Announcement
Enlarge PhotoDavid Boreanaz is happy to see you -- and so are we! We've been doing a little remodeling, and were proud to pull back the curtain this weekend on the new design of Hunk du Jour!
Some of the things you'll notice:
- New Search Engine
- Popular Categories Links - go to archives of your favorite hunks!
- Monthly Archive Links - explore the history of Hunk du Jour
- Clearer Comment Process - No need to "unlock" the form
- New Icons - add us to your iPhone homepage
- A fantastic new look - spearheaded by fantastic designer Nathan Grimes
We hope you enjoy the new site. We know about a few small glitches here and there that we'll be taking care of over the next few days. Please help me thank Nathan by giving him a big pat on the back in the comments!
Just a quick programming note: I've written a guest blog over at Towleroad today, talking about some of the events at my alma mater surrounding the Day of Silence. Rev. Ken Hutcherson will be protesting at the campus today because of the school GSA's participation in the national event.
'Day of Silence' Met with Protests, Solidarity in Rural Washington
That fact that there is a Gay-Straight Alliance at all in my former high school is something that gives me hope for the future. Such an organization seemed far from possible when I was attending, and drawing attention to the bullying surrounding queer youth only helps create an environment of tolerance for everyone. Now, even other religious organizations are getting into the dialog -- saying, "Hutcherson does not speak for us."
I appreciate your readership (and patience when I stray from our site's topic.)
[ 'Day of Silence' Met with Protests, Solidarity in Rural Washington - Guest Post at Towleroad ]
Hunk du Jour is getting a fantastic new look! We're putting the finishing touches on our brand new website, and have unlocked a super-sneak-preview of the site at http://beta.hunkdujour.com. We're very proud of the site, and hope that you like the changes as well.
Go over and check things out! There's a list of known items on the front page. Please send us your thoughts!
It's Oscar Night! I'm not feeling healthy enough to go out and party, so instead I'll hang out at home, watch the show, work on the blog, and participate in a live video chat.
Live video chat?!? Yeah, my friends over at the Feast of Fools Podcast are hosting a live chat and I'll be there hanging out.
Drop by and say hello, reports of my untimely demise have been exaggerated!
Happy Anniversary!
Today Hunk du Jour celebrates the 5th Anniversary of HunkDuJour.com! I registered hunkdujour.com on February 13th, 2003. Back in those days it was still my personal web site with a Hunk of the Day page that I'd already had on my previous site.
I chose to move my web site to this name after discovering that the bulk of my visitors weren't coming to view my vacation photos, or hear about my fascination with game shows -- they were coming to vote on the Hunk of the Day! I listened, and changed the site's name to Hunk du Jour.
In the past five years, we've come a long way. After we added the blog, visitors have increased from under 200 per month to over 180,000 per month... Page views have increased from under 9,000 per month to over a half million per month!
What's next?
We're going to stick with our mission - To feature noteworthy men in interviews, profiles, and photos on a site that you wouldn't mind your mother finding in your bookmarks. We're already working on some great interviews and projects to share. We hope that you'll join us for the next 5 years and beyond.
How can you help?
Well, keep reading! =) Tell a friend that you think Hunk du Jour is awesome... tell your Mom! Send us a tip on who you think we should feature next, or just say hi! Of course, we're never one to turn down new links to our site, either! (grab a site badge?)
THANK-YOU for being a part of Hunk du Jour... you're the reason we're doing this.
Love, Chris
and current/former/future contributors Doug, Troy, David, and Kathryn
UPDATE 1: Nicky at Ajax in the City happened to send a shout-out my way this morning -- featuring a photo of me with a mouth full of a mounds bar! Check it out. Thanks, Nicky!
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!
I'd like to point out a few items that may be of interest to you -- first, you'll notice a new search form in the left column of the site. This is powered by lijit and we're going to give it a shot.
Also of much interest (I still get e-mail about it) are the Hunk of the Day expandable thumbnails! You can expand any of the nominee's photos just by clicking on them -- then come back to the voting page and click their "vote" button (on the homepage or full entry) to make your opinion known!
Sometimes it's the little things that bring the most pleasure -- we're always taking suggestions (and compliments!) on our contact us page. We read every piece of mail, and respond to almost all of them!
Okay, so the People's Choice Awards were kind of a snooze. (I TiVo'd the broadcast and couldn't even bear fast-forwarding through it.)
You still have time to nominate your favorite hunks for our 2007 Hunk sof the Year vote!
We've had some great suggestions so far, and fans of a popular soap stud have been flooding the nomination box with a cry out for their favorite.
We're interested in hearing what YOU think, though -- so comment on that post with your picks! Sunday will be the final day for nominations!
Happy New Year! ...did ya miss us? Well, you'll find a few Christmas presents hiding around the site -- small changes that we know you'll enjoy.
So, it's time to look back fondly on 2007 and determine who the Hunk of the Year was... but we need your help!
Leave a comment on this entry with your nominations for as many or as few of the categories below. Team Hunk du Jour will scour over these nominations and select finalists -- then you'll decide by a public vote!
Hunk of the Year Categories - save some typing, cut and paste this into your comment!
Overall Hunk of the Year
Hottest International Star (non-US)
Hottest Actor
Hottest Reality TV Star
Hottest Soap Opera Star
Hottest Musician or Band
Hottest Athlete
Hottest Model
Hottest Newcomer
Hottest 40+ Year Old
Hottest Blogger / Podcaster
Hottest Blog / Podcast (Mainstream)
Hottest Blog / Podcast (Adult)
Hottest Print Magazine (Mainstream)
Hottest Print Magazine (Adult)
I was playing with stylesheets and templates again this weekend, and would love to hear your thoughts on the new Hunk du Jour look.
I felt that the site was looking a little too cluttered, and that our logo/masthead was getting completely lost. I moved our site logo and got rid of the "mystery man" -- instead replacing him with one of the art world's iconic images of male beauty, Michaelangelo's David.
(I'm also working on modifying the colors of our Google Adsense ads to something a little less jarring. That should happen over the next few days.)
I'm "handy" with stylesheets and templates, but am definitely not a design specialist... your feedback really sticks in my head as I find myself with a free weekend and decide to fiddle. Share your thoughts here, or contact us!
Did you know that over 325 people read Hunk du Jour each day in their e-mail box? What a great way to stay up-to-date with the site! Choose from one of our two subscription options, depending on how often you want your hunks served up.
- EXPRESS Newsletter - Get updates as they happen!
- NIGHTLY Digest - A great recap of the previous day waiting for you each morning.
(If you're already an e-mail subscriber, we've put you on our Nightly Digest list, which will send you updates at around 2AM each day. But you can switch over to the EXPRESS whenever you're ready!)
We've been keeping an eye on the Gay Bloggies competition (Caution: click with caution!) and have a few folks that we'd like to see win it all... however, when it came down to picking someone to endorse we've gone with D'Michael from CitizenDangerX.
Not only is he our hometown player (both CitizenDangerX and Hunk du Jour are Seattle-based), but he's also going to be donating half of the prize money to charity. We love supporting good causes, so I'm announcing that if D'Michael hits 1st or 2nd place, I will donate $150.00 to both American Lung Association and amFAR as well!
Check out the Gay Bloggies, and especially D'Michael. He's sent us a few more exclusive photos after the jump.
P.S. We're really loving Ernie from Little. Yellow. Different. and Fausto from Feast of Fools too. It's a tough choice.
UPDATE: D'Michael was on the Derek & Romaine Show tonight (Thursday 11/29, Sirius OutQ) and talked about being the Hunk du Jour. While nobody really is the Hunk du Jour for 24 hours anymore, we wanted to give you a few more hours on top. Good luck this week and thanks for the shout-out!
While recovering from Thanksgiving dinner I put my programming skills to use again and concocted this new twist on an old feature. Now you can vote for the Hunk of the Day right from the blog, as it is now a daily post!
Each day we select six images as nominees for Hunk of the Day. You're invited to cast your vote for one of the six images -- the image with the highest votes gets posted the next day. Simple, right? Yesterday's voting gave us Eric Martsolf as the winner -- who will get the crown tomorrow?
Hello, Hunks and Hunk Lovers!
So, it appears that while migrating e-mail systems I busted some of the @hunkdujour.com e-mail addresses. If you were the recipient of a bounced e-mail to one of our addresses this month, please accept our apologies. And this tote bag. Okay, so we don't really have tote bags (sorry again!) -- but our apologies are sincere.
If you'd like to send us a story idea, pimp your MySpace page for MySpace Mondays, hook us up with a celebrity friend who isn't afraid of our questions, send us a love note, submit your photos, or just get something off your chest... use any of the following words followed by @hunkdujour.com as our e-mail address.
- editor
- tips
- advertising
- suggestions
Thanks for reading -- and rest assured that the "Have an e-mail system that doesn't suck" suggestion has already been crossed off our to-do list.
P.S. How do you feel about our fabulous new "house ads" that run when a campaign is not present? We're going to be expanding these to include blogs/sites/products that we love -- but will strive to keep the same classy style as the current batch (which feature some of our favorite Hunks du Jour!)
Shared by Rodster in the Hunk du Jour Flickr Group
We've created a Hunk du Jour Facebook Page! We love our readers, and hope you enjoy the new profile.
Click on the "Add Product" link on our page to join our list of fans! We've also got some other exciting stuff in the works -- stay tuned!
Beach Boys by BIGDAWGDADDY
Just because it is the weekend and we're giving our tired typing-fingers a rest doesn't mean you can't see new hunks! Check out our flickr photo group, where you can browse through the 2,500+ photos other readers have uploaded -- and then upload some of your favorites too!
Join the other 440+ flickr users in our Hunk du Jour Photo Group today!
CBGB Coffee Guy, by JoeInQueens
Have you checked out the Hunk du Jour Flickr Group? There are plenty of photos there taken by other hunk hunters like yourself! Add your own photos to the group, or just browse THOUSANDS of photos that other readers have added!
We're heading off to sunny Puerto Vallarta for a week -- but never fear! We have some articles already written and in the hopper for you, to be magically posted each weekday while we're gone. Just because we need a vacation doesn't mean you don't get your fix of the boys!
While we are soaking up the rays (and hopefully getting photos of the cute cabana boys!) we'll have a helpful volunteer watchdog keeping an eye on things back home. (As well as a good friend camping out and feeding our fish.)
We'll be back, refreshed (and possibly a little hung over) on Friday the 12th -- though you probably won't even notice that we were gone. =)
September, it seems like we hardly knew ya... We'd like to thank our September sponsors for paying our hosting bill and giving us funds to donate to the 2007 AIDS Walk: Andrew Christian, Armani Exchange, Gay.com, NewEgg.com, Petsmart, Playgirl, and Vonage.
Come back next week to see who our October 2007 Featured Photographer is. We'll also have more fantastic interviews, profiles, and photos to share!
Comments that include profanity, personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material may be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author may be removed. Finally, we will take steps where possible to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use, privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Despite our best efforts, your posts are an interactive medium, and you are fully responsible for any content you post.
Readers -
We keep things pretty happy and light around here, and take great joy in giving you someone new to discover or rediscover each day. However, on this anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks we take a pause and invite you to do the same.
Our country has seen many changes since that day. I choose to live in a country of HOPE and LOVE. Not FEAR and HATRED. I believe that the citizens of the United States and the world need to band together and work towards global stability and sustainability.
Today we invite you to think about your place in life... and what you can do to shift the thinking of your city, your state, your country and your world.
Thank-you, we'll return to our normal programming tomorrow. -Chris
