Hello, everyone! I have an important announcement, which is that I have now created a Patreon page. If you would like to support me and my blog, you can become a patron. I only have one tier for now, which is for a regular donation of three dollars a month. I do not currently offer any benefits for becoming a patron. I may decide to offer some benefits of some kind at some point in the future, but, for now at least, I’m still trying to figure out how this whole system works, and I still don’t really know what kinds of benefits for patrons would be simultaneously practical for me to offer and desirable for patrons.
You can become a patron if you want to, but don’t feel like you have to. I plan to continue posting articles on this blog that everyone can read for free, exactly as I have been doing for the past five years. It is very important to me that my writing is accessible to as many people as possible, so I am not going to put any of my articles behind a paywall.
My reasons for starting a Patreon
Here I would like to briefly explain my reasons for starting a Patreon.
In purely monetary terms, this blog isn’t making nearly enough profit to compensate the amount of time I spend on it. The amount of time I devote to this blog is basically equivalent to a full-time job. I regularly spend more than thirty hours a week researching, writing, and revising articles for this blog.
Currently, all the money I make off this blog comes exclusively from ad revenues, which are substantial, but not nearly enough to compensate the amount of time I put in. December 2021 was an extremely good month and the blog only brought in a grand total of $393.50 for the whole month. I probably spent somewhere in the realm of 150 hours researching, writing, and revising various articles over the course of the month. This means I was probably making about $2.60 per hour that I spent working.
So far, I’ve been able to afford this because this blog is a labor of love, I am an undergraduate student, and my parents are supporting me financially. This situation, however, may soon change. If this next semester goes as expected, I will be graduating from Indiana University Bloomington in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in history and classical studies (Latin/Greek), with honors in history. I have applied to four different ancient history PhD programs, and I am planning to apply to at least one terminal MA program as a backup plan. I will most likely not find out if I have been accepted to any of these programs until March at the very earliest.
Although my parents are still willing to support me after I graduate to whatever extent is necessary, they are pushing for me to become more self-sufficient, and they have given indications that they expect me to pay for a larger share of my own expenses after I graduate. I therefore figure that, if there are ways that I can make more money off this blog, then I should pursue them.
I know that there are people out there who have been wanting for a long time to be able to donate money to support this blog. Since I started this blog, at least several dozen people have suggested to me at various points that I should set up some kind of system for people to donate money. Various people have even said things to the effect that, if I set up a Patreon, they would want to be my first patron.
Within the past month, a person contacted me completely unprompted specifically in order to ask how he might be able to donate money to support my blog. I was forced to tell him that, at the time, I didn’t really have any system by which people could donate.
Now, though, I do have a system, for those who may wish to use it.
Frequently reading the articles, and knowing myself how labored and time consuming is to write a well-researched dignified article of several pages, I have wondered how do you financially manage this arduous task. I thought you are perhaps paid by Quora, but your answers there remain open.
So this choice is worth, since it will provide financial, and thus also intellectual independence.
Thank you so much for your support! Any amount of support means a lot.
Sadly, I am not paid by Quora, nor do I make any money off the content I write on Quora. Quora does have a way that writers on the site can make money, but it requires putting one’s writing behind a paywall, which is something that I adamantly refuse to do. Currently, the ad revenues on this website are my only stable source of personal income.
Joined!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support!
Hope you gain some success off it.
Very happy to join! The work you do and the passion you have for it–both are much needed in the world today.
Thank you so much! I greatly appreciate your support and encouragement.
Dear Mr. McDaniel,
congratulations.
Your work is f a s c i n a t i n g – and exceptionally well-researched.
Thank you Very Much!
God bless you
(Our Lord doesn’t mind if you don’t believe in Him – He believes in you. Obviously 😉
your very impressed fan
Gerrit-Willem Oberman