As most of you already know, I’m not a hard sell kind of guy. If you want to read my stuff, great – it’s nice to know that my wife isn’t the only one clicking on my columns. If you don’t want to read it, that’s fine, too. I fully understand my style isn’t going to appeal to everyone.
I also want to be clear that I truly appreciate all of the readers who’ve so generously donated to this journalistic cause. But the problem is those contributions have pretty much dried up at a time when good journalism is becoming an increasingly difficult endeavor. That means, per the masthead above, it really is “crunch time” for me in the sense that I cannot continue to produce two quality columns a week for very little financial return.
We all have bills to pay, right? So, here are my thoughts.
The first is one of my favorite readers has set up a PayPal process where he automatically sends me a certain amount every month and that recurring payment always brings a smile to my face. It’s easy to set that kind of thing up through the “donate” button towards the upper right of The First Ward homepage.
The occasional contribution is also nice.
The second possibility is advertising, which I haven’t advertised nearly as much as I should have. The First Ward does well enough hit-wise that my former business coach told me I could reasonably charge $100 a month for a rotating ad. But I’ll sweeten that introductory pot by offering a $50 introductory monthly rate per unique client.
By “unique” I mean The First Ward will only accept one ad per specific profession, i.e., one civil attorney, one criminal attorney, one carpet cleaner, one theater venue, one auto repair shop, etc. All is takes is a reasonable jpeg file and we’re good to go.
If you’re interested you can always reach out to me at jeffnward@comcast.net.
The bottom line is I’m going to give this labor of love a shot until my official 17th columnist anniversary on May 26, 2023. If the situation stays the same, I may still occasionally contribute to this blog, but I will primarily focus on those writing gigs that provide payment.
Thank you all for your past, current, and continuing support.
We do not want to lose your wit!
Will try to put together and ad program to see what works…for my business.
Don’t give up yet!