January 3, 2012: MOTC Shutting Down

After much consideration, I have decided that Montreal on the Cheap’s run has ended. I will not be updating the site any more. I am leaving the site active for search results for a while because some of the events and activities are perpetual and people are still looking for and finding information on this site. If circumstances change, the site may become active again – nothing is written in stone. Various options include having an intern take over some of the work for school credit, finding financial backers, or having a team of volunteers help run the site. No irrevocable decisions have been made.

Thank you to the loyal visitors and readers of MOTC and I hope that you continue to enjoy the city and its many free and inexpensive activities and events. There are many around – you just have to keep your eyes and ears open.

I wish everyone a good 2012 and that the year treats everyone gently and with kindness, even when obstacles are placed in the way.

Regards,

Marijke Vroomen Durning

Happy Holidays from Montreal on the Cheap

To all my loyal visitors – thank you for coming by Montreal on the Cheap. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and wonderful 2012.

As some of  you have noticed, there have been no daily deal posts this week. There have been a few glitches on this end and – t0 be honest – I haven’t had the time to work on it.

As part of 2012′s goal for me is to reevaluate the site and see if it is worth it to continue. I know that many of you enjoy the deals and events that are posted, however, it is time consuming. Unfortunately, sometimes I don’t have that time to spare. So I am going to spend the holidays reflecting and making decisions.

There still may be posts over the next week – particularly if I see anything interesting for New Year’s Eve, so don’t give up!

Happy Holidays everyone and I’ll see you soon.

New Calendar Function on MOTC

Hi everyone.

When MOTC first started, we had a calendar that listed upcoming events. We had problems with it, so it disappeared. I finally found another plug in calendar, thanks to my colleagues at other Cities on the Cheap sites and I’ve just installed it. You’ll find it in the right hand sidebar. While it’s sparse now because it has to be built up, it will soon become a good resource for people who want to poke around to see what is available and when. This may be particularly interesting for people who rely on the newsletter, Twitter, or Facebook – instead of having to remember, you can pop in to double check what is happening.

And don’t forget, we’re always looking for events and activities to add to Montreal on the Cheap, so please send them in to Marijke/Montreal On The Cheap if you have anything to suggest.

Thanks!

Games We Used To Play – Announcement

Montreal on the Cheap is a labour of love and when I’m not working on MOTC, I am working on projects that either pay or will pay one day. Making a living as a writer is challenging, but it’s rewarding in so many ways. I would like to share with you my latest project and I hope that you will not only be interested in checking it out and participating, but you will share it with others who are interested as well. For this particular project to work, I need to reach out to as many people as is possible, near and far – including across the world.

I  have built a website called  Games We Used to Play: A Hop, Skip and Jump Down Memory Lane (www.GamesWeUsedToPlay.ca – please note that it is a .ca domain name, not .com). I am looking for people to visit the site and maybe leave a note about a game or games they used to play when they were children. The goal is to collect as many games and variations of them from around the world – the free play games like tag, hopscotch, and red rover.

I’m hoping that people will read stories submitted by others and contribute their own details. by reading one story, they may say “hey, I used to play that game, but we called it ABC and our rules were….” Of course, I would love it if then they would share the site with others, so this can spread as far and wide as is possible. I am also going to be adding articles about the importance of free play along the way and visitors are welcome (and encouraged) to comment on the articles, perhaps starting a discussion.

Anyway, I do hope that you will take a few minutes to check it out and then maybe come back later to see stories that have been posted since. A few people are having problems with the submission system, so if you do, you could email me directly at marijke @ gamesweusedtoplay.ca.

I hope you like it,
Marijke

Special Cause: Sepsis Awareness Month

This isn’t part of our usual daily deals or fun things we can do in Montreal for free, but it’s an important issue that I would like to share.

Montreal on the Cheap is a labour of love. I make very little income with it. In my “real” life, I am a medical writer. One of my clients is Sepsis Alliance.

Sepsis is a very real threat and it kills thousands of people every year, yet most people have never heard of it. Those who have heard the word often don’t really know what it means.

Sepsis Alliance was founded by Carl Flatley, a retired endodontist who lost his 22-year-old daughter to sepsis. Sepsis is what used to be called blood poisoning or septicemia; it is the body’s toxic reaction to an infection. The infection can be anything from pneumonia to a urinary tract infection, and everything in between.

Right now, every 1.75 seconds, someone in the world is diagnosed with severe sepsis. Chances are, he or she will die. People who don’t die from severe sepsis often end up with amputations of fingers, toes, arms, legs, even noses.

Please help reduce the number of people affected by sepsis and the number of deaths by learning about sepsis and by spreading the word. Sepsis can happen to anyone. Just look at some of the Faces of Sepsis to see how it can by your neighbour, your teacher, your mother, your son – you.

If someone has died of an infection, they have died of sepsis.

September is Sepsis Awareness Month.

Loss of Google Ads Revenue and a Request

Dear MOTC followers,

The only source of income I received from Montreal on the Cheap was through Google Ads. If someone looking at the site clicked on a Google ad, I then received point something of a cent. While I wasn’t making a lot of money, I was starting to earn enough to cover the cost of hosting this site, which until a few months ago, was completely coming out of my own pocket.

Unfortunately, Google Adsense decided to pull their ads from MOTC, stating “suspicious ad activity.” What this means, I don’t know but honestly, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.

So, since I’m a one-(wo)man show, finding the deals, posting them and paying for the hosting, I am asking for some help to help spread the word that this is a great place to advertise businesses that would cater to a our crowd here.

I love working on MOTC and don’t want to stop. It’s fun and I do appreciate the emails I get about the fun people have with some of the events they decide to attend because they read of them here. So if you can help, I would appreciate it more than you will probably know!

Thanks for taking the time to read this special message.

Marijke

Owner, publisher, and editor of Montreal on the Cheap.

 

New Freebies & Coupons page at MOTC

We now have a Freebies & Coupons page at Montreal on the Cheap. Most of us know the frustration of finding great deals, only to find that these deals are only valid in the United States. So, we’ll try to bring you deals and coupons that are valid for us here in Montreal.

Check out our Freebies & Coupons page when you have a chance.

Just 1 more day for chance to win a book – ends Dec. 15, 2010

Just one more reminder about the chance to win a copy of Fits, Starts & Matters of the Heart: 28 True Stories of Love, Loss & Everything in Between.

Good luck!

MOTC is now on Twitter

Sometimes we find great deals that need to be snapped up *fast*. So, Montreal on the Cheap has joined Twitter: MontrealOTC.

Come follow us!

Don’t forget our contest

MOTC fans – don’t forget our Facebook contest.

You can win a copy of Fits, Starts & Matters of the Heart just by joining us over on Facebook.

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