Cyberspud

In 1996, we wanted to register a “cute” domain name, something that people would remember. “Cyberspud.com” seemed catchy, it was available, and it became our first domain acquisition — one of more than 100 registered domains to date.

As obvious as it was to us, other people didn’t quite grasp exactly what the name meant. We explained that it was the Internet version of the “couch potato”: “cyber” (Internet) + “spud” (potato).

“Oh.”

Thinking a visual would help, we commissioned an artist to draw “Cyberspud” for use on our original site which was no more than a group of pages with hundreds of links to other sites on various topics.

Cyberspud.com was our “list-o-links” contribution to the Web at a time when it seemed important to put such a site together.

A lot of novice web designers get their start with list-o-links sites, trying to make theirs more unique and more comprehensive than anyone else’s. Our site and idea were not unique.

For a couple of years we spent a lot of time adding new links submitted by people who discovered Cyberspud as they surfed the Web. But the biggest chunks of time were spent editing and deleting links as sites moved, closed, or were redirected to porn sites.

Finally, because Google, Yahoo, Metacrawler, and several other search engines make finding information on any topic a snap, we deleted our links pages entirely. Now we only link to sites we own or control in some way.

And that’s how Cyberspud.com came about.

Cyberspud.com was our first domain purchased, the second was for an e-zine we wanted to develop: Friends and Lovers the Relationships Guide. That site has grown to thousands of pages hosted through several domains. The site focuses on relationships with articles, advice, guest columnists, chat, poetry, fiction, relationship reports, and even a virtual wedding chapel.

In December of 1996, the original Friends and Lovers site was named one of the Web’s 10 Best Relationships Sites by PC Computing Magazine. Sally Jesse Rafael once opened one of her shows with “According to Friends and Lovers dot com….”

By far the largest site, one that began as a part of the Friends and Lovers forum, is The Midlife Club, with more than 750,000 monthly page views and over 21,000 members. The forum is the key, providing 24/7 support to men and women dealing with middle age issues — their own or those of someone they love.

The Midlife Club forum was the inspiration for the book How to Survive Your Husband’s Midlife Crisis: Strategies and Stories from The Midlife Wives Club published in 2003 by Perigee. To date, the book remains one of the best-selling books written about male midlife crisis. The book has Chinese and Polish translations.

The majority of the links on this page are topic-specific sites (HALPI Sites) which were developed and are owned by Home and Leisure Publishing, Inc. The Links of Interest are to sites designed for other companies and organizations which we continue to manage and/or provide webmaster assistance as needed.