I am excited to announce that Abnormal Returns now supports memberships. The most common compliment I get about Abnormal Returns is that it saves you time. We all well know that time is money. A great way to help keep Abnormal Returns an ongoing, independent entity is to contribute to its upkeep at the $25, $75 or $225 level. Please note this is annual, recurring annual membership.*
Monetizing Abnormal Returns has always been a challenge. The site, by design, sends you elsewhere in search of the best investment insight and commentary. This is not conducive to page view-based, traditional forms of advertising. We do run standard banner advertising. We also have affiliate relationships, the biggest by far, being with Amazon Associates. We have even begun offering sponsored links in the linkfests and ads in the daily e-mail. Heck, I even wrote a book.**
Unfortunately these programs help keep the lights on but don’t do a whole lot more than that. That is why I decided to start a Membership program. This will allow our loyal and dedicated readers to help support the mission of Abnormal Returns. I was inspired in large part by the great Jason Kottke at kottke.org who recently launched a membership program.
We are using Memberful to manage membership and Stripe to process payments. You will receive e-mails from them in regards to your payment, membership and future renewals. All you need to complete your order is a Visa, Mastercard or American Express card. If you are in Apple iOS universe you can also use Apple Pay as well.
So what do you get by becoming a member? Well, my thanks and appreciation for one. Many readers in the past have asked me to write a weekly post that highlights the VERY best links from the week. My plan is to start an e-mail like this for members. In addition members can experience an ad-lite experience by signing into Abnormal Returns. We also plan to send along exclusive offers to our members as well.
Some of you will, for any number of reasons, decide not to become members. That’s cool. I get it. Nobody wants to pay for content, let alone some blog that, by and large, links to other blogs. If that is the case there are still ways you can help support the site. Let’s count the ways:
- Turn off your ad blocker (or whitelist Abnormal Returns).
- Join the Abnormal Returns e-mail list.
- Consider making your Amazon purchases through our links.
- We also appreciate your likes on Facebook.
If you are in business there are other ways you could support Abnormal Returns beyond just purchasing a membership. Check out them out below and send me an e-mail to get started.
- Advertise in our daily e-mails.
- Purchase sponsored links in our daily posts.
- Provide exclusive, special offers to Abnormal Returns readers.
- [INSERT] any other crazy idea you might have for us.
Thank you for your continued support of Abnormal Returns. I have had a blast doing it for the past decade and hope to do it for more years to come. If it weren’t for you all I would have quit some time ago.
*If the current plans (Subscriber and Patron) are not sufficient we can always come up with another way you can support Abnormal Returns.
**While I appreciate all of you who bought it, the book didn’t exactly set the world on fire.
