Previous Site Maintenance

Balloon Juice went ad-free nearly 4 year ago, and I know that I am not the only one who is really happy we did that.

Can we take a quick trip down memory lane so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel?

2021

If you’re the guy whose name is on all the bills, ditching the ads and losing $1,000 a month would have to feel a bit like jumping off a cliff without a net.

So here’s what it will take for me to feel good about having asked John Cole to do just that:

– $6,000 in one-time donations now – that would sit in an account, unused, as a safety net, to take the uncertainty out of the equation for Cole.

– no subscriptions, just recurring donations every month from those who can afford it, to pay for hosting and subscriptions etc.

– we need about $1,000 in recurring donations every month for that.

Safety net

Having the safety net has already helpful, but it’s been a long time since we’ve had a site fundraiser and for various reasons we have been whittling away at the safety net rather than putting up a site fundraising post.

So it would be super helpful if we could put some money back into the safety net, with one-time donations.

You can donate to the safety net with Patreon, Venmo, Zelle, and paper check.  Even PayPal if that’s your preference, but please mark it as personal / gift and not payment for services.

Monthly expenses

We need about $1,000 in recurring monthly donations for the monthly expenses.   Same donation options –  Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, and paper check – except I think Patreon doesn’t allow one-time donations.  (Please mark it as personal / gift and not payment for services.)

Fine tuning!

Not everyone can afford even $5 or $10 a month, but this is a community and those of us who can afford that have been helping make the site better for everyone.

If you have signed up for a monthly donation but you’re in a different financial position than you were when you signed up, please feel free to cancel your monthly donation, with our sincere thanks for having supported the site for nearly a year!

If you keep thinking you’ll set up a monthly donation, but haven’t gotten around to it, or if the timing is right for increasing your donation, this would be a great time to do it.

If you want to support the site with a one-time check, send me an email message I will send you Cole’s address.  (P.O.box)

Memory Lane

In case you want to relive the good times, here’s the post from me on Nov 3, 2021.

Good News: Who Wants a Balloon Juice With No Ads At All?

Followed by this post from John a couple hours later:

So I Guess We are Going Ad Free (With Venting and Explanation)

 

Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

It’s Been Nearly Four Years With No Ads on Balloon Juice!Post + Comments (42)

Balloon Juice went ad-free not quite a year ago.  I think it’s fair to say that I am not the only one who is really happy we did that.    At least I hope so!

Can we take a quick trip down memory lane, before I suggest some fine-tuning of the process?

2021

If you’re the guy whose name is on all the bills, ditching the ads and losing $1,000 a month would have to feel a bit like jumping off a cliff without a net.

So here’s what it will take for me to feel good about having asked John Cole to do just that:

– $6,000 in one-time donations now – that would sit in an account, unused, as a safety net, to take the uncertainty out of the equation for Cole.

– no subscriptions, just recurring donations every month from those who can afford it, to pay for hosting and subscriptions etc.

– we need about $1,000 in recurring donations every month for that.

Safety net

It turns out that having the safety net has already been helpful, as John got clobbered with a tax bill for most of the PayPal donations.  And he surely will again this year.

So it would be super helpful if we could put some money back into the safety net, with one-time donations.  Before you ask me exactly how much the tax bill was, I do not know the actual amount and Cole hates to talk about money, so I am not going to press him on that.  So if anyone is in a position help build that back up to the original $6,000, that would be great.

You can donate to the safety net with Patreon, Venmo, Zelle, and paper check.  And even PayPal if that’s your only option, but please mark it as personal / gift and not payment for services.

Fine tuning

Not everyone can afford even $5 or $10 a month, but this is a community and those of us who can afford that have been helping make the site better for everyone.

If you have signed up for a monthly donation but you’re in a different financial position than you were when you signed up, please feel free to cancel your monthly donation, with our thanks for having supported the site for nearly a year.

If you keep thinking you’ll set up a monthly donation, but haven’t gotten around to it, or if the timing is right for increasing your donation, this would be a great time to do it.

If you have a monthly donation set up through PayPal, please consider switching that to Patreon. Patreon takes taxes off the top before the funds go into John’s account, so there are no surprises at tax time.

If you want to support the site with a one-time check, send me an email message I will send you Cole’s address.  (P.O.box)

Memory Lane

In case you want to relive the good times, here’s the post from me on Nov 3, 2021.

Good News: Who Wants a Balloon Juice With No Ads At All?

Followed by this post from John a couple hours later:

So I Guess We are Going Ad Free (With Venting and Explanation)

If you have any questions, let me know!

Update:

Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

It’s Been Nearly A Year With No Ads!Post + Comments (70)

Unless the timeframe changes for some reason, let’s have this be the last post before merging.

At this point, it’s all up to the site hosts.  The merging is entirely in their hands.

I will have a role again once it’s merged, verifying that (fingers crossed) everything looks good.

We do have our very own backup in our hot little hands.  For Home Away from Home and for new-old Balloon Juice.

We had purchased software but hadn’t worked out where we could restore a backup to for a test restore, so Earl and I worked to get this going last night when the timing of the merging was sprung on me at the last minute.  It’s not perfect – we couldn’t flip a switch and restore and be totally rolling in an hour, but we’ve got the WordPress databases and the media libraries, the plugins, the site code, etc.

Plus, it’s just the backup to the backups the site hosts do.  Still, we have our recent history preserved, in our own hands, and I feel better!

Thanks to Earl for being my partner in crime as we figured out the backup stuff.

Last Post Before Merging, She Said HopefullyPost + Comments (4)