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Quote openmind Hi guys,
Just wanted to let you know I have been trawling the Internet for ESL related sites since late 1995 and I must admit that eslHQ is really the headquarters of the online ESL community. There lots of sites our there that started earlier and they have more members, more posts, more traffic, more of many things but quality is more important than quantity. And no other ESL site has so many new and interesting features like yours so keep it up folks! |
Thanks, openmind!
OK, my 2 cents. I think for a site to continue to grow in traffic and popularity you are going to have to think about the business model of the site. Unless you have funding or are well off and don't need to monetize the site, you'll just end up dumping more and more money into your server to cover bandwidth and storage expenses.
There are different ways to monetize a site. Most sites use ads. Some charge fees and memberships. Some sell books and other physical products. Some rely on donations.
In a perfect world, folks would donate. But, usually that's not the case.
In another perfect world, ads would pay way more per click and you never run the risk of being kicked out of the ad network. You can't put all your eggs into the ad basket. That can be pulled out from under you overnight.
So the only sure fire way to monetize a site, if you have the content, is to charge for stuff. But you NEED content.
Personally, I don't have a problem with charging for memberships to access materials if the materials are good and plentiful. That being said, there are only a few sites out there, imo, that meet that criteria. And i think that stuff works itself out in the end. Users aren't going to pay for a site where there isnt much there. Next thing you know, the site goes free again.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on this matter.
Eric