[Carl Briggs]

Well guys, for a number of reasons, it looks like i'm going to be closing the site in August. Despite the site ranking highly in Google and pulling in a lot of hits per week, the forums haven't really taken off as i'd hoped. Although its nice to have some nice content, etc on the homepage (which attracts most of the websites hits), I was hoping to have a busy forum with plenty of members, new posts and plenty of banter to join in with - but sadly, that hasn't happened.

I've invested probably between £1500-£2000 into the site since it started with forum software, plug-ins and add-ons, download licenses, etc - and I can't really put any more in to gain nothing. The site doesn't really generate any money - nobody clicks on the google ads, and the MP3 store pays out around £50 in commision every 6 months. I wouldn't mind putting more in if I felt that it attracted people to the site and kept them here, etc.

Unfortunately, Trance Addict is just too big - everyone knows about it through word of mouth, mentions by established DJ's, links from other DJ sites, etc - its been around for years and its impossible to compete with it. If people want to join a Trance forum, then they'll go to Trance Addict - its as simple as that. It may be full of idiots, it may have no features - but it has what people want, and thats constant new threads about Trance music.

Time is also another big factor. Since the house move late last year, the whole house has needed a complete overhaul all the way through, from front garden, back garden to each room, so i've spent a lot of time away from the site to do that - which has meant features such as the gallery, etc being heavily delayed.

Now i'm looking for a career change, and from August, i'm going to be going to college straight after work for three hours a night, twice a week - so thats going to reduce my time even more. I'm also on the verge of putting on a Trance night in Coventry with two mates, which is kicking off in August.

So, its not something I want to do because I've enjoyed trying to build the site up - but time and money has beaten me. Its time to call it a day.

There's a couple of competition deals in place, plus a few advertising agreements that run up to August - so i'll honour those to prevent those companies getting arsey, but once all of that is clear, i'll be calling it a day I think.

I'd like to thank you all for your commitment to the site since its launch, you've all been a great bunch over the last two and a half years.

After August, i'll still be around - i'll no doubt register on one of the other Trance forums and get involved there, and it'd be nice to think that if our Trance night takes off, i'll be able to call on some of you to DJ at some point

If any of you want to stay in touch, feel free to PM me for my email details.

Alternatively, in a couple of weeks, i'll be launching a mini-site for my new club night - there will be a small forum on there for people to discuss the night, so you're welcome to sign up there at www.inferno-events.co.uk

We've got a few DJ's in the pipeline ( I can't name who they are yet) - but two of them are in the current DJ Mag top 100 rankings, so if any of you fancy a trip down, i'll sort you out with heavily discounted tickets.

Thanks for all the support over the last two and a half years

[russjones]

sorry to hear this mate. sites been great, met a few new people on here, urself included. shame it's all gotta end, but i know what ur sayin bout the bigger sites theres just no way to compete unless u have a big sack of ££££££.

Thanx again buddy....

ps is the sense show endin to then?

[Carl Briggs]

Thanks for the kind words mate. Its been great having you as part of the site

Yeah, unfortunately, the sense.fm show will also be coming to an end, however, i'll be continuing with a monthly show on there.

Also, just to let you know, i'm also becoming a part of the Sense.FM staff - i'll be pretty helping them with content for the site, which means i'll be doing DJ interviews, etc for the site - just like I did here, but without needing to spend so much time on web coding, etc each day - so i'll be hanging around in the forums there more often.

I'l also be helping them promote the station more in the UK - so that it can compete with the likes of Digitally Imported.

So you'll still be seeing me around on the net i'm afraid

[russjones]

and theres me thinkin we got rid of u!! oh well ur first job with sense get me a slot lol.

[Benny]

All the best Carl. You should sell the site, I got thousands when I sold up

[Chris Powell]

What a wounder

What is your website worth? Let's find out

dnScoop - Domain Name Value, History, Stats Tool and Forums

Least i can do ;p

I dont have your email so added inferno-events.co.uk to bookmarks heh

All the best Carl.

[Hayley]

Sorry to hear that Carl I'll be sad to see the site go.

[djx2]

Sorry to hear about this mate!! Forum has be getting less and less busy for a couple of months now which is a shame!!

[michaelsplint]

A true shame. As mentioned to you via mail - it would be cool if some real trancelovers came along and wanted to take over the site somehow.

But it's hard to have a site like this without something really REALLY exclusive for people to come back to - maybe the sense thing will be a good move

We'll deffo get something going in the future

[Chris Powell]

Originally Posted by djx2

Forum has be getting less and less busy for a couple of months now which is a shame!!

Yes but i think a bit part of it is down to all the database errors the forums has had. Even now im still getting warning messages in IE7

Line: 12
Char 22124
Error 'vBulletin is nnull or not and object
Code: 0
URL: http://www.thetrancearena.com/forums...wn-august.html

For a good year or so TTA has come across as being a bit buggy which has no doubt put many visitors of etc. Its ashame Carl hasnt had more time to spend working on the site.