Hi there!

Maybe you already know iZap4u and if it’s not the case, here is a short summary :

For almost 3 years now, the iZap4u adventure started, first on Youtube (www.youtube.com/user/iZap4u) then for 2 years on the website (www.iZap4u.com) and already 150 Zaps have been released (if you don’t know what is a Zap, take few minutes to watch one here : http://www.izap4u.com/zap/).

Zap is a compilation of videos taken from the internet with different themes, from the documentary to everyday videos including sport and unusual ones. It last between 40 et 60 minutes and a new episode was released every week. Certain Zaps have reach almost 1,5 millions views on Youtube and those released on the website reach between 40 and 60.000 views.

Other programs have been added in the past few months, like compilations by theme, home made videos (http://www.izap4u.com/les-entrailles-du-zap/) or videos that groups societal topics sequences together (http://www.izap4u.com/society/). There is also a part of the website that groups quotes from public figures (http://www.izap4u.com/la-juste-phrase/) and an other one where you can find articles (http://www.izap4u.com/actualites/). Playlists by theme are also available (http://www.izap4u.com/la-playlist/).

Make a Zap takes between 70 and 80 hours every week that are added to the 40 hours I need for my job in the real life. This job is essential to ensure the money that allows me to pay my bills. The week are very, very hard to manage. If I had the possibility, I would devote 100% of my time to the website and to make it possible, I have to find the funds that will guarantee me a wage. I also have to pay my friends Stephane Divin (who made and manage the website) and Kanzarem (who takes care of the musics in the intro/outro and also make the logos and some visuals) and pay all the maintenance and development bills.

To generate these ressources, I first tried with some ads on the website but I was far from the reality : the performances are very low (ads are broadcasted only few hours a day, the gain for each view is marginal and the Adblock users make the task even more harder). For instance, on 20.000 views on 24H, only 1.000 à 1.500 impressions are actually paid that generates in the best case between 5 and 10 euros.

The incomes from days with low and days with high turnout represent only 150 to 200 EUR each month + averagely 50 EUR for the banners. One of the solutions would be to put ads everywhere on the website to trap viewers but it’s not my philosophy. In addition, the broadcast of these ads cause issues to the player and restrain the updating (the advertising department allows only flash and not HTML5).

After this bad experience, I decided to put in place a donation system et when it started, many of you gave money (500 EUR the first month) but then, it decreased to around 100 EUR per month.

To ensure this dynamic, proposing a monthly subscription seems to be the best solution to me but only 20 of you played the game (around 150 EUR per month).

Once all the incomes added, we reach painfully 500 EUR / month (and far less during the months when no ads are available (like in January, February, July or August), which is not enough to pay all the websites charge, to ensure me a wage and to pay my co-workers Stéphane et Kanzarem.

Money has never been and would never be a real purpose but unfortunately, we live in a society it’s not possible to live on love alone in.

The Zaps production has been stopped few times ago because this breakneck rhythm threat my personal life. After people heard about it, many of you show me support et à on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/IZap4u) and also by mail. Thanks for that. I’m aware that a link has been created and I have to confess that it’s hard to say stop like that.

Getting the possibility to live of the website and develop it is essential to make it in good conditions without a second job. I have been thinking about it and in many of your messages, the idea of a crowdfunding is the one which appeared repeatedly . The idea is to organize a crowd funding 2 times a year to ensure the whole financing of the website. This money will permit me to have more time to edit Zaps and videos, to pay the maintenance, the webdesign and the development and to lead a project of social platform. If the fund-raising ends well, I will remove all ads on the website. It will be the end of visual harassment and problems when Zap is playing. Thanks for your time and see you soon!

Et maintenant?