It’s hard to believe, but Apple World Today has been up and running for two years today. We want to thank our readers for their continued support of the website, and we’ll continue to bring you news, reviews and more every day as long as we can.
As you may know, Apple World Today (AWT) rose from the ashes of The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), a popular site that apparently didn’t get enough monthly views (over 6 million, if I remember correctly) for owner AOL to justify continue running the site. All of the content that had been written was transferred over to Engadget, but all of the writers were literally out on the street.
I had the idea of starting up a new site to carry on some of the traditions of TUAW, and bloggers Dave Caolo and Kelly Hodgkins joined me to launch the new site. Our first month was great with excellent revenues, but then reality set in and we began to see our dreams of an ad-free site going downhill…quickly.
Both Dave and Kelly decided they needed to move on, but fortunately Dennis Sellers of Apple Daily Report was also looking for a new gig so he joined the team. We’ve also had guest bloggers from time to time, including Alex Jurgensen (our Accessible Apple editor) and Team AWT Patron Podcast regular Marty Edwards.
We Still Need Your Help
Although we’re now running ads and have things like the AWT Deals Shop to help provide a rather unimpressive income, we still need your help to pay the bills. That’s why we set up Team AWT about a year ago — it’s a subscription-based patron program that readers can use to back the site.
Team AWT members can pretty much donate any amount they want (the minimum is $5 a month/$60 a year) towards the care and feeding of the bloggers here. There are several ways to join — we prefer it if you use our Stripe-based online store, as more of your payment makes it to us. That store accepts Apple Pay, credit and debit cards, and PayPal, and you can go directly to the payment page here. We also accept monthly subscriptions through Patreon, although we’re trying to move away from that venue due to high fees.
With a pledge of $60 per year or more, you’ll get:
• Member-only discounts and giveaways
• Exclusive access to the Team AWT Slack chatroom
• Access to the weekly Patron Podcast
• A regularly-emailed newsletter with fresh and fun content
We Couldn’t Have Done This Without Your Help
From Dennis and me, Marty and Alex, and everyone else who helps out at the site in either unpaid or low-paid roles, thank you.
