Money problems and sticking with it despite being afraid

Hi everyone.

My name is Jake and I am a writer/blogger/website owner. Last June I made the jump and quit my job writing for a newspaper to start my own online magazine that's focused on art, entertainment events and reviews of things going on in my community. We are, as far as I know, the only serious website doing that here aside from the local newspaper.

Since starting, we have had a steady increase in readers and interest, however, selling ads has been tricky. I've had some success with a few, but not enough to just be working for myself without taking any other part time jobs.

The thing is, I've gotten to a point where I'm being swallowed by debt and it's scaring me.

It's gotten to the point where yesterday my now-former web developers took down my website in part because I cannot pay them again, even though I did pay them the agreed-upon amount up front to help create the site.

A lot of it, I feel, has come down to a personal squabble. I explained why I was moving on to a new web developer, but apparently they felt as if I betrayed them even though for all intents and purposes, our relationship had been almost non-existent for months now.

I'd ask them to help me make changes and nothing would come of it. Because of that I started trying to make changes myself, and then I was approached by a friend who's a web developer who said he could help me improve the site much better than where it currently was.

After I told my former web developer however, instead of asking me, "What are they doing to help you, and how can we do it better?" they started tossing out accusations against me, saying that I was failing them and that I was being unprofessional and stupid and that I shouldn't have even dare thinking going somewhere else, even though they've been nearly impossible to contact about anything related to the website at times.

So, here's the thing. Right now the website is down, and the only way to get it back up is to pay these people money I don't have. My debts are soaring at a fast rate, and at times it's making me wonder if I should just bail on the idea completely.

However, the only thing that's keeping me from doing that is I know my work is good. I know that my community values what I do, and that eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later, the money will start to come.

And, my new developer is helping design a new, better site and I was able to export the content from the old site, so everything is not quite lost, I hope. It should be up next week at the latest, hopefully.

Anyhow, my question is, in your experience, what's been the hardest things you've gone through and how did you get past them?
And then, when is a large debt too much? How do I know if I'm wading into unsafe territory where I might not ever get out of debt, and lastly, what are some things that have kept you from abandoning your vision or dream?
Thanks!