As many of you have seen, there is an Update already, though it’s a specific one, and it’s about money. If you don’t get the emails or follow any of our socials, here is the update for you as well.
A general note before the ramble. I actually posted this a few days ago in a few other places, and was hesitant to mail this out for some reason. Since then, I’ve actually gotten a ton of positive feedback, and even a few more subscribers and Patreons at that. So I’m just going to release it here, also, you’ll likely get an Activity Packet update today too if you’re also subscribed to that email chain. Just wanted to let you know.
Buckle up, this is going to be long. As I said way back when in an earlier update, I was going to lay out the actual costs and such of what I do, and I have done it finally. As always in my dedication to remaining transparent with everyone holds fast, which is why this is soo long. Honestly, if you don’t care, you don’t have to read it, it won’t hurt my feelings. If you do care, then read on. And as always, any support is helpful, and appreciated.
Yeah, this isn’t a new year new us post. It is however a “New Year New Info” post I guess. As I have said a few times last year, I want to be more transparent with everyone about NLLB, not that I’m not transparent enough really. This is specifically about money though. And no, I’m not here to badger everyone, just lay it out on the table so everyone is on the same page.
As many of you may know, I do this because I want to, and I believe in the mission I have set forward for myself. That being said, I pay for everything out of my own pocket. And as I’ve been talking about it for a while in other updates, I’ve finally gotten around to putting it all out on paper. So, all the hard costs, ie those things I can actually put a price tag on, such as software/hardware for the website/hosting, tools used, etc I now have a price. Just to function it’s $65 a month. This is of course averaged monthly, some things I use are paid by the year, and some things vary a bit month to month on price, but the average cost, rounded up about $1 comes to $65 a month. So all and all, not too bad. However, that’s just the start…
What that $65 a month doesn’t count? First off, my time. It’s hard to put a price on time, but just figuring right now how many hours I spend on this a month, calculating it at my $16 I get right now for my day job, not counting “overtime” would be around $1,920 a month. Yeah, I spend a decent amount of my “down time” working on this. Now add to that, like the IRS likes you to do, a fraction of what I spend on internet and electricity per month since it’s a “home office” that adds another $90 a month. Then add in the stuff I spend sometimes making the crafts so I know they are easy to do, and sometimes I like to show off pictures (when I have the time of course), let’s say adds another $50 a month, and then the baking supplies on top of that, since all the recipes I do for you all are ones I have made myself, cause I am just like that, we’ll say adds another $50 a month to my cost of just doing what I do.
So, total we’re looking at $2,175 a month in time and actual expense. If we’re just looking at hard $’s coming out of my wallet though to do this it’s much lower of course at $225 a month. Let’s be honest, I love doing this, and love providing everyone here with the content I publish. But some months it’s easier than others. Right now the entire revenue stream for NLLB is the ads on the site, and donations/subscriptions from people like you, which right now adds up to a total (averaged) of $1.15 a month, which is a whole whopping 1.78% of the monthly cost of just keeping the site and stuff online. It’s 0.51% of that $225 up there, and we won’t even calculate it against the “total” cost of the entire project.
With all that being said, I have some ideas/options. They ads on the site are helping, they at least have some kind of positive income stream, even if it is a trickle. But I’ve been wanting to add a few more ads, this time “sponsored/affiliate” ads. Where I go to a specific place and say hey, I’d love to run your ads on my site. Like places that sell stuffed animals, or places that sell specifically to the DDLG community. Those often mean though that I only get money from the ad when someone clicks on it and buys something. So that means I need all of you lovely people to know I have those ads, and then use my links to buy things so I can get a small percentage of the sale. The other thought I had was to sign up for an Amazon Affiliate account. Same premise, but I would have an actual “store” on amazon that I can pick things to list, and if you peeps want it, then you buy it though me and I get a percentage of that sale. That means a few things, one I can tailor my “store” to the people shopping there, which is nice and I know there are tons of ddlg things on amazon. However, it also means I have to make a minimum sales number. I checked their site, and it’s something like an average of 1 sale every 2 weeks. Right now we don’t have a big enough following, or enough site traffic to really do either of those options. So our only income stream right now is site ads, which is super small, and donations/subscriptions which is 0 right now. We have a Patreon but with only 25-30 people who actually use the site and/or get the activity packet, it’s not a huge amount of people who would be likely to donate/subscribe for little to no perks right now. It’s not impossible, if everyone getting the activity packet every month subscribed on Patreon for even $1, it would cover about half the normal costs for just staying running. And those are just the people I can track, who have signed up for the Email list for the Activity Packet, that’s not counting those who get it from here and don’t sign up, and it doesn’t count those who get it from one of the discord servers I post it on.
Now, to be fair, I get asked a lot “how much do you charge for this” and my answer is always, and will always be, it’s free. That feels almost like gatekeeping to me. I am not going to limit someone’s access to this packet, or the NLLB resource as a whole, just cause they can’t afford it, or have no easy way to pay for it. That’s why it’s free, will always be free, and will only be supported by people who choose to give us money, for example the Patreon. That being said, there are eventually things that I plan to sell, like a notebook/journal that’s just for littles, a yearly calendar that you can color in as you go, things like that. There are also many other things in the works right now that will make supporting us even better, and let anyone who supports us get more “back” for their bucks. I also plan, when there is enough money flowing in, to do monthly drawings for those people who are supporting us, that way you feel included. But that’s when we start making over $100 a month, and we’re a ways away from that right now.
I feel like I’ve been rambling a bit, but It’s part of being transparent to me. I don’t hide anything from my supporters, and when you like what I do, and share it with your friends, you’re supporting us, and you deserve to know what’s going on. The only time I hide things from you is when I have a surprise planned, like the project I’m currently working on now. The only things I will tell you about that is you may want to dust off your stuffies and make sure you have them all ready for their photos! But I’m not here to tease about upcoming projects, I’m here to lay out the numbers, and I think I have done that. Honestly, I’ve likely missed some smaller things as well, and as we all know those small things add up, lol. But I’m sure this isn’t a comprehensive list of the costs of running NLLB, that’s also not counting the things I’d like to buy/have, like an actual subscription to MailChimp so I can schedule these emails instead of having to remember to push the button. Small things like that, but again, they add up. You all get the point I’m sure, lol.
As always stay safe, and stay loved everyone, and I hope you have a great start to a new year!
