There’s a dirty secret that nobody likes to talk about in the liberal blogosphere: most liberal/progressive websites don’t pay their writers. Even some big sites that you’d expect bring in a fair amount of revenue operate using a model that counts on free content from authors. Even the BIGGEST site, Daily Kos, pays only their front page writers. The vast majority of the posts on the site are provided without compensation.
This model can work for sites like Daily Kos that provide writers with an audience that they would not normally have. They offer writers a way to get their name and voice out there, hopefully leading to something more later. That describes my situation and I still provide free content to Daily Kos from time to time, particularly if I think a story needs national attention.
However, it’s a model that largely betrays our Democratic values because, if the website is successful, somebody is making some money from it. If we’re true to our liberal ideals, particularly that people should be compensated fairly for their work, asking people to provide free content so that others can profit is a model that is hard to support. This is why I insist that all of the regular contributors at Eclectablog are compensated. It’s not a lot and nobody (including me) is going to quit their day jobs because of it. But we have fine writers here and they are paid for their fine work.
I’m proud to say that at least one other state blog is considering changing their model based on seeing how we operate here at Eclectablog.
The problem is that blogging doesn’t pay all that much. We do run some ads, but they bring in a surprisingly low amount of revenue. The rest has to be made up from donations from readers who see value in what we do here. Any growth in terms of bringing on new writers like we did with the recent addition of Tony Trupiano is determined by whether or not we have the donations to support it.
That’s where YOU come in.
If you’d like to join those who find what we do here at Eclectablog worthy of supporting financially, there are three ways to help.
First, you can make your donation using the PayPal form below. You can change the amount if you wish. The default is $50 which is basically $1 per week, a pretty good value.
[donateplus]
Or you can wait until the TinyPass pop-up pops up (every tenth click on the site) and donate that way. If you do that, the popups will go away as long as you have cookies enabled. Like with the Paypal form, the default amounts for annual or monthly donations can be adjusted to whatever you wish them to be. They are currently set to be around $1 per week. Again, it’s a great value.
Finally, if you would prefer to send a check, send me an email and I’ll give you the address. This is the most beneficial way for us because it avoids the Paypal and Tinypass fees that are taken from contributions to the site.
If you cannot afford to support us financially, you can still help. Please share our content on your Facebook page or other social media like Twitter, Reddit, etc. Put a “Like” on our Facebook page and click the “Invite friends” button and encourage your friends to like us, too.
Thanks so much for your support,
Chris, Anne, Amy, LOLGOP, Tony, Emma, and Charles
[CC photo credit: lapidio | Flickr]
