blogHi! development

blogHi! internal development log

2006/8/9

04-Nov-2006 - blogHi.com deadline

Tags:
@ 05:21 PM (35 months, 9 days ago)

Dear blogHi community,

This post is about an imminent closure of blogHi, please read it.

I have just received an e-mail from a new user, trying to explain something that puzzles most blog hosting websites out there: why most people abandon their blog in the first days after opening it:

“My opinion most people abandon the blog before they use it is simply because they can't figure out what how to operate it.. I am ome of rhem...” (thank you, Frank for your message!)

This led me thinking how much would blogHi benefit from a clean and simple wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki), and how much sense would it make to create one. Then I thought again that I won't probably have the time to install this wiki, and more important maintain it. And this is a real pity. In fact there are so many things that the community could benefit from, and it's a real pity that I am not doing anything about it. All in all this is a lack of service to you, the blogHi community, and it's not something that I am proud of.

some monetary aspects now:

On the 4th of November, blogHi will be 2 years old. It has operational costs of around $300 per month. Until now, the website operational costs were covered in the range of 40-50% by adsense, and the rest comes from my personal pocket (in the hope that the website will become profitable). If by that date I still won't be able to cover the operational costs of the website, the website will have to be shut down.

I'm also considering selling the whole website, but I have no time to launch in complex blogexplosion-like sales. I'm open to ideas here. Actually, I am open to any kind of ideas. To be honest, I hate as much as you do the deadline-tone of this post.

If you want to host your blog somewhere else, please use the RSS feeds to move your blog away. If you need some special construct to transfer your posts and
comments, please contact us.

It has been great to have you guys here! Thank you for chosing blogHi!

Calin
blogHi.com

Comment(s) »

  1. That's a bummer. I like Bloghi because it seems like the easiest to operate that I looked at. Hope things can be worked out.

    Comment by Dugg— 2006/08/09 @ 07:50 PM — (Reply)

  2. Oh no! BlogHi is the best-syndicated free blogsite running. Sure would hate to see it shut down after all the growth of features you've packed into it. Have you considered trying to attract further ad-based or subscription-based revenues? BlogHi has value and deserves support.

    Comment by nbk— 2006/08/09 @ 10:16 PM — (Reply)

  3. To lose all posts and comments would indeed be a complete disaster. As soon as you find another blog hosting platform that have an import module, please contact us and we will set up a complete dump of your blog, including posts and comments.

    blogHi already closes un-used blogs 6 months after a blog is abandoned, but there isn't much savings associated with this.

    Comment by blog development— 2006/08/10 @ 10:03 AM — (Reply)

  4. This is a disaster. So if you did shut down every post would be gone etc? Is the cost associated with how many blogs are going? Suppose those abandoned after X number of months or whatever were deleted would that save costs? If you did shut down and our blogs are not longer available is there a way to download our blogs?

    Comment by Elmers Brother— 2006/08/09 @ 10:57 PM — (Reply)

  5. calin consider nbk's suggestion of a $20 annual fee. Would this make it financially for you?

    Comment by Elmers Brother— 2006/08/09 @ 11:46 PM — (Reply)

  6. Why not consider what live journal does and how it charges it's members. $20-$30 is a year is more than fair. Shutting it down when we have all worked with you to build out blogs doesn't seem right.

    Comment by Susan— 2006/08/10 @ 12:50 AM — (Reply)

  7. I agree it's somehow not fair. There are also three months until November; plenty of time to plan such a move, besides you have my full assistance in moving your blog posts and comments away.

    Fact is however that I can no longer sustain this website; it has grown beyond my support. I am a single developer doing this as a hobby. Livejournal has coloured investors around, financial roundings, dedicated staff I just can't compete with. Real-life internet stories are not happy-endings for small individuals like me.

    blogHi is free blog hosting, and it's unfair to force you into paying customers.

    Comment by blog development— 2006/08/10 @ 10:30 AM — (Reply)

  8. The cool things about Blog Hi are: #1, the name kicks ass. #2, nothing too fancy: just nice layout and cool colours. #3, no pesky ads or dumbass logos. #4, the hosting space to fill my needs. #5, lack of negative reputation (I'm thinking about some of my "trendy" livejournal friends). #6, the owner cares (I actually got a prompt personal response to an email I sent). #7, it's free.

    Anyways, if anyone has any ideas about other blog hosting sites which provide the same quality of service, feel free to leave a comment on one of my blog entries.

    Comment by Vivid iKid— 2006/08/26 @ 06:53 PM — (Reply)

  9. blogHi doesn't close anymore!

    Comment by blog development— 2006/09/01 @ 02:00 PM — (Reply)

  10. There has to be a species of a solution with which we can raise to keep this one going loudly. My blog does not generate so much traffic as any of the others but this has begun to gain the following loyal one and the fans of our team now frequent the blog more than our principal place.

    Comment by Home Accents Furniture— 2007/12/14 @ 02:28 AM — (Reply)

  11. What a relief... Keep it up...

    Comment by Vent Visor— 2007/12/14 @ 02:29 AM — (Reply)

  12. Please keep up the good work however. Bloghi is the best.

    Comment by Jean-sweet pea— 2007/12/17 @ 05:25 PM — (Reply)

  13. I have only just found this it as been thrust at me suddenly as i worked on a post, i must have joined during all this knowing nothing about it, bloghi your the best.. Do hope it can be sorted or by now is already sorted

    Comment by Jean-sweet pea— 2007/12/17 @ 05:32 PM — (Reply)

» Leave a comment


:mrgreen: :neutral: :twisted: :arrow: :shock: :smile: :???: :cool: :evil: :grin: :idea: :oops: :razz: :roll: :wink: :cry: :eek: :lol: :mad: :sad: :!: :?:

Preview:

You say:

To prevent spam, please type in the exact word you see in this image: CAPTCHA
To refresh the image, click here. Otherwise, contact us.

  • Your E-mail address is never displayed. If you enter it, it will only be visible to the blog author
  • Since there already are comments to this post, your eventual comment might trigger a notification e-mail to the persons that commented before you.
  • The line and paragraph breaks automatically