We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

by smectos • 14 years ago

55 20 14 years ago

Mz7• 14 years ago

Yeah, and I need about $1200 to pay my taxes from last year. And I'm homeless, deeply in debt, and trying to declare bankruptcy. So?

Why is this begathon posted here?

bmelton5• 14 years ago

Because Soma provides a donation-only service that many of us consume, and it is very likely that many of us would rather pony up a little cash than see it go away.

Mz7• 14 years ago

I run several websites that provide free information. They take donations. I am trying to figure out how to get traffic and effectively monetize them. Sounds to me like Soma needs to work on their business model.

wiwillia• 14 years ago

Because we love soma.fm - it's a free service that many of us enjoy

Mz7• 14 years ago

I have gone to lunch and come back. It was amusing to watch the upvotes and downvotes for my remarks before I left. That seems to still be going on.

I appreciate that you love it. But that is exactly why they don't need a begathon and shouldn't have one. They could post their donation goal for the month on the site (at the beginning of the month) and post regular updates as to how much they have gotten so far. If it is looking to be a shortfall, an email to their subscribers would be appropriate. No begging required. They offer something of value and they need something of value in return to keep it going. That requires communication, not begging.

And, frankly, with an established audience and relatively highish monthly inflow, at this point they should be hiring someone with experience to help them raise and manage an endowment so one slow month doesn't threaten to take them off the air. Their begathon loudly announces that their business model needs work as it isn't being handled very professionally or responsibly.

I did a lot of volunteer work over the years and I have studied how Not-For-Profit models work. I am not just talking out my ass here.

Peace and carry on.

fourstar• 14 years ago

Care to be a little less heartless? SOMA FM is great and helps many of us get through the day at our jobs.

Mz7• 14 years ago

Care to be a little less heartless. SOMA-FM is great and helps many of us get through the day at our jobs.

That's an extremely funny (ironic) remark to make to someone who is in the kind of deep doo doo I am in through no fault of my own. My debts are due to getting myself well when the rest of the world not only said it could not be done but actively tried to hinder my efforts. I could, instead, be using many thousands of dollars per year (or even month) of medical care at taxpayer expense. No one cares that I am saving them money and very few people care that my situation is incredibly unjust.

Peace and carry on, Mr. (or Ms.) Big Hearted.

SkyMarshal• 14 years ago

Maybe if the subject line was a little more explicit about why, for what, more people might click it. Example:

Still need to raise $1599 to stay commercial-free - underground/alternative Internet radio broadcasting from San Francisco.

Both my own personal experience and text-ad studies I've seen suggest that specific, concrete info drives higher value click-throughs (eg, more people willing to use or pay or your product).

hbeaver• 14 years ago

I didn't realize they were that short, so I donated, again. As a listener (as I type this), I appreciate the post.

douglasisshiny• 14 years ago

As a very new listener (as of like 15 minutes ago), I was happy to chip in a bit. Already hooked to the ambient station.

Even though it seems they'd prefer never to have ads, I wouldn't mind them having a few advertisements at the top of every hour, or some similar arrangement. I wonder how much sparse ad placement would help.

famousactress• 14 years ago

I'd forgotten about 'guestbook' pages on web sites!

mappu• 14 years ago

I listen to DI.FM at work. The free streams are ad-supported, but the only ads i ever get are tasteful ones for their own premium service (which lets you listen ad-free in higher quality), seems like a pretty sustainable model.

Oh, they've been running ads for AlienVPS recently, which is actually kind of relevant to my work. : )

shawnc• 14 years ago

Just wanted to say this was the first i'd heard of SomaFM, and am checking it out now. So far - pretty good!

We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

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