A Simple Hobby Start...
This site started in 1999 as a personal site about recreational small boat owners. My focus was to build a place where people could share stories, jokes and help promote boating safety.
In 2001 several members asked me to add a printable calendar so that they, their family and friends could plan trips on the water.
Oh, That's A Good Idea... !?
I searched the Web for a simple printable calendar site with the idea of linking to that site. After hours of looking it was clear that my idea of a simple usable calendar did not exist. So, out of frustration and with a lot of trial and error, I built what I was looking for on the site.
Soon Yahoo, Google and several other search engines indexed the calendar and it started showing up when people searched for a "printable calendar".
Over the years, with the expansion of the Internet and despite the arrival of hundreds of other calendar sites, people kept coming to my site year after year. Along the way I discovered something about the internet that lifted my spirit then and is the reason I continue this calendar site to this day. The Internet is filled with a bunch of really terrific people. Their encouragement, design suggestions and editing kept the site growing. It stayed relevant with the kind of calendars people were looking for! Many are still with me today as more join their ranks!
As the traffic and the calendar type requests grew the cost of running and maintaining the site also grew.
So now what? How to Create a business model that would be self sustaining and be around for a while?
Ads? I think they're fine for large sites and respectable businesses that know how to properly manage them. But, far too often, I find sites who abuse the privilege and, sadly muddy up the Internet with all kinds of negative user experiences. So no!
I did not want to set a price for the calendar. There are ways to do that by offering limited or sample printing then an upgrade. Too much selling! Too much stress! So no to that too!
I know, because the Internet shares a similar cross section of our communities, that within my great calendar friends and visitors are those who are doing well or well enough and others not so much; struggling with health or economic issues - or both!
THE PLAN:
Set up the 
Web's first and only printable calendar on the honor system. You're right if you are thinking that I'll never get rich doing it that way! But getting rich was not the plan in the first place. (I've had a successful career and am happily retired with my wonderful, understanding and supportive wife!)
From that personal site the No-Frills Calendar was born. For over 11 years we have managed to pay all the bills associated with this site! 
I told you that there are some very special people on the internet!
I hope you take the time to look around our site. ("Our" = myself and a few dedicated user / editors, calendar designers and proof-readers). Read our many Comment Pages, view our many unique calendar offerings and print as many as you like. After printing, and with your kind consideration, you may then support the calendar at whatever value you place on our work and what you printed or consider it as our gift to you; depending on your personal circumstances.
Thanks for reading this!
Jim Kearney
CONTACT US
A.V.Y.C
P.O. Box 108
Conover, NC 28613
