It's time for an AMERICAblog-athon :-)

I was scolded recently by a fellow blogger who said I need to occasionally put up appeals for donations. And I admit, I've always hated asking for money - it's why I'm not rich yet - but being a blog-activist is a job, and I think today you guys got a sense of how much so. Not just for me, but for all the bloggers and for all the activists out there.

People have sometimes said to me, "hey, you write news updates on a Web site, or on an email list, how long can that take? And it doesn't really cost you anything?" Well, if you're independently wealth it doesn't cost you a dime. But if you work for yourself at home, it costs you a day's salary not working for clients. This story has already taken the last 24 hours of my time, up until 2:30am last night and all day today until now. Not to mention, the heads of the big gay rights nonprofits are paid $200k a year. I think the advocacy the bloggers, and other independent players out there, do is worth just as much if not more than the "achievements" of some of the big non-profits over the past year.

Now, I do this kind of advocacy because I love it and it makes me feel like I'm making a difference, which is something I want to do. I'm not complaining. But it does help to be able to pay rent and, well, to eat. And you don't get to do that by spending half your time blogging instead of working for clients.

So, if the spirit moves you, some turkee would be most welcome to help subsidize the work we all do here (I promise to share the donations with the other writers here on the blog as well). And just so you know, we get next to nothing from the ads. It ends up being a couple hundred bucks a month, which is great, but hardly a living (especially when split between 5 of us here).

You can click the "donate" button at the top of the blog, or you can send a check or whatever you like via the mail to:

JOHN ARAVOSIS
PO Box 21831
Washington, DC 20009

Your donations are unfortunately NOT tax-deductibe. I always figured it was safer that way, gives me more freedom to say what I want.