PSA: New Features, Ad Methods

Hello, dear darling readers.  This is one of those posts about how we make the delicious sausage around here, along with some doodads we added for your reading pleasure.

Servers Gotta Eat

As most of you know, we don’t do a lot of advertising around here. This is because I have very strong opinions on Internet advertising, and because nobody ever became successful doing things the same way as everyone else. We like BlogAds, because they let us make sure we only put interesting (and primarily independent) advertisers in front of you, and because, as a company, they are decidedly un-evil.

Our newest ad tool is the widget you’ll see immediately to the right of this wall of words. (*FULL DISCLOSURE* I do freelance work as a copy writer for the company that provides the widget.) We’re working with them on commission basis, if a deal sells we get a percentage of the providing company’s take.  The editorial staff has a lot of input about which deals are offered, and we welcome your input as well.  It might be the next big thing in Internet ads, and I like the idea of being on the front end of that trend, especially if it means we can buy shit we like for cheap and feed the hungry, hungry server.

So now we have the following options if you want to help support PMag:

1. Click on the Blog Ads to visit our advertisers.

2. Buy deals from the widget.

3. Subscribe to the Kindle edition of Persephone Magazine.

4. Buy a mug from our Zazzle store. (Current designs will retire in December.)

5. Donate with the PayPal button on the bottom of the sidebar.

6. Continue to be the awesome, engaged, bookish and clever readers and community members we love so much.

New Stuff for You

You’ll notice the new Mood Thingy, a rating tool with the best name ever. It offers a lot more choices than a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, and allows us to track what stories and features you all enjoy, and where we can improve as a team.

I killed a handful of features over the past few weeks in my never ending quest for speedy load times AND all the features our readers and lurkers would like. We get closer all the time, and I appreciate your patience as we play with different things. The Facebook fan box with the little pictures was out of date and spawning a ton of unnecessary scripts, so it’s gone. You can still like us with the Facebook button on the top of the sidebar.  (And please do! Our FB community is a great mix of people.) We also have a lot of fun with the Twitters.

As always, we’re open to your input, concerns, issues and complaints.  Tell us what you think in the comments or with the contact form. We can’t always fix everything, but we’ll always listen.

Have a great Thursday, and here’s a video of a kitten for reading through this whole PSA.