The grim reaper
Last year I culled about 500 dead links from our database, but this year the total was lower- 231, just under ten percent. This doesn't include inactive sites like blogs, just sites or pages that have disappeared, and will include some sites that were unavailable when checked but still exist.
Some areas that were declining seem to have bottomed out, like language exchanges. 33 schools and 22 job sites went down, but this could be over-expansion - I could never understand the need for so many job sites targeting South Korea - and a fair few of the schools that went were specialised ones offering business English in nice settings, probably reflecting current economic realities, but some mainstream schools have gone too.
A number of ESL sites that have been around for a while seem to have shut, including Ellie's English, English Maze and Word Surfing. When Alex Case asked whether the small, free ESL site was dying, I said that I felt that it was the medium-sized sites that were at risk as they seemed more exposed.
I don't know why these sites closed, and there could be many reasons, but it is sad to see sites that have been open for several years disappear.
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I hope next year the same won´t be true about my blogs. I have two. So let´s see in 12 months´time.
Zdenda
With the cost of hosting, I guess that most people have to rely on advertising nowadays to make some profit or keep their website online.