It’s time to pay the bills and meet financial obligations, so the seasonal fund drive is once again upon The Spearhead. Fortunately, last season saw The Spearhead make a significant jump in traffic and rank, following a low-key summer. September through December was particularly impressive, as daily unique visitors rose by some 35% and Alexa rank dropped to well under 100,000 for the month of December, during which The Spearhead had several days of unprecedented traffic and reach, and received an all-time high of 77,000 unique visitors for the month. Although things have calmed down in the last few weeks, daily unique visits remain over 3,000 for most weekdays, which is a large increase from six months ago, when 2,500 would have been a remarkable day in any given week.
About 1,500 people are accessing the site every day via RSS, and roughly the same number are visiting the site on a daily basis, which means we have about 3,000 people who are loyal, daily readers of the site’s content. Many times more than that are occasional readers, and only about 40% of visitors bounce, so it can safely be assumed that the number of people who read and appreciate what The Spearhead has to offer is somewhere in the low tens of thousands. My estimate, based on watching the numbers since the site’s inception, would be that around 15-20,000 people are familiar with the site and visit more often than once a month.
Although that isn’t a huge number, it’s fairly significant. The Spearhead has earned an international readership, and its influence is starting to be felt by more mainstream publications as readers post links and discuss men’s issues online and in other forms of media. In fact, just this morning I noticed in the traffic logs that someone was checking out The Spearhead from the NY Times admin community, most likely to investigate a link someone posted in a comment. This is really how it works — when people start talking about things others start checking them out, impressions are made, they are brought up again, and interest grows.
However, maintaining a steady flow of content, keeping a handle on the trends, editing, scheduling and writing all take work. Keeping an eye on the server and software, making updates and fixing bugs takes work. Moderating and approving comments, fetching comments mistakenly sent to the spam folder, and deleting duplicates is time-consuming. To put it simply, running the site is a real job. Fortunately, it’s a rewarding job, and it appears to be making a difference. However, it isn’t all that lucrative. The internet makes information all the more accessible, but in setting such low barriers to the dissemination of information, it also makes it considerably more difficult to profit from it without making it any easier to produce quality content.
Although I expect to start drawing some income again from ads through Blogads (the link to purchase ads is on the upper left sidebar as well as Blogads’ ad sales page), as a natural skeptic, I’m not the most effective salesman. One thing The Spearhead could really use is an ad agent of some sort. If I could find a “blog agent” or the like, I’d love to hear from him.
Another potential income source is our own publications. I’ve been meaning to put one out since last spring, but I’d have to take at least a week off the site to put one together, and I’ve been loathe to even spend one day without putting some work into The Spearhead. It’s become a fairly consuming job, and I’ve found a degree of fulfillment in writing for appreciative readers and posting the great content offered by authors and guest posters. But as much as I like running this site and doing this job, reality intrudes when I get the bills and have to deal all the ordinary expenses of life, so support from readers is crucial.
Each time I’ve asked for donations people have come through, some with a great deal of generosity and kindness. All of us who appreciate The Spearhead, from readers to contributors, owe them gratitude, because without this support the site would have to be abandoned or significantly diminished. If that were to happen now, right on the cusp of the awakening to the fact that something is gravely amiss in society where sexual politics is concerned, it would be a real shame. One of the unique things about The Spearhead is that it bridges the gap between the first generation of men who dealt with the effects of gender politics and the young men who are just starting out in life and having to face the ugly truth. In that sense, it offers some much-needed continuity; a generational transfer of knowledge that’s been sorely lacking in our largely fatherless society.
So far, the site has been a success. At just a few months over a year old, it’s still a baby in relative terms, and still fragile, but with some perseverance and a little bit of luck it should be going strong for some time. As traffic grows and more people take notice, it should eventually become self-sustaining, but for now support from readers is crucial in allowing me to keep the site running and keep the content flowing.
I’d like to thank everyone involved, including readers, authors and online activists spreading the word. We’ve done something remarkable in achieving such a high degree of interest in a subject people have been sweeping under the carpet for years, and as recent events demonstrate, the discussion is just beginning to burst out into the open.
Please help keep The Spearhead going strong — all donations are appreciated.
Paypal:
Mail check or money order to:
Price Content
PO Box 28282
Seattle WA 98118
