So long and thanks for all the fish

Back on May 4th, 2011, my wife Jess and I launched our little website, GeekPr0n.com, as a way to bring indie, obscure, geek, and nerd passions to life, a home where writers regardless of their passions, gender, orientations, age, etc., could write about their geeky/nerdy/dorky obsessions in a positive way. What started off as a volunteer hobby project quickly turned into a budding publishing business with the growth of our staff and traffic. We threw some of the biggest convention after-parties in Toronto, hosted tons of visiting celebs and made amazing new friends in the process – not to mention we learned a ton!

Unfortunately, running an online publication costs a lot of money – web hosting, development, marketing/advertising, SEO, taxes, contractors, merch, etc, etc. We quickly realized we couldn’t run this off of our personal credit cards. Thus, Nerd North Media was born in 2012 – our digital agency doing geeky small business websites to fund GeekPr0n. Nerd North did (and continues to do) very well, and is still our job today. Unfortunately however, the online publishing world has changed – ads were no longer as effective due to ad blockers and payouts were in the pennies and Facebook’s constantly changing algorithms hurt our traffic so badly that we saw a 60% decrease in traffic due to articles not being in feeds anymore. The phenomenal growth of the geek community in the last few years meant more conventions to cover, more parties/events to throw, and a ton more competition in the nerd blogging world along with more people throwing competitive geek-inspired events. The landscape had changed and unfortunately we didn’t have the funding to keep up with our awesome fans and community.

Late last year we started on the rebranding and redevelopment of GeekPr0n into a new social marketplace – a new geek social site where you can show off your cosplay, open a store to sell your prints or products, meet new fans, start new gaming groups, engage in forums – bringing the contention experience online. However when 2017 rolled in we had to ask ourselves – could really keep this up for another few years? The all-nighters scheduling social posts for ourselves and our promotional partners, scheduling press access for cons, running tables at cons, scrambling for YouTube content and budget, getting stressed out because we have no content for the day… With the new model we’d be adding responsibility for people’s ecommerce stores on our platform, doing monthly payment reconciliation, moderating forums and more. When thinking about the whole picture, we realized it was just too much for a husband and wife team to continue managing, on top of our Nerd North Media family.

It comes down to focus and balance. We both work day jobs and have a family to raise. We realized that we better enjoyed helping our friends’ small businesses achieve their own dreams rather than pumping money into our own magazine which requires all of our focus.

With that being said, after 6 amazing years of running GeekPr0n, Jess and I are calling it a day. We had a ton of success, met amazing people that we’re proud to call our friends and family, helped launch some careers and created lasting memories with our events. Now it’s time for us to refocus our energy on our families, and bring back the work-life balance that we’ve been missing.

I want to extend a huge heartfelt thanks to all our amazing fans, and our awesome writers that have been with us over the years. GeekPr0n wouldn’t have been possible without any of you. Big thanks to our writers, editors and contributors (in alphabetical order) – Aaron Feldman, Adi Ashburner, Alex James, Alex M, Alice Quinn, Alicia Webber, Allison, Andrea Fort, Andrew Uys, Amanda Walters, Cait Carter, Chris Ethier, Claire Houghton, Corey V, Ellanor Cyrille, Dale, Dan Charrington, Debi Brennen, Diana McCallum, Diego Escobar, Edward Martinez, Veteran Foxx, Geoff McGregor, Jessika Koeslag, Hope L Nicolson, Jenni Norman, John Kirk, Jonny R, Karin, Karinna, Kassandra Love, Kat Curtis, Kat Mae, Laura Ioccino, Lianne, Manda Whitney, Matt Groopie, Matthew K, MegHan Solo, MickeyD, Big Mike, Mike Heron, DJ Misty, Paul K Pickett, Phil Gottfried, Rob Walshe, Sara Blue, Sarrah October Young, DJ Saucy Miso, Sean Campbell, Siân Melton, Skaii Walker, Sunny Hope, Andrew Tapp, and Vera Bambi.

Also a big thanks to all our partners and friends over the years – Waygoz, Shelf Life, Fan Expo, Wizard World, Unplugged Expo, Subspace, Nerd Noise Night, Krampus Ball, Impulse, Seven Crowns Tattoos, Escape Games, Erika Szabo, Paul Hillier, Illusionoid, Scifeyecandy, Playdead Cult, Silver Snail Comics and many more. Our event performers – Illuminaire, The Nerdy Stripper, Red Herring, Nerd Girl Burlesque, From Superheroes, Bowmanitis, The Cybertronic Spree, WordBurglar, More or Less, Coins, DJ Misty, 80s Favorite Babies, DJ Dwight, and to everyone I’m missing – thank you!

From the bottom of hearts, Jess and I wanted to say thanks to everyone! We love you all and wish everyone the very best! Feel free to come visit us at Nerd North. Until then, so long and thanks for the all fish!

Joey & Jess