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Lognn t1_iyy2mzj wrote

Doesn't such website need constant upkeep? How is it funded?

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happydazenews OP t1_iyy46lk wrote

I pay out of pocket for upkeep. Currently costs are:

  • hosting - 40$/month
  • Domain Name - 35$/year
  • Stock Image Subscription - 50$/month
  • Linktree - 8$/month
  • Stock Video Subscription (new) - 200$/month
  • Spell/Grammar Check Service - 5$/month

And you might be thinking well what's in it for me to be spending so much money for and well to be honest I was feeling a little down myself and organizing and compiling good and positive news stories has helped me lift my spirits. The roughly nine months which I have been working on this site I can unequivocally say it has improved my over all out look on the world and its given me a second wind to strive to be the best version of myself, and that is honestly priceless. Also it makes be feel good to be of some use to my community it gives me some pride/ satisfaction knowing I might be helping someone out there. someone who had the same problem as me.

In the future, if cost of upkeep continues to rise, I would consider maybe doing some merchandise to generate some revenue, but I pledge that this website will never have ads/sponsored posts or any other form of advertisement.

Ads accomplish the exact opposite than the purpose of a good news website they are annoying and irritating, and some are even designed to make you feel less than. F Ads respectfully.

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muricabrb t1_iyz3all wrote

Merchandise is a great way to raise funds, you can also try going the patreon/substack route. I'd be happy to send a few bucks your way every month to support this project.

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happydazenews OP t1_iyz5pl7 wrote

Yes merchandise would be great! I really appreciate your kind words. I am planning on making more YouTube content about the articles on the website and once I have a few videos I think I'll launch a patreon or something similar, but for now I am just accepting donation from our contribute page.

https://happydaze.io/contribute/

Thanks again for the wonderful suggestion!

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muricabrb t1_iyz6k06 wrote

I think a focus on short form content on YouTube and tiktok will drive a ton of traffic to your site. The kind of content you have is perfect for infobytes.

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PandaKing185 t1_iz0bffb wrote

Honestly you could go for an optional subscription of some sort and make it dirt cheap like $3/month. I know many people (like myself) want to support this but would rather do it monthly, and if you offer it in the app non-intrusively with just a single reminder then you'd probably get the exposure to make those $3/month subscriptions add up. Maybe add a couple perks that wouldn't seem unfair like dark mode or priority when submitting articles or something. Giving attribution to who submitted the article would probably also boost submissions if you go that route.

Also I'm a software developer and would love to volunteer my free time to bring it to Android or implement features if you need more assistance. It's a great idea that I can get behind. Just give me a DM if you're interested

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rndname t1_iyy51we wrote

> hosting - 40$/month

Hosting shouldn't cost that much.

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happydazenews OP t1_iyy5o6a wrote

Its has other features like SSL Certificate and helps with some integrations like Zappier and SEO but I appreciate you telling me. I will look into alternatives.

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rndname t1_iyy69ve wrote

If it has all the features you want and makes it easier to get stuff done then it makes sense. I would go with cloudflare, AWS or GCP myself.

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troymandarin t1_iyzkwzy wrote

Digital Marketing guy here. $40 per month is pretty reasonable tbh, depending on what your zappier integration is doing of course and if it includes support on that. I made a small donation but I’d be happy to help you out with seo/e-commerce related questions or strategy advice. I wouldn’t want to charge

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Reddnit t1_iyzym7a wrote

Love the website. Recommend checking out services such as canva if it's available where you are.(Popular service here in Oz 🦘) It should meet your image/video requirements at a fraction of the cost.👍

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