[Taiki]

Exactly! It's sad when I see avi sites asking for money but it makes me wonder how they spend the money they do get and if the people who own the site have an outside job that they use to invest money in. I remember a long time ago Solia was looking for new ways to make money because the people that owned it didn't want to get day jobs. What. I understand you want to make your site into a business but your personal needs should already be taken care of before using site money, unless the site is making a ton of money that can both support you and the site easily. That makes me wonder if that's why avi sites don't have money to develop new features.

I think a lot of people start avi sites for the wrong reasons and have the wrong impression of what it means to start a business. Or rather, they don't even think of it as a business. They think it'll be easy and just do what other sites do but "their own way". A lot of these smaller sites that have failed started their site out of hatred for other sites. "This site will be better than so and so! We'll do what the users want, etc, etc" is what I tend to see but I don't think they fully understand what that means.

If you started a business and sold the same things as everyone else but in different packaging, it'll be hard to stand out and create a loyal fan base. What sets good sites apart is creating things other sites have never thought of. I thought it was so weird when Gaia introduced the fish tank thing... but as long as there are people that enjoy it, then it was a success. Sites shouldn't be so scared to try new things.