Big Don Weho
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All tall things must come to an end and so, after ELEVEN YEARS (Sept 2006-Sept. 2017) my free tall guys website http://www.bigdonsboys.com did its last update. It was lots of fun meeting tall men, photographing them, and/or collecting and cleaning up media about them. And I learned so much about writing websites, getting internet advertising and following sports.
Or rather, following athletes. I HATE sports but I love following athletes until the judge hits me with another TRO! Badoom boom.
My other income sources, Hollywood animation (DonJMyers.com) and protesting Scientology (AngryGayPope.com), are very stressful. So I was also partially doing it for stress relief because looking at sexy photos is what I find relaxing.
But another factor was that it was supposed to bring in ad money. Since website rent is only about $150/year the expenses were low for that but higher for things like my time. Finding and shooting talent is very time consuming. Even just searching and curating photos from the web can take a whole day. My site used to bring in $200-$400 per month from google ads. Now it barely breaks $50/month and that is just awful.
Sadly, this is not a function of my site, really, or I could blame myself. Rather it is a problem of the post-Facebook internet. "Mom and Pop" ad supported websites that are a labor of love are getting hammered. Even websites that were designed to make ad money such as The Huffington Post WILL DIE SOON.
Sites like the New York Times, who are now charging for content, will survive. But they just had a walkout protesting the firing of their fact checkers. They, and other papers, are really struggling! And this is the nation's paper!
You may have noticed that your favorite website may be shoving lots of ads down your throat, more invasive ads, more in numbers, etc. Pathetic click bait ads, cheap-o scam ads, or worse. That is no coincidence.
Advertisers want to be on facebook where they know all about you so that, if you are a gay man with no pets, then they will not show you ads for tampons and cat litter. I understand that. But it is sad anyway. Logging onto Google first before going to my site results in more targeted ads, but how many people have done that before visiting it? If you are logged into google and you find that VW ads start following you around multiple sites because you did a google search on "volkswagen sales" then you know why.
And then there are the ad blocker programs and the people who want everything for free (so they can complain about the lack of perceived quality). The ad blockers cut the free internet off at the ankles with no repercussions. And now folks want free music, free porn, free copies of pirated "Free Willy." Where does it end? There is less work for me as a Hwd animator in part due to piracy.
Not only is every Madonna song stolen on Youtube, but she has to put a basket next to the front door in her music studio. It is for people to dump their memory sticks, cell phones, etc, to prevent her "friends" from stealing half finished music and posting it on pirate websites (again).
Some say "Oh Madonna is already rich she doesn't need the money so I like free stuff." A - rich people deserved to be compensated for hard work, B - Madonna's work supports many other people than her, and C - rampant piracy destroys the system."
I'm very proud of my website and have gotten lots of great responses to it but there is no free lunch. While BigDonsBoys.com is still standing tall it is not growing bigger. It will be available to all for a very long time but it, like the 'free' Internet, has been coming up short for years and it won't get better.
So thanks to all the people to that enjoyed the site, clicked on the ads or sent me a nice message. But the site is now standing, frozen, because it's what I've chosen.
What with the destruction of the middle class and this "societal collapse" thing going on I have to put my energies into other income streams.
I now take donations for fighting Scientology on http://www.patreon.com/angrygaypope . This is the new way to make money off the internet. Find an audience and ask them to pay for something they could not get otherwise.
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