2008-09 Plan

Dear friends and supporters of MaleDepression.com,

First, thanks very much for your support of MaleDepression.com.  I appreciate your participation at the site and hope you will continue it during 2008-09 and many years to come.  Also, please accept my best wishes for you and your loved ones to enjoy a happy, healthy, safe, and peaceful holiday season, and a most blessed and prosperous new year.

At this holiday season, we face a time of great challenge and also great opportunity for MaleDepression.com.

I come to you respectfully with my hat in my hand.  I need your help to continue this work.  This site began in 2002 as a one-man operation with a single page of links.  Economically, 2007 was a very difficult year for me, and, while somewhat better, 2008 was also filled with a number of extraordinary challenges.  During this time period, I had some unexpected and large expenses, including the relocation of first my office and then my home, breakdown of three computers, requiring me to replace one computer with a new PC.  (I had to borrow money from my dad to pay for one of the new computers.)  I have also lost several weeks of work (I’m self-employed) due to those technical problems, as well as several illnesses in my family (mother, great-aunt, and uncle), and dealing with my own depression/bipolar illness.  I have also had to spend considerable time addressing an increasing spam problem that was plaguing the site, triggering several thousand e-mail messages to me, flooding e-mail accounts, and threatening the stability and uptime of the site.

I have reached the limit of what I can do without some significant support.  The site has grown to the point where it could likely keep two people busy on a full-time basis.  Because of the increasing demands on my time, several important activities have come to a halt.  Here are some of those:

  • Reminders about our weekly chats are rarely sent out, and designated topics for chats are exceedingly rare (resulting in significantly decreased attendance at chats);
  • Implementing new measures to remove spammers (most of them being automated spambots that try to post hundreds or thousands of messages to the site);
  • Addition of new content to our links directory;
  • Updating frequently asked questions (FAQ) on the site;
  • Moderating our forums effectively;
  • Updating our Books pages;
  • Requests by new members to register the site have sat in a queue, going unanswered, while comment- and referrer-spammers are bypassing our technical means (captchas) designed to prevent them from registering on the site;
  • E-mail questions from concerned family members and friends are going unanswered; and
  • Interviews with journalists are not happening, so we are not getting the kind of press exposure we would otherwise receive.

To state the obvious, the time I spend working on the site is time I am not earning a living for myself.  Within reasonable limits, I am happy to devote time on a purely pro bono basis to help as many of us as I can.  However, to avoid stagnation and keep our site useful and helpful–that is, to fulfill our mission of helping men with mood disorders and their loved ones–the site will have to start generating some significant revenue, and very quickly, if we are to remain a viable community.

To accomplish that, I have spent a lot of time developing our 2008-09 Plan which appears below.  Under the heading, “Generating Revenue/Paying the Bills,” you will see the main elements of the strategy to be a fiscally responsible and thriving Web site and community.  A key to our success will be receiving small monthly gifts (of $2.50 per month).  That program is explained in more detail within the plan itself, but if you want to arrange a small monthly gift of $2.50 via PayPal, you can do so by going to the subscription page at this link.

And now, here is the detailed plan for 2008.

2008-09 PLAN FOR MALEDEPRESSION.COM

Note:  This is our plan for this two-year period.  It is quite ambitious, but it is attainable if we receive adequate support.

UPGRADES

  • Upgraded our content management system (CMS) to PostNuke 0.7.6.4, then converted it to Wordpress to allow easier long-term upgrades and maintenance.
  • Updated theme to make more useful the directory structure of the site’s links to online resources.
  • Fixed problem with displaying the forum properly (had been displaying error messages)
  • Installed Bad Behaviour v2.0.10 software to deal with a large increase of spamming traffic.
  • Upgraded several system modules to newer releases.

COMING UPGRADES

For your information, here is the overview of the agenda for MaleDepression.com for the remainder of 2008-09.

Mission

  • In all activities and programs, remain faithful to the simple mission of the site: To help men with mood disorders and their loved ones.

An important part of our mission is to keep our content free for members of our community.  While we will be adding some additional premium content for which we will seek donations to defray the expenses, I want to make even that content available to anyone who needs it and who might not be able to afford a donation for it.  For example, I am hoping to implement some workshops (as explained below) and will ask participants to contribute a reasonable amount toward the cost.  However, if someone cannot pay, but wants to participate, I want our site to have enough abundance to be able to handle a few participants who can’t pay, or who can pay only a small portion of the requested donation.

New Content and Features

  • Add blogs feature to allow registered users to post blogs on the site (this must have adequate anti-spam safeguards)
  • Increase the content of our links database to at least 1,500 links (from the current 321), with at least the following:
    • 300 new links about bipolar disorder
    • 100 new links about gender-specific issues for men and depression
    • 100 new links about medications
    • 100 new links about alternative/complementary therapies and treatments
    • 100 new links about triggers for depression, hypomania, and mania
    • 100 new links about treatment-resistant depression
    • 100 new links about positive and optimistic thinking
    • 50 new links about schizoaffective disorder
    • 50 new links about ADD/ADHD
    • 50 new links about midlife crisis
    • 50 new links about the relationship between divorce and other family disruptions and mood disorders in men
    • 50 new links about anger
  • Increase number of links to books in our “Books” section from 26 to 100
  • Add a “positive and optimistic thinking” forum in our online forum section
  • Develop a series of online courses, offered on a donation basis, in topics such as: learning to love ourselves genuinely, mindfulness and meditation, setting and achieving goals, and positive and conscious living
  • Add a “professionals” forum in our online forum section for licensed mental health care professionals
  • Create new RSS and Atom newsfeeds, with variable options and parameters, for the site to keep people informed about site news and articles via news aggregators
  • Share comprehensive information on the site and via our mailing list about affordable prescription drugs, prescription drug aid programs, and prescription drug discount programs and cards
  • Complete installation of newsletter module and implement it for weekly reminders about chats and site news
  • Publish a newsletter that contains timely news articles about depression, bipolar disorders, and other mood conditions (work on this has already been done, we already have 17 subscribers, and you can subscribe to the newsletter from our home page
  • Add 15 new free brochures to the “Downloads” area
  • Develop and publish a simple guide or roadmap to the site for newcomers
  • Create a professional services directory for health care providers, allowing them to list their services and publish simple Web pages in exchange for a small annual subscription fee

Increase Traffic and Participation

  • Increase traffic to the site by obtaining 100 new inbound links from relevant sites on mood disorders, mental health, and men’s health
  • Increase our base of registered users and mailing list
  • Register the new RSS and Atom newsfeeds at blog search engines and aggregator sites
  • Increase participation in our online forums through regular posting of news stories on the home page and recruiting volunteer moderators for each forum to answer questions and propose topics for discussion

Site Management

  • Investigate and implement new solutions to the problem of increasing spam on the site
  • Write and publish anti-spam policy with notices and follow-up to sources of spam
  • Address increasing security threats to the site by applying software patches sooner after they are released
  • Consolidate our two mailing lists into one comprehensive list for ease of management
  • Remove all spammer and bot registrations from the site and implement an automated mechanism for preventing such registrations at the site in the future
  • Remove all spam messages from our forums and prevent spam from being posted in our forums
  • Create an advisory council of 6 to 8 registered users at the site to provide regular feedback and to offer suggestions for new content and services
  • Create a volunteer team of 10 members to help with occasional, small tasks related to the site
  • Keep hosting costs at their current levels for the next 12 months
  • Report quarterly to the MaleDepression.com community about the progress made toward these objectives

Improve Service to Our Registered Members and Visitors to the Site

  • Answer all e-mail queries and requests received at the site within 72 hours of receiving them, including use of an automated-response tool to acknowledge receipt of a query request and inform the sender that he or she will receive a specific reply with in 72 hours
  • Create a new mailbox for answering routine questions and requests at help@maledepression.com
  • Respond to each request for assistance with research within 7 days of receiving the request
  • Develop media guidelines and post them on the site, including special instructions for writers and editors who are on deadline
  • Respond to each media query within 48 hours of receiving the request
  • Grant interviews with journalists, or decline to do so, within 14 days of receiving the request

Chat

  • Establish and announce a specific topic for each week’s chat session, to provide more direction to the chats, help increase attendance, and make the chats more interesting and useful (includes asking members of our community for suggestions for chat topics)
  • Increase chat attendance to an average of 15 to 20 participants each week
  • Establish a new chat for family members and loved ones of men who suffer from mood disorders
  • Upgrade our chat software to the newest release
  • Arrange for one guest to attend the chat every three months (each quarter)

Accreditation

Generating Revenue, Paying the Bills

  • Create a comprehensive affiliate/shopping area on the site to allow visitors to purchase products and services through the site and receive a percentage of the purchase price as commission;
  • Upgrade Barnes and Noble affiliate program for our online bookstore to their new, successor affiliate program;
  • Explore and select a long-term funding mechanism for the site, either for profit or not for profit, to ensure that the work of MaleDepression.com can continue into the future;
  • Implement a program whereby individuals can offer a small monthly gift to help our site become more effective at fulfilling our mission;
  • Obtain sponsorship for the site from businesses in the amount of at least $30,000 annually, in the aggregate, for a minimum of 3 years (includes possible advertising and other forms of sponsorship, while maintaining independence of content and management);
  • Manage costs by using open source software as much as possible and using high-quality Web hosting (Hosting Zoom and MediaCatch) that provides excellent service, a very high percentage of uptime, and generous disk storage and bandwidth.

You will note that some of the activities involve generating sustainable sources of revenue for the site. MaleDepression.com has never been about making a profit, and that is not changing now. Our mission is simple: to help men with mood disorders and their loved ones. However, in doing that good work, we must do it well. Doing it well includes breaking even in terms of income minus expenses to support all of these activities.  I am at a point where, if I am going to continue doing this work and asking others to help, I need to take better care of myself and that means, simply, asking for financial support and receiving it.

Eventually, I would like MaleDepression.com to provide some work opportunities for men who are suffering from depression or bipolar disorder who need to supplement their incomes, but whose illnesses limit them to working very few hours.  This idea is in the embryo stage; we are a long way from making that a reality, but I mention it because it gives you a better sense of my vision and the possibilities I see for this site.

As you can see, it is an ambitious undertaking.  I am developing the details in a well-structured plan, using the GoalPro software, and will use that plan to implement these ideas, track our progress, and report on that progress to the community.  I will let you know how we are doing as we get into the detailed implementation.

Please note: This site is not set up as a not-for-profit organization. At present, we don’t have the infrastructure that would allow us to make the best use of a business entity that would qualify for tax-exempt status. However, in 2010, I will be exploring operating this site as a “limited profit limited liability company” (L3C), since that new form of business organization will be available in Illinois. See Public Act 96-126 (Illinois General Assembly, effective date January 1, 2010). Since I have long believed that good works ought to be profitable, the “L3C” business entity may be exactly what we need. I will post more details about this as they become available to me.

How You Can Help

Our biggest need in the short term is funding.  This site began as a simple one-man operation in 2002 with no outside financial support.  We have grown to a point where we need generous patrons to help us achieve our mission.  If you would like to help, please visit our “Donate” page to see how you can make a gift to support this work.  If you would like to advertise on the site or sponsor us in some other capacity, please e-mail me at steve@maledepression.com.

A huge, and hopefully most affordable, way to help ensure the success and continuity of MaleDepression.com is to offer a gift to MaleDepression.com as a monthly subscription of $2.50.  I know even that amount will be an unmanageable burden for a few of us, and I don’t want anyone to feel they are not an important part of our community because of ability to pay.  However, since $2.50 is about the price of a large coffee (or medium tea or small latte) at most cafes in the largest North American cities, I am hoping most of you will be able to make this donation on a monthly basis and allow us to move forward and to do even better work and more of it.  We’re still just at the tip of the iceberg; many others need our help.  Will you be part of the effort to make our site better and more available to a larger audience?  If you provide your name, I will acknowledge all donations on our “Supporters” page, unless you tell me that you to offer your gift anonymously.

To set up your monthly contribution of $2.50 (United States Dollars), please visit this link.

We will also need some volunteers to help with various projects to accomplish our plan for the next year.  If you would like to volunteer, please e-mail me and I will put you on the list.  Most of the projects will not require any special skills, just a basic computer literacy.

Thanks very much in advance for what I know will be a generous outpouring of support.  All of our supporters and volunteers will be acknowledged on our “Supporters” page, unless for some reason they wish to remain anonymous.

As always, if you have any ideas or suggestions for this vision, or if you would like to help, please contact me by e-mail at steve@maledepression.com.

I look forward to building, strengthening, and serving our community even better during the next year.  Thank you in advance for your generosity and support.

Best wishes for good health and happiness,

Steve Imparl
Founder and Director, MaleDepression.com