11 CommentsCheck out our project on Bitcoin Starter – Click Here.
It all started on June 6th when I had decided that I was just sick and tired of reading cryptocurrency news sites that seemed to have an agenda to push advertisements, products, sites and companies.
Something about the whole thing felt scummy to me. You could see different sites all pushing the same things and it was obvious that they were being paid to do so. You could barely find the news amidst the literal shitloads of advertisements appearing all over the websites.
I wanted to create something different so Coin Fire was born.
Here we are just a few short months later and we’ve heard from various people in the industry that we are quickly creating one of the most reliable cryptocurrency news sites and we’ve gathered up a team of kick ass volunteers to help us grow this madness out.
We’ve broken stories such as the 1-800-Flowers acceptance of Bitcoin a full two weeks before anyone else, we’ve received hat-tips from mega sites such as GigaOm for our USMS auction coverage, we broke the news about Alex Jones accepting Bitcoin, we’ve received scoop after scoop because we report the news honestly, we always verify everything before we publish and have become known as a truth worthy source that doesn’t report rumors, speculation or gossip.
I wanted to do something different and it appears that is exactly what we have been doing.
We’ve turned down several offers from larger sites, from larger media companies who’ve put large sums of Bitcoin or fiat dollars in front of us because we want to make sure we maintain our editorial integrity and our editorial independence.
We aren’t taking money for stories. We don’t do payola. We don’t do sponsored stories.
We incur real expenses to keep the site going with the constant flow of traffic, with the threats of constant DDOS from others who have wished to silence us or extort us. Yet, here we are. Still chugging along.
Myself, Brendon and Christina have been working nearly around the clock every single day to bring the news to our readers. We’ve fostered great friendships with people like Piece of Bit, Chain Radio and others.
We’ve remained fiercely independent and we’ve kept doing this despite some of the very direct attacks against us from others and we are going to keep doing exactly what we are doing no matter the outcome of this campaign.
Having said all of that we’ve received emails, comments, Twitter DMs, messages on Bitcoin Talk and other places from people asking if they can help and we always direct everyone to our Bitcoin tipping address or simply tell them that a simple RT on Twitter or a share goes a long way and we still mean that but we wanted to give back to the community that has been helping us grow so rapidly.
Enter this Bitcoin Starter project. We’ve heard a lot about Bitcoin Starter and have wanted to write about the site more extensively and figured what better way than helping our fans and readers give back to us, let us give back to them with some unique rewards and write about the entire thing from beginning to end.
So, here is the deal. Coin Fire is looking to expand our operations even more. To do this we are going to need some capital. We’ve been batting around some new ideas on things we want to try, expand our staff a bit more and do some even cooler stuff.
No matter what we are going to keep doing exactly what we are doing currently. Even if we don’t secure anything here we will keep progressing to the things we want to do… just at a slower pace.
These funds will help us focus our team and allow us to spend even more of our time. If we raise enough we won’t have to keep doing our other full-time stuff and will be able to focus on this site and other projects related to it even more. We think that would kickass and we hope you think so as well.
We’ve assembled some rewards for those who wish to back us. Please note that we are offering some advertisement spots on our site. We are NOT offering payola style articles, paid or sponsored stories. We are only offering advertisement slots. We will NEVER offer sponsored stories, paid stories or anything of that nature. If you are thinking you can win some points with us by donating and that we will write about you… look somewhere else. We don’t do that shit and never will.
So take a look at what we are offering here and if you want to keep supporting Coin Fire then leave us something here. If you can’t afford to do so or just don’t want to that is cool as well. Give us a tweet, Facebook share or something else of the like. Those kick ass as well and help forward what we are doing!
Thanks,
Mike and the Coin Fire Team
I was merely pointing out that the pitch is a bit hypocritical. I don’t care whether a site has ads, just don’t criticize other sites for doing what you yourself aspire to do and then criticize someone for criticizing you for it.
Makes sense, but how is it hypocritical when what I am stating is true. Coin Fire contains very few advertisements while I can visit 5 other top crypto news sites and each of them contains no less than 8 advertisements.
The only other site is our friends at Coin Desk. They have one advertisement. They also have over a million dollars in venture capital funding.
This site has zero funding.
I criticized other sites for having a bunch of advertisements. A quick look shows that I was completely honest in my statements. I started this site because the level of advertisements are a serious issue but even more so the other sites are engaged in deceptive practices of doing stories for cash which we’ve received an overwhelming positive response for not doing.
We are asking for some community support only because so many people in the community have stated we should do so. This is a grand experiment for us and an effort to try and recoup some of our expenses without resorting to the same sort of tactics including adding even more advertisements to our site.
That said to the others who are attacking the commenter that isn’t necessary. Everyone is entitled to an opinion including you. Please refrain from personal attacks.
Yea, common. Let’s kiss and make up! You misunderstood and everyone makes a mistake. Don’t be calling me a dick head, unless of course I am wearing my dick hat. 🙂
“I was just sick and tired of reading cryptocurrency news sites that seemed to have an agenda to push advertisements, products, sites and companies.”
Said the blog filled with ads and an “our friends” section, while putting their hand out?
We run a very minimal level of advertisements because frankly operating a site like this that is seeing this much traffic does cost real money every single month.
In comparison to some other sites the number of advertisements we actually display is pretty low.
We have three people writing on here purely for love of cryptocurrency. We don’t make anything from this site and to be honest with you we’ve really struggled to pay the bills because those advertisements barely generate a dollar a week.
If we can raise something via a different method we can reduce the total number of advertisements.
The friend links aren’t paid for either. We simply like those sites and they like us so we’ve agreed to link to them and they’ve agreed to link to us so we can reach potential new users.
If we can raise something to help cover the very much real life expenses we have on this site we could reduce the minimal advertising that we currently have.
If you have a better idea on how we are supposed to do this and maintain the same level of constant reporting than please don’t hesitate to reach out.
I am always welcome to constructive feedback but this read more as an attack on the fact that I’ve given up my full-time job to do this and as such need to generate some sort of revenue if nothing else to help me pay for the servers, premium CloudFlare service and all of the other growing expenses of operating this site than as constructive feedback.
Wow what a bunch of dickfaces.
Are you running what is becoming the number one site on the internet for crypto news?
They have like four advertisements. CryptocoinsNews has EIGHT. EIGHT ADVERTISEMENTS on the homepage and then “partners”.
How the fuck do you propose this site make anything to cover the cost?
Do you think that people should just do it for fucking free?
Go fuck yourself, you guys are a bunch of fucking trolls that is for damn sure. Most people, like myself think these guys are doing a great fucking job. What valuable contribution are you making to the community?
I’ll donate later this week because these guys are actually DOING something besides operating a shitty Twitter account that is pushing some altcoin bullshit that is likely a scam.
What have you done for our community besides be a fucking troll?
“TWITTER FEED”. Real valuable asshole.
Perhaps I will not comment in future.
Don’t let trolling run you off!
I see some hatred being directed at this “bitcoin assets” person.
Hey guys and gals, no reason to hate. They are entitled to an opinion here just as much as everyone else.
I think Mike handled it well with his response, he didn’t call names and others would take you more seriously if you didn’t either 🙂
I’m in. As I told Mike, real journalism smells sweet and makes me hungry for more. Bring it on, baby!
Thanks David!
It is greatly appreciated. As pointed out we do in fact run advertisements in a last-ditch effort to at the very least cover the very real expenses of this site but we want to cut that number down and expand our coverage and we are hoping this will offer a new method in which we can do that.
We know our peers in the cryptocurrency world are hungry for people that are checking facts, not running rumors, not running speculation and are always on the look out for the real story without reading sponsored stories, payola or other crap and we are hoping we can keep doing that.