Caleb is announcing a new partnership, Mr. C. is getting into e-commerce for gun stuff, and a few bloggers have scored writing gigs. I’m clearly not doing something right, since Snowflakes in Hell has been in the red for a number of years! Actually, I think it’s a case of many bloggers just being more ambitious about this than I am, and being much better at the whole marketing thing. I’m an engineer by training . Marketing is a scary word to engineers.
Monetizing this blog has always been something I have wrestled with, because I could make enough from it to make it worth my while, but I have, to date, not made the leap. Every time I think about it, something always changes my mind. Last time was Clayton getting sued. The fact that this blog not only doesn’t make money, but costs money, helps any fair use defense against copyright infringement. But really, that’s mostly a lame excuse. The truth is I’m too lazy to spend much thinking or doing anything about making money off this whole operation.
So I will say that we currently have no plans in the works to try to monetize, though I wish everyone who’s striking out into commercial ventures good luck. If our company goes TU and I lose my job, I may resort to begging you all for donations to help defray hosting costs. I may not be above that. I don’t actually pay for hosting, short of the juice to power the machine, but I do pay for the 25 megabit pipe that feeds my servers.
You could always monetize the blog and put all the funds into an unemployment fund. It would sure be nice to see your insurance grow ahead of needing it rather than hoping it will materialize after the fact…
I have planned adequately for prolonged unemployment, which hopefully I’ll never have to use.
Oh, I assumed you’d planned for your own support. I was thinking of us the readers, who have grown accustomed to the free ice cream, and would hate to see the supply dry up should web hosting become an unjustifiable expense. ;)
Just because I beg doesn’t mean you have to give :)
Its all about the money:
http://gunmart.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-look.html
ha!
-Gunmart
I have experienced prolonged unemployment for which a wife with a job is a handy recourse – and learning to dust and vacuum provides some security. I figure I’ll have to write a book or two – the blogging is practice, besides nobody reads my blog.
Just curious, how much does it cost to run this blog?
Maybe 50 bucks a month? The Internet is Verizon FiOS for business, which is 100 a month. But I’d be paying some of that on my own even if hosted the blog elsewhere. The server costs money for electricity, maybe 20 bucks a month.
There are cheaper ways to host, but this way I control everything, including my own security policy. This blog has never been hacked, and I intend to keep it that way.
If you don’t need to monetize your blog to survive, don’t.
I thought about monetizing my blog and had the same thoughts about what Clayton has had to go through as you did. It just wasn’t worth it to me.
Besides if I were to monetize my blog I had to declare the blog and associated income to my employer (per FINRA rules) and I just don’t want to do that just yet.
Fortunately I have had enough work that I haven’t even thought about monetizing. In fact, I don’t have time to even write a fraction of what I would like to. Unfortunately that will not last forever and my job lately is on about a 3 month at a time lifespan. If you see my writing pickup, you’ll know why.
I’m mildly against monetizing my own blog, and part of the reason is that I don’t want random advertisements pop up, advertising things I disagree with. While I know people reading my blog ought to understand, I just don’t like the jarring juxtapositions!
It amuses me to see such things on other blogs, though.
That, and I’ve tended to dislike being a “poster-boy” for the longest time. I’ve always avoided T-shirts, in part, because I don’t want to wear messages for other people.
Thanks for the mention! The Mr. Completely blog is always going to stay non-commercial and not have advertising. My new eCommerce biz “Magnum Shooters Supply” will carry stuff that I am personally familiar with and can recommend to other shooters. As we get new products, I plan to showcase them on Mr. Completely, but it will be clear that I also sell the product through my online store. However, if it’s not a good product to start with, I will not carry it, or mention it, either! There’s already plenty of places wanting to sell you stuff that sucks….
Mr. C.