Rethinking my Web Business Strategies

A few days ago I experienced a major data loss. My RAID array failed and corrupted all of the installed drives. My recent backups were on a server which I had just repurposed for another project -- i.e. a server which had just been formatted. I was forced to restore from an 8 December backup which contained only data. This required me to rebuild the OS and all applications. I still have about 300 static content pages to rebuild from ASCII or .DOC drafts.

But that's not what this thread is about.

This disaster gave me the opportunity to think about my web business from a more strategic standpoint. It occurred to me that 20-40% of my effort is spent on projects that only return 1% of my revenue.

Those projects all have one similarity -- they involve user created content.

User created content is supposed to be the path to fortune on the web, right? MySpace is worth how much? Google paid OMG for YouTube?

User created content projects seem to be very difficult to get off the ground to the point where they achieve critical mass. That works for major VC-funded efforts, but doesn't work very well for small web shops like mine.

I devoted so much time to building an environment and convincing people to post content that it would have been easier for me to create the content myself.

In theory, if I keep at it, these project may eventually achieve critical mass. However, they have not done so after well over a year of effort.

At this point, I am leaning strongly towards not rebuilding my forums.

What do you think?

 

well, you really should have a forum in conjuction with something else, an original script/software, an online game. Otherwise, its difficult to sustain gorwht

 

I read those same articles and gave it a try. I used vBulletin to make sure I had the right tools. I learned I am a content writer at heart and that is a very different mindset than a forum admin. I had some good posters and learned from them, but the endless hack attacks, flame wars etc. took all the fun out of it for me.

For me at least, any fast path to content isn't fun and doesn't seem to contribute to my goal of sites with long term value. I'm back to handwriting individual pages one at a time

 

I found out some time back that though I would have loved user created content, it takes too much time and effort.
At least initially.
So I decided to just create my own content and over time users will add their content.The tools are there for them to use.However most internet users are just leaches so until more start posting,I will continue posting myself.
I'm not complaining since I started doing that.The sites grow at least a page daily and I know in 2 yrs, they will come but for now I have to pay my wages.

 

Agree completely with you will. The issue with user created content is that once you start its a constant race to oversee whatever has been produced. In the case of forums its hack attempts,ddos from jaded users, pron etc, for blogs its constant blog spam, video/image hosting its leeching/pron etc etc.

I think user generated only really works if you have multiple people to work on it, leaving you to devote time to other things.

 

I think one year is a long enough time period to gauge whether or not a business idea is a success or failure. We learn the most from our failures so it's definately not wasted time or money. Whilst adopting a user generated content business model can work out very well, it doesn't gurantee success at the end of the day. You still have to have a good idea behind it.

 

And it needs to be an idea that you enjoy working with. Many times something that seems attractive at first turns out to conflict with what you enjoy as you learn more about it.

 

The problem with user generated content is you always have to monitor what's being posted, no fun whatsoever .

But your hating one aspect of owning a website isn't reason enough to ditch it! I think you should rebuild your forums, get moderators to do the jobs you hate, whilst you concentrate on the more enjoyable aspects including adding extra value (articles, tools etc.) and how you can better monetize the traffic.

 

Ye Ole 80/20 rule at work.

If you are spending 20-40% of your effort on 1% of rev, I think after one year it's time to through that effort into other areas your are working that make more money.

I've been down the same road.

 

I would prefer monitoring what's being posted rather then having to come up with unique content any day of the week

 

Did you set any goals for yourself to benchmark against? If you did, and you are way off, then you should reconsider the strategy being used. If you never set up any goals, then you need to start...and then do your best to meet these goals. User generated content takes time and patience...it does not grow overnight (although a year is a good amount of time).

 

True, best case scenario - out source both!