An established skiing trip information site has been generating annual top-line revenue of approximately $6,500, despite being mothballed in 2016 due to the owner’s other commitments. The site continues to bring in around $5,000 annually from ad revenue and $1,500 from affiliate partnerships related to ski rentals. Rising costs prompted a server change, reducing hosting expenses by 90%, and the decision to let several associated domain names expire. Originally part of a multi-site launch in 2014, which included 36 sites for various states, the Colorado-based site remains the primary contributor to operations.
The site has shown slight improvement in organic traffic over the past year with 79,240 sessions, 85% of which were organic. The peak month for traffic is January, while May sees the lowest. Future owners should note the potential for cost reduction beyond the current setup, with ownership costs around $35-$50 monthly against an expected $6,500 annual revenue if no changes are made.
Recent updates included migrating the site to a new server and updating the WordPress version, costing roughly $1,000. The site's content, however, remains outdated, last majorly updated for lift ticket prices in 2019. Relationships with ski rental companies, mainly through Avantlink, are longstanding, and the site uses Adsense for ads due to simplicity. Transition support from the original developer is available. As the owner plans to move to Portugal, they are divesting interests in their projects, including this skiing site. Future work involves refreshing content and potentially expanding into other states.