I have a website that is going nowhere fast. My niche is limited and therefore I've added all the content I can. I have regular visitors but no one clicks on my ad's so I'm not making any revenue from it. At what point do you give up in this situation? Should I just chalk it up to experience and shut it down? Thank you.
Probably when you have tried everything you can think of to try. What else is there ? Maybe you can take what you learned and try to make the next one work.
When at first you don't succeed, try...try again. Make some changes, for example: Submit a press release, you may have to spend a bit of money on an experienced writer. Try to get backlinks and also try to improve your search engine ranking. Get linked and exchange links, use social media. Advertise your presence, if nobody knows you exist then what can you expect? Offer freebies on your site. (use your imagination on this one) Lastly clean up or alter your background textures and colors, try to change it up a bit. Perhaps it's a bit boring and time for a makeover. Good luck to you with this.
One option is that you can always list it for sale on the forums? But yeah, when its over, its over.... I mean, this is assuming that you have done your best to put in ads in good spots, and you have done your best trying different ad networks, or tried finding relevant affiliate offers / products that might relate to your niche. But if you have really exhausted all your options, and you are really exhausted from running the site, then just let it run until the domain expires, then decide if you want to keep it, or delete it. I have had a few sites now that cost me a fortune to have developed, but all things considered, it was better to cut my losses and delete them then it was to keep flogging a dead horse.
I'm assuming it's a niche that can be monetised, so you need to take a hard look at how you are trying to monetise it and ensure you are not just using the simplest/common option of monetising a website. Are the ads displayed relevant? Have you tried experimenting with different layouts to see which performs best? Are the ads even the right way to monetize your visitors? For example, for some niches I prefer pushing Amazon products. Maybe not even displaying ads but in-content links. Or, if I use ad-blocks then it's one generated using custom code and Amazon's API for retrieving products (look a bit like Adsense).
Never give up, just learn from what you done. What went well, what didn't work. Then take that into the next project. Like another person said try to sell the website or keep the website and have a break from trying to promote it because sometimes you can think to hard and come up with nothing. Give your mind a break from it , step back and have a look and go back in a week. You never know you might find a way !
What is the site about ? Find forums , and article directories on the topic . write short articles about some of the items on your site for both article directories and blog postings . This will provide good back links of targeted traffic - DON'T GIVE UP
If your niche is too small, perhaps you can branch out a bit and see if you can get more traffic that way. You said that you have regular visitors, but they do not click on the ads. How many visitors do you get in a day from search engine? Perhaps your ads need to be optimized? If you are planning to shut it down, do let us know the URL of your blog, and perhaps we can give you more targeted answers, cheers,
It sucks when you put a lot of work into something and it just isn't working. I think we've all been there. Giving up would probably be the worst idea though. It's far more important to take the time to find out what worked, what didn't, and come back fresh with that new knowledge. The best thing you can do is the right thing. The 2nd best thing you can do is the wrong thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
If its getting traffic you might want to consider selling your site. Have a look at flippa.com You might get something for your site.
If you're ready to give up after only one site that didn't work you have a lot of learning to do. I've had more than 30 sites that didn't work but the few that did bring me in a decent amount of revenue each month with minimal maintenance. Try adding more content, switching to a template/theme with cleaner markup, try Stumbleupon. There's a nearly infinite number of things that you can try before giving up.
Don't give up, add more content that's related to your niche. Try different monetizing methods. If you have regular visitors you can add email subscription form and later sell them affiliate products. Instead of CPC use CPM ads try different variations.
If you feel your site is not working - Try a different Niche - change the design - Maybe change the domain name - But NEVER GIVE UP.
Keep trying. A great teacher once told me: don't fear to erase something, the next time the drawing will be 1000 times better. So you can make a new site, forget this one, make and write about something you love and care, if not then you will probably will give up again.
The best definition of a successful entrepreneur that I have ever heard is as follows: "A successful entrepreneur is someone stubborn enough to stick around long enough to get lucky." Don't give up on your dream. Use what you have learned from this first effort to branch out from it (you don't have to necessarily start up something brand new) and optimize it to work better for you. There is always something that you can do better, different, etc., to make a business work. It may not be exactly what you intended to do when you launched the first effort, but if you are observent, flexible and follow the money, it will lead you in the right direction.
Try something different. Change the website layout,put different calls to action buttons on your site, give away something free,add video, what ever it takes but don't give up if you love it. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
You can research competition or try Google search to see what other products or services you can offer to your target audience.
We've all been at that point at one time or another. The answer is no. You're a bit vulnerable now. Put that project on the back burner and start something new. At the same time, keep promoting your old project spending maybe only 10% - 15% of your time on it. The thing is unless it's something big, you will never be able to live off of just one project. 3-4 projects, however, can make your life easier. So, move onto another project. Develop it and then move onto another. Next thing you know, you will be living off of some nice residual income.
Never Give Up, change tact, evaluate what has worked and what hasn't. But never give up, if you have a dream to be successful. Remember that this is all part of the journey and you'll get there when the time is right. Good Luck.