Friday, October 5, 2012

8 inch Santa Plate Scroll Saw Pattern.

I want to take a little of your time to talk about some changes I may have to make to the blog. First a little background. My blog is hosted by Google Blogger. Google handles the back end of things including sending out the Email Newsletter. I also use Google Adsense to generate revenue from ads placed on the blog and in the email newsletter. I know a lot of people hate the ads but they are what allows people like me to generate free content. Without the ads there would probably not be a Scrollsaw Workshop Blog.

The changes I am having to think about are to the Email Newsletter. Everyday when I write a blog post, Google wraps that post up into an email and sends it out to the 15,000 subscribers to my blog. While this takes place they also insert an ad into the email. These email newsletter ads produce a significant amount of the money I use to keep the blog running. I receive the money to run the blog from three different places. Google Ads, donations and the few things I sell on the blog. This has worked out well enough to pay for the upkeep of the blog and make me enough extra cash to keep me motivated.

Here is why I may have to make changes the the Email Newsletter. Google will discontinue placing ads in the email feed on December 3. They will continue to place ads on the Blog. If my readers only receive the Newsletter and never visit the blog all the revenue is gone. Without that ad revenue it will make it much tougher to keep the blog as active as it is now.

These are the changes I am thinking about at this point. They may change.

I can try to find other ad placement services to insert into the email Newsletter. That is the most likely.

I can make the newsletter only show the picture of the free pattern and have a link to the blog where you can visit and download the free pattern. This would drive traffic to the blog where the ads are.

I can do away with the Email Newsletter and hope that everyone enjoys the free patterns enough that they will visit the blog everyday and download the patterns from the daily content section. Remember the newsletter is just a copy of the daily blog post. This option is the last on my list because I know so many people prefer the Newsletter over visiting the blog. It's just easier for you.

I'm letting you all know about these possible changes so when you see them you won't be surprised. There is one thing that will not change. The daily patterns will always be free. I may have to ask that you do a little more than just open your email to access them but they will continue to be free.  

I want you all to know how much I appreciate the support you give to my blog. I will do everything in my power to keep the changes as minimal as possible.
 
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