What’s the difference between a blogger constantly begging for money and some tatty assed street person working his corner with a large, crayoned Gimme sign?
Honey, if you can’t afford a few Franklins to support your huge bandwith, why should any one else bother to tune in?
If the blogger is out committing actual journalism, then funding the blogger counts for more than just another bottle of Thunderbird.
There’s some part of a case to be made that the transition from hobby blogger to serious player in the new media can, or in some cases must, be funded by donations/fees from readers.
That being said, I mostly agree with you, Daphne. If you’ve got things you’ve just gotta say, pay for your rants yourself.
And if you’re hoping build yourself into a bandwidth brand, state it clearly as you ask for money. Give the people what they want and are paying for. Then you won’t be performing the online bum’s equivalent of getting wasted instead of buying food.
Plus, the guy in the photo is using a DELL. He will never be taken seriously until he gets a Mac.
Askmom, I don’t mind a blogger holding a fundraiser occasionally or selling their gear, but I can’t stand the ones who are constantly begging for hits to their tip jar.
The one I particularly had in mind does it several time a week, it’s a big turn off for me.
Nova, are you trying to start another round of war between the PC vs. Mac people? ;-)
[Gerard pointed me to your unique & talented writing a few months back, first time to comment though.]
Anyway whatz chapping me at present is a certain person hell bent on saving a couple of hundred bucks on a Dell who will then rely on a Mac user (that’d be me) for help. Hell I don’t know a damn thing about a PC except the couple times I’ve used my son’s a troubling feeling started bubbling up: “get me the hell outta here”.
BTW, I’m a Texan. Lived in Austin for 30+ years; now living a quiet life in the serene hamlet of Temple.
I don’t mind the blegging… I mostly ignore it unless there’s some sort of tragedy involved.
I LURVE the pic, tho! It sez a lot about the state of America’s poor and downtrodden (heh). I was gonna say “sez everything” but thought better of it.
No, no PC v. Mac here. Hell, I say “Burn them all and bring back chalkboards.”
If you need contributions put up a please give link and let it go at that. I’m with Daphne. It’s the near constant posts trying to justify why I should suport their site that absolutely wears me out.
I have given money to bloggers who actually have done reporting, namely, Michael Totten and Michael Yon. But I quit reading Lucianne’s site because of the amount of time it took to load the page, the fact that she wouldn’t allow a freely flowing stream of artful invective against other posters and trolls on her threads, and the friggin’ ‘bandwidth’ beast bleat she has going all the time.
Two words: Michael Yon.
Two more words, WWWebb: A and men!
Michael Yon never begs for money, he behaves like a man.
[...] due God to Caesar’s secular self.Aside: Stacy is on the road again. While some bloggers find explicit funding requests annoying, you can support Stacy’s shoeleather-on-the-ground reporting knowing that every dime you pay [...]
Did I touch a nerve, Smitty?
We sure do agree about the “constant begging” being annoying. You can’t help but notice that the blogs everyone can’t wait to read, the ones doing the real work, only rarely hint that funds are needed. And that their readers respond immediately and cheerfully when they do.
The ones that resort to smacking you every other day, bah humbug!
This is the way to raise money for a blog:
http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/
Yes, there’s a certain blogging journalist who apparently thinks he’s being cute or establishing a sort of half-serious, half-mocking meme of himself that has made me take him off my reader twice. And if he’s serious, well, I can’t afford to feel like a thief by reading his words for free.
So, I guess it’s time to remove him for good.