2014 Donations General Forum Forums

Last year I was very grateful for all the people that donated to the site.. Both in money and posting and contributing information to the site. I am starting a new 2014 thank you for donations topic as I just got a donation from someone and wanted to start a new thread thanking people. I am also reposting below some of the explaination for donations and request for members to contribute projects and other write ups to the site to pass on knowledge.

There are links on the side bars of the main website to donate through paypal. I still would like even more than money to see people contribute articles and content to the site but money is going to be needed also. Unless you indicate otherwise, for those that donate I will be giving credit to those that donate here on this thread for 2014. If you don’t use pay pal I will include an address if you just feel like mailing a check. Again this is totally voluntary and if you can’t afford a donation or just don’t like giving donations on principle then I’m ok with that.

 You might have already noticed that I have been placing links on some of my posts to amazon.com for products I have used on the boat, books I have liked that are marine related, etc.. If someone clicks on one of those links and buys that product or any other product from amazon during that web session, amazon will on many things pay me a very very small commission through their affiliate program. This doesn’t cost you anything extra but if it works out might mean a couple hundred dollars a year to help with the website and justify some of the extra time I hope to spend on it over the next year. If you are someone that purchases products from amazon a lot I would love it if you would come here and click on a link back to amazon just so I can get that small commission regardless of whether it is boat related or not. It could be a way of contributing to the upkeep of the website just by clicking through to amazon from here when you go to buy something. I am doing this with amazon at first simply because I personally purchase a huge amount of stuff from them annually and like their services. I just wish they would pay me a commission on the stuff I purchase (in 2013 we earned about 30 dollars in affiliate fees where people clicked through from the downeaster website. So thank you everyone that did so)

This is actually still the first thing. Donations. However I am being a little more specific. I am asking that if the Boat for Sale section of the website contributed to the sale of your downeaster or purchase of your new loved downeaster that you kick in an acknowledging donation. I don’t care if it is 5 dollars, 50 dollars or a 100 dollars. Just judge for yourself if you gained any value from the website for the process of buying or selling your boat and if you feel it did contribute value then kick in what you feel comfortable with. If things are tight for you too and you can’t afford to donate then don’t worry about it, it is a free service for the community and there is no official obligation at all for using it. For those of you buying one I know that you will be doing lots of great projects in the near futures so you could write up some articles about those projects for us instead Shoot for those of you selling your boats, we would still love to have you hang out and share the wisdom you accumulated while owning your boat with those of us still using ours You don’t have to go away just because you no longer own a DE.

To donate please visit the homepage and you will find a paypal donation button at the bottom right side of the page as well as a link through to amazon that will allow us to receive affiliate earnings from purchases there at no cost to yourself. Click Here to go to home page. I will be giving credit by website username for all donations given on this forum page unless in the donation process you fill out the extra info field and let me know to keep the name of the donor private. I have decided to keep amounts donated private as I don't want this to become a who donated more or less kind of thing. I am sincerely happy for any help monetarily or other help that anyone is able to give.

I am trying to make this simple and non obligatory while at the same time raise funds to help with maintaining the website. If you have any advice or comments on how I could streamline this process better, or make it less invasive if anyone perceives it that way, then please drop me an email at scott@scottcarle.com. I am always looking for advice on how to do stuff better and or easier.