Mail Bag – Not My Responsibility to Support You

I’ll be honest, I really debated over the weekend of whether to publish this Mail Bag article. But at the end, I felt that I needed to do so. If for nothing else, to give some insight into what those of us who run sites like this one deal with on a somewhat regular basis. It is not so David can be publicly shamed (which isn’t their real name – I changed it for this post just in case someone happens to know this person in real life. Because I’m not an ass), but rather to point out that the economics around running USCoinNews.com are real. I take on the responsibility of running it willingly but don’t feel any shame in asking for help.

On Friday of last week, I received a message from David through the About page here on the site. They write,

Hi,

I read your new years article and it is ridiculous. You wish everyone a happy new year then beg for people to buy shit on your site. It is not my responsibility to support you. You figure out how to do it. I hate the ads and I hate your todays deals posts. you should be ashamed to be asking people to spend money with you.

David

So first David, lets be really clear here: I did not beg for people to buy anything from the site. I pointed out that if more people bought from the Today’s Deals articles, it would help me break even. Equally, I pointed out in that post that the goal for the site in 2020, financially, was to break even. I would suggest re-reading the article but, after this post, I seriously doubt you will be back to USCoinNews.com. Indeed, I would encourage you not to return.

Second, you are 100% correct. It is not your responsibility to support the site. It is optional. I do not charge membership fees, or a premium in any way for the site. I support it out of my own pocket, willingly, as well with ads and the Today’s Deal posts. It is my responsibility to pay for keeping things going or, if I can’t, shut things down. Simple as that.

My ask – and it was an ask, not a demand – was that readers help if they want to and can do so.

Third, I did “figure out how to do it”. It’s called adverts and Today’s Deal posts.

Fourth, why should I be ashamed? I run a site that people visit. Is it wrong to monetize it? In my case, is it wrong to ask to break even? I don’t think so and I’m certainly not ashamed of pointing out that people can help by clicking ads and buying from the Today’s Deal posts. I could understand your point to a small degree if I were trying to make a profit. In my case, I’m just trying to break even.

Finally, why did you use the comment section on the About page and not post your comments publicly on the post itself? Surely that would have found people of like mind that also feel the way you do. Instead, you used a private message to me to berate me, my site, and my efforts to keep the virtual lights on. Not cool David. Not. Cool.

So there you go David. I’ve spent enough digital ink on this subject. No I don’t care if you like the answers are not and no, I certainly don’t care if you come back to the site. I do not need visitors like you.

Now, to the rest of you, I will apologize as if you’ve made it this far into this article you probably have tired-head on it. Thanks for reading and thanks for letting me vent a bit. Ultimately it is my responsibility to fund the site – or simply let it die if I can’t. I’ve been running various sites (mostly technology) for 20 years (started in 1998) and there is always a subset of people who just hate what you do. That’s fine, they are certainly entitled to their opinion. But don’t ruin it for the rest of us.