More AOL Shutdowns: Journals, Hometown Axed (TWX)

Smart move. Trim the fat, and focus on the things that are working (yes, some things are working quite well).

Wow. Another example of half-hearted attempts left to wither, and finally die. So often AOL puts out a 1.0 release of some really good idea, only for mgmt to shuffle, priorities to change, project schedules left hanging, and the end result? Crap for the customers. Time and again.

Will AOL ever stick with something and improve it? Bluestring was another example of a great idea with absolutely horrible execution. I guess it was easier to kill than to make it better, which is really disappointing.

Closing down what can’t profitably be ad supported makes sense (so far Bluestring, Xdrive, MyMobile, Pictures, Groups, Hometown, Journals) but it does make you wonder what they can profitably support from ad revenue among their O&O properties. If you go to Alexa (a course guide admittedly) it looks like the traffic for their new slew of non-AOL branded blog sites still emanates largely from AOL.com and other AOL.com sub domains i.e. still largely driven therefore by the dial-up subscriber. AOL describe their problem as ‘we’ve got increased traffic just can’t monetize’ but you have to doubt even the first part of this when AOL.com incessantly uses slide show pieces to generate 15-20 ad clicks from every story. If you cut out the BS and tricks & deducted dialup subscriber clicks which of their new ad supported O&O properties ex TMZ & maybe Asylum would actually be profitable?

I left AOL Journals in 2005 when AOL botched the monetization of the product. No notice, no revenue sharing, no discussion, just blinking banner advertisements on each journal.

I laughed so hard this morning when I noticed that AOL had suspended advertising on AOL Journals and in it's place the banner adverts announced the closure, plus another banner touting the option to move to Blogger. The irony.

It's sad but on the plus side there are a ton of wonderful writers - photographers this morning looking for a new blogging platform.

Did these people get any severance packages? Word is that AOL is now kicking people out on the streets with nothing but a box to carry their stuff in

I hate to say this, but reading a back and forth about old and arcane AOL products is as interesting as a conversation about ancient Sanskrit writings (and just as interesting and relevant).

WARNING FOR AOLers: Reveling in a handful of new micro-sites with 5-10M pageviews a month is dangerously delusional for the folk left - that doesn't pay for more than a handful of folk (but it does make for interesting resume fluff for the programming execs!)

BurnedAgain - but it's a very NICE box to carry our stuff out in! And if we need two, they are happy to give it to us. AOL spares no expense when it comes to moving boxes for their laid off employees.

@ Tomlin

Beside the 15-20 slide show trick they use to boost PV's, lets not forget the trickery used by Ad.com to take credit for conversions they don't deserve...

To the current AOLers there are some really good places hiring...

You people need a new hobby.

Been getting emails from AOL users all day about this. One reads:

"This morning me and the millions of other AOHell users who have Journals at AOL received an email saying effective Nov. 1, there would not longer be an AOL Journals. Do you know of any blog sites (free or for a fee) that would allow me to transfer my current AOL Journal to their site?

Hope you can help me. Your site is awesome."

What do I tell people who ask me this? To go to Blogger? How do they actually "back up" and "export" their journal content from AOL's blogging platform to Blogger?

I don't know how to advise anyone with these questions so any input is appreciated. AOL Journals have been around for many years, and the amount of content archived on quite a few of them must be staggering - I feel bad for anyone who has to deal with this now.

@MM

http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com

All the answers for the users with questions.

@give me a break-

Corp Comm meeting at 9am - Coach said to bring your laptop and ID

@ AOL rules - be sure to ask for 2 moving boxes right away. And don't forget, as part of the severance deal, you aren't allowed to say anything disparaging about AOL or it's employees.

@Thomas Crown
What a angry loser Thomas Crown must be...

aol is for losers

@Thomas Crown Loser

Is this the new "blogging outreach" strategy by Corp Comm? Looks really effective so far!

On his real point, the use of photo rotation to create "low cal" impressions that is attempting to game the reported metrics for tactical benefit, he does have a point. All this does in the long-term is reduce click through rates for purchased ads and, as such, lowers the price you can charge for the inventory...

Nice to see they are trimming the fat...but what are focusing on that is actually working? Good employees are being laid off, yes I was one of them, and the ones left behind are a bunch of slackers. They are just being kept because they are part of the Ad.com regime. If they really want to slim down, they need to get rid of the inadequate management making the bad decisions that is sinking a company that at one time had potential. Look at the purchase of Bebo...what a waste of money. They still have yet to monetize Bebo.

As an AOL member I think that this just truly sucks big time!

I was mad enough when AOL discontinued access to the Usenet groups....well now I have something else to be mad about!

I don't see how the hometown service / web hosting could represent enough of an expense to run that it couldn't've been made profitable --- certainly it's something which could be used to differentiate the AOL service and it's something which its users value (and which many had paid for in the past).

I've had a personal web page up w/ AOL for over a decade and am _not_ pleased to have to move it and will likely be cancelling my membership (and demanding a refund) over their taking away this service --- how much of _that_ can AOL afford?

In the past they used to charge an additional fee for extra storage space --- why not revive that model? It would certainly be less for me than the thousands a domain name squatter wants to soak me for.

William

More AOL Shutdowns: Journals, Hometown Axed (TWX)640-816What nerve! How dare you talk back to your mother! What nerve. I can't help myself. I can't control myself.

More AOL Shutdowns: Journals, Hometown Axed (TWX) 灭多威 That's nothing? You are right.

640-802 More AOL Shutdowns: Journals, Hometown Axed (TWX) You could say that too. No need to tell you. Why tell you?

Guess I assumed it would be THROUGH Oct. 31st - I can't access my files - and was going to make ONE LAST HARD COPY OF THEM to recreate them SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!

Can't tell you how ticked I am right now - I did have all the 'files' - but I was going to reprint the layouts of my pages - ugh.

I think AOL pretty much stinks today !!
And I was a loyal customer for MANY YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The worst part of AOL axing Hometown and the blogs is that they didn't give much (or any) notice.

I never received an e-mail, and only happened to check one of my pages around October 7th, and saw a message added to the top of my page.

Why couldn't AOL, which was built on member ideas and in response to member issues, give 3-6 months lead time for the shutdowns?

I made a lot of contacts in the music business, some folks who would have been otherwise unavailable because 'everybody' was on AOL.

If AOL had kept their early promise, they could have made great strides, but they went 'corporate' and started to forget the customer. After I get my sites back up, I'm going to return the favor by pulling the plug on AOL.
TomDBomb

The premier seller of air jordans and buy jordans and information on acne.

I had run a thriving voluntary organisation helping unfortunate people for thirty three years. For ten years we used AoL Hometown to promote, assist and generally run the organisation.

What happened on 31st October without notice to me? The association crashed out of existence.

33 years - stopped dead.

Did AoL take my monthly fee this month? Yes.

Will we stay with AoL? No. How can we.

Good bye AoL after ten years of loyaly paying you.

Colin Chatfield
One Parent Family Holidays

Devastated

I only used AOL for their journal service. I paid for the full-service. I've been a customer since April 2001. I went online today to write in my journal and found that the service was shutdown. I am completely devastated. My 18-year old son, my only child, passed away on February 4, 2006. I created the journal site to share memories of my son with family and friends, and for them to do the same.

I know I am stupid for not backing up these memories in some way. I truly believe that it was unfair of AOL to only provide 30 days notice. Especially when they have users like me that do not use AOL as their primary email. Since AOL does not provide true high-speed internet connectivity, I obviously receive email service through my internet service provider. I've been a loyal customer to AOL for more than 7 years. They should have done something more than sending two emails to alert their customers for something so serious as discontinuing the journal service.

I have two and a half years of memories and entries on my healing and grieving process after the loss of my son. I wanted to share these memories later in life with my son I have since given birth, who will never know his brother.

I found this blog sight
http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/

And wanted to post a comment but can't find out how to do that. If anyone knows would you please educate me?

Please forgive me for such a long comment. I wish there were some way for me to retrieve my memories. I am completely devastated.

Virginia

Like most everyone else here, I had my web site on AOL Hometown too. Mine was on since May, 1996. I’ve been a paying member since 1995. When AOL went free, I continued to pay. I thought that, since I was receiving a derived benefit from my website being hosted on AOL, it was only fair that I should put something back into the pot. Stupid ME!!!! Well, I did get the AOL email notifying me about the shutdown and I retrieved my files before the power went off. But the search engine positioning & links to the site are gone forever. My new URL is http://www.typewriterdepot.com and is hosted by a more reliable company than AOL. I will start all over again.



My parting comments to the AOL staff that made this decision are, how dumb can you get? Why walk away from this business when you can charge for the service? Or sell it if you don’t want it. Are you in some sort of self-destruct mode? Are you actually getting paid to make these decisions? I am sure that folks would have paid for this valuable service. It’s no surprise to me that AOL is in the pickle it’s in these days. THIS WAS THE DUMBEST DECISION I’VE SEEN MADE IN A LONG TIME. I don’t know who’s steering this ship but it’s sad.

Amen.