Why Buy Me A Coffee?

Having a random ad targeted at me between every paragraph in a blog post is distracting. Pop ups that play video are even more annoying and sometimes they trigger my migraines. The relentlessness of intrusive advertising on some websites makes it so onerous to read the content I came there for I have to abandon it altogether.

Boo!

I don’t blame bloggers and artists for this. Most of them genuinely love writing and sharing their particular expertise. Like most creators though, they need to have multiple revenue streams to make a living and hosting advertisements is one of the most well known ways to do that. There is a myth that it will bring in a lot of extra revenue without a lot of extra work.

Ahh!

I firmly believe that extra work is best put into things that directly relate to what I’m actually doing. Since I’m an artist selling art and creating content related to the creation of art, it’s counterproductive for me to spend hours covering my website in advertisements that will take you somewhere else to purchase something that I’ll make an average of $1.35 from.

This Is Your Wizard On Caffeine.

Google AdSense pays somewhere between 20 cents and $2.50 per 1000 views. One THOUSAND views! One person “Buying Me A Coffee” is worth 3,800 people viewing a distracting ad that has nothing to do with what I’m talking about or selling.

Whoooo are you?

I suspect that this silly situation arose because it’s generally considered in bad taste to be up front about the need to be paid for your work. This is especially true for artists of all kinds and has been for a long time. There is an increasing disgruntlement among creators about the expectation to create high quality free content in ever changing formats on platforms that make it very difficult to ever see any payment for their work.

Never drink a coffee bigger than your Wizard.

I know I’m not alone in my wish for a different way of doing things. Subscription services for ad-free newsletters and artist patronage are available and growing. “Buy Me A Coffee” is the one I’ve landed on for now. The website allows for things that I’m excited to offer in the future like memberships but I like that it can be a one time thing. All the little subscriptions we have can really add up. I like that you don’t have to commit to ongoing support in order to offer some appreciation in the moment. I trust that if I provide good content, enough people will choose to “Buy Me A Coffee” and I’ll be able to maintain my purity of mission, which is to be an artist.

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