Hey DUers oreilly-sucks.com is in Trouble !

[stewert]

I have a serious problem, as you know I own and run www.oreilly-sucks.com. The problem I have is I am not getting enough in donations to pay for my website and internet fees. For anyone that may not know, I started the oreilly-sucks website on 8-26-01 after someone here said it would be a good idea. The guy who suggested it then sent me $150 to get the website started in 2001.

I have been running it now for over 2 years and I do not make a dime for doing it. I have no sponsors or advertisers, I am the only employee and I fund it with donations. In fact I just started taking donations in march of this year because I was using more than the free bandwidth I get from my web host. My hits have increased from 3000 a month to 30,000 a month in the last 10 months or so. And whenever O'Reilly says or does something stupid my hits explode. this happened last month after the NPR interview, I got over 8,000 hits in 2 days, it basically used 15 days bandwidth in 2 days. I normally get 800 to 1000 hits a day.

I am currently using almost double the free bandwidth I get. When the extra 6 month supply of bandwidth I have runs out I will not be able to buy a new 6 month supply of extra bandwidth because I am as broke as broke can get. What makes it worse is my web host makes you buy bandwidth 6 months at a time. And if I need to upgrade it during that time I have to buy 6 more months of bandwidth. Then they credit me the difference for the months I have not used, but I do have to buy the upgrade or the website goes offline until the 1st of the next month. This happened in october, I ran out of bandwidth on the 17th of the month. I did not have the money to buy the bandwidth upgrade I needed so the website was offline for 14 days until 11-01-03.

Basically I need to generate some donations to keep the website online. I only get 1 or 2 donations every 3 or 4 months, and sometimes I go 2 or 3 months with no donations at all. The average donation is about $5 to $20 dollars. As of today I need a minimum of $150 every 6 months to pay my expenses, or about $300 a year.

I live with my retired father who is on a fixed income, and he can no longer afford to pay for any of my internet expenses. So right now I am up a creek without a paddle. I sure don't expect 1000 DUers to donate to my website like they did here, but if just 50 people donated $10 each it would give me $500 dollars to work with.

I also have two Al Franken books to give away with a donation, and one Peter Hart (fair.org) book called the ohreally factor to give away with a donation. All the information is on the donation page. People send me liberal books and I offer them for sale with a donation.

So please donate if you can, every little bit helps.

Donation page:

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/donate.htm

P.S. Before I made this posting I asked Skinner if it was ok to ask for donations here in GD and he said it was ok with him.

[JanMichael]

1. Kick.

:kick:

Keep this up and I'll try to send you a couple of bucks tomorrow.

My day is over.

[ima_sinnic]

2. I don't understand why you don't have PayPal for donations

Making it as convenient as possible to make a donation would certainly help. If someone has to go to the trouble of writing out a check and an envelope and then have to remember to get it in the mail, he or she will easily put it off till later or just shrug and click on to something else.

[stewert]

7. simple ima.........

1) I don't have a bank account. If I got enough money to open a bank account I would
need $100 to open it. Then you have to keep a $100 balance to keep it open. I can not
afford to do that because I need that $100 if I ever have it.

2) Paypal sucks, a lot of people are boycotting them for many reasons. Try a google search
on boycott paypal. Did you know they can freeze your account and hold your money for up
to 6 months or more. They shut down the paypal account for the website
www.whatreallyhappened.com. They did it for political reasons, I am worried they would do
the same to my account if I ever got one. They don't seem to like liberal websites, and I don't
trust them.

www.paypalsucks.com

57,500 matches on paypal sucks.

9,030 matches on boycott paypal.

If you don't want to write a check take some cash, put it in a letter and mail it to me, just
wrap it in some paper. I have recieved 2 donations by cash with no problem.

[ima_sinnic]

8. I am well aware of the risks of PayPal

--they will freeze your account if a fraudulent credit card was used in a transaction to send you money. It's a chance I take by using it in my selling on eBay--but I sell antique postcards, not computers or DVDs, and so am selling to a small but serious audience, not con artists. Believe me, I do understand your problems with PayPal as I have seriously considered severing my relationship with them but the convenience for my buyers is too good to resist. One way out of the risk is not to take payment by credit card but only via bank transfer or from PayPal balance.

Not all banks require $100 to open and maintain an account. My local credit union requires only $5.

I was unaware of whatreallyhappened.com's problems with PayPal and will try to learn more about it.

In all events, I will try to send a few dollars.

[stewert]

10. Banks...........

The banks here in Peoria require a $100 minimum to open an account and to keep it open.

Savings Account*

Daily balance Required to obtain APY: $100.00
Interest Rate: 1.00
Annual Percentage Yield: 1.00

http://www.heightsbank.com/rates.html

[lysergik]

11. That's only to receive the APY.

You should be able to open an account with very little money, you may not receive the going interest rate, but you still have that account to use.

[stewert]

12. Thanks lysergik........

I will call them tommorrow and ask them how much I need to keep the account open.

I am not sure you are correct, it is my understanding you need to keep a balance of
$100 to keep the account active.

[Mentalist]

32. $100?

don't know where you live or what banks you have talked to, but requiring $100 to open and a $100 minimum balance is not something I have ever heard of. I worked for a large bank for several years and my wife is still with that bank and has been for a long time. They run promotions for free checking and only require $25 to open the account and there is NO MINIMUM balance required.

You need to do some shopping around.

[stewert]

38. I Was Right.........

I live in peoria heights il. The bank here is called the heights bank. I just called them, you need
$100 to open a savings account, and if it drops below $100 they charge you a dollar a month fee.

Steve

[alcuno]

3. I have a flight to catch, but I'll get you after Thanksgiving.

[Gloria]

4. KICK!

eom

[1songbird]

5. I'll be glad to donate.

[Wonk]

6. kick

[stewert]

9. Check This Out: Paypal

I found this:

DoNotUsePaypal.com

If Paypal doesn't change its terms, conditions and customer service very soon, it's best that
Paypal is closed down by the US Government or by a US Court.
In our opinion Paypal hit already the iceberg and is a sinking ship right now.
We strongly advise all Paypal users to empty and close their Paypal account immediately before
Paypal freezes their account OR before Paypal runs out of money....

http://www.etn.nl/paypal/#q3

And This:

WARNING:

Your Paypal account can be frozen at any time, without advance notice leaving you
without your money for weeks (if not forever), and there isn't much you can do about
it. Paypal is currently being investigated by regulatory authorities in three states!

http://www.paypalwarning.com/

One More:

http://www.aboutpaypal.org/paypal_locked.htm

[stewert]

13. BTW...........

Could you guys keep this thread kicked up so everyone can see it.

And thanks to everyone who has decided to send a donation.

[Melsky]

14. Here's a kick

:kick:

[stewert]

15. Thanks Melsky

I was hoping this would stay kicked up for a day or so, thanks again.

I'm off to get some sleep.......

[Wonk]

49. kick

[Sapphocrat]

16. Okay, Steve...

As one who's tried just about everything (except porn) to eke out a few pennies from a Web site, here are my suggestions for you:

GET SPONSORS. Oh, wait -- I think that's my only suggestion for you. :D No, seriously, dude, get some ads on that site. Not big, blaring banner ads -- they don't work. What does work, better than any other method I've ever used, is in-context text links. I'm not suggesting you be sneaky about it (I hate that) -- let your visitors know that by clicking links, they'll be going to Amazon (or wherever), and that any proceeds from such links will go to keeping O-R-sucks.com online.

And I would suggest Amazon. Let's say you write an original article on O'Really. Within the text, you could link phrases and names to books at Amazon. Let's say you compare O'Really and KKKoulter -- you link KKKoulter's name to Franken's "Lies..." on Amazon.

Go look at one of my own articles (it's actually fun to read, too!) -- Sean Kelly Goes to Hell -- and you'll see pertinent words and phrases liberally linked to Amazon books. (I don't "warn" my readers that the links take them to Amazon, but the link shows up clear as day in the bottom of their browsers, so I don't think I'm being sneaky about it.) Those links work. I don't make much off any of my links, but when you're as broke as I am (and from your post, I'd say you and I are about as equally desperate), that extra five, ten, sometimes 15 bucks in a month makes a huge difference.

Amazon, of course, is just one company to think about -- but it's the first I would consider because of your site content. (Amazon's pretty cool about accepting sites with "controversial" content.) I would also look into Google AdSense (context-sensitive ads, based on the content of a specific page on your site)... If you'd like me to dig through my own list of affiliate programs and suggest a few others that might work for you, let me know, and I'll PM you.

And you don't need a bank account to receive payments from many programs. Amazon will still cut you a paper check (although it will charge you a service fee).

Also, another thing I would consider with Amazon is selling unneeded books, videos, & DVDs through their "marketplace" area. The fees are MUCH fairer than eBay's, and you'll get a truckload of traffic. I've done well selling off half my DVD collection when things have been especially tight. (What am I saying? Things are always tight!)

Another thing to think about is traffic -- how is yours? Traffic is everything, my friend -- and even if you do nothing more than what you're doing (asking for donations by snail-mail), it's all a numbers game.

Do you know what other sites link to yours? Have you requested link exchanges with highly-trafficked liberal sites? Have you submitted your URL to DU's links section? Have you put out a general call to all DUers with their own sites (especially blogs!) to give you a plug? Geez, man, my blog ranks NUMBER ONE IN GOOGLE for the word "doublethink" (try it and see!), as well as numerous other words & phrases... I'll be glad to plug O-R-S on my next update, and encourage folks to give you a leg-up.

So, there's just a bit of my experience for you to chew on -- I hope you'll find it worth some thought -- and maybe action.

I know exactly where you're at, Steve, and I'd like to help you in any way I can. I can't give you a dime myself (I don't even know how I'm going to come up the $$$ for my own DU star when my current donation period ends), but I'll give you the benefit of everything I've learned in trying to make a buck from the Net over the past seven years.

Best of luck, friend. Don't give up!

[stewert]

17. Hey Sapphocrat..........

Could you e-mail me with details on the programs you are talking about.

Where do I get the sponsors, I don't have any banner ads now but I might
consider them. Are you talking about an affiliate program at amazon.com.

I would like to hear more...........

Steve

[Sapphocrat]

18. No sweat...

PMing you now...!

[stewert]

20. Shooting For 100 Donations

I copied the DU donation banner plan, except I am shooting for 100 donations
instead of 1000.

If you have donated or plan to donate could you pm me and let me know. That
way I can update the count.

[jab105]

30. I do the same thing...

You can also do it through www.cj.com

find relevant merchants, and link up the items...I make about $20/month on those links, which means that I dont actually pay for my website since it only costs $15/month to run:)

[bpilgrim]

44. Excellant advice - And GFP would love to add your banner to our rotation

and feel free to use some of my site promotion tools...
http://dvia.com/support/tools/urlsubmit/submit.cgi
http://dvia.com/support/tools/meta
http://dvia.com/support/tools/kwa/keyword_analyzer.cgi

if you want me to host a banner (468x60) for you at GFP just DU me
(and that goes for any other progressive sites out there)

gl :toast:

peace

[stewert]

67. Sorry for the delay pilgrim......

I been pretty busy lately and I missed your posting, here is my banner page
and my webmaster information.

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/linkpage.htm

I already have a link to your GFP site on my links page.

I don't really need the site promotion links, when you do a google search on bill o'reilly
my website is like the 4th listing on the 1st page of the search. I will check them out
anyway and see what you have.

[BlueCollar]

19. Donation's on the way

Keep up the good work friend...

[ringmastery]

21. How much bandwidth do you use a month?

Less than 40gb?

Because there are some very reasonable web hosting packages out there. This one is only $6.99 a month for 40GB of bandwidth. And you don't have to pay 6 months in advance. All you pay is $6.99 a month. And no matter how depressed your financial situation is, I'm sure you can manage that.

http://www.dot5hosting.com

[GabysPoppy]

22. Kick

[ringmastery]

23. Another suggestion

I went to your site and noticed there are quite a few graphics. Have you tried getting rid of them and making your site strictly text? It won't be pretty, but the point is to make sure the site is online and getting rid of the graphics will improve your bandwidth situation a lot.

[the_real_38]

40. agreed.

try stripping it down a little - you need to try and reduce the average transactional bandwidth.

[DemExpat]

24. kick

:kick:

DemEx

[laylah]

25. Kickin' it!

I'll put a coupla bucks in the mail today...hang in there. :kick:

Jenn

[stewert]

26. Thanks........

Thanks Demex and Jenn, I see Will Pitt has another thread about this but I want to
keep this thread kicked up because it has most of the postings.

[William Seger]

27. Some of that PayPal info MAY be out of date

:kick:

I've been using PayPal for about 4 years now, and about 3 years ago they did freeze my account for several days while they investigated a transaction that was paid into my account with a stolen card. After that, I continued using it because of the convenience, but I started making sure that I moved money out of the account quickly, so a freeze wouldn't hurt much. However, since that time, I've had two additional fraud investigations where they did not freeze the account. Both of those were eventually reversed -- they took those credits out of my balance (and when they do that, they will go to your bank account if you don't have sufficient balance) -- but the account was never frozen.

So, although I haven't seen an official notice that they changed their policy, I think they may have finally got the hint that people got irate when their accounts were frozen, and they may not do that now.

If you open the bank account and decide to go with PayPal for donations, I also recommend getting their debit card and using that to pay for your hosting service. I pay for three host accounts directly from my PayPal account, and those sites are running services that users pay for with PayPal, so it's a self-contained sideline that doesn't affect my other finances. Very convenient, and the fees are really pretty reasonable.

[stewert]

28. Got it.........

I plan to look into it William, if I get a bank account I may change my mind
and use paypal.

[Ksec]

34. question

I opened a paypal account. Now if I want to buy something do I transfer my money into the Paypal account or does Paypal take it directly from mt checking account?

[William Seger]

41. It depends on if you have a balance

If you have a balance in your account from payments you've received, then when you buy something through PayPal, they will take the payment from that balance first. If you don't have a balance, then you will get a choice to pay with either your credit card or bank account. (If you select to pay with your bank account, they withdraw the money automatically. If you pay with your credit card, it's like any other online card purchase.) If you have some money in your account, but not enough for the purchase, they will take the balance first (no choice about that), then give you a choice on how you want to pay the rest. Basically, they do it that way because it's the cheapest for them.

[Ksec]

47. Thanks William

I wasnt sure , I just opened an account with them and havent got into the particulars.

[NewJeffCT]

29. good site

I'm kicking this one up for Stewert, as he pointed me here about a month ago (and now I have over 200 posts on here!)

[NewJeffCT]

52. Thanks Stewert

Happy Thanksgiving and good luck to you.

[bearfartinthewoods]

31. People send me liberal books

if i may ask, how does that happen? because you run the website?

[stewert]

35. bearfartinthewoods.......

Yes, people send me liberal books instead of donations. I just got another one today.

Now I have 2 Franken books, one Peter Hart book, and one project censored book.

I put them on the website for sale with a donation. So far nobody has bought any of
the books.

[drfemoe]

51. You could try

selling those through amazon used books. I've sold several books through there. If they are donations, you should be free to sell them for the cash profit.

[alarcojon]

33. I'm sending you some money...

I am relatively new to DU but have checked out your site on various occasions

:kick:

[stewert]

37. Freepers Are Here, Lol.

Two freepers saw this thread and e-mailed me. Both of them called me a piece of shit and
told me to get a job. I guess it's time to update the hate mail page, lol.

I guess they don't understand what disabled means, or they are just really stupid, or both. I
think this is some of that compassionate conservatism we hear about.

Maybe God will strike them down and they will become disabled, then they can see what it's
like, I can assure you it's not something I would wish on my worst enemy. Not even a braindead
freeper.

Here are a couple choice quotes from their stupid e-mails:

From: Johnny xxxxx
To: [email protected]
Subject: Get a fucking JOB!!!
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003

I see you're begging for donations for your site on Democratic Underground...

Here's an idea...Stop leeching off your now retired hard working father and GET A
FUCKING JOB!!!

Economics are NOT that difficult to understand.

------------

From: Josh xxxxxxxx
To: [email protected]
Subject: Your donation request
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003

Sorry to hear that your father had to support a real piece of shit like you. It's called get a
job you fucking loser. Stop being the little puppy begging for food. Your website fucking sucks.
Let it die. The only reason it gets so many hits is people going there to eat your bandwidth
dumb ass.

Have a good night and get your head out of your ass.

Brother_komrade

[calimary]

68. GEEZ!!!!!!!!! They're all heart, aren't they?

Ladies and gentlemen, may I direct your attention to the baboons in that rat-hole cage over on the RIGHT? Yes, those. The needle-dick ones with the fingers up their butts, and then, following that, RIGHT in their mouths?

No wonder they flock to someone like bush. Because there's a lump of coal where their hearts and minds should be.

Pay them NO attention, Stewert. They're not worth anyone's time.

[WilliamPitt]

36. Kick

[private_ryan]

39. kick

since you're serving only plain html files I would check here.
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=609a1d61fe3b511b6f3aae22abe974ba&forumid=4

[tom_paine]

42. kick

I'll try and drop you a few bux myself, stewert...

[Demonaut]

43. I will donate

Dude, I like your site, so count me in

[stewert]

48. Demonaut.........

Thanks, the promised donations are up to about 20, only 80 more to go.

[southerngirlwriter]

45. Just sent you a check.

:-)

[stewert]

46. Southerngirl.......

Thanks southerngirl, time for another kick.

[drfemoe]

50. alternative

to paypal is >> http://neteller.com/neteller/home.cfm

Besides amazon affiliate program, they have an "honor system" where you can collect donations from your site.
There's a link in the sidebar for "Special Features".

You also might be able to mirror your site on tripod or other free hosting services.

GL

[stewert]

53. drfemoe.......

Thanks I will check out the amazon honor system and netteller, also I do have a mirror site at
a free server. But if the main site goes offline because I ran out of bandwidth nobody will know I
have a mirror site. Unless of course they had visited before and bookmarked the mirror site.

Steve

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

54. Kick for Stewert

[NewJeffCT]

55. another kick for him

Thanks for your good work!

[NewJeffCT]

56. keep it up

Go Stewert. Good luck to you.

[laylah]

57. kickin'

for a worthy cause :kick:

[DeaconBlues]

58. a good morning kick

[Matilda]

60. Kick!

[BlueCollar]

59. another kick

to keep o'liellyisms out there


:kick:

[Barad Simith]

61. Unlimited bandwidth at Net-Venture

http://www.nventure.com

I spend $15 a month for unlimited bandwidth.

[stewert]

62. Thanks........

Thanks for all the kicks folks, I really appreciate it.

I believe I have about 20 promised donations, I do not know for sure. Some
people may donate without telling me. Because people have to snail mail me the
donations it will be a few days before I know how many I get.

Once I get the money I plan to open a bank account and sign up with
paypal.

If someone plans to donate please post to this thread or pm me. I would
prefer you pm me, this thread is geting long and it takes a while to load for people
like me with a dial-up internet ISP.

I had a goal of 100 donations by 12-1-03, it does not look like I will make it. Maybe
50 is a more realistic goal, either way I really appreciate whatever you guys/girls donate.

If you guys/girls could keep this thread kicked up until 12-1-03 it would be great. I must say
DU.com is the best democratic discussion board on the net. I have looked around and I can
not find any other place like this on the net.

I also want to thank ELAD, he gave me the ok to start this thread, I accidently said it was
skinner. I made a mistake, it was ELAD. I also want to thank Skinner and everyone at DU. If
not for you guys and this board I would have never started oreilly-sucks.com, and I would not
have had the pleasure of communicating with everyone here. This place gives all us liberals hope,
and it gives us a place to expose the Bush administration as the lying crooks they are.

P.S. If I get enough money to cover my expenses I plan to donate some back to DU.com and a
couple other DU members.

[tom_paine]

63. kick

[9215]

65. kick

[canuckagainstBush]

64. bump

buuuuuuummmmmmmmmmppppppp

[MooPie]

66. Good site.

I will send a donation in tomorrow's mail.
Keep the faith, you're a good man.

[newyawker99]

69. I am locking this thread.

Please continue the discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=791772

Thank you.


NYer99
DU Moderator