A little under two weeks ago, something remarkable happened. My 8-year-old laptop broke (due to a botched repair by…well, me), and I asked you, the Malik Report’s readers, to help raise funds for a new laptop in time for the draft and free agency.
It only took a day to raise $1,000 of the approximately $1,500 needed to pay for the laptop; two days later, the laptop was more or less paid for, and I was able to cover the 2020 NHL Draft, 2020 free agency and the ramifications thereof for you on a brand new ASUS laptop.
The way the TMR community mobilized to fund what was a moonshot’s worth of hope was astonishing, at least to me.
Now that I’ve landed on the figurative moon that is a new realm of possibilities for the blog, I took a couple of days to regroup, and now that the Red Wings’ offseason has slowed down from a gazelle’s pace to something slightly slower, it’s time to explore what’s next.
First up is writing, “Thank-you” notes; next is discussing (with you) what comes next.
A podcast is in the infancy stages; Wings changes not happening at a break-neck pace any more means more opportunities to write; and then comes the sticky wicket–figuring out a way to pay the bills on a daily basis.
That’s where things get complicated, because the TMR community is fantastic at getting organized to help the blog survive from specific need to specific need (see: the prospect tournament/training camp trip; getting this amazing laptop), but it’s incredibly hard to convince you to commit $5 or $10 a month to help me pay the monthly bills and/or help out with the groceries.
I have a Paypal account at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport and a Patreon, and but I need to know what I can do for you to encourage this wonderful audience to make a longer-term investment in this crazy moonshot that is the Malik Report.
Please comment below or send me an email at rtxg@yahoo.com if you feel that, say, a Patreon-only column or a podcast would afford you more value for your time. I don’t want to resort to posting commercials or stuffing content behind a Patreon paywall unless absolutely necessary, but if that’s what it takes to make this crazy experiment work, then that’s what I’ll have to do.
The moonshot was successful, and now the moonscape of building a sustainable long-term blog needs to be explored.
We made it! Now it’s on to the next goal.
ASUS, Good Choice