Over the past couple of months, you’ve heard me talk about changes that were coming to this website that are necessitated by political and market pressures. The first phase of that change happens today.
As previously mentioned in the article The Ads Cometh, we have been needing to generate revenue to keep this effort alive ever since Google put the kibosh on advertising here a few years ago by pressuring WordPress to remove us from their WordAds system.
I realize that many people find advertisements abhorrent, and I’m not one to disagree. Some advertisements are just beyond annoying. However, they are a necessary evil in today’s world of privately operated information dissemination.
So, starting today advertisements will be shown on a regular basis. These will generate some ongoing revenue for WUWT. The good news is that for people that don’t want to have these advertisements we now have a membership system in place and it has been tested and seems to be working. By becoming a member you will be able to browse completely ad-free. Later, additional tiers will be added to the membership system that will provide access to premium content that include a newsletter, member only stories and white papers, and also access to a weekly interactive video meeting where we can all shoot the breeze and ask questions.
Of course anyone who visits WUWT will see content as before, however it will contain ads. At the bare minimum to be able to comment, free registration is required.
Right now, we have the following options (see the upper right sidebar for the registration/login links) or click here.
Subscription Options
1. Ad Free Sponsor with Commenting Paid Annually $66 /year (1 free month)
2. Ad Free Sponsor with Commenting Paid Monthly $6 /month ($72/year)
3. Free Registration that includes commenting $0 (but shows ads)
This is how it looks when you visit the options for membership page:
Since we implemented the registration system a few months ago we picked up thousands of users who were then able to comment as well as view all content. All of our previously registered users have been grandfathered in with their existing registration and are able to view and comment as before except they will see ads.
Tests over the last month have proven the membership registration/purchase system to be successful and some early adopters have signed up. Thank you.
So as of today, we are turning everything on. This post will remain at the top of the website for a couple of weeks so that late-comers will see it. I thank all of you for your patience through this process, and I sincerely appreciate your support of the work we do here.
More to come, stay tuned!
– Anthony
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How do you signup? Clicking on the “Sign Up” button doesn’t seem to do anything.
On my browser, things look responsive when I click on the “Hate seeing ads?” image near the upper right corner.
Or, try visiting https://wattsupwiththat.com/plans/options/
The link you gave worked! Thanks!
The three options above are only examples. I think you need to click the link above:
This is how it looks when you visit the options for membership page:
Ditto sign-up problem. Thx to Ric for fix.
Tried to edit email in profile. No go (“already in use”). Poking around prove “true dat” – apparently I have two acounts!
Signed-up for $66 option on one acct. BUT after logging out and back in on both. my member status is displyed as “unknown” (my payment was confirmed when signing up – perhaps a glitch or two remains in system?).
One STRONG RECOMMENDATION! Please don’t go to two-level format with the “good stuff” restricted to paying members. The information here is too important. Is the cause served better by more $$$ or more eyeballs. A lot of people who NEED to see the info will NEVER pay for it but they need to be able to open a link whether sent from a friend or made available on other websites.
Signed up for an ad-free year.
I usually run an ad-blocker, but I believe your work is worth a few bucks a month!
THANK YOU
Not afraid of ads, but $66/yr is cheap considering the value.
Thanks again, Mr. Watts. Enjoyed this site since almost the beginning.
This week I noticed a tendency to post just videos without any text. A real killer of a conversation, if I have to spend an hour watching before I can comment on merits. Anthony, please do not combine a subscription with a diminished quality.
No idea what you are talking about – we don’t do that here.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/02/27/solar-flares-climate-phenomena-astrophysicist-dr-willie-soon-is-censored-after-challenging-climate-change-in-tucker-carlson-interview-ask-dr-drew/
CG ==> There is text with that video….but only 200 words. On the other hand — I never ever watch videos more than 5 minutes long — only check to see if they have transcripts, which I will read.
Kip, I wanted to bring it to your attention. Thanks for your work.
Grandfathered? 21 again.
Test post after signup
Cheap at twice the price! Subscribe now — pony up the trivial fee, you’ll gain far more than you pay.
I would if my only income wasn’t a British state pension.
If you dare to call this a form of censorship, AlanJ and NickS will accuse you of gaslighting.
Yeah but nobody cares what they think. I sure don’t.
A modest proposal.
Limit free accounts to one comment per article per day.
Pay to bloviate.
test
Hang on.
Money does not equate to wisdom.
You would miss out on a lot.
Some of us are undecided over membership merely because we would not be welcome here. Due to the intersectionality of ideas – the need to sign up to a broad set of ideas as an entry requirement to being allowed to express just one those views.
But would missing the left-wing sceptical perspectives on catastrophic AGW be a problem for the WUWT members?
Only $66 a year? I’m signed up only pennies a day.
But wait there’s more, since it’s a leap year you get an extra day FREE!!!!!
Water under the bridge, over the spillway, through the waste gates; I missed using the one, ‘free’ day!
If there are any UK-based subscribers here, or anyone equally knowledgeable, feel free to mention best practice to avoid credit card foreign currency charges. Something that’s caught me out elsewhere on occasion. Thanks!
Hi Dave,
You could register for a free Debit card service, also a great way to keep FX exchange rates down on any foreign currency transaction. Your best bet is probably this one;
https://www.revolut.com/
Therea are others.
You can start using a Virtual card as soon as you sign up and deposit some funds.
Signed up for the annual sub. Glad to support this site.
I tried to register, but was told my email address was already used (true enough).
I signed in, went back to registration, selected “Comment only. Free”, and was informed: “You don’t have access to purchase this item”!?
“You don’t have access to purchase this item”
Slick process. I was able to click on “My Account” and it had been immediately updated with my new subscription.
Agreed. I was wary as there was no field for email or existing login name, but I figured it was recognizing my current login (which it was). Would have been nice to have that made obvious though.
Also glad to see a yearly option – I guess that was in doubt at the beginning.
I have been reading here for years and consider this site the top “climate science” place to be…Just joined the “66” club. Thanks Anthony and crew!!
Thank you for making the yearly subscription pricing available. I prefer that to a monthly bill.
I don’t like ads on internet pages, but I realize its now a necessity to be able to continue to provide content. Therefore, I would rather pay the “in lieu of fee” to avoid them.
And Google can suck air. I avoid them and other service providers whenever possible ever since they have decided to become self appointed arbiters of acceptable content. Google, Yahoo and Facebook are not my mommy and daddy. I’m a fully capable adult who can read all sorts of publications and make up my own mind as to the value of the content provided.
I’d think you’d be able to keep this ad-free with all that “big oil” money they say you’re getting. Have I been misled?
When I tried a Sign Up button, I got this error message. I suppose I can keep trying.
Does WUWT make more from advertising than ad-free registration?
Whichever option makes more for the site will be my choice
Since I can apparently easily click past the newly served ads without blocking them, will not subscribe for now. Will be fun experimenting with the new WUWT format while remaining a (increasingly infrequent) contributor.
Best $66 I’ve spent in a LONG while – ONWARD, HO! Anthony & crew!
I’ve signed up! For $6/month it’s a bargain at twice the price. 🙂
But, it seems I can no longer upload a picture with my comment, as the image button is gone. Not a big deal, but is this change intentional?
Was not intentional and I’m having difficulty tracking down the bug. Working on it.
Charles,
I can no longer upload jpg and PNG images. Have I done something wrong?
Jim,
I put .jpg files on my web hosting site and post them as https:// files on WUWT comments that way. Also for .xlsx and .docx because typically tables get distorted easily. Geoff S
Done.
Happily jsut paid the 66 annual sub fee. This site is worth WAY more than that.
I’m in. Long may WUWT wave, Anthony.
A belated thank you to Anthony, Charles, Eric, Kip, Andy, Willis et al., for all the hours over the years!
Story Tip: By the way, I just posted a comment in Andy May’s article on Models (below), and was surprised and delighted to see that the “Edit” feature is back on! I’m sure everyone will rediscover it eventually, but it’s probably worth special mention somewhere.