BY Raechel Myers
Hello, Sisters!
Wow, your feedback has been so helpful! The survey has been live for less than 24 hours and your support is overwhelmingly positive! BUT, don’t think that the cheers have deafened our ears to the “meeps!” of concern – your voice matters, too.
We were not super clear in our first post, and we apologize for any confusion. We’ve been planning this for months and sometimes we forget you’ve only known for a few days. :)
The great thing about inviting our people in on the very early stages of this project is that your voice is not only heard – it means we can genuinely make changes in the plan based on what we hear. This is why we did it this way! (Of course, no matter what we do, we get that we’ll never be able to please everybody – we’re prayerfully bracing ourselves for that, too.
(This is a good moment to say if you haven’t taken the survey yet – DO IT!)
So for now, we want to take this beautiful Saturday afternoon to field just a few of your questions and to clarify the general (and still forming) plan as we move forward.
Why the sudden urge to make money? Heh. I know not everyone is asking this, but we want to address it in love. When the SheReadsTruth community was brand new, it was small and manageable. We were using plans other people had written on an app someone else had made – and it worked well! But as the community has grown, so have the operating costs and the requests for new, original content and features. (Did you know it costs a couple hundred dollars a month just to ensure your email subscriptions make it to your inbox?) Beyond the out-of-pocket line items on our budget – we are people! We don’t have jobs on purpose because this is our job. (And we feel so blessed! We love what we do!). Believe it or not, Amanda and Raechel each work about 30 hours a week to keep things running and written, and our writers take time out of their paying jobs to work here too. We’ve prayed about it. We’ve wrestled with it. We certainly don’t have dollar signs in our eyes, but we also recognize that our words are valuable, as is our time away from our families. We feel really good about assigning value to our work, and we hope you agree that it is valuable.
What does this mean for site content? Will we have to pay there, too? Great question. Our goal is for current content on the SheReadsTruth site to remain free. Our heart is to serve this community well and allow it to continue to grow, and allow YOU to continue to invite people in. If you do not wish to participate in the (fun, convenient, beautiful!) new app, you don’t have to. We still want you here!!
Also, the app will be free to download and use. You have complete freedom to decide whether or not you want to use the app to view your reading plans! The upside is that not only will you enjoy an enhanced experience – you’ll be supporting the team that loves to do this for you!
Has the heart of SheReadsTruth changed? The heart of SheReadsTruth is still very much the same! Our number one goal is for women to be in the word daily – this is a big part of why we’re taking this next step! It will provide anyone who downloads the app with free, beautiful, functional Bible versions. (You guys, we’ve seen the preliminary designs – it’s going to be so pretty and so usable!) We are so excited to make this real!
I’d prefer to pay to download the app than pay per plan. We totally hear that. There are two reasons we ruled that out – First, we feel strongly that the Bible function be available to all. Second, because publishers are licensing this content to us for free, we cannot charge you to download it.
I’m concerned that charging for the plans might exclude me from participating! It’s true that we weren’t specific about what a plan would cost and I fear that some people may have jumped to the worst conclusions. Don’t worry – we promise not to break the bank! And know too that we have some great, new, free plans scheduled to share on the app for ALL! According to our math, joining the SRT community in a plan on the app will cost about 15 cents per day. Maybe a lot less. And if it doesn’t work for you, join us on the site!
I don’t feel great about paying for content, but I’d gladly donate! We think this is awesome! We appreciate your support!
What if I don’t use an iOS device? Will Android users get an app? This is one of the things we polled about because we weren’t sure what percentage of our women used what operating system. For now, weighing the cost of developing an Android app for the 12% of women who use Android devices tells us that it just isn’t doable. BUT, that’s just the thing – as we grow and raise funds – an Android app is one of the things we would love to do! You 12% are IMPORTANT to us! We’ll keep thinking!
We get it – change is tricky, even uncomfy. But it’s also crazy exciting and that’s the sense we get from nearly all of you! And for those of you who have voiced concerns – we adore you! We asked for your voices and we value them! And we can’t thank you enough for being the gentle women you are – asking in love. God has blessed us with an amazing community and as we all move forward united, we can’t wait to see the heights these wild growing pains will take us!
Blessings! Enjoy your Saturdays!!!!
More exciting updates to come!
xoxo,
Raechel, Amanda, Hayley and Diana
Please be sure to take the survey if you haven’t already! It’s the best place for us to keep all the feedback in one place!
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