I hope you enjoy the site as a lot of hours go into making it informative and fun, in fact I can't begin to imagine how long I've spent on it these last four years! I do it because I love doing it, but it's work too. Despite a wonderful increase in readership of late (so far this year we've had more than double the visitors as for the same period last year), not much advertising revenue comes through.
So what is new?
I've added a Donate button, so you can pick a one-off (or regular!) amount of your choosing. It's a Paypal button but you can use other payment methods if you don't have Paypal.
If you follow any link from New Elementary to Amazon and go on to make a purchase, you're helping keep the site going. These have been there for a long time now but I have recently upped their number and added some Google ads too, as an experiment. Of course having ads is nobody's ideal scenario but hopefully I'm managing to keep some sort of balance. I never write posts merely to sell stuff (ha, although I guess this post is kinda one!). So you won't be seeing posts from me listing a bunch of newly discounted sets, for example. You can read more details in our Disclosure Policy.
I'm hoping you enjoy the quality of New Elementary; I'd love to keep improving it. I might consider crowdfunding or Patreon to enable me to spend a significant amount of time improving the site, as it really could do with some love after all this time. Do let me know any thoughts in the comments, dear readers, and thank you all for reading! And a special thank you to everyone who has supported New Elementary in the past.
| Donate an amount of your choosing to help keep New Elementary publishing great articles about LEGO pieces. Why am I asking for money? Read more here. |
Amazon USA: Amazon.com
Canada: Amazon.ca
UK: Amazon.co.uk
Deutschland: Amazon.de
As long as you keep an eye on your ads and make sure they're not viruses, not playing any sound or video, and dont forcibly open new tabs or windows or create dialogues, ads are fine. Just... keep an eye on them.
ReplyDeleteLove your site, and look forward to every new article you post. I also regularly promote your site as a builder's resource within my LUG. Sent a couple Pounds your way. It's not much as my poor Canadian Dollar isn't worth much these days, but hope it helps.
ReplyDeleteSurely not as miserable as our poor British pound has been for a almost a year? ;) Thanks so much! The promotion and the help are massively appreciated!
DeleteI really like the bricklink affiliate idea. I'll definitely be trying that out when I can afford to. This week I'm already spent but come next payday I'll try and make it through here. There's some parts I've been meaning to pick up.
ReplyDeleteReally appreciated Dave!
DeleteA Patreon could be good ... more work for you though, if you go down the typical route of generating 'exclusive' content for your supporters. Anyway, I've set up a regular donation; hopefully it will help.
ReplyDeleteMassively appreciated my friend!!
DeleteI wish I could transfer the money from my Bricks magazine sub your way. It seems, sadly, that Bricks Culture is not such a call on your time these days.
ReplyDeleteindeed
DeleteYou're at the level you are getting Free sets and parts to review on your blog... pretty nice place to be, probably something not many of your readers can boast. Kinda makes it seem like you aren't asking readers for a donation, but for the ability to have your cake and eat it too. At least with the Nexagon posts, participants at least got a couple dollars of parts in return for giving you publishable content and site traffic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Toorbat, I'm keen to know everyone's perception so that is good to hear. Indeed, receiving support is just an incredible place to be and I certainly could not run this site without it. But for me to think of it as 'payment' for the time I spend on the site is hard to justify in the long term, especially as I am putting more and more love into it these days.
DeleteMy feeling re. your last point about 'returns' - for the last four years I've given readers free content that I believe is of high quality. So this is me dipping a toe in the water to see if there are those who enjoy the site and have money to spare who are happy to contribute towards me carrying on doing it.
Re. the word 'donate', yes I'm uncertain this is the right word. TBH I simply used the standard button, but could create my own with my own wording. But another person said they quite liked the word donate.
Any more thoughts are appreciated.
hey caperberry.
ReplyDeletelove the site, if i had anything i'd send it along. as such, if you need any help on the backend side, be happy to contribute that way as your site has been an inspiration.
Really cool of you to say that, Fox, thank you!
Delete