A personal message from Waylon Lewis of elephant journal.

Hey All,

We have a month and a week 25 days to close in on our goal of $10,000/month, the figure that’d enable us to break-even, pay a small staff, and pay writers for more original, quality journalism. We’re at $1,400 after our soft launch one month ago.

If we can’t break-even by June 17, I’ve sworn to unplug the elephant, with thanks and best wishes.

So if you would like to join and support + “pay for content”—while getting your name, business or fave non-profit up on our site—now’s the time to click here.

We can do it! But only if you consider signing up, and ask your friends to do the same.

Yours in the Vision of Enlightened Society,

Waylon Lewis

~

Become an Elephant:

secure.elephantjournal.com

Boulder, Colorado-based Inspire Commerce Merchant Services has set up elephant’s new payment infrastructure. We chose to work with Inspire Commerce instead of, say, Paypal, because they walk their talk: they’re a B Corporation that donates 10% of their gross revenue to their merchant’s charities.

PS: If we don’t make our goal, no one will be charged after one cycle after June 17, the deadline when our current loan runs out. ~ W.

PPS: if you’re new to this site and Grassroots Network campaign, here’s a brief summary of our case to continue:

> our traffic (readership) has risen steadily, and is now at 175,000 unique visitors a month according to Google Analytics.

> twitter.com/elephantjournal was named the number one source for #green content on Twitter in the US.

> We have a strong brand and long track record of growth as an independent magazine, and only went online full-time 15 months ago (we made good money as a magazine, but the distribution once national was painfully eco-hypocritical).

> The enthusiasm of our readers on Facebook has made our Page a larger forum than many long-established media presences. Since Facebook is now, nationally, a greater source for the delivery of news now than Google (!), this is a key indicator of stability and growth of readership.

> If we can achieve sustainability—if 1,080 of our readers sign up at $9/month or $108/year (see above), there’ll be no stopping us from becoming one of too few independent national news sources, and because we’ll be able to pay our writers, our quality of journalism and reach will improve radically.

> In our first month, 120 readers have joined our Grassroots Network. If you’re not quite inspired to join or not able to, please forward this post to your friends:

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/05/a-personal-message-from-waylon-lewis/

…or post to your Facebook Wall—it’s a huge help. We have 35 days left on our loan.