I’ve been following a a twitter dialogue concerning my friend, godless_mom. Yes, I consider her a friend and I think it’s mutual. I’m a conservative, she’s far, far from me, but it’s interesting that we agree on many things. The dialogue she’s been having with some people online is about her blog posts, which you may view here. She asks for support, via Patreon because, and I know this, writing a blog takes time, and time is money. Depending on the post, it may take several hours to research, then compose. I’ve been there. posts like this one? Well, not much research and kind of off-the-top-of-my-head.

I have though spent a few hours researching a topic I want to discuss, and then, to try and get it right – as much as I can – spend a few more hours writing. It doesn’t have to be a long, involved post, but it’s how the point that is being made is presented. Editing, editing, editing. then, just when you think you have it right, publish to the web only to discover as soon as you’ve done that, you’ve committed the ultimate offense of having one or two typos that you didn’t see during the process. Grammatical  errors that I make almost drive me to madness. I wasn’t in a hurry, I just didn’t see them. So yes, it takes time to do what I refer to as a hobby. I don’t get paid for it but what if I want to be paid? Would that be so bad?

According to some, yes. Content should be free. I wish they would say the same to The Washington Post, or The New York Times\ (to name just two), who give viewers a few free views per month but them require readers to pay for a subscription. Even my home newspaper, which probably has a circulation of maybe 20,000, requires a subscription to read any article online past the first paragraph. But if you blog, and are trying to make just a little for your effort, somehow that’s bad.

I would love to start a Patreon to receive donations. I have an account, and yes, I support Courtney (godless_mom) but I doubt, based on my readership that it would amount to much, if anything. For me, it’s not worth it but I have to say that yes, it’s been a consideration in the past. What’s the problem of receiving a few dollars a month for my effort? Does anyone go to work and tell their boss, “Hey, today is a freebee”? Yeah. No.

We nee to view independent creators in the same way we view “professionals”. I put that in quotes because most, if not all independent creators I am aware of are professional and probably spend more time on their content than any major news outlet on the planet. I’m not exaggerating and all and all I People put in what I call swat equity is that you visit the blogs, the YouTube accounts of just a few, to determine for yourself.

People put in what I call sweat equity to provide what they hope is not just entertaining content, but informative as well. Asking for contributions to provide that content doesn’t mean that the person asking is a money grubber, or anything else. Besides, in most cases, you’re not required to pay, the creator is just asking for a little help. Is that so horrible?