This year, Perishable Press celebrates 20 years on the World Wide Web. And, not counting the occasional minor bouts of site downtime, that’s 7,305 days, which is equivalent to 175,320 hours. Or 10,512,000 minutes. Or 631,139,040 seconds if you want to really be impressed. For me, two decades is a real milestone.
But it’s not about the time duration, or even the monetary cost. It’s about the hours of human work that are poured into the site. Not just my own blood, sweat, and tears. But the efforts of every person who shares their feedback, either through comments or thoughts on social media and elsewhere.
It’s everyone who helps by providing insightful information, sharing Perishable Press content around the Web, and those who actually contribute financially in the form of a monetary donation. Because keeping a website online for 20 years costs money..
Over the years, Perishable Press has been hosted by various companies, each with their own pricing structure. Doing some rough math, I would estimate the financial cost of hosting this site over the past 20 years at around $25,000 give or take a few thousand, and that’s just the hosting bill. I’m not factoring the many hours that I’ve spent working on the site for two decades.
For those who haven’t noticed, the site is not really “monetized”, for numerous reasons. I pay the bills to keep Perishable Press online, all out of my own pocket, and I am thankful to be able to do it.
Yes there are a few ads in the sidebars for my books and plugins, but in general for the past 20 years, Perishable Press has shared its information freely with the world (and with AI/bots), without burdening visitors with heavy ad loads, popups, and other gross, manipulative UI stabs that do nothing but weigh down the visitor experience and gobble up precious server resources. I really loathe sites that are all about “making money” without providing much value.
Since its inception, Perishable Press strives to provide a clean, simple, easy-to-read environment where thoughts and ideas can be shared freely and openly. I’ve built this site and kept it going as a “labor of love”, where I’m always working to make it better, always trying to simplify and clarify, expedite and enlighten. I don’t always succeed in this regard, but am aware of my own shortcomings and continue to work on improving wherever possible.
Admittedly I don’t post as frequently as in the past, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care. It just means that I am busy with life, doing work things, developing projects, and making the most of the time that is left. This site is the most important thing I have going on the Web right now. At least to me. And I just want to take this time to thank YOU for stopping by, taking the time to read my silly thoughts, and celebrating with me, because 2024 is Perishable Press’ 20th year online.
