Paying the Light Bill

I have come to love blogging.

And as the quality of my posting goes up, so do the number of people who link back to me and trackback to me as a resource. I've learned in the last few weeks that putting up more detailed, well-thought, and graphic-laden posts gets more readers in. All of these thing are part of me improving my game as a blogger; I am also working on doing the same as a podcaster.

I got my podcasting bandwidth covered (1.2 TERAbytes per month, with 16 gigs added to my limit per month – sweet!), but Typepad is pretty tight with bandwidth, although they are fair. But since I've started getting listed on a couple of "real" news sources, one of which was translated into Korean and linked into an online news source – the Korean-language version of OhMyNews – bandwidth costs have now officially started exceeding my standard monthly allottment. This means I'm gonna start having to pay for the boost in readership.

Well, here's some help, offered as plug-and-play options from Typepad. All I've done is activate a simple little banner, which I've placed at the bottom of the right sidebar and also enabled a "Tip Jar" button for those of you Daddy and Mammy Warbuxes out there who want to drop a buck or two towards my bandwidth charges. It's all voluntary and I'm not being threatened with being shut down or anything, nor is this blog going away anytime soon. But not having to pay extra per month would be nifty and anything anyone throws my way is appreciated. And just visiting the site is also a help in itself because of the banner ads.

So thank you for visiting – please do so often – and I also thank you in advance for dropping me a tip through the "Tip Jar" if you're feeling generous.

Thanks, fellow Metropolitickers!

Comments

[frank funk]

I can't believe people have the gall to ask for donations to their little vanity projects when there are so many worthy causes out there.

[The Metropolitician]

Frank Funk -

1) My little "vanity" project is my writing. I like to think I address some significant issues as I do it. Unlike most other blogs, it actually isn't a chronicle of my humble life, but rather what I think might be some things that a) might be helpful to people, and b) might be interesting to certain people.

2) Since now I have many more readers than I anticipated, I might be looking at paying $$15-25 per month in excess bandwidth charges. Sure, there are worthy causes out there, but we're not talking about charity right now – I'd just like to not have to pay several hundred dollars per year for bandwidth. Contrary to what you might believe, blogging doesn't result in financial profit. Perhaps you can afford it, but frankly, I could use the help.

3) Such comments are just like the snickers you hear at galleries when photographers charge $250 for a print. Yeah, it's not "worth" that much and people could do better than to "waste" their money on "self-indugent" and "vain" art; but if you were the photographer you'd know that 99% of use aren't Annie Liebovitz and we actually are lucky to even operate at subsistence level after the initial time and expenses it takes to produce such "useless" things. And I happen to think that artists and writers make the world a better place. I guess that's vain of me to think, but artists gotta eat, too.

4) If you think my blog to be a waste of time and not even worth allowing me the benefit of the doubt to put a tip jar on the virtual counter for a couple voluntary donations here and there to cut a few bucks off my monthly bill (I pay $150 per year making my monthly roughly $12.50, but my excess montly excess bandwidth has the potential to actually exceed or even double my subscription fees) – well, I guess you think my time, thought, and energy spent trying to make a decent blog completely worthless. You know, it's people like you who always deride, jeer, and snicker at people trying to do put something positive back into the world. Sure, I take pride in what I do and derive pleasure from writing and people responding to my writing, which is why I do this. But if you think this is to make money, pshaw. Whatever.

5) And what''s YOUR contribution to the greater good, Frank? I guess I'll just have to assume that YOU give at least $20 bucks a month to charitable organizations; maybe you give hundreds. I guess you're a better human being than me. On my end, I don't got lotsa money lying around bcs I'm trying to pay off school loans; call it selfish, but I'd like to be debt-free sometime before I'm 40. But still, in my time in Seoul, I've put in the time to work for a year-and-a-half in Seoul alternative schools teaching photography to at-risk kids. It's not UNICEF, and I got $500 dollars per semester as a courtesy. Guess that makes me an asshole. But it certainly didn't make me richer.

And before that, as a grad student, I volunteered some of my time to work a the "I Have a Dream" Foundation in Oakland, and did other minimal-but-somewhat-helpful volunteer jobs as an undergraduate as well, mostly working in a program to get kids interested in math and science as a mentor for minority kids in Providence. I'm not saying that I'm Mother Teresa; I'm just saying that I do give a damn and do a bit to help out.

So I guess we'll be seeing a link to your blog soon? How are YOU trying to give something back, or positively participate in civil society, besides deriding a blogger trying to cover his bandwidth bills?

See, unlike most other kinds of writers, bloggers don't get paid. We put our thoughts and pieces out there and are actually paying YOU, the reader to download and read our stuff. Every image I put up is worth pages and pages of text; if I were a penny-pincher and thinking about each one, I wouldn't put any images in. But I wanted to make a good product, so I bought a pro-level account so I could have the stability and headroom to produce something that folks out there might like to read; sure, I want a reputation and a bit of respect as a thinker, writer, and photographer, but what the hell's wrong with that?

I'm paying for the privelege, after all.

Jeez – people like you really make this whole endeavor really not worth it, and I'm not talking about money. I start accruing a few costs, stick out a tip jar and but a couple text ads at the BOTTOM of the page and I get called a selfish, money-grubbing opportunist.

You know, I'm not making cheap ploys here. I plan on keeping this blog up regardless of maybe doubling my monthly bill and despite comments from assholes like you. I'm not holding "I'm gonna shut down the site unless I get donations" over my readers. I just put a fucking jar on the piano; I didn't say I'm gonna stop playing. Get over yourself already.

[SokViChet]

Well said, Darcy. I will take this opportunity to thank you for you hard work on this and all of your writing / film projects. That said, I personally make it a habit to click the hell out of google ads, lol. Will help out when I can.

Thanks!
SokViChet

[Jasmine]

As a young black and korean, I find it helpful to discover an intelligent and in-context piece on the experience of someone else in our small bi-racial group. You may have earned another reader.

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