When I wrote the entry on selling Wisdump there was a great discussion about how much my personality draws readers to this site and how it will effect whoever buys it. There were also some comments suggesting that I keep the site and change the format a bit allowing for more authors to jump on board. So then an even better solution would probably be that I stick around and write on here for a while and be joined by some other writers meaning you will be overwhelmed with Wisdump content and that’s the solution that is coming.
I had a couple of offers for the site despite people believing that it wasn’t worth the price I was suggesting and I accepted the lowest bid. WTF?! The two highest bidders wanted to make the site a link directory and the other was solely about the money. The people who placed the bid that I accepted laid out their plan for the site and I couldn’t be happier with it. Less ads, more writers. Definitely sounds like a game plan that I can live with.
If you still want to write for Wisdump I will make sure I get the information from them to pass along to everyone here. And who are these new overlords you ask? Well, they will come out of hiding and tell you soon enough. You see it takes a while to climb out of the big shadow that I cast on this site so you can’t blame them for taking their time.
Oh and I started to write over at Fast Company so if you want to catch my more serious writings head on over there every Friday to catch me. For everything else 9rules is of course the place to be. Now if you excuse me I must finish up these articles filled with bad words and naked pics and publish them before they realize what they bought.
A couple of days ago I started a Note asking whether Digg was getting less submissions or not. I made a non-scientific observation over the last couple of days that the frontpage articles are receiving less and less Diggs and it seems in many cases that it is taking less Diggs to make the homepage now. Tyme noticed that in her feedreader there were less new submissions being unread and so putting two and two together we reasoned that Digg may be slowing down.
Now this doesn’t mean that it is slowing down traffic wise because I am certain only a small percentage of its traffic even bothers with submitting a story. However, is this trend a good thing or a bad thing considering the amount of registered members continues to climb and you would think the number of submissions would climb as well?
It is quite possible that Digg has reached its plateau with regards to submissions. Maybe too many people have gotten frustrated with trying to get their articles on the frontpage that they have simply given up. It makes sense with so much competition (like in any free market) there comes a time when the effort your invest is not equal to the return that you get. The problem is I don’t see how Digg can fix this.
When I observed that you almost have to cheat to make it on Digg, I saw that Arstechnica achieved frontpage status 8 times in a 24 hour span and that trend has yet to stop. Seeing the same sites over and over again is becoming the common theme on Digg because they understand how the system works. While they supposedly made it harder for people to game the system, it seems they also made it harder for great articles to get noticed as well and with the amount of traffic that passes through the site this is another problem that I don’t see being fixed.
Digg expanded into new categories in the hopes of broadening their audience and it seems to have worked a little bit, but the geek crowd still reigns supreme over there and always will so eventually Digg has to plateau like Slashdot. This doesn’t mean that they can’t find ways to increase traffic with their current audience, but I don’t think they can achieve the global domination that so many people predicted months ago.
Back in 2003 I started reading blogs and became intrigued with the idea of being able to talk to others about my thoughts and opinions and making a name for my so I started my own. A couple months later I started two sites called Whitespace and 9rules. Over time I became fairly popular in the web/design community being a pain in the ass to many and generally just speaking what was on my mind. By no means was I an expert at anything, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t know what I was talking about ;-).
Last year I decided it was time to move Whitespace to its own domain because 9rules had become its own beast. I lost a lot of juice with this move because of that, but the audience stuck around (much love and respect). However, since then things really haven’t been the same and it isn’t because of the move, but my interests in general have changed. Although there are still millions of topics to discuss with regards to Business, Design and Web++ (coined on this site first baby!) I find that I like talking about other stuff even more.
Unfortunately for me and good for the people who love those subjects, that is what this site is about and I respect what I created enough not to try and change it. I know why people come here and stay subscribed and it’s not to hear me talk about the latest fashions in the club. I have always been the type of person that when I am passionate about something it shows and from 2003-2006 I was passionate about the topics on this site. That just isn’t the case anymore and it shows. So with that said (it only took me three paragraphs) I am selling my beloved Whitespace/Wisdump.
This is where it gets difficult because how do I price a site like this? Before I breakdown the numbers let me explain something that I’m sure will confuse a lot of people. The traffic will seem low, I mean really low, for this site and that’s because of two things that happened in the past.
- During a server move in 2005 Movable Type decided it didn’t want to export my content and because of my impatience I figured starting over would be best.
- Moving to WordPress and getting the previous MovableType urls to transfer over all kosher-like just didn’t work out so again it was like starting from scratch.
Here are the numbers that you are looking for when you wish to break things down analytically:
- Avg: 1,000 pageviews daily. With a bit of elbow grease (and consistency in posting) getting back up to 10k pageviews daily shouldn’t be a problem. 1,500 pageviews when new entries are posted. Numbers are higher when using a different stat package, but I am presenting you with the lowest common denominator.
- 7,000+ subscribers. People like to read the site instead of visiting because I design ugly things. However, because of this great discussions happen because there are so many people reading the content.
- PR 6. Used to be 7 and has always been 7, but just realized that Dmoz was still using the Whitespace url for its listing so I just got that changed so should be back up to 7 in no time. Along with the recognition that comes with the site getting links has never been a problem.
- Revenue: $800+/mo. Text Link Ads ($700). ReviewMe ($125/review). Adsense ($70/mo). As goes with traffic getting the site back up to $2k+/mo shouldn’t be a problem with the proper guidance. As for the current sponsors with the Banner Ads they paid for the full year and will receive their money back when the sale is completed so this does not count towards the figures above.
As corny as this sounds those numbers do not reflect the value of the site and I won’t go into Car Salesman mode, but if you know me and you know this site you will understand. I will not necessarily sell to the highest bidder, but the one that I feel most comfortable handing the site over to. Too many sites have gone to others and become worse off because of it and I don’t like that idea and I don’t think the audience will enjoy a site that is being used as a money pit (they are some picky mofos, believe me).
I ask that if you could spread the word on this sale if you have ever enjoyed anything that I have written it would be greatly appreciative. If you have never enjoyed anything that I have written I encourage you to spread the word as well so that I may find someone who will write something that you will enjoy reading. Oh and don’t try to put anything together with this being so close to the sale of Business Logs. I already do 9rules full-time ;-).
In another entry I will talk about how I came to this decision and what you will see from me in the future. This entry has gone on long enough.
Are you looking for web development scripts? Well, you have many available options in the form of CGI and Perl scripts. Mostly webmasters require XML script for their blogs. Nowadays web designers prefer flash for their websites rather than ASP for making dynamic web pages. This way web design looks an attractive one but it does not remain SEO friendly anymore.
By now you have surely gotten used to the idea that sites love to launch in beta because this lets people know that some things may be wrong with the site and it kind of lets you get away with a lot of things. 9rules has been in beta for the last 3 years, but we never put it out there because beta sucks. Wait…
Actually people like getting into betas. Have you ever beta tested a video game and felt a little cooler for doing so? What about sites that do beta invites? Everyone seems to clamor for one. Its gotten to the point where beta was cool, then we hated that everything was beta, we got used to everything being beta and now we just want to get into anything that is beta. But what site isn’t ever done improving (okay a lot more than you think)?
The idea of beta is great for that short week of trying to get people hyped up for your site. Beta is a great idea if you want to be able to tell people well we are in beta so we are allowed to get away with these errors. 9rules has errors that are found by our users all the time and we aren’t in “official” beta, but in all honesty what is the difference between always finding ways to improving your site and being in beta?
There are arguments going on involving the World of Warcraft that it is in constant beta because patches come out on an almost weekly basis, yet people continue to play. What does beta mean anymore? For me beta used to be a point in a product’s cycle that you are trying to reach where there are no errors and no more features added. We never reach that point on 9rules so our beta is different to the point where we can’t see it as beta anymore.
I’m not complaining about sites that label themselves as being in beta because I have gotten use to it, but do the positives of doing so outweigh the negatives anymore? How many everyday users want to be a part of something beta vs. something that’s just live because it is ready?
Hell, I think from now on when someone has a complaint to say about me I’m just going to tell them I am in beta because I still have some bugs to work out and some Scrivs’ features that need to implemented. You think that will fly with the ladies at the bar? Don’t think they would be too impressed that I’m only at Scrivs 0.48 right now though, but it is worth giving it a shot.
When growing up I always had a fear about working for someone else and that was that one day I would become truly bored and hate my job because everyday the same thing happened. I also know that in life you have to pay the rent and lots of people don’t mind doing the same thing day in and day out. However, what happens if you run your own company and you find yourself starting to fall into the same routine? What mode of escape exists for you?
Now I don’t think everyday at work can be fun, but I do think you can start to see the signs of burnout and when you need a refresher. Maybe you just need to go outside and work from there or start another project that you really have no intention of finishing. I can’t recall meeting anyone that loved what they did and stuck with the same exact thing every single day.
Even worse is when you love what you do, but the people you have to interact with make things unbearable. I know many times a lot of us wish we were rich just so we can do the things we love to do without having to interact with certain people. As a designer you might have finally stepped out on your own and can’t believe you have been given this opportunity to design for a living, but after your first five asshole clients you will question why you even made the decision in the first place.
In a weird and unusual non-Wisdump topic, that is what scares me about marriage as well. The same thing day in and day out, which I know can be changed by mixing things up, but how often do you see that happen? How many marriages end in divorce and how many people stick with one long term job their whole life? Some people are cool with nothing new because they have to do what is needed to get by.
I’m in the very fortunate position of being able to mix up what I do everyday to keep things fresh, but I do occasionally let myself fall into the trap of doing the same thing over and over or simply becoming too complacent and letting the chips fall where they will. It’s the beginning of the month and the weather is nice (at least here) so maybe this is a chance for everyone (if you want to) to spice things up a bit and make some little tweaks to our days to change the feeling we have towards them.
If you love your life and love what you do and never get tired then completely ignore this message and feel free to share your tips on how you encountered utopia.
