Good morning, faithful TTB readers! It's been a while since I've posted much about news regarding the site, because everything since 2020 has been weird and we've all gone through some stuff.
However, the time has come to open up a little bit about TTB. As you all have figured out now, I've mostly been mirroring content between the Wordpress site and the Blogger/Blogspot site. That's because the Renovatio theme on Wordpress went kaput in a few areas, including supporting comments. And I like the comments (it would be boring to post and not discuss with readers), so in order to get discussion, my solution has just been to post all/most content on both sites. It's a little time consuming but mostly just consists of copying/pasting, so that's not a big deal.
THE BIG DEAL
The big deal is declining ad revenue. It has been an issue for a few years and has finally come to a head. In short, I'm not making enough money on TTB to make it viable. For the first time in the blog's history, I lost money on the endeavor in 2021 when I filed my taxes.
I literally paid to bring you (almost) daily content in 2021. The game reviews, the recruiting info, the countdown, etc. all cost me money.
Hit the jump for more.
THE NITTY GRITTY
Let me just show you what has happened in the month of November, for example. Below is a year-by-year accounting for how much I have brought in via all advertising income streams combined (Amazon, Google AdSense, Sovrn, InfoLinks, Paypal, etc.). I'm using November because that's typically one of the better months, considering Black Friday, people purchasing Christmas gifts, etc.
November 2012: $363.23
November 2013: $512.29
November 2014: $504.15
November 2015: $455.50
November 2016: $505.61
November 2017: $744.04
November 2018: $1,090.61
November 2019: $345.63
November 2020: $112.90
November 2021: $138.20
You can see that I went from making $500 or more for a few years to suddenly making less than $140 the past couple years, and that's in one of the most lucrative months of the year. (During May of 2021, I made just $14.13 on ad revenue, which was bolstered by a few Paypal donations totaling $32.)
Expenditures on a yearly basis cost $1,250 for hosting and $99 for the Wordpress license; I spent roughly $350 in professional site maintenance in 2021, plus a few other odds and ends.
The last estimate I received for re-theming the Wordpress site was over $3,400, which I can't justify when I'm already losing money on hosting and web maintenance; that would be an extra $3,400 straight out of my pocket.
For some perspective, TTB's total income from Paypal since September 2019 has been $3,844.93. So it would take 31 months' worth of average donations just to pay for a site redesign.
I WILL NOT BE HOMELESS
Let me reassure you that this is not a life-or-death situation. Blogging is my #3 "job" behind my day job and coaching football. If I had to quit blogging, I would not lose my car or my home.
That being said, I'm not rich and I'm not sure how long I can continue doing this hobby for a net loss or to come out even.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
For now you can keep clicking on the Amazon Affiliate ads, though Amazon commissions are down significantly over the past couple years and are undergoing some changes. Now that they are dominating the world, they are paying their advertisers much less. Why pay much in advertising fees when they hold the market hostage already?
You can also make direct donations via Paypal. Donations can be made in chunks, or you can "set it and forget it" to donate a certain amount per month, kind of like a subscription. (For example, I have a couple people donating between $2 and $20 per month.)
You can also turn off your browser's Ad Blocker or at least exempt TTB if you just want to help out via passive income.
THANK YOU!
I don't want to leave anyone out, but I would like to thank some of the generous and/or consistent donors like Ashley, Burt, Eric, Joe, Javier, Keith, KT, Moser, Roanman, Shawn, Stephen, and Tim. There are others, of course, but these are some of the people who have made consistent or sizable donations over the past couple years. I'm very thankful that you appreciate the writings of a stranger enough to share your hard-earned income with me.
WHAT WILL I DO WITH THE MONEY?
In order to be as transparent as possible, here's my plan for donations:
My goal is to make $3,400 from Paypal donations in 2022, which would pay for a site renovation. Keep in mind that if that goes according to plan, I would make zilch. That's just to keep me from losing money for a second year in a row.
So far I have received $328.65 during the 2022 calendar year, which puts me at 9.7% of the way to the goal.
With the 2022 Season Countdown starting soon and the football season yet to come after a College Football Playoff appearance, my hope is that donations will pick up speed.
Thanks to Brian, Eric, Matthew, and Moser for the donations already!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck Thunder, we all appreciate your work!
ReplyDeleteHave you considered a subscription platform such as "Substack?" If I'm reading their information correctly, you could host for free and it wouldn't cost you anything. Or you could charge a subscription fee, and they take a 10% fee from that. From what I understand, authors have the flexibility to have some articles freely accessible, and others to only subscribers. A lot of very well-known writers are going to Substack as a means of publishing and getting paid for it.
ReplyDeleteSome info:
https://yirla.substack.com/p/how-much-does-substack-cost-all-your?s=r
I haven't really looked into Substack. My understanding of Substack is/was more that it's a newsletter, which does not allow for responses, discussion, etc. among readers. Part of my desire for the website is to create a community and commenting atmosphere where we can have deeper conversations than what can really occur on Twitter with 280 characters (which I have seen some Substack content creators use).
DeleteI would really like to get a good message board going, but I was not able to do that with the version of the website I've been using since 2015.
Substack supports comments, but not a discussion board like you're suggesting. It's very much a one-to-many model.
DeleteOf course, with a discussion forum comes the problem of moderating that. One look at Red Cedar Message Board shows what can happen. ;-)
All that said, I mentioned Substack simply because it seems to have a simpler structure, so the problem of "themes" crapping out like what happened to you might be less likely. Also, depending on what your revenue objectives were, an audience of a few hundred paid subscribers really into recruiting evaluations and game analysis could net you a tidy monthly sum.
I have nothing against WordPress, but this notion of a "theme" breaking, leaving you stranded seems like a considerable downside to the platform.
@ Anonymous 8:24 p.m.
DeleteYou're right about that regarding the theme. I was very disappointed. I guess I was naive when I went into it, but when I was talking to the people who designed my site, they were like, "Yeah, that tends to happen every five years or so" because technology improves. It's essentially planned obsolescence. There's really no reason that a website shouldn't work correctly after five years.
The Substack thing is interesting, though. I do plan to do a little bit of research on it.
Thanks!
Is there another way to donate instead of using Paypal? I refuse to use them because of their nightmare customer service. I cannot support them after they took months to correct several fraudulent charges on my account. It took an attorney to get the messed cleared up. But if there was another way I would be willing to chip some in.
ReplyDeleteBoy, I'm sorry you had to deal with that. I've never had any issues with Paypal. I don't really know of any other ways to make donations. I appreciate the sentiment, though.
DeleteThere's a few, but TTB would need to set up accounts:
Delete- Venmo
- Google Pay/Wallet
- Square
- Amazon Pay
- Shopify
@ je93 9:55 a.m.
DeleteYeah, I guess I didn't fully answer the question. I know there are other ways, but I don't have any other electronic means set up. I looked into Venmo a few days ago, for example, but that was going to require me to make my business address public. (I don't have a business address other than my home, and I'm certainly not posting my home address.)
Google Pay, Amazon Pay, etc. may have different options that don't require me to share a business address.
That's the same reason I have not put together a newsletter, which I have long wanted to do because it drives up interactions/outreach. Unfortunately, legally you have to send out a business address (again, that would be my home address) or at least a P.O. Box (which I don't have), so I haven't done the newsletter thing.
Or set up a PO box and allow people to send checks.
DeleteThunder's post came in between I was typing and when I posted. :-)
DeleteAs of Wednesday here in the mid-afternoon, I'm at $3,203.42. With almost $200 more, I'll move ahead with planning the new site.
ReplyDeleteYou guys have been awesome!
Awesome. Bravo!
Delete