Canceled My Website

[jwhansen]

I canceled my website, but I eventually want to bring it back up. It was costing more to keep it up than what it was bring in every month. It was up and active for over a year.

I paid for the site, so what should be expecting to receive?

Sorry for such a naive question.

Thanks.

[buckworks]

Any refund would depend on the cancellation policies of whoever was hosting it.

Usually I'd say not to expect any kind of refund.

What steps did you take to improve the cost / benefit ratio before you cancelled the site?

[jwhansen]

I am not expecting any type of refund or anything like that. I want to move it somewhere else...get another company to host it. Will they gove me a disk of some sort with the site on it?

I think the only thing they did was Google pay per click.

I kept asking them what else they needed do to generate more, but they said the Google feeds and pay per click were enough. Apparently not! They did not want me to cancel the site, but I was to the point were their promises were empty.

[buckworks]

Please clarify who "they" are in your comments above. The hosting company? A developer?

Do you have control of the domain name?

[jwhansen]

"They" are the developer and host. One company.

I do still have control of the domain.

[tangor]

This is a tough one... Folks sometimes start up websites with high expectations of "getting rich" and the real world just does not work that way.

However, if your costs exceeded your income, then yes, it is time to cut loses and move on.

SOME folks can make a living from google ads, but the VAST majority do not. If google covers operation costs, then go from there. Anything above that is money to either reinvest in the site or put in the bank.

If you did not retain a copy of the website before shutting it down then you'll either have to go back to the developer and get a copy (and pay for it most likely) or start over from scratch.

There are viable host solutions in the less than $100/yr cost which are generally suitable for beginning a web business, and there are many coders/developers that will do a turn key generic site for less than $1,000. After that you'll have to get your hands dirty and update/maintain the site to grow it into profitability.

[curioustoddler]

You should always keep the three things different. Domain registrar, hosting and development firm. Have your own domain registrar and do not host with them. Get your own hosting account and do not register or transfer domain with them. And last, do not leave your domain registration and hosting with the develpers.
In your case, you own the site and you should get a copy of website from developer without paying anything if you initially paid for site development. There are few firms which do not charge any design costs and charge on monthly basis. They may not give you a copy of site.

[dpd1]

Not to be a downer, but if this is one of those "companies" where they basically do everything for you, you are wasting your time. Nothing is going to come of it. You need to get in there and do this stuff yourself. The people that offer to do everything for you make their money from you... Nothing else. In other words, they couldn't care less if you ever make any money, because they're already making their money from you. Hopefully you didn't pay them too much. You can literally run your own content site for next to nothing. That's what you should be doing. Pick something you like and other people like... Start a site and just start chipping away at it. If you get traffic, you can make some money. It all depends on the subject and how much traffic.

[jwhansen]

Thanks for the replies.

I did not start the site to "Get Rich Fast". I know that it would take time to develop and make money. I thought it would at least pay for itself.

I had done extensive research on this "Company" before I chose them. I contacted several of their customers that were satisfied with the work they performed. The company was not bad, just not great.

The site had over 70k products on it. I had another site (before this one) that I had to upload all the products myself and it took way too long. There is too much info to upload.

I don't mind paying for their service, just has long as it paid for itself. It was up and running for about two years. I think I made $800 one month (after expenses) and I fine with that.

Who knows?!?!?!?

[buckworks]

over 70k products on it ... made $800 one month (after expenses)

That sounds like a seriously ambitious ecommerce site ... and the fact that you tasted positive cash flow at least once shows that it's possible in your target market.

What were you doing for promotions?

[jwhansen]

Honestly, I really did not do any promotions. All the company did was the Google Feeds. I was receiving 4-5 orders a week. they were mostly lower priced items mostly, but every know and then we would get lucky and get a decent order.

I even charged shipping, which is unheard of in my industry.

It's a very competitive market, but all it takes is 3-4 good orders a month and we would have made money.

[buckworks]

I really did not do any promotions

I'm getting the impression that the site was okay but your business plan was weak.

You mentioned Google feeds and PPC ... that's an okay beginning, assuming the PPC accounts were run with some skill, but it's only a beginning.

Be sure to get the passwords for all the PPC accounts, analytics etc. so you have the historical info to study before you make your next move.

[jwhansen]

You are correct when saying that. It was weak....very weak. My problem was that I was relying on the company to do the work. I do not have all day to do the things that needed to be done.

I'll be the first to admit that I am not all that knowledgeable when it comes to all of these things. That is why I was paying them to help me out with the site. Which I thought was good. Same thing some of the people on here get hired to do.

I have a good site (design), great name but lacked a good business plan.