According to a study I once read, about 60% of U.S. citizens donate money once a month -- about 75% in UK.
"Bike" enjoys about 600 hits a day. If 10% of BC's consistent readers are "Bike" enthusiasts that would indicate about 6,000 consistent users.
If 65% of those donated to BC that would be almost 4,000 donors per month.
Erin struggles to generate $2,500 in monthly donations.
If those 4,000 donors were to contribute just seventy cents each, the monthly nut would be met.
So why isn't that happening?
1.) It could be that because of the social stigma (or impact of past trauma) many are struggling financially and simply cannot donate. That is understandable, but I doubt that more than 25% are incapable of donating something.
2.) It could be that because of the social stigma many are afraid of exposure. However, contributions can be anonymous. This should not be an issue.
3.) My estimates of users could be wrong. My guess is that I'm being conservative. I could be off on the percentage that read Bike consistently.
4.) Erin could be scamming all of us. She could be raking in the money hand-over-fist. This would go against everything I know about her. Further, if there was that much money to be made doing what Erin is doing, she would have many, many competitors. The opposite has been the case, with most TG fiction sites failing.
Can ANYONE explain to me why this very necessary site has problems attracting enough financial support to remain comfortably viable? Erin needs to out this site on a profitable basis and develop a perpetuation plan.
Jill
Comments
donating to BCTS
would be more acceptable if we on this side of the Pond didn't have to pay exchange charges on all the payments.
The split between the Buy/sell rate for the £/$ is around 20% (and got even larger after the BREXIT vote) which is IMHO crazy. Add to that the transaction charges CC providers add on and a donation suddenly looks expensive.
I have a debit card that is preloaded with USD but for some reason the CC processors that BC use won't take it. Probably due to the card not having a US Address associated with it.
I'd donate more in a flash if there was some way to avoid at least some of the charges.
Samantha
Money Orders
Some people in Europe buy Money Orders denominated USD and mail them to one of our addresses.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
USD Cards
When I started flying to the US I got a FairFX cash card and loaded it up with dollars - the rate was $1.64 to £1 at that time, about three years ago.
I have been trying to use the surplus cash on this card to make donations via PayPal, originally without success. Strangely, I have had no problem buying eBooks from Baen Books in dollars using this card, but because it is a virtual sale there is no requirement for a US address on my purchase order. Almost everything else I have tried baulks at me not having a US address.
However, just recently I have tried again through PayPal and it worked! They now don't seem to require either an account or a whole load of very intrusive questions to be answered so I donated $50.
If you have such a card it may be worth trying again. Looking at the form there are fields to be filled in but most of them are optional.
Penny
Edit: I refuse to have a PayPal account because of their oppressive policies. They act like a bank but they refuse to play by banking rules, so I make as little use of them as possible.
Paypal has changed
It was owned for awhile by EBay which is a very conservative Orange County California company. It's been spun off and many of its policies have changed, more back to what they used to be.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
According to the hit counts
Bike only gets about 6-700 per day, but I would welcome those readers who enjoy my writing to contribute to the costs of running the site, as you say, it's something special on the internet.
My stories are all free to readers, to continue the existence of this site, please give generously if you are able. I usually do it by paypal.
Angharad
You SHOULD have 3,000 readers a day
I have lousy vision. Lots of floaters. I must have mistaken your part number for hits.
Like you, all of my stories are free to readers. Some of them are in Hatbox for a short period of time before posted free to readers. Some were free for a period of time before I gave them to Erin to sell. Also like you I use paypal. AND I also cheered for Wales. How about that?
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
e-pub
Just an idea. Rather than the unwieldy and largely unused hatbox, why not sell e versions of the premium stories. You could split proceeds with the authors, giving as easy path to publishing. This could greatly expand the premium library. Many of the authors might donate their proceeds to BC. This might dovetail well with your other publishing efforts.
Publishing
This is pretty much the model for our DopplerPress efforts through Kindle and we are working to move Hatbox to a similar model; it's not as easy as it sounds. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
CHERYLB, I Agree
When the Hatbox option was created, selling ebooks was not a viable option. As it has become easier to publish and promote ebooks, Erin has moved in that direction. I have donated both stories to Hatbox and books to ebook sales through Doppler Press. I've told Erin many times that once my stories have had an adequate time on her site to be read for free by those who want to that she can pull them and publish them. She is currently working to publish a combined book that would include two sports-related stories (Baseball Annie and Swifter, Higher, Stronger).
I have not wanted any part of the proceeds from the sale of my stories. 100% of the revenue from MY stories goes to Erin's operation.
However, other authors split revenues from Doppler Press sales with Erin, which is just fine and also supports BC.
Here's another way that things could go. Perhaps there are authors who currently publish for free on BC who could use some personal financial support. Perhaps they should publish through Erin in Hatbox and receive payment for their stories. This would offer an outlet for those stories that aren't suited for Doppler Press. This new option could increase BC revenue when people see more value in a Hatbox membership and provide a new service to struggling authors.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I have been here nigh on six years
and each year I have contributed 1 / 12 of my annual income. Yes, that's one month's salary. By PayPal.
If you really don't want to contribute, then don't. But I urge you to do so.
I am amongst the few hundreds of readers of Bike each day, well each posting, as well as being an ardent supporter of other writers such as Cyclist and Beverly and so on.
So I pay for my privileges.
I would wish that more others do so too.
But I am unable, physically and morally, to force them to do so.
I would have thought that Erin's constant reminders would be sufficient of a nudge to those consciences that are havering.
Joolz.
Get paid next Thursday.
Tryin' to save to get North, but I'll throw in what I can.
Melanie E.
Math Corrected
I corrected the math, per suggestion. It doesn't change the message.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)