Tuesday, June 09, 2009
The Rise and Fall of Big Carpooling
So last night I completed my port of ESRI mapping services to Google Maps. It was easier than expected. I should be deploying it this week. The funny thing is this has been on my list of things to do since over a year ago. I guess it took calling an end to it to start development. Kind of like when you sell a house you doing home improvement to get a better price. Also, some guy wants to release a carpool iPhone app and give me 50% commision on it using my database. The app will cost a buck in the iPhone app store. Sounds like a good idea to me. I've got nothing to lose.
I was looking at my May stats. Last year I had 12,000 visitors in May. This year I had 1,200 visitors. It is amazing what press and advertising can do to a web site. It was in May of last year that in one day I had 1,600 visitors by being in a story that got on the front page of Yahoo. I am also no longer on the first page for keyword carpool. Basically without watering and feeding, the site is going to die. For a while though I was a major competitor. To think that Good Morning America mentioned me and the site got put in Womens Health Magazine is a big feat. Then my quote about it being like a dating service got picked up by the AP and I was in newspapers in all of the nation. It was a blast.
The most thrilling time had to be my first newscast. I remember sending out a press release using prweb and told the world that there was a new carpool site in town. All of a sudden I get a call from NBC News wanting to do a story. So I rented out an office for the day and they came down to do the story. It was all very official. The first time it aired I was in my house and was jumping up and down. Holly was talking to her grandparents to watch the news. I couldn't believe it. At least 100,000 people saw my ugly face on their TV screens. I was super excited.
Ah, but the sad thing is I believed the hype. I became prideful of the press and thought I could spend money on it so the whole nation would catch on. I think by August of last year when I went full time on the site the realization had already hit of everything I did wrong. So as I look back I can see how dangerous jumping head over heals into something can be. But I now have experience, and 30,000 promotional cards. Anyone need some firewood?
I was looking at my May stats. Last year I had 12,000 visitors in May. This year I had 1,200 visitors. It is amazing what press and advertising can do to a web site. It was in May of last year that in one day I had 1,600 visitors by being in a story that got on the front page of Yahoo. I am also no longer on the first page for keyword carpool. Basically without watering and feeding, the site is going to die. For a while though I was a major competitor. To think that Good Morning America mentioned me and the site got put in Womens Health Magazine is a big feat. Then my quote about it being like a dating service got picked up by the AP and I was in newspapers in all of the nation. It was a blast.
The most thrilling time had to be my first newscast. I remember sending out a press release using prweb and told the world that there was a new carpool site in town. All of a sudden I get a call from NBC News wanting to do a story. So I rented out an office for the day and they came down to do the story. It was all very official. The first time it aired I was in my house and was jumping up and down. Holly was talking to her grandparents to watch the news. I couldn't believe it. At least 100,000 people saw my ugly face on their TV screens. I was super excited.
Ah, but the sad thing is I believed the hype. I became prideful of the press and thought I could spend money on it so the whole nation would catch on. I think by August of last year when I went full time on the site the realization had already hit of everything I did wrong. So as I look back I can see how dangerous jumping head over heals into something can be. But I now have experience, and 30,000 promotional cards. Anyone need some firewood?
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