I've been involved with personal computers since the Apple II+ era,
first used a Mac in late 1986, and started doing book design and Mac
support over ten years ago. I love computers and began sharing my
understanding of Macs on the Web over six years ago.
Three years ago that hobby, Low End Mac,
became successful beyond my wildest dreams. I was making $35-40,000 a
year as a Mac Information Systems manager - but in late 2000, I was
taking in more money from my website than from my day job.
On top of that, I was burning out at my job. Not only was I tired of
going to work to see what kind of computer problems I might face (with
70-80 Mac users, there was always something), but management had
decided to go Windows, at least in sales and marketing. My Mac
expertise would soon be worthless.
Site Growth
Watching site income grow from month to month, it looked like there
would easily be enough money for me to quit my day job and earn as much
publishing Low End Mac as working in computer support. And working on
LEM full time would allow me to grow site traffic, further increasing
income.
I sat down with my spreadsheets, analyzed traffic growth on the
site, projected two to three years ahead with the assumption that
traffic would grow at a slower rate each year. I created a budget based
on conservative projections, figuring Low End Mac could survive
comfortably on $3,000-3,500 per month while expecting $4,000-5,000 in
monthly income.
Site traffic grew as expected. In January 1998, we served 81,000
pages. A year later, 393,000. In 2000, 475,000. The following January -
the month that I quit my IS job to publish LEM full time - 589,000. And
in January 2002 we broke the million page mark.
We've nearly doubled monthly site traffic since I made Low End Mac
my full time job.
I didn't intend to get rich, just trade one job for another at the
same pay, but it didn't work out that way. The thing I didn't expect
was that the dot-com bubble would burst and ad rates would plummet,
falling far more quickly than site traffic rose.
We cut wages - I'm now earning a little more than half what I did in
my IS position. We reduced the amount we pay writers, which also
reduced the number of people willing to write for LEM. We slashed the
budget so we could get by on roughly $2,500 per month.
I took on a part time job at a local camera shop to help make ends
meet, to help make up for my cut in pay. And still there were times
when I couldn't cut myself a paycheck for weeks at a time - sometimes
for over a month, as with the PayPal hijacking we experienced a year
ago.
On top of that, we had some bad debts and one debt where we received
merchandise instead of cash. We managed to sell some of that
merchandise, but we still have a couple iMacs that we're prepared to
sell at a loss.
We're not losing money at present. Thanks to the efforts of BackBeat
Media in selling ads and some long term relationships with a few other
vendors, we're pretty much breaking even from month to month. But
that's all we're doing at present.
Worse Than Broke
I am not a businessman. I understand spreadsheets and checkbooks,
but the intricacies of accounting and taxes are something I'd just as
soon leave to an accountant. Unfortunately, that's not something we can
afford to do, so I'm doing my own bookkeeping.
Based on our ever changing budget, our average profit was a few
hundred dollars per month in 2001 (high at the start of the year and in
the hole by the end of the year), followed by losing about $700-800 per
month in 2002, and just about breaking even from month to month so far
this year.
The problem is that 2002 dug us into a hole that profits from 2001
couldn't fill. All together, we ended up about $6,000 in the hole at
the end of 2002. We delayed what payments we could, and at the end of
2002 I was 13 weeks behind on payroll. Today we're 11 weeks behind.
That's a big problem.
The camera shop where I work part time changed hands in May, and I
lost two weeks of income during that period. I've also had my hours
reduced by one-third, which further impacts the family budget.
In normal circumstances, this wouldn't be a big deal. Tighten the
belt a bit. Trim a few expenses. More macaroni and cheese. Less meat.
We've done it before. We can do it again.
The problem is that I'm several thousand dollars behind on payroll
and the city is on our case to make some home repairs - several
thousand dollars of home repairs. We need to reshingle the roof, repair
some cement steps, replace a screen door and some windows, repaint the
chimney, trim some trees, and a bunch of other little things that add
up in a hurry. In addition to that, we've got some plumbing and
electrical issues that need to be taken care of inside the house.
We just don't have the money to take care of them, nor do we use
credit. We're between a rock and a hard place, compounded by the fact
that my wife's business is dependent on contracts with several states -
and they all seem to be in financial crisis this year.
It doesn't rain but it pours, and our personal financial crisis can
only be solved by eliminating Low End Mac's debts.
You Can Help
Site traffic is steady at about 10 million pages per year. Site
income seems stable, and I hope to catch up another couple weeks on
payroll by the end of the year. But even that will leave us several
thousand dollars in the hole - money we desperately need to make
essential home repairs and avoid an arrest warrant and fines from the
city. (As I asked the city attorney how arresting and/or fining me
would help me make the home repairs I cannot afford. I don't get
it.)
Two years ago members of the Mac community helped pull us through a
cash crunch by providing thousands of dollars in donations. It kept us
going, but we've been slowly slipping into debt ever since. Although
we're breaking even today, we need to eliminate our debt and get Low
End Mac on an even keel.
Low End Mac Services
We are now offering a la cart email addresses, Web space, and more
at lowendmac.net.
Instead of paying $99 per year for a fixed set of services, you can
choose what's right for you. A basic mailbox is $12 per years, and 25
MB of online Web/FTP/iDisk-style space is available for $20 per year.
For those who need more power on their Web space, we offer PHP, MySQL,
and PHP MyAdmin services for an additional charge.
We use SpamAssasin to identify
and flag about 80% of the spam coming through the server. (Unlike .mac,
we don't delete probable spam. What you do with the email is your
decision, but we'd hate to throw out a single important message that
the software might misidentify.)
With lowendmac.net, you decide how big a mailbox you need and how
much online space you need. Your use of lowendmac.net also puts some
money in our pockets.
If 100 people sign up for email service, that would cover 20% of our
debts.
Hardware For Sale
It's time to bite the bullet and sell the 400 MHz PowerBook G4 now that it's back from
Apple. It has a brand new screen and lid, and the keyboard was replaced
just a few months ago. The computer has 512 MB of RAM and the original
10 GB hard drive and DVD-ROM drive. It has AppleCare coverage through
the end of January 2004. I'm hoping this will fetch $1,200 including
the original system software.
We also have a couple 333 MHz
blueberry iMacs. One has 320 MB of RAM and the original 6 GB
hard drive. The other has 192 MB (it won't support more - we've tried)
and a 20 GB 7200 rpm hard drive. I'd like to get $400 for each of
these, including Apple's round mouse and original iMac keyboard.
(Unfortunately these were received used without any software. If anyone
know a good, low-cost source for Rev. D iMac discs, please email
me.)
I have the box and can ship the TiBook, but I'd prefer local pickup
on the iMacs (Grand Rapids, MI) - they weigh nearly 40 pounds before
you box them up. At this point I'm undecided whether to sell them
myself or try auctioning the computers through eBay.
Either way, this could reduce our debt by one-third. If you would be
interested in one of these computers, please email me by clicking my
name above.
Donations
We believe in the value of the Mac, and a lot of you believe in the
value of Low End Mac. Of 200-250,000 monthly visitors, thousands of you
visit daily, and tens of thousands visit several times each month.
Only you know what Low End Mac means to you, how much we may save
you in a year, how we've helped you get more use out of your older Mac,
how we've helped you make the right decision with your last
upgrade.
We're not begging. We're not panhandling. Think of it as a tip for
services rendered. If Low End Mac has helped
you, we're asking you to return the favor and help us in our time of
need. Whether that's a few dollars or more than a hundred - we received
donations throughout that range two years ago - we leave it to you to
decide what to give.
You can make donations through the Amazon Honor
System. You can also make donations through PayPal by referencing
webmaster-at-lowendmac.com. Or send us a check payable to Cobweb
Publishing at:
Cobweb Publishing, Inc.
2544 Martin Ave. S.E.
Grand Rapids, MI 49507
For details on donations via Kagi or e-gold, see our support page.
The Future
We remain committed to free access to all site content and hope to
continue publishing Low End Mac as an advertiser supported website. We
believe that the level of traffic and the rebound in ad rates will make
this possible.
However, we don't want to simply tread water; we need to move
forward. We firmly believe that subscriptions will be an increasingly
important aspect of the Web, and we hope to once again offer a premium
version of Low End Mac - ad free content in exchange for a subscription
fee. Maybe later this year....
Thank You
Thank you for visiting Low End Mac and
making it the most successful website that focuses on the value of
Macintosh computing. Your financial support will help us eliminate past
debts and get on a firm financial footing.
Once we eliminate our debt, we should be able to get by on ad income
alone. Any and all support is greatly appreciated.
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