Forum Moderators: phranque
1-First Year - The new factor kick in. You want to be found, visited, archived in search engines. You try to grow your visitors. You often would like income so you try all types of things, including link requests, lots of new contents. Growth is exponential. Motivation is great.
2-Second Year - You have a following - finally. You reorganize, test, try to optimize. But now, you need greater effort to achieve more growth and sustain the site financially and in terms of contents. You spend far more time managing stuff in the background. You're also in the middle ground of the pack. It's hard to distinguish you from another competitor. You're leash is also shorter. Industry folks recognize you and you must be more professional. You can't lose any momentum, so you go ahead and put in more effort.
3rd Year - By now, the site has become a job. I you had no interest in the industry and the material, you won't last long. You're loking at exit strategy or other way to grow. Just when you're about to quit, the freebies start to pour in. Finally, you get something in return. But expectations are great, and now, you have to deal with stuff like managing staff's infighting, recruitment to replace the old guard. Finding better advertising models and revenue sources. You scale back some operations, improve on what you do better. The site is strong, but growth and market share slower.
It's branding and rebranding, improving the visitor's interface. You streamline all operations. You standardize. If you were still a basement hobby, well you don't look like that anymore. You also manage your time better and stop worrying about daily stats. You're established.
4th Year - You know what works, what doesn't. You think about exit solutions or how to purchase competitors. Somehow, your site becomes an authority. it really is a job. If the interest isn't there, you may just leave the site be. Bu there's a community counting on you, people who have invested much energy on your little turf. You can't let them down. You must continue. But you fianlly write that business plan and delegate as much as you can. You finally write that business plan and you go completely corporate.
After that it all break down or it becomes a routine where you've dugged you market share. It becomes a routine and not much changes. If you are still there, you will likely stay and minimize your workload.
Any comments?
