Hi,
I started my passion project back in college in 2018 and learnt by myself programming. My idea was to create a recommendation website for movies and TV shows. I was so passionate about that idea to the point that I dedicated countless hours coding and searching about algorithms.
Back then, I didn’t even think about business plans nor promotion (a big mistake I know). My main drive was creating the best possible version of my idea with all the features I always dreamt of: in other words, an enhanced version of IMDb and Letterboxd with an emphasis on recommendations. This was the plan.
After two years of efforts and pain, my website >!www.tastoid.com!< was released in 2020. I find that, in some instances, my recommendation engine is superior to the other similar popular websites (that I won’t name). Also, I provide for free features that are paying on other apps (such as advanced search filters). The main differentiating factors are that, for each movie, tags are assigned to describe the mood, plot, etc. and based on that classification, recommendations are generated.
But, here is the thing, although I like my project and it is like my baby, I am paying the server charges myself (ca. USD 300 per month) and it started to take a toll on my personal finances. I had a huge increase in views over the last 30 days (14K sessions – more than +100% compared to the last period). But I only rely on Adsense revenues which amounted to $7. As you can see, it is unsustainable for me to continue this way. I did everything possible to reduce the costs: but medium computing powers are needed for the database which is constantly growing and machine learning to assign tags to movies.
Last month, I created a subscription option (taking inspiration from Backloggd which is also maintained by one person) to allow users to support me for a monthly fee of $5 in exchange of a few perks. I am not after any monetary gain, only trying to have a self-sustainable service. However, not even one user subscribed… even though so far the feedback I received is mostly positive and I have some active recurring users.
This is a hard pill to swallow and, today, I made a realisation. There is no solution to my problem. My mistake was to think that passion and hardwork were sufficient to overcome all obstacles. I thought about selling my service as an API, but again this is my side project, I am the solo developer and I do not have much time dedicated to market it, etc.
So the only rational option, if I don’t want to burn my hard-earned cash, is to close the website. The thought breaks my heart, as I had dedicated so much time and love creating this dream project, and losing all that will be very hard to bear. I feel that my website has potential to help people finding new interesting movies based on their taste and that it provides a certain value, only I have not the budget anymore. Reality check, I guess…
What would have you done? Any advice?
TL; DR: I worked on my passion project for years, a movie recommendation website (launched in 2020). I am paying the server charges myself ($300 monthly). Introduced a $5/month subscription option for user to support me, but no one subscribed. Considering shutting down due to financial strain, despite positive feedback and my attachment to the project. Seeking advice.
Why not put affiliate links to all the shows/movies for them to buy on whatever platform they are available? I.e Amazon links
To some this may seem like a daunting task but I’m sure a script and a few external facing api calls could probably make it happen. As far as finding other ways to make it profitable, I would suggest trying to sell ad space directly to independent long form content creators, create an email list that eventually converts into affiliate sales or ad rev, published sponsored posts, add a members only section to your forum, or even just advertise the paid service better (it’s not super clear to me that you are asking for donations like Wikipedia for example).
As far as offering this service as an api, I think that is good too and don’t think it’s as much work as you might think, the bulk of the code already exists, it just needs to be repurposed and delivered… you also can start with basic features and build it out, but I get that development work takes time and is annoying. Congrats on the traffic and good luck!
I like the thought of offering it as an api or even repurposing, many startups pivot and their code gets used for something else. generating some traction though is always a good sign, people are looking cant give up now!
Also he could list all the streaming services that offer any specific movies or show and add affiliate links to them. Also, if the show isn’t available in the country that the user is in, you could add affiliate links to vpn’s such as NordVPN so people can watch shows that aren’t available in their country or specific streaming service they use.
I came to post this. Some people still buy physical dvd/bluray (especially since some movies cannot be found on streaming services), so by putting an Amazon affiliate link of the recommended movie you could get some commission.
and find a way to let people sign up for alerts. Ex: "Alert me when the cost to rent this movie on Amazon falls below $3.99"
Affiliate links + pricing alerts = OP has their $300/mo covered