I have been receiving some comments lately from people who are opposed to me wanting to make money from Daily Cup of Tech. It seems that there is an unwritten rule on the Internet that states:
“Thou shall not benefit from thine hard work when it is related to the Internet!”
Rather than addressing these comments individually, I thought it would be best to respond to each of these issues in one post so that I can clearly lay out where I stand on.
Advertising on DCoT
This is often the first complain that I will hear when it comes to making money with DCoT. People simply do not want to see advertisements. Period. It doesn’t matter if they are one the front page, in a post, in a comment, or in the RSS feed.
I’ve taken a look at a lot of blogs and the vast majority of them have advertising on them. If you go to the top five blogs according to Technorati (Endgadget, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, Techcrunch, and The Huffington Post), each and every one of them have advertising on them. Why should DCoT be any different? I try to limit my advertising and make it relevant so that if there is a product that is being shown to the reader, it is at least something that the reader would find useful.
DCoT has far fewer and less intrusive advertising than many other sites. I refuse to put pop-ups, pop-unders, and interstitial advertisement on Daily Cup of Tech. I also refuse to put on ads that attempt to install components on the reader’s computer.
I also occasionally write a paid or sponsored post about a specific product or service. I always start and finish these posts with a disclaimer that this is a paid post so that there is no confusion that I have received some compensation for writing this post and that it is an advertisement.
Readers need to realize that DCoT is a form of media and that advertising is a part of the media. You see this in magazines, television, radio, etc. Why do people expect the Internet and, more specifically, blogs to be any different?
Asking for Donations
I guess in many ways, this is almost like advertising for myself, but I have received some complaints about writing posts asking for donations to the tip jar or to release the source code. They do not like that I ask for donations on a regular basis and they are annoyed by the posts.
First of all, yes, I do ask for donations. I feel that the time and effort that I put into DCoT is worth some support and recognition. I have expenses to keep the website up. My time is valuable. People do not hesitate to ask me for help with their tech issues. (Granted, I did ask for people to submit their questions to me but they were asking long before I officially offered to answer.) Why should I hesitate to ask for a donation to support the blog?
Second, I do ask on a regular basis. The old adage, “Out of site, out of mind” holds very true on the Internet. There is good reason why you see “Gratuity not included in price” on your restaurant bill and Karma cups at Starbucks. Had I not regularly pointed out that people could help release source code to the Internet or just donate to help keep DCoT running, I would never receive any donations and DCoT would eventually die.
The one things that people don’t mention when they express their opinions about my donation requests is the fact that I also use that opportunity to recognize all of the people who have donated to DCoT in the past week and give them the recognition that they deserve. I think it is very important to shine the spotlight on these people because they understand what I am trying to do here.
What many people don’t seem to realize is that the donations that I receive are a real encouragement to me. There have been at least three or four times that I almost shut down DCoT and then someone would make a donation, even a couple of dollars, and it would change my mind. Not because I’m in it for the money but because I am encouraged by the fact that people feel that my hard work is worth giving up a small portion of the money they have earned from their hard work.
Paying for Source Code
This is an issue that started when I announced my Release the Code concept. In a nut shell, I promised to publish the source code on DCoT for my freeware applications when a certain amount had been donated toward the project. Some people thought that I should not be charging for the source code or that I was charging too much.
First, I am not charging anyone anything for the source code. When people voluntarily donate money to a project, they are doing it out of their own free will. I do not force anyone to pay me anything.
In fact, the vast majority of people who get access to the source code do not pay a single cent for it. For example, as of the writing of this post, over 2,000 people have accessed the recently released source code for DCoT Menu. There were five people who donated to the release of this source code which translates into fewer than 0.25% of the people who got the code paying anything for it. I really do not see how this is unfair to the readers of DCoT.
The other issue that comes up sometimes is that I am charging too much for the source code. In general, I ask US$100 for the source code for my projects. I have never worked or been paid as a coder but I have been a paid consultant in the past. My hourly rate back then varied between US$80 and US$145. Now, the absolute least amount of time that I have spent on one of my projects is seven hours. Based on my lowest consulting rate, my effort was worth at least US$560. All I am asking is US$100.
Also, when you hire a developer to write code for you, they are working for you to generate your product. And you need to pay to get the code. Unless you are one of the people who actually donated toward the release of the code, you haven’t paid a single penny and you have complete access to the source code to do with it whatever you want. I don’t know how much a programmer would to create an application and provide you with the source code but I’m sure it is more than free.
People have also argued that US$100 may be a small amount for someone in North America to pay but what about some people who make significantly less or are from a third world country? I have to admit that the world is not fair but, as I have stated earlier, these people do not have to pay for the code if they do not want it. All they have to do is wait and be patient. I do not know of anyone who is so poor that they cannot afford to be patient.
Readers must also be aware that I have to survive in the market that I live. I can’t convince someone at the grocery store to give me food because I gave away my source code. This is not how the world works and it is naive to believe that it does.
Still Don’t Like These Things?
I understand that there are going to be some people out there who are going to get up in arms about this and I may even lose some readers. So be it. This is how DCoT is being run and I do not apologize for it.
But, if you are truly serious about getting rid of the advertising and the donation requests and you would like all of my applications to be open source and free as soon as I release them, then it is up to you to be my boss. In fact, I am willing to quit my jobs and work on Daily Cup of Tech full time!
The only way that I would be willing to do any of this would be if I had a guaranteed monthly support base that would allow me to replace these other sources of income. With these in place I am willing to drop each of my other income sources one at a time until, eventually, I would be working full time for you, the DCoT readers.
Please do not take this offer lightly as I take this very seriously. I would be willing to put my finances in the hands of you, the readers, if you are willing to support this venture. This is how it would work:
I would accept subscriptions via PayPal (or any other legitimate form of payment) for Daily Cup of Tech. A subscription differs from a donation in that a donation is a one time contribution while a subscription is a monthly contribution. As the subscription number increases, I will start to make changes to Daily Cup of Tech and my life.
These are the changes that I would be willing to make in order as subscriptions increase:
- Removing DCoT Discounts
- Removing Text Link Ads
- Removing ads in RSS feed
- Stop writing posts for advertising
- Release all source code and future source code as open source immediately
- Stop asking for donations
- Remove ads from Feedburner
- Remove ads from AdSense
- Quit my one day a week job and work on DCoT on that day exclusively
- Quit my four day a week job and work on DCoT exclusively full time
So, is anyone willing to take me up on my proposition? I am willing to commit to this. How about you? If so, I will formally set up the program. I eagerly await your comments.
If you found this post useful, why don't you buy me a cup of coffee to show your gratitude?
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