Tap tap tap is this thing on? In early July the blog succumbed to a nasty hack while I was on vacation. After several attempts to fix it, I went away again and decided to leave it be. Summer in Boston is short and I’d much rather be camping and hiking, boating and fishing than tearing my hair out debugging my blogging platform (WordPress).
After fixing? the problem (my web host Media Temple and WordPress both dropped the ball, and me for being an idiot), I soon realized that I enjoyed the time off from all of the behind the scenes effort required to single-handedly keep this blog running.
This is a sure sign of burnout and I needed to do something. In this case, I did nothing, and it was exactly what the doctor ordered.
What led up to the big summer no-show? Short version: After eight years, I found myself repeating the same themes over and over again. Running a custom blog is a pain and, generally a positive person, I was feeling lackluster about listening to another “we’re the next Plentyoffish” phone conversation. And advertising dropped precipitously.
Long version: For the past several years, the majority of my time and effort went into this blog and working with dating sites. I was getting lots of requests to work with dating sites, from startups to top 10 properties. The media came knocking and just like that I was mentioned in hundreds of newspaper articles, radio and television interviews. This exposure kept me busy for a few years, and then things started slowing down.
It’s no wonder, really. Social networking has overtaken the Internet, and the blogs covering all things social, location and game-based really took off, while people are not exactly clamoring to read dating industry blogs. Thats what a business cycle is all about.
My goal was always to see if I could sustain myself by writing for hours every week, shaking things up, sharing my insights and expertise and spending the rest of my time doing great work. This worked very well for several years. Besides going to Miami in the dead of winter to drum up a year’s worth of new business and keeping in contact with industry friends, I was landing all of my business by marketing myself through this blog. It felt great to be ahead of the “inbound marketing” trend we hear so much about, but at some point, I could feel this ride was shifting gears.
At one point, I was hoping to earn enough through advertising that I could stop the consulting and focus on the blog 100%. Then I could hire a few writers to crank out posts and save myself for the times I really wanted say what was on my mind. I wish.
Then the economy tanked and killed the advertising on this blog, plain and simple. Which was frustrating, because where else can you reach the key decision makers of a billion-dollar industry for a few hundred dollars a month? I seriously don’t understand why companies looking to sell services or otherwise partner with the dating industry were so quick to bail.
Then there is the situation of my position as an industry observer/insider/consultant, which felt like it was becoming problematic because on one hand I’m talking about how shady and shoddy certain dating sites are, and then asking the industry for work. The irony of this was not lost on me. But I’d rather tell it like it is and sleep well with a few less dollars, thats just how I roll.
So, here we are at the end of summer 2010, and things are going to change around here. I’ll be posting every week or so and putting more focus into servicing existing clients, helping Hollywood parter with the dating industry (red-hot right now) and reaching out to dating site executives to talk about the challenges you face and how we can help (funding, M&A, traffic acquisition, conversions, marketing and much more).
Structurally, I’ll probably revise the blog so it’s less bloggy and more focused on driving new business. Simply put, writing about the online dating industry has been rewarding, but it doesn’t pay the bills on its own. If you want me to write more, buy an ad and hire me. It’s that simple. If you do, I might let you in on a tv show I think your dating site would look great being featured on ;-)
This blog is the definition of a tight-knit community. I know you’re out there and appreciate you ongoing support.
Rain stopped, time for a run.
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