The Future Of My Car Quest

by Mike –

My Car Quest is now just over two years old and there have been more than 770 posts published, thousands of photos, many videos, more than 1,000 comments and countless private emails from readers to me. I have responded to all emails.

I spend several hours each day preparing new posts, dealing with technical matters, marketing My Car Quest and sometimes wasting time with advertisers or potential advertisers. I have spent more than 4,000 hours on My Car Quest since it started in November 2010.

I have been happy with the readership growth and have been flattered by many of your comments, both in the Comments section of various Posts and in private emails. I realize there are many of you who like what My Car Quest has been and is becoming: a source of entertainment, knowledge sharing, and a classic car community where you can share your stories and photos. You can also discover some interesting classic cars for sale and some that are not for sale.

The unknowable future of My Car Quest

As I have struggled with what the future of My Car Quest should be I came to realize that asking readers to pay a small amount for content was likely the best way forward for My Car Quest. The real value of My Car Quest comes from discussing ideas, sharing information and learning from one another. I know that I have learned a lot from you and I hope that you have learned something from reading My Car Quest and have been entertained as well.

Reader supported on line content is not a new idea. The New York Times has been a leader in this trend. It is working for them and other on line publications have followed their lead.

I don’t mean to imply that I am comparing My Car Quest to the New Your Times, although they did link to one of my Posts last year. I am pointing out that as a leader they have helped set the direction for how on line content providers can sustain themselves whether that content is news or entertainment, knowledge sharing, and a community built around the common love of the art of classic cars.

I have experimented with advertising and I did not like the looks of the banners and how they slowed down the site access. I suspect that most of you did not like that either. I want to minimize, or eliminate, that type of advertising.

Online advertising also creates incentives for page views and traffic, which can come at the expense of content quality. I want the content to be driven by what you, the readers want to read and see and what I want to write about. I have no editor or corporation to please – only readers and myself.

My Car Quest will be reader supported

Starting today My Car Quest will be a reader supported content site where the readers who value the content become Members and pay a small monthly fee of $2.99 US for access to all of the content (about 10 cents US per day). Membership is available for all readers worldwide.

Premium Content

The Posts tagged Premium will be metered and non-Members will have access to 3 Premium articles per month. This applies to both new and archived Premium articles. But when you become a Member you get access to all of the content and you get the satisfaction of supporting My Car Quest.

The articles that are not tagged Premium will continue to be free to all.

I have tried to make this as easy as possible; you can use a credit card or PayPal. I have signed up with a company, called Tinypass, that manages web site subscriptions and they will handle all of the financial details. It should be painless and easy for all who decide to become Members.

Become a My Car Quest Member

So, come on make my day – sign up for the My Car Quest Membership. Support an independent publisher (me) who is only accountable to the readers (you).

Help make My Car Quest even better, more fun and sustainable.

Click on the button below and then click on the blue tag in the upper left or the lower left of the Membership Page and become a My Car Quest Member!

Thank you for your support and participation,

Mike Gulett
mike@mycarquest.com