I hope that you get at least 10 cents worth of knowledge, entertainment, and motivation each day from SurvivalBlog. It has been posted with fresh content daily, since 2005. In all these years I’ve only missed posting on a few days — most notably in the week after my first wife passed away.
I do my best to mention the Ten Cent Challenge editorially only once each year — and this post is it, for 2024.
Unlike PBS, we don’t run agonizingly endless pledge drives. But we do depend on voluntary subscriptions to pay the blog’s bills. These expenses include: paying our staff writers, the local ISP monthly bill, our web hosting server, domain registrations, news service subscriptions, payments for stock photos, phone bills, liability insurance, legal expenses (we were threatened with lawsuits three times by stock photography scam lawyers in 2023), maintaining our remote backup server, post office box rental, and providing a small portion of the writing contest prizes. With inflation, nearly all of our costs are escalating. But we still ask for only 10 cents per day. That is just $36.50, per year.
The PayPal Exodus
Back in September and October of 2022, there was an understandable mass exodus from PayPal. That cost us, because of subscription cancellations. About 30% of our subscriptions vanished, soon after PayPal’s censorious intentions were revealed publicly. I do not blame anyone for quitting PayPal. Our readers were fully justified in doing so. But losing those subscriptions hurt our cash flow quite badly. And, as I’m sure you recall, three years ago, we quit the Amazon.com Associates program. Previously, the Amazon commissions had covered most of our expenses.
I greatly appreciate the 2.5% of readers who do choose to subscribe. Subscriptions are entirely voluntary. If you’ve never subscribed before, then please become a subscriber. And if you are one of the many folks that quit PayPal and thus had your SurvivalBlog subscription lapse, then please “re-up”, through the following methods:
- Sending us a check, money order, cash, “forever” postage stamps, or silver, by mail.
- Via GabPay. That is now our preferred payment method. My GabPay “@” address is: JamesWesleyRawles
If paying for your subscription via mail, then please use this address:
SurvivalBlog
P.O. Box 303
Moyie Springs, Idaho 83845
And if you still have a PayPal account, our PayPal address is unchanged. It is: james@rawles.to
A New Contingency PlaN: SurvivalBlog Old School (S.O.S.)
I don’t need to remind you that we are living in perilous times. The Biden regime has gone to war against conservatives, libertarians, Christians, and homeschoolers. They have weaponized the FBI, DOJ, and ATF to harass and prosecute us.
As I mentioned in early December of 2023, we are developing the infrastructure to produce an “Old School” hardcopy mailed newsletter, starting in 2024. We plan to be ready to revert to distributing a paper newsletter that is sent out by traditional mail, for if and when SurvivalBlog is expunged from the Internet’s World Wide Web. (“Taken down.”) I’ve dubbed this contingency project: SurvivalBlog – Old School (S.O.S.)
For security, the only copies of the mailing list (with subscriber USPS addresses) will be kept on a pair of tiny Micro-SD cards, and both of those will be very well hidden. We will also keep our burn barrel and plenty of diesel fuel handy, for the event that we ever need to do a “full burn” — including not only those Micro-SD cards, but also our hard drives.
We should have everything we need for the newsletter project on hand by the end of February. The S.O.S. Newsletter subscribers will most likely receive just ONE newsletter in March of each year, as confirmation that they are on the contingency mailing list. The snail mail envelopes that you receive will have your address on an adhesive label, with an identical label in the upper-left corner. If we get booted off of the Internet and must go “Old School”, then you will be mailed hardcopy S.O.S. Newsletter issues more often – probably 3 to 6 issues per year, as circumstances dictate.
If you want to be on the S.O.S. Newsletter contingency mailing list, then please add $50 to your annual subscription payment. If you send $86.50 or more and you make any mention of “Newsletter” “303” “SOS”, or “505” inside your payment envelope or on your check, then I will add your address to our Micro USB stick for the S.O.S. Newsletter mailing list. Thanks!
Other Ways To Help
You can also support the blog indirectly, by patronizing our loyal banner advertisers and our affiliate advertisers. By the way, if you operate a business that sells goods or services that would appeal to SurvivalBlog readers, then please consider becoming a SurvivalBlog advertiser, or donating prizes for our ongoing writing contest.
Note: If you are on a tight budget, then please support our publication only with prayer.
A Request for Bequests
And I have one other request: Please remember SurvivalBlog in your will. The next time that you update your will, please consider designating a modest dollar figure or a small percentage of your estate for your will’s executor to send to SurvivalBlog. I’m confident that those small bequests will keep the blog going, multi-generationally. You won’t live forever, and I won’t live forever. But I’m confident that one of my sons or a trusted friend will step up and continue to post SurvivalBlog uninterruptedly, with the same style, substance, and unswerving editorial focus.
May God grant that SurvivalBlog continues to be a beacon of truth!
With Many Thanks, and Wishing You God’s Blessings,
– Jim Rawles