Did you know that for most of its existence, Best Gore was completely advertising free? The website is almost 6 years old, but the ads have only been on it for less than a year.
As the site grew in popularity, so did the cost of keeping it on line. For years, Mark paid for hosting out of his own pocket. Then after 4 years of running, after the cost of hosting grew to $350 a month, just before the end of year 2011, Mark tried a donation campaign using PayPal.
For two months, Best Gore members contributed generously to cover the full cost of monthly hosting. But after two months, a whiny Zionist had Mark’s PayPal account banned and donations frozen.
For the next few months, Mark again paid for hosting out of his own pocket, even though at that time, traffic to the site was so significant, running the site became a full time job. With no supplemental income, it’s become challenging to cover for the increasing cost of hosting with no money coming in.
Then in June 2012, when $500 a month server could barely keep up with the amount of traffic, the Luka Magnotta thing happened and the server got pretty much crippled. Unable to keep up with the rising cost of servers that could handle this mass of traffic, Mark was again helped with donations sent to him directly in forms of personal cheques or money orders from generous members.
The lot of you who were around at the time will likely recall how painful it was to post a comment – the site would frequently time out and often completely crash.
It was at that time when Mark saw no other option but to take the unpopular route and put some ads up. He still remained selective about what he’d advertise and refused to offend his members by advertising dreams that never come true (penis enlargement pills, and similar) or similar douchebaggery.
But because the website’s niche makes most people cringe, it was impossible to attract quality advertisers. All that Mark could put up was porn.
From the beginning, the ads barely made a few bucks but even though they have never been high earners, sometimes in the early 2013 they started to generate enough income to pay for the switch to a superior server which we are using now. If you were around in the late 2012, you will know just how amazing the site runs now compared to what it was back then.
Present cost for the server and the Content Delivery Network that speeds up loading of images and other static objects (such as CSS) is $800 a month.
During the first half of 2013, the ads earned enough to cover for the cost of the server, but after Mark’s arrest, which resulted in the drop of new posts, the income form the ads dropped too.
We are currently struggling to meet out server cost obligations, but the few of us who volunteer to keep the site updated also chip in financially so the site can stay on line.
That’s just a little bit of history for those who are new to Best Gore. Cause really, if you ever complained about the ads, you truly have not been around long enough. Had you been, you would know that other than the last few months, Best Gore was completely ad free.
Donation Campaign to Raise Funds for No Ads and Better Comments Section Enancements
Yes, we heard your cries and we agree. Ads are annoying and trust me, neither us nor Mark are happy about having them on Best Gore. Mark carried the burden of keeping the site ads free for years. For him, having those ads there is torturous more than for anyone else.
So we decided to try to take steps that would both help us retain the advertising revenue to pay for the good server that keeps the site running smoothly, and to prevent them from bothering members who peruse the site on a regular basis.
This way, internet tourists will continue being served the ads so hopefully revenue remains unaffected, but those who are not just flying by, will have an option to see the site undisturbed by advertising.
We’re gonna bust our asses to achieve the goal, but we need your help.
With thumbs up from Mark, we set up an Indiegogo campaign with a goal to raise $1,800 ($1,674 after Indiegogo fees, minus additional 3% charged by the credit card processor). If the campaign is successful and the goal is met or exceeded, we will commit to the following:
- No Ads for Logged In Users
- Rating System for Comments with the Ability to Sort Comments by Best Rated so Useless Comments Get Buried and Worthwhile Ones Get Top Visibility
- Badge Highlights for Comments of Members Who Made Financial Contributions in excess of $25
- Dedicated “Hall of Fame” Page with Names of Donors Who Made Financial Contributions in Excess of $100 to Be Praised Whether They Actively Comment or Not
To donate, CLICK HERE!
You asked for it, and we want to deliver. But we need your help to make it happen. We all spend a lot of time on Best Gore, so let’s make our experiences perusing the site more enjoyable.
This fundraiser is strictly for the enhancements to the website. This is NOT a fundraiser for Mark’s legal defence. We are currently finalizing a website dedicated to the coverage of his persecution and will have a new fundraiser launched when it is ready to go public.
