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Trying to keep the negativity in check...

REELVIEWS STAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Couldn't agree more about people handing out early awards. These people haven't seen War Horse yet. Or In the Land of Blood and Honey, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or The Iron Lady. Or, as James points out, Extremely Loud etc.

The Oscars get a lot of flak but at least they take the entire year's movies into consideration.

By it's definition, the new 'GWTDT' will be just bad. And if not bad, then pointless.

I'd forgotten about the Amazon thing, I'll be sure to do that from now on!

I'd not be against the idea of paying to get 'premium content', since I know it'd be well worth it (lick lick) however I do see the issue, that often it's not even just money that is a problem, but time itself.

James, I'm sure you know enough people via these forums who'd maybe perhaps offer their help, if needed... not sure how or what! Consider this an idea brewing in the depths of my post-work brain =/

You're ranting about people putting out end of year lists already but you did that yourself recently with your 2011 Turkeys list, published November 30th. Since you actively avoided watching the really crappy movies this year that end-of-year list was not only too early but not especially accurate or useful.

Also...

My reaction to The Porn analogy was not: "OMG James is gonna shut down Reelviews!"

My reaction was: "James is bitter he didn't sell ad space on his site sooner and make a fortune and now resents having to make do with his 'lucrative' engineering job to get him through the hard times"

If James doesn't mind me asking, I'm curious to know how much income he generates on a monthly average. I only ask because I was interested in starting a blog (not a movie blog, mind you) with at least some intentions of accruing income. I'm a college student with intentions of becoming a writer, and if making a blog could be a viable means of generating some income (as opposed to say, a part-time dayjob) then it might be something I would want to pursue. The only thing is I don't want to take a plunge and devote hours of my time to something that could be a bust. I don't have a mortgage, don't have kids to feed. I basically just need enough money to put gas in my car and food in my belly. Point is, I would rather not have to flip burgers at Wendy's if I can generate something similar to a minimum wage shitty day job salary from my writing.

I do think donations could definitely work if you get creative and provide some sort of goal. No need to get too technical, just outsource donations to a site like Kickstarter. A general donation button won't see much traffic. A project, on the other hand, could.

Great example: Mike D'Angelo (you know him, right James?) and the Cannes Film Festival. D'Angelo lost his job and couldn't afford going to Cannes. Someone floated the idea of donations and he started a Fundable account. What happened?



Those types of sites are great because people are only charged when the full-funding goal is met and they do all the work for you.

Why not try something similar?

See if readers will fund your trip to TIFF (and fund Sheryl's bail money after she kills you for leaving her with a small child while you're in Toronto). Start a fund for an old movies project. Or a foreign movies project. Hell, work for your readers. A donation of "X" dollars entitles a reader to a review written by you. I'm sure you'd get some bites for that.

Again, I think a generic "Donate" button with the occasional reminder will see little traffic. However, with a little creativity donations might be more profitable.

I'm pretty sure a couple of the lists even pre-dated Hugo.

Thank you for explaining how your ad revenues work and the Netflix trick. Like most people, I avoid the ads but if the Netflix ads just take me to my queue then I don't see a problem with me click through them occasionally so you can see some change.

I think it was your shitty review of Josie and the Pussycats that did it

Yes, it deserved 4 stars. Brilliance!

I don't view the Bottom 10 as particularly important, so I have no problem with publishing it in November. The Top 10 is another matter. It doesn't get finalized until I see everything I'm going to be able to see. This year, that will be either THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO or MI4. I have seen almost everything else being released in the second half of the month. In past years, I have not finalized the list until December 31 due to a "late contender." Movies that miss the December 31 cutoff (for whatever reason) become eligible for next year's list. There will be at least one 2010 movie on the 2011 list.



Damn right! If I had gotten on the advertising bandwagon a few years earlier, I might have been able to retire from that day job.

I don't want people to mistakenly think I'm poor. Actually, my income + Sheryl's income allow us to live quite comfortably. The issue of ReelViews revenue is more a desire to get paid for the amount of time and effort that I put into the site. It wasn't a big deal 10 or 20 years ago but, as I get older and find I have less free time, it becomes more important. Plus, it allows me to pay for better child care.

One of the reason I'm reluctant to ask for donations now is because I don't need them. If my primary source of income goes away, then I will need to generate more revenue through ReelViews. That would be the time to use the donation option.

You know, you're popular and beloved enough that I think you could feasibly be a dick and say you were in more desperate need of money than you actually are. But I appreciate that you have enough pride not to be.

The music certainly did, written and played by...

Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger (also That Thing You Do)
Letters to Cleo singer Kay Hanley
Matthew Sweet (nuf said...)