I Just Killed My Site! Did I do the right thing?

[garbage 0]

Well i just finished killing off my site. The question is was it a good thing or bad thing?I have owned estudio9designs.com for 1 year now, well the actual domain name. prior to that the name and site have been around for a few years now. our site began on invisionfree and it evolved and grew. it actually bean under a differnt name which was MAS Graphics the site was gaining members and popularity and then we decided to make a name change and we also merged with a small gfx site, bringing our member count to ever 200 members with alteast 20 active on a daily basis. not too bad.. but some of the new members began to have issues with each other bad words where spoken and there you have it our first issue, the site was hacked. no way to recover and we asked continuosly for it to be revocered, but we never received an ok.Since then it has been hard to rebuild the name and the site. We have had many members come join and nver come back. The site activity is very hard to keep alive especially since I was the only one posting, And I was tired of posting messages to myselg, well thats what it seemed like. Do I feel bad , yeah I do, cause its something that I always worked hard on. I took lots of pride into it.But I did itso it brings me to this point in time, where i will not bring this site name back up into an online web graphics site. I will be using it for my business, and hopefully someday it grows and becomes something familiar, and popular.either way what do you all think did I do the right thing?

[Florisjuh 0]

Well, there are a lot of graphics sites arround there nowadays so the problem about starting your own is probably that there are a douzen other sites your members might want to visit instead of yours, so you will always need to work your *bottom* of to keep your website up to date so it is interesting and new members will come.. Maybe if you don't feel like all the hassle or if it doesn't have any advantages anymore it might have been the proper choice to move away from the project and start something new and fresh, so you don't live with the feeling of "We were once so big, but now we are much smaller"..

[cangor 0]

Wow. That sucks. Well, when I first created my site way back when, I only got a few hits a day or less. You've just got to have lots of other sites link to you and also, offer something original, if possible. The number of people visiting my site doubles roughly every 2 months. I think that if you just follow these two rules, you can get a decent community back at your site. I think it's a good idea to use your site for business, but perhaps you should keep the web-graphics part alive...

[Sinari 0]

My graphics site has unique stuff to it. We have a story that others can fill out and once my site is back up people come and post in it to see what others will say to continue that story. You have to offer something new... I'm not saying that what you did was bad, in fact- it was probably for the best. My friend used to have a graphics site and once she switched hosting and the hosting shut down, she lost all of her files so she decided to close down for good. Now she runs a really successful TCG site. Maybe you just need to start something totally new and unique to you to get that good feeling that you had before when you built the last one up from scratch. Hope this motivated you to find a new calling for a site...

[darran 0]

I am basically at a forum which started from scratch (http://www.soccervision.co.uk/), and I do know the painful process of getting members to actually participate actively in your forum. And it is very difficult to get members especially if there are so many big forums with the same idea as yours. I always emphasize the need for regular backups and security with regards forum databases, you never know when the host decides to crash or whether you will be hacked. However I feel that you should not close the forum, all your time spent, the endless hours, and your dedication in the forum, you built a huge forum in the past, you should have just stuck to it and get back to old days. Not a good decision IMO

[slammer 0]

The best way to make sure your site is successful is to make sure it is unique, or offers something new/extra/different that other sites don't. This means you site is the only one of it kind, or at least the first of its kind. So in your case you could have put a different twists on your graphics site, not sure what, but if u could come up with something new and fresh im sure people would come and visit and even stay a while longer than before!Just some tips for ya

[garbage 0]

wellk it is now dead, and I dont think i will e open anot her gfx site, tho i am working possile doing a webcomic site, It is something that im interested in and I also know that there are not very man6y sites doing, well the number of gfx sites compared to the number of webcomic sites just doesnt compare.. so Im hoping to have a good start with this project if I decide to take it on, I think I might first post around on differnt sites and look for people that might be interested in doing it with me.. but we shall see.Also as far doing differnt things on the gfx sites, man I had tried everything from giving away shirts to games, we even gave some xbox live member accounts and so on.. but it just wasnt enought o keep the people coming back, and as one of you stated there are alot bigger and better sites that they would probably just preffer to be at. but until then.

[Kubi 0]

I guess I can't blame you for getting rid of it. But maybe if you had stuck in there for a bit longer, you never know..The webcomic idea is a good one. Just remember, people expect new comics all the time! Gatta keep em interested!

[garbage 0]

I tried man, it really did suck just never really picked up also kubi, sorry i never got you the prizes, man, but i can still get those to you at any time, and pics i have no clue what up, so im sorry about that as well.. now that makes me feel like crap, too... but i know you ght about it.but either way, even the comics stuff didnt work to well i have people saying they would visit fromother sites but nothing, but i have to glad that i have trap 17 here for providing the hosting and the tools to have been able to run the site, cause if i had spend that money to actually be able to pay for the hosting and the forums and all that good stuff, i dont think i would have been able too, since first im loow on funds, and then it would just have been money thrown away on my part. but im hoping for a new beginning someday, and definately under a new site name so that maybee i can have a better start. and most definately i will have to find me some folks that would be willing to commit and give me a hand.

[midnightvamp 1]

It's sad to hear that you had so many troubles facing you while you tried (and for a while there) had a really successful site. I wish that those things didn't happen to you (the hacking, and the member's speaking things to eachother) but sadly they did.You can look on the bright side though about it. If you feel that closing it down was best, than it probably was, and now you can spend your time doing other things that you love.Was there another site you've been thinking about making, or did you have some idea of something that you thought would be really cool to start, but you haven't because of the time it took you to work on that last site of yours? If so, then this would be a perfect time to start something new.Yes, it is sad that your site had so many problems, but if it was causing you more grief in keeping it up, then it probably was time to move on to something new that you'll be able to enjoy some more.

[Dooga 0]

It never hurts to try something new. Perhaps you could change your site and promote it again.

[garbage 0]

I am thinking of maybe keeping the same name and possible reopening again and promoting it once again. i have been taking this time o think of what i would really like to do, you know i mean what will i really invest my time in besides a gneral gfx site. so i was thinking of maybe doing something similar to a deviant art site, not as big or as great but possible just trying to get an all around art community going. i like photography, i also like fine art, drawing painting stuff like that and maybee i can do something there.and since the site has been own i feel like i have had nothing to do at all. i mean im feeling useless with out my site and without really creating gfx. i have been doing it for quite some while and now its gone and it sucks bad. but that was the decission i made. I will see what i do, does anyone else have ideas.also has anyone else done anything like this with a site of theirs or has anyone ever had as muc h trouble just trying to get a sie going.

[Matt2 0]

I think you did the right thing by killing the site, I mean if no one was posting then whats the point of you posting when no one is paying attention. I think you might have made a mistake by merging with another site. Merges nearly always end up in disaster. Either some members don't like each other, or everything is changed and some people can't deal with it.

 

If you every start up again a really cool site is Wonder Forum. On the first page there should be a article on how to advertise your forum. You need to build your forum before you advertise. No one likes a forum being advertised with no people in it. First get your family and friends together to start posting on your forums. Before you start advertising you should have at least 5 topics in each forum. It doesn't matter if they are made by you or other people. After you have done that you can start advertising. If you still have e-mail addresses or contact details for people on the previous forums then you should contact them with a short e-mail, private message, instant message etc, just telling them about your forum and what has changed. Then you might attract people to your forum.

 

In your case you were probably best to pull the plug, especially since you had a domain name. However the only key to sucess is perseverance.