For the past 4+ years, Improvised Life has published 5 days a week, upwards of 2500 articles and 8000 images. It has been a labor of love, full of pleasures and rewards and, for the past while, serious challenges and demands. Our “reality sandwiches” include 60+ hours a week of Sally’s reporting, writing, and editing original stories, and curating and developing content from over 150 websites… finding, taking and processing photos …paying a part-time assistant, rent, a web programmer, rising server costs: a very long list that doesn’t even include all the ideas waiting to be developed.
Improvised Life is at a crossroads now. For us to continue, we need to pay the bills. We’ve come up with a plan
that we hope will still offer many pleasures, while helping us to thrive, WITHOUT ADS. We don’t want to look like this:
We’re proposing a COLLABORATION between Improvised Life and you. To survive, we need our most loyal readers to become subscribers. We’re asking for painless micro-payments: $1.99/month or $18/year ($1.50 per month)…less than seven cents a day. That’ll get you 4 or 5 new articles each day plus access to our vast archive. If enough people pay just a little bit, we’ll have enough to cover our monthly expenses and to GROW. We’ll post more content and develop the many projects we have in mind to expand the scope and offerings of Improvised Life.
Without your help, Improvised Life could disappear — or, worse, resort to advertising. (You’ve already told us you HATE ads. We do too!)
Here’s how it works: EVERYONE will be able to read ten articles a month for free. If you’d like more, we invite you to subscribe. STARTING TOMORROW, we’ll be launching our new Friends with Benefits subscription program. It’s another big leap for Improvised Life, an experiment in crowd-funding by community.
Will you help us leap?
We’ll announce the easy “How-To Become a Friend With Benefits” tomorrow, Wednesday.
Im in .How do I begin my paymentS
Thanks Sally.
Good price for the rewards I get daily.
maria
Thanks a million for your vote of confidence. Tomorrow’s post will explain all. It’s streamlined and easy.
Sure!
I’m not so against ads, other than I ignore them. You could have a section of ads of things I think are cool.
I’m in – I love your daily posts 🙂
I’m in. It will be very worth it. So, tomorrow then, s
I am happy to think that you have come up with a way to support what you are doing. This sounds like a great idea.
I have been a Friends with Benefits member for quite some time now. I can’t tell you how much more I enjoy the site knowing that I am doing something to help support it. One small problem – when I tried to log in this morning, I had no idea what my password is or even that I might have one. When I entered my email address to get password help, it didn’t recognize my email.
The other day you posted a list of Friends with Benefits and my name wasn’t on it. I assumed that was because I had perhaps asked to anonymous?
Please let me know what more I need to do. Thank you, Ellen
THANK YOU. This is SOME leap!
Hi Ellen, All the old Friends with Benefits members were sent emails some time ago saying that their Paypal Friends with Benefits accounts had been closed. (We should have known some would end up in Spam!) I’m sorry if you didn’t see one.
The NEW Friends wiht Benefits pay system is not up-and-running. Before you can log-in, you need to go to the Friends with Benefits page and officially subscribe through Tinypass and set up your login info. Once you’ve set up your Tinypass account, you can login to Improvised Life and access all of Improvised Life.
Sorry for the confusion. It should go smoothly now.
Thanks deeply for your support.
What a great idea. I’m so glad that you will be continuing.
Thank you Elizabeth. We WANT to continue and are hoping that a collaboration with our readers will help us do so, so that it will be painless and full of joy for all (: .
Sign me up.
Thank you Mr. Marchbanks!!! BTW What does LLD signify?
LEAP ON! I am IN!
Wow, I am knocked out by all these sweet messages. Thank you Louise!
Yes! Your daily posts are inspiration and edification! – the best of what is on the web. I save them all and am so appreciative of your efforts to continue without ads. I’m very happy to support your good work.
Ich dien, Pandora
Happy to help with a subscription/donation. I look at this site when I need a break from my work. and I share articles with some of my colleagues. Look forward to your message tomorrow.
I’m in. Every day I scan my e-mail to find the one from Improvised Life, knowing there will be something there to inform, teach or just amuse me. A little cash is the least I can do.
Improvised Life enriches my life! It’s part of my morning routine … a source of inspiration and “food for my soul”…and The Improvisational Cook is a favorite on my cookbook shelf.
Ha, a two-in-one! Thanks so much for your heartening words.
Yearly subscription? Done.
Of the avalanche of blogs I read, there are only two I’d consider paying for. This is one. Hope this works out for you, Sally.
I’ve said before that I look forward to your posts every day. So often they contain just what I need and your archives are often a first resort for me as well. In fact, as recently as yesterday, they gave me the answer (a source for Akari-style paper lanterns without dropping thousands to hang them throughout my house).
Peace,
RC at Catbird Farm
I am more than willing to pay for your great source of inspiration, motivation, creation and kick in the butt! I need that from time to time as I live in Shanghai! Thank you!
Brigitte