Site too popular

Hi,

Your post indicates that you have explained this situation to the majority?

And you are not jaded, you are realistic.

I cannot begin to imagine that people wouldn't understand, but it's a reality that we have to live with.

My suggestion...if I were you would be make a blanket post, if you have a forum board, and tell them the situation. Also explain that you are cutting back on the site as you are going it alone and are not currently able to maintain it to the standards that you would like.

That way you have:
1. Told them the situation, so they cannot say they haven't been told.
2. Made sure that they know you want to keep up the site, to your high standards, but you are overwhelmed.

I wouldn't worry about the loyal users, the 30-40 people, they know the situation already and are taking it in stride. They are showing their support!

Sorry you are going through this. A friend of mine recently dumped her whole site and forum board as people were taking her subjects and passing them unfavorably on to other forum boards. Such a bad situation.

No one should feel the pressure you are through a site that is a hobby or through a site that is a business. It's not fair to your body or mind! I hope it gets better and if you need to talk, please feel free to email or PM me.

Sara

I have had this problem on a smaller scale - in our case explaining the problem seems to have worked at least for now. Our site seems to be similar to yours in that it's a personal effort, something we do on our own time without a lot of resources behind us (although we do have five very dedicated staff members to deal with the workload). We do our best, and yet sometimes our users aren't even happy with that (and like you we are by far the no.1 resource in our area).

I tend to think that there comes a point where you have to stop worrying about satisfying all of your users. You can just do the best you can and if they don't like it that's their problem. Cater to that group of users who do appreciate your efforts and ignore those who don't. There's a point where you don't have to explain yourself anymore.

Do you have an autoresponder set up for your e-mail? You could at least automate things a bit and send something back to everyone explaining your situation and telling them that you *may* get back to them as time permits.

Thanks for the quick replies! Yes, Gadget, I have posted news about the situation, but it seems to have little effect on the majority. As of this moment, I'm going to take a few days off and relax as I don't want to do anything in haste.

I haven't been in this position, but I know people who have. Those that were able moved to a partial pay model. The nominal fee (some as little as $1/mo) they charged allowed them to hire someone to do the work full-time.

If it's that much of a resource, you need to look either to the users or to advertisers, or both, for the funds you need in order to maintain it.

Hiring people gives you power. Volunteers, lovely as they are, are not always able to give you top priority.

Good luck!

Suzanne

Quote: Simply explaining our current situation doesn't seem to ring any bells with this crowd that appearantly thinks anything on the internet is synonymous with free and it's all effortlessly put together for their enjoyment.

You better believe it. It will be long time before we are able to get accross our message to some people that "not everything on the net is/ought to be free". I have also noticed that there is no end to it - the more you give, the more they want.

Gadget girl and Megan gave you some good advice. I have shut down one site recently and have not been updating another one. Bascially, I realized that it is costing a lot of time and money to run the sites and it is not making money and has a very little chance of making money in the future. However, it was costing me in resources, hosting, time and effort.

So, if you really think it has no chance of making money (too common a site, no much hope in terms of advertising) and takes too much of your time and resources, then I suggest you evaluate your situation carefully and make a decision, if you should continue.

If they are complaining about what is being offered, you may want try the amazon honor system or paypal donations and see if they are willing to pay. You can post this on your page and then you will know how many are willing to pay a small fee and I am sure you will also get a fewer complaints.

Good Luck!

BL42, what is your method of getting so many people to your website. If you have to many you could redirect some of them to my website. I would be willing to take the burden off you....

Quote: Originally posted by BL42

I run a site, (sorry, no url, I don't need more traffic), it's a hobby site, and well, I'm up to around 600 registered users and 4 times as many regualr visitors.

Dont mean to flame... but come on... post the URL... give us all a break.

Humm, not trying to dig up an old thread, just giving people and update as to what I did and to answer some questions.

1st off, I ended up closing the site. As I did less updating, etc than before, it seemed I got mostly complaints.

Now for the questions I missed.

ywith:

Content, content, content. Oh yes, make it easy to navigate and spread the word around, try submitting to the search engines 2-3 months before the site goes live, or as soon as possible. Google was very very good to me.

AABest:

I didn't post the site for 2 reasons. 1st off, I wanted to remain anonymous as I didn't want my users finding this thread and relaying it in any mis-construed way.

Secondly, I posted a question, a question that in no way required anyone to look at my site. I think you're the one who needs to give us a break, next time, don't post unless you have something valid to say. Not to flame of course

I'm with Megan (sorry if this is an old topic, I'm new here)...
You can't please everybody... bottom line, do what pleases you.

I had a very similar site that just got shut down for altogether different reasons. It was actually a blessing, as the site had become more of a chore than anything to update it. Now I'm on to a new site, with new stuff, and new enthusiasm! Not to mention the old site wasn't set up very well to begin with, and now it's easier to maintain since I know a lot more since the last site I set up!

I do realize this is all old news, but it bears telling...

If it really is a hobby, check it every now and then and see if it's still giving you as much satisfaction as it always was... if it's not, then maybe it's time to move on. My site got pretty much gutted and re-done (to a new site), but I found that you'll still get people provided you have an audience (and your site is interesting). Another idea I'm now exploring is user-based pages through blogger (blogger.com)... my regular contributors can have their own sections to post stuff, and it still generates hits and I still get to advertise. Win-Win.

Good luck with everything. Sorry you had to shut down... I suggest you start something new from scratch... it might be kinda fun!