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Taking YWS to a donations-only revenue model

Nate · 2018-06-01T10:37:54Z

Since 2006, the Young Writers Society has been funded more or less through advertising. Some months are better than others, but advertising has enabled YWS to operate continuously ever since the site temporarily shut down for financial reasons for a few months in summer 2006. However, due to a few reasons, I'd like to try moving YWS from an advertising-supported revenue model to a donations-only revenue model. I honestly do not think donations will consistently cover hosting costs or make up for the loss of advertising revenue, but I think it will at least come close. This is not something that would have worked even two years ago. However, YWS has been around for such a long time that we now have members who joined when they were 14, were active for a few years, but left as time wore on and are now in their mid-20s and donate occasionally to the site. There's also several people who donate every month through subscriptions. Additionally, I'm increasingly worried about online privacy and the amount of information that is involuntarily stored. The advertising program YWS uses, Google Adsense, once worked by matching ads to the content of the page. But, Adsense now mainly works by tracking your activity and matching ads based on your preferences. As YWS' target demographic is 13-18, that kind of targeting advertising is a concern to me. Last but not least, the site shutting down again for financial reasons is not in the cards. That happened in a very different time -- it was costing me over $100 a month to keep YWS running at a time when I was fresh out of college and paying for an apartment that was way too expensive for my salary. Revenue per month was also essentially nothing (ad revenue was about $10/month back then, and as payments weren't released until they exceeded $100, that meant a very long wait...). Nowadays, it costs about $200 per month to keep YWS running. There's three separate servers: the main server, the WriterFeedPad server, and the secondary server for when the main server is down. The main server and WFP have recurring backups through Linode. Other costs include Cloudflare's paid plan, domain registration renewals, and the weekly payments to freakforchrist. Over this weekend, I'll set up a donation counter to show on the front page sidebar. If you're interested in donating, click here to donate or click on "Become a YWS Supporter" in the footer. I'm also open to suggestions of what to do with that blank empty space in the header now. I could just remove that area along with the logo altogether, but it's a useful space for announcements so I'd like to keep it. Anyways, if you have any questions or concern, let me know!

Cadi

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Wed Sep 05, 2018 4:09 pm

Cadi says... · Wed Sep 05, 2018 4:09 pm

D'oh! And I thought I'd been so careful to look for a solution before I reported it...

"The fact is, I don't know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn't collapse when you beat your head against it." --Douglas Adams

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Prokaryote

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Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:41 am

Prokaryote says... · Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:41 am

The true story here is that Nate, the forward-thinker, the man of the future and esteemed visionary, is not yet accepting Dogecoin. I'm actually somewhat offended.

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Goos are anarchists.
— WeepingWisteria

Taking YWS to a donations-only revenue model

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