**Thanks to everyone who completed our survey to help us gather data on how you use iLoveKent.net. See the results here.**
Sept. 25, 2016
Dear Kent friends,
I want to thank you for your ongoing support of iLoveKent.net. Your personal support has helped make the site possible.
Because you care about Kent the way I do, I want you to be the first to know that I am considering closing the site down at the end of the year. When I redesigned the site in May, traffic went down, partly due to Google’s search algorithms, but also because people are getting a lot of their information from social media, including iLoveKent’s own channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Despite fresh content, website traffic continues to drop, and I have to consider what that means.
I have not made a final decision yet, but there are two key reasons for my decision. First, I am running at a loss. I can run at no to low profit, but I cannot operate at a loss indefinitely. I have had some generous Kent businesses support the site in the past, but I lost a key advertiser this summer, and that hurt. Also, I am a writer, not a salesperson, which has impacted my bottom line. This is one of my shortcomings, and it has impacted the profitability of the site.
Second, it has been nine years since I started iLoveKent.net, and it may be time to move onto something else. My passion for Kent and our community has not changed, and I will continue to be involved in our amazing city, but I am not sure that iLoveKent.net holds the importance in our community that it once did. I created it to fill a media gap, but social media has taken on that role, and the need for iLoveKent.net is dwindling.
It will be hard to say good-bye to iLoveKent.net if that’s what I decide, but I wanted you to know that I am considering shutting the site down.
Thanks again for your support. We wouldn’t have made it this far without you!
~ Dana
UPDATE: Sept. 25, 11:01 AM — Since my original post, readers have asked if I would continue the social media accounts for iLoveKent.net. If I decide to shut iLoveKent.net down, I will likely shut our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts down too. I appreciate everyone’s kind words, appreciation, encouragement, support and offers to help with content. Ultimately, I have to take the emotion out of the decision and consider the financial implications and opportunity costs of continuing the site.
