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.