Crossposted to my writing website.
I recently took fifteen minutes to write out my thoughts on the satellite terminal I just bought to a website that had little information on the device. That site deals with communicating on the road, particularly to the RV set. The website said they had no plans to test the equipment themselves so I thought I’d share what I found out and included links to the videos I have done.
The response? “Thank you for the feedback. You can leave your comments on the SatFi page if you are a member.” Memberships start at $85. They want me to pay them $85 to tell them what I know!? This is completely insane and right in keeping with every dull tool that thinks I am profiting over what I do.
If I am rockhounding, law enforcement always asks if I sell what I collect. No. If I am taking photographs, the question is always whether I am selling my photographs. No. A security guard at a park came over to me when I was experimenting with my satellite phone, to ask me if I was running a business. No.
Am I making money off my websites? No. See any ads? See any copyright restrictions? Am I selling anything? No. Why not? Because you don’t have enough money to interest me.
Nothing you can afford to pay me would be worth the bother of running ads or selling a rock or a photo. In years past I tried a variety of schemes to make money off of my websites and they were all stupidly impossible to carry out. Ads made the sites look messy, they disrespected my readers and there was this stench of begging that repulsed me. You don’t need that, I don’t need that.
Notice my videos? I stopped using YouTube because of their ads and am now using Vimeo which I pay quite a bit of money for each month. Just to kill the ads. Google sticks ads on them when they get published to YouTube but I collect _nothing_. Google does not have my bank account information, I am in no program to monetize them.
Whatever the average reader can afford to look at my work is not enough to bother with charging. I have over a hundred photos and videos and Wikimedia Commons that I put in the public domain with no restrictions on them whatsoever. Maybe they can do somebody some good. There isn’t any good for myself by trying to sell them. So, why bother producing all of this material?
Because I want to share my interests, of course, just like the 100 million other personal websites on the web. And also, perhaps, just perhaps, to help some people along the way.
My rockhound related travel files (external link) took over two years of off and on work to complete. They are an enlargement of chapters I had written for my now dead book project. Might as well put them on the web, expanding them along the way. I’m charging nothing for them and I know from reports that many rock shops say I have driven customers to them. I support the rock, gem, and mineral trade and I do so by doing!
Sorry for the rant, I am still bothered by my offer of help to be turned into a pitch for money. I don’t know why I am still astonished by bad behavior on the net as it is a breeding ground for soulless cretins who only want your wallet. After all, the internet and everything related to it was designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to get you to click on an ad.
I’m done. For today.