Indie Auto has reached a crossroads. I have just published 900 posts on this website. Meanwhile, I am far enough into retirement that I have been thinking harder about how to best spend my remaining years.
I launched Indie Auto as an experimental blog back when I had a day job. I was getting bored with doing technical writing so wanted to have some fun in my spare time. My inner 10 year old suggested that I create a car blog. Okay!
Indie Auto evolved from a casual to a serious blog
For a while I only worked on Indie Auto when I felt like it. But then I began posting on a regular basis. Since June 2020 I have consistently published around four new or updated posts per week (aside from a few vacation breaks).
I also started to solicit donations. I have greatly appreciated the people who have taken seriously the idea that Indie Auto is reader supported. Even so, there haven’t been enough donations to cover the costs of keeping this website online.
Also see ‘How can the auto history field better support small-scale publishing?’
Financially subsidizing Indie Auto wasn’t a problem when I was working, but it is now because I live on a more modest fixed income.
Indeed, it would be helpful to generate some additional money. At least some of the time I spend volunteering for Indie Auto could instead be spent doing freelance research and writing for pay. So what to do?
Indie Auto will live or die on its level of reader support
Indie Auto now has a high enough readership that it could sell advertising space. However, I just can’t bring myself to go in that direction. At least judging from what I see at other automotive websites, a dependence on ad revenue invariably results in too much clickbait.
The whole point of Indie Auto is to offer something different rather than to repeat the dysfunctions of the rest of the automotive media.
Also see ‘What would happen to auto history media if they outlawed clickbait?’
So Indie Auto’s future belongs to you, dear readers. Do you find our discussions uniquely valuable? If so, please consider making a donation (go here).
Just to be clear, a donation won’t make me like your favorite _______ (fill in the blank: car brand, auto executive, political ideology, etc.) any better. However, a higher level of reader support will keep online our refreshingly independent discussions about the American automobile’s past, present and future.
UPDATE:
Indie Auto has received an encouraging number of new donors as a response to this article. Thank you for your support! Let’s keep the momentum going — if you have been thinking about showing your support for what we do here, now is a good time to take that step (go here).
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
Steve, since you’re asking the question, you really do know the answer. You don’t need to get permission. It was a good run, it’s not about the money, time to close this door and look for another one to open. Collectible Automobile needs your perspectives, but they are too resistant to change. Don’t worry, with your eyes open something worthy of you will appear, and it might be totally different than you would expect! That’s the way the Fates seem to work.
Good work on the 900 articles!
Ron
Ron, I hear what you’re saying and would disagree on the money part. It’s a two-part equation. I need to be more careful about my expenses in retirement so Indie Auto needs to fully cover its hard costs. I’m also a professional researcher and writer so would naturally like to be at least somewhat compensated for my work.
Generating adequate ongoing revenue in this particular market niche has thus far been challenging. However, I think it is worthwhile to crank up a more aggressive fundraising campaign for India Auto. So far, the response has been promising (although fundraising will need to continue, much like with a public broadcasting outlet).
I suspect that trying to write for Collectible Automobile is not a viable option given the way that I’ve criticized that publication. I don’t see another publication that would appreciate the type of writing I do.
Part of the value of publishing Indie Auto is that I don’t have some editor looking over my shoulder and constantly saying, “You can’t do that.” I have even experienced this when I submitted articles on a volunteer basis to another auto history website. Of course, that’s their call: As a freelancer, you’re essentially visiting someone else’s home so you have to play by their rules.
The bottom line is that I’m not interested in cranking out the auto-history equivalent of Big Macs day after day. There are plenty of other folks who do that with greater enthusiasm — and with more technical knowledge about the nuts and bolts of cars (which seems to be what most history sites want).
I suppose I could pivot to writing books, but I think that an automotive blog can have more of an immediate impact. This is why I am trying to make Indie Auto financially sustainable.
So it still comes down to one question: Do you as a reader find what we’re doing here valuable enough to support it?
Absolutely 100% YES. Indie Auto fills a niche that would otherwise be a void. It is a thought-provoking site that is also very enjoyable and informative to read. It is also the only auto blog I currently read so I would not be happy to see it go away.
Steve, so what does it cost out-of-pocket to run the website?
It depends on what you include and how you amortize some equipment costs. The most obvious costs are for website hosting fees, security software, website template updates and e-marketing software (what I use to produce and distribute the weekly newsletter).
To maintain a website of Indie Auto’s complexity I also need a computer with a decent amount of memory and software for photo editing, graphics production and number crunching. Vendors have increasingly shifted to annual subscriptions, which is invariably more costly than buying the software outright and using it for as many years as I can. My computer is now 10 years old, so when I replace it this year I will have to make a meaningful investment in software updates . . . and will be forced to mostly switch to subscriptions. This will lead to some decisions, e.g., if I can’t afford InDesign then no more fake ads.
I take a fair number of photos, so there are camera-related costs, e.g., I’ve gotten great mileage out of a lower-end Canon but it is starting to show its age. Then there are research-related costs, such as a membership in the Society of Automotive Historians and subscriptions to the likes of Automotive News and Collectible Automobile as well as the costs of attending one or two auto shows per year. Oh, and then there are the books. Fortunately, Amazon.com gives them away for free!
Add to all of this some basic costs of doing business such as Stripe/Paypal transaction fees and state-level taxes levied on Indie Auto revenue.
Shall we also discuss labor? As I get my systems down better I have gotten faster at writing. However, a 3,000-word piece could take as long as a week to write, design and edit. Since I shifted to a roughly four-posts-per-week schedule, I have tended to spend around 25-35 hours per week on all aspects of producing Indie Auto. Note that even when I repost content, I tend to spend a fair amount of time updating and often expanding it. That is apparently an unusual practice among auto history media. However, I think that an attitude of continuous improvement is important to advancing automotive history.
If I were covering my basic costs I could have more financial wiggle room to consider taking an occasional trip from where I live, which is on the west coast, to the rustbelt to conduct primary research at a number of libraries and museums. I would argue that one of Indie Auto’s biggest weaknesses has been that I have been almost entirely reliant on secondary research (go here for further discussion).
Yes Steve keep it. I enjoy reading from another perspective about the auto industry especially the domestic ones.
Steve – l do very much like Indie Auto – and have contributed (it was recent and haven’t got my moneys worth yet – so don’t pull the plug yet! lol).
Personally l wouldn’t mind a few ads if that means you would be able to have sufficient funding. l’m on fixed income as well, and my lottery number hasn’t been picked!
Have an appointment – and the “boss” says l have to go!
Thank you for your support, Stewdi. No one should worry about not getting their money’s worth.
Hello;
I like this and read every “issue”. I contributed a bit ago too. Reality is that like Public Radio you need to keep up the drumbeat for reader support (and renewals). Suggested support levels may help too.
Mark
Mark, thank you for your kind words. I’m effectively doing Indie Auto as a volunteer, so it does help to hear when people say that they find the content useful. Otherwise, why bother?
I agree that more could be done to build financial support for the website. I’m working on that as I can, but frankly cranking out the content can consume enough of my time that organizational-development projects don’t receive the consistent attention that they need.
One other factor: Some readers have warned about “cataclysmic consequences” if I continue to cover political topics. I get that the automotive media has historically been so unserious about its journalistic responsibilities that all too many readers seem to expect pabulum, but that goes against my basic training. So if indeed Indie Auto’s coverage does sustain serious blowback, then that suggests to me that it’s time to shift to another field where my approach would find more support.
I am definitely a fan. Please keep it going. Most of the magazines I used to subscribe to (21 at one time) are gone now. I was very pleased when I ran across Indie Auto. I try to contribute to the hobby via my flickr photo site: flickr.com/autohistorian. If there’s anything on the site that you can use, be my guest.
The site has over 114 million views since I began it in 1999.
Alden, thank you for your kind offer — I’ll take a close look at your Flickr site and have added it to our “Bibliography of Links.” I alway appreciate it when folks let me know about websites and social media pages because I can get too narrowly focused (mostly because deadlines perpetually loom).
I also appreciate offers to collaborate. What I’ve noticed is that the auto history field has tended to be more individualistic than other fields I have worked in. I don’t understand that mentality given how the smaller-scale media outlets are arguably similar in capacity to the independent automakers of the early-50s, where no one had the scale and breadth of expertise to be a breakout success. Yet turf battles largely precluded collaboration until it was too late to maximize the benefits from it.
I suspect that the same thing will happen to smaller-scale auto history media. This partly explains why I’ve been including more current events coverage of late. Auto history is looking increasingly like a dying field.