the business details. (in which I present ways you can help me.)

Well.

I’ve been trying this Amazon link thing somewhat subtlety for the past year or so.

It’s been working …… like …….. meh.  I mean, it’s not steady by any means.  Some months my kickback is zero.  Some months it’s a whooping twenty dollars.  Around Christmas it creeped up a little higher for a fun month or two.

I know it’s hard to remember to click through this website before you order your birthday presents and your mascara and your ice cream maker.

I’ve probably made a total of about $200 – in seventeen months.

Not exactly a steady revenue source – eh?

And that’s alright.  Obviously.

I was mostly experimenting, on a slow search to create an income of sorts flowing from this blog.

I’m still on the search.

Only I’m trying a little more deliberately now with a bit more concentrated effort.

Less like syrup up a hill and more like ketchup squeezed by Bergen.

Does that paint a clear picture?

I don’t care to have ads that I cannot completely control careening across the top of the page.  (But I am looking into some ad options that are more acceptable to me.)

I don’t really want weird pop up links in the body of my posts and I don’t want to sell out – whatever that means to me or to anyone else.

What I do want is to keep writing words.

Which takes time.

And I’d like those words and that time to come close to being paid for.  To being profitable for more than just my love of words.

I’m using what time I can carve out between not sleeping at night and homeschooling five kids and coping with the fact that this month I become a (gasp!) grandmother, to explore writing ideas and avenues and profit making ventures that pair well with my skill set and interests.

Recently I was excited to become a contributor for a local website – Kidding Around Greenville – where you will begin to see articles from me a few times each month about local opportunities and adventures with kids.  (I’ve written one piece about my favorite local poet – Carl Sandburg.  Soon I should have a piece about our favorite local kids’ museum – Hands On!)

I also created a space on a website called Patreon.  Of which I had never heard of until my friend told me about it.  It’s basically just like Kickstarter, but a funding of the arts on a more continual basis as opposed to a one-time-project basis.  You contribute a monthly amount or a one-time amount for a specific post you’d like to see me write.

I am, frankly, feeling a little conflicted about the entire thing.

But it exists for the moment.  My Patreon page.

A page where I do kind of what I do here – only with more specific intentions to earn money for particular topics and posts.

Feel free to visit the website.  To sign up for being a patron.  To request a specific post.  (Honestly – I’m hoping at least one person tries it out so I can see how this process actually works.  I guess I should bribe my dad or something to be my guinea pig for this project.)

And – hey – in case you don’t want to mess with clicking to another website to read more of what I write, I’ve added the basic PayPal button at the top of the right sidebar there.  (And by “I” I actually mean my friend helped me to add the PayPal link.)  Forget buying stuff at Amazon friends.  Just go directly to Paypal and make a contribution to SoEveryDay so I can keep writing daily blog posts.  No middle man there.  Just you and me – high-fiving across the internet.

 Okay friends.

Thanks for pushing through this long post about the details of stuff that just sometimes needs to be discussed.  Like a fireside family chat.  Without the fire.  And the tea.  And the desserts.  So – like a terribly executed fireside chat.