June Earnings
July 4th, 2008In June, Cryptogon and Farmlet earnings came to a total of $1072.76, or about 2.1X the minimum monthly goal of $500.
Thank you to all of the cash contributors, all of which were regular contributors except two who were new.
Most of you don’t notice, but a handful of hardcore supporters make Cryptogon possible. The purpose of these monthly “earnings” posts is to acknowledge the generosity of the supporters, and not to unleash ugly tirades on most of the people reading, so I just deleted the next several paragraphs.
[Ugly tirade deleted.]
Here’s the revised version:
In short, it’s not fair that a few people give so much, while most do absolutely nothing at all to keep a resource going. In case you’re curious, I’d like to see each regular reader contribute the equivalent of US$5 per year. This would result in a yearly income of between $20,000 and $25,000 before taxes. That would vastly improve my family’s financial security as well as ease the burden on the people who have sent hundreds and even thousands of dollars to me to keep going. Instead, in 2007, we made about $14,000, with an unthinkable proportion of that coming from a handful of people.
I’ve been at this long enough to know that most people just can’t see why they should pay (anything) for something that’s accessible for free. This situation, though, is starting to rub me raw and it shouldn’t continue. I’ll be thinking about appropriate remedies.
Moving on… (Phew!)
Thanks to the owners of the following domains for signing up for hosting with BlueHost:
comradesimba.com
kohl-doll.com (via Farmlet)
shaw8.com
Thanks to the Cryptogon readers who are also Nitro-Pak and BullionVault customers.
The number of items purchased on Amazon was sharply lower in June than in previous months. This makes perfect sense, as times get tougher with each passing month. Thank you to everyone who remembered to begin their Amazon sessions via Cryptogon. It all ads up.
Interestingly, about 44% of the commission total in June resulted from the purchase of just two items: A professional Canon camera lens and a top quality pressure cooker/canner.
I’d like to offer a quick bit of unsolicited advice to the person who bought that Canon lens:
I owned the old style Canon EF 80-200 f/2.8 L. I bought it new in 1993. I sold it in 2005, along with the rest of my Canon lenses and gear, to help pay for the farmlet. In fact, I sold pretty much everything I owned of any tangible value, except my books and laptop computer, to help pay for the farmlet.
I don’t even think about the rest of it, but I regret selling that camera gear. I should have kept it.
When I was in photography school in the 1990s, and having doubts about doing photography as a career, lots of people told me something like, “That’s fine, but never sell your glass. You’ll regret it if you do.”
So, to the person with the very discerning taste in lenses, I’d like to gently suggest, “Never sell your glass.” Consider trying to find another way to keep it if you think you need to sell it at some point in the future.
Finally, after more than a year, Financial Web decided to discontinue their generous sponsorship of Cryptogon. I’d like to thank them for their support and wish them the best of luck in the future.
FWIW, I go to newscientist.com fairly regularly, and what they do is post a lot of stuff for free, but only post teasers for some of the “cooler” articles, and then say, “if you want to read the rest, please subscribe”. I’ve been tempted on quite a few occasions, but haven’t yet (mostly because their tone is just a bit too “Science is God!” for me).
Maybe something (more or less) like that would work for cryptogon.
Best of luck.
Kevin, you sound almost angry that so few readers help support you all, but don’t you know that’s the way it is? I solved that problem by saying that everything on my site will be posted for free and will never charge for any information. You need to resolve this issue. Anothernut has a darned good suggestion. Or, you can make Cryptogon pay-subscriber only, or you can keep it free. But, if you keep it free, you need to stop bellyaching and laying guilt trips. But you need to decide now.
BTW, I bought a website last June through your affiliation, thus you got $65 from me. I was glad to do it; however, by your own reckoning, I still have (at $5 a year) 11 years of readership paid for, minus the one year I spent reading your site before purchasing the website.
If I paid a suscriber fee for every aggregator news site I read everyday, I’d be a goner. (Yours is one of five or six, plus you are in my blogroll) Whatever you decide, good luck with it.
Hi Kevin, You’ve put together a great site here, certainly one of the more insightful and accessible indexing/commentary sites. I feel quite fortunate to have discovered this place a few years ago and have been a regular ever since.
For a very long time I’ve considered sending support of some kind or another, look at the options for donations and sigh at not having a credit card to sign up and send something. I’m not well off by any stretch of the imagination barring the unfocused far away look of someone in a third world country. When the cost of sending you a donation ends up costing near the same in fees just to send it I have to wonder about the economy of such an action, and I’m sure you can work it out as well. The recent, and quite predictable, theft of account information from a third party provider of Citibank electronic services only reinforces my disinterest in providing any 3rd party provider with direct access information to my bank account.
If you have a post office box or something to that effect I’d love to mail something.
Sometime ago you’d decided to change the way comments are left after an article post, and required those who wish to comment to have a registered account. The sometimes lively commentary by readers dropped to near zero with the same 4-5 posters cycling through about every 10-12 article posts.
I understand and sympathize with what must have been seen on the back end to filter out an element of unacceptable. Yet, I wonder about the continued accessibility in general should certain models be followed to limit accessibility/costs/etc. Subscription models in particular have a fine edge of value both in cost and content that cuts both ways.
Hopefully you manage to find something that works for you and everyone who finds some meaning or value in what they find here. Good luck in the future.
1. Alas, you are in the publishing business. I happened to believe you are one of the best in the alternative (actual dark truth) news media, but that is beside the point.
In the ivy league I was the head of a prestigious (HAHA, right, no one cared!) magazine for a year and that is where I learned that NO ONE wanted to pay for it. We covered 80% of our cost selling advertisements. I realized publishing = selling ads and chose a new career creating new stuff. You have obviously noticed this with the significance Amazon, BullionVault and Bluehost earnings.
2. Linking of articles is a maturing (value and profits declining) business and seems to be moving towards more advanced commentary as well as the creation of whole new articles. As you have noticed with Cryptogon Subreddit, which actually cannibalized your linking business, people are getting pretty good at finding alternative news of value. Where you excel is at adding the cut-through-the-bull commentary that exposes the spin and rationalization at which the the MSM excels.
3. The creation of new articles seems be an increasing trend and one at which you are extraordinarily talented, if not as prolific, perhaps due to your reality of actually living an independent life instead of just talking about it from behind a trust fund. I will never forget your writing in Waiting for Clarity on the Brink of Oblivion. This was a priceless work of art. I would also suggest that the spiritual joy of creating new content can surpass the material pleasure of having money, but perhaps you are not as concerned with that hierarchy of needs, I don’t know.
3. Creating a community of truth seeking is an enormous amount of work because you have to deal with the intense onslaught of disinformationalists, the truly ignorant, the newbies with a good heart but a mind full of TV and government school, the intelligent who are blinded by some form of racism, and finally the relentless questions of those who are moving forward by still lag behind your level of comprehension. In the future I think there will be some way for your readers to help properly categorize each other to either filter them out or move them up the value chain to Cryptogon experts with you only getting involved as an arbitrator. Obviously this is not a WordPress feature yet.
4. Moderating discussion is also enormously time consuming, but I would argue it is one of the most important and attractive aspects of this type of site. When a group of interested people come across a new piece of information they usually discuss it to figure out how to interpret it and figure out if they need to change their understanding of the work (mental) or something that they do in their world (physical) like moving the hell out of the way. I think the best way to encourage this type of discussion is to join in and share your agreement, disagreement, or refinement of the discussion. Finally, in the interest of honesty, I find it rude when someone poses a question to you and you do not answer. Perhaps consider this like a small study group at an advanced level in University with you as the professor who encourages discussion and answers or dismisses questions as relevant or irrelevant.
5. Personally, I can say you have had an enormous impact on one life both mentally and physically having initiated and guided a journey of discovery of the hidden levers of power in the world and well as discovering the joys and challenges of finding new places to live in the world. Besides having a loving family, home and health, that is a pretty good piece of success.
@GK,
That was a lovely post, especially paragraph 5.
I contribute to Cryptogon and Farmlet regularly because they are, and have been quite frankly, my lifeline through the last year or so. I guess I just RELATE to the way these sites are what they are.
I am not sitting on cash, but well, who is?
If I ever win the lottery, I’ll pay the monthly needs on this webstite only because it would be the right thing to do and every one could be happy including Kevin.
I used to contribute to Cryptogon through the Amazon Honors system, but then switched to the Revolution Money Exchange as my form of contribution. If you have a bank account, well, this is the way to go if you want to contribute.
They TAKE FIVE DAYS to clear the money after you set up your account – but you don’t need a credit card.
I dunno what else to say. I once gave someone a lot of money to support their website. Looking back, I wish I had been on drugs when I did it.
Kevin and Becky honor those of who contribute publicly for all to see. I feel that is a sign of respect not given.
And for that reason and many others, I will continue to contribute to Cryptogon and Farmlet whatever the world comes to. Oops, I guess I won’t if I lose my job in some kind of freakin dowsizing of the U.S. Govmint.
But then Kevin would probably know when the pink slip was coming my way.
Mentor, counselor, no commercials, real news.
Doesn’t get any better than this.
Watched an old rerun on the Daily Show last night where Jon Stewart interviewed a female CBS correspondent who said “I’d have to slit my wrists if I had to watch the “news” you watch here in the U.S.
Yup, its an entirely different ballgame here on Cryptogon and Farmlet.
I support Kevin and think those that can should.
Otherwise, I don’t mind contributing so that others can enjoy.
I meant to say respect given here, but not at other sites where I have contributed!
@ anothernut
Your suggestion is a good one. I think there’s a plugin for WordPress that allows just subscribers to see specified content.
@ snorky
All previous cash contributions and verifiable affiliate purchases will be credited toward any subscription fees.
@ neural overload
I’ve considered sending support of some kind or another, look at the options for donations and sigh at not having a credit card to sign up and send something.
Sigh no more. Cryptogon readers without credit cards routinely use PayPal eChecks.
http://www.kreationsbykittyo.com/echeck.htm
But believe me, I don’t want your money if you’re broke. Once, I found out that someone who sent me money was really, truly in bad financial shape and I returned their money, plus some more.
That said, I look at what I make vs. what I give away and the “I’m broke” argument doesn’t wash in most cases that cross my desk…
Re: Comments
Totally open comments result in unusably noisy environments. It’s a dream come true for people who want to destroy a board. All the places I’ve seen that allow no-registration comments are mostly useless due to noise.
I’m watching a board where an inventor is open sourcing something he’s come up with and the board admin gave this guy the ability to unilaterally delete all offtopic/noisy comments and the difference between that thread and others is AMAZING. Probably 1 in 3 comments are being killed, and the long thread is very readable and informative.
It’s absolutely not the case that comments are related to revenues. The people who contribute the most money hardly comment, with the exception of Eileen, who likes to comment frequently.
@ GK
Finally, in the interest of honesty, I find it rude when someone poses a question to you and you do not answer. Perhaps consider this like a small study group…
The problem, GK, is that this isn’t small. There are easily 5000 regular readers and one of me. I could spend the whole day moderating discussions, answering questions, etc.
I would like it to be small again. With a subscription, I’d eliminate all of the time vampires and get to focus more on discussions with the handful of people who make the show possible. Contributors feel like they have a stake in this and they want to see it continue and get better.
Hi Eileen, we were writing our comments at the same time.
Otherwise, I don’t mind contributing so that others can enjoy.
If Eileen feels that way, I wonder how others in the “core” contributor group feel?
Pookie, Dagobaz, IL, MW, cryingfreeman, AS and others. If you’re out there, what do you guys think?
Does it rub you raw that thousands are piggybacking on your extraordinary generosity?
anothernut, you’re in that group, too.
You guys, and others like you (Sorry for not mentioning everyone), are the reason it’s open to all.
No pressure to respond in public. Email me if you like.
If this isn’t an issue for you guys, I can sleep well at night. If it is an issue for you… I need to resolve it.
… snip: Otherwise, I don’t mind contributing so that others can enjoy.
If Eileen feels that way, I wonder how others in the “core” contributor group feel?
Pookie, Dagobaz, IL, MW, cryingfreeman, AS and others. If you’re out there, what do you guys think?
speaking for myself, I would and will continue to contribute to Cryptogon, no matter what you decide to do about non-contributors, because amongst the many sites I read regularly, both public and subscription-based, yours is consistently the most accurate, timely, and useful. I would contribute more, if I didn’t get as much grief from my business partners … (expect some soon, btw 🙂 ). I don’t mind contributing when others do not choose to … besides, there is always hope that they will in the future. I have been far luckier in life than most: I have enjoyed good health for most of my life, I adore my husband of nearly 20 years ( I was a child bride 🙂 ), and I lucked into/developed a way that I can stay home with my family, and still make a decent living.
This website and a few others like it are run by true patriots, to not support them in what they do would be to kibbutz, to wimper as night falls around you, to be mute witness to that which needs to be fought.
Well, I (and my $$$) say fight.
cybele
Personally, I would prefer to simply be charged an annual (or monthly) subscription fee for accessing this site. I mean, if the Wall Street Journal online can get people to shell out 99 bucks a year for that pabulum they pass off as news, then surely it would be worth it to pay that much for the real thing at this site.
I assume by “other group”, you mean group of contributors, not one of the “thousands [that] are piggybacking on your extraordinary generosity” (Just kidding, but given the juxtaposition of the 2 statements, I couldn’t resist!)
As far as I’m concerned, yours is the best political analysis on the web. (You’re #1 in my firefox speeddial. What an honor, eh?!) You should be rewarded for it. On the other hand, being the best is not necessarily where the $$$ are — i.e., quality and profitability, as you know, are very often inversely proportional, especially in the corrupt times we live in.
Having said that, no, I don’t mind helping to carry the load of “freeloaders”, because I’d rather have as many people see your site as possible, even if it means they don’t pay their dues. Put the other way, if requiring people to pay brought down your readership, that would be a loss to the world.
Another idea: perhaps people could help you with other tasks, like web dev and maintenance, which wouldn’t cost them money, per se. Not sure how that would pan out, just an idea.
@ Kevin: “Does it rub you raw that thousands are piggybacking on your extraordinary generosity?”
Nope. I figure that among the deadbeats (those who can easily afford it, but can’t be bothered to contribute), there are many who are struggling to finance their family’s “preparedness plans” or even escape routes. I’m incredibly lucky enough to have been able to afford my own family’s Escape from America, and I’m happy to help keep Cryptogon afloat so that other appreciative but impecunious Cryptogoners can benefit from Kevin and Becky’s expertise. And, sure, Sauron’s minions (from those alphabet soup agencies who are readers for the purpose of keeping tabs on us reluctant dissidents) certainly deserve scorn rather than generosity, but for those of you who are religious or know your Bible, consider that I am inadvertently heaping coals of fire upon their heads. Cryptogon might be their last chance to forgo the corrupt Call of Power.
But an “ugly tirade” from Kevin’s pen is one of those Come to Jesus moments that I’d hate to miss. I come here for the dope-slapping entertainment as well as the Doom n’ Gloom reality. So let ‘er rip next time, Kevin. heh heh
Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
– Dylan Thomas
Kevin,
I read that there is a consensus of contributors. Respecting your frustration at the no-givers, but wanting to support you whatever the case may be.
Hmm, I know I am a noisier than most contributor. Hope you don’ mind my noise.
BAH BAH BAH
I’m proud to be the black sheep.
Rock on, brother.
Woh. Thanks, guys.
I’ve heard from more contributors in private and they expressed similar sentiments.
Well, that’s it then. The site will remain open to all.