GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - Here's that bad luck I've been talking about

For a couple weeks now, I've been talking about some really bad luck that hit GoNintendo. I've actually had a rough couple of months, but the icing on the cake hit more recently. I've had to keep quiet on the situation due to certain circumstances, but now I can finally shed some light on what I've been whining about. I'll try to keep things short and sweet.

As you guys know, we're with a new ad company. We've only just recently started running with them full-time. I'm sure that you can guess that these early months in the relationship are important, as you get to build up a relationship with the new company. I was very much looking forward to building up that good back-and-forth.

The month of E3 was a great way to get things started and really see what the new partnership could bring in. A good test of campaigns and traffic, in order to see what worked and what didn't. All was go for launch prior to E3, but someone else out there had another plan in mind.

Already long story short, someone out there decided to hack into GoNintendo and replace our new ad company ads with ads of their own. They did so very stealthily. Even with our new ad guys, our hosting guy and other people constantly monitoring the security of GoNintendo, this person managed to sneak in and pull off their plan.

The worst part of it is, we didn't find out about the hack until after E3 was over. Not only did that take the wind out of the sails in my new deal, it also screwed over our new advertiser because their campaigns didn't run as they should have. Of course, this also took money out of my pocket.

You guys know I am never, ever about the money when it comes to GoNintendo. With that said, GoNintendo is indeed my job. I run the site every waking hour. I do get revenue that I use to pay bills and handle day-to-day necessities. The reason we left our last ad company is because they weren't holding up their end of the deal, which made for a rather tight spot in my wallet. On top of that, I had big bills like E3 and taxes to pay off. There have been other circumstances that lead to a perfect storm of money being very tight, and then the hack came in and hit super hard.

That's what's been going on behind the scenes here. We have a number of people tracking down just who caused all this trouble. Hopefully we'll find out who it was and take care of the situation. With that said, I truly apologize for the craziness that has been going on here. I know things have been strange late at night. I truly am sorry for all of that. It's been quite hard to keep up the regular site duties while dealing with all these other issues.

With that said, your kind words/comments/emails/tweets have really been the force to keep me going. You guys are always my reason for pushing forward. It's your support that makes all of this worth it. That goes for the best and worst times equally. I'll never stop doing what I'm doing. I'll always give you the best I can with GoNintendo. I'll always work my ass off for you guys and gals. You're more than worth it.

Please, PLEASE don't take this End of Day thought as a 'woe is me' sort of thing. We all deal with issues, many much worse than mine. I only offer up this post as an explanation for what's going on behind-the-scenes and why things have been a bit screwy. I absolutely HATE talking about money on GoNintendo, as it truly isn't the reason I run the site. GN was a hobby that turned into my job. The number one most important aspect of GN is having a place for Nintendo fans to come together.

Again, I'm not telling you all this as a way to look for pats on the back or help in any way. I'm always open and honest with you guys about all aspects of GN. I usually have wonderful things to tell you, but this time it's unfortunately the opposite.

Now that that's out of the way, we move on. I'm still here...I'll always work my ass off and I'm never giving up. Thank you for your support all these years. You have no idea how much it means to me, or how much it helps in times like these.