If you are reading this you've no doubt noticed that my last post was on October 31 (and for those of you who enjoy reading my posts, I apologize). So, imagine my surprise when I start getting messages from my web host merely halfway through November to tell me that I am reaching my bandwidth capacity for the month. How, I wonder, can this be possible?

Some of the bandwidth usage on the site is from actual readers (and for this I am truly grateful, especially given my absence lately) but most of it comes from spam on my email accounts and people who are stealing it.

For those who don't know this, when you borrow an image from someone's website to use it on your own and embed it using the source URL from the originating website, you are stealing. You are stealing bandwidth for which someone else besides you is paying. You are stealing someone else's money.

I like to use images on my website - they make the site more interesting and add to the content of the posts. I always credit the source of the images I use and I ALWAYS save images to my own server before I post them on my site. If someone finds an image on my site that they like enough to use on their own website, I would hope that they would exercise the same courtesy. Unfortunately, lots of people don't. And therein lies the rub.

I can't afford to pay for other people to have pretty pictures on their websites. I've contemplated solutions ranging from taking my website down entirely to never using images in my posts to accepting Google ads to offset the expense of web hosting. I can track where bandwidth usage happens and Technorati has a handy program that lets me see just exactly who is using content from my site. So I'll just say this: if you want to use an image you've found on my site, please save it to your own server first or don't use it at all.

For now, I'm keeping the site up as is and I've employed a band-aid solution in an effort to thwart the bandwidth stealing. But if bandwidth usage doesn't slow down soon I won't have any choice but to change my site. After everything I've put into it and the pleasure that my readers tell me they get from it, I'd hate to see Blogickal be any different than it is (except of course for a bit more regular posting from me!). I think I'd call it a day and simply close up shop first.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:10 AM