Last Updated: Friday, 27-Jul-2012 22:41:55 MDT
The following questions we get time and time again were all extracted from e-mails I've received over the years. These questions were all common enough that I put them in this FAQ.
Q. What is InetDaemon.Com?
A. InetDaemon.Com started as a personal website providing free tutorial pages on various technical topics. Over the years it became more organized and I figured out how to offset the expenses for operating and maintaining InetDaemon.Com through AdSense advertising, Amazon Associate links and Affiliate marketing.
Q. Are you a company?
A. Not yet. We have no products, and we don't sell any products. I registered the Internet domain "InetDaemon.Com" in the .com space because I didn't have to meet any requirements to register the domain. The domains .net, .org and .edu all had restrictions and extra requirements at the time I registered InetDaemon.com, which was a long, long time ago in Internet terms (1996). Starting soon, InetDaemon.Com will be offering web-based training, videos and eBooks for sale, so the .com top level domain now makes more sense.
Q. Do you make any money from InetDaemon.Com?
A. Not yet. I pay all the expenses for running this website out of my own pocket. I have to work a regular job to pay for this site. I have to go with el-cheapo hosting in order to afford to keep it up and running, and I have to pay for my own software and development tools. If you're a kick-butt hosting provider, equipment manufacturer or ISP and you would like to donate your services, please contact me.
Q. But you take donations. You gotta be rich!
A. Total donations over the last 15 years: $178.00. That's not
even $12.00 per year since I created InetDaemon.com.
I pay more than that for two years of web hosting ($240), never mind
my time, or the web development
software I buy--Adobe's creative Suite is close to $6,000 and the last time
I bought a copy was in 2004 as a student edition at a deep discount. I can't
afford Adobe products today (a lot of people can't, and you'd think Adobe would
get the message). I really,
really appreciate
the support of those who have donated ($50 of that was actually from one
person!). I wish I could make a living at this on donations alone, but very
few people donate (less than 1 in a million) and the economy of late isn't
encouraging people to be generous.
Q. Are you hiring?
A. This is a personal website at present. There are NO JOBS AVAILABLE.
Q. Do you need web development services?
A. I do all the development for InetDaemon.com including all back-end CGI programming, the HTML, CSS and JavaScript, Apache configuration and more. No, I do not need development services. I do just fine on my own.
Q. Does InetDaemon.Com accept advertising?
A. At present, I use Google AdSense which brings in about $45 a month--enough to offset my expenses for the website. Anyone who tells you you can make millions off a website just through advertising is lying. By the way, I tried Kontera and it sucked. I do accept advertising offers, but it has to bring in more revenue than the Google ads per month, and it has to meet my standards (no porn, no identity theft, no malware, no multi-level marketing, no spamming, etc. and it must be a legitimate offer I honestly believe my readers would need or use).
Q. Does InetDaemon.Com need website language translation services?
A. No. I work a full-time day job helping Fortune 500 companies manage their networks. That job pays for my lifestyle and the operation of this website. Even if I was interested, I can't afford translation services.
Q. Does InetDaemon.Com need search engine placement services?
A. I get 12 million 35 million hits per year and my traffic is doubling
every year. I have more than 200,000 700,000 regular readers,
who read, on average 8 pages per visit. I have never purchased ANY
sort of marketing for InetDaemon.Com. InetDaemon.Com is as popular
as it is on its own merit, without the use of marketing or paid links
in search engines, or search engine optimization. Anyone that says
a website can't survive without paid search engine placement is lying.
Q. Is the InetDaemon.Com name available for sale?
A. No.
Q. There's a lot of broken links. Why don't you fix them?
A. There are more than 100,000 203,000 links within InetDaemon.Com.
I fix a lot of them, but there are so many to track and it's easy to
miss something. I really appreciate
the feedback and help from my readers when they spot a broken link
and I correct anything they bring to my attention. Links simply rot
faster than I can get them fixed, and I use Dreamweaver which automates
fixing broken links, to some extent. InetDaemon.Com has been a work
in progress for 15 years, which is more than most sites can say. There
are over 800 pages of HTML in this site, nevermind the images, style
sheets, include files, CGI scripts etc. That's enough work to keep
a webmaster busy full-time maintaining InetDaemon.Com and I don't have
40 hours a week to do the maintenance--I already have a full-time day
job as a consultant! I also have a household to run and a family to
take care of. I work on this site in my spare time,
which I don't have a lot of. If I had the choice and could make a living
at it, I'd work on this site, but since very few people donate and
the ad revenue is dismal, I have to go to work every day. Anybody who
tells you you can make millions on a plain old website with nothing
but advertising is lying to you and I'm living proof.
Now, if everyone who came to my site donated as little as $1 every year, I
could quit my job and work on this site full time. Heck, one year with everyone
donating just one dollar would put me most of the way towards being a millionaire.
Hey, I can dream, can't I?
Q. Page "X" is out of date.
A. I really appreciate the help I get from my readers who spot old pages, and I correct whatever they point out and I find and fix a lot of things myself. See my previous answer regarding broken links. The page was as accurate as I could make it given the time available when I wrote it (usually less than 1 hour). I work full time at my day job and work on this site in my spare time. I do my best, but my time is limited.
Q. You don't get enough donations to pay to operate your site. Your expenses exceed your costs for this site, people flame you and call you an idiot when they find spelling errors, typos and broken links, yet you're still working on this site after 15 years? WHY?!?
A. Because every once in a while, I help someone make a better life for themselves and that is worth it.