It all started with me connecting to the Internet and looking around the Web and seeing loads of adults sites - some with free pictures and most without. I was fed up with going to links pages and "clicking and hoping" that the site I was connecting to was worth it. Also, my eyes were getting a bit strained from having to look at sites with awful text and background combinations - I didn't really want to have to wear sunglasses everytime I logged on.

"I'll set up my own site", I thought, "and see if I can do better".

Using webspace provided free by my ISP, I set up Richard's Links To Free Pics. It started off as a very humble site with links to about 20 sites with free pictures and a few of my own XXX pictures - some of you may even remember it. I submitted it to Persian Kitty and a couple of other links pages and watched with amazement as the counter clocked up the first 1,000 and then 10,000 visitors.

After a few weeks Richard's Links To Free Pics was getting about 10,000 visitors a day. The number of sites I linked to increased to about 100 and things were looking good. Then my server administrator became concerned about the pictures I was showing. He didn't throw me off the server - which was good of him - but he suggested I look for a different server on which to show the pictures.

I put a plea on my site for people to let me know about any space I could use for the pics and then, out of the blue, the Webmaster of 2Sexy offered me 5mb of space on his server. I built a new site and launched it in August of 1996.

It lasted for less than one day.

My friend's server couldn't handle it. It was closed down. and so I had to start all over again. Fortunately, the guy from 2Sexy managed to arrange for me to use some space on One 4 All's server. I re-built the site and launched it again the following week.

It lasted for four hours.

Again, the server couldn't handle it. I was getting fed-up, visitors were getting fed-up, I thought about jacking it in and not bothering anymore, but instead I went on holiday.

When I returned, I offered advertising space to sponsors. The money I got from this then paid for Richard's Free XXX Pictures at the holowww.com site. It went well for a few weeks, but the server was so bloody slow, even I couldn't get around the site so how could I expect visitors to enjoy it.

I then decided to set-up a members picture archive (The Archive), the extra money from which would help me pay for a bigger and better server. And this is it (well, one of them).

In May, the chaps I rent the server from told me me that I was using far too much bandwidth. More problems, I thought. The solution, after a careful look at the dreaded cashflow, has been to rent a second server.

The site is still growing and my friend, Jeremy, has joined me in running the site. Between us we spend about 40 or 50 hours a week maintaining the site and about $4,500 a month paying for the servers and all the other odds and ends (like the Chat Rooms).

Despite those figures, I run the site because I enjoy it (believe it or not). I work full time and easily spend 4 hours every evening answering e-mail and updating the various pages. Needless to say, my social life has been effected a little bit!!

If you've read this far, then I'm bloody impressed. Thanks for taking the trouble and I hope you enjoy my site.