FlickFilosopher.com is a wholly independent site. I do not have a boss who cuts me a paycheck. I do not have any kind of financial backing from a corporation, investors, or the like. This is entirely a one-woman show run solely by me, MaryAnn Johanson. (More about me here.)
Since I launched this site in 1997, I have run through just about every method of making money with a website — or attempting to, anyway: tip jars, AdSense, paywalls, and more. None of these have ever earned me more than a poverty-level income for what has been, for the most part, a full-time job. But one thing I have never done, and never will do, is sell my readers’ private information (demographics, email addresses, etc). FlickFilosopher.com is not a site about which anyone will ever say, “If you are not paying for it, you are not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”
If you enjoy what I do here and would like to show your appreciation in a financial sense, you have a few options:
• Become a paying subscriber at either my Patreon or my Substack. The primary benefit of that — beyond topping up your digital karma and my eternal thanks — is that you get the full text of new reviews sent directly to your email in-box and the Patreon or Substack app. (You can also join Patreon or Substack for free; you’ll get notifications by email and app of new reviews with links that’ll take you to this site. Everyone, paid or free, gets other stuff too, such as my streaming recommendations and the weekly Loaded Question.)
• Make a one-time or recurring donation via PayPal. A PayPal account is not required — you can pay with a debit or credit card. If you would like to make a donation but are unable or unwilling to go through PayPal, email me and we can discuss alternative methods.
• Use my affiliate links when you shop at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, and Amazon UK. These links go to the Amazon home pages, and you can just shop normally from there. You might want to bookmark those links; you’ll also find them in the righthand sidebar of most nonreview pages here. I earn a small commission when you buy almost anything using these links: digital products such as streaming rentals and purchases, Kindle books, and MP3 music, as well as physical items. (You’ll also see links to specific DVDs/blu-rays, streaming videos, books, soundtracks, and more on my review pages. If you click through one of those links and then navigate away to some other product at Amazon, I will also receive a commission on what you buy, even if it’s something other than the item you clicked through for.) Affiliate fees do not increase your costs.
• Use my affiliate link to subscribe to Apple TV+ (also found in the righthand sidebar of most nonreview pages here), or on review pages, use my Apple links to rent or buy streaming films on Apple TV, buy soundtracks on Apple Music, or buy digital books on Apple Books. Affiliate fees do not increase your costs.
If you enjoy what I do here but are not in a position to support my work financially — or if you just don’t want to — it’s also useful if you could share links to my work on social media or through email. If you’re a Substack or Patreon subscriber, feel free to forward those emails on to whomever you think might enjoy them. I also encourage forwarding of paid emails to those who aren’t paying, though I would ask you not to do that regularly and constantly to the same people.
However you are able to support my work here, thank you very much. I only continue to do what I do here because you, my readers, keep coming back. I appreciate your readership enormously.
—MaryAnn
