Looks like I won’t be up and running until March.
So. If you didn’t contribute earlier this year and want to contribute for February, there’s no time like the present. (Ordinarily I’d wait until the first of the month to post something like this, but for February, the first of the month happens to be my birthday, and so I’ll be busy trying to drink myself back to, say, 23 or 24.)
Again, I’m trying to raise a minimum of $600 per month to keep the site (and me) viable.
Meantime, I’ve set up some private area forums, but I’m having trouble seeing them just now. I’ll see if I can’t fix that this weekend.
[last day up top; new posts below]
So what will be the monthly charge on the pay site model when it starts? Is there a yearly option? Is it going to be limited free access with greater access to subscribers and posting privileges along with that? Are there going to be tiers beyond that?
Probably 3 tiers, with one being free. Yes, there will be a yearly option. Yes, subscribers will have greater access to more features.
Will there be pie?
Metaphorically, sure, in the content.
And content-wise, metaphorically.
Will there be wise metaphors in the content?
Not if you ask certain people.
Come on now. Pony up. Daddy needs a few weight plates. And money for lunch.
Can’t pony up until after the first. I’m always raiding the quarter jar by this time of the month.
Not to mention I had THREE immediate family member’s birthday’s this month. And, snottily, they refuse to accept Metaphoric Pie in lieu of birthday cake.
Okay.
at the risk of making sense, instead of having a fund-raiser, why not offer an “early adopter” discount.
For $50 you get unfettered access to the top tier site through the end of 2010.
For $20 you get middle tier access.
Maybe 50 to 70 people would pony up for PW-Pay Model
Twenty people gives you a thousand.
Just a thought.
I don’t think I can help this time, as I’ve been funemployed since a week before last Friday. Once I get a job, I’ll be able to contribute again.
Because I don’t have the pay architecture set up yet, BS, and I’m a horrible book keeper.
Sorry to hear that cranky. Seems to be going around.
I blame Bush.
So, does this come with Armadillo access?
Naturally.
Thus far, one contribution. My shelf life seems to be nearly expired.
You don’t smell ripe from here.
It’s early – wait until evening to panic.
My mom’s birthday is also the 1st. And then it’s Groundhog day.
I don’t know where you think I’ll be coming up with all this dough.
Jeff, I’m committed to top-tier (or whatever you’s-a-gonna call it) subscription access. My only wondering is about comments. If everyone can post comments in the free zone, fewer can comment in the mid-tier, and fewer still can comment in the top-tier — what’s the result going to look like in terms of interactive banter? If commenting on the top-tier stuff is limited not just in terms of posting but also audience, won’t that stuff be largely ignored by the commentariat? Should I really be applying my waning attention span to this today? Does Nancy Pelosi have chicken legs?
Yes she does – and the chicken wants them back!
Benedick —
With respect to interactive banter at the top end, I suspect you’ll get the good stuff without all the troll stuff. I plan on using the interior as a kind of think tank for classical liberalism. And to bash other bloggers who’ll have to pay to see what I’m saying about them from behind my pay wall.
[cue maniacal chuckle]
So far, the experiment is faring poorly. Although 2 contributions are better than 0. So for that I’m thankful.
yeah, my ground hog will be upset if it doesn’t get a nice present.
I need the current version of the fee schedule so that I can rightfully determine my level of participation without disrupting the budgetary process.
And also to keep from royally torquing off the wife, who has the pollyannic notion that the interwebs should be free.
Massage – $120
Everything Else – Negotiable with Mamasan
Jeff, you still want this book?
Actually, doesn’t matter, I’ll just send one of those Amazon gift cards by email and you can grab what you want.
I’ll send it to your j.p@gmail.com email address.
The deed is done, Jeff. Wish I could do more, but, well you know.
And David, I can completely relate to this sentiment:
Best line of the day comes to us from John Pitney Jr over in the Corner:
Obamanomics in six words: Big Mac. Large Fries. Diet Coke.
Jeff, I just threw in what was left of my poker money from Saturday night. Sorry for the loose dimes and nickels. If you’re inclined to spend this “fortune” all in one place, I’d suggest a flea market. Bang for the buck and all.
Get yourself a shitty fake ID. Or some rubber nunchucks and a ninja throwing star or something.
Cheers.
Oh, as I’ll probably forget, Happy Birthday!
She never buys anything on-line? Books for instance, which are simply a way to access another’s mind. Which is what is being sold.
I’ll drop a birthday card in the mail Jeff. You know how I like to fuck the tax man…
And also to keep from royally torquing off the wife, who has the pollyannic notion that the interwebs should be free.
I heard from a friend of a friend who heard it from his cousin’s step son who lives two counties over while this friend & I were having a conversation about something else entirely that most porn websites are now free.
That may or may not be a cartridge you wanna keep in the ammo belt for later.
Just throwing it out there.
Access, geoffb, she believes that access should be free. Thanks for noticing that. No, if she is buying a book, she just thinks that she is getting something unavailable at a local bookstore.
Which in DFW is a bit of a stretch…
There are so many Barnes and Noble locations here that ONE of them ought to have it. Without driving too far, there are 5 within an easy distance. Now she may not want to drive the 20 miles to the one that has it… But that is a choice.
Lamontyoubigdummy,
She would not mind if pron was banned. So I’m not mentioning that.
“You know how I like to fuck the tax man…”
First time for everything, I s’pose.
David, that’s a bummer. My gf has a larger and more diverse pr0n collection than I ever had in college. Even some stuff that makes me go, “Rrreally, Hon?”
David,
I wasn’t being serious, too much.
Wife buys many, many things online so this is to be one of mine.
How does that free access go, Comcast charges me, mightily.
My gf has a larger and more diverse pron collection than I ever had in college.
I’m flat out not even going to touch that.
I want to.
Really, really bad.
But I’m not gonna.
May I ask why it costs that much Jeff? You know I send you what I can, but I really do not understand the cost of running a blog. I know the cost of running my own shop, but internet? beyond me.
Have you any plan to bring back advertisements? And what’re the prospects of a dead tree best-of compilation? That’d be a classic keepsake of the Aughties, I’d say–as much a signifier of these times as chlorophyll toothpaste was for the Fifties.
Jeff needs to pay himself something for creating the content. No one works for free.
I’m afraid I need to steal Carin’s excuse. Remind her and me about this time next week?
David, I live in Plano, and my wife still buys a lot of books on-line. Hopefully, you guys have Amazon Prime; that makes it almost tolerable.
Longtime lurker here, Jeff. I just hit your tip-jar so I could tell you what a bad idea a subscriber model was without feeling like a total asshole.
First off, I don’t think it will work. Have you seen the article on Newsday having something like three-dozen total subscribers?
The asset of your blog are the blogposts and the commentary. A blog is revitalized by new blood and the sense that it has a widening audience. Check the reaction of Charles Johnson to the reaction to a NYT article suggesting that Little Green Footballs only has a couple dozen regular commentators. The atmosphere of a club on a blog is stultifying and impedes growth.
If we could map strategies on a line, at one end might be thousands of viewers paying nothing. Ad revenue would be the main income, with some donations. At the other end of the line is the model of a few people paying a modest subscription fee.
What is modest? I would guess that $10 a year is a lot for most people. People can scoff at that or call it cheap, but to reach your goal, you’d need 720 people to do that yearly. Or find 72 large benefactors at $100.
Even though I think you’re plum crazy half the time I read you, you’re one of my favorite blogs. But you’re the only one I have ever contributed to. What kind of contributions have you received from your fans? I would wager it isn’t much, and this is assuredly not a comment o0n you or your fans, just a statement on The Nature of Things.
The Internet -is- anathemic toward niche sites. There just aren’t many that are successful by subscriber model; most sites -are- free. You may have to face the fact that you are an acquired taste and this thing is never going to be more than a hobby.
I hit the tip jar in the hopes that you won’t go subscriber. Give me a golden wang next to my name when I post a comment or something, I’m down with that as a motivator for contributions.
Tiers suck and the only way I could see that working would be if you allowed a tier for people who wanted to try their hand at blogging. Create a better Pub with clear links back and forth to encourage traffic. Allow these people to link to their own blogs. Certainly you’ll want to vet people in some way and have it be clear that to some degree they’re on the amateur side of the fence.
Don’t be afraid to become a little craven. Kiss up to Glenn Reynolds. Promise Ace sexual favors. Work to make the site easier on the eyes; the line width is oppressive and everything seems too ‘greyed down.’ Use one of the newer fonts that Microsoft has designed for ClearType to increase legibility.
Ok, my two cents, Godspeed.
Yet you made us froget we’re penguins, for an hour there last night.
36×20 is 720
Anyway, threw a few bucks in the jar, Jeff, not for membership but for old time’s sake.
Don’t blow it all on condoms this time.
And if you do, check out Amazon.com, they have a deal on bulk condoms.
…
What?
The first, huh? Mine’s the 5th. 50 years old, which I can hardly even begin to get my head around, as they say. Ah well, the happiest of birthdays to you, and many happy returns.
If you have enjoyed my rapier-like wit here at Protein Wisdom I want to extend to you the opportunity to drop some money in my tip jar too since Pablo sent all my money to the Haitians.
…
Jeff. You’re not real good at that ,’money grubbing’, thing. Another stereotype shot in the ass.
All my ready cash is currently in Haitian orphans, but the latest crop of buds is going to market in a couple of weeks so I should have some spare cash then.
Sorry, I haven’t been around for a while…you say that if we pay you money, you’ll actually post regularly?
And it’ll be you and not these co-bloggers who seem to have largely taken over things around here, which surprises me a bit after the last time I stopped by a few months ago and you announced you had decided to put an end to that and seize control of your own site?
And you’ll be posting about the interesting stuff, and not *just* the blogger-vs-blogger pissing matches?
I’m interested. But you’ll please pardon me, at this point, if I would ask to see confirmation that you would actually follow through on such a site for more than a few days.
Joe. You miss the point. If you pay, YOU’LL be posting regularly.
I have no idea who that Jeff guy is.
Bring it on, big guy. I’d be happy to pay for my habit (within reason).
Jfry,
As a fellow lurker, you’ll understand when I say that Jeff is great at writing, but he sucks at taking advice.
Let me know when you want to institute a class-action suit against him for making us all blind with the font, spacing and grey tone.
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