Received this email earlier today, and would like you to read it as well. If you're an information professional of any stripe and somehow not aware of Tara's work with ResearchBuzz, now's a perfect time. I currently subscribe to well over 200 RSS feeds(!) and multiple email lists, and if I had to choose just one to continue following ResearchBuzz would be it.
Published by permission:
Please Support ResearchBuzz on Patreon
by ResearchBuzz
I love doing ResearchBuzz. I want more time to write more in-depth articles, more time to build tools, and more help you do your job, whether you’re a teacher, librarian, journalist, or just interested in the nooks and crannies of the Internet.
I have been looking into ways to “monetize” ResearchBuzz. (I hate that word.) I have had people offer to advertise on the site. With ad blocking and the rise of malvertising I’m not comfortable with that. I’ve had people offer to do “sponsored articles” on the site. I’m definitely not going to do that.
I want ResearchBuzz to be what it's always been - a place where you come to find out about the latest news around search engines, online information collections, databases, and whatever else catches your eye. No "sponsored articles," no "pay for play," no things that you can do or get rid of with just one weird old trick. Just like it's been since 1998.
I realize that in 2016 this attitude is positively Triassic. I'm probably supposed to be making this request via Facebook Live and posting a video later and marking it with Snapchat filters or something. But that's not me, and it's not ResearchBuzz.
So I'm here to ask today: if you find it useful, can you support me on Patreon?
My Patreon page is https://www.patreon.com/
ResearchBuzz . I'm asking for monthly support. Even a buck a month would help a lot. According to WordPress, 8,465 people follow ResearchBuzz (and I don't think that counts people who read via RSS.) If everybody who followed supported with a buck a month - well, first I think I'd fall on the floor. Your support would let me do more:
-- I could afford better tools for the news and Web monitoring I do to bring you ResearchBuzz.
-- I would have more time to build resources like This Google Custom Search engine for searching state/city/county Web sites. I would also be able to afford some programming help for building more complicated, Web-based apps.
-- I would have time for more article writing like what I did in November with the articlesStrategies for Low-Stress Web Monitoring and Focusing Your Searches With Specialized Vocabulary.
And remember, content I publish on ResearchBuzz is CC BY-NC-SA. That means that if I write something and you want to share it with your genealogy group, or use it as a classroom handout, you can! But you can't republish it on a commercial Web site.
I have levels for $1 a month, $3 a month (gives you access to external articles I write), $5 a month (external articles and gives you access to article rough drafts so you can point and laugh at my grammar), and $11 a month (all of the above and gives you a place on a ResearchBuzz "thank you" page.)
If I get to $400 a month support, I'll do an article a week (again, BY-NC-SA!) $600 a month? TWO articles a week! (More than that? Who knows, maybe I'll get a unicorn head mask from Archie McPhee and start doing weekly Google Hangouts as a buzzicorn.)
If you don't want to do Patreon, please consider using my affiliate link the next time you buy something at Amazon.
For the last 20 years I've been trying to create valuable resources about the Internet, searching, and useful information collections. I hope it's been valuable enough that you'll consider sponsoring me on Patreon. Thanks, and as always, I love you.
