Getting Farked

Getting Farked

Whooo! When I saw last week’s statistics, I was shocked — MadeByMark received over 12,000 visitors in just one week! (That’s twelve times the standard level of weekly traffic.)

Elation turned to horror, though, when I saw the documents most in demand: two Photoshopped images I posted on Fark.com, where image editors compete to create visual puns based on selected digital photos. To their credit, the Fark guidelines (which I read too late, alas!) warned that “thousands of people will view your submission.”

Especially since each visit pulled a detailed photo, that’s the kind of web traffic that can exhaust your hosting plan’s traffic allotment in no time flat. So: if you’re here looking for them … the Fark pictures have been officially removed.

As much fun as it was to participate (briefly) in the Fark.com community, I also learned an important lesson: I caught myself spending an hour or so creating each of the novelty images and going to great pains to create detailed, quality work. Then it occured to me: why was I pouring all that time and effort into something that, essentially, earned me nothing?

This week, I’m back on target: focusing on the work that can make me a buck. There’s an audiobook to produce, two websites to revise, and money to track down from some old clients who owe me a dollar or two.

Whooo! When I saw last week’s statistics, I was shocked — MadeByMark received over 12,000 visitors in just one week! (That’s twelve times the standard level of weekly traffic.)

Elation turned to horror, though, when I saw the documents most in demand: two Photoshopped images I posted on Fark.com, where image editors compete to create visual puns based on selected digital photos. To their credit, the Fark guidelines (which I read too late, alas!) warned that “thousands of people will view your submission.”

Especially since each visit pulled a detailed photo, that’s the kind of web traffic that can exhaust your hosting plan’s traffic allotment in no time flat. So: if you’re here looking for them … the Fark pictures have been officially removed.

As much fun as it was to participate (briefly) in the Fark.com community, I also learned an important lesson: I caught myself spending an hour or so creating each of the novelty images and going to great pains to create detailed, quality work. Then it occured to me: why was I pouring all that time and effort into something that, essentially, earned me nothing?

This week, I’m back on target: focusing on the work that can make me a buck. There’s an audiobook to produce, two websites to revise, and money to track down from some old clients who owe me a dollar or two.

Mark McElroy

I'm a husband, mystic, writer, media producer, creative director, tinkerer, blogger, reader, gadget lover, and pizza fiend.

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Who Wrote This?

Mark McElroy

I'm a husband, mystic, writer, media producer, creative director, tinkerer, blogger, reader, gadget lover, and pizza fiend.

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