qasseia, there is a tip jar on the blog next to the Amazon link on the right..:-)

denamaria, thanks. I think if people begin to grok this as a reality they will get in the habit of putting something in that tip jar. It’s a mindset. It’s a decision you have to make to support something.

I am generally ahead of the curve but I am certain the loss of things we take for granted offline that are disappearing will eventually occur on the internet.

If you pay attention, you can see things changing online. More ads on youtube for example. People are trying to stay in business and so am I.

The fact is this blog is completely unique and I am certain it would be sorely missed for a number of reasons. But I am a faithful person and I do see this as no different than a relationship with a man.

I try to sustain my relationships but if the other person (or in this case people) do not value the thing, it will come apart as this is a law of nature. I’ve got almost 10 years in here but I sure as hell can’t go another 10 without people pitching in. If you think about it, you can see the sense in what I am saying.

Also, the idea someone else will pop up and feel the void is also probably erroneous. It’s like my beloved H-Mart. They are in business but starting a business like they have would be very difficult. I have written for a decade to build this community. It just can’t be done overnight.

Anyway, I am not hanging by a thread or anything and even if I was I wouldn’t tell you. This is as much a routine blog about the trends in the collective as it is personal to me. It’s so simple:

If you don’t shop the store will close and when it is closed it is going to stay closed. In other words, you can’t say “whoops” and have these businesses reopen their doors.

This blog (and the dispatch) is very important to the astrology blogging community at large. There may be 350 astrology blogs but just go take a look at the Dispatch and you will see that a good percentage of the post are either written by me or added manually by me, plus I host the site. Take that energy out of the equation and then what?

I don’t know why more of the bloggers don’t support me as it is the single most important thing that can do (outside of write well) to help themselves.

There is an old bicycling movie out there, they use a phrase (in French I think) that translates to “Get it up and keep it up.”

This is exactly what I am trying to do. This is up, I will try to keep it that way but I am just one little gerbil here and that bears remembering.

I order a lot of books off of Amazon, I hope that’s contributing a little bit on my part. If I was making my own money, I’d def be contributing more. I almost feel like I don’t deserve to read/comment here.

And last, to explain or support my canary in a coal mine analogy I base that on the fact I have almost 10 years of good will built up. That is, I have produced good content with tremendous heart for almost a decade so if people will not support me, how is a start up supposed do any better? How are they going to replicate that? How many people can sustain an effort like this in the first place?

As to the value of this blog, I have had a least 100 people email me over the years to tell me I have saved their life in some way shape or form. That may not be a big deal if I were a published author who had sold a zillion books but I am not.

For the last six years I have been a single mother with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay so whatever this blog is, it is apparently something.

I think these mails are nice, I appreciate them but they obviously don’t pay my bills and I wonder about that sometimes.

The person who has their life changed or save thinks nothing of tipping the waitress $10 for serving dinner but it does not occur to tip me. Well I have served a lot more than dinner, I’d say.

8 years X 365 is roughly 3000 days of writing. If I put up just 3 posts a day (conservative) that is 10,000. 10,000 posts and no tip.

I hope people can see this is a bad habit that ought to be broken. Virtually everyone can do something to help out. Post a link or whatever. Support the damn thing. Support me, I don’t know what else I can say.

Elsa,

I used to love reading Eric Francis’ Planet Waves horoscopes and I recently discovered he’s gone the way of the paid-for horoscopes.
The tides are changing out there, and the age of entitlement is coming to an end.

Well said!

Elsa, I’m looking at exactly the same thing with my low carb site, which has been around since 1999. I resurrected it from the dead and people tell me they appreciate it to no end, which I am glad for. But appreciation doesn’t pay for the bills. Ad revenue has nosedived, and I don’t know how I can both keep it free and keep it going. So I’m scrambling trying to learn more techniques to keep the traffic up and earn more income from the work.