|
Some personal perspectives:
Back in '99 when we launched our first site, we were in a fortunate position of having very unique content for a novelty niche we basically helped to create. No one else was producing the kind of content we were back then - so we enjoyed a virtual monopoly for a while.
And since I'd been creating the content since '95 and 'seeding' Usenet for a few years, we enjoyed a massive traffic flow literally from the first day we opened. After a few years we were pulling in a six-figure yearly income from it (during the height of the good currency exchange rates). Our production costs were based on a shoestring...the majority of which consisted of my own time and labour.
Unfortunately, these days our niche has become clogged with a lot of competition - and many producers of similiar content have raised the bar and set higher benchmarks. Usenet has also dried up as a valuable promotion venue (for the most part). And since the content is still a rather unique (and narrow) niche that defies categorizing, it doesn't promote well on most mainstream TGP sites.
The novelty has lost its appeal for the most part - and lately we find ourselves scrambling a little to come up with a way of re-inventing the wheel...finding the next pet rock or mood ring.
|