ELI Financial Issues

[Matthew Chan]

For those of you who did not read it, my response letter to Lawyer Julie Stewart took two hours to craft and yet everyone can freely read it to learn from. This hasn't been the first time I have been asked to respond and it won't be the last.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/index.php/topic,2346.msg3688.html#msg3688

I had to go digging back and do some online research. I also had to cross-reference and verify some information.  All of this took lots of time but I thought it was worthwhile to provide a solid and substantial response vs. a weak and short response.

I am bringing this up not so that I can get a pat on the back.  I did it because I truly believe in the cause and giving it my very best effort.  Unfortunately, it takes a lot of my personal time to "do it right".

Having said all that, I rarely bring up the financial issue of Paypal contributions for this website. However, ELI (through my not so small piece of my personal and professional time) needs a a substantial increase in financial support.  Many people have contributed over time but many more have not.  I am not reprimanding anyone. I am simply stating what has been occurring.  I am also not trying to guilt anyone to contribute to ELI.  It is entirely your judgment call the value you receive and the degree you believe ELI needs to continue to exist. I am simply appealing to your sense of fairness and equity. I am also asking for your help. If you know my personality, you know I don't ask it easily or casually.

One thing I want to remind everyone is that you received one extortion letter from a copyright troll, you can receive another in the future by another copyright troll.  Especially those of us who have been on the web and involved with websites for many years.  IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN TO ANY OF US!  The question is:  do you want ELI and its resources to still be around if and when it happens AGAIN? Or do you prefer to fend for yourself outside this safe community of known and well-established people?

The fact of the matter is that the stock photo industry wants this site to die and go away. They are watching ELI closely.  I know this by my website traffic logs.  Copyright trolling is NOT going away.  It is increasing!  Although our efforts are a blip in the big scheme of their collection efforts, I believe it is enough of an annoyance to them.  We turn up in their search engine searches. We are a black eye to their PR efforts. As a community, we have a large mind-sharing base to draw from.

In 2012, I will be making announcements of some planned major changes.  Part of that will have to acknowledge the financial component of my time to keep the ELI community together.  Quite frankly, I am currently the primary person that coordinates with all the moving pieces both in personnel and technology. Yes, I use technology to help but my time is still very much in the mix.

I am committed to keeping ELI (as you currently know it) open until the end of 2011.  That is all I know for certain for now.  I have announcements but it is contingent on a few things.  All I know is that ELI will be needing more financial support in 2012. And if ELI does not receive sufficient support, ELI will dramatically and quickly downgraded and everyone will be hurt.

If you would like to make a Paypal Contribution now, that would be great. If you would like to pledge support in January, that is ok. Send me a private message or post here.  It is based on the honor system.  If you want to hear more about what is being planned in 2012 before contributing that is ok too.

I have taken ELI as far as I can with the relatively few Paypal contributions and non-financial resources I was able to scrape together and assemble.  Unfortunately, I cannot pay bills with only non-financial resources and non-financial contributions.

I hate to bring this up but I spent a LOT of time today on ELI on various issues when I should have been working on something else. I had planned on bringing this up sometime in December but I figured now would also be appropriate.

Do you want me to keep ELI running in 2012? Does it matter to you?  Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

Matthew

[Crying-out-Loud]

Hello all! please help this site to grow and to stay around. I am not affiliated, but I got great help from it. A site like this demands a lot of sacrifice of personal time and money. Show your appreciation as well!

[Matthew Chan]

Thanks for that.  I am not much of a beggar.  I will ask once or twice and be done with it.

All I can equivocally say is that a HUGE amount of time goes into this.  There are some quiet times but I can tell you the last 3 days I have burned up a LOT of hours on ELI issues that could have been used in my other businesses.

This time around Oscar and I had to fend off attacks and accusations from H.A.N lawyers!

Matthew

[Digitizer3k]

Matt and Oscar -

A "thank you" and a suggestion for improved revenue for ELI.

First...  Thanks for your work in putting this site together and to Oscar for including his expertise.  I was one of the Riddick email recipients and found your site several months after getting his first outrageous email.  Wish I had found it sooner.  It was very comforting to read your information.  I had already hired an IP lawyer at that point and it cost me a couple thousand dollars in fees that I could have saved 90% of by using Oscar's response service.

According to some posts here the image company "letter program" is now 50% of the income for some of them, so your website is important now and will become even more important as time goes on and more of these image companies resort to these tactics to maintain their businesses.  

While Riddick seems to have crawled back under his rock for now, I still ENJOY reading your website and keeping up with the topic.  In fact, the Righthaven saga has been more entertaining than most Hollywood movies on the market today.   I'm sure it would not be "entertaining" if I had been on the receiving end of one of their lawsuits, but you have to admit that the smack-down they've received from the courts and from their intended victims has been great example of karma.  :-)  

Here's my suggestion...  

I forget to donate on a regular basis even though I read your site on a regular basis.  I just forget to click that donate button.  If you would make a Paypal SUBSCRIPTION button, as well as the regular donate button, I'd click that one and set up a regular contribution to your site.  Frankly, it's worth at least $5 a month to me just in ongoing educational value to read your forum, even though I am not currently in the cross-hairs of one of these companies.  

Another suggestion is that you would benefit by making the donate or subscribe buttons appear more frequently throughout your site.  I KNOW how much of a pain it would be to go back through your site and add the buttons to multiple places, but it would sure increase your cashflow.  

For example, if each article or at least each page had a place where people could click to donate or subscribe, along with an appeal such as... "Has this article been worthwhile to you?  If so, please donate to help defray the costs of providing it."   Etc.  I am sure you could word that in a way that works for you, but it's a good way to go.

Finally, I'd suggest you consider a true subscription site model.  People would pay to get into this site at the moment when they receive their letter.  Make a $50 signup fee and an ongoing fee of $5 a month to continue membership.  I think your cashflow problems would disappear.  By the way, I use the term "cashflow problem" loosely.  I'm sure you're not actually having cashflow problems, but you are probably looking at the time invested in keeping this site going vs the income from it and asking yourself why you would put in a lot of your time at 50-cents an hour that you could be using for your real business.  I get that.  Just using the term "cashflow problem" as a shorthand description of the situation.

[Oscar Michelen]

All good suggestions

[Matthew Chan]

Digitizer,

I like a lot of your ideas.  I will definitely look into them. Thanks for your support and hanging out with us.

Matthew