access to it. If they want any content from the forum find a way to give it to them before you take it down. I really dont' see the point of keeping this going for 2 dieharders. There's so many other free platforms you could use to accommodate just 2 people.
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Barry Unruh

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Ofthemix

I don't make enough money from the forum to cover the expense of running it, I've been thinking about selling it for a long time, and the two active forum members are begging me not to sell it.

In the last two months I just started making enough money from affiliate marketing to cover my hosting expenses and a bit more

How much money would you be making in affiliate marketing if you had focus on your work at hand instead of being distracted by the forum?

You already know what to do, but your "attachment" to the forum is stopping you.

Are you ready to commit to having fun, making money, and being willing to release dead weight? Then...

Flippa

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rain21 13 years ago

you don't need to sell the site I think, just change the expensive hosting to cheaper one. we are also doing a forum like a blog, I use a forum software, but actually we are doing it as a blog. we don't allow others to post there threads, only our group post threads.. can u give me URL to your forum ? I like to have a look
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deertrail 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Ofthemix

I guess I'm just looking for someone to tell me that it's okay to let it go.

It's okay to let it go.

Remember, this project is robbing time, energy and emotion from better projects. When you look back at this one month from now, you'll be glad you cut it loose.

-Bryan
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Devid Farah 13 years ago

Firstly, I would say if you are already in the mindset that you want to let go, then just go ahead and do so.

You don't need this forum, and you shouldn't see it as a sunk cost - you learned a lot while operating it.
On the other hand, you can probably salvage the forum if you are still really attached to it - you just have to put in the work.

It does have a decent number of posts, so you could try things like using targeted ads (targeted to your forum's niche topic) or expanding your niche to include more topics.
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- Kay King 13 years ago
  
  A forum with 2-3 active posters - is a loser. Use the domain for a better purpose if you like the domain - but forget the forum.
  
  You are paying for others post what they want - probably have a lot of members who are "PROFILE" links only.
  
  Make that domain into another blog where people can add comments if they want. You might get more participation and you'd have a better platform to promote products/CPA, too.
  
  kay
  
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Fun to Write 13 years ago

You attitude towards this forum has become negative. If it's not something that's bringing you joy, and you don't feel like many people are getting much benefit out of it, then it's time to move on to other ventures.
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Ofthemix 13 years ago

Just to give an update. I contacted HostGator today to switch from their VPS to a Baby plan. I've informed my two "die hard members" that I'm creating a new forum attached to my main blog just in case the forum that's running now for some reason or another would still cause me to need a VPS. They're not happy, but they'll deal. I'm working on moving stuff over to the new forum . . . manually . . . It's grueling, but a labor of love. If worse comes to worst, whatever doesn't get moved, I have coped with the thought of deleting it.

Thanks for all of your support in helping me make this decision. It's something I should have done a long time ago.
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Need Help Making a Tough Decision

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