Money is getting hard to come by in right wing circles.

[SoCalDem]

I check pretty much daily and the FR "fund drive" seems to be seriously lagging.. I cannot recal when this QUARTER's drive started, but the goal seems to always be $75K, and it's just now hit the 34% mark.. It was stuck in the low 20's for days..

Methinks ole JimRob may have to get out on the streets of Fresno with a tin cup..

It's getting hard to raise that $300K a year he needs to keep him in Fritos & Mountain Dew :)

[aquart]

1. $300,000 a year?????

To run a website????

[Richard Steele]

3. A CRAPPY, poorly-equipped site that wouldn't be called "state of the art" in 1995.

It's clearly a goddamn SCAM. DU is clearly first-rate,
well maintained, and costs less.

Of course, Skinner hasn't bought any luxury motor homes
last I heard...

[SoCalDem]

8. It's always reminded me of a stream of consciousness rambling conversation

I cannot ever tell who's responding to whom.. and most of the replies are "bump"

[BlooInBloo]

10. I assume the biggest cost is bandwith?

And then next is hardware/software maintenance?

[SoCalDem]

13. Surely bandwidth is not THAT expensive n.t

[Swamp Rat]

2. He should call Jeff Gannon and ask for his client list.

:D

[tanyev]

4. Have you looked at their Alexa Traffic Rank lately?

Oh, they're big stuff all right. :rofl:

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?o=l&c=1&f=555555&u=freerepublic.com&u=&u=&u=&u=&r=max&y=r&z=1&h=300&w=610

[SoCalDem]

5. What's ours?

:shrug:

[tanyev]

6. Ours has always lagged behind theirs for several reasons.

But we don't have a link on our home page bragging about it:

Who reads FR?
Over 200,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic since inception in 1996 and our forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and all around the world. Oh, we're big stuff all right: See Traffic Rank on Alexa.com.


Not only did FR start up a few years before DU, but there are several reasons why you can't rely on the Alexa numbers. One of the mods jumped in and explained it one time. I think it's kind of a self-selecting system, based on how many of your users install the Alexa tool bar. I just think it's funny that their traffic now is even lower than when they first got started.

[SoCalDem]

7. Our "share" price isn't all that bad though

http://www.urladex.com/url/www.democraticunderground.com

[tanyev]

9. Well, that's interesting. Do you play?

I spend so much of my free time here, I can't imagine getting caught up in something like that, too.

[KoKo]

11. And...how many of us have an "Alexis Toolbar" ...I don't and have been here awhile...

:shrug:

[SoCalDem]

12. I don't.. and I don't want one

:)