MIA’s New Store & More

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As MIA readers may have noted, we recently opened a store on this site. You’ll find videos for sale there, as well as MIA merchandise. In the near future, we intend to begin selling ebooks as well.

We launched the store for two reasons. First, it fits the larger mission of this website. There are a number of filmmakers and writers who are producing very interesting work related to psychiatry (in all its aspects), and we hope that our store will help make their work known to a larger audience. At the same time, we hope that the store will introduce our readers to films and books that will be of particular interest to them.

PJ Moynihan is managing our store. Filmmakers and writers interested in having MIA sell their work should contact him at: [email protected].

The second reason for opening the store is a financial one. MIA continues to grow, and as part of that evolution, we must figure out ways to fund this project. Many of you have become regularly supporters of MIA, making a monthly contribution, and we are very grateful for such generous support. However, we are a long way from covering our overhead, and thus we are exploring new ways of creating revenue to keep MIA going. This store is one such way, and I hope that, as we increase the size of our video library and open the ebook section, it will prove useful to our readers, and, at the same time, help sustain us.

As we confront this challenge of funding MIA, we are exploring other possibilities as well. Shall we start running ads? Shall we adopt a subscription model, where readers—after reading five or so articles a month—are asked to subscribe, paying 99 cents a month? In the coming months, we may survey our readers to hear your thoughts.

In the meantime, please check out the store.

 

 

 

 

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. I find the modal pop-ups very annoying.

    I don’t believe a subscription model would work. Maybe it would generate some revenue for MiA, but most readers would just stop reading the blogs, if you put up a paywall. This information should be free for everyone in the world, also for people who cannot afford it. Even 99 cent is a lot of money for some people.

    What about a Wikipedia-like crowd funding?

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  2. I also dislike the pop ups ads. They hassled me even after I’d paid.

    Here are my suggestions how to monetize the blog:
    1. Google ads. You can rule out pharma and nutraceutical companies or any other hucksters like ECT promoters. My friend made $250,000 a year off two sites. Just monitor and keep banning the offensive advertisers.
    2. Charge for “mental health fair trade” certified doctors. Get doctors to pass a test on the data on this site and certify them, them make a listing so we can find decent docs. Charge a nominal $5 fee to search the doctor database.
    3. Conduct an online peer supporter training to teach peer support then add a portal where people can connect with advocates like me who can volunteer or charge nominal rates for peer advocacy work. Charge a $5 fee to search the peer database, charge us something nominal for the training process, and you can also keep a percentage of each peer interaction fee if you have a portal to do that.
    4. Connect with the e-patient movement and teach the advocates in other medical areas what the real deal is with mental health. E-Patient Dave and Regina Holliday are two leaders.
    5. Run a speaker program so any of the rest of us who know our stuff can do public appearances and you can take a cut of the gig booking fee, plus our speaker certification fee. I’m sure you get a ton more speaking requests than you can handle. Many of us know the data too, and have different spins. I.e., I’m artistic and can touch hearts, Will Hall is super compassionate and a good wordsmith, Monica Cassini can speak about natural
    wellness stuff, etc.
    6. Apply for grants like the Arnold Foundation and the Commonwealth Foundation that work for research integrity, or get a Health Impact Assessment grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to see what our input on a pending public policy decision would be.
    7. Enter Patient Centered Outreach research intitute’s matchmaker challenge. Match our advocates with researchers looking for patient input. Charge researchers a fee to connect with us. Charge us a nominal fee to certify as “research input ready,” to be good advisors to academics.
    8. Build a medication reduction module to sell to mental health centers. The kit would include training for peers, staff, and service recipients to safely come off meds.
    9. Include surveys on the site to start solving some of the important research questions in mental health. Like a survey on how recovered people shed their disease identities, or what makes effective advocacy work, or what really works to help people become open minded to the data on this site. Sell the raw data to academics who will write it up for publication.
    10. Dating service. How many psych survivors marry each other?
    11. Humor – Ask Chato B Stewart to do comics for us making fun of people we can’t reach otherwise.

    That enough for now?
    -Corinnna

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  3. This is a great idea! I’m going to get myself one of those hoodies! I am wondering, though, why your film dept. is missing an important documentary – a particularly thought-provoking work of world-class investigative journalism and artistic merit. Where is award-winning filmmaker Kevin P. Miller’s “Generation Rx” in your online store?!

    Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis has called “Generation Rx” a “powerful and often chilling eye-opener.” I believe that for anyone who’s considering ADHD or depression drugs for a son or daughter, this film is a must see.

    The psycho pharmaceutical industry has poured billions of dollars spreading the message of the supposed benefits of their products. “Generation Rx” does a phenomenal job of exploring and exposing the RISKS of psychiatric drugs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xehHwkPpevk

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