A Word About Sponsorships
No time to spare, take me to the TL;DR!
From the beginning, we started Signal Jam with the intention of creating value for community members. Michael mentioned, in our very first, introductory episode, that Signal Jam was part-hobby, part-activism, and part-therapy. That sentiment has not changed.
Still, an obvious benefit of sponsorships— one that we have both partaken in— is a special incentive for audiences to try a product. Usually, that looks like a free trial, or a discount, or extra storage, etc. These agreements between sponsors and content creators can be... complicated... to say the least. Companies' values change, creators can be overly enticed by profit incentive, and all at once the essence of the sponsorship is corrupted— lost to questionable incentives at best, or raw, unadulterated greed at worst.
Even though we engage on the producing side of the content stream now, we are still very much audience members ourselves. We take inspiration from events and technology in the privacy space and weave those in with our curiosity and passion to create content we think others will also enjoy. Sometimes, we find an opportunity to try a new tool or service out at an introductory rate, and that's enough to persuade us to give it a shot. That is an element of the 'audience experience' we want to carry forward and share as best we can.
This year has been a slower start than we had hoped, but there are some really cool episodes on the horizon that we're excited to put out. In fact, we're recording one today, and that's what brings us to this post. Today, we're hosting a guest from a new company which appeared on our radar somewhat unexpectedly, and very recently. Within a few weeks, we had an arrangement for an interview. The company, unlike some competitors, does not offer their service for free.
Concurrently, we had been discussing a way to offer our listeners the benefits we have enjoyed from following other voices in the community. We have been loathe to rush into any such arrangement because of its thorny nature. But, after taking stock of where we are now, where we plan to go next, and our unchanged and steadfast commitment to our principles, we came up with an idea to try. We want to be transparent about it, because today's guest has agreed to pilot it with us.
The simple truth of the matter is that Signal Jam is not a source of income. It is an expense and, fortunately, a very small one at that. Our recurring costs, adjusted monthly, is a mere €26.63. There are occasional investments we make in one-off purchases, but they are too infrequent to even count in that calculation. Quite frankly, our costs do not warrant the pursuit of any sponsorships.
Instead, we are seeking partnerships. How we envision it functioning for now: an organization or person partners with us to offer our audience an exclusive benefit to try their product or service. We— Signal Jam— receive absolutely nothing in return, outside of the potential to grow our audience by acting as a springboard to these benefits. We don't receive a single penny, lofty promises or special treatment, or any thing else in which we could materially benefit. The sole exception we can think of is a scenario in which we are given access to a product or service before it is publicly available, for testing and review purposes, similar to Michael's recent blog post. Because the benefit isn't really for us, it's for you. Ultimately, the decision to take advantage of it is yours alone, and we stand neither to gain nor lose by it. The way it should be.
Down the road, there's another half of this approach we are considering: donations. Like we said in our fist episode, there are some bigger ideas we are keeping in mind, most of which would require more expensive investments in hardware, infrastructure-as-a-service, and travel. When we are ready to cross that bridge (and who knows, we may never be), we might open the door to donations then.
The idea being: if you find value in Signal Jam as a project, and the occasional benefits we can secure on your behalf, than you can pass on the goodwill to us by choosing to donate an amount you decide is appropriate. We think this model will allow us to continue operating in good faith, free of conflicting interests, while still creating a platform that grows in value over time, produces benefits for our audience, and makes privacy a larger and more enriching tent for others. This model, called Value 4 Value, was pioneered by the No Agenda Show, and you can read about it here.
We're publishing this post now so that it has a chance to be explained and read before the forthcoming episode premieres. If you have any questions or comments, please be encouraged to reach out and let us know. As always, we appreciate and consider your feedback with sincerity and humility.
TL;DR
We're not turning Signal Jam into a money-making endeavour. Our expenses each month are too low to even begin fretting about that. On the other hand, we want to provide the occasional promotional offer to our audience from other organizations. To that end, we are piloting a partnership model whereby an organization provides a special offering directly to you, the audience, with absolutely no "passthroughs" or other kickbacks to us. No commissions, no payouts, no special treatment. Just value created.
Down the road, we may open the door to donations should some of our larger ambitions come to fruition. If and when that time comes, you can choose to donate an amount you wish, thus returning and creating even more value for others.
