How You Can Help

This is an uncomfortable post for me to write but because of questions asked, I feel I need to.   (And yes, I know there's a lot more important things going on in the world at large but this affects our little world and my peeps are part of my world.)  I've made no bones about our current situation on the job front and that our reality is chaos waits for us on the daily in various forms.  For those who say "just get another job" after a long career 1) you clearly haven't tried to do that within the past five years and 2) consume a satchel of Richards on your way to empathy school.  

I've had a handful of sweet long time readers reach out wanting to give back to us in our time of uncertainty.  While we politely declined, we were beyond touched at the gestures to the point of tears.  The Mr regularly tells me we've got "good people" in our little community and I couldn't agree more.   We're not at that point yet where we'd even consider it so I'll consider that a blessing.   Most of you guys have been with me from the Sparkpeople days.  You've been there through our triumphs, trips and troubles.  We've laughed, cried and cheered together.  I know I'm not a positive person with a slathering of cynicism and that can be a turn off.  So the fact I have anyone here at all is still a miracle to me and when y'all comment, I can't tell you the joy it brings!

Do you know who actually doesn't like my cynical attitude, sailor mouth and tell it like it is approach?  Sponsors.  I've had ONE brand partnership post with Stayfree pads like 10+ years ago.  I might've made $50 to pay for my hosting for almost 2 years at that time.  I am annoyed by the barrage of multiple ads, videos and pop ups a plenty on other sites so I've chosen not to go that route because I feel it would drive people away.  It drives me away from other sites!  I also don't like newsletters and asking for people's private info to send it.  I also say those things like I have a choice.  My awesome audience is a very small amount of people and I like it that way.  I'm talking these days I'm barely scraping 550 followers which technically doesn't qualify me as a blogger in the business world.  Literally someone can sign up to do a new blog and hit that number within a month or two.  Those numbers matter to potential advertisers and I can't even open an Amazon storefront I used to have, sorry, "influencer account" 🙄 because they changed the rules on that once the term influencer became ubiquitous and barf worthy.  That's right, I was kicked out of my own store!!   I also tried Google ads which has a low bar for letting riff raff like me in but I know those ads can be invasive and I hated doing them.  About 18 months ago after it took me over a year to reach their minimum pay threshold of $100, they suspended my account.  Now this happened twice before, I was always able to go back through and reverify whatever got booted out after they probably pushed an update overnight.  I tried the usual suspects, nothing.  I have gone through every avenue to try to resolve it but to no avail.  I have $28.41 owed to me and you would not believe the stories of this happening to lil bloggers like me where you're owed money, they suspend you after your first payout and that's that.  Do you know who helps you when that happens?  No one.  It's an FAQ page and if you need more help, you have to go to the forums where other frustrated users try to tell you what worked for them.  There is no phone, no chat not a single luxury.  So that money I earned, I will never see and all I can think of now is that would cover 1/3 of my yearly blogging costs which is triple what it used to be.

So the only thing I can actually qualify for are Amazon links.  That is the little blue underlined text you see in my paragraphs sometimes.  How does that work?  You click it to see what the hell I'm yammering about now and say "that's a cool item!  She uses it, I think I'll buy it" and if it ships and you keep it, I will get anywhere from the usual 3-7 cents or if you buy something over $100 through my link I might get a whole dollar!!  Try to contain your envy.   Ten years ago, I could count on no less than $20/mo but usually closer to $40 from that resource which paid for five domains.  Over the years, there have been add-ons out of my control that double that cost.  I just had to scrap three of those domains.   In addition, I am now lucky if I can make $20 per YEAR through Amazon links.  That is 1/3 of what it costs for me to keep this "free" blogger blog open.  (That blogspot in the url does me no favors in sponsors eyes, they think you're not serious.)

Now, the past month, at current writing I've made zero.  Not even two virtual pennies to rub together.  There are clicks but no one is buying and I get it for two reasons.  1) Times are tough and 2) that place is seen as the enemy now.  I so understand not wanting to make the rich richer and I'm sure I'm not supposed to say that but it also effects the pip squeak bloggers like me who have no other resources because we're not looked at as good investments.  For those of you who say, "I wasn't interested in what you were talking about after I clicked your link"- here's the thing.  If you're like "well I'm already on Amazon, I need new razors, dog treats, a card for my honey, a new grill cover" THOSE clicks will earn me a shekel!  No, not at as high of a rate as the glorious three pennies to one dollar but it counts.

Bottom line is, I haven't made money here for well over five years to cover anything past my expenses and I've been fine eating the costs as they're calorie free and I kinda like y'all.  😉  But if I don't start getting sales through those clicks, I'm probably going to have to shut it down next year.  I don't want to, I love hanging with you guys!!  I'm crying at the thought as I need this place to keep a level of sanity.  I hate even saying it because it's embarrassing and hits my failure trigger hard.  A 12 year old makes more than I do on this platform but I'm trying to be honest about how this works for some of us.  No, it's not a huge expense in the scheme of things, but in having to start looking at all expenses recently and seeing that on this track, I will not come close to breaking even like years past was sobering.

So if you could do me this favor.  If you have to go on Amazon for ANYTHING, please consider coming back to one of my posts first, clicking on the blue link in most of my posts and letting that take you to Amazon.  If you do your search from there, I should get a few pennies.  It's uncomfortable to ask but I've also never not had a single sale in one month.   

For full transparency, this is what I made from Amazon last year.

Just under $52 which just covered my expenses.   This year so far at current writing?

 

Not even $3 yet.  

So that would be the reason for this post.  

If you have ever been inspired by, laughed with/at or grieved with me, been touched by our hardship when working on our marriage, recoiled in horror at our renovation stories then that is how you can help us now.  

Go shopping.  (Just click one of my links first!)

😆

Okay byeeee!

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