Obsessed with website, but I am dying need advice

[colochris]

Hello to all,

I run a Bowling website. You may think bowling, how boring and really for many it is. I am ranked on the first page of basically every search engine for the keywords, Bowling Forums.

Recently I have noticed my reviews section of my forums have been getting good search engine ranking moving up many pages to the first page of Google for an example for the keywords, bowling reviews taking over spots that I was told would never happen.

I have around 1480 members and have been online for 18 months.

I am dumping tons of money for advertising and I spend A TON of time online promoting my site to fellow bowlers on facebook, myspace and other sites.

I am just curious when it gets to a time where its time to kill the idea and move on? I spend so much time on my forum, that I take away from my family, I worry about my site constantly, and I just get sick trying to get more members and have this profit making site that people want to be a part of.

My site makes very little money. I do get a few site donations, but does nothing for server costs.

Having a niche is nice, but when you get no money and its hard to get members it feels stranded.

I felt like and do feel like I have a good thing going. I get 20 or so new people each week now, and the potential is there. But I just get burned out too from time to time.

I am wondering what to do if the whole "make a forum about something you enjoy and not do it for the money" idea runs out and its time to bail out?

I enjoy my forums greatly and I have worked very hard at it. It has turned into an obsessions. But I am curious if when you get a forum established, sometimes a new owner can really make something out of it when a current owner cannot?

Any ideas and advice are appreciated. I am sure most owners get a bit down on what the future holds for a forum. Its like having a car, if you sell it while its still running you make some money. If it breaks down your stuck with nothing, but then again someone can buy your car and just do a simple paint job and sell it for double what you got for it.

I have so many people say nice site, about time there is a site with no bashing, and so on. Even corporate bowling people tell me how to keep up the great work because they may need a place to go to when there forums are shut down because of all of the smack talk and such.

Thanks for your tips or advice.

Chris