{"id":1837473,"date":"2025-03-04T18:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T23:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1837473"},"modified":"2025-04-01T08:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T12:31:11","slug":"pledge-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/03\/pledge-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Membership Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
19 \/ 22<\/div>
<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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We interrupt The Map Room for a pledge break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you may know, I\u2019ve wanted The Map Room to go ad-free for some time. But much as I\u2019d like to get rid of them, Google ads represent something like 60 percent of my website revenue. I launched a Patreon page<\/a> last year, and I\u2019m deeply gratified by the support I\u2019ve received from my subscribers, but to replace my ad revenue I need there to be more of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m launching a campaign this month. Here\u2019s what\u2019s happening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m deactivating Google ads for the entire month of March.<\/strong> If enough new people join my Patreon<\/a> as paid members by the end of the month, the ads will stay off for good. The goal is to reach a total of 22 paid members<\/strong> by March 31\u2014The Map Room\u2019s 22nd anniversary. That number would represent roughly what I\u2019ve been making, on average, from Google ads in recent years\u2014an admittedly modest amount, but it would enable me to walk away from the ad ecosystem completely and still pay the bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Bonus content!<\/strong> I\u2019ve always been an observer and a reporter, not a producer of my own map content, so I\u2019ve always been at a loss to come up with bonus material. It turns out I do have something, though. If I reach my goal of 22 paid Patreon members by March 31, not only will ads stay off for everyone, but paid members (regardless of level) will get exclusive access to a presentation on fantasy maps<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n
A couple of slides from my presentation. I\u2019ll need to reformat them for this go-around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Territory Is Not the Map: Exploring the Fantasy Map Style<\/strong>\u201d is a talk I gave at a science fiction convention in 2019<\/a>. It was not recorded at the time, so I\u2019ll have to re-record it to present it to you here. As a result it won\u2019t likely be ready until late May or June (I am heavily<\/em> spoken for in March and April, and I\u2019ll need to figure out how to record it before I do it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presentation only happens if my Patreon<\/a> reaches 22 paid members by March 31. If I fall just a bit short, ads will still stay off for everyone, but the presentation won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:<\/strong> Subscriptions via Patreon\u2019s iPhone app will be subject to Apple\u2019s 30% in-app purchase fee<\/a>. To ensure those funds go to me instead of Apple, subscribe via the Patreon website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I only get a few new subscribers, or no new subscribers at all, I\u2019ll be in a bit of a conundrum. Do I put the ads back in a more limited way? Do I start winding down the whole operation? (It has<\/em> been 22 years.) I honestly don\u2019t know. The bills have to be paid somehow, but I really, really<\/em> want to get rid of the ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thing is, there is a logic to my running ads here: about half of my traffic comes from search, which is to say, not regular readers. Left to its own devices, Google\u2019s Auto Ads system can generate quite a bit of revenue, several times more than I\u2019m trying to raise here\u2014but does so by just painting<\/em> the site with ads. (I remember the days when Google enforced a limit of three ads per page: I am old.) That\u2019s not just annoying, it\u2019s insulting to readers. And considering I use an ad-blocker myself, and am irritated every time a site blocks me from viewing a page until I turn my ad-blocker off, I\u2019d rather not do that to my readers, regardless of whether they\u2019re first-time or regular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on an editorial level, given that there will be times when I need to be critical of Google Maps<\/a>, it might not be a great idea to rely on Google for so much of my site income. I can\u2019t point to a time in the past 20 years<\/a> where I held my fire because I didn\u2019t want to jeopardize my ad income, but can I rule out that I did it subconsciously?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any fanbase, only a small number will have the enthusiasm or the wherewithal to support a project with their own money. And The Map Room\u2019s fanbase, however stalwart, isn\u2019t huge. I\u2019ve tried funding appeals before, when the audience was larger\u2014limited success. Are there enough potential supporters out there among my regular readers to keep this project going, and without relying on ad revenue? This is, I guess, where I find out. I only need 22 of you<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Changed the title from \u201cPledge Drive\u201d to \u201cMembership Drive\u201d because it\u2019s more precise and this isn\u2019t PBS.<\/em>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We interrupt The Map Room for a pledge break. As you may know, I\u2019ve wanted The Map Room to go ad-free for some time. But much as I\u2019d like to get rid of them, Google… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1837473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housekeeping"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1830710,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/05\/help-the-map-room-go-ad-free\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837473,"position":0},"title":"Help The Map Room Go Ad-Free","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 May 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this year my ad revenue increased nearly tenfold. This obviously led me to conclude that it\u2019s probably time to stop relying on ad revenue, and try moving to a model based on reader support. If you\u2019d like to understand how I came to that contradictory conclusion, read on; otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Housekeeping"","block_context":{"text":"Housekeeping","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/housekeeping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4135,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/03\/fourteen\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837473,"position":1},"title":"Fourteen","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"31 March 2017","format":"status","excerpt":"Today marks The Map Room\u2019s fourteenth anniversary:\u00a0its first posts went live on 31 March 2003. The general consensus is that\u00a0the blog is\u00a0finished as a medium, done in by the\u00a0effective death of RSS (thanks to Google killing Reader), the collapse of\u00a0online advertising (too many publishers chasing too few ads), and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Housekeeping"","block_context":{"text":"Housekeeping","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/housekeeping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6039,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/12\/the-map-room-is-coming-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837473,"position":2},"title":"The Map Room Is Coming Back","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 December 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I've made a decision to restart The Map Room. If all goes well, the new version will go live some time in January 2016\u2014next month. That's the short version. If you're interested in the gnarly details of how I came to this decision, and how I'm going to go about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Housekeeping"","block_context":{"text":"Housekeeping","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/housekeeping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1808576,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/08\/online-map-roundup-for-august-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837473,"position":3},"title":"Online Map Roundup for August 2022","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 August 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"Google Maps sends people looking for abortion providers to so-called crisis pregnancy centres, which discourage the procedure, Bloomberg reports. Also in Bloomberg, Mark Gurman discusses Apple\u2019s plans to expand its advertising business, which apparently includes adding ads to Apple Maps. Apple\u2019s cycling maps now include Hawaii, and its detailed 3D\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1787979,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/10\/ads-and-support\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837473,"position":4},"title":"Ads and Support","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 October 2019","format":"status","excerpt":"Updates to Google\u2019s ad system did a number on the layout of this website, spraying ads everywhere, so I\u2019ve disabled ads until I can get that sorted out. They\u2019ll probably have to come back at some point, because while I like the site without ads,\u00a0it does cost me money to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Housekeeping"","block_context":{"text":"Housekeeping","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/housekeeping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1833029,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/07\/google-maps-navigation-updates\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837473,"position":5},"title":"Google Maps Navigation Updates","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 July 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Google Maps is introducing a speedometer and speed limits to iOS and Carplay; the feature has been on Android since 2019. Meanwhile, Google has pushed back on the claim from one user that pop-up ads were turning up while navigating with Google Maps; rather, they say it was an instance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1837473"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838675,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837473\/revisions\/1838675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1837473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1837473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1837473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}