Having no luck with your sites?

Greetings, and Happy Holidays to everyone,

I was sitting around just wondering how many people are just not having any luck with their sites? I think I read a few days ago that someone said the failure rate for these dolphin sites must be 90-95%, and only a very (small) few out of the 200k members here have successful sites. I can only imagine how disappointing & frustrating it is to have invested time, hundreds to thousands of dollars and yet to yield any luck or satisfactory results, or at least earn the money that you have invested back.

I would like to ask just what if Mark Zuckerberg (before he launched facebook), stated that he believes his site would make it big, how many people would have jumped on the bandwagon, how many would have laughed at him? Well, Im no Mark Z, but I do believe that with the right people, I can have a site that will do pretty well (top 100,000 very easily, maybe even top 10,000).  Quite frankly, you guys are super smart, and I suppose that you are not having the kind of luck you hope for, which kind of discourages me, because Im a super newbie.  

I basically would like to ask that you guys team up with me, I have an idea, and I know we can get in the top 100,000 rank, and can make some good money (later on).  My resources and knowledge is fairly low, but with the right group of people, we can be one of the success stories here.  I do wish my site was already up so you guys can look at some stats to give you something real/solid to go off of, but its not, so I cant.  I figure worse case scenario should you guys choose to team up with me, is that you guys would have just only wasted a little more time than you already have thus far.

But, if my spidey senses are correct, then the initial risk of your time and resources will pay off and will have been worth it.  You guys are good at what you do, so I need you.  Honestly, if I took the time to learn mysql, apache, php, and all this other stuff, I would be delaying putting up a site for at least another year.  I do not have that kind of time, you guys have mastered this stuff already.  Therefore, the smartest thing to do is let everyone do what they are good at, and all will or should work out.  But, we will be doing this MY WAY and MY WAY ONLY, and with a few tweaks to dolphin to run the way I need it to run, we can have a very great X-mas next year. Anybody with me?

Again, what if one of these guys with these top websites (fb, pin interest, youtube, yahoo, ect.,) offered an opportunity to be in?

I would wager that "failure rate" for Dolphin-based sites is same as failure rate of any online venture or offline venture with comparable entry costs, competition and target market.

Generally, if you want to create a Facebook clone doing nothing but a fresh install and waiting until it happens - the failure rate would be around 99,99999999999999999999999999999% (approximately :) ).

If, however, you're laser-focused on specific niche (think, say, "community of electric rc-cars racers of Western Sydney"); and have passion, knowledge about the subject; and work hard to build a friendly environment with valuable content... the failure rate is around 0,00000000000000000000000000001%.

Wether there is an opportunity for sustainable business within a narrow niche is anyone's guess - at the very least you may have good time doing what you love.

Go figure! :)

Andrew, nice to see you buddy, check your email

(Typed 4 paragraphs, only for my login to timeout, geezus)

You guys have 200k members.  Assuming only 1/4 of those members have sites (50k), and assuming that 10% those 50k have multiple sites, at minimum, 55k sites.  With 55k sites, Im sure 99.9999% of every possible niche/market has been targeted.  The other 0.00001% just do not exist yet. I know Im not as smart as you, but that is about all that I can understand.

True, dolphin failure rate could be equal to any other venture.  But the thing is this, (I guess) its very  hard to purely focus on what one loves or their market/niche if some things just do not work with dolphin.  Instead of reporting bugs, praying, wishing, hoping that you guys add some much needed feature, it takes away from that.  Not to mention the wait time for a response, by the time a response is given, whatever users the web master has will have lost interest, and left to elsewhere.  Granted, you guys have been doing a kick ass job with 7.x, and you guys have been answering "some" questions a little quicker than normal.  But dolphin does have a lot of things that it needs, to keep users engaged.

On the flip side, dolphin could have been absolutely perfect, and came bundled with every module/mod incorporated into it, and people would still have trouble finding a specific market/niche, but that would be a lot better scenario because all of their time would be spent just on that, their market/niche, instead of waiting for updates/fix for problems that should not be there.

Back on topic....you mind being a team member Andrew? lol.  Seriously though, if our (team members & I) site makes it into the top 100k, I will personally pay half the folks here to work with you guys (I know its a small family business) to get D8 in perfect condition by next year this time, bug free.  Hell, even if we're blessed to make it in the top 1k, then everyone here will have a job (maintaining our site), because who else will be better to trust, other than already experienced boonexians? (did I say that right, lol)  

Again, please check your email, thanks, and happy holidays

 RE:

 No...... those  55,000 people are all building the world's  greatest dating site.  With all those great dating sites, it's sure going to be hard to choose which one to join.  I'm glad I do things the old fashioned way and just pick up drunken chicks in a bar.

All to often people look for opportunities only within the scope of where others are already trying. And yet, at any given moment, entire humanity only performs a tiny fraction of potential scenarios. As far as Dolphin is concerned - I can easily imagine every human having a couple of sites, every one of them worthy and lucrative. Sadly or luckily the world doesn't work that way, and so we have successful entrepreneurs and a bulk of non-triers. 

You want to succeed? Concentrate on your goal, on your subject, on your passions. Software, and any other tools are important, but not detrimental to your success. "Men have become the tools of their tools". Get over this sickness! Try to achieve your specific goal with what you have in hands - the rest will come. 

And one more thing - money is NOT a goal. Money is part tool, part measure of advancement. If you do something solely for the sake of earning money - you're going to live a sad life of never-ending greed and disillusion. Pick up a worthy goal and money will follow.

---

Already too many brilliant social networks dedicated to rc-car competitions in western Sydney? Hell no! 

Facebook is where it is now; and since they started throwing adverts in people's faces when they say they are pregnant or getting married, or whatever, and the fact they are using people's likeness to advertise without compensation; that class-action lawsuit payout was a joke, I think FaceSucks may start to fade; anyway, it is where it is now because it got millions of dollars thrown at it probably mainly to lose money for tax write-offs; believe it or not, sometimes venture capitalists want to lose money so they don't pay taxes.  Mark ZuckerFaceSucks took part of that money and paid himself a nice salary but also took part of that money and started a hype campaign to on television telling everyone they were worthless pieces of dog crap if they were not on FaceSucks  (OK, I exaggerated that last part a tiny bit).  The TV adverts then went into people pressuring other family members to get on FaceSucks, "What?  You are not on FaceSucks?  Everyone is on FaceSucks, what is wrong with you?"  FaceSucks did not and does not have any real value but it is the current MySpace crap with less features.  Of course they opened the API so that everyone could be exposed to security issues and get their ID stolen and get viruses on their computers while they played their idiotic games.

You must be making a good living.  From someone that is earning below the poverty rate, I disagree.  To be honest, that never-ending greed part is close to an insult.  Most people on this planet work at jobs that are for the sole sake of making money, not because they love the job they are doing.  There is nothing wrong for wanting to create sites for the goal of making money; that is life, we have to pay the bleeding bills and we don't get the luxury of driving a car that is not 14 years old, or taking a holiday once in a while, or not worrying if we are going to meet next month's flat rent.

Success is really in the "niche" you choose to do. Concentrate as Andrew says..

It's sad to say but adult site are my most popular.. No ads, just good site name, good content, and members that actually join to see more.

Here is an example of a site I brought online about 4 months ago now, getting so active I may have to upgrade my server :/

Stick with it, stay active on your site everyday and make it interesting.

Jun10r, I would get something online first so you can show people, OR at least be willing to outline something of what you are envisioning building. 

As you say (although I don't agree with the numbers...) there are so many people who get an idea for a site, but then either can't build it or can't commit to it longterm and don't see it through to 'success' however you may measure that... 

To post and say you have 'THE' idea above all others, but have no experience, not even a clean install to show and that you want people to team up with you to do it (quote in your own words) 'MY WAY and MY WAY ONLY' is a little un-attractive as an offer for anyone who may have already invested many years/$ into learning how to work with Dolphin...! 

Forgive me for pointing out, but your post does edge towards sounding like you want to be the boss, and want everyone else to do the work for you.

Maybe expand a little on why we should throw our valuable time and resources into your idea above our own ideas please...

You obviously have some people's attention as it's not often that Andrew Boon will reply to some posts. And on Christmas day! 

So, why not enlighten us on how to make Dolphin a success... I think you need to if you are half serious about your 'proposal'.

 I missed that line.. that won't get you far..

WOW!   What an awesome deal!!!!!!  Where do I sign up!!!!

Seriously...  why would anyone team up with someone that brings absolutely nothing to the table?

Wonder why so many people that are poor and "have to" work solely for the sake of making money still remain poor and don't make much? The very mindset you've just outlined is the main reason. If you struggle at what you do, if you don't enjoy it, you're not going to succeed. 

I do make a good living now. It took me a while to get to this point, and in the first couple of years I couldn't afford flat rent at all. We lived with my wife at her mom's place, working mostly at night, because Internet connection was free from 2 to 6am. We had a few ideas and nobody believed one could make money online - it was the time PayPal didn't yet exist, Friendster will have been started a year a so later, no MySpace, no Facebook, hardly anyone trusted their CCs to "computers". Trying to be independent my wife and I literally had hard time even buying the basic food ourselves. It was the break-point when we had to either take up on a "normal" job or pursue the dream. We opted for doing both - my wife was making some money as a tour guide and I did some odd jobs like translations, marketing assistance, etc. That didn't distract us much - we still wanted to create the thing we worked on back then - a "dating network", which eventually transformed into dating software, and much later - community software. We didn't expect our online business to feed us, because, FORTUNATELY, Internet wasn't full of stories about overnight millionaires. Our first payouts, literally looked something like this - $7/month, $5/month, $21/month, $200/month, $40/month... etc. It didn't matter - the point was that online business was possible and our business could eventually become sustainable. We took personal loan from friends and my wife's mom ($2000 in total) and made our first hire. About a year later aeDating (Dolphin predecessor) was born. In fact it was born as a side project, but turned into a new direction. We didn't plan for it initially. From start to finish, it took us about 3 years in total from the day we came up with an idea to the day we could say to our parents and friends - "see, we told ya!"

That, above, is not a Cinderella story - there's no magic whatsoever. It's a definitive, proven, sure way of doing anything. Any venture.

My site is about 20 months old and im not really making money only about $4 to $8  US dollars, that pays for my fees and some to advertise.

The site is growing slowly with 5-15 new members a day. you can't start a general site and expect much, you must find a nice niche as someone mentioned. you build it and they will come as long as they could find you and thats where advertisement comes in.

If you set up a nice clean niche site they will like it and keep coming back.

I really don't have a problem with dolphin, they provide the tools, the operator has to know how to use it.

ohh and by the way, I have 2 kids and a full time job at the airport, if I had more time to work on my site im sure I would be doing much better.

dont get me wrong I really like the direction im heading and have big plans that are falling into place.

my 2 cents

Happy Holidays

 LMAO

Thanks for your input daihlo.  Im currently working on getting something online, it should be ready very soon.  It is a lot to ask for someone to commit to something for a long time, which I am not doing, I figure maybe within 6 months should be enough time for people, including myself, to either decide to call it quits, or at least see some significant progress. 

I was not trying to imply that I have "the idea" that is above/greater than everyone else's.  I simply meant that I do have an idea, and it may be slightly different. It may work, it may not work.  I just believe that it will work.  True, I can not install dolphin on my own as of yet, but I am working on it.  Its also very true that most here will prefer to stick with their own ideas.  However, my post was mainly targeted at those people who A) would not mind just trying some body else idea B) who are struggling with their sites C) those who are just about ready to call it quits.  I also did not mean for it to sound unattractive at all, I honestly had no idea that it would have been perceived that way, or else I would have explained it differently.  Doing it "MY WAY and MY WAY ONLY" was only mentioned because it would not be a good situation if, lets say, 10 other people decided to help, but if 5 of those 10 come up with ideas, and then things kinda go sour.  I do not want a situation like that, and I do not want any confusion, I only want to work together with those who are willing to take a chance, and aim for the top 1,000 sites, and make some good money for myself and everyone who is a team member.  Can you imagine if cars had 5 steering wheels?

When I say "my", it is ultimately my site, and while suggestions are welcomed, the final decisions will be up to me. I am not trying to sound bossy, but it would be hard/impossible for me to go about "my" way of trying to get a really high ranked site, and get the site to make enough money so everyone who is apart of it can feel its worth their time.  Also, I admit, before I decided that it will be best to have other people help with "my site", I was about to come here and ask the opposite, which was...."HEY, I have an idea, since you people have all the resources and modules ect., why dont 1 of you guys let me bring traffic to your site" but then realized after I do the ground work and get the traffic going, that I could be disposable, and I would loose out in the end, especially if they make an decision that pushes the users away.  

But you see, doing it "my" way would be better, because you guys know that I cant run it without you guys (dont even want to honestly) so your spots/positions are secure, unlike my position if I was to "work" for someone else.  My ideas and your knowledge will mix perfectly and can potentially pay off nicely.  The time to act is asap, because like I said, I dont have a couple of years to learn all php and the rest.  I will eventually learn, but we have to be ready to go live within a month or so.  As far as investing your time and resources, I can not honestly give a reason of why you guys should, as I have nothing to support what I am saying.  But what I can say is that if you decide to, is that I will try my best to not let your investment be in vain.  I believe that I have no choice but to succeed, because I will not have an excuse for failing when I had everything that I needed (good people, resources & knowledge) at my fingertips.  

Dolphin is part of the answer, but I cant just give away my idea like that on the board, then I would be out of an idea, lol.  But in short, I would be the other half of the answer (on the front end, and interested parties would be on the back end, and it will be a perfect combination).  I do believe some here just run sites purely for entertainment and leisure activities, because its something that they are just good at.  Either way, it can be fun and lucrative at the same time.  Hope I've answered your questions satisfactorily and I hope that no one continues to find the 1st post "un-attractive"

Newton- Hope that cleared everything up for you as well

Andrew- Some money is the goal, as a few prime licenses, servers, ect., are not free.  Im sure you understand that.  Yes, a few of my ideas are tailored around doing what I love, and is not geared just for the sake of trying to make money, however, I do see an opportunity to make some money, and Im sure that everyone desire to have a higher quality lifestyle than whatever it is currentlyl My car is an early 90's model that is broke.  I cant afford your prime licenses and although I would like to support a few of the good devs here, I simply can not.  So the money will help me and everyone else.  How far along BoonEx would have came along if you guys didnt make any money?  Speaking of boonex, today I ran into several boonex sites, they were older versions, maybe 4.x, 5.x, or 6.x. 

Houston- When I said "I figure worse case scenario should you guys choose to team up with me, is that you guys would have just only wasted a little more time than you already have thus far"  I dont consider it a waste of their time, but I do know that some people feel that way.  Just a few weeks ago, some guy came on the forums cursing up a storm because he felt he wasted his time with 7.1 I think.  I cant find that post either, so I assume he is banned.

"Seriously...  why would anyone team up with someone that brings absolutely nothing to the table?"  I will be bringing something, an idea, the hustle, the users, which I think are some of the most important ingredients for a successful site.  There is a great portion of people here that have a/few site(s), but no users.  Its like a brand new car with no gas from that perspective.  What Im bringing to the table may very well be "nothing" to you or anyone else, and may lack any value, which is completely fine.  Simply, I need help, Im asking for it openly, and Im hoping that I receive it, if I do not, Im happy that I "tried", its all that I can do as of right now, is just try!  I was not under the impression that I must absolutely bring something to the table in order to seek help.  Granted, Im seeking a lot of help in a way that most of you do not, but if I was capable of helping my self, then I would be here doing the opposite, which is providing help,  

One note - I said it before and will say it again - don't rush to buy a paid license until you're ready. There really is no reason for it. Those who want to "steal" from you by copying would have no trouble finding software to do so, links or no links. Start with only a basic hosting, without long-term commitment, upgrade when needed. Try to realise your idea within default functionality - juggle with settings, texts, images, builders and modules. Add free modules if needed. Only invest money when it's absolutely warranted, and when you're experienced enough to foresee potential outcomes.

 absolutely nothing... and insist you WILL do things HIS WAY.. and his way ONLY!!... man I think this is where I must have went wrong with all my failed sites.. where was this guy when I was brainstorming and doing goals and layout months before I even decided on the domain names!

May I could just get this guy to come to my sites and become an admin and just send me directions to what I need to do, I mean he is obviously the "I" in "team" and "we".

btw I do not post her no more, not because my sites have failed, but because the new layout makes me physically sick and makes my head hurt!

Hey Jun10r, sent you a message but not heard back. 

Im starting to regret seeking help, openly like this.  It seems everyone is focused on me saying "my site, my way".  Im trying my hardest to understand what is wrong with what I said.  A lot of people come here, look for help, and if they they receive it, their site is still theirs.  Deanno offers help all the time, does that mean that your sites is now Deanno's or the others like him that help out frequently?

How about this....since I failed to state my request properly, then why dont you guys tell me how it should have been stated which would have made you guys "approve" my request for help.  Also, tell me what is it that I must do to acquire your help (without compromising my ideas/thoughts)? Or give a scenario that you would feel comfortable working with me?  Hope I am not asking more of the wrong questions, again.

Tony-  Thanks for your input, but is that a typo.  Your site is about 20 months old and you make about $4.00 - $8.00 a month?  The direction for my sites is pretty much laid out.  Its really simple actually.  

Andrew- The problem is far greater than that.  But I do appreciate your words of advice

Tussery- "where was this guy when I was brainstorming and doing goals and layout months before I even decided on the domain names!"

I was doing the same the same exact thing.

"I mean he is obviously the "I" in "team" and "we"."

I do not understand how you got that from what I am asking.  If I could do everything, they yes, I would be "MY" own "Team".  I can not, even if I could, I wouldnt want to.  I believe this is what you guys are failing to understand.  I AM A USER, A SITE USER, so I do not think the way that you WEBMASTERS would think.  I know what other USERS like myself would like, I also have had ample of time to sit around and come up with "different" ideas & thoughts that may work.  You smart webmasters will be working with a "site user" who has some idea's that have not been tried before.  Are those idea's better? No? They are just different.  Your weakness (websites with hardly any users) and my strengths (guy with a lot of users/friends and different ideas) will work together, because my weakness is your strengths.   That is what makes this a team. 

"btw I do not post her no more, not because my sites have failed, but because the new layout makes me physically sick and makes my head hurt!"

Andrew has been doing a great job with the new layout, so can we expect to see you around more?

Daihlo- I've sent you a msg back.

Anyone else?

Thanks for the insight into the world of Boonex and the continued efforts of Andrew's team.

Truly inspirational :)