Thank You, Donors!

A wonderful thing happened recently. A friend gave me a camera that they haven’t been using, after I posted on social media that my current camera, which I have had for at least four years, is becoming glitchy, and I don’t know how much longer it will perform adequately. I did not expect a response to be so tangible, but it reminded me of how indebted I am to donors for the continued existence and success of this blog.

A new camera thanks to Lloyd D! Recurring $$ from Rich S!

After much deliberation, I have decided that at my advancing age, and because I have a deep and useful archive of posts here on Blogger, that I will not be changing platforms.

Another friend from LinkedIn flat out told me that “nobody makes money from blogs anymore.” Writers in general have an exceptionally difficult time making money anywhere, but we have to try. I would like to think that our time, knowledge, and unique experiences and perspectives are still in demand, and worthy of a little compensation.

This brings me to something else terrific. Yet another friend, whom I know personally, sent me a small monetary donation through PayPal. The next month, it happened again. It turns out it is a recurring donation. I had no idea that PayPal even offered that option.

What I would like to do is start a conversation in the comments for this post, about what kinds of rewards I could offer to followers who contribute regular donations. I also need to know what payment systems people prefer, so that I can investigate them and create accounts accordingly. My partner has Venmo, so she could probably help me set that up….

Rewards that come immediately to mind include a free, signed copy of one of my books after, say, three or four months of a repeating ten-dollar donation. I could agree to a virtual conversation over Zoom for an hour or so. Donors could earn the right to a guest post here, or I could write a profile about their own work and how it can be supported. Aside from my books, I do not have any “merch” at present, but I am willing to entertain suggestions. My partner does do stickers of insects and birds, though.

Please remember that I also have the blog Sense of Misplaced, where I write about things other than insects and arachnids. Sometimes it is about other types of wildlife, sometimes matters of social concern, (archival) poetry, “politics,” philosophical commentary, or other subjects and styles.

Between the two blogs, I am hoping to earn enough to at least cover the increasing expense of health insurance. Contrary to popular assumption, U.S. Medicare is not free healthcare. Mine is a little over $200 per month, whereas I was paying only a fraction of that prior to turning sixty-five. I have elected not to enroll in a “medigap” plan that covers a few things Medicare does not. That would double my monthly healthcare expense. I am delaying the receipt of Social Security payments for at least another year.

The bottom line is that I would like to remain reasonably stable financially, and resume my own donations to organizations and causes that are important to me, such as Doctors Without Borders, The Trevor Project, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Missouri Prairie Foundation. I also have my own recurring donation to the Patreon account for the Ologies podcast with Alie Ward.

As followers and donors, you have every right to assert accountability when it comes to frequency and content of posts here. I want to serve you better, and more often, for as long as I am able. Thank you for your continued support. Please see the “Donors” tab at the top of the page, to see the friends you could be joining.

In-Kind Donations: Thank You

This blog may be written by me, but it is a team effort that keeps it going. For example, were it not for the recent donation of a new camera, I would not have the ability to take images with a flash. It is thanks to such in-kind donations, as well as monetary gifts through my Paypal donation button, that I can continue to provide content here without going broke.

Debbie Barnes-Shankster, a truly professional nature photographer, had a "spare" Canon PowerShot SX50 that she was not using, and so graciously turned it over to me. I had exhausted the lifespan of the pop-up flash on my other two cameras, so was not able to take images in low light, let alone at night at a moth sheet. I am very grateful to Debbie for the rescue.

Besides equipment, I periodically receive review copies of books, which reminds me that I am behind in my reading more than I would like to admit. I get to keep the books, which then provide additional, newer sources of research for later blog posts. Many of these books are well beyond my budget, and so I am very thankful for those as well.

Sometimes, I have the ammunition to write a post, but not the images to illustrate it. I often solicit photographers for permission to use theirs, and I have rarely been turned down. I don't believe I have ever been turned away, in fact. I am not what I would call even an amateur photographer, but I do assign value to my own work, and am highly respectful of the effort and expense it takes others to get quality images. At some point I would like to be able to compensate photographers for the privilege of using their work here.

Meanwhile, I have huge investments looming on the horizon. I need another vehicle after a minor accident totaled our old Saturn. My HP desktop computer is ancient by today's standards, probably at least seven years old and nearing capacity thanks to photos and videos eating up memory. Before I can even dream of replacing either of those, I still owe a substantial sum to a publisher for a contract that we mutually decided to dissolve, after I had received the advance.

I rarely go begging to anyone for donations, and I am not going to do that now. My goal with this post is to communicate my deep appreciation for what I already receive, and to let you know that your monetary contributions are well spent in feeding the content at this blog.

All my readers are entitled to request blog topics, and I will do my best to honor those queries. We have a global community of participants here at Bug Eric, one that is growing all the time. I value each and every one of you, and thank you whole-heartedly for your patronage.

Thank you, followers!

I can think of no better way to use my 500th post than to thank the many people who read this blog faithfully. Without followers like you, I never would have reached this milestone. Many days I have wondered why I bother posting, but then I look at the growing number of icons under "members" in the right sidebar, and remember who is waiting for the next story.

We ♡ our followers!

Friends who are more tech-savvy than myself also remind me that there are hundreds of other people looking in that don't show as members. Every month or so I also get a report from Google that surprises me with how many "hits" this page receives daily, and where those hits are coming from. Sure, most of my audience is from the U.S. and Canada, but I also have visitors from the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa. I may need to make some field trips abroad so I can talk about arthropods from those places, too.

Last month I had over 9,000 new visitors, 274 returning visitors. Facebook and Blogger are my top "social sources" by far, with WordPress, reddit, and Twitter bringing up the rear. That surprises me because I get re-tweeted all the time (and thank you for that!).

My overall goal is to reach an audience unfamiliar with insects and arachnids, providing the most accurate and relevant information I can. I also want to encourage other naturalists to keep on finding and observing invertebrates, reporting their own sightings, images, videos, and audio recordings to appropriate archives. I welcome suggestions for how to improve on that.

It is important to note that many of my posts could not be possible without input from entomologists and arachnologists far more expert than myself. I frequently need to have specimens identified before I can write about the species, genus, or family, and were it not for specialists willing to share their knowledge, I would be nowhere.

Lastly, if you have an enterprise that has anything to do with a positive approach to natural history, have written a book, or do public programs, I would be willing to put up an advertisement for you, as I have done with BioQuip. Don't be shy, I am always delighted to reward good work, and would happily devote a blog post to your business, achievements, or observations, especially if you do not have a blog of your own.

Thank you again for making "Bug Eric" a successful venture. I look forward to continuing to produce it for as long as I can. There is certainly no shortage of subject matter, even if I had started several lifetimes ago. Oh, wait, the internet has not even existed for that long.