“Alas” news: Ads, Tipjar, etc.
| June 29th, 2005Sorry about “Alas” going down the other day - I hadn’t been paying enough attention to our bandwidth, and so we went over the limit.
I’ve decided to switch to a different hosting company. Hopefully, this will solve some of the problems we’ve had with “Alas” going down now and then - by moving to a company which is much more WordPress friendly, and which also offers much more bandwidth for the buck.
I’ve also decided (with Pseudo-Adrienne’s approval) to experiment with ways of making “Alas” pay for itself. If I could start over from scratch, I’d probably do a free blogspot blog; but at this point, I’m committed to keeping the “Alas” archives - including the incredibly huge archive of comments - and I don’t think I can do that if I switch to “blogspot.” Therefore, it’s necessary to pay for space for “Amptoons.com.” There are occasional other expenses as well - for example, the “Alas” comments database is so enormous that I need an expert to move it to the new server! So I want to leave a nice sum in his tip jar.
So there are two new additions to the sidebar. The first is a tip jar. If you enjoy “Alas,” consider leaving some money to help pay for it. Right now I’ve put it right near the top, since I expect the next couple of weeks to be extra-extra-expensive because of moving to a new server; in time, I hope to put the tip jar in a less obtrusive place on the sidebar.
The second is a blogads area, which is affiliated with a new feminist blogads network, “Blog Sheroes.” I’m pretty sure it’s set up in a way that will allow Alas to avoid the “offensive ad problem” we recently saw at Daily Kos. In the meanwhile, if any “Alas” readers would like a free ad (just to get it started), drop me an email.
I’m planning to experiment with the tip jar and the blogads thingy for a month or two; after that, we’ll figure out if they’re worth keeping, and what the next step is.
June 29th, 2005 at 7:48 am
You do have a lot of control with BlogAds–you’ll get a little box to look at each ad as closely as you want and you then decide if you want to accept or decline it.
Have you considered starting a Cafe Press store? Since you have so many great drawings, you could put them on T-shirts and coffee mugs that people might be interested in.
This comment was written by Amanda.Report this comment to the moderators
June 29th, 2005 at 9:10 am
I’d buy a mug, and probably a T shirt too.
This comment was written by Susan.Report this comment to the moderators
June 29th, 2005 at 11:32 am
Thanks for the interest!
Actually, there is a Cafe Press Shop - Alas, Some Merchandise. I had a link on the sidebar for about a year, and no one ever bought anything, plus I began to feel guilty about the lack of extra-large sizes, so I took the link down.
I recommend the clock. The clock is awesome.
You can see one of the cafe press shirts pictured in this blog entry.
This comment was written by Ampersand.Report this comment to the moderators
June 29th, 2005 at 11:52 am
Barry, cafepress needs Alas.. hoody sweatshirts.
This comment was written by Kim (basement variety!).Report this comment to the moderators