When I launched Remotely Awesome Jobs in 2015, I was looking for a job. I was tired of searching through multiple job boards and filtering on “Remote Only” to find the perfect new workplace.
Since then, hundreds of other job board aggregators have popped up. I like to think that Remotely Awesome Jobs was one of the better, more comprehensive boards. But the truth is that I’ve devoted far too little time to it, and haven’t managed to keep up with the competitors. What started as a labor of love became a mental drain as I felt guilty for not doing more to improve the site. I’ve wanted write more blog posts to drive traffic, I wished to add more job boards to my list of sources, I’d have liked make it more usable, etc. etc. etc. And those negative thoughts ended up crowding out happier thoughts in my brain during my free time.
On top of that, I’ve had to constantly stay on top of hackers. Remotely Awesome Jobs’ Twitter account (its biggest source of new users) has been hacked and deleted, and Twitter has been no help in restoring it. There are people on the internet signing up users who never wanted the service, and I have no idea why (does anyone know the purpose of this? I get angry replies from people for this all the time!). I’ve had to continually install CAPTCHAs and honeypots and other tricks to thwart spammers. I’ve had fake accounts created on my behalf with my domain registrar support service. People took advantage of the free posts to create scammy job posts. When I got rid of the free posts, almost all of the employers who used to post advertisements evaporated - they didn’t see the value in posting on Remotely Awesome Jobs when they could just post elsewhere, and it’s hard to blame them.
So I’m shutting down the site. It’s been fun, I’ve learned a lot, but it’s no longer worth the effort or time commitment. The pay-per-click ads barely cover the server and email service costs, there’s little interest in paid posts, and the constant mental self-flagellation for neglecting the site isn’t good for me. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and this site for as long as it’s been up. The site has served over 70,000 jobs to over 280,000 users. We got 480 upvotes on Product Hunt. 5000 people signed up for our email list. I’m pretty proud of all of that. But it’s time to move on.
Thanks again everyone! If you’re looking for an alternative site to get updates on remote job posts, I recommend browsing the “alternatives” page on Product Hunt, here: https://www.producthunt.com/alternatives/remotely-awesome-jobs
Happy hunting, - Mike
