Doing Freedom! Funding Poll

67 votes total Monthly subscription issues only. (14) 21% Monthly subscription issues, with smaller quarterly public issues. (34) 51% Continue on present free content course, with monthly calls for donations. I would donate. (13) 19% Continue on present free content course, with monthly calls for donations. I would NOT donate. (1) 1% Don't bother readers with calls for donations. Continue free until DF! folds. (2) 3% Other. (3) 4%

Well... How 'bout that now?

If you look at the percentages, it seems clear that the monthly subscription model, with quarterly teaser issues, is the way to go. But figures can lie if you don't look at everything.

Subscriptions/teasers got 51% of a whopping 67 votes. This was during a period when DF! had over thirty thousand individual visitors. Which tells me that less than one-quarter of one percent of DF!'s readers have any interest in funding the operation whatsoever. Trying to draw any conclusions from the separate percentages is statistical nonsense.

So I'm going to work with that .22%: I believe that most people simply take free content for granted on the Internet, and ignore the issue until it bites them. I could "bite" right now by going total subscription only.

But making money is only part of what Doing Freedom! is about, so I'm not going to do that. Relax already. <smile>

DF! is also about making our personal lives better by helping other folks live free; enlightened self-interest. So long as I can, I'll churn out the freedom data.

But I do have to pay the bills, or our electricity gets cut off. And unlike a certain Memphis, Tennessee city councilscum (Yeah; you, Ford.), I'm not going to call for new laws to cover my butt when I don't pay the bills.

But I am going to get a little more aggressive about selling ad space. That gets a tricky without resorting to spam, but I refuse to slam anyone with UCE. If you have a business, think about advertising with us: You can reach tens of thousands of people every month. If you know a business owner (Internet or brick), let him know that this is a good place to reach people.

I'll continue to look for new products that people will want to buy. DF! will be selling e-books soon. Tom Spooner is polishing up a book for April release, and Sunni Maravillosa is working on another. I've seen early drafts of both; you want to buy these books. And you can only get them from DF! <evil grin>

I'll extend the downloadable issue experiment (you did notice that you can get complete issues for off-line reading, right? Hint, hint.), for another month.

If you have an idea for a product or service, let me know.

And I'll just chug along. Lacking DF! income, I'll have to spend more time at other paying work. This may mean that I'll only be able to generate quarterly issues. Which sucks from my own viewpoint, because I like working on the magazine. Sure would be nice if I could make a living on my hobby. <grin>

Wow! Thirty thousand people... If I could get a piddlin' buck a year from those folks (just a bit more than a penny every days, kind souls)...

Heheheheh. <grin>