Running this blog doesn't really cost anything, but there is a huge opportunity cost of the time involved doing it. Time spent doing this is time spent away from pursuing other career enhancing activities. The ad money recently has been great, making this far more lucrative than I ever imagined, but it isn't enough that I can justify otherwise abandoning career pursuits. It's time for a priority check.
I'm reasonably optimistic about my future job prospects (rightly or wrongly), and this blog may at some point provide a stepping a stone to other things I might want someone to pay me for. But, at the moment it's hard to picture how I can both pursue an alternate career path and maintain the blog. Given that it's the election year, I'd really like to continue doing this for awhile longer. Having a bit of a backup reserve would make it possible to justify doing that to both myself and my family.
So, here's the deal. I'm going to, Andy Sullivan style, hold a weeklong fundraiser. I'm not going to set any goals, though if people want I'll post the total at the end. I won't come back in a month and do it again (though, of course, contributions are always appreciated!). This isn't charity - this is just NPR/PBS style giving. You don't have to if you don't want to, and you shouldn't feel guilty if you either don't want to give or can't.
If Mr. Soros would like to donate a half of second worth of his interest payments on his fortune, that'd be great. But, basically, I'm just hoping that (small percentage of daily readers) X (modest average donation) = (not so small total number).
So, if the mood strikes, help me out with some turkee!
...you can also use the Amazon paybox below. I prefer paypal because a) amazon takes big commissions and b) there's a fairly small limit on the number of donations Amazon will allow per month (no idea why - they wouldn't let me change it). But, if you're anti-paypal feel free.
...I'll try to get a PO Box tomorrow (though, I'll also need to figure out how to get a bank account together so that may be a bit more complicated...)