We here at the ol’ Atomic junk Shop have been toiling away in the pop culture mines for almost four-and-a-half years now since we first hung out the sign in October, 2016. It’s been great fun for us and hopefully for you, but the time has come for crass commercialism and money-grubbing to enter the picture.
As we mention in just about every post, most of the links we embed will take you to Amazon, or occasionally to some other outlet, where we get a commission on anything you happen to buy once you follow one of our links. This sometimes brings in enough for the occasional Starbucks visit every couple of months, while Google ads bring in just about enough to cover the annual hosting bill.
Backstage, we started talking about setting up a Patreon account a couple of years ago, going so far as to actually sign up for an account, and we even created a promotional video…
We haven’t launched the page yet, because here’s where it all gets gummed up: What incentives or rewards do we have to offer our supporters?
What would you, the faithful readers of Atomic Junk Shop, like to receive in return for converting your support into the kind we can spend? We’ve thought of a few possibilities, as well as a couple of other avenues to make the site generate some filthy lucre:
- We can add a sponsor page and list contributors.
- If you contribute more, we could add a link to the site of your choice.
- We could add a “Publishers” section to the site that would include your name on every page
- We could also give you and/or your site a shout-out on Twitter and Facebook (and we could add an Instagram account to our site’s portals).
- We could let you choose a topic to post about.
- Or let you participate in an “Atomic Roundtable” on a topic of your choosing.
- We could create some swag of some sort, like t-shirts or water bottles or something, maybe with the Atomic Junk Shop logo, or featuring public-domain art like the images we used to fill the “JUNK” letters, or some other merch we haven’t thought of yet, and we’re open to suggestions on that.
- We could share rough drafts of posts in progress for our Patrons to get an advance look at.
- Or any of a number of other ideas.
So the question really comes down to you, our friends and readers; is a Patreon something you would want us to do and would support, and if so, what kind of rewards would you like to receive for being an Atomic Junk Shop Patron? Please let us know in the comments below, or email patreon@atomicjunkshop.com if you want to make a private suggestion or comment.
In the words of Bartles & Jaymes, “Thank you for your support.”
I would be more than happy to make a donation with no reward. I can’t imagine how many hours of entertainment and insite those who contribute to this site have provided me.
With that said, I would be willing to purchase a shirt or coffee cup, if some merch was created.
Like Terrible-D I would be happy to make a donation with no reward.
If you were to put a pay wall up I would consider subscribing, but I guess it depends on the monthly amount, preference is to have that self determined like Wikipedia that I also donate to.
Not really interested in any rewards to be involved, I just want to be able to keep reading the articles. The return should be better than the occasional Starbucks!
Perhaps just start accepting donations to start with and see how it goes, you can always switch to something else later.
Like those above, I’d be happy to make a donation with no reward or possibly buy some merch. One can never have too many coffee mugs. I don’t think that I have any interest in being “recognized” as a publisher/sponsor but I’d be glad to directly support the entertainment I like to read.
All people want on the internet is transparency. If you say it’s for no rewards and just to keep the site going, then people will respect that. I don’t think people come here for the merch. 😉
I would say the best thing you could offer is mini posts of just curiosities you come across occasionally that don’t merit a full post but you just want to share. Keep it fun! The patreon shouldn’t be a slog for you.
That’s a great idea. We talk have little thoughts and dig up odd tidbits that may make it into a post, but more often they end up on our own Facebook pages or in a comment somewhere.
In response to the comments in this thread, I have added a Paypal donation button. It’s in the right menu, just below the search bar.