I guess I have to say this somewhere sooner or later…
I cannot speak for product and service websites, but Information websites such as this are dying and going down fast. Those of us in the non corporate end of this have seen both our traffic and revenue going down in magnitudes over the past two years. It has now reached the tipping point where many have closed down and those left barely hanging on and running at a loss.
We like to blame Facebook for taking so much of the computer day away from us meatier entities, what with so many baby pics and selfie selfies. Of course Twitter and the rest of social media take their bite out of daily computer time in their own right.
There is also the problem with both Google Search and Google Adsense punishing controversy while rewarding mindless celebrity and product crap.
But the elephant in the room is mobile. The old Adsense advertising model no longer works. Mobile users will not put up with ads unless there is no way around it, embedded in videos, in apps, popups or what have you. And if it doesn’t fit on a 5 inch screen it’s toast. Your CART fits on a 5″ screen just fine hey? And that’s what it’s come to be all about.
With that said, Kick! intends to at least see it through until Hillary Clinton becomes president no matter. Heck, we did 10 years of pro bono before we began accepting ads in 2006, so it’s all relative I guess. And we all love relatives.