ok, i just bought a mouse pad and two mugs.

...and i swear to gawd (or whatever it is that i believe in...Jack Kerouac, Pat Metheny or maybe Janeane Garofalo) that if my house sells, i'll donate as well.

Thanks Mark! The response from members has been enthusiastic (if limited) - and I thank every single one of you for your efforts and contributions on many levels. It's readers who haven't really stepped up to the plate yet, which is also understandable since we haven't asked before, but I guess I have to get more strident about it to get people in the habit of kicking in a little every now and then.

If we got $1 A YEAR from the daily readers alone, we would have no worries about expenses.

I hate getting all NPR on everyone, but while I have been willing to work for free, I cannot have working for free actually cost me money. I just can't justify that to my family, who have been vastly accomodating to allow me to continue to this point.

What's the approximate bill?

How much are people PayPalling?
Ten bucks? Fifty?

Anyone else anted up?

We had very nice contributions ranging from $5-$50 immediately after the plea went out 2 weeks ago - which I appreciate deeply - almost all (but not completely all) from writers on the site, then virtually nothing since. Out of sight out of mind.

It became clear that I am going to have to make a bigger deal out of it and engage in the dreaded "campaigns," which I would rather root for the Yankees than do, but virtually every other major site does such things so I guess we can no longer remain immune.

Eric, you could always promise us your "tit shots" on webcam if you reached a certain goal.

I can contribute some next payday. In regards to your last sentence in comment 2, here's an idea that's certain to be unpopular but with modification, something worth considering?

....what about being able to post blogs here (registered users), comes at a nominal fee of like 10-20 dollars a year? In exchange you can guarantee that X number of people per year see their stuff?

bcb (#7) "...post blogs here..." I'm not sure what you mean by this, since the terms are used in different ways by different people. If you mean that we should entire weblogs, $10-20 per year isn't worth it. Note that Typepad.com, for example, is charging $5 *per month* and still hoping that the volume pays for it. Weblog hosting is expensive and difficult, which is why Weblogs.com just stopped doing it for free yesterday.

Other than that, we already provide links (and therefore search-engine-juice) to contributing authors, and people are welcome to repost individual blog posts here with links back to their site.

Did I understand you correctly?

Not hosting. But to get your name on the left side of the screen where it says 'your blogcritics - visit their sites often'. Only people who already have a blog can send an email to Eric and then get the ability to post a thread here. That process is what I'm talking about, not hosting someone's entire weblog. You've got like 400 people who can post threads here right? That's 4-8k a year there alone. It's great that you provide traffic to their personal thoughts here or to their own blogs via links for free, but you are hurting for money, right? It seems to me that 10-20 a year for the service is reasonable.

A lot of bloggers are not journalists or msnbc contributing writers, etc. so they might not have a built in readership, but they're just regular joes like me with something to say. Charging them 10 dollars a year or so to be a member, and in exchange guaranteeing that 30k+ per month (or whatever it is) will see their stuff posted here, is a good sell to someone who probably has no more than 10 people who regularly visit their blog? Like I said, it's great that you provide this service for free, I'm just thinking that 10 bucks or so a year is something most people can afford and would help you out significantly. I don't know, maybe it's a bad idea. I just know that I could afford something like 10-20 a year, but just don't need any more coffee mugs, t-shirts, mousepads, etc. And I can't buy that many books either. I don't have time to read all that. It's an idea, open for modification.

BCB- Ah, now I understand. I suspect that a lot of people see this as a symbiotic relationship. Each author gets the benefit of increased visibility, and Blogcritics.org gets the benefit of, well, content!

P.S. You're welcome to donate $10-20 yourself, but I doubt such a thing would or could be required.

I work two jobs so Eric can baby this site like one of his children - does that count as contributing?

I just donated via PayPal. I'll try and send money each month. I love posting to this site and contributing my two cents to other posts and I've had tremendous fun participating here. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication.

David Flanagan

Thanks David, we are very glad you are here.

BCB, as Phillip mentioned we have seen the writers contributing their writing as an appropriate exchange for the exposure and readership, but things have changed with the addition of new expenses and your concept is certainly not unreasonable. I would still rather see things remain voluntary, and go the route of many small contributions from readers and writers alike rather than making anything mandatory or applying any stronger pressure than begging (smile), but I guess we have to keep all options open.

Beyond that, thanks to all who have contributed by writing, reading, purchasing, donating - it is all much appreciated. Really.