State of the Site 2023 and Launch of Memberships

It has been over 4-5 years since I did a similar post. But with the big change introduced recently, I wanted to communicate the motive behind such a move.

Some of you have been avid followers of the site for years and deserve an explanation and clarification on what to expect moving forward.

So here it goes.

The History

I will keep this part short. As some of you may know I have been publishing blog posts since 2010, approximately one year after I started my journey on Ubuntu.

It was a way for me to document what I, a non-IT/software person, was learning, in a way that I could reproduce it later. This approach jived with many newbies, who got onboard.

This journey has been documented in several previous posts:

• HTPC Beginner is now Smart Home Beginner
• Launching SmartHomeBeginner.com – Home Automation for Beginners
• We Moved! Welcome to htpcBeginner
• htpcbeginner.com 1st Birthday: Recap and Next Steps

It began as a hobby and still remains a hobby.

Behind the Scenes

The reality is, traffic has been declining steadily over the years and is currently at 10% of what it was 10 years back.

In response, I increased ads to compensate for lost revenue. This worked for a while. But unfortunately, I cannot sustain this and it hurts the user experience.

Personal Approach and Changes

Meanwhile, my personal situation changed, day-job (blogging is not my profession), wife, kids, international move, many local moves, etc.

I found myself working very late, sometimes as late as 1 am and then waking up at 6:30 am to begin a marathon of responsibilities and chores.

Competition grew, many new blogs popped up. Some even copied my content (like this one), including images, erased the watermarks, and rank higher on Google. Obviously, this drained my revenue.

And so, I continued to work harder and drained myself just to keep up with the others, while compromising on my health and family time. Needless to say, this added a lot of stress.

One Man Show

Doing the whole thing alone hasn't been easy and I couldn't financially justify hiring full-time employees. I have had some awesome writers on and off.

But the truth is SmartHomeBeginner covers some highly technical content and breaks it down for beginners. And therefore, to continue publishing quality content I had to hire writers with good knowledge and experience and compensate for their time.

For example, I have paid as high as $375 for one post - Docker to Podman migration. In the last year or so, I have made less than $100 from this post.

I bet that it will be very hard to find such content elsewhere. Of course, it is nearly impossible to avoid some weaker content that are aimed at filling gaps identified in SEO analysis and doing so is required to stay relevant.

Donations and Patreon

Another reality is, nearly half of the visitors to the site are tech savvy, they do not click on ads, or ad blockers. Some probably even use my own guides on PiHole and Adguard Home to setup their ad blockers.

Ok, I thought let me introduce Patreon and Donations via BuyMeACoffee and the likes. The sad state is only 1 in 100,000 visitors become a supporter.

Over the last 90 days, BuyMeACoffee has generated $18 in donations (+$12 through Ko-Fi) and my Patreon page has 5 patrons for $12 a month since I started it 2 years back. So, about $22 per month average.

All of this while, I have continued to keep my GitHub Repo and key posts on Docker, Traefik, and Synology updated.

I started a Discord Server, which has supported 100s of people over the last 1 year. But that hasn't had any significant impact on the revenue I could generate.

Introducing Memberships

The Why

Nearly 80 to 90% of the blogs die in just a couple of years. I have managed to survive for over 13 years. That's because, fortunately, I love what I do and today I am not dependent on the income from my blog.

That said, often times, I find myself in a situation where I have to ask myself:

Is it worth spending so much time and effort trying to disseminate information on my hobby at the cost of family time or other things?

Plus, it does not end there, a guide such as the one on Traefik has generated 1000s of support requests, comments, etc. on Disqus, emails, and Discord. Despite many wonderful community volunteers, it takes time and effort.

Unfortunately, for me to continue justifying the hundreds of hours I spend on this blog every month - testing, writing, editing, updating my GitHub Repo, etc. I need to find other ways to increase my revenue while continuing to compensate the writers meaningfully for their quality work.

The What

Memberships is my last shot. Therefore, after a lot of conflict with myself, last month I introduced Memberships.

Even managing memberships costs me $300 per year + up to 8% on each payment received. At this point, I am not even close to breaking-even on this cost. But my hope is that eventually it changes.

Become a Member

The How and What to Expect?

My intention was not to make this a pity party; oh, look at poor me, I do so much but no one cares. The truth is, I started doing this because I loved teaching tech and it goes all the way back to 1985 when I taught GW-Basic to some of my friends.

Plus, I will be honest, I have contributed to the projects I believe in but not nearly as much as those projects (and their developers) have helped me. So, I am in no position to judge anyone or complain.

But my hope is that some of you will support the blog through membership so I can continue to bring you some quality content.

What is in it for you?

Membership without benefits is just donations and I already tried that. It did not work. So, I have big plans for members to get their value back. Here are some of the benefits and clarifications:

• Ad-free browsing
• Discord role benefits
• Exclusive BONUS content in the guides - I have no intention of locking content that is essential to the guide. It is against my vision. Rather, bonus sections would provide information on an extra step you could take to gain additional functionalities with your setup.
• Exclusive articles - Mainly value-adding content such as sharing what I do and how I do things. A way to improve upon the guides I already make available freely.
• Giveaway/Raffle entries - via private sponsors-only Discord channel
• Early access to video guides

I am still figuring this out and shoutout to my current sponsors who have been patient while I work through the issues, I have faced in rolling this out.

Hoping for Your Continued Support

Many well-wishers warned me that my model of depending on ad revenue would not be sustainable (some as early as 2014) and that I should look into subscriptions as the world was already moving towards it.

Finally, after 9 years I have realized the same. I am counting on your continued support. If you like what I/we do and believe it is helpful to you please subscribe. In return I will continue to find a way to add more and more value to your homelab journey.

Non-financial Ways to Support

But, if memberships are not your thing, no worries. There are many other ways to show your support (just check the orange box at the end of each post, including this post).

Sharing the content in social media or online forums is one of the best ways to support without incurring any costs.

Be a friend and tell a friend.

From my side, I will do my best to continue what I love doing, for as long as I can.