The page I promised on ways you can help confoozled.com become profitable is now up. The first couple of options are super easy things you can do which don't cost you a cent. From there it goes to helping confoozled.com with purchases you were going to make anyway, on down to more direct ways to contribute if you feel inclined to do so (which I certainly don't expect).
I've also made some changes to the sidebar. Make sure you're checking it out now and then when you're here, because you might find some interesting stuff!
On a note related to all of this, I have to get something off my chest. There seems to be this sense of entitlement people feel when it comes to things on the internet, and I find it really disturbing. Back in November I addressed the rumor of a monthly fee for Facebook. That was just a rumor, but my point was this. Facebook has spent a lot of time and money to give people something for free. And don't tell me you don't value what they give you, because I hear people saying all the time how addicted they are to Facebook. And if Facebook were not able to continue to support itself on advertising alone, I value what they offer and would gladly pay a reasonable fee to continue using it.
Just recently I saw something even more appalling - a Facebook group for people against advertising on Facebook. So now not only are people unwilling to pay directly for what Facebook offers, they want to eliminate their only other source of income. It's like these people think that Facebook somehow owes them this free service they provide, but don't deserve to make any money for their efforts.
Another free service I use is Entrecard. It's a service that allows bloggers to gain exposure for their blogs by trading advertising with other bloggers. Just like Facebook, the costs of providing such a service add up, and those who work hard to give people something like this deserve to get something in return, too. So Entrecard recently introduced a paid advertising feature, where about half of the time, the widget on a member's blog will display a paid ad instead of the free one the blog owner has approved for that day. This is not only to help cover Entrecard's operating costs and compensate their staff, but also to allow people to turn the "credits" they earn from the system back into cash (something people have been demanding for a long time).
Now fortunately, after Entrecard responded to initial feedback and made a few policy changes (such as allowing any member to opt out of displaying paid ads on their widget without penalty for doing so), the majority of the reactions I've seen to this change are positive ones. I certainly am thrilled that I am going to be able to cash out the credits I've earned instead of using them to advertise on other blogs, since I haven't found the traffic I receive to be the kind that sticks around. But there are still some who are flipping out over the change, saying things like, "I like Entrecard but I'm not going to pay* to use their service," and, "Why should I help Entrecard make money?" (*The writer stated that allowing Entrecard to display paid ads on his widget was like paying them.) At least in this case, all the writer manages to do is display his lack of intelligence, especially when the only responses he can come up with to people who disagree with him are cheap insults (did you know I sound like a communist, and am one ugly ass woman to boot?).
Why should you help any company that provides you a free service to make money? Well let's look at it another way. Why should they give you that service? Why should they put in all of that hard work, and spend tons of their own money, to give you something for free, when they're not going to get anything back? Why should Facebook help you find old friends, and give you a place to share your life with them and countless fun games to play with them? Why should Entrecard pay upwards of $1,000 per month to support a network that lets you advertise on other blogs for free? Out of the kindness of their heart? Now who's the communist?
Everyone deserves to get something in return for their efforts. And in a capitalist America, that something is going to be money in some form, whether you pay it to them directly, or just tolerate their efforts to make it from other sources. Nothing in a capitalist market is truly free; everything has some kind of price. No one owes you anything with no strings attached.
As I've said before, I know that my blog is not something that provides a lot of value, and I don't expect most people to be willing to spend money to support it. What I do expect is that people be supportive of my efforts to earn something back for the hard work that I put in. Like most things on the internet, the only way I can do that is through advertising. If you don't want to see ads, by all means, use an ad blocker. No one pays for pure ad views on a site this low-ranked anyway. But don't ever suggest that I don't deserve to try to make money, that I should not expect anything in return for the time and effort I put in here.
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