Ok so by now I think pretty much everyone has heard the announcement. I know I have communicated with several people about it in the last 12 hours. Here is the bottom line, just to lay it out there if I dont figure out a way to at the very least pay the cable bill “internet” next month that DRN in its entirety will be gone for good. Because I own my web server if the connection to the house is cut that means the website will be gone, the ability to update it and upload the show will be gone as well. A had a few fail safes just in case but unfortunately my server is fairly advanced and the backup servers at other locations are not. That being said my fail safe was to move the entire site to one of these other servers for free and host it there until I could figure things out,. As I said though they are far from run of the mill and the site will NOT function on them.
It pains me to see the project that I have been working on for 12 months now start crumbling apart. Making the decision I made to back off on it was in my eyes the ONLY way to try to save even part of it. Most of you know I own a business. While this business is not doing very well right now it is still making money. My hope is that by backing off from DRN and focusing on this business I not only will be able to put more time into it to raise revenue but it will be what not only saves DRN but also saves my house.
When I lost my job I did not see it as a bad thing. At that time I was doing DRN for about 10 months and things were almost growing faster than I could keep up. We were starting to become a driving force, things were happening not because we worked for it to happen persay but because we just picked up the phone and asked for them to happen. People were jumping on board left and right not because of what we were doing or how we were doing it but just because we were doing good. I digress though. I saw loosing my job as a great thing. I could not take 2 things I had a passion for “Reptiles and filming” and make a career out of them. I intensified the work I was doing, taking advantage of every opportunity I could I had to do it, I could not see going back into a career that I did not like.
Now after all this time I look at the following that has been created and still cant believe the did as well as it has but unfortunately things have not worked out the way they were suppose to. I sat and watched people that did not put in nearly a tenth of the work I have pass me up like I was standing still. A lot of promises were made for things that could have greatly helped DRN become much much larger that never happened. Part of me is extremely disappointed in this. I have done every single thing I set out to do and never went back on my word no matter how hard it was to follow through and it panes me to think if one of these things would have happened we could be telling a much different story right now.
For those that follow me and my vlogs very closely you may remember some time ago I talked about a plan, back then I told you if it worked out we are shooting for the stars but if not its over. Well clearly that plan did not happen or has yet to happen so I have held on much much longer that I planned on in the first place. All this being said though this decision is not anyone’s fault. I dont blame anyone for me losing my job and not being about to support this adventure anymore.
When I lost my job my household lost about $4,000 per month of income that we need to make ends meet. I need to now find a way to make that income back up and my #1 priority is to make sure I continue to provide for my family the way they deserve to be provided for. I am taking a huge risk by telling you this as its strictly forbidden but I think you need to see the whole picture to completely understand what is happening. In the past month DRN has made $7.53 there is just no way it is sustainable at that rate. I can live from a %50 cut but before going into this I made that every few minutes so there is no way its a sustainable project at the current schedule.
I have looked for outside sponsors. The website and video alone generate about 3,000 people per day. The videos have been watched by nearly 100,000 people since the started and website has attracted 41,000 page views in the last month. Not long ago I started working on a 30 minute anniversary show and put out the work for advertisers for that but all this has equated to no responses from anyone.
All this being said the game is not over yet. I have until mid January to make this work and when I have the time I am going to be kicking it in the ass to keep it going. We have come to far to just walk away now. The only difference is my public appearances “videos” will be less as I work behind the scenes to try to save what we have built. I wanted to make this announcement now though so if come mid January things have not changed you guys will understand why and not be so shocked if the plug is all of the sudden pulled one day.
I greatly appreciate the help I have gotten and love all the people I have met in the past year and will never forget anyone. I hope to god that something changes very soon so I am able to continue trying to change the world.
Below are not guarantees but are ways that anyone can help DRN
Buy a shirt: http://www.foothillherps.com/news/?page_id=2788
Donate: On the website on the upper let there is a donate button.
DRN Weekly Hard Copy: I have a poll on the website for people interested in a paid weekly hard copy of DRN for their home or business. I am still taking votes on who would be interested in getting this. I am not sure of the cost but because of low volume printing costs I am thinking it would cost about $5 per week. Unfortunately we would need as much as 50 paid subscriptions to make it a viable option
There is one MAJOR way people can help which costs nothing but unfortunately its is a violation of the Adsence TOS for me to tell you how “hint hint”
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