Dmoney405 wrote: ↑14 Mar 2020, 18:58
1. You as a creator and owner profit off of this. The profits probably only happened recently with the certification and most of this has probably been a pro bono passion adventure up until now and even though it may not be much, certainly there has been something acquired for all this work (as there should be, this is a good thing because you deserve it).
Although Blur Busters is a "hobby turned business", Blur Busters have had income sources long before this. For example, I've done several consulting services for multiple display vendors over the last few years. In fact, I worked with display vendors since year 2000 (I"m the programmer of the HOLO3DGRAPH application with the Faroudja chip, RUNCO Line Doublers, author of the world's first 3:2 pulldown deinterlacer in dScaler), then various videophone projects (Avaya / Nortel videophone), but then I started a hobby (Blur Busters). I have only recently become full-time with Blur Busters, having originally been a hobby turned business. Now I'm not the only one whom I have to pay...
Blur Busters has long been an Amazon Affiliate since 2013 with the Monitor Lists, such as lists in my signature. Affiiate revenue from LightBoost monitors and G-SYNC monitors did indeed help propel Blur Busters at the beginning. Blur Busters Approved will only be a small portion of the Blur Busters business income and we need multiple diversified lines of businesses & products to pay all contractors who works for Blur Busters (fortunately, they're all working remotely). It is not an option to remove Amazon Affiliate income since we've been using that income source for 7 years now.
Rising tides lifts all boats. The advocacy that Blur Busters does, improves technology products for all reviewers. This helps all users, as I am an
inventor of multiple display tests that help reviewers. And monitor manufacturers take heed with some of what Blur Busters does, too!
The bottom line is that not a single program (only Blur Busters Approved, or only Affiliate, or only Patreon) is capable of funding the costs of operating Blur Busters anymore, especially with the big growth of esports, VR, refresh rate race, etc. Now that I left my full time job in year 2018 and turned Blur Busters already into a full time outfit.
Dmoney405 wrote: ↑14 Mar 2020, 18:58
So just like in government it seems the burden of funding is once again thrust upon the weakest group instead of the people actually profiting from it. Our entire purpose of being here should be spreading the word and commonizing this for others so when they see 'blur buster's approved' on it they will already know it's a high quality gaming monitor and be more likely to purchase it, then with the proper contracts in place, allow you to get paid for it.
Patreon is 100% optional and is simply for well-off readers who wants to help support Blur Busters, whereupon we reuse this dollar to PAY other contractors who work for Blur Busters, etc.
Some of the improvements you see at Blur Busters is all because I helped stimulate the economy by paying other people who may now be unemployed in this COVID-19 crisis, and Patreon will help me do that. There are tons of projects I need to pay for that are simply currently waiting for new income sources. Even running the Blur Busters Approved program is only a small revenue-add.
Occasionally, I even hire some of my readers to do things like PHP or write an app. I'm a software developer but I can't spread myself too thin and the demands of a growing business means I've gotta pay others to help me. My personal take-home pay is
less than half what I used to when I used to be employed full-time at a different company, but I love what I do.
The current COVID-19 coronavirus crisis is giving me pressure to find new income sources to make up for lost income sources, which is why advertisements will begin to appear on the Forums, later followed by an optional Patreon to allow more well-off readers to disable these ads. I really don't want to pay less often to my contractors (article writers / editors / PHP developers / etc.) and I rather continue to expand.
We have numerous amazing projects and breakthroughs in the pipeline that are slow developing simply because of funding. Especially as more people are working from home in this crisis and gaming is starting to boom a bit but my income is being hurt anyway (my usual behind-the-scene software contracts, such as programming a small piece of software for a monitor manufacturer). Blur Busters is comletely unable to rely on one source of income, and there needs to be multiple parallel sources of income just to pay the bills (even mudane things like an electricity bill, or a replacement cable, for example).
Dmoney405 wrote: ↑14 Mar 2020, 18:58
But who knows, I maybe I'm just a crazy person.
No, you're not.
You have quite reasonable comments, though!