Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 01, 2006
Baseball Musings Pledge Drive

One year ago today Baseball Musings became a full time job. I hoped at the time that:

this site can become self-sustaining, generating enough income to support my family.

I asked you, the readers, to help kick start the effort, and you responded with a generous $3000. I thank every one of you from the bottom of my heart. Since then advertising revenue increased steadily. I want to especially thank Brian Borawski for acting as my agent those first few months, sending advertisers this way. Jamie Mottram promoted the pledge drive on Sports Bloggers Live. Ray Garcia of TPSRadio.net invited me to broadcast a weekly radio show, which also helped expand the audience for Baseball Musings. I'd also like to thank all my blogging buddies who sent readers this way during the pledge drive.

While revenue is growing, costs are growing as well. Baseball Info Solutions, the company that provides updates for the Day by Day Database and the Probabilistic Model of Range is charging me full freight this season after giving me a break in 2005. The increased traffic and disk space needed to store the databases more than doubled my hosting costs. So while I've moved closer to supporting my family with this site, I'm not there yet.

So once again, I'm asking for your help. If every individual who visits this site in March gives $1, Baseball Musings can be written full time for a year. If everyone donated $10, the money raised would sustain this site indefinitely.

So consider donating $10 to this site. If you're a long time reader, if you found something useful through a Google search, even if you just like to come here and complain in the comments, please be part of this site with a contribution. Any amount is fine.

And, in best NPR fashion, there are premiums. For a donation of $50, you will be get to dedicate a post. The dedication should be in good taste and may contain a hyperlink. For a contribution of $500, you can join Jan in Wellesley as a Patron on the side bar for two years, including a hyperlink.

Donations can be made via Amazon, PayPal or Click and Pledge (new this year). Just click on the button of choice below. There are a number of people who won't use PayPal, and Amazon limits contributions in a one month period. Click and Pledge will process a credit card without making you sign up for an account. This is my first time trying that company, but they've been very helpful so far. Please let me know if there are any problems. Click and Pledge does pop up a window for the donations, so if your browser blocks those, you can go to a new page here.

Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More
Online donation system by ClickandPledge

Thanks to everyone who helped make this site a success by reading, commenting on and recommending the posts here. With your monetary support, Baseball Musings can continue to bring you a fresh perspective on the game and explore new ways of presenting information about the national pastime. Help Baseball Musings continue to grow by making a generous donation today.

Update: People are using Click and Pledge successfully, so feel free to make your donation that way.


Posted by David Pinto at 06:52 AM | Blogs | TrackBack (2)
Comments

Done and done! Come on people, donate $10 to David! Don't be a sucker! You know you can afford it, but you can't afford not having this site or it's great statistics!

Posted by: sabernar at March 1, 2006 07:52 AM

Hope that worked - I used the click&pledge and it looked like everything went through fine. Good luck with the drive this year and keep up the great work! Love this site!

Posted by: James Varghese at March 1, 2006 10:00 AM

I will do so as soon as I return from my spring training trip next week!
Kind of new to the site and I don't even try to understand everything, but I love it!

Posted by: Boomer at March 1, 2006 11:02 AM

Gotta respect you for taking this full time and really working to make a living out of your passion. $10 donation has been given. Hope enough others do the same to really make a difference.

Posted by: Jason at March 1, 2006 11:57 AM

I've only been visiting this site for about 3 days, but it's a wonderful site, so I gave $10. Keep up the great work.

Posted by: Kyle at March 1, 2006 10:43 PM

David, suerte en el 2006. Baseball Musings es Numero #1 Geoffrey Gonzalez

Posted by: 1-800 BEISBOL at March 5, 2006 10:14 PM

David, suerte en el 2006. Baseball Musings es Numero #1 Geoffrey Gonzalez

Posted by: 1-800 BEISBOL at March 5, 2006 10:16 PM

David: I am a first time reader, but willing to make a donation. However, none of the formats are attractive. How about an address (P.O. Box) for donations? Do you have a fielding chart for shortstops similar to the one you posted for second basemen? I am an avid Omar Vizquel fan. Thanks.

Posted by: Constance Butera at March 6, 2006 01:51 PM

I hate to be a party pooper, but I'm not interested in donating to a site to help "support a family". It's great that this is your passion, but why should we pay for it? Get more sponsors that have money to burn for advertising.
Good luck to you.

Posted by: Mikey at March 20, 2006 11:31 PM

Good site for info and will spread the word to donate. check out our site www.YankeesGM.com

Posted by: YankesGM.com at March 27, 2006 09:54 AM

i sent in my $10 today paypal. this is the best blog on the net. i read it everyday. no one has better information or cares more about our favorite pastime. support this site. support david

Posted by: gerald at March 30, 2006 03:03 PM

thanks for all the great work you do! my $10 is on it's way! it was through your database i found a startling discrepancy between Kirby Puckett and Don Mattingly. With virtually the same career numbers Kirby gets in the HOF first ballot, Donny Baseball no chance.

Posted by: SpinMan at March 31, 2006 10:05 PM
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