I formed Planet Thrive almost twenty years ago, back in 2006. I had been struggling with my own very serious and debilitating cluster of symptoms for years. I had been misdiagnosed by doctors and mismedicated, losing years of my life thinking I was healing when I was only making myself sicker. I searched the Internet constantly, trying to find others with similar symptoms and answers to my medical mystery. But the Internet was very young back then and there weren’t many helpful resources available yet. After years of wishing there was a website that would be helpful, I decided I would have to create it myself. That is how Planet Thrive was born.

Back then, “blogs” (and the ability to create free WordPress websites) were not popular and I spent over $10,000 of my life savings to build Planet Thrive from the ground up. The plan was always to monetize the site so I could make back the money I had spent and have a small but consistent income flow. I attempted to make PT a paid membership site but my prime audience were people, like myself, disabled and unable to work. Most of my members were on Social Security Disability Benefits, or else were not even approved for it. They were living hand-to-mouth and could not afford — or were not interested in — a membership subscription. I shifted to affiliate partnerships and spent many, many hours creating directories and embedding affiliate links into articles and pages on the site. To this day, I have made almost no income on affiliate partnerships. The only exception was with the DNRS and Gupta brain retraining programs, for a few years when everyone wanted to do the programs. But it’s been years since I’ve made sales on those programs. Income from the site was only $400 in 2024. The costs are in the thousands.

Why is it so expensive, you may be wondering? Some of the associated costs with running a website (some of which are annual costs, some are billed monthly):

Domain Registration
Full Domain Privacy + Protection
Wordfence Security Protection Plugin (became vitally necessary after all of my websites were hacked some years ago)
PublishPress Plugin (which allows me to publish articles written by multiple authors, rather than just myself)
All in One SEO Plugin (allows for search engine optimization)
DIVI WordPress Theme (enables me to build all of my websites)
Estatik Theme (special real estate software that enabled me to create Environmentally Safer Homes)
Estatik Support (allows me to get help when things are not working right)
Adobe Software (for using Photoshop to edit photographs)
Web Hosting
AZ Corporation Commission
NYS Department of State (where I first formed Planet Thrive)
AZ Department of Revenue
Paypal Processing Fees
Business Checking Fee
Credit Card Purchase Interest Charge
Annual Tax Preparation

That’s just for one website. For years I had multiple websites serving the Environmental Illness community: Planet Thrive, Buhner Healing Lyme, Limbic Retraining, MCS-Safe Homes, and the non-profit I co-founded called re|shelter. Some of the above listed costs were multiplied by the number of websites. I now run Planet Thrive and Environmentally Safer Homes.

Somehow, I’ve been absorbing the cost of all this personally. It’s been draining my retirement savings. I’m at a point where I just cannot shoulder these expenses any more. To make matters worse, there is now an issue on ESH that just popped up this week, that I am unable to solve unless I upgrade the software and purchase a new support license.

When I announced last month that my websites would be shut down, many people suggested I do a fundraiser. I didn’t think I could raise money to cover my costs, based on past attempts to ask for help. But there was a real sadness from a lot of people at the thought of losing all of the resources on Planet Thrive — including the Buhner Healing Lyme archives — as well as Environmentally Safer Homes listings.

I know how much work, effort, time and money went into creating all of this. The more I sat with the idea of shutting it all down, I decided to give a fundraiser a chance. If I am able to raise enough to cover this year’s upcoming costs, I can keep the sites open another year while I attempt to create more income flow. Ideally, we can raise enough to cover several years.

I am appealing to the EI community — all those who have benefited from my offerings in some way over the years. Please consider giving a donation, even $5, if you are able to. If you have benefited from the articles I’ve written, if you’ve healed while participating in our brain retraining support groups, if you found a place to live — or even just felt a sense of hope at having a website to look for environmentally safer listings. If you received support and felt a part of community. If I helped you fundraise or do a letter writing campaign or helped you find housing, gave you needed advice, or just listened to you and helped you to feel validated and seen. If you got answers about Stephen Harrod Buhner’s Healing Lyme protocol. If you learned something from our Expert Q + As. If I published an article you wrote. Or perhaps, you just don’t want to see such valuable resources lost forever, when there are so few online resources for people with severe sensitivities like ourselves. Maybe you appreciate me personally and just want to show support for my efforts over the years. Or maybe you want to show support for the EI community — people with severe chemical + electromagnetic hypersensitivities, lyme disease and/or co-infections, mold related illness, heavy metal poisoning, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and more — by contributing to keeping these vital resources online.

It’s been a true labor of love. I’ve given everything I have to serving this community over the past 20 years. If it’s time to close up shop, then that is what I will do. We had a promising start to the fundraiser yesterday, raising just over $500 immediately. But unfortunately, that barely covers this year’s costs. I ask you to show up now for Planet Thrive (and Environmentally Safer Homes), if you value what we provide and do not want to lose it forever. If you cannot afford any donation at all, may I ask that you share about our fundraiser? Perhaps share a personal story of how PT helped you over the years on your Facebook and/or Instagram accounts, and share the link to the fundraiser. Support comes in many forms, and we appreciate it all! Many blessings, and thank you for being a part of our journey over the years.

DONATE HERE: https://gofund.me/4468bc7c