Why I Failed with nijasharana.com
Why I Failed with nijasharana.com
By Arun CK
When I look back at nijasharana.com, I don’t see a failed idea. I see a failed execution, mainly due to practical constraints and hard lessons about domains, SEO, and sustainability.
This blog is my honest reflection on why nijasharana.com failed, what went wrong, and what I learned from it.
The Original Intention
I started this project in early 2025 with a clear and sincere intention:
To create a digital platform that documents and shares information about Nijashcharana Ambigara Chowdayya, his vachanas, ideas, and the cultural space around Ambigara Chowdayya and Ganga Mata communities.
This was never meant to be a commercial project. It was a community-first, knowledge-first effort.
Why I Chose a Custom Domain
At that time, I believed that having a custom domain like:
nijasharana.com
would give the project:
- Better credibility
- Better discoverability
- Better long-term identity
Technically, the website was well-built:
- Static site (HTML/CSS/Jekyll)
- Hosted on GitHub + Cloudflare Pages
- Fast, clean, and accessible
- Supported by structured content and archives
For a brief period, things worked.
The Real Problem: Sustainability
The first real mistake was underestimating sustainability.
Domain names are not “one-time decisions”. They are recurring commitments.
When the time came to renew nijasharana.com, I simply did not have the funds to continue paying for it.
There was no sponsor. No institutional support. No revenue model.
So the domain expired.
Moving to a Subdomain: The Turning Point
To keep the project alive, I moved it to a subdomain:
nijasharana.arunck.com
Technically, the site still worked. The content was still there. The intention was still pure.
But from an SEO and discoverability perspective, this was the breaking point.
What went wrong after the move:
- Search engines treated it as a new site
- Original indexing was lost
- Authority from the old domain vanished
- Google started flagging it as duplicate or low-trust content
- Rankings dropped drastically
- Visibility almost disappeared
In short: The SEO was effectively killed.
Why This Feels Like a Failure
I call this a failure not because the idea was wrong, but because:
- I didn’t plan for long-term ownership
- I underestimated domain continuity
- I learned SEO lessons the hard way
- I didn’t secure backing before branding the project around a standalone domain
For a content-driven cultural project, domain instability is fatal.
What I Learned
This project taught me lessons no tutorial ever could:
- A domain is not just a name — it’s identity
- SEO depends heavily on consistency and time
- Subdomains are not neutral replacements
- Cultural projects need institutional or community backing
- Good intentions alone are not enough
Was It a Complete Failure?
No.
The content still exists. The research still matters. The work is still valid.
What failed was the delivery mechanism, not the purpose.
And that distinction is important.
What Comes Next
For now, the project lives quietly under my main domain. It may not rank well. It may not get traffic.
But it stands as:
- Documentation
- Learning
- Experience
- A foundation for something better in the future
If I ever rebuild this project again, it will be:
- With stable funding
- With long-term planning
- With institutional or community collaboration
- With fewer assumptions and more realism
Final Thoughts
Not every failure is loud. Some are silent, technical, and invisible.
nijasharana.com failed not because it lacked value, but because it lacked sustainability.
And that, for me, is a lesson worth writing down.
— Arun CK