Steve 'Flash' JuonIt’s been a while since I’ve talked about the RR Patreon campaign, but that doesn’t mean it has become any less crucial to the website’s success. In fact it has become MORE crucial as the cost of virtually everything has gone up in the last year. You can blame the coronavirus, you can blame the war in Eastern Europe, you can blame the greed of the corporations who supply us the things we need, but you can’t even ignore the high cost of living. Those of you who have already pledged your support keep the lights on around here, but you may not realize just how much you do. I’m going to shed a little light on that situation by inserting a graphic below.
Since we turned off banner ads on RapReviews, there are only two other websites I own that run any kind of rotating ad placements. The graphic shows what routinely happens to me on any given month — I’ll be told that I earned over $100 in ad revenue, then I’ll be hit with over $100 in deductions for “invalid traffic” and left with chump change. Given that ads don’t pay out until you have at least $100 in your account balance, the likelihood of generating any income this way is almost nil. You can get paid once every four months at best. That’s about $300 a year, and that definitely won’t keep the metaphorical lights on. That would be three months of the webhosting alone not counting other operating expenses. What would we do for the other nine months of the year without Patreon? We’d go dark.
If you’re new to this you might be a bit uncomfortable with me asking you to give us a few dollars a month. Look, I get it. I’m uncomfortable asking for it and that’s why I so rarely do it. You’ve got expenses too. Your bills didn’t get any smaller in the last 2-3 years either. Not everyone can afford to contribute, but those who do are keeping the site going for you. Right now you’re reading this because Patreon makes it possible. If the content we provide on a weekly basis has value to you, perhaps you’d like to join the team and support keeping both our extensive back catalogue and our constantly growing supply of reviews, interviews and editorials alive. You’re not just doing it for yourself — you’re doing it to keep independent hip-hop coverage alive and well. There aren’t too many sites like this that aren’t owned by larger media conglomerates that are all about “branding” and their “vertical slices.” We’re not a slice. We give you the whole pie. Maybe you can break us off a little cream in return. Thanks for reading.