RSSProAmerica Web site to shut down
Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | February 29, 2008
A Web site that allowed companies to post a pledge not to hire illegal immigrants is shutting down Friday because of a lack of financial support.
The owner of the ProAmerica site, Dallas lawyer David Marlett, said that it was a worthy idea, but he now realizes that the public is not willing to support such an endeavor.
He said average Americans who are protesting day labor sites and screaming “no amnesty” are at the same time supporting companies that actively hire illegal immigrants.
“It’s just the height of hypocrisy,’” he said. “They don’t want to make changes in their personal lives.”
In his hometown of Rockwall, Texas, an “extremely conservative area,” not one landscaper would join the Web site, he said.
In addition, larger companies and chains did not want to participate because it was “a hot potato” for them, he added.
The site, which was launched in June, allowed companies to sign a pledge promising not to hire illegal immigrants. The site was non-profit and businesses did not have to pay to be featured.
In a good-bye letter to company members of ProAmerica, Marlett said that such a Web site “requires an American populace that actually cares, that agrees with our moral imperative, our patriot perspective, and are willing to live by our oath.”
In addition, he said Americans are to blame for illegal immigration.
“We the People are to blame. Not the Mexicans. Not Liberals. Not (Sen.) Ted Kennedy. ././. We are to blame. We invite them. We pay them. We educate them and care for them.We as a nation must be honest about it.”
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27 Responses to “ProAmerica Web site to shut down”
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Lack of financial support? What kind of idiot was running this site? Jeff runs this site and sells a ton of anti-illegal immigration t-shirt and other conservative and patriotic stuff to support it, but I believe it only technically costs him something like $9 a month for hosting and another $9 a year for the domain.
Or was the owner hoping that he could retire and that people would just donate to his cause instead of doing it because he loved it and believed in it.
Anyway, the lack of financial support is malarkey.
For the record, it costs more than $9 a month. I had spoke to Dave several times and we were working on selling some clothing to help with the costs. I can assure you he was not using the site to retire off of. It was a noble cause and I don’t think we should result to insulting someone for trying to do the right thing.
If you would like to talk numbers, $9.00 a year for a domain name is only the begining. You have to have a web site, which means you have to have some place to put the web site, and unless you have the software and know how to make to make one using a service can cost anywhere from $800.00 a year to $1000.00 per year for a one page site. Then he was trying to get the word out which I can assure you advertizement does not come cheap. Now you tell me if you would go to all that trouble, spend all that kind of money for a handfull of people, I doubt it.
PinguMama is correct. Lack of financial support is just about the poorest excuse you can make for what is basically an information website. It costs no more than $9/mo to host a site and $9 for the domain. If you are paying more than that you are paying too much. Considering that software like wordpress is free there is no excuse to say that cost was an issue.
Advertising on the internet is actually very cheap if you know what you are doing. Try writing articles and press releases if you don’t want to spend a lot.
It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant people are about how inexpensive it can be to operate a business properly.
You can disagree with me. You can also be wrong.
Don’t defend the guy. He was just looking for an excuse to quit the thing. Let’s ask Jeff how much he spends on advertising each year. He seems to be doing pretty well and he focuses a lot on the illegal immigration issue. So apparently there is definitely “financial support” out there. Someone apparently didn’t know how to find and capitalize on it though it seems.
Well, I’m siding with Jeff and PM. If Jeff says it costs only a little over $100 a year to operate a site then he should know. How many does he run? This one, The Land of the Free, AMericanInfidelTshirts.com, TheRightThings.com and those are just the ones off the top of my head! I’m pretty sure he has about a dozen others.
And he makes decent money and I never see him advertise. So how does he do it for basically nothing yet this guy couldn’t? Obviously someone has a better knack for business than someone else does. Considering how many hits this site alone is currently getting I’d say he knows what he is talking about.
People don’t abandon websites for financial reasons based on that information. They abandon them because they lose interest or can’t handle the stress of the morons that come around doing stupid trolling comments.
If you are paying $800 a year Carolyn or know people who are please let them know they are getting ripped off big time!
TOo bad the ownre basically just gave up. That’s the problem. Too many people just give up.
RedRanger on February 29th, 2008 8:13 pm:
“Let’s ask Jeff how much he spends on advertising each year.”
Answer is none. Well, none that I expect a significant return on. The only thing I do except write articles is sponsor the race car and I only reasons do that because 1) I think it is neat 2) I have the money and 3) it is a tax write off.
And considering that I spend no money I do pretty well. Enough to keep doing this.
Joe Godfrey on February 29th, 2008 8:05 am:
“For the record, it costs more than $9 a month.”
For the record you will see that PinguMama did not say it only cost $9 a month. She also included the $9 for teh domain as well. I work with Jeff a lot on this site and I know what he pays. If you are paying more than $9 to run a site and not making any money that is a problem that comes from lack of ability.
Carolyn Hileman on February 29th, 2008 9:20 am:
“If you would like to talk numbers, $9.00 a year for a domain name is only the begining. You have to have a web site, which means you have to have some place to put the web site, and unless you have the software and know how to make to make one using a service can cost anywhere from $800.00 a year to $1000.00 per year for a one page site.”
All this has been adequately addressed in previous posts. $1000 a year for a single page site? What kind of scam did you get involved with?
PinguMama’s original critique was spot on. I too don’t buy the lack of financial support BS. It doesn’t pass the smell test. If you don’t want to be criticized don’t say things that are so far out in left field. Be honest.
For the record, if there is actually anyone that is paying $800 or $1000 or more a year for a single page website out there. I will be happy to take your money. And I will save you some cash. I’ll do it for whatever price you are paying -$100. And I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.
I think his main problem is that he was not getting any help, I would put his stuff up on the voice but that is about all I could do for him. It gets pretty upsetting to see us not getting any further than we have in this fight and sometimes it makes you feel all alone. I know I have been there even shut down the Voice and deleted everything because I felt like no one cared. It lasted what all but about a week JJ??? What can I say I can’t keep my mouth shut….
For the record I pay no one to make my sites all of my sites are done by me I do pay for the web space each year but that is for a lot of space, in which I use for my plaster business, the Voice and anything else I want. I do not run the Voice for profit if I did it wolud have been shut down long ago. theplastercrafts.com is my profit center built and maintained by me and just yesterday I got an email from HP wanting to build me a one page web site for ONLY $799.00 and you could add more pages for a price. Lucky for me I have been broke most of my life and had to learn this stuff or I might have to pay that….
I’m still confused as to why he shut down. Everyone here talking about how cheap it is to run a website makes very valid points. It seems like the site owner was indeed in it for the money based on this.
So what if people wouldn’t sign the pledge? Isn’t that sort of the point? To let people know who was willing to hire illegals and who wasn’t? If big companies wouldn’t sign the pledge then make it known and put it all over the site and let the people know.
But because people weren’t paying him he decided to ditch it. Well in my opinion that just shows me that his heart really wasn’t in it.
“It gets pretty upsetting to see us not getting any further than we have in this fight and sometimes it makes you feel all alone.”
Uh Carolyn did you miss the uproar over McCain Kennedy?
Carolyn,
I have looked into what Jeff is paying to host ACD and about 6 other sites on the same account with Dreamhost. It is minuscule. Try $5.95 per month = 500 GB and 5 TB of data transfer. That’s more disk space than 99.7% of all websites could ever hope to need.
Remember, you are the one that broached the subject of sites costing $800 - $1000 per month. With all the free software out there that is basically point and click WYSIWYG editors there is no reason anyone with a brain would pay that much. I’m glad to see you are not paying that much. But your example was, quite frankly, ridiculous to attempt to justify the high costs of web hosting.
Carolyn I think the problem is that since you started out your post as to why ProAmerica shut down with the claim that it was for lack of financial support is what everyone is taking issue with. You made it sound like that was the issue. Even I find it hard to accept that as a reason to shut down an informational website.
I also take great offense at the owner of the site blaming basically all of America for the problem. We here certainly aren’t and he won’t win many friends making such blanket and false statements.
Yes, I remember that uproar very well but I also know that other than that you and I both know most people had and some still have the feeling that they are very much alone in this, it is no where near true but when you are sitting there alone making that call or what ever it is hard to believe that thousands of people are doing what you are doing. As for web sites I do not know how many of you were aware of the big fight going on with the Minutemen over their web site, the woman who made it to start with according to all the emails I got over this volunteered to begin with and then suddenly sent them a bill of massive proportions and threatened to sue if they did not pay. I do not remember the exact amount she was charging and the only remember because I was making a site for a lady and charging her molds since that is what she sold and I decided to check around and see what the pro’s cost… I am in the wrong business
I did not write that,notice the link at the end if I write it, it will have my name under the title
I can’t speak to this guy’s company but I can tell you about two other instances I have had with anti-illegal groups coming around trying to get me to sign their pledge.
First one comes to the office and says basically, “Will you sign this pledge not to hire illegal?” and before I can answer and say that I would even though he was rude and just slammed the paper on the desk he threatens me telling me that if I don’t he’ll go to the papers and plaster my company all over the internet as someone that is hiring illegals.
I told him that I was going to sign it until he threatened me and my God he got all pissy and started yelling.
The second one this girl approaches me on the jobsite and says she wants me to sign a petition against hiring illegal aliens. I said ok, can I read it first? She starts ranting about , “why you got to read it? huh? Why can’t you just sign it!” Needless to say I didn’t sign hers either.
So it has been pretty much a disgusting experience with these sorts of people for me. Even though I don’t hire illegals and think they should all be deported I don’t like being threatened and told I cant read what I am signing.
Carolyn, again regardless of what someone may have been trying to charge for websites it doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t cost inordinate sums to run one.
Carolyn Hileman on March 1st, 2008 12:24 pm:
“I did not write that,notice the link at the end if I write it, it will have my name under the title”
Then you should put in quotes (or blockquotes) what you are taking from another source. When you cite something someone else has written you always use some sort of notation like that. Otherwise it looks like you are writing it. I’m sure the original source will not be happy with you not attributing their work properly.
“Yes, I remember that uproar very well but I also know that other than that you and I both know most people had and some still have the feeling that they are very much alone in this, it is no where near true but when you are sitting there alone making that call or what ever it is hard to believe that thousands of people are doing what you are doing.”
No, really it isn’t. Sorry you feel that way. I however every day see the exact opposite and do not feel that way.
Sgt. Shammy on March 1st, 2008 1:23 pm:
“Then you should put in quotes (or blockquotes) what you are taking from another source. When you cite something someone else has written you always use some sort of notation like that.”
This has already been suggested. But doesn’t look like the suggestion was accepted.
Wow, uh, I was under the same impression as you Sgt. I read the post as Carolyn wrote it and then she says she didn’t. I don’t know that providing just a link after pulling paragraphs of text counts as “fair use”. I wouldn’t be happy if I was the author that is for sure.
But, on the topic of the company, in September we had this post here about how rapidly the ProAmerica coalition was supposedly growing. Now we find out that it isn’t true apparently. Did the company lie in that press release? Were they just puffing themselves up? And why would they fail? The anti-illegal sentiment is so high companies would be falling over themselves to declare that they were not party to it lest they would certainly loose money and customers.
While I’m sorry to see the owner of this site give up, I am also under the impression that he really wasn’t in it because he believed in it.
I don’t abandon my children because I really care about and believe in them. They don’t make me any money. So why give up if you really believe in the site?
Hey, Jeff, just out of curiosity sake since we’re talking about shutting down a site due to lack of money, how many years was it before you turned a profit on this site?
Well, I started up Land of the Free originally in early 2002. It was officially December 2004 before I say a single dime off any site I ran.