Ironically, it seems that I start pondering the future of e[lust] at the same time every year. Last year I considered it, but mainly because things weren’t running smoothly. A wonderful suggestion to change the dates to static dates every month made things run a lot better, I think.
My reluctance to stay in the sex blogging world in even just a blogging capacity doesn’t help my own desire to keep running e[lust]. It’s just more work than it’s worth to me anymore. It’s a part-time job, basically, except that it has turned into charity. I used to make money with advertising but thanks to Google’s new rules of the game, the type of advertising I was willing to put up with (unobtrusive sidebar text links) has gone the way of the dodo bird. And while I don’t do this for the money, the thrill is gone and it has been replaced with obligation. In essence…a job. And when you’re not being paid for a job, the willingness and desire to continue to do it plummet greatly. At this rate, I’ll be out money. The domain is paid for in advance but it’s hosting that keeps it active and live. All in all, it costs me around $100 $250 -because I’m an idiot and forgot about the extras I’ve added on, like the RSS and mailing list stuff- to keep it running per year. But that is just to keep the lights on, that isn’t enough to keep the cranky secretary on.
I believe that the hosting renewed for another year recently so oh well. I’m out that. But after this time next year, e[lust] will cease to exist. Unlike Sugasm, I just can’t see the point in keeping up with paying for hosting on a site that isn’t active, the links contained within are slowly dying off anyways, and it isn’t generating revenue.
The final edition of e[lust] will be coming up shortly, in December.
What happens after that? There are a few options as I see it:
1. Nothing. The site lays dormant until hosting runs out and then it is gone.
2. I sell the whole site, as it is, for a fair lump sum. I transfer the domain (and the gmail accounts) to someone else who will run it and keep it as a sex blogger digest. I’d rather sell it to a fellow, established blogger so I know that my creation won’t turn into a porn aggregator but I won’t put any real conditions on the future editions once it’s no longer mine. 3 years ago when Sugasm officially ended, I would have rather had the option to own Sugasm and keep the ball rolling on the existing readership and credentials; it was harder to build something from scratch. (Note: If you’re interested in this option, please feel free to contact me. I don’t have a set price yet, I still need to figure that out – but if it’s something you’re interested in, let me know sooner than later. I likely will not start serious talks on this until January)
3. I find a few companies willing to “sponsor” each monthly edition; they will get a banner and a text link at the bottom of the edition. I don’t want to have to hunt for sponsors every month so this would have to be prepaid and all that – if I get a year’s worth between a few companies, that is. This information will not be posted on other people’s blogs, however, just here. I will also find a few willing souls to completely take over the reigns of putting out an edition for every other month. I’ll do the other every month. (For this option to work, I need to have everything on board – a few companies lined up and a few reliable people giving firm commitments. I don’t want to scramble month to month to line things up)
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