Is my website a sinking ship?

[Affiliate X]

My reply wasn't aggressive - you asked for opinions and you got them - calling me ignorant was just plain rude
I'm speaking from experience, but hey, if you don't want to hear anything negative about your plan from anyone - don't ask.
Also - if you read through the responses, you will see that actually, most people came to the same conclusion I did.

I hope you prove me wrong and make $25k per month from your website, but in the meantime, maybe you should be more appreciative if someone bothers to try to help you.

As you can see by my responses to everyone else, I am appreciative. I was looking for people's opinions about why they thought my idea was either good or bad. Your response was more of an assumption that I most likely screwed something up along the way.

I would love to hear why people think my idea is bad which is why I made the thread, but the comments I came back at you on were not what this thread was about but rather assumptions that I'm emotionally invested and therefore have clouded judgement. Or that I'm not knowledgeable enough to do keyword research. And it was great for somebody to recommend selling the system to me, which I appreciated along with all the other replies, but telling me "you really need to take this idea more seriously" in big bold letters was uncalled for. I take my businesses very seriously.

Perhaps you didn't mean it to come across aggressively, but it did.

 

[Affiliate X]

Calling you ignorant was more than rude, it was stupid from a business perspective. The desire to post that great idea I patiently held onto while I read the entire thread, for the OP to help him take what he has already invested in, in a better, possibly more profitable direction has completely gone. Even if the (my) idea isn't viable, the motivating goodwill behind it has completely dissipated. Right now, I wouldn't piss on the OP if his hair was in fire.

Dude I don't give a fuck about your idea I was asking people's opinions about my business. It was not rude to say that agente808 was ignorant because he is. Ignorant means that a person is speaking about something which they are not knowledgeable about, which is true. He knows nothing of my keyword research or my emotional attachment to anything, so to assume and speak on it was ignorant, especially when they had nothing to do with my thread. I was asking about the website I have, not my personal abilities or my emotional attachments.

Some people on this forum are awesome and I have learned quite a bit, but others are too concerned with feeling superior over other forum members and it comes through in their replies.

 

[Affiliate X]

I would buy the custom scraper and importer from you if it is compatable with wordpress. How much?

Yes it is compatible with Wordpress because that's what my site runs on as well. The format of listings on your site would be different from mine so some tweaking would be involved so you'd have to be a programmer, which I definitely am not.

 

[Affiliate X]

If you spent thousands, the simple question is will you get thousands back in a reasonable timeframe, say the next 12 months? If not, run.

I wasn't planning on monetizing it until it's established, but you're right I should be thinking more about the financial time frame for sure.

 

[Ruger]

He knows nothing of my keyword research or my emotional attachment to anything, so to assume and speak on it was ignorant, especially when they had nothing to do with my thread. I was asking about the website I have, not my personal abilities or my emotional attachments.

And there's your problem. You have a stupid business that's losing lots of money, but you're continuing with it because you are emotionally weak.

 

[B. Friendly]

Dude I don't give a fuck about your idea I was asking people's opinions about my business.

I think it's doomed to failure due to who (and what) is running it. I heard Whataburger was hiring.

 

[ActionTaker]

As I see it there are two options. Either you hit big bucks... Really big bucks... Second option which I believe is more likely is that you waste a lot of time and money on a business concept where demand is already being met by multi-billion dollar cooperations. You may make pennies but I don't think it'll be worthwhile the time and money put into it. Others will be 10 steps ahead of you all the time due to the simple fact that they have economies of scale.. For you to simply break even you'll need A LOT of people to use your site.

 

[SnowWar]

There are always some option to do it locally if you are in a situation from where you can expand your business then it will be a okey for you.
So give it a try.
It should work.

 

[paulwilliams972]

i will suggest just start any offer.

 

[agente808]

normally I would never allow myself to be dragged into your small world, but you've pissed me off...

Your response was more of an assumption that I most likely screwed something up along the way

that's right - spending thousands of dollars before asking the questions you are asking now means that you screwed up.

but I neglected to consider all of the web apps and other things that are being developed.

hey - even you admit you screwed up, so why do you get mad if I suggest it?

Well most of the money went towards developing a custom database scraper/poster to populate my site with all of the businesses listed on Yellow Pages

thousands of dollars on a custom scraper (for an untested idea) when you could've bought one off the shelf for under $100? yup, screwed up

the comments I came back at you on were not what this thread was about but rather assumptions that I'm emotionally invested

actually - you didn't even mention that in your comment, and I didn't say you were emotionally invested, I was throwing up a warning to be careful about emotional investment - EVERYONE gets emotionally invested in their projects, and it's not easy to detach yourself from your pet ideas - it was a blanket warning ..but now that I've seen your unbalanced reaction - I'm going to say that yes, you are overly-invested emotionally in your project.

yes, I did every page on my website is based off of active local keywords, so yes, I did keyword research oh wise one, please tell me more of your secret tactics.

If you had done your KW research properly, you wouldn't need to be here asking about whether or not your business idea was viable.


oh - and speaking of ignorant, apparently math is not your strong suit:

With over 500 categories, one single ad placement at the top of each category at a measly $50 per month would generate 25k every month.

so, in a city with a population of 500,000... (your number, not mine)
let's assume there's a business for every 20 people (including children) in your town (not likely, but I'm gonna play this in your favor) so there are 25,000 businesses you can list in your directory.
Of those, you are going to get 500 businesses (2%) in your city to pay you $600 per year?

They might, once (forgive me if I doubt it). But no one is going to keep paying you that much money for nothing - and there's not going to be enough traffic to convert into $600 in sales for most of those businesses. $600 is too high for a vanity listing

@Duffers5000 (who's opinion you appreciated) is charging less than 10% per year of what you suggest, and even he suggests that the money in these directories is in doing a lot of them, not just one.
but using his fee (let's call it $60 per year) and your idea of selling ads / featured listings to 500 businesses = closer to $2,500 per month
(you realize you are going to have to make 2 sales per day, every day, mon-fri?)

For the amount of calls / letters / saleswork you are going to have to do to make $2500 per month - well, it sounds more like a $10 / hour job than a website

I was asking about the website I have, not my personal abilities or my emotional attachments

that was actually my polite way of telling you that your business idea sucked , but that there might be something you could salvage from it (I wasn't talking about you personally at all), but it looks like I hit a nerve, because your reaction was waaayyyy over the top.

telling me "you really need to take this idea more seriously" in big bold letters was uncalled for.

seriously? the way I format the text in my posts offends you? that's a reason to get rude?

It was not rude to say that agente808 was ignorant because he is. Ignorant means that a person is speaking about something which they are not knowledgeable about

I know a lot more about directory websites than you do, so what does that make you?

You know, no one else thought my comments were ignorant? I was trying to be helpful, and my comments WERE helpful, if you had been open to hearing anything other than what you wanted to hear. As it turns out, I have made several successful directories and you haven't.
but hey - go ahead and prove me wrong

 

[WebDev]

Here in the United Kingdom Yellow Pages are dead

The printed directories are now only 20 percent of the physical size they were a few years ago

It's a failed business model

The online yellow pages in the UK make their money by very aggressive telephone salespeople nagging the businesses listed, to have a website built for a fee

Paper based, or Internet based, its a fact that the man in the street doesn't use them much anymore - their time has been and gone, and business owners know it

 

[UpMyKilt]

Turn that scraper/poster into a product, and sell it to people like me who want to do the same thing.

(But give me a free copy for giving you the idea.)

Seriously, that scraper, a PLR theme and a business directory plugin, and you have one hell of a WSO!

Hmmmmm!! Well, are you serious? We have created a scraper that is niche based.. there is some manual work involved, although a data entry person from India at a cheap hourly rate assisted with that. I'm sorry the original OP paid thousands of dollars...

Perhaps we should talk - or maybe my partner and I should create a WSO! Or something else... I never even thought of that.

 

[Affiliate X]

And there's your problem. You have a stupid business that's losing lots of money, but you're continuing with it because you are emotionally weak.

When did I say it was losing money? It's earning money every month, I was simply asking about the future of the industry and if I should sell it now while it's still working. Another assumption. But thanks for jumping in with the people ganging up on me because you saw a temporary glimmer of hope that you might finally be able to feel good about something in your otherwise stale, pathetic life.

 

[Affiliate X]

I think it's doomed to failure due to who (and what) is running it. I heard Whataburger was hiring.

I own 7 successful websites, ranging from 6 months old to 5.5 years old earning a combined average annual revenue of over 114K. So thanks, but maybe if I open up one of those you can clean my floors with your big head.

 

[Affiliate X]

As I see it there are two options. Either you hit big bucks... Really big bucks... Second option which I believe is more likely is that you waste a lot of time and money on a business concept where demand is already being met by multi-billion dollar cooperations. You may make pennies but I don't think it'll be worthwhile the time and money put into it. Others will be 10 steps ahead of you all the time due to the simple fact that they have economies of scale.. For you to simply break even you'll need A LOT of people to use your site.

I see that the haters liked this message as well, however, I thought it was a well-thought criticism and I appreciate your input.

 

[Affiliate X]

There are always some option to do it locally if you are in a situation from where you can expand your business then it will be a okey for you.
So give it a try.
It should work.

Yes expanding into other markets in the same location is starting to look like it might be the answer, I've been thinking about that too. Thanks for your input brother.

 

[Affiliate X]

normally I would never allow myself to be dragged into your small world, but you've pissed me off...


that's right - spending thousands of dollars before asking the questions you are asking now means that you screwed up.


hey - even you admit you screwed up, so why do you get mad if I suggest it?


thousands of dollars on a custom scraper (for an untested idea) when you could've bought one off the shelf for under $100? yup, screwed up


actually - you didn't even mention that in your comment, and I didn't say you were emotionally invested, I was throwing up a warning to be careful about emotional investment - EVERYONE gets emotionally invested in their projects, and it's not easy to detach yourself from your pet ideas - it was a blanket warning ..but now that I've seen your unbalanced reaction - I'm going to say that yes, you are overly-invested emotionally in your project.


If you had done your KW research properly, you wouldn't need to be here asking about whether or not your business idea was viable.


oh - and speaking of ignorant, apparently math is not your strong suit:
so, in a city with a population of 500,000... (your number, not mine)
let's assume there's a business for every 20 people (including children) in your town (not likely, but I'm gonna play this in your favor) so there are 25,000 businesses you can list in your directory.
Of those, you are going to get 500 businesses (2%) in your city to pay you $600 per year?

They might, once (forgive me if I doubt it). But no one is going to keep paying you that much money for nothing - and there's not going to be enough traffic to convert into $600 in sales for most of those businesses. $600 is too high for a vanity listing

@Duffers5000 (who's opinion you appreciated) is charging less than 10% per year of what you suggest, and even he suggests that the money in these directories is in doing a lot of them, not just one.
but using his fee (let's call it $60 per year) and your idea of selling ads / featured listings to 500 businesses = closer to $2,500 per month
(you realize you are going to have to make 2 sales per day, every day, mon-fri?)

For the amount of calls / letters / saleswork you are going to have to do to make $2500 per month - well, it sounds more like a $10 / hour job than a website



that was actually my polite way of telling you that your business idea sucked , but that there might be something you could salvage from it (I wasn't talking about you personally at all), but it looks like I hit a nerve, because your reaction was waaayyyy over the top.


seriously? the way I format the text in my posts offends you? that's a reason to get rude?


I know a lot more about directory websites than you do, so what does that make you?

You know, no one else thought my comments were ignorant? I was trying to be helpful, and my comments WERE helpful, if you had been open to hearing anything other than what you wanted to hear. As it turns out, I have made several successful directories and you haven't.
but hey - go ahead and prove me wrong

You put a lot of time into that, congratulations. I probably made about $20 while you were writing that, but to each their own.

 

[Affiliate X]

Here in the United Kingdom Yellow Pages are dead

The printed directories are now only 20 percent of the physical size they were a few years ago

It's a failed business model

The online yellow pages in the UK make their money by very aggressive telephone salespeople nagging the businesses listed, to have a website built for a fee

Paper based, or Internet based, its a fact that the man in the street doesn't use them much anymore - their time has been and gone, and business owners know it

I wasn't referring to competing with the printed directories, but rather the online versions of those directories. But I've been reading a lot about how the YP have tried to adapt their business from offline to online, and you're dead on about the aggressive sales being done, which was one of the red flags that caused me some concern.

The reason I got into the business at a local level was for the possibility of expanding to other areas in the city besides just business listings, but didn't want to do it unless I was confident that it would help, rather than diluting the business directory.

Thanks for your input.

 

[jeremonster]

Kiggd is right man Niche is everything and you have to research your market. The primary businesses you can not touch but find your niche and you will not fail, but dude be careful with your budget you can use other less expensive resources.

 

[Affiliate X]

And for the record, I required a custom scraper/poster that could handle a ton of very specific tasks, so the "off-the-shelf" products that are available were far to inferior to handle the job without significant modifications. Also, unless the seller of these pre-made scrapers is a programmer him/herself, they also likely paid a similar price to have theirs done initially, but their intent was to re-sell it at $100 a pop. If they only paid a few bucks for it or if it was a very simple product, they would sell it for $10 or $20 to sell more volume and avoid somebody else doing it first.