Guess what! I’m broke, and the economy sucks! What else is new! Here’s a question- would you pay to read my blog? If I made the posts password-protected, and charged like $10 through paypal for a six-month subscription to access them, and promised to write you an exciting or overly-personal story three times a week, would you get mad and curse the ground I walked on, and swear out loud that the last vestiges of good free and honest writing had all gone to hell, and smash your computer screen with a tire-iron- or would you pay to read my blog? Consider! This shit is hard and I need to pay the rent!
Comments, please! This is only an idea and I really need your feedback, dear readers!
And one hundred buckets of thanks for your responses so far! Your answers are endlessly fascinating to me- what is worth money, and how much do we have? What is worth anything, and what would we pay for it? How broke are we all, spiritually or otherwise?
CARROT QUINN 
I wouldn’t pay to read. E.F.S. – extreme financial stress – seems to be almost pandemic.
I would wish you luck though.
Hello! I love your blog, but I have never commented before.
I wouldn’t mind paying for extras, but I think there needs to be some (maybe even most) stuff that remains free. For one thing, how else would new readers know they wanted to pay you?
One blog I read tells people what he will post if they donate enough money. (he doesn’t say what he has set his target as). He then posts in proportion to the amount he gets, so if he gets 1/2 his target he posts half the pictures. I don’t know how that would work with writing though…
I would absolutely pay to read your blog. I’m a city living nature loving insomniac writer and although I don’t know you from Adam, the stuff you write usually makes 250% more sense to me (and thereby makes me feel more sensical) than any other world stuff (i.e. stuff to read, watch, do, etc. on the internet and other media).
it’s all very well and good to want to live an avant-garde gift economy or something, but we don’t. charge for that shit! it’s beyond worth it.
I would at $5 or under. Over that I couldn’t justify it
The Survey:
1. No, I wouldn’t pay to read it.
2. Yes I wouls smash my computer and rail at the heavens that this wonderful stuff was no longer to be had.
Oh, and one other thing:
Would you pay yo read mine? No, huh?
So what makes you think you have the corner on it being hard? It is no easier than your book or my book.
I saw something on Craigs list that said that they would pay $1 a blog. And there is having ads on your page.
Well I love reading your blog and as a fellow traveler I am also broke so… However if I had more than $9 to my name I think I would pay $5 a month for it.
I say charge the $5 for it except for me.
I’m sorry but I only make 80 dollars a month and I dont think I could afford the money. I love your blog and I look forward to it every morning so please don’t charge any money.
Yes, yes, yes! This is so helpful and wonderful! And fascinating, too! What is a blog worth? What are you worth? What is any of us worth? We’re poor! Things are priceless! Nobody has any money! We’re rich! We’re rich!
It’s an interesting question, carrot…at $10 for 6 months reading, that’s less than $2 per month so almost anyone could afford it, however marginal they might be.
Or were you meaning $10 per month for six months?
I’d do the first one but not the second…
Here’s what I’d do.
I wouldn’t pay for it (or ANY blog, newspaper, or magazine) and then see if or how much I missed it.
I would pay to read your blog. You’re working on a book, right? Are you familiar with Tao Lin? Maybe you could sell “shares” of your work like he does. I have mixed feelings about selling pre-published work but I firmly believe that creativity is best sustained by innovation.
I love to read what you write. You have a fresh, interesting, authentic and engaging voice. You could definitely make some dough doing freelance blogging.
Or why don’t you make a zine? I know there are the upfront costs of printing it, but you could make something pretty cool in b/w. Sell them off your blog, sell them to Powell’s and In Other Words etc???
I’m waiting for you to come out with a book – I would buy that for sure.
i dont know about paying… i say send samples of your work to blogs such as jezebel, travel blogs, etc, and i’m sure you will find some are willing to pay for your posts. plus, you’ll reach a wider audience. have you sent samples of your work to any alternative press newspapers and mags? they are always looking for articles.
I wouldn’t pay (meaning that I might pay, but under duress). If you charge money, the perception could be that you feel an obligation to write. Your shit’s better for being free.
I think you should try the postcard scam that I invented (see the top of my blog). Postcards from a cool girl like you could get $5 each. That way people can pay what they want (or nothing). It’s like offering “premium content” mailed directly. It’s a good idea, so please steal it.
I’d be more likely to drop $5 to show support than I would be to pay $10 (or even $5) if I feel strong-armed.
Password protection = less people spreading your cool free shit by word of mouth.
Donations only. I hope that works, dude.
hey,
I’ve been reading your blog for a long time too but never had the courage to comment.
Don’t charge for this blog. I say the whole point of blogs is that they’re free. People give you a glimpse into their lives through a platform that allows them to say and do whatever they want. No expectations either way. I’ve noticed that when bloggers become aware of their audiences then the style of the writing and posts changes and not always for the better.
Once you start being paid to do this it becomes different….three personal stories a week, on demand? What if I think they’re not good enough? Or personal enough? Refund. What if you don’t? Writers block. Or what if you just want to tell us about a recipe? I don’t want to pay for a recipe, even if I know you, the person whose lifestyle I paid to see, cooked it.
At a quick count I’ve got 93 blogs on my list and I look at them all regularly. I came to you from Hobostripper (may she live forever) and came to her from Wide Lawns, Narrow Minds.
Go and look at SoVeryAlone.com Or Traumaqueen.net Or PrivateSecretDiary.com
http://iseeclearly.blogspot.com/
http://reluctantmemsahib.wordpress.com/
http://betedejour.blogspot.com/
http://elysesewell.livejournal.com/
http://mindriddles.blogspot.com/
http://overnighteditor.typepad.com/theovernighteditor/
http://www.unphotographable.com/
wow, i got completely carried away then… Anyway, I couldn’t afford to give all these people money and your content is no more or less important to me than theirs.
Blogs are little windows into other peoples lives and I glance between them like a commuter on a train journey. Flick, flick, flick. Tableau follows tableau. I float through the internet and only stop when I like the writing style. But the writing is only part of why I return, mostly I come back to see what people are doing.
Hope this all makes sense. I like the way you write and if you do write a book I’ll probably buy it, you’ve got a good voice. But blogs are free. Free!
Hey Carrot,
this shit IS hard. i use to strongly advocate my artists friends to price their work at a living wage. but my friends and peer group really doesn’t want/ can’t drop cash for art.
it sounds like a lot of your fan base really doesn’t have the cash to pay for a subscription blog. i think that a chunk of my peer group doesn’t have money and chunk pretend they don’t have money and pretty much none of them can justify spending money on art.
I never really priced work out at a living wage because i knew no one would ever buy it. but my standard of how-much-can-i-sell-this-for-and-not-feel-ripped-off continues to drop. i want my works to be out in the world, i want people to be enjoying them, that and i don’t want to have to pay to store all of this shit i’ve made.
so i don’t know what to say, because i want you to get paid to share your critiques, humorous incites, antidotes and emotional interior with us. and i dont think it is going to happen, at least not like this right now.
can i send you a drawing?
❤
tUESDAY!
My goodness I was just thinking of you this morning, I swear! I was like- I hear that Tuesday reads my blog, I wonder why she never comments? and then there you are.
Yes, it’s true, this blog does not equal money. That’s ok- I’ve accepted the long hard road to Living Off My Writing, and here I am just at the beginning of it. So.
I would love to have one of your drawings. Where do you put them, after you make them? How do you distro them? Wanting to make art but also having to live = hard!
This design is incredible! You definitely know how to keep
a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos,I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Fantastic job.
I really loved what you had to say, and more than that,
how you presented it. Too cool!