It’s funny because, for the most part, I personally don’t mind ads on sites (unless they’re pop-ups or interactive ones, bleh), but I think Red and I both have been so hesitant because we didn’t want to seem like that was the goal. Now that we’ve been around for a bit, we *hope* that people know what we’re about. So we’re looking into (non-intrusive, non-ugly) ads in earnest right now.

The truth of the matter is that while we expected traffic to pick up once the show aired, we completely underestimated the numbers. We didn’t even come close. And what was to be something to figure out in the long run literally became an overnight concern. And as I’m sure you know, there are other expenses besides server costs to worry about, too. Even if the numbers taper off, we still have to move to a dedicated server. There’s no getting around it. Reality check n’ all that.

Sorry for the unnecessary explanation in reply to you, by the way, but I figure we might as well be honest and have some background in the comments here in case people are wondering what’s up.

Thanks for the encouragement and kind words. They are very much appreciated.

I wish I could help monetarily, but I can say that if anyone thinks you two are in this for the money, then they don’t know you. This site has grown to be something so incredibly awesome, I can barely remember fandom life w/o it. <3

SHHHH! No one’s supposed to know about the gerbils! It won’t be a shock world takeover if people are expecting the gerbils! Dammit! O_O

And that’s very much appreciated, m’dear. Thank you. :)

but I’m not telling all the secrets XD …

I don’t even know what a dedicated server is … but I support your need for one! Your site is worth going without a few lattes ;)

As for the ads, sometimes I even find them helpful, if they’re for Amazon, relevant t-shirts, or geek merch, etc. Best of luck.

You have been busting your butts with this site, I think the least any regular visitor can do is donate a little something :) I don’t mind advertising either, and I really hope you guys find some that suits you!

Thought I might pop in here, I can’t donate as I’m poor but over at TFL we are hosted by Pugmarks who have been really good with us and our huge requirements with MySQL and all that. We’ve recently shifted to a $115 a month server, which I am not sure is do-able for you guys or not? But it is HUGE, so you could potentially move all your sites onto it. …I can’t remember what your previously mentioned costs were. But then again, this site is likely smaller, and less resources-heavy than TFL?

Other suggestion is to register with http://www.text-link-ads.com/ if you are looking for revenue. They aren’t that intrusive, and usually are related to the main site (you can see them on TFL if you need to), we used to get about $100 a month from them, but that has dropped down to about $50 at present.

Another idea that we have recently done is a banner rotation funded by visitors. So, instead of just donating and getting nothing, they give us a little donation and we have a banner rotation for their sites. Thought it was a way of encouraging donations and getting revenue without ads.

Hopefully something there helps :)

Thank you! :) We really appreciate it.