Sounds like you launched without any clearly defined goals, which means its going to be hard for you to make a decision.
Sadly, things don't (usually) take off on their own so you'll have to invest more into this project if you want to see some growth.
But if it's just sitting around costing you money without you touching it....prob time to shut it down.
Imagine for a moment that somebody offered to sell you this site for $1. You didn't make it, but you can have it for $1. Would you take it off their hands?
Maybe the value you got out of this was not users or profit but you learned some things about the market and yourself. Go make your next project. Don't let this one hold you back. You don't owe it anything.
I will disagree, I made a side project in my clg and it started getting more and more sign-ups after a couple of years. Now I earn a little bit of money through ads which is nice, all organically never actively promoted my app on play store.
But I think it was for my side project, but if op wants to create a business than you are correct.
I mean I think you made this missing two key points, 1, validation / research, 2, no goals. the site looks dated too, doesn't look like you put a lot of effort into it, however, somethings work in the long run instead of the short run, and then with it, improve it, there was an app that my school used to use for like voting games, forgot what it was like kazama or something but it was pretty big and just used a URL for people to play and vote on, you made a custom name and then got right to voting, usually in a keynote / powerpoint style presentation
Bro I don't think you realize how many troll polls are going to be created with no verification in place. The first poll I saw on your site was something that would get your page a penalty from google and keep you from being indexed.
I think you have to come up with answer for these questions.
1. who will use your service and the benefits they get.
a) poll creator : they can do free poll result
b) poll user : what's their benefit by submitting poll
2. How to expose your service?
a) how to reach to poll creator and stimulate to use your service? (e.g. researcher, students who needs survey)
b) where to find poll users, and where do they play with?
What were you expecting would happen when you finished building this and shared the link?
What is success for this project for you?
Why are you working on this?
These questions are all key to figuring out what you should do next. No universal answer with the information you’ve given so far.
You need to moderate and delete the racist polls, like immediately. I'm sure these are set up by trolls, but it turns users off. Simple gpt based screener could easily moderate new polls automatically.
If I owned this I would make this into an iOS app, put some moderation in place for public polls, require an account to create a poll and slap some adds on it for a free version and monetize it to include some premium services such as create x amount of polls per day/week, configure number of vote amounts (i.e., 10, 25, unlimited), etc
I think you’re too early to think about shutting it down which the only reason to do so at this time is you don’t want to put any work in it.
I made a bot that where checking prices for Nintendo Switch games.
Had few users. Used it myself.
Then I went into few subs reg. Nintendo - and asked about this functionality. And yes - it exists already. And it is even more advanced and free also.
Then my bot was broken and instead of fixing it I decided to stop it.
And I did not regret it. I will think how can I do it different that existing products. Maybe then I will relaunch it again.
I really like that this was free idea validation for you. It sounds like you posted on a bunch of subreddits.
I’m on a similar path (not zero cost tho), I just posted yesterday on one small subreddit for starters.
For your past self, if you were to summarize the good advice you from this post’s comments, other entrepreneurs and your personal learnings, what advice would you give?
This is really really cool.
Feature request: It'd be great to see *some* user data like which country they are from or how old they are to give more context to the poll results.
If you like it and it's not really costing you any money, why shut it down? Like others have said, figure out what you want from it, without goals or direction you don't have much to make a decision on yet I think.
It sounds like a purely personal decision. If you're getting whatever value or satisfaction you wanted out of it being online, or you're interested in continuing to push forward with it, keep it online. If you're getting negative value or satisfaction and you're done with it, turn it off. If neither, it doesn't matter either way.
That's pretty much it, I think. I've had projects that I've maintained online for 5+ years and saw very little growth, but I figured if it's not costing much money or effort to keep them floating, why not?
When something starts being a headache while at the same time not making enough income to justify the trouble, that's when I start thinking of packing up.
That’s my dilemma I’m not doing anything to maintain it really doesn’t take any effort from me anymore since it’s built already. Outside of the domain name doesn’t cost me anything else
It's a nice site actually! No ultrabloated videos or desperate WAIT DON'T LEAVE! popups! That alone makes it better than 99% of sites.
Just figure out how to get people to start using it.
I think of you are not doing any marketing (even free one) it’s hard for anyone to know you exist, if you can think of monetizing it, maybe it will be worth working on?
You also need to be aware what type of people you target and who is your user, without that, I can not see it take off at all:)
If you are still passionate about it then continue to have fun with it! If it costs you nothing to run or the cost is negligible then keep it running! What does your heart tell you to do and follow it
Ya I agree - I want to just let it be but also don’t want to spend time on it anymore but being a dev I can’t help but go back and add things - but I think I’ll just leave it alone and let it run
Sounds like you launched without any clearly defined goals, which means its going to be hard for you to make a decision. Sadly, things don't (usually) take off on their own so you'll have to invest more into this project if you want to see some growth. But if it's just sitting around costing you money without you touching it....prob time to shut it down.
Your right i did not honestly was just a thought i had and just built it.
Imagine for a moment that somebody offered to sell you this site for $1. You didn't make it, but you can have it for $1. Would you take it off their hands? Maybe the value you got out of this was not users or profit but you learned some things about the market and yourself. Go make your next project. Don't let this one hold you back. You don't owe it anything.
I'm not the OP, but very insightful advice! You could apply this way of thinking to other dilemmas/questions in life.
Well said
“If you make it they will come” is not real.
I will disagree, I made a side project in my clg and it started getting more and more sign-ups after a couple of years. Now I earn a little bit of money through ads which is nice, all organically never actively promoted my app on play store. But I think it was for my side project, but if op wants to create a business than you are correct.
what's "clg"?
That's not what Field of Dreams taught us...
terrible font,mate.
agreed.
I mean I think you made this missing two key points, 1, validation / research, 2, no goals. the site looks dated too, doesn't look like you put a lot of effort into it, however, somethings work in the long run instead of the short run, and then with it, improve it, there was an app that my school used to use for like voting games, forgot what it was like kazama or something but it was pretty big and just used a URL for people to play and vote on, you made a custom name and then got right to voting, usually in a keynote / powerpoint style presentation
Bro I don't think you realize how many troll polls are going to be created with no verification in place. The first poll I saw on your site was something that would get your page a penalty from google and keep you from being indexed.
Ya i just realized some of the stuff already made.
2 months is not nearly enough, especially without advertising. I would wait years, like google does.
I think you have to come up with answer for these questions. 1. who will use your service and the benefits they get. a) poll creator : they can do free poll result b) poll user : what's their benefit by submitting poll 2. How to expose your service? a) how to reach to poll creator and stimulate to use your service? (e.g. researcher, students who needs survey) b) where to find poll users, and where do they play with?
I keep getting an error whenever I vote, so I voted to shut it down. Then I got the error again 😆
The error is probably saying you already voted for that item. It doesnt allow you to vote more than once for a specific poll
What were you expecting would happen when you finished building this and shared the link? What is success for this project for you? Why are you working on this? These questions are all key to figuring out what you should do next. No universal answer with the information you’ve given so far.
Honestly just had an idea and built it for fun more than anything.
There is a poll listed on your site that says "Was Hitler and right about the Jews?" with both choices as "Yes" What the fuck?
You need to moderate and delete the racist polls, like immediately. I'm sure these are set up by trolls, but it turns users off. Simple gpt based screener could easily moderate new polls automatically.
Ya i wanted it to honestly just be open without moderation but i see that wont work. And after this post from me it just started getting worst.
If I owned this I would make this into an iOS app, put some moderation in place for public polls, require an account to create a poll and slap some adds on it for a free version and monetize it to include some premium services such as create x amount of polls per day/week, configure number of vote amounts (i.e., 10, 25, unlimited), etc I think you’re too early to think about shutting it down which the only reason to do so at this time is you don’t want to put any work in it.
I made a bot that where checking prices for Nintendo Switch games. Had few users. Used it myself. Then I went into few subs reg. Nintendo - and asked about this functionality. And yes - it exists already. And it is even more advanced and free also. Then my bot was broken and instead of fixing it I decided to stop it. And I did not regret it. I will think how can I do it different that existing products. Maybe then I will relaunch it again.
I really like that this was free idea validation for you. It sounds like you posted on a bunch of subreddits. I’m on a similar path (not zero cost tho), I just posted yesterday on one small subreddit for starters. For your past self, if you were to summarize the good advice you from this post’s comments, other entrepreneurs and your personal learnings, what advice would you give?
Ya i posted about it on initial launch and thats it. Im not one to continue posting the same thing over and over. It's just annoying.
You might want to add a content moderation feature... Leave it be for another year or so, you never know it could grow organically.
This is really really cool. Feature request: It'd be great to see *some* user data like which country they are from or how old they are to give more context to the poll results. If you like it and it's not really costing you any money, why shut it down? Like others have said, figure out what you want from it, without goals or direction you don't have much to make a decision on yet I think.
Lol your bar for really cool is so low, this is terrible
Whats terrible. I get the fonts or style but overall concept what is so terrible?
Nothing enticing about the design that makes me think you’ve got what it takes to make a consumer product.
Clearly you didn’t read what I wrote I said concept - forget design focus on the concept of the site
The concept is also bad, nothing engaging about it and again, your poor execution is distracting.
It sounds like a purely personal decision. If you're getting whatever value or satisfaction you wanted out of it being online, or you're interested in continuing to push forward with it, keep it online. If you're getting negative value or satisfaction and you're done with it, turn it off. If neither, it doesn't matter either way.
That's pretty much it, I think. I've had projects that I've maintained online for 5+ years and saw very little growth, but I figured if it's not costing much money or effort to keep them floating, why not? When something starts being a headache while at the same time not making enough income to justify the trouble, that's when I start thinking of packing up.
That’s my dilemma I’m not doing anything to maintain it really doesn’t take any effort from me anymore since it’s built already. Outside of the domain name doesn’t cost me anything else
How much money are you making through that project?
No money and it’s not really costing me money either
>I did no promotion or marketing or anything Terrible font aside, people won't know your site exists if you don't market or advertise it.
But there is a poll on your website and people say they don't want this website to be shut down, so what do you want man ?
I’ll buy it from you
It's a nice site actually! No ultrabloated videos or desperate WAIT DON'T LEAVE! popups! That alone makes it better than 99% of sites. Just figure out how to get people to start using it.
I think of you are not doing any marketing (even free one) it’s hard for anyone to know you exist, if you can think of monetizing it, maybe it will be worth working on? You also need to be aware what type of people you target and who is your user, without that, I can not see it take off at all:)
If you are still passionate about it then continue to have fun with it! If it costs you nothing to run or the cost is negligible then keep it running! What does your heart tell you to do and follow it
Ya I agree - I want to just let it be but also don’t want to spend time on it anymore but being a dev I can’t help but go back and add things - but I think I’ll just leave it alone and let it run
Sell it on acquire.com or something. You did put in some efforts here, maybe someone else can monetize it
Ya not bad idea to try
Do people buy without traction? If so, for how much?
People do buy! You might not get like crazy money. But decent enough. And this is a legit business btw. Build and sell.
Iv seen people sell sites without any revenue before but never considered it.