This post goes out primarily to those folk reading Shakespeare Geek on RSS and maybe not coming to the web site regularly. I’ve got a survey up in the left nav over there for a couple weeks trying to be democratic about the whole “make money” thing. On the one hand I hate to do it, because it feels cheap. I do this because I love it, and putting a price tag on it is difficult for me. But on the other hand, I’ve put a lot of time and effort into creating what I hope has been of significant value for a lot of people over a good number of years now, so it’s pretty silly of me to let that value languish on principle while others don’t think twice about slapping together less content of poorer quality and sticking a price tag on it from day one. (Besides, more income means more budget to buy stuff, which I can then review or give away as promotional materials. And I’ve got no shortage of ideas about what I’d like to do, believe me, it’s just a simple matter of resource management — I dedicate X amount of time for Y profit, so if Y goes up, my motivation for increasing X goes up accordingly. It’s not like I’m expecting this to suddenly take over my day job, but it does have to pay for itself.)
So could I beg a favor? I put up some choices about what people would find least offensive, as far as money raising goes — banner ads, affiliate links, merchandise, tip jar — and even included a “None” option for the folks that want to express that particular desire. Could I get two seconds of your time to come and click on it? The more votes the better the indicator. I’d rather have people click “None” than not click at all, you know? At least that way I know. Be honest, because I am going to implement something.
Thanks! Sorry for the interruption.