Disk space and bandwidth costs money, and the only real way to make up for costs is to charge for access. Believe me, no one clicks banner ads like the ones above because I check the stats. So I myself run at a financial loss every single month.
You should be thankful you even had a free tickletown to go to while it was free. If we were in it for the money, our sites would have been paid access from the start. So next time before you go get all hot and bothered about a free site going paid, think about why they had to go paid.
Also, $4.95/month for TickleTown is a steal when you consider all the original material they have to offer you!
Sheesh, some people... 😡