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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLvkkAsVjtQ
Hi! We’re Joe Robson and Rob Bright, long-time Japan residents and the brains and brawn behind BeerTengoku.
- Let us tell you about why we’re here on Patreon. We started BT in July 2014 to introduce English-speaking people to the world of Japanese craft beer, and since then we’ve seen our site grow far beyond our expectations. This year we hit over 90,000 visits to the site! That’s amazing for us. We love doing the site, and sharing our knowledge and passion about Japanese craft beer with everyone. Over the past three years we’ve realised that we want to keep doing this for as long as we can.We want to keep doing the site for as long as humanly possible- I mean, who wouldn’t want to drink beer? – but that means:
In order to keep BeerTengoku going for as long as we can, the site needs to be able to sustain itself.
- At the moment, we’re paying for everything out of our own pockets from our full-time regular jobs. If you read the site, you know that we don’t run any advertisements, and we’re proud of that. But it does mean that every single bar and beer has been reviewed using our own funds. Not to mention the site administration and maintenance costs, and of course the time spent behind the scenes on the site.
Our current costs look something like this.
- With an increase in traffic comes an increase in server costs. Currently our site hosting and naming costs come to $210 a year.
- Travelling for brewery interviews and bar reviews comes to about $100 a month.
- Actually buying and drinking the beer can cost between $100 and $200 a month, depending on the beer.
- So an average month on the site currently costs us about $320, or about $3800 per year.
- In the past, costs were easier to cover because the site just wasn’t that big. We weren’t travelling so much or hunting down obscure beers. There was still so much right on our doorstep and in our convenience store for us to review. But now we’ve reached a point where we’re travelling further afield for bars and breweries and buying way more beers just to keep up with what’s coming out. And that’s where our wallets start to take the hit.
So, we’ve decided to turn to Patreon!
- Patreon is a great way for our wonderful and generous readers to pledge whatever they want per month, and the amount is recurring after that. It isn’t a one-time donation, so anything from $1 a month upwards is a huge help to us.
This is what we’ll do with the money.
- Our initial goal is $500 a month. This will cover all of the site’s basic costs, and give us a little leeway for any eventualities like broken computers, database tantrums and exploding beers. It’ll also allow us to work on some projects like the BeerTengoku app, designing merchandise and redesigning the site.
Doesn’t this mean all the content is going to be hidden and we have to pay to access it?
- If you decide not to pledge, the site will look exactly the same. You’ll have access to every section of the site and articles will be released on the usual schedule. By becoming a patron on Patreon, however, you will get access to reviews and other articles earlier, event invitations, site news and other exclusive goodies. It’s our way of saying thank you for supporting us.
That’s it! Thank you so much for reading and we hope you consider pledging some money to us at https://www.patreon.com/beertengoku
Cheers!
