An update

Apr 15 2025 update: The evergreen classes are now closed up/

Apr 6 2025 update: I re-opened the 7 evergreen courses before starting the shutdown; they're available until April 13th. 

Original: I come today with some big news, and I was going to wait until after the retrogrades were over but recent events made me push this up, so here it goes: I am planning on shutting down The Dark Pixie Astrology, and will start a new astrology website. There's a very long story for this, so I'll detail it all for those who want to know it.

If you recall, last year I came out about a situation where another astrologer stole my work and passed it off as theirs (if you didn't hear about that, I wrote about it on the blog HERE). What I didn't disclose at the time was that what they did was killing the site because all of the algorithms favored them over me thanks to them having a much larger social media following.

I had found I was shadowbanned on Facebook in late 2023, which timed out with when the first content was stolen; well I have come to find that I am shadowbanned on ALL social media except Youtube (no clue why not Youtube).

I never cared too much about social media though because most of my traffic has always come from Google, but website traffic started dropping steadily a little over a year ago.

Then I found out in September that Google has the site flagged as essentially posting copied content, and I found out about two months ago that their algorithm now considers your social media following (in an ill-advised attempt to not favor AI, with no consideration for the fact that my content predates AI).

So, since I don't have a large following, I've been dinged by all the algorithms. It wasn't a surprise with the social media platforms since that is where the astrologer has their following, but with Google following along now, site traffic is down to where it was in the first year of the site, and if I were to hold it long enough, I'm sure it would get to nearly zero.

Normally when you get hit by Google, you use social media to make up for the loss; normally when you're not benefiting from social media, you use Google to make up for it - so I'm out both.

Then in a case of horribly bad timing, my email newsletter service provider dissolved back in August, and I was unable to move my email list to any of the other major providers because my email list is so old, I couldn't provide everything they wanted (to prove it's not a bought list). So I had to close up to new subscribers, shrink it down considerably, and the provider I'm with totally sucks and lacks functionality, so this list is essentially dead weight at this point.

Normally your email list would be where you'd turn with Google and social media failing you, but that's not an option for me either. I've struck out.

I've been trying to figure ways out of this, but I've been beating my head against the wall for too long and there just is no way out. I tried creating new social media accounts to start over with them and was blocked from doing so. Google is refusing to index any new content (essentially add any new content to search results) so I can't SEO my way out of this either. And I kept trying other email providers for my email list but none worked.

I can't convince the algorithms they made a mistake and penalized the wrong person.

So, I finally made the hard choice to shutter the site. I'm not going to lie, this hurt A LOT at first. I've spent fourteen years on this, devoted so much time and energy to it, tried to build something respectable, and to have it blow up in my face when I didn't do anything wrong is infuriating.

But it also feels like I'm punishing myself for continuing to try and save it. Sometimes you just can't save it, and trying to do that only makes it worse. I've moved on from the anger (mostly) and am trying to have some hope that maybe something better is coming.

I was notified a week ago that the provider I use for orders (SendOwl) is no longer offering my plan, so that made me have to push this notification up as I had to make a decision with that. It definitely felt like a sign that walking away is the right call though.

I've already been working on content for the new site since I won't be able to move over anything from the existing site (otherwise it'd get flagged). I'm rewriting some of the most popular content, but there's so much that most of it won't get rewritten.

Timing-wise, I have to give my ad network at least a month's notice that the site will be taken down, which I'm planning on doing once the retrogrades end, so later in April (though I may get kicked out sooner since I'm now under their minimum requirements). I'm shooting to shut down the site in June. 

I am planning on holding the domain (website address) for a while to prevent anyone from taking it and trying to impersonate me (yep, I'm paranoid about that astrologer now and wouldn't put it past them!).

The social media accounts are bunk thanks to being banned, so I will turn them private and eventually delete them. The only one I'll keep is Youtube since again, that's the only one not shadowbanned. I'll rebrand it with the new site, and am going to focus on Shorts since I struggled too much with regular videos with my vocal issues. 

I will also shut down the email list since I can't move it anywhere, and I may only open a new one for students/clients. I'm trying to avoid doing all the free work I did for way too long.

As for downloads for courses and such, I'm working to move all of that off of the site so they'll still be downloadable even with the site gone. I've already done this for some courses, so some of you will already be getting emails with new links in the coming days. 

I want to open up all of the evergreen courses (so the ones that are usable now and a century from now) since I'll have no way of offering them again once I lose access to everything. It'll be one last shot for those next week. That list includes:

- Get Started With Predictive Astrology [beginner predictive astrology course]
- Make Astrology Predictions [intermediate predictive astrology course]
- Soul Astrology Masterclass [natal astrology course focusing on baggage and potential]
- Astrolove [focusing on compatibility and relationship]
- Astrology Angles Decoded [focusing on the angles in every way]
- Astrology of Work [focusing on how predictive astrology impacts your professional life]
- Beneficial Astrology [focusing on positive astrology]

(there will also be a way to make a donation; never allowed that before so working that now)

When I start the new site, I'm planning on focusing on two memberships instead of courses.

I am also in the process of having an official copyright for absolutely everything on the site; this is necessary for any legal action and will remain valid even when the site is down (so just in case anyone gets the idea that they can steal it once the site is down, I'll still be able to go after them legally; did I mention I'm paranoid now?). But that's almost done now.

So, I think that's everything. It looks like it'll be about two months when the site is taken down; I'm hoping to have the new site up by the end of April though. I don't have a name chosen yet (don't want to commit until after the retrogrades), and I won't be going by my name anymore either (hoping to fly under the bad astrologer's radar). 

I don't really know if this will work. It's a last-ditch attempt, so we'll see!