It's that time of year again, folks!
Yes, it is time once again for our annual holiday pledge drive, which we traditionally begin by intentionally distracting you with the cutest kittens known to exist -- in a cheap effort to tug at your heartstrings as you reach for your wallet. While this yearly begging season is somewhat distasteful to me personally, I really have no choice in the matter, as the ChrisWeigant.com board of directors insists that we make the attempt to keep the lights on and the site up and running each year. And the board members simply cannot be denied in this matter.
The ChrisWeigant.com board of directors
Our big news this year was that last year's pledge drive raised enough money -- for the second time! -- to entirely pay for the upkeep of this site and the basic business expenses of ChrisWeigant.com. No, it didn't cover fancy trips to Netroots Nation or national nominating conventions, but we'd hardly ask our readers to foot the bill for such things. But we did raise enough money last year to cover all other operating expenses, which meant that we were able to remove all external advertising from the site!
The ads were always somewhat of a nuisance and caused slower page loading times, and they never really brought in a whole lot of revenue anyway, so we're just as glad to not have to deal with them anymore (as we're sure you are, too).
So this year, we've got a target to shoot for that is worth hitting for everyone concerned -- if we can raise roughly the same as we raised last year, then we can keep the site ad-free throughout 2014. Woo hoo!
Keeping on top of incoming revenues!
Reaching the goal of being ad-free was an astonishing and humbling experience, because we're always consistently blown away by the generosity of our readers. Especially when the last few years have been somewhat distracted, with the other writing project I've been working on (which has taken a lot of time I normally would have devoted to the website, I realize). There's no news on that front to report, as the process of getting an agent and a publisher is a long slog. But we remain ever hopeful, and we'll let everyone know how it goes.
For now, we apologize for the inattention, but 2014 should be better in this regard. So we are asking you, as we do every year at this time, to dig deep and send what donations you can so that we can continue bringing you reality-based political commentary not available elsewhere in the media universe.
Stretch your budget and donate today!
If you're wondering how the process works, you can always check out the 2013 Holiday Pledge Drive page, which offers instructions for donating by check, by PayPal, or by credit or debit card. For the last three, either click on the "Donate" button in the main menu at the top of every page, look for the "Donate" button on the right side of every page, or just click the following and fill in the info required:
It's easy to do, just follow the instructions. Which start with: Don't you climb that tree... bad kitty! Down! GET DOWN FROM THERE!
Whaddya mean 'don't climb the tree'?!?
Why else would you bring one in the house?
Next year will be an interesting one, since we'll have a big midterm election at the end. Will it be the Tea Party's second wave? Will Democrats retake the House? Will Mitch McConnell be booted out? Stay tuned! It promises to be an exciting one, that's for sure.
We'll be sharing our thoughts throughout the process, and inviting you to share yours in the comments, as usual. In last year's pledge drive announcement, we pointed out something that makes this site unique -- the loyalty of our multipartisan readership:
Here's a fact that may motivate you -- this is quite possibly the only political site around which is heavily financially supported by people who regularly (and sometimes quite forcefully) disagree with the opinions offered up by yours truly. It'd be like Dittoheads supporting half the budget of the Rachel Maddow Show, to put it another way. This is the thing which astounds us the most here -- even those who come here to disagree with us pony up at the end of the year for the privilege of being annoyed all year long by my writings. That's pretty impressive, at least to us, in this divided day and age.
At the end of the day (and, here, at the end of the year), you should ask yourself what this site is worth to you. Is it worth a dime a week to you? How about a buck a week? That (roughly) translates into either a $5.00 or a $50.00 donation. Of course, we're not going to discourage anyone from making a $500 donation, but we feel it's a lot more realistic to ask for the lower end of that scale. As more and more mainstream media moves behind paywalls online, we are committed to always providing free access to all -- whether or not you send in a donation. But for the past two years, we have managed to be a self-supporting site, and we would truly like to keep the site ad-free all year long. So no matter how small or how large your donation, know that it will be appreciated.
As always, during our Holiday Pledge Drive period, we will provide an ongoing status of the drive at the top of each article. Right now, there's no green in the thermometer bar at all, but throughout the month we hope that it will slowly move towards reaching our fundraising goal. We only do this once a year, folks, and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone in advance for participating, both in the pledge drive and all year long in the comments.
Happy holidays to all. Once you've donated, you can get to work putting up the decorations. Or take a long winter's nap, your choice!
Tired of putting up decorations? Donating is easier!
[Full information on donations and the pledge drive can be found at our "2013 Pledge Drive" page.]
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
