The Financial Dynamics of a Small Magazine Web Site

It's not very often that we get to write a totally self serving editorial and not feel at least a bit guilty about it. But, with the beginning of the holidays, and the beginning of the biggest shopping period ahead of us, I thought I would take a moment and talk a little about how this, and other web sites like this one works.

We write this magazine for several reasons. First, and foremost, it's fun. We enjoy the process of writing about areas we visit and photographing them as we go along, and we enjoy sharing those experiences with other people.

The second reason we put this magazine together every month is for profit. We fully expect to earn a little income some day from this venture. Of course, as soon as we can start earning income, we can start to pay our writers, which should help the magazine.

In the beginning, we said that we would not charge a subscription for people to be able to view this magazine, and that philosophy holds true today. We truly believe that not requiring a subscription is the right business model for us. You might be wondering then, how do we actually plan to earn income from a magazine that doesn't cost anything? Well, the answer is really quite simple. We have three sources of income. First, we sell paid advertisements. Some folks pay us for placing ads on the magazine. We justify the price we charge by the number of visitors who come to the site, and potentially view the ad. Second, we place Google ads on the pages, and actually get paid for ads people click on to view. The third method, and the main subject of this editorial, is that we maintain an Amazon affiliate store on this site.

Now here comes the self serving part: On our magazine, we have an Amazon affiliate store located in a section all by itself where we sell pretty much anything that's sold on Amazon. The way this works is quite simple. Amazon allows people like us to place a store on our site, and we get a commission for everything that's sold through our store. In practice, the consumer isn't buying from us. Once the transaction is started, everything is handled through Amazon, which included the financial transaction and the shipping. This means that everything that's good about buying from Amazon is true when buying through our store because it's Amazon handling the transaction. All the trust and credibility that Amazon has earned over the years still applies because it's Amazon doing the work. We simply earn a commission by presenting the merchandise in a setting that's appropriate for the consumer.

Many web sites like this one do the same thing. It's how we are able to provide a free service like bringing real magazine articles to folks for no cost. But in the end, the decision over whether we continue to produce this magazine depends on its ability to generate enough income to sustain itself through ad sales and affiliate sales. And, of course, whether it becomes profitable depends upon the volume of traffic to the web site each day, and their understanding of how things work.

We're working on increasing the volume of traffic. Each month, we see an increase in folks visiting the site from our efforts. What we need now is for you, the reader to consider this: When you make a decision to purchase something online, take a moment and look over the availability of items in our Amazon affiliate store. Chances are we have it, and if so, the chances are good that it's at a competitive price. If all that is true, and you decide to buy it from us, you'll be helping to perpetuate the existence of this magazine. In the end, it doesn't cost you any more in real money, or risk. There's actually no down side to this proposition, especially if you enjoy reading our articles.

With that in mind, it's the holiday season. For many of us, it's a great time of year for many more reasons than simply shopping, but for many more, shopping is also a big part of the season. When you sit down and shop from the convenience of your keyboard, consider shopping on our site.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to everyone.