You don’t get a manual when you set up an automotive website.
Instead, you get a world of experience and with any luck, you learn something.
In my opinion you never stop learning because there’s always something new in cyberworld so, if you know it’s coming, you won’t get ambushed.
Jerry Sutherland
You might not know how to fix something like a web server problem or a tech issue, but if you see it often enough, you knew where to steer the tech guy. That’s a huge asset.
The April 2, 2009, edition wasn’t the best version of MyStar, but it was the first. A 1964 Chevy Impala family legacy car was the first owner’s story. The stories were shorter and the pictures were smaller, but we evolved over the next few years.
The first thing to be dumped was the monthly format. Today’s world gets updated every 1.7 seconds so leaving the same stuff on the site for a month was a mistake. Now there’s a new article every day and it’s updated twice daily because this isn’t a world where a monthly magazine makes any sense. People want a constant stream of information in 2026.
That seems so obvious now, but in 2009 MyStarCollectorCar was a brand-new world. I learned how things work behind the scenes of a website—but not before hitting redlight emergency status a few times.
The web platform changed for the better in 2015, so the bigger pictures and a much better format changed MyStarCollectorCar forever. The site became a true online newspaper with that evolution .
The other change came behind the scenes when a new web tech took over the operations. He was a commerce-oriented guy, plus he also knew how to run a much larger site because MyStar was massive even at that point.
The next change came in 2024 when a new webhost took over the MyStar file. This was a change that had to happen because the old host had plenty of downtime–we set up a paywall in April 2024, and we had to have 100% reliability for our subscribers.
The new webhosts cost a lot more, but to this day there’s never been any downtime at MyStar, so that’s what you call a great investment.
The visual side of a website is also critical, so we invested in some updated editing programs. I’ve made it a mission to learn something new every week—so far so good. The learning curve is infinite in the graphics world so that ‘something new every week’ rule is fun and educational.
The question we get asked most at MyStar is simple. How do you make money?
The answer is through advertising, subscriptions–and now through MyStarBasic.com. That site is for non-subscribers and it’s a barebones version of MyStarCollectorCar.com.
MyStarBasic is supported through flash ads and other forms of advertising, and it has no photos–plus there’s no library of stories. The only article you’ll see is the current article–and then it disappears.
The basic idea behind MyStarBasic is to keep readers engaged enough to migrate to a full MyStarCollectorCar subscription. You get a premium experience as a subscriber–complete with photos and the full 17-year library of articles.
As you can see, the MyStarCollectorCar experience is constantly evolving–but we wouldn’t be here for 17 years without the readers and the advertisers. They are why we are celebrating 17 years and counting.
Thank you from the MyStar guys.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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