Dom just sent me our latest “numbers” – we’re closing in on 100,000 visitors for the month. EPautos is attracting lots of readers. But we desperately need more of them to support EPautos.
Have you taken a look at the pie chart we have on the main page? We’re not yet half-way where we need to be this month – and the month is nearly over.
It’s a downer.
Non-corporate/independent media may simply not be economically viable. Even when a site (like this one) develops an audience that’s comparable in size to that of a successful monthly magazine or medium-sized city’s daily newspaper, getting the readers to support the effort financially is extremely difficult, if not impossible – due to the fact that the “product” is freely available. MSM publications such as the New York Times have the same problem online – but they have their print versions to fall back on. This – plus the backing of the corporate cartels that own them – continues to pay the freight.
The long and short of it is that if independent journalists can’t pay their bills being independent journalists, most of them are going to be forced to do what they used to do, pre-Internet:
Give up being independent journalists.
Work for the MSM.
Which means, toeing the line. Stifling. Being careful not to offend. Pulling punches. Being a “good Republican.” A Glenn Beck  – or Sean Hannity.
Or Democrat.
It doesn’t matter… so long as you’re a good authoritarian collectivist.
It is what it is.
There are a few who can afford to remain independent, irrespective of the cost of doing so – because they accumulated a nest egg sufficient to carry them. The rest of us face the Hobson’s Choice: Do the right thing, the thing we want to do. Or do the things we need to do, if we want to avoid poverty.
So, please: If you value independent media such as EPautos, please support independent media such as EPautos. If just a tenth of our regular readers sent us $10 a month (not even necessarily the same people; just a tenth of the total readership) it would not be necessary to make these appeals and we could focus on the important stuff… providing people with an alternative to the predictable-as-Pravda-during-the-Brezhnev-era stylings of the MSM.
Our donate button is here.
For those not Pay Pal-inclined, you can mail us at the following:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
Might be best to go to a freemium model. Some things are free, or “teasers,” others are a subscription service. Not sure how to make it work, but you or Dom might be able to find expertise out there.
I’m afraid I only know the term…
And that bad money will drive out good, as there’s usually more bad money than good available. If I were a drug kingpin, you’d be set for life… But I work an honest job, and so do most poeple – so there’s no real reward for us, as there’s “no” risk – as you both well know.
What about the places touting free webhosting?
Five days left in the month.
I gave ten bucks each for ten of you lurkers at the beginning of the year.
I used to enjoy/find enlightening this website called, ‘Sierra Times’ back in the 90’s. Then, it went, ‘POOF!” …it’s no more. It’s been erased as if it were in a George Orwell novel. Maybe today they call that, ‘Googleized’? Down The Memory Hole.
Do you suppose there’s ten guys out there now with ten extra bucks to spare to keep this website open yet one more month? Just slide that card through the card-reader (enter those digits) and spend the equivalent of One cheap pizza with One topping?
…You won’t even get heartburn for doing so.
Dang it! there’s got to be some money hungry salesman type out there who can get some companies to advertise on this website so we don’t have to go through this each month!?
Free money! Easy money.
[This message has been brought to by a nobody-in-particular-in-flyover-country-who-wishes-to-be-free’er.]
U2?
Thanks, Helot… and to all of you who have supported us to date.
The Internet is yin – and yang. Good – and bad.
Sites such as this could not exist without the Internet – but without reader support, their continued existence is precarious. The tragedy – from my perspective as a writer and publisher – is that the economies of scale are in place, but not working as they ought to.
With an average six-figure monthly audience, it ought not to be difficult for a site such as this to be economically viable. If just 2,500 people out of the 100,000 that come here each month (many every day) backed us up with the price of a single cup of Starbuck’s once a month, the pressure would be gone – poof! – just like that.
Some of you may remember Joe Sobran, whom I knew and worked with back in the ’90s. He was excommunicated from the MSM over politically incorrect commentary – and ruined financially. Ditto Sam Francis and some others I knew. It’s an object lesson about toeing the line.
I was once the autos columnist for AOL, and a regular columnist for cars.com, the carconnection, as well as print “heavies” such as the Detroit News and Chicago Tribune. I earned a decent living this way. But my politically incorrect commentary is not welcome in such venues. The stories I could tell (and someday, will).
This site is so close to “making it.” If we can go from averaging 100,000 visits a month to 150,000 I think the problem will take care of itself, because advertisers – real ones, like V1, like Austin Coins, like Car Badges and Auto Anything – will be knocking on our proverbial door in droves.
But until we get there, reader support is our lifeline …
Are you made of stone? Have you no soul? Eric is just a guy who cares an awful lot. And I think you do too. It’s gonna cost 60,000 marks to keep this man alive. Please send in a few deutsche marks so Eric can be captain happy pants.
Glenn Beck Crying Compilation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmXjxgy6MUo
Hi Tor,
Hey, I’ll never cry – nor try to sell you precious metals, either!
There isn’t much choice on free commercial Vegas radio. Sometimes the dial does land on Glenn, maybe once every two months. I know how much he makes you cringe, I just thought the crying was funny.
I think what I do like about him, is the staff he has working for him. Mostly younger kids. One day they found this audio of an Obama speech somewhere.
Dear leader was addressing a few thousand of the troopfs, and he would pause for applause in his speech, and there were one maybe two soldiers clapping for him.
They were howling with laughter throughout. The speech was hilarious and creepy at the same time. How we became North Korea, I’ll never know.
I do think Beck’s compromised in some way, by his sponsors or his CIA handlers, or his mystical superstitions, untreated mental illness, I don’t know.
In his show every few hours he launches into a pitch about Carbonite. He just works it in willy nilly in the middle of whatever he’s discussing; all of the sudden he’s pitching this backup service, whatever it is. Strange.
Keep mixing it up. I don’t know how the name thing keeps popping up, it’s not really important. But there it is, you respond, I respond. Like mamba says, it’s easier to be almost right, and then let others correct you and do the heavy mental lifting.
I don’t know how being a carnivore meshes with the NAP. But its something worth discussing, part of the market is the free form spontaneity, what would happen if we stopped eating so much meat?
I’d say we don’t know, because what we think is science is all horribly compromised and twisted, if we really want to know something, our best bet is to investigate on our own.
the “PA Hero Shoots Man Over Parking Tickets” is doing well. It’s got 295 upvotes, and 53 comments. Anyone can click on my name, it’s a hyperlink that takes you over there where you’ll see the article and the rank and file internet users commenting on this site’s articles.
Anyone can feel free to login there as metalibertarian1 with passcode agora1 and take it for a test spin. You can upvote, downvote, post comments, etc. Logout when finished. Be a good netizen while there.
If you can’t make a contribution, at least consider taking a little time to help spread the message.
We Are the World – Philippines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bI8pGLBagY
– oops, not sure if that’s our message. you know which is ours. so go spread. there’s a choice you’re making. We are the world, we are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day We’re saving our own lives It’s true we’ll make a better day Just you and me
Send them your heart so they’ll know that someone cares And their lives will be stronger and free As God has shown us by turning stone to bread So we all must lend a helping hand
When you’re down and out, there seems no hope at all But if you just believe there’s no way we can fall
We all need somebody that we can lean on When you wake up look around and see that your dreams gone When the earth quakes we’ll help you make it through the storm When the floor breaks a magic carpet to stand on A guided light on the clovers road you’re walking on A sign post to find the dreams you thought was gone Someone to help you move the obstacles you stumbled on connected by a common bond
Love the whole planet sing it along We are the world We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So let’s start giving There’s a choice were making saving our own lives It’s true we’ll make a better day Just you and me