I
have been thinking about making a few changes to the blog over the next month
or two. The main problem is finding the time to roll those things out so that
they might be sustainable. Additionally, there are certain instances where I
have to educate myself as to what the heck I am doing and how certain things
can be done.
The
first change that I am slowly starting to line up is the presence of guest
bloggers. In addition to providing a different perspective and expertise (both
of which are lacking to this point) it will also, in theory, free up some of my
time so that I can pursue some of the logistical aspects of other ideas and put
greater thought into the posts that I would like to focus on. While I am not
going to take anything and everything that is submitted, I welcome submissions
for consideration.
Something
else that I am considering is starting a Patreon campaign to, potentially,
cover some of the costs of the existing themes (i.e. travel, research time,
admission fees, etc.) but also grant me the flexibility to pursue some other
ideas (product reviews, range days, videos, etc.). You may not realize it, but
this endeavor is a costly one at times. While I don’t expect to ever make
anything blogging, it would be nice to break even now and again.
For
those unfamiliar with the site, Patreon is a way for people (patrons) to
support the blog on an ongoing basis based on the amount of content that is
posted. Basically, you can make the commitment to give one dollar per post (you
can also set monthly limits such as ten or twenty dollars). Essentially, I
would only earn support by maintaining production.
Patreon
would also allow me to provide more content (exclusive to partons) which would
largely consist of additional photographs from trips, maybe a few videos, live
chats, and additional content from other projects I am working on. This seems
to be the easiest way for me to leverage the excess of content that never makes
it onto the blog. Of course, I would also try to include a few giveaways now
and again to make things a little more interesting. So, with all that
information, do you think that this is something that is worth pursuing? Would
that be enough to make you interested in becoming a patron?
Lastly,
and I have to figure out the logistics of this one, I am thinking about
implementing permanent ads. While AdSense provides such promotions I actually
have limited control over what is posted. I would much rather invest the time supporting
companies and organizations that I agree with. I consider this the no surprises
ad approach… you know what you are going to see every time you go onto my blog.
Of course this also brings about the challenge of transferring the content to
an actual URL without the blogspot portion of the address (with redirect from
the old URL as well). Definitely something that can be done (and rather easily
by those who know what they are doing) but it is a task that I am ill equipped
to handle. I would greatly appreciate someone willing to donate their time to
this task!
So,
that is the list of things that I am considering at this moment. However, I
would like your feedback as to what you think of those potential changes to the
blog. Is it too much? Am I missing anything? Let me know your thoughts. After
all, you are the ones visiting and reading these daily posts.
