

When crisis hits - hanifvirani
http://jacquesmattheij.com/when+crisis+hits

======
tomeric
We run a big online restaurant guide in The Netherlands.

At the beginning of 2009, our income from AdSense (our main source of income)
halved overnight and later dropped to about 25%. We had a little bit of money
in the bank, but not enough to survive for more than a few months.

We immediately focussed on finding and developing alternative sources of
income and those sources have now become our main sources of income and have
enabled us to grow a lot.

Without that crisis, we probably wouldn't have grown as much as we have.

~~~
Luyt
_"At the beginning of 2009, our income from AdSense (our main source of
income) halved overnight"_

Did you ever find out why this happened? I'm also curious which alternative
way of income you eventually found.

~~~
tomeric
We think it was because of the economic crisis. The restaurant sector was hit
pretty hard and that probably caused a lot of companies to stop advertising.

The revenue is now back to it's old levels, but it stayed that way for 6-7
months.

We started a program that allowed restaurants to advertise directly with us.
Made it very easy to try by not having any contracts and being a lot cheaper
than our competitors. We got someone to do sales on a commission-only basis.
He was so good (~ 70% of the restaurants he calls become a customer) that he
is now a partner.

We also added affiliate links to sites where you can order food online, make
reservations, etc.

------
codenerdz
How does one trace money through "connections"?

