It's been an interesting two years.  Building this site has been an amazing experience.  It's taught me a lot about publishing, about business, and marketing.  Perhaps most importantly, it has taught me about failure. 

I published my novel, and raised some money for a really great charity, but all the money came from my friends and family.  I'm certainly appreciative of their support, but that's not really a sustainable business model.  

And just to show that seemingly insignificant things can have a large effect on our lives, sending an email to Brian, the blogger at Tales from the Sharrows, and offering to host his button sale for charity has introduced me to a ton of local cyclists.  I now talk to them on Twitter.  I meet them for coffee Friday mornings.  I feel more connected to my city and the people living in it, and I don't know if that would have happened without this website.

But it's time to let the website go.  I'm not exactly sure what the next step is, but it's clear that spending money on web hosting and credit card processing is just not sensible anymore. 

The website may come back - perhaps inspiration will strike, or maybe I'll meet a business partner who will make all the difference.  But for now, manfredmacx.com is shutting its doors.

Thanks to all of you who have supported me and helped spread the word.  Even though the business never worked out, I would do it again in a minute.