Since we launched our Friends with Benefits subscription service, we’ve thankfully had few glitches. Occasionally, however, a subscriber writes to say that they get the KnockKnock curtain telling them they’ve used up their five free reads for the month and can’t access more unless they subscribe. But they ARE subscribed. What to do?
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While we take much needed time off this August, we want to make sure our Friends with Benefits get full value for their subscriptions. We’d planned to simply add an extra month to all subscriptions, but have encountered unexpected technical difficulties. We hope you’ll bear with us during our hiatus and know that we’re working on a solution.…
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When we launched our new Friends with Benefits subscription programs, a number of people asked if we chose $18 as amount for a yearly subscription because 18 is a lucky number. “No, we didn’t.” we said, Tell us more!”.
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With thanks for your many generous ways of supporting and collaborating with us!
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One of the many unexpected materials artist Holton Rower uses to make his art is money —physical paper money— rolled, folded and fashioned into all manner of unexpected scuptures. His concrete block filled with tightly-rolled bills resonates strongly with us. Like Rower’s illuminating art works, money + energy + creativity = something unique and tangible.
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Seth Godin recently reposted In Search of Meaningful, an article he wrote six years ago when the New York Times first instituted their paywall. It’s about what kind of digital content is truly valuable and worth paying for. He asked three questions to self-test the value of the content you/we are producing or are reading:
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Clear profit. We DO have that in the sky, friends and our daily interactions with our readers, who always surprise.Can that profit pay the bills and all that goes into making Improvised Life? The jury’s out. It makes us wonder: What IS this stuff called money, really? Our friend Holton Rower makes art out of it!
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When we saw the image of a person sitting on the very edge of Norway’s Trolltunga, we thought: THAT’s how we feel 14 days after having launched our Friends with Benefits Subscription program and charging a tiny amount after our readers have enjoyed ten free reads per month. We’ve likened it a LEAP as we risk finding out whether our many readers will pay 5 or 6 cents a day to keep what they say they love going. The gist: we can’t live without you.
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We’re ten days into our Friends with Benefits subscription program and heartened by the response. After an initial surge, subscriptions have leveled off, with an unexpected increase in readers. What is most surprising is that about a third of our subscribers gave MORE than the base price. Each subsription is like a gift. It was WONDERFUL to receive some revenue just as the…
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It has been quite a couple of days since we LEAPT and launched our new Friends with Benefits subscription program. We’ve been knocked out by the generous outpouring of support in subscriptions, comments and emails sent. We are deeply touched and heartened. Thank you for being SO there. Photo via SF Girl By the Bay via…
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Today’s the day! We’re throwing our baby up in the air, and we hope you’ll help us catch her! Today we start our Friends with Benefits subscriptions. If you subscribe, you continue to receive all Improvised Life posts and full access to our vast archive. If not, you’ll be able to read ten posts per…
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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…
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A couple of weeks ago, after we posted our invitation/plea to become a ‘friend with benefits’ and support ‘the improvised life’, we received quite an outpouring of support, from subscription sign-ups to one-time donations to messages of how much our daily postings mean to our readers. Our favorite was this one: Hi, Love your work…
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One of the things we love the most here at The Improvised Life is the sense of community we feel with our readers. We get some amazing feedback, and what we hear more often than not is that you love to wake up to the little tidbits of inspiration we post here bright and early…
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When we did our 2-minute survey, we discovered that A LOT of our readers love that there are no ads on ‘the improvised life’, that we are not trying to sell them something. Not having advertising is easier-said-than done: ads provide revenue that pays for the production costs of content. No ads = no $$.…
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If you find yourself looking forward to our posts in your inbox every morning, or thinking differently because of what you find on ‘the improvised life’, please help us continue to fly ad-free. Become a Friend with Benefits to lend your monthly support AND link to the community. via The Boston Globe Related posts: thanks…
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Two years ago, I started ‘the improvised life’ based entirely on the feeling that it needed to exist. Many people I knew were in critical transitions in their lives and facing the risk involved in new endeavors. A website about improvising as a daily practice—living more resourcefully and thinking outside-the-box—seemed timely. Creating this site was…
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