I have great news!

Yours Only George is going to remain open! As I wrote previously, I was contemplating closing the site because my web hosting fee had doubled and advertising revenue wasn’t even covering the old fee. Fortunately, I was able to find a new web host with a much lower annual fee. Yeah!  I still hope you continue to support our advertisers so that I may keep the site open indefinitely. YOU make a difference.

As I said before, it’s more difficult to update the site as there just isn’t as much news. I also have had a number of unsubscriptions to the mailing list lately.  I am trying my best to post only the most important stuff here, but I do understand that some people aren’t as interested in George Michael news now that dear George has left us.

I do regularly post links on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so make sure to follow those to get all the news.

Thanks for allowing me to run Yours Only George for the last 20 years!

Melanie
Webmaster
Yours Only George

I have to admit I feel sad about celebrating the 20th anniversary of Yours Only George. I even hesitated to say anything at all.

As many of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook know, I have struggled with the loss of George Michael, maybe even more than most because this site has been a part of my life for 20 years and I have been a fan for 33 years.

On one hand, I’m still mourning George. (I just cried after watching the video for “Angels in Chains.”) On the other hand, I’m debating whether or not to keep this site open. Although I want to keep it open, I don’t know if I can afford to keep it open.

Obviously, when the center of your site dies and there is consequently little news, your site’s audience dies as well.

My webhost renewal is coming up soon and the rates went up. I have been experimenting this past week, trying to see how many articles a week it would take to keep the site open. What I discovered is that it only takes 5 people a day to visit an advertiser to keep this site open. That actually saddens me because I have been operating the site at a loss the last few years. I was always hopeful George would release something new to keep the site afloat.

If you like any small site, please know you do matter. You can easily keep your favorite sites open by purchasing items through their Amazon links or visiting sponsor’s advertisements that are of interest to you.

Thank you for all your support for the last 20 years!

Melanie
webmaster
Yours Only George

P.S. If you like Yours Only George, please remember to tell your friends about the site, our Facebook page or our Twitter page!

Yours Only George is celebrating its 17th birthday today!

I would like to thank all the fans who have supported our sponsors, which allows me to keep the site open.

Thanks as always to Shannon who started our first fan club back in 1986 (28 years ago!)  There would be no Yours Only George without Shannon.

Thanks to George Michael for all the wonderful years of music. I hope there are many more years of enjoyment to come.

Melanie
webmaster
Yours Only George

P.S. If you like Yours Only George, please remember to tell your friends about the site, our Facebook page or our Twitter page!

Yours Only George is celebrating its 16th birthday today!

It’s been 16 crazy years, with things happening in George Michael’s life that I could never have imagined!  This site was started in 1997 before George came out, before he had multiple car accidents, before he nearly died of complications from pneumonia, and before his most recent, mysterious accident.

I would like to thank all the fans who have supported our sponsors, which allows me to keep the site open for the time being.  With very little news (until recently), I can see a time when the advertising revenue will not cover the expenses to simply keep the site open.  I will try to keep the site open for as long as I can.

Thanks as always to Shannon who started our first fan club back in 1986 (27 years ago!)  There would be no Yours Only George without Shannon.

Thanks to George Michael for all the wonderful years of music. I hope there are many more years of enjoyment to come.

Melanie
webmaster
Yours Only George

P.S. If you like Yours Only George, please remember to tell your friends about the site, our Facebook page or our Twitter page!

In celebration of George Michael’s 49th birthday, I have set up a Facebook page for Yours Only George.  You can find the page at http://www.facebook.com/yogworld and follow the latest news on George Michael though your Facebook account.  Please spread the word about the new page to any of your George Michael friends.

Yours Only George also has a Twitter account with nearly 400 followers.  The Twitter account, in case you missed it, is available at http://twitter.com/yogworld.

Is there any interest in a Google+ or any other social media page?

Happy Birthday, George!

Melanie
webmaster
Yours Only George

Can you believe that Yours Only George is celebrating its 15th birthday?

This site has survived 15 years because of the many George Michael lovelies who have contributed news, links, photos, and comments through the various versions of Yours Only George.  Thanks to everyone who supports our sponsors, which allows me to keep posting the news for all of you!  Your kind words and support through the years have always meant a lot to me.

Thanks as always to Shannon who started our first fan club back in 1986 and was instrumental in the early years of the site.

Thanks to George Michael for all the wonderful years of music.  I never truly understood how much of an impact George Michael has had on my life until we almost lost him last year. I’m so very grateful that I can continue this fan site for George Michael for the foreseeable future.

Melanie
webmaster
Yours Only George

I have changed the theme on the blog because all the YouTube videos were hanging over into the right column of the old theme.  Please let me know if there are any issues.  Changing a theme is never as simple as changing a theme because it usually means updating a series of customizations. I think I caught most of the issues, but there is at least one that I still haven’t fixed.

Those of you who are regulars around here know that I had to quickly redesign the Yours Only George web site. As a result, there are still some issues that I have not fixed. There are minor, known issues in the old news section (News Flash). If you have any problems or notice any issues with the redesigned site, please post them here so that I can fix them.

Melanie
Webmaster
Yours Only George

I just learned that my web host is discontinuing FrontPage extensions in mid-September, and most of this site, excluding the news blog, was developed in FrontPage.  Without FrontPage extensions, the site loses the header, menu, footer, and probably the fonts and background. I had plans to redesign the site, but I’m not sure I can completely redesign the site by September.

When the web host shuts off the FrontPage extension, I will upload everything I have completed at that point.  Although I had hoped to clean up all the old code when I redesigned the site, I don’t think that will be possible with such a short deadline.  The site will be functional but may not be completely redesigned until next year.

Melanie
Webmaster
Yours Only George

When you start a fan site, I don’t think you look beyond the excitement of starting it.  To be running this site 14 years is amazing (no pun intended) to me.

I have to admit that I’m a little concerned about the viability of Yours Only George in the new George-Michael-on-Twitter era. These days all you have to do is follow George Michael on Twitter, and you get the news.  You don’t really need a site like Yours Only George any more.  It seems like everything in my world has changed so much in the last few years, and I guess this is just another change.

Don’t get me wrong, George Michael on Twitter is the absolute best thing that has ever happened to the George Michael community.  I love it, and if there had been such a thing as Twitter 14 years ago and George had been on it, I don’t think this site would have ever been developed. It was always my hope that this site filled in some of the gaps of the official site.

So, I’m still here, at least until I’m no longer needed.  THANK YOU to everyone who has supported this site through the years. Also, thank you to everyone who has stuck by the site in the last few years, even though I haven’t been able to update it as much I’d like to. I appreciate everyone, even though I often don’t have time to write back or tweet.  I’m here because you still want me to be here.

Thank you as always to Shannon who started it all … and to George for making the music we happily listened to since 1984.

Melanie
Webmaster of Yours Only George

I have set up a Twitter account for Yours Only George (a.k.a. Yogworld). The links to the newest George Michael news are automatically posted to Twitter. Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/yogworld

Here’s a quick explanation of why you couldn’t get to yogworld.com for a few days.

Yours Only George as well as my other site are located on the same server, and have been on this server for many, many years.  The web host announced that it was going to move the sites to a new server as the old one was antiquated.  As many of you know, moving sites from one server to another is usually a disaster.  When they’ve made changes like this before, it’s always meant down time for the site. 

When they made the move, they basically didn’t connect the Yours Only George site with the domain yogworld.com.  The content was always there, but I was the only one who knew how to get to it.  I had to write to them for at least a day to make changes and get everything back to normal.  Even the mail was down during this time.

I’m sorry for the problems.  Even though I am taking a break from the site because of a new personal responsibility, I don’t have any plans to close the site.  Thanks for not giving up in trying to get to the site.

Melanie
Webmaster

As of today, I will be on what I think is best described as a temporary leave of absence from the site.  I should be back to a regular posting schedule in 2009.  There hasn’t been anything to post recently so I don’t think you’ll see much of a difference.

If there is something of major importance (new tour dates, new CD), please put “URGENT” in the subject of your e-mail, and I will post it as soon as I can.  Please do not write to me about anything that is unrelated to new George Michael news; you will not receive a response.

Thank you.

Melanie
Webmaster
Yours Only George

On June 1, 2008, Yours Only George celebrated its 11th birthday. It’s a bittersweet celebration for me as it occurs just at the time George Michael is starting his first tour in the U.S. for 17 years and I’m not going to see him.  It’s the end of a dream for me as I now know I’ll never see him perform live again and I’ll never have the chance to meet him.  It’s a dream I’ve had for 23 years … since 1985. Of all the goals and dreams I’ve ever had, I suppose this was the most illogical and unachievable one on the list.  But it still saddens me that it’s over.

I’d like to thank all of the regulars who keep visiting day after day. I know I haven’t been very good about keeping up with the site lately in terms of news, links, and mail, and I do apologize.

I also have to thank Shannon, who was the driving force of Yours Only George, dating back to the 80s. Without her, I don’t know what I’d do.

And of course, I would like to thank George Michael.  George, your music in the last few months has kept me sane through a difficult time.  Thank you for not forgetting your U.S. fans.

Melanie
Webmaster
Yours Only George

Welcome to the new George Michael news section of Yours Only George.

I have been hesistant to move the current George Michael News Flash page to the blog format because the current news page gets more traffic than any page on the site, including the home page.  However, I’m hoping that a blog format will make it easier for everyone to find information on specific topics as well as provide an area for thoughtful (but moderated) conversation.  The George Michael news blog is available at https://www.yogworld.com/blog

I have tried to set the blog up as completely as I can but please give me a few days to tweak settings.

I hope you will all enjoy the new George Michael news format.

Melanie
Webmaster
Yours Only George