Do you ever feel like giving up?

[jdab]

I was just thinking to myself, my site is a gaming news and reviews blog. I looked on IGN, and just thought to myself - "why do I bother?" because I'm never going to overtake them in a million years.

Then I had a think, and to be honest, I don't care if no-one sees it, I enjoy it and I just like writing about games 🙂

From depressed to happy in 0.5 seconds 😀

 

[Yoda]

Yeah i've thought about it, and then thought no it may not be the biggest community in the world, but it is MY community.

 

[CyberFreak]

Don't focus on other sites and trying to be bigger then them. That shouldn't really be a big reason why you are running a forum. Focus on having fun with the forum as it is, the community you have and keep developing the site.

Having a big forum doesn't mean that you will be happier or enjoy it more. The best years I have had at this forum was right at the start not now we are approaching 900,000 posts.

 

[jdab]

Don't focus on other sites and trying to be bigger then them. That shouldn't really be a big reason why you are running a forum. Focus on having fun with the forum as it is, the community you have and keep developing the site.

Having a big forum doesn't mean that you will be happier or enjoy it more. The best years I have had at this forum was right at the start not now we are approaching 900,000 posts.

It's not really my forum but my blog. But thanks for the input, I don't wish to achieve stardom, I would just like something known by people, but when I had a think, I really don't care how many read it 😀

 

[Mik.]

Yeah, I thought of giving up a few times. I said to myself before I started my most recent forum I won't compete with anyone (even though there's probably not another active forum with my niche).

And a lot of times the guy on my right shoulder says to me "What the hell are you doing? You got no reason to go on."

And then sometimes the angel on my left shoulder says to me "Don't worry about who joins the forum and who's posting. Just know that you enjoy it!"

😛

 

[Nitro]

In a way I have given up, but not because I compared my forum to other forums. It's more like an interest or hobby that fades away.

 

[Expired Account 3]

If every administrator thought like that, we probably wouldn't have few of the greatest sites that we have now. For example, Facebook...we had myspace right? Why did he bother?

You can't let that get to you to a certain point; by that I mean yes be aware there are better sites than yours but let that help you think outside the box and provide something more and something unique.

Your goal shouldn't be to topple the big companies(or at least not as of yet), key is to start small and grow exponentially.

 

[Migi]

Every webmaster must have felt discouraged at certain points of their journey building their website. Various reasons from personal issues to things like "rival websites are doing better than me". For me it is more personally, as I'm often sad at how the community didn't really respond to me or I was just too busy and tired and nothing went well, but I always found a reason to return. Encouragement from my members, or simple because I once again found the reason why I started my site.

If you ever felt like giving up, take a step back and look at your site from outside. Think again about why you built it in the very first. Think again if it is really the best choice for you to give now after everything you have done. Usually it brings back motivation quite much, at least for me.

 

[Pinky]

On many many occasions I have thought about it but when you think of all the work that you have put in already makes you feel like you have made an achievement just from that and gives you some strength to carry on.

 

[Acorn]

As for wanting to be bigger...that's a hunger that will never be satisfied, there's ALWAYS a bigger site! 😛

I've had many times where I wanted to give up but then I changed my mind as soon as I thought about just what I would be giving up. A lot.

 

[datoneer]

Most important is that you like what you created.

 

[David]

This is to be expected. But there are always going to be bigger and better sites, it's just how you go about with yours which makes the difference.

Can a new site emerge and become the next big thing? Sure it can. Will it be yours? Probably not. What can you do about it? Just keep going at it and see where you end up. Fowler did so.

 

[Hotspot]

I am not one to give up, so I've never really had the thought. I have gotten sad that it didn't go as well though.

 

[VirusZero]

Sure I've thought about giving up once. It felt like I was posting, and posting and posting but not really getting any responses. I felt like I just couldn't make a topic people wanted to reply to or that got them interested. And I had no idea why my topics weren't getting replies... was it just I was asking the wrong questions? Were the topics not about things they cared about? Was it something about the topics themselves? I didn't know (and still don't for that matter). But I just kept making topics regardless.

It also didn't help that at the time a bunch of people ended up leaving. I don't know why, they never told me and I tried contacting them later but I've never heard from them. So I don't know what went on there. (Which itself was a bit discouraging.)

Furthermore, my web design skills were pretty limited so it's not like I had the prettiest site around to advertise. Which made it hard advertising since I knew I couldn't compete on a graphical level and that was something that really mattered when most sites were really well done. Which would a guest pick if they were looking at 2 sites? The really pretty one or the ugly one? (Thankfully my skills have improved somewhat and my site does look better now than it did.)

All those combined got me to think about giving up. But I didn't because I knew I couldn't. I wouldn't be happy to just fold like that. Plus I had ( and still have ) the feeling that despite it all, if I closed the site people would miss the site.

 

[Poopy Head]

I've given up on almost everything, I'm a quitter not just on the internet, but in real life as well 😛

 

[Cobalt]

Honestly? Yes. I'm having a terrible time trying to advertise our forum. It's like, what's the point? It's just another general forum to everyone. It's not different at all. It's worth a shot, though.

 

[bauss]

Giving up is not a option, I am going to make it in this business by dedicating hard work. I've given up on everything else, except this site, and I tend to keep it that way.

 

[ATiRAGEPRO]

Then I had a think, and to be honest, I don't care if no-one sees it, I enjoy it and I just like writing about games 🙂

From depressed to happy in 0.5 seconds 😀

This. :cheer:
I've had my video game forum for about 4 years, and have delt with one season of bad luck after another. I've ended up going through about 4 different software for it, and about 11 crashes before I finally managed to get the software I have for it now. Every morning when I got up, my daily routine consisted of this:



Aside from all the spam, It became pretty obvious to me and anyone else that there was nothing really special about my website anyway. It was just another video gaming website in a sea of other video gaming websites.



But I toughed it out, and kept pushing. There was even a point where I just knew my website wasn't going to get where I wanted it to be, but I did it anyway. I did it because after the crashes finally stopped, and the spambots forgot about it, It was the best video game website I have. It was an awesome website to me, and that was all that mattered.

So far the website has picked up quite a bit, and people are actually starting to use it. It took me 4 years to get the website where it is right now, and every second was worth it in my opinion. 😎

 

[Singkol Promo]

This is one of the most difficult things to deal with when running a small blog. i completely understand how you feel and also completely agree with the fact that it should be something you enjoy doing. There are also ways to increase your page rank and gain exposure. You may not be as big as IGN, but there are many people who will still read your work as long as they can find it.

I'm not sure how big your staff is, but IGN has a BUNCH of people working for them making their site much easier to update and maintain. Like any small business a small blog has to stand out and gain their own unique following which can oftentimes be very difficult.

 

[jdab]

This is one of the most difficult things to deal with when running a small blog. i completely understand how you feel and also completely agree with the fact that it should be something you enjoy doing. There are also ways to increase your page rank and gain exposure. You may not be as big as IGN, but there are many people who will still read your work as long as they can find it.

I'm not sure how big your staff is, but IGN has a BUNCH of people working for them making their site much easier to update and maintain. Like any small business a small blog has to stand out and gain their own unique following which can oftentimes be very difficult.

We only have like 6 staff or so, and yeah I know they have many which means they can get all sorts of news, I just don't have the money for that 😛