| Very nice, thanks for the feedback. To give it a bit more context. The reason I'm not sharing the url is because the code is somewhat outdated and may be insecure. In my spare time I'm working on a new version which matches some of the recent security 'standards'. The website started as a project just for learning how to develop a basic website with interaction between users. So about seven years ago I tried becoming new instance of \Zuckerberg. I started chatting the website all over de chat-places. I added a twitter account, following (by hand :)) all those singles and lonely people out there hoping they follow back. Greeting them every day and helping other twitter addicts keeping their following list clean with new tools also presented within a backoffice on the same website. My situation only allows me to work just a couple of hours a week on a side project. The reason I'm looking for some new ideas to monetize the project a bit more is because I want to buy a new house, like within a year or so. Just need a 100K in euros additionally to buy a nice place to give my son the full experience of life as much as possible in the way me and my wife dream about it. I can't just switch jobs, because the company I work for did alot for me. And I am a v
ery loyal person when it comes to people/businesses helping me out with stuff. Now, for the chat service, its more like a lonely-chat-service. About 100 visitors a day, saying "Hi, is there anyone around here?" or something like that. Then, the silence is killing them at which point they probably start clicking thos
e ads :) So as I removed the usefull stuff from the website, people started clicking more on ads, to just get away. When I read the feedback, I think I should just add some sort of feedback button or create a popup with a textarea in which they can add their dream they expected to get in by entering the website. And then start building them those dream
s, for just a penny a day. |
As for the 100 visitors saying "Hi, is anyone around here?" The chicken and the egg problem is a very common problem with social sites. The most common way I've seen this solved is by the owners of the site "faking" responses or filling in their site with fake content to look like it is active. They do this just until the site takes off. But it sounds like your project is not that large yet and needs to be built up larger. I'd say for you to keep at it or start another project that you can get more traction in.
For what it's worth... In my experience, only working a couple hours a week on a side project won't get you anywhere fast. I usually spend around 15 on my side projects a week. Otherwise, nothing will get done on them. You just need to make the time. As Gary Vaynerchuk puts it... go to work, go home, kiss the dog, and between 9PM and 1AM you need to crush it.
I wish you the best and hope you can make something happen.
Edit: Here's that keynote where Gary talks about having a side project and working 9-5. https://youtu.be/EhqZ0RU95d4?t=11m50s