I stopped
charging for access to the Global Sourcebook for International Data Management
(https://www.grcdi.nl/gsb/) in November 2014 – almost ten years ago. I wanted the information to
be made as widely available as possible, and administering the paid version
updates was laborious - I hoped instead to be able to cover my costs and
continuing workload through sponsorship and donations. After all, I watched how
Wikipedia raked in millions each year, and their international data information
was, and is, poor, contradictory between pages and languages, and, in some
cases, years out of date. My resource is by no means perfect, but by comparison
it is 4500 pages of pure gold, pared, pruned and improved for over 30 years.
Surely it would be no problem to get funding, especially as some customers were
concerned that I would stop updating the resource without subscriptions, so
they’d be the first to contribute.
Right?
Wrong.
I detest
advertising on so many levels, but if it must be, surely rather advertising
which reflected the information shown on the webpage rather than that which was
“personalised” through pernicious spying and stalking. So I approached
companies in the world of international data management and quality. People
viewing the pages of the Global Sourcebook would be a perfect match for their
services, and association with this respected resource would surely be a plus
for any company in our sector. Alas, there was little interest – they preferred
to trust their luck with Google and co. And as for donations … well, though the
link for donations had around 1.5 million page views in those years, the number
of donations was a disappointing. One, to be exact, providing a total income in
that decade of 2 Euro cents per month.
OK, I get
that business users are less likely to contribute – they have to go through
overcomplicated internal processes to get access to even minor amounts, and the
one contribution was from another sole trader – but the extent of the
disinterest is still rather sobering. Finally, I had to give in and activate
Google AdSense for the Global Sourcebook. I chose the least pernicious options I could – no
personalization, no tracking, no this, no that. And yet still I receive a few
cents per day from those ads, more than I received in any given year when
relying on voluntary donations. Why people would click on those ads is a
mystery to me, but much is a mystery to me when it comes to my fellow man.
The bills
continue to come in. The resource is used and admired, but nobody wants to
support it with cold, hard cash. What does a man have to do to cover his costs?
Answers on a postcard please ….
