Ad Networks? (facing the MetaFilter quandary)

[AW Admin]

Some things that are problematic; certain kinds of fund drives because of legal implications (50 states, and some countries).

Calling things a donation because the word means different things legally, and that's different in 50 states and some countries.

Swag will be forthcoming. Trying to time it with the upcoming server upgrade, which will take AW offline for a day or two, and will be announced in advance.

Swag is largely a fun thing; it likely won't make much money, but it does show that we appreciate our wonderful members and community.

Books are great in terms of things we've done as a community, but they're not as effective in terms of funds as people might like. There's also the thing that really, writers should be paid. Mac still hasn't made back what it cost to pay writers and the artists who illustrated Absolute Visions. Mind, it wasn't intended to be a fund raiser, and it really and truly was intended as a community project and learning experience.

We do use affiliate links, and I'm working on an FAQ about those.

And we also don't want to make people think they have to contribute monetarily. Some people can't and we understand that.

The thing about affiliate links is that you're buying something you'd buy anyway, we won't know who bought what, and it doesn't cost you extra to buy it from a link. So there's that.

 

[AW Admin]

My plan is to have swag available to purchase before we take the site offline for a day or so for the announced (will be announced) server upgrade.

That's my plan. I'm thinking mugs, t-shirts, USB drives, bags, for sure.

 

[cmhbob]

I'll help with that any way I can.

 

[Polenth]

My plan is to have swag available to purchase before we take the site offline for a day or so for the announced (will be announced) server upgrade.

That's my plan. I'm thinking mugs, t-shirts, USB drives, bags, for sure.

If you're doing the swag via a POD place with a lot of product options, I'd suggest buttons/badges, keychains and magnets. I find they're really popular for people who want to buy something, but don't have a lot to spend. The money does build up from those lower priced items.

 

[AW Admin]

If you're doing the swag via a POD place with a lot of product options, I'd suggest buttons/badges, keychains and magnets. I find they're really popular for people who want to buy something, but don't have a lot to spend. The money does build up from those lower priced items.

Yep. All good points, and yes, it's a POD site. I am not walking to the post office to ship stuff, no matter how much I love y'all.

 

[Netz]

Hi, All

For those of you who don't know me, Ari ain't a bit shy.

When you searched for answers to your writing questions and needed to know who the recommended agents and publishers are—and who the scammers are—where did you go find the answers you needed? AbsoluteWrite. And you stayed for the camaraderie as well as for the trustworthy answers to your questions. I did, too. You can't imagine how happy I was to find AW in December 2010 and then to join in January 2011. From my Join Date until now, AbsoluteWrite has grown by an additional 20,000 (+/-) members. And all of us together old and new help build a wonderful community of writers, each of us helping each other.

Mac has completely committed herself to providing this safe haven for us since she purchased AW in 2006. The server Mac owns, the software (and the upgrades we need but can't afford) cost money to keep running each month and, as Mac has shown us in her OP, the ads we all despise don't bring in nearly enough revenue to keep AW going. Mac is shouldering that gap in cost. Mac doesn't take a salary from AW, in case you might not have known that little fact. She works full time and then some most weeks. Same goes for Lisa our AW Admin.

We need Mac and AbsoluteWrite and now Mac and AW need us.

At the bottom of every AW forum page—and it's as unobtrusive as all get-out—you will see this button:

Our community is now almost 65,000 members strong and a monthly subscription by even a fraction of that number will make all the difference in ensuring AW is always here for us. If only 100 of us subscribe at $10.00 to $15.00 a month we can substantially close the gap between ad revenue and cost.

If even more of us contribute whatever we can—even as little as $1.00 to $5.00 a month—we can not only close that gap we can also get the storage space needed for our ginormous database, the increased RAM we desperately need for running the server, and even look into getting the upgrades so many of us have been asking about.

I've now committed to contributing to AW each month and to trying to help ensure AW will always be here for us. I hope everyone else who can will, too.

I'd been meaning to donate again for a while, but was a little scared off when I clicked on the 'Voluntary Subscription' link and it mentioned '1 Year' subscriptions. I thought this meant it might get automatically taken out again the following year. Anyway, I was checking out another thread today and saw the 'How to Help Keep AW Afloat' signature in Ari's post there, which then led me here. The upshot is I've donated a one-off payment at an amount I could choose, and now I've seen how easy it is maybe I won't leave it so long before donating again. (I haven't looked into all the threads about voluntary subscriptions/donations, so you might've already covered this, but maybe Ari's 'HTHKAWA' post quoted above could be broken off into its own thread? It's very informative.)

Thanks for a great writing community, Mac!

 

[AW Admin]

I'd been meaning to donate again for a while, but was a little scared off when I clicked on the 'Voluntary Subscription' link and it mentioned '1 Year' subscriptions. I thought this meant it might get automatically taken out again the following year. Anyway, I was checking out another thread today and saw the 'How to Help Keep AW Afloat' signature in Ari's post there, which then led me here. The upshot is I've donated a one-off payment at an amount I could choose, and now I've seen how easy it is maybe I won't leave it so long before donating again. (I haven't looked into all the threads about voluntary subscriptions/donations, so you might've already covered this, but maybe Ari's 'HTHKAWA' post quoted above could be broken off into its own thread? It's very informative.)

Thanks for a great writing community, Mac!

There's an FAQ: AW Voluntary Subscriptions

And thanks for the help!