Meta, meta, meta…
I just wanted give folks a bit of an update on what’s been happening on the blog lately.
First of all, thanks so much to everyone who contributed during our Third Quarter Fundraiser. We had folks contributing via PayPal, by check, and by purchasing a TinyPass. Your donations help pay for the website hosting and upkeep along with other blog-related expenses. While our revenue is still too small for any of us to quit our day jobs, I take great pride in the fact that all of the regular contributors at Eclectablog are paid for their work. This is in stark contrast to other sites where people provide solid content for free. The Huffington Post model where a small handful of people profit handsomely from the hard work of writers who get nothing in return is one I reject. I get requests to take on new writers pretty regularly but, until we can support that financially, we’ll keep the staff small so everyone can be compensated for their good work.
On that note, bringing on Amy Lynn Smith was one of the smartest choices I’ve made. I hope you’ve been enjoying her excellent essays and calls to action as much as I have and I look forward to seeing her spread her wings and blossom on Eclectablog as we move forward.
I mentioned TinyPass and wanted to let you know what that’s about. TinyPass is a way for blogs to put up paywalls for their content. It first came to my attention when Andrew Sullivan at The Dish began using it when he went out on his own. Here at Eclectablog, at least for now, nothing is hidden behind a paywall. However, from time to time (every tenth visit), you’ll get a popup from TinyPass asking you to make a donation. The amounts listed there for monthly or yearly subscriptions are only suggestions. You can increase or decrease them to fit your budget. You’ll be supporting our efforts here when you do. Once you have a subscription, so long as you have cookies enabled, the nagging popups will go away. I know it’s annoying to see them but, until we sort out a more effective way to get paid for all of our hard work, it’s a compromise that I think works without making the site a hot mess of ads for cellulite reduction and hot Russian singles.
If you’d like to buy a site pass, you can click HERE to trigger the popup which will allow you to choose a monthly recurring donation or an annual pass.
There is another popup, served by our friends at the National Memo, that you will see periodically when you visit the site. That one has been very effective generating revenue so I hope you’ll all tolerate the minor inconvenience. The nice thing about those ads is that they are geared toward progressive causes that we here at Eclectablog support. It has been causing some issues with some mobile devices, particularly Android browsers, so, as of yesterday, that popup has been disabled for mobile devices which should solve the problem.
Both popups go away simply by clicking outside of them. Please let me know if you experience any issues and thanks for understanding why they are necessary.
On another note, if you experienced any issues with broken links or not being able to access the site yesterday, please accept my apology. I updated one of the WordPress plugins as well as WordPress itself and that triggered some issues that our intrepid web host Charles Gaba of Brainwrap was finally able to resolve last evening. I think the site is stable now but do let me know if you encounter any issues (broken links, etc.)
Another exciting development is that I have formed a new company called Savage New Media, LLC. Paperwork has been submitted to make Eclectablog a part of Savage New Media so in the future you’ll be able to write checks to “Eclectablog” instead of me personally when making donations. This also gives me a little bit of protection in case I’m sued (again) so that I don’t lose my house and stuff. I’m pretty excited about it and it’s a testimony to what we’ve built here.
Finally, looking forward, there are a couple of things on the docket that I’m hoping to roll out over the next six months. First, I hope to be putting out a monthly newsletter that highlights some of the more popular and important posts from the previous month. If you wish to get that newsletter, please sign up in the form on the right sidebar titled “Stay informed! Get our newsletter.” or fill it out here!:
I’m also looking into the possibility of offering an Eclectablog app for mobile devices. That’s a bit into the future but it’s an exciting possibility so stay tuned.
Lastly, we’ve been printing some Eclectablog t-shirts for our Eclectateam and I am considering offering them for sale. Take the poll below to let me know if you’d purchase one if they were offered. They have the Eclectablog logo from the top of the page on the front and the URL on the back and would come in white or gray, both long and short sleeve. Prices would probably start around $20 plus shipping.
Thanks for your continued support of Eclectablog. In addition to sharing our stuff far and wide, be sure to put a “Like” on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter: Eclectablog, Anne Savage, LOLGOP, and Amy Lynn Smith.
[poll id=”3″]
