As regulars to my sites know I have gone out of my way to keep my sites free to users. Up until recently that was possible through advertising revenue alone. However, with the recent crash in internet advertising revenue this may not be possible forever. My primary advertiser has already forced a change to the contract, greatly reducing my income and has been late with several payments.
You are probably thinking that I'm being greedy and trying to find a way to earn more money. But, I would like to point out a couple of facts: I have never made a profit running my sites. I have created and maintained them because I enjoy doing so, and like the fact that other people like using what I have created. I have not received compensation for the large amount of time I have invested in creating, maintaining, and updating these sites. However, takes a good deal of money to pay for the hosting (a dedicated server) and bandwidth (~30 Gig) required to maintain these sites.

Here comes the pitch: I need your help to keep these sites alive.

Lower on this page you will find two icons which will allow you to contribute either $1 or an amount you choose as a tip for these sites. This is a completely voluntary option, I will NOT turn my sites into pay-to-use sites. I may go down, but I will do so fighting.
Any and all funds received from this tip jar will be used exclusively for maintaining these sites. So if you have enjoyed using The Nitpickers Site or The MovieQuotes Site or any of the other sites in Brendan's Realm now is your chance to show your appreciation, and guaranty their continued existance.

Who knows, maybe with enough tips on a regular basis the sites can be turned into ad free zones...