Hey all, I am new here and only recently found this resource but would love to get some advice without causing too much of a ruckus or offending anyone.
I would like to start with some history. I stared my online experience in the 1980's with a BBS where I carried gay photo's for others to download/upload. In January 1999 I launched my internet site and basically did the same thing and I had like 45 images. Well it's now 2005 and I have over 7000 images all categorized by subject. I have always been picky about what I would display and always demanded high image quality. It's always been a free site and I carry no advertising, pop-ups, and banners etc and I am amazed how folks even find the website since I refuse to do reciprocal linking to get on gay weblistings etc. Heck there are even domain names now that are similar to mine just to catch my traffic when folks misspell my url and redirect them to pay sites
Well I am a victim of my own success which has surprised me as I have tried to keep a low profile I now have 9500+ registered active users and over 150GB of outbound traffic consistantly each month and I am to the point where I can no longer afford to keep shelling out the money to maintain a free site but I also know that if I started "charging" for the content that I would raise the hackles of a number of the larger pay sites that currently allow me to do what I do since I don't charge anyone.
So I guess I have to make a decision or I need some one who can point me in the right direction on a way I can become "legit" or I guess I could just sell my domain name and move on, or just shutdown.
I am really perplexed on where to go with my domain as I like it's simple elegant look and I don't want to become like the 1000's of other pay gay websites I have seen (again I am not trying to offend anyone).
Any advice?
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