Charging Money For Website Access: Earthfiles, for instance......

It occurred to me that every other person who charges money for full access charges a lot more than Linda Howe for hers, which is currently $40 per year. Whitley Streiber's is a lot more for a much shorter time, Robin Ramsay's (Lobster magazine, am relying on readers to check these websites out) is even more expensive for even shorter a period of time, to step out of Conspiracy Theory websites, MontyPythonist John Cleese charged £50 English pounds for full yearly access to his when it first went up (so, that's, say, = $75 - $80 these days).....but of course, they carp at lil ole Linda on ATS.
She described her agonising over the phone to me from Pennsylvania, "Should she charge or should she not?", coz broadband's cost was becoming too much for her to handle, so she started charging, totally unsure as to whether it would do anything for her. Extra money has come in for her, and it is my opinion that it is worth supporting just one totally independent researcher who is utterly doing her or his own thing.
No money, no Linda. Would rather pay for hers than any other, and university bodies, science magazines, dictionaries are charging hundreds of POUNDS for a year's access, one uni website I looked at sold students' dissertations at around £250 each, that's around $300 - it is the decision of the students to charge that, but as opposed to what you'll pay for a book? That's not going to come out of my pocket, not for that.

why pay when many sites carry the same content for free.
i visit earthfiles once a week, but most of it is rehashed stories from other websites, and not worth paying for.

It's up to the individual if they want to pay for site access or not..

I would assume in this day and age of "Free" information a Website that charged for access wouldn't last too long and revert to free access. I'm sure it wouldn't get as much Traffic as some other sites and that could be a great thing. Charging for a site could in fact, keep the Morons and Nutters away.

But, if it's working for Linda Howe and she is happy to charge for access and people are happy to pay her, Good On Her..

I wouldn't pay for access to any site but, that's just me and because I have tight pockets and can't really justify paying for it anyway.

I do think Linda Howe is a Credible Person and would love access to her site but I can't justify the expense..

This can't be happening to me....... Every Post I have made today has become the dreaded "DOUBLE POST""..

WHY does this unholy thing happen? Could the Government be behind it?

Something just isn't right..

[edit on 16-3-2010 by Damian-007]

reply to post by Damian-007

What do you mean by a double post? It comes up automatically twice....that would be hassling the abovetopsecret website.....?
.....answering others, it just seems to me worth it to have at least one totally independent person affording serious research......my railways job enables me to travel for nothing here in Britain, so have been able to investigate some claims in a way which many investigators would envy......an investigator standing telling someone "I've investigated thousands of flying triangle incidents and all of them are rubbish....." isn't just himself talking rubbish, he physically/financially simply could not do so......that was Tim Matthews by the way, whom I overheard saying that.......an independent like Linda is worth paying for, in the long run......nuff said.