Over a year ago i decided i would start a diet related website: http://www.dietdebate.co.uk After getting a few pages up and running i unfortunately lost interest in the site and didnt finish developing the intend functions (which was to have a concise vote poll and description on each and ever diet listed). One of the main reasons for giving up was the impossibility of getting listed in google. I've built up a few links in an attempt to get listed but my site has never appeared even for the most basis and specific of searches. According to my web stats im getting around 150 uniques a month... and this is from me doing absolutely nothing for promotion... in January i got 22 hits from MSN and 7 hits from Ash Jeeves. I also getting a couple of emails each month from relational sites asking me if i'd be interested in advertising with them... needless to say the site is being found by some people... I suppose what i want to know is, is it worth me updating the site to make it html compliant, developing the code and voting of the site (as that was the original concept) and re-adding the forum? Or should i simply give up and either let the site expire or try selling what is currently on the site?
If you believe that the project is worth working on, why not promoting it? But first you got to answer that question. If the answer is No, then doing nothing is better. In my personal opinion, every web initiative deserves to be taken care of when started. But the choice is yours.
Diet, is a great niche esp. thanx to many people in the developed countries suffering from obesity as a major problem. I suggest you dont give up and develop it.
Having spoken to a couple of other people i think ill go ahead with the site, i can always do some work on it and the sell it in the next few months or something. I've got someone ready to code the voting system that allows people to vote on each individual diet, once thats in place i can then concetrate on attracting visitors to the site and work on promoting the forum. With the word 'diet' in the domain should be good for SERPs and SEO, in addition once i start getting good visitors i can always try adding some adsense to see if thats a viable method of income for the site. Thanks for your views.
Your quandry about this site points up the wisdom of that oft-repeated advice "write about your interests" that is given when people ask how to find a subject or niche for a website. I think that equally or even more important, is to focus on one project at a time and pursue it relentlessly until you succeed. Too much distraction with other projects can really derail a small business, unless you have a staff to help you out on the details.
150 uniques a month and no content yet? Wow thats' pretty awesome. Why not take a day and add content for each diet. With a few affiliate links to the products or ebooks. Good luck with the site. Cheers, Josh
Thats a great looking site you have there sabian1982. I'd say go for it. I really think diet sites, with the right kind of dedication and marketing can work out really well. I've worked in the diet sector for quite a while now and i actually developed my own software to help sites like yours and i've had lots of interest, so it really shows people are still looking to develop sites like yours. -- Phil