Web Site/Writing Costs

Update: As of the end of 2018, I've decided to stop posting updates to this page even though I'm still tracking my costs for tax purposes. It just takes too much work that I'd rather put into my writing.

The following is a breakdown of what it has cost me monetarily to keep my site up and running since I posted my stories online on February 29, 2000.

These costs only cover those things I consider to be directly related to posting my stories online. For example, they don't include:

• My time spent writing my stories or researching facts for them because I would do that even if I didn't post my stories online.

• My time spent maintaining my Web site, even though it's directly related, because I'm also a Web designer and I can use it as practice for my skills (but mostly I'm just not interested in keeping track of my time so precisely).

• The money I've spent on computer equipment (which has had to be replaced several times over the years) because I would buy and use that equipment whether I was posting my stories online or not (I also use it for many other things besides writing).
  Update: As of 2012, I'm now counting computer stuff. With my back dictating how much time I can spend on the computer (and no end to that in sight), I'm using it almost exclusively for writing and updating the site. Therefore, I feel it now fits in the category below.

• The books I've bought for research purposes so my stories can be the best I can possibly make them (or if I haven't bought the books, then all the gas spent going to and from the library to check them out) because again, I would buy and do those things for my stories whether I was posting them online or not.

• Taxes on purchases because it was just easier to copy the prices listed on the receipts than to do all the math to calculate taxes on just those items, so what you see is the "retail" price.

Now, all that being said, I am a bit hypocritical in what I do include because I would probably still pay for these things whether I was posting my stories online or not. However, the distinction I make is that I use them for more than 50% of the time specifically for writing and posting my stories online. If I couldn't easily write, there would be nothing to post, and if I couldn't easily post, I probably wouldn't.

So, I do include the costs of:

• My writing programs (MS Word, Scrivener) because I use them almost exclusively to write my stories.

• My domain name registration and the extra cost of keeping that registration information private because I probably wouldn't have registered kodiwolf.com if I hadn't wanted to offer my stories without ads, and I didn't purchase privacy protection for it until I had a reader call me (which rather freaked me out), and I believe the only way he could have gotten my number was through my registration info on the WHOIS database (looking me up in a phone directory wouldn't work because my phone number is under my wife's name and the number is unlisted).

• My Web hosting service because even though I have a few other sites on my domain, the majority of the space is used for my story site.

• My FTP program because it's the program I use to upload files to my server (which are mostly for the story site).

• My cable Internet service because it's how I access the Internet, and though I may do other things online, the majority of my time spent online usually has something to do with my stories (research, site maintenance, e-mail to and from readers, etc.).

• My computer equipment, as of 2012, for the reasons stated above.

Finally, I also include expenses that are specific to the W.O.L.F. Sector Web site (as opposed to any of my other sites). These are things I wouldn't otherwise spend money on at all because I have no use for them outside W.O.L.F. Sector.

Costs in this category include:

• My PDF software (Nitro Pro) because I only use it for the PDF E-book files of my stories.

• My membership software because I only use it to manage membership for W.O.L.F. Sector.

• The monthly bank service charge for the checking account I use specifically to accept PayPal payments online and to deposit checks and money orders from offline payments (it's separate from my regular checking account).

• The PayPal fees for accepting payments online.

• The fee for the P.O. Box where I receive offline payments and any other correspondence readers choose to send to me (this was discontinued after the first 6 months).

• The cost of having my taxes prepared by a professional because I wouldn't file taxes otherwise since I don't normally make any money (I live on SSI due to medical and psychological issues that keep me from holding a normal job).

Now, I averaged anywhere between 700 to 3300 unique visitors per month for the years 2000 through 2010 (that's when my stories were available for free). If you average the amount of money I spent each of those years ($8,616.99/11 years = $783.36), and then divide it between the number of visitors, you get about $1.12 for 700 visitors and about $0.24 for 3300 visitors. That's each year, not each month. That means if everyone had sent me between a quarter and a dollar for each year they visited and read my stories during that time, I would have been close to breaking even on my expenses each year. Instead, everyone read my stories for free. I sometimes received compliments, critiques, and/or thank you's, but others weren't quite so gracious and seemed to think they were entitled to my stories somehow.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm spending my money the way I want to. If I didn't want to post my stories online, I wouldn't. I accept the expense, regardless of how many or how few people decide to reimburse me for it in return for getting to read my stories.

But when people treat me as if I don't have a choice in whether I put my stories online for free for them, as if I'm obligated to spend my money so they can read my stories for free, I start to get annoyed.

Partially in response to those less-than-gracious readers, I'm posting this in an attempt to offer some transparent accounting on my part, so you have a better idea of the worth of what you've already received from me if you've been reading my stories since before I started charging for them, and also to let you know where your money is going, since the pay site went into effect.

I will update this page every few months with new totals based on costs and membership income. Click on any year in the table below to see a more detailed account for that year.