Tastes follow broad swathes based on what is popular, which presumably is where you will get the most 'cheap activity' - that is, you found what's popular and actually get a game quickly, but then your chances of lasting based on the whims of someone who followed the flavor of the hour... dead.

That leaves the fickle task of appealing to a broad audience in some other way, and you can never really win in that war. I'll just leave it at that, as the solution is yours to find and not the scope of this thread anyways.

I've seen and had countless deaths in group and 1x1 roleplaying, most of them from my partner/collective group, but in some cases because I failed to hold interest or times took a particularly southward turn. Have they hurt at all? Sure. It's the reason why I started baking dead roleplays into my behind the scenes lore, because I hate my creations simply being left in limbo whatever they are. Through that mechanic, and my methods of always keeping busy, I never consider the confidence part. Too much to do in life to worry about being unappealing to the broad audience on a little ole' roleplay site. If it does not work, try another approach, look at what others have done and learn exactly what the scenario is that you're in, or simply move on, for life has many more offerings than the guild.