The Latest Casualty - Moddin.net
Posted by Stephen on
January 23, 2007
When Futurelooks started up, I never thought that I’d be able to run it as a full time business. However, after over seven years, give or take a few months, the site has proven itself to be quite sticky. It seems that over the years, for every site that is able to rise above the rest, a balance needs to be maintained. Thus, a handful of sites need to go dark to balance out that success. The latest victim is Moddin.net.
I received their news release entitled “The end is nigh!” Here is a snip from it:
It’s a sorry day for me to be writing this news post but sadly it is an inevitable one. As of 31st January 2007, Moddin’.net as we know it will be closing its doors for good. Despite some major plans to overhaul the site and turn it into a community driven modding experience (read: Web 2.0), as that is what the scene needs, at the early part of last year the team has struggled to find the (spare) time to carry out the work involved despite all being willing.
You can find the full email posted right here.
Apparently, Moddin.net has been online for over 5.5 years. After a quick look at some of their content, there shouldn’t be any reason why they couldn’t stay online for another 5.5 years. However, to the trained Web Entrepreneur, it is pretty clear why they couldn’t make it.
First off, Moddin.net doesn’t make any money. I can see that from the usual suspects. Their Google integration isn’t optimized and they don’t have any direct ad sales. You would be amazed how quickly things get done when the funds are available. The design is also extremely dated. My first impression is that the site hasn’t been updated in ages, while in reality, they have had some recent articles posted in the last year.
So the content is decent on Moddin.net, aside from the dated look, why can’t they sell an ad to support themselves? If we look at reality, no one is ever known for being the “Best Writing Author”. The ones that write well don’t sell books. That’s why they starve. The “Best Selling Authors” may not be the best writers, but they market themselves well and sell a lot of books. As a result, even though their first book may not be the greatest, they get a chance to keep trying.
It seems that Moddin.net is missing someone on their team that is good at marketing and sales. You can be as passionate as you want about something, but if you are not able to sell that passion to others, then who cares. The telling detail comes from this quote from their farewell release:
Because of our plans to relaunch the site suppliers held off with advertising campaigns which meant hosting costs were coming directly from my pocket and unfortunately it is not economical enough to carry on this path.
Why would you stop selling? Why would you shoot yourselves in the foot by letting your suppliers know that you’re relaunching? Furthermore, why would you stop “Business as Usual”? Companies always want the bigger better deal. If you tell them in advance that something better is coming along and stop producing OF COURSE they will wait. In the meantime, you starve. Without consistent cash flow you go out of business, and that’s just what has happened. Even brick and mortar businesses continue to operate throughout renovations so that they can fund the renovations to offer a better experience for their customers.
Although I feel sorry for them and I’m sad to see another one of our own go down the tubes, what happened is really a self fulfilling prophecy. They did everything right to seal their doom, despite their passion for the content. So the lesson today is learn to sell and market yourself. Without those skills, you could be a rocket scientist and no one would give a crap. Oh, and never tell people a better deal is coming. The best possible deal is always right in front of you, right now.
Well, like you said, it was a self fulfilling prophecy. Decide that you’re going to fail and, sure enough, you will.
I hate to say it, but it looks more like they didn’t know how to run a business at all. You could have all the talent and knowledge in the world, but if you can’t sell it, that’s it. Game over.
Stephen, why don’t you take over the sites and users? Seems like you know what needs to be done to make the sites work.
Regards,
Richard.
That’s an easy one. I’m just not the right fit for this site and focus.
I’d need to be passionate about the content that it produces. Because I’m not into modding, the content team would see that and I can’t sell anything that I’m not passionate about. I just wouldn’t be able to provide the leadership and support that team would need because I’d have my attention on Futurelooks et al.
There would be a lot of clean up to do as well. The site design needs to be nuked, and would need to be rebranded so that the suppliers are seeing a new face and that “new site” they were expecting to fulfill that initial promise. Although it would make some money with a little Google tweak here and access to the programs that Futurelooks has, it would also take some money to get the work done. Spending the money is not a problem, but I don’t typically spend money on things I don’t want to do.
If they could find someone that could sell and market that so happened to be passionate about modding, they could get that site going again. It’s all in the leadership.
Good leadership - I agree.
‘programs that Futurelooks has’ - what are they, if I may ask?
Regards,
Richard.
We deal with Tribal Fusion and Vibrant Media for our network advertising. We also have access to the Shopping.com network. All three have minimum qualifiers that most smaller sites don’t meet.
Because Futurelooks is a veteran of all three, its easy to get other sites that I own into those networks under Futurelooks. On top of that, we don’t just get the “Standard” offer that sites would get as new publishers. Advertisers tend to advertise with sites that have a track record, and as a result, I have a bit more bargaining power when I feel I need a raise from any of them.
For example, this blog actually runs Vibrant Media IntelliTXT. There aren’t many blogs that get to run that all on their own. It’s because of the relationship I’ve built with the VibrantMedia through Futurelooks that has made this so. I also run Shopping.com here, again through the relationship with Futurelooks. In fact, all my sites run all the programs, even though they would never qualify on their own.
In addition to those programs, I often sell direct advertising over the network of sites. When I have a lead that buys advertising on Futurelooks, I can immediately show them one or two more sites that would meet their needs and complete their advertising mix, making it a one stop shop.
I think one Dot Com Mogul put it best when he said “Big Sites Rule. Small Sites Drool”. However pretentious and unfair that may sound, it is often the case.