I want to pull the curtain back on SingleRoots by answering some questions:
- Who actually owns and runs SingleRoots?
- What’s the daily goal of SingleRoots?
- How many people are in the SingleRoots community?
- How much money does SingleRoots make?
Is this a wise post to write?
That’s the question I’ve been struggling with for the past week. I’ve been told that this post could backfire on me for at least two reasons:
- Potential partners in the Internet community may find out our community is smaller than they thought; therefore they might think less of us and not want to partner with us.
- Also, it’s a big no-no in online Christian blogs and communities to talk about making money. It’s taboo and they say you’ll lose your audience.
However, my growing conviction is that people and companies need to start being more transparent in this ever-increasing world of spin. Today, I want to begin the process of SingleRoots becoming more transparent.
If we lose street cred with future partners because our audience isn’t big enough yet, then I’ll be to blame. But if we lose respect from you our reader, because we’re trying to create a financially-sustainable blog, then I’d ask you to hear me out, read on and give me a chance to explain myself.
Who actually owns and runs SingleRoots?
You might have read some of my posts on SingleRoots under the name “Ryan S.” My full name is Ryan Stubblefield, and at first, I didn’t want to have my full name available on the Interwebs – transparency, step 1: complete. As you’ve probably figured out by now, I am the owner of SingleRoots. I just married another writer here, Kori. We were both in our 30’s before we married, and we tied the knot a little over 6 months ago.
About a year ago, while I was still single, I hired my good friend Jessica to help me start SingleRoots, a blog focused solely on Christian Singles like ourselves.
We don’t have a denominational affiliation or any type of organization behind us. We’re just followers of Christ trying to encourage other followers of Christ, who happen to be unmarried.
What’s the daily goal of SingleRoots?
Jessica and I started with the burden that we were tired of seeing single Christians who are focused more on waiting for a future spouse instead of actively building the Kingdom. We had dabbled in that mindset ourselves and had seen our friends struggle with it too.
Our desire was (and is) to create a community of readers and writers who would analyze their lives and ask themselves tough questions about how they’re living – questions that they may not have otherwise been asking – and eventually make real changes based on those answers.
How many people are in the SingleRoots community?
There are a couple ways to try to figure this out. While we have over 10,000 different people visiting the site each month, I wouldn’t count all of them as our “SingleRoots Community.” Instead, I like to gauge the community by the size of our email subscribers. We currently have about 650 subscribers, and it continues to grow each day.
Shameless Plug: If you or someone you know might benefit from the message of SingleRoots, you/they can sign up for email updates here. Plus, when you subscribe you get a free copy of our eBook When Will I Get Married (and 7 Other Questions that Plague Singles).
How much money does SingleRoots make?
First and foremost, our goal is to encourage you, the reader, and bring real value to your life. To do that in an effective, quality and consistent way, it takes people. SingleRoots is a full-time job for Jessica and a part-time job for me. In the 11 months we’ve been doing this, we’ve yet to have a profitable month; however, we knew that would be the case going in. Blogs take awhile to be self-sustainable.
Our prayer is that we steward SingleRoots well enough to make it self-sustainable financially before we run out of our start-up funding. So as long as SingleRoots reaches a point in the future where it can support its monthly expenses before the start-up money runs out, then we are good to go.
From time to time, when you see us attempting to generate some revenue, my prayer is that you know our intent is not to pad our pockets, but to be a self-sustainable resource for you, so we can operate indefinitely without depending on fundraising from month to month.
How do we plan to be self-sustainable and how can you help?
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Advertising
As our traffic continues to increase, we’ll be able to generate some advertising dollars through site ads. Don’t worry, it won’t be annoying.
How you can help: Keep telling your friends about SingleRoots.
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Affiliate Links
Anytime someone uses our links to buy something we review, we make a small commission from that company usually.
How can you help: If you or one of your friends are going to signup for an online dating service, click on one of our links here, and we’ll get a small commission. It won’t cost you any more money, and sometimes you can even get a SingleRoots discount (e.g. 20% off eHarmony here). Another example is when we reviewed the budgeting software YNAB. Use our link and you save 10%, and we make 10% for referring you. It’s a win/win.
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Future Products
Unlike our free eBook, When Will I Get Married (and 7 Other Questions that Plague Singles), we are also working on some eBooks/Bible Studies that are much more in depth, which we will sell.
How can you help: Buy them when they come out, of course!
We started this journey with you almost a year ago. Some of you have been with us from the beginning and some have just joined.
For each of you, we are grateful.
I am reminded more and more that transparency is the foundation of trust and community. I hope sharing this information today helps you feel more a part of SingleRoots.
In closing, I want to challenge you with something. As you found out today, there are hundreds of readers like you each day, all with a unique story and a unique background, yet less than ten typically comment on each day’s article.
The community needs to hear YOUR perspective.
I challenge you to make comments on posts that resonate with you. The writers are not always the “encourager” for the day, but you, the commenter, could be the one to actually add a word to change another reader’s life, so please share.
People need to know they are not alone.
So thanks for reading thus far. It’s been fun building this thing called SingleRoots with you. If you have any other questions about SingleRoots, I’d be happy to answer them. You can contact me here or put your question(s) in the comments section below.
God Bless,
Ryan
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About Ryan Stubblefield
