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Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

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11–20 of 37 posts

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#11
The numbers that matter are the ones I don’t see. Revenue? Expenses? Time commitment you put in. Opportunity cost of that time.

Maybe you aren’t Zagat’s or whatever, but if it cash flows out, pays you for your time, or you just enjoy it... Why not.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#12
Restaurants are an interesting space but all around hard to make money in. Restaurants just don't like to spend money where it isn't absolutely necessary. So it's hard to sell them ads or online services.

You could look at letting restaurants claim their listings and offer them a pro package of services. Maybe menus, or even try offering online ordering. Being local you have an advantage that you can easily meet with restaurants in person.

I am always drawn to developing something for restaurants as their websites are notoriously bad, same with only ordering most aren't near as easy to use as they could be.

I don't think ad revenue is going to bring in a lot of revenue. Maybe $7 to $10 per 1,000 page views. So with less than 1k views you'll probably need to look at monetizing another way if that's your goal.

If you just want a fun website you can improve and run as a fun side project, keep going.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#13
> One thing about the inbound traffic I am getting is that it's all for direct restaurant searches (e.g. "Johnny's Diner") rather than area searches (e.g. "Newtown restaurants"); the latter is where you see the site's true value, so everyone just bounces from the restaurant page.

What page are you expecting to rank for “Newton restaurants”? And if people are ending up on the Johnny’s Diner page, why doesn’t that page include the site’s true value?

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#16
You probably should pivot. You have some nice data likely by now. It's more a question whether someone wants it. Basically you don't have product market fit.

I suggest you do a business model canvas. Jot down your value proposition - what problem you're solving.

Are you targeting people looking for locations? Or hungry people looking for a place to eat? Adventurous people looking for somewhere new? Someone just looking for a place to bring a date?

Pick a specific problem. Focus your site around that. Make sure your copywriting emphasizes solving it.

If it doesn't work, move on to other similar problems.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMG, this is an amazing idea! Thank you so much. Something like this would get me the inbound links I need. It might involve some sort of a pivot, but definitely worth investigating. I do have one unique feature in that the reviews are linked to proper professional critic's reviews in the natioanl newspapers, rather than anonymous commenters. To be fair also, I have put in a signficiant amount of work, adding all tha…

I wish you the best, the ultimate is that you succeed as that is what we all want to do. If there is anything I can do to help you I am happy to do so. Good luck!

Thanks again

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#18
post #16

You probably should pivot. You have some nice data likely by now. It's more a question whether someone wants it. Basically you don't have product market fit. I suggest you do a business model canvas. Jot down your value proposition - what problem you're solving. Are you targeting people looking for locations? Or hungry people looking for a place to eat? Adventurous people looking for somewhere new? Someone just looki…

Thanks for this. The main use case is "Hungry people looking for a place to eat" when they know where they want to go, or near their current location if on mobile. I guess the market's too saturated for something so generic now. As you say, I should really "pick a specific problem", specific being the key word.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#19
post #12

Restaurants are an interesting space but all around hard to make money in. Restaurants just don't like to spend money where it isn't absolutely necessary. So it's hard to sell them ads or online services. You could look at letting restaurants claim their listings and offer them a pro package of services. Maybe menus, or even try offering online ordering. Being local you have an advantage that you can easily meet with…

Yeah, so freemium services to the restaurants was one of my ideas of making money. However, as you've pointed out, restaurants "just don't like to spend money where it isn't absolutely necessary", which is an interesting and valid point.

Yeah, it was bad restaurant websites, with PDF menus, that inspired me to build the site.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#20

Kudos to you for sticking to something for (at least) 8 years - it's very very easy to become discouraged, so it's inspiring to someone continue to press forward after so many years.

Thanks :-) I've learned loads developing the site, so it hasn't been a total waste.
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