I certainly understand needing to support your family. But I understand why investors are so leery. Additional $$$ in the business and a redesign would probably result in more users but probably not a substantial increase in revenue. Your monetization strategy is not working at 6 million(impressive btw) users then why would it work at 12 million users. There is a very small ROI with the current strategy. Properly monetizing 6 million users would result in alot more than just beer money.
what you've done is awesome. With a few tweaks to the business model you could generate real revenue without needing to raise investment capital.
As someone who is in "this space" and a product guy, @Dumbfounder, needs to refocus then rework the design. Its not much many to edit a decent psd designer then get it chopped off and ready for xhtml.I've done many Its a cheap way to get a slick new design in no time at all. Refine later. I have access to some who do high quality psd+css w/ good turn around time. You tell them what you want, toss around ideas and you get yourself a final product that needs little work. I
His pages have too much going on. Less is more. You should be able to clean things up and drip one 250x250 px ad for say 10-15 cents. Once the ui is reworked this will come to life. I like what he is going but right now he is doing too much. If you want to chat him me up. I am a front end dev and we could probably build some interesting things.
I am pretty sure I could bring its full potential out within 2 month of so while not spending much month at all.
@dumbfounder. If passionate. Reach out to me today.I have some free time this week to dicuss if you want.
A redesign is only a piece of the puzzle, it will not make the site suddenly fundable. I need the time to work on a few fundamental things to position the site to be more attractive to both users and investors, and time is money.
I just reread what I wrote. Yikes! Please excuse all the auto-correct typos. Is this a "new" startup or is it part of your previously funded searchles company?
I completely understand that a redesign is only a piece of the puzzle but when dealing with visual site... design can be a huge piece of puzzle. It can also make a big difference in revenue.
what you've done is awesome. With a few tweaks to the business model you could generate real revenue without needing to raise investment capital.