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Mac Musings
Low End Mac 2000
A Look Back
Dan Knight - 2000.12.28
LEM Origins
Low End Mac has come a long ways since I started The New Low End User Site on my personal site in April 1997. Over a few months it evolved to The New Low End Mac User Site and eventually the brief, descriptive Low End Mac.
By July I was being contacted by Jason Pierce, who wanted to host the site on his MacTimes Network and run some ads. I had put the site up as a public service, but the idea of making a bit of money was appealing.
I don't have site statistics prior to July 1997, but that month we served over 20,000 pages. Very impressive - or so we thought until we moved to MacTimes in November and jumped to almost 60,000 hits for the month.
Money came in slowly at first, but after a while we were past $1,000 a month. Not bad at all for a hobby site with almost no overheard.
The MacTimes Network began to unravel in December 1998. We moved to our own domain, lowendmac.com, in February 1999 and severed our relationship with MacTimes at the end of March. We were on our own with no ad income until September, when infiniMedia began to handle the site. Site traffic sometimes approached 400,000 pages a month.
Part of that came from new writers who joined the effort beginning in January 1999. Today we have ten regulars, a few occasional contributors, and several other pitching in on Mac Daniel.
Looking at 2000
We don't have exact figures for 12/99 through 2/00, but all indications are that January 2000 was the first month we broke past 400,000 pages. In October, we passed the 500,000 mark. In total, by the end of the year Low End Mac will have served over 12 million pages.
We teamed up with BackBeat Media, who has been hosting the site and handling ads since June. Site income is up significantly - so is the amount I send out to writers each month - and we'll have more comments on that in January.
I attended my first Macworld Expo in July, finally meeting a lot of people I knew only by articles and emails. I even saw His Steveness not ten feet from me in the Expo hall.
The Writers
Low End Mac used to be a one man show. I still write a fair bit and handle site design, but I'm also doing a lot of proofreading and editing for our cadre of freelance writers. I've discovered I enjoy that as much as any part of the business.
I also realize that a lot of our growth over the past year is due to these helpful individuals.
Our first regular columnist was Evan Kleiman, who wrote a column on the iMac Channel. Evan's interests grew well beyond the iMac; he is now a regular contributor to Mac Daniel and Friends, our advice column. Other Mac Daniel regulars are Chris Lawson and Michael Munger, with occasional contributions by Manuel Mejia Jr, Charlie Ruggiero, and Julie Fugett.
Paulo Rodrigues wrote occasional columns beginning in March 1999. Beginning in April 2000, we moved them all to the Tangerine Fusion column, which covers a broad array of topics.
Charles W. Moore brought his Miscellaneous Ramblings to Low End Mac on Sept. 9, 1999. To date we've published over sixty columns, as well as reprinting archive pieces that originally appeared on Mac Opinion.
Since September 1999, Eric "Zoltan" DeStefano has been sharing his conversion story in Mac Metamorphosis. Eric has gone from Windows to the Mac OS and is now working with LinuxPPC and Mac OS X.
I found Steve Van Esch as a regular contributor on osOpinion and asked him to consider writing for Low End Mac. His Mac Scope column debuted on April 26 and has covered a broad range of topics.
Brian Rumsey had his first Low End Mac Gaming column published in February. The series has looked at different types of Macs, which games work best on each generation of Macintosh, and some specific games.
We launched Adam Robert Guha's Apple Archive column on May 12. It took off quickly and Adam been one of our most popular columnists ever since.
One of our newest columnists is Jeff Adkins, who writes Mac Lab Report about using Macs in the science classroom. In addition to school-specific issues, he also covers a range of general Mac topics.
Our other recent addition is Tech Reflections by Chris Lawson, who also writes Mac Daniel columns, has been compiling profiles of video cards, and also publishes the pickle's low-end Mac FAQ.
Oops, I got a friendly reminder from Anne Onymus that I forgot to mention The Rumor Mill, our popular parody of Mac rumor sites. Our biggest event of the year was having Slashdot take Apple ditching G4 seriously and posting a link to it. ;-)
The Future
We have big plans for 2001, the first of which is incorporating the business on January 2. Thanks to the staff at BackBeat Media and plenty of links from other Mac sites, we are moving into territory undreamed of four years ago.
Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.
Recent Mac Musings
- No High Definition iTunes Video for You, 11.19. The October 2008 MacBooks are preventing users from viewing some high-def iTunes content from being viewed on their external displays. Poor form!
- Anticipating Macworld: Nehalem, Snow Tiger, and Updated Desktops, 11.18. Intel's Core i7 CPU has to make it way into the next Mac Pro, nVidia GeForce graphics will drive the iMac and Mac mini, and 'Snow Tiger' will unleash the animal within.
- One Used Mac Can Make a Difference, 11.12. Instead of scrapping out old Macs for raw materials, what if the Mac community worked to restore them and give them away to those with no computers?
- A Brief History of Portable Computing: From Dynabook to Netbooks, 11.06. 40 years ago Alan Kay dreamt of a two pound handheld computer. Portables have made a lot of changes since 1981, but haven't yet matched the Dynabook.
- More in the Mac Musings index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 'Lombard' PowerBook G3, June 1999 - 'bronze keyboard' model is first PowerBook with USB, reaches 400 MHz, trims almost 2 lb.
- Group of the Day: System 6 is the email list for those who choose System 6.
- November 19 in LEM history: 99: Screen size and resolution - 01: Mac OS X: Developers and users - 02: Frequently asked employment questions - 04: iTunes trails SoundJam, WinAmp in some areas - EyeTV for USB 2.0 - 07: Replacing your older iPod - Mac mini value - Classic still useful
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Leopard Runs Very Nicely on PowerPC Macs, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 11.19. Some claim that Mac OS X 10.5 is so optimized for Intel Macs that it runs poorly on PowerPC hardware. That's simply not the case.
- 3 WeatherBug Options for Apple Users, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.19. Have instant access to current local weather conditions with a Dashboard widget, iPhone app, or Firefox plugin.
- Every Working Computer Is Useful to Someone, Allison Payne, The Budget Mac, 11.19. Whether it's a PowerBook 1400, G3 iMac, or Power Mac G4, it could be all the computer someone needs.
- Love My Refurb MacBook Pro, Eudora Forever, and the Lightest AA Batteries, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.18. Also questions about nVidia GeForce 8600 problems in earlier MacBook Pro models and importing Eudora mailboxes into Eudora successors.
- Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 11.17. Microsoft Office is powerful and expensive. OpenOffice provides a full alternative, and Bean and AbiWord are excellent options for word processing.
- Cruz Browser Introduces Useful New Features, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.17. Although only a 0.1 release, this new WebKit-based browser has several clever new features that just might hook you.
- DLO Action Jacket for the SanDisk Sansa, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 11.17. Want to protect your SanDisk Sansa MP3 player on the go? The DLO Action Jacket does a great job.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best iMac G4 Deals, 11.18. Used 15" 700 MHz Combo, $243; 800 MHz, $280; 1 GHz, $380; 17" 1.25 GHz SuperDrive, $400; 20", $549.
- Best MacBook Air Deals, 11.18. New 1.6 80, $1,150 after rebate; 120, $1,744 a/r; 1.8 80, $1,794 a/r; 1.6 128 SSD, $2,150; used 1.8 64 SSD, $1,500; new, $2,200 a/r; 1.86, $2,398 a/r.
- Best Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 Deals, 11.18. Mac OS X 10.0.3, $30; 10.1, $20; 10.2, $60; 10.3 CD, DVD, $100; CD, $119; 10.1 Server, unlimited users, $58; 10.3 Server, unlimited, $150.
- Best iPod nano Deals, 11.17. Refurb 3G/4 GB, $79; new, $114; refurb 8 GB, $99; new, $125; 3G/8 GB, from $134; 16 GB, from $189. Prices include ground shipping.
- Best Titanium PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.17. Used 1 GHz with SuperDrive, $478 plus shipping.
- Best Xserve deals, 11.17. Used G4/1 GHz, $999; G5/2 GHz, $1,288; new 2.0 4-core Xeon, $1,900; refurb 3.0 4-core, $2,599; 2.8 GHz, $2,499; 3.0 8-core, $3,499.
- Best classic iPod Deals, 11.14. Used 30 GB video, $126; 80, $53; refurb 80 classic, $169; new 120 GB, $224; refurb 160 GB, $249; new, $280. New & refurb include shipping.
- Best eMac Deals, 11.14. Used 700 MHz Combo, $120; 800 CD, $170; 1 GHz Combo, $229; SuperDrive, $260; 1.25 Combo, $250; SD, $300; 1.42 Combo, $329.
- Best MacBook Deals, 11.14. Used 1.83 GHz, $595; 2.0 SD, $660; refurb 2.1 GHz, $949; 2.4, $999; black, $1,099; new 2.1, $869 after rebate; 2.4, $1,150 a/r; black, $1,194 a/r; more.
- More deals in our archive.
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