cjmelendez_
Hello lovely readers,
For the last seventeen years we at Rely on Horror (originally founded as REHorror) have worked passionately to bring you content about the horror genre that we all love. We’ve been there with you from the first glimpses of Code Veronica X and Resident Evil Zero to the rise of indie horror on PC, to today, where Resident Evil 7 is out and miraculously amazing. We’ve had a lot of crazy times together, huh? But don’t worry, we’re far from too old for this schtick (even though our site founder and owner Dominik reminds us daily about how it was “back in the day” before Twitch, social media management, and cross-media content made running a site so much more complicated).
Despite our years of activity and healthy following for a niche site, Rely on Horror has never been a decent source of income for anyone involved. Two years ago with our advertisement numbers I worked with Dominik to plot out a pay-per-view model that compensated writers based on post performance. As many of us know, online advertising isn’t the most lucrative source of income with plugins like Adblock or uBlock available — no shame, everyone is in their right to use them against intrusive ads. So while we were able give something where there was nothing, in complete transparency we were never happy with the numbers. Our team is filled with some amazing people, from students, parents, shiftworkers to full-time employees at a variety of industries. They deserve more for their time and commitment to Rely on Horror and supporting the horror genre.
Some months ago, we additionally launched a Patreon with a selection of manageable rewards to compensate our writers better. We’ve had some great chats with our supporters and have had a lot of fun delivering the rewards, and are extremely thankful to all of them for supporting us. Still, we’ve not pulled in very much overall to compensate our writers to what we feel is a respectable amount for the hours of work put in each week to keep this site ticking.
So it’s with that that we come to you today with a clear set of Patreon Goals that will go directly into a third form of paying our staff and contributors: pay-per-post. Listed now on our Patreon page are Goals for $200 a month, $400 a month, and $500 a month to start. If we reach our first goal, we will be able to begin paying a flat rate per contribution to the site in addition to our existing pay-per-view (a rate tied to every 1000 views), and a senior staff salary (~50% of Patreon funds split among several staff members). This means that everyone on our site will receive direct compensation based on their contributions and post performance.
We’re trying to be as competitive as possible with our pay despite our readership being a fraction of other genre-specific sites relying solely on advertisements. Patreon is our means to sidestep this and pay our writers what they’re due for working just as hard as others.
Why should you give us money?
Well, you don’t have to, but it would really help us continue to produce the content you enjoy and more of it! For as little as $1 a month, you can directly support us and receive some exclusive goodies such as a monthly horror film commentary and invites to staff hangouts. Patreon supports currencies from around the world, which aligns perfectly with our diverse international audience. Don’t have a dollar to spare? Consider whitelisting RelyOnHorror.com in your Adblock plugin. Sharing this post also helps!
It’s our hope that with these Patreon Goals, and by being completely transparent with you on our aspirations to compensate fairly the hard working guys and gals behind this site, that you’ll help us achieve them. If our Goals are met, we’ll also comfortably be able to afford site expenses — from review copies, event attendance, hardware purchases to server upkeep — allowing us to increase the amount of content we produce for you! Now that’s something we can all look forward to.
Feel free to pose any questions or feedback in the comments.
Thank you,
From all of us at Rely on Horror.
