It's September…the time when Summer winds down, the kids go back to school and Evanier hits you up for money. This blog costs me several thousands dollars a year to maintain and keep running…and yes, it can be done for less. But some years ago, I tired of it occasionally crashing and being off-line and I had one too many episodes where things went wrong from a technical standpoint and I had to drop everything — including paying work — and put in the hours to undo what had gone kablooey.
Also, the "tech" side of maintaining a blog was getting to be a little too much for my limited expertise in that area. Twice in the last twelve months, I've had to pay a few hundred bucks to a WordPress Expert to do things that would have made me feel like one of the Three Stooges trying to remove someone's spleen.
So I signed up with a service that has kept things online for your (and my) pleasure. It makes things easier for both of us but now, once a year, I ask you to donate so I can make up the outta-pocket expenses of blogging almost every day. I have turned down offers to sell paid advertising or allow sponsored guest posts or to section off parts of the blog that will be open only to subscribers…stuff like that. I want to keep it absolutely free for all and "free" can sometimes be expensive.
Thus, today we start a Send Me Money campaign that will annoy you no more than reading this post and subsequent reminders…and the reminders will go away as soon as I receive enough to cover my expenses. If you can't afford it, fine. I understand…and I want this blog to be not only ad-free but guilt-free, as well. If you can afford it, thank you very much…
