Failed website graveyard!

Jon

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Has anyone made some websites in their earlier days that totally crashed and burned? (besides @Chammy !)

The very first website I made was called ScreamWorld (so this must have been around 1998!) and I used my 5MB of webspace to create a website dedicated to the Scream movies. Of course, back then there was no Wordpress sites so unless you were going to sit and code HTML you had to use the likes of FrontPage98 or Dreamweaver to create your site!

I'm 99% sure I also created a fan site dedicated to the band Counting Crows

Next, I created a website dedicated to the Worms series of games offering people to download maps for the game etc.

During the days of Wimamp hitting the scene I created 'DarkHoleFM' with a friend which was an 'as live' Internet Radio show that was broadcast over Shoutcast and had a website attached to it.

I also created a recruitment website for people in Norwich which I thought was an amazing idea and was basically the 'Reed' website ahead of its time but my version was just me finding vacancies in the paper or in shop windows and adding them to the website...

After that, I created what could only be called a 'photo blog' site of my time at University. Every page had these GIANT images which back then took a day and a half to load each time lol

I created a website called 'ItsInHeadingley' or something which was about the student area on Leeds and everything it had going on in it!

Next up came a Hayfever Forum of all things. Forums back in 2004 either required you to spend a monumental amount of money on software like VBulletin or you could create a forum off one of the 'services' offering them for free with ads which is what I did with a bolted on domain I bought from 123reg! I opened it in March of the year and it was MEGA BUSY for around 5 months after that however what I soon discovered was that for 7 or 8 months of the year no one wanted to talk about all things hayfever related LOL

After that I sort of didn't return to running a website until I started all thing money shed related!!

Anyone else have a history of failure like this?

it's mad to think how you used to get 5MB/10MB free with your dial up Internet Connection and now much HDR Pics are over 5MB in size anyway!!
 
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The Reverend

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I used to own 'www.oneweeklater.com' I thought it was good and I think 28 days later had recently come out at the cinema. I didn't really do anything with it.

I did create an amazon book store. Not sure you can still do it but you used to be able to create your own mini-site in amazon using products they had. You pointed the webaddress to the amazon store address and job was a good'un. Got a couple of hundred quid in referal fees from that.
 

Jon

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I used to own 'www.oneweeklater.com' I thought it was good and I think 28 days later had recently come out at the cinema. I didn't really do anything with it.

I did create an amazon book store. Not sure you can still do it but you used to be able to create your own mini-site in amazon using products they had. You pointed the webaddress to the amazon store address and job was a good'un. Got a couple of hundred quid in referal fees from that.


ah time sensitive websites!!

I remember when this website happened

http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com

The guy made a cool million+ pounds!!!

And everyone and their dog started producing pixel selling websites. Give it a month or two later and they had all died.
You've got to be so quick on these reactive websites and literally get them up the day the trend starts!

oh and his latest website
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/m...an-explosion-of-interest-in-mindfulness-apps/

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The Reverend

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ah time sensitive websites!!

I remember when this website happened

http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com

The guy made a cool million+ pounds!!!

And everyone and their dog started producing pixel selling websites. Give it a month or two later and they had all died.
You've got to be so quick on these reactive websites and literally get them up the day the trend starts!

oh and his latest website
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/m...an-explosion-of-interest-in-mindfulness-apps/

giphy.gif
Quick! This time next year we could be billionaires!

04B8F3BE-3BEE-433C-A8D0-B39420A5A157.png
 

Jon

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Lol

The sites he made after his initial success are well and truly in the graveyard!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12778322
Alex's change of tack comes after developing another site with cash at its heart. In 2006, he launched Pixelotto, an online prize draw, which eventually paid out $153,000 (£94,000) to a single winner in Kenya.

Then in 2008, he founded a social network to share comedy called Popjam.

It spawned a flash-based game based on the President Bush shoe-throwing incident. The game got six million players in its first week and it was later sold for £5,000 on eBay.

Image captionOnemillionpeople.com was Alex Tew's attempt to chronicle the digital generation.
But when Popjam didn't work out, Alex turned to using technology to make social statements.

His 2010 website onemillionpeople.com aimed to collect the faces of the "digital generation", compiled into a coffee table-style book.

While the venture started out charging users, the site later switched to being funded by advertising.
 

JesseEverAfter

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I have so many websites which have gone to the failed website graveyard....

My initial website was a quiz website which allowed you to earn points which could be exchanged for prizes (was really an experiment in PHP I wrote in my spare time whilst in the Sixth Form) - looked very ugly but worked, just didn't last very long ... and it was on Lycos Tripod free hosting!

I had a film database website a bit like IMDB, then I moved on to a cashback website (this one got as far as having it's own affiliate programme) and is the most successful website I have ever owned. This was followed by a voucher code website and a celebrity fashion website, a musical theatre blog then a book blog (and numerous blogs in between).

My problem is I have what I think is a great idea - put loads of effort into them, see them not go anywhere for a couple of months and get despondent so give up hehe.

Which is kind of how I end up with tons of domains I never use - oops!
 

Jon

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I have so many websites which have gone to the failed website graveyard....

My initial website was a quiz website which allowed you to earn points which could be exchanged for prizes (was really an experiment in PHP I wrote in my spare time whilst in the Sixth Form) - looked very ugly but worked, just didn't last very long ... and it was on Lycos Tripod free hosting!

I had a film database website a bit like IMDB, then I moved on to a cashback website (this one got as far as having it's own affiliate programme) and is the most successful website I have ever owned. This was followed by a voucher code website and a celebrity fashion website, a musical theatre blog then a book blog (and numerous blogs in between).

My problem is I have what I think is a great idea - put loads of effort into them, see them not go anywhere for a couple of months and get despondent so give up hehe.

Which is kind of how I end up with tons of domains I never use - oops!
Crikey that's quite the list!!!

I've just learned to accept that it takes a good 6 months for google to index your site and settle it properly into its listings and on top of that you have to put a LOT of work into creating backlinks endlessly (usually through writing guest post for other blogs that you put the link into) and all that takes time to get picked up as well!
 
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The Reverend

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I've just spent the last of my Vidahost credit on a final domain. I'm looking to have a specialist blog with a cross-over to the reverend.

:)
 
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Queen Jess

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Yikes... I am still working on my first site and hoping to launch in the next few weeks (time permitting). I really hope I don't get added to the website graveyard, although I have wondered a hundred times already whether it's a good idea.. to late to turn back now!
 

Jon

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Yikes... I am still working on my first site and hoping to launch in the next few weeks (time permitting). I really hope I don't get added to the website graveyard, although I have wondered a hundred times already whether it's a good idea.. to late to turn back now!
I'm sure it won't just don't expect everything to come together for the first 6 months. It all takes time and blogging is 20% making content and 80% promotion!
 

Queen Jess

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I'm sure it won't just don't expect everything to come together for the first 6 months. It all takes time and blogging is 20% making content and 80% promotion!

Oh I'm fine with very slow and steady.. I've been staring at it for so long now I'll be really excited to see anyone on there and signing up! It'll be good to get some engagement.
 

Chammy

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haha erm...well...

There was the Baby Led Weaning one...which got 2 posts
There was a random diary type one
There was a geek crafts one
There was the alternative one
There there was a weight loss one
There was the Christmas themed money making one
There is the vegan one which is kinda just fading away....

So, yeah...just a few :p
 

Jon

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haha erm...well...

There was the Baby Led Weaning one...which got 2 posts
There was a random diary type one
There was a geek crafts one
There was the alternative one
There there was a weight loss one
There was the Christmas themed money making one
There is the vegan one which is kinda just fading away....

So, yeah...just a few :p
That's quite the list there

do you think you gave those sites enough of a chance to gain any traction?
 

Jon

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I've just spent the last of my Vidahost credit on a final domain. I'm looking to have a specialist blog with a cross-over to the reverend.

:)
I've just logged in - I've still got another £22.38 to spend on domains over there lol
 

Chammy

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That's quite the list there

do you think you gave those sites enough of a chance to gain any traction?

Hell no. A couple of them were from like 10+ years when I didn't even know what I was doing. The others might have done better if I knew then what I know now.
 
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VirtualWombat

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I had a website years and years ago with the intention of building and selling custom computers. I knew nothing about web stuff really at the time and in hindsight it was probably a bit rubbish.

Even Virtual Wombat was on the verge of death because I kind of lost my way at the back end of last year. I'm in the process of re-booting it though as a blog covering my adventures going back to university in September and trying to work full time and be a functional adult at the same time.

Should be interesting.

Edit: I look damned good for 117 years old.
 

Wild Neon Sins

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Back in @2001-2003/4 I ran a fansite & forum for Brian Jones (founder member of The Rolling Stones). Problem was it was a tiny fandom and most of the other people online who were dedicated fans of him instead of just casual fans of the band were either already running their own fansites or pages or where members of their forums.

Parts of the site ended up being permanently under construction *cringe* /incomplete. I kept it up after losing interest intending to go back to it later, eventually the dodgy free host asked for money to keep the site online, before vanishing entirely.

Had a myspace for a punk fanzine I published in about 2005-2008, content got eaten when myspace got taken over & changed to mostly music streams.

Got some abandoned blogspot blogs I hardly posted on that I very occasionally still get amazon affiliate money from (don't even remember the links for some of them).

Also have a crappy livejournal I stopped regularly posting on years ago (made the occasional £5 for sponsorded posts on there).
 

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