The Hacker-News-style web site Inbound.org is being shut down, despite what appears to be a record amount of traffic to the web site. The owners of Inbound.org are shutting down the web site and launching a new web site called Growth Hub, which will reside at Growth.org.
According to the SEMrush.com data I’m reviewing right now, the web site traffic for Inbound.org is the highest that it has been over the years–yet they owners are shutting the web site down. Take a look at the traffic:
The site even is ranking for over 21,000 keywords according to SEMrush.com, which is also more than it has ranked for in the past.
Here are some reasons why they’re shutting down:
- “concept of a community is compelling — the core use case of user-curated marketing content is not…”
- “the way people find and share content has changed a great deal since inbound.org’s inception…”
I actually disagree with these statements. I see a lot of content that’s shared by others in my Facebook feed, as well as on Twitter. So, user-curated content is not going away anytime soon. In fact, I personally prefer the niche-type of sites like Inbound.org, Hacker News, and even Reddit (and subreddits), because they narrow down the niche topic even further, making it easier for me to see what matters.
The new site–Growth Hub at Growth.org will apparently be a different type of site–but I think they’re chasing a fad, with “Growth Hacking” as a fad. Just like “inbound marketing” has been a buzz word that so many used but now is used less and less. I certainly wish the best for the owners on the new endeavor–but I don’t agree with the plans. I’d actually keep Inbound.org going, and start the new site. Unless, of course, they need the traffic from Inbound.org in order to make the new site have traffic from the start.