As I’ve recounted more than once, this blog started on the free BlogSpot service way back in January 2003 but quickly outgrew that, spinning off onto a private domain on a private server, with ever-increasing operation and maintenance costs. Almost exactly two years in, I started running advertisements and declaring OTB as a business on my income taxes. There was a short heyday in which this was a thriving enterprise, spanning a series of spin-off sites. It was, for a time, my full-time job, and for many years, I was even able to pay a few thousand dollars a year to folks who wrote for the site.
The bottom fell out of the ad business years ago, and for more than a decade, expenses have significantly exceeded revenues. After several years of expressing mild concern, my accountant issued a much sterner warning last week that continuing to write off losses year after year could have catastrophic consequences. Suffice it to say I won’t be doing so in 2024.
When I made the decision to go ad-free five years ago, I observed, “Considering that I make a reasonable living in my day job, I’ve always felt rather sheepish asking people to contribute to the site.” That has remained the case, so I’ve seldom renewed calls for Patreon signups or PayPal contributions. The $1752.32 those avenues brought in last year covers slightly more than a third of what it costs to keep the site going.
The last site refresh was six years ago now and cost on the order of $8000. We’re definitely overdue for another one, as the backend is wonky because the theme isn’t compatible with the latest WordPress version.
Ultimately, then, something’s got to give.
There are times when I wonder if the site hasn’t simply run its course. Blogging is a vestige of another era, and while our logs indicate that we’re still reaching a decent-sized audience (roughly 100,000 pageviews and 20,000 unique visitors monthly), the commentariat comprises fewer than 50 hard-core readers. And, even though I’m not as prolific as I once was here, it still consumes 20 hours or more in an average week.
We could do more to attract patrons, but I’m not really sure what that would entail. We could wall off “Premium” content to those who pay, as is the practice at various Substack blogs and other media outlets. But that has never been the spirit of the site and would have the ironic effect of making it less valuable to paying customers since some of the commenters they enjoy interacting with now would be shut out.
We could move to Substack, a free WordPress site, or a similar alternative and retain a lighter version of the site. Part of the reason OTB is so expensive to run is that it’s so bloody old. There are 58,445 posts, 1,450,482 comments, and 22,891 images being managed by the databases. Indeed, I’ve maintained a separate server just to host images for much of the site’s history to keep it from bogging down. While part of what Steven and I enjoy about the current model is revisiting what we wrote about issues (or the comment section discussions of same) way back when, whether when researching new posts or through the serendipity of the Related Posts feature, that’s likely less of an attraction for most readers. Then again, I’m not sure it’d still be OTB.
I welcome your thoughts on the matter.
- Is there more we can do to attract patrons? If so what?
- If the site moved to a more Plain Jane format, likely sans archives and images, would it impact reader enjoyment?
- Is there some third alternative I’m missing?
