2021 By the Numbers: An A+ Members Exclusive

Hello and welcome to your annual report chock-full of numbers and images that represent those numbers! Since 2016 we’ve been providing this information to our beloved A+ members. We did it in 2017 and then I did it in 2018 then I did it in 2019 and then I did it in 2020 and then, believe it or not, I did it once more, in 2021!

We’d like to politely request that you do not share any of these graphics outside of A+ and instead enjoy them only here on this page right now with us as a family! Okay? PERFECT LET’S GET OUR KNIVES AND FORKS OUT AND DIG RIGHT IN SHALL WE

Most Popular Content of 2021

Chart One: Most Popular Posts in 2021 Written Before 2021: 1. Your Completely Queer Guide To Horoscope Hookups, by Kate (2013) 2. Shibari 101: Single- and Double-Column Ties, by Cee (2018) 3. Bondage 101: How To Tie Someone Up, by Ryan (2013) 4. 240 Weed Edible Recipes Because F*ck It, Let's Get High, by Carmen Rios (2015) 5. Shibari 101: Basic Chest Harness, by Cee (2018) 6. 95 Queer and Lesbian TV Shows to Stream on Netflix, by Riese (2015 - 2021) 7. 6 Easy Steps for Fucking Your Friends Without Fucking Up the Friendship, by Vanessa (2019) 8. Shibari 101: Let's Talk About Japanese Rope Bondage, by Cee (2018) 9. The 100 Most Lesbianish First Names, Ranked by Lesbianism, by Riese (2017) 10. Shibari 101: Leg Tie, by Cee (2018) // Chart Two: MOST POPULAR NEW POSTS OF 2021: 1. 25 Streaming Movies With Hot Lesbian Sex Scenes, by Riese (re-written in 2021), 2. The 200 Best Lesbian, Queer & Bisexual Movies of All Time, by Drew (re-written in 2021) 3. The L Word Generation Q Season 2: Everything We Know, by Riese 4. Which L Word Character Are You? by Riese 5. Which Horror Movie Stock Character Are You? by Kayla 6. I Can Masturbate, No Hands: On Innovative Masturbation and the Power of Friendship, by Bella Dally-Steele 7. Autostraddle March Madness: Final Four, by Natalie 8. Quiz: Which Generation Q Character Are You? by Riese 9. The L Word Generation Q Episode 210 Recap: Last Call for Wherewithal, by Riese 10. The 2021 WNBA Finals Had Better Lesbian Storylines Than The L Word, by Natalie and Heather // Chart Three: Posts by Most Comments: 1. The A+ Fall 2021 Ask Us Anything Is Now!!!, by the Team 2 .Autostraddle's Turning 12 and We Want You To Ask Us Anything, by The Team 3. Our A+ Personal Questions AMA is NOW! 11am - 4pm! by the team 4. This is an Essay About Penises, by Drew 5. 60 Straight Actresses Who Play Gay the Most, by Riese 6. Sarah Michelle Gellar Gays Up “Masters of the Universe: Revelation,

Who Wrote What

Heather’s reign of triumph has continued for a second consecutive year! Another major upset of 2021: Carmen has also overtaken me and is now the #2 most prolific author at Autostraddle.com. Big gains from Drew, Shelli and Kayla, with experts forecasting ongoing gains from Kayla as she is now Managing Editor.

MOST PROLIFIC AUTHORS OF 2021 BY NUMBER OF POSTS PUBLISHED* (*Includes multi-author posts but does not account for participation in roundtables, Advice Box or Boobs on Your Tube posts) 1. Heather (195 Posts), 2. Carmen (146 Posts), 3. Riese (114 Posts), 4. Drew (96 Posts), 5. Shelli (91 Posts), 6.Kayla (86 Posts), 7. Ryan (82 Posts), 8. Christina (77 Posts), 9. Valerie (74 Posts), 10. Queer Girl (52 Posts), 11. Natalie (51 Posts), 12. Nicole (43 Posts), 13. Meg (34 Posts), 14. Ro (31 Posts), 15. Vanessa (31 Posts)

Money Money Money

Income & Expenses

After a very dismal 2020, we turned the corner for a similarly dismal 2021 in which our asses were saved by YOU to the tune of two fundraisers! Omicron once again made clear that we’re not yet in a place to start planning any live events as we once did with such clear-eyed optimism, but we are really hoping that this year we can ramp up advertising sales and A+ memberships. The fundraisers put an incredible strain on our already small and overworked staff, so we’re trying to avoid a spring 2022 fundraiser with an SBA loan and a fall 2022 fundraiser with increased advertising and A+ revenue. Our new Brand Partnerships Director, Anya, is SO GREAT and we are eager for her to work her magic on our revenue!

But we’ve yet to get approved for that SBA loan we applied for a full seven weeks ago and who knows what the world has in store for us, so we will see! This is also our first time doing a loan which is a whole psychological thing for me but it’s fine.

2021 Income and Expenses Infographic: MONEY THAT CAME IN DURING 2021 GRAPH: COVID-19 Small Business Grants (10%) A+ Members (50%): "This number continues to climb! A+ revenue is up 30% from 2020. This is because Nicole is so good at their job!" Donations (26%): We had two successful fundraising campaigns in 2021. It was a heavy lift from our team but your support got us through a very rough year! Covid Assistance (10%): A loan is not considered revenue or income, but because this was a major part of our survival this year it felt important to include here! We were greatly assisted this year by a second PPP loan! It covered payroll for 2 months! Unfortunately the pandemic continues and the PPP program does not. Merch (6%) Advertising (5.6%) - "We did a lot of smaller contracts this year, including many book publishers. We closed out the year with a solid deal with Showtime for Season 2 of The L Word: Generation Q." Affiliates (2%) - "Most Money Earned: 1. Crash Pad Series, 2. Amazon, 3. Etsy, 4. Babeland, 5. Shopstyle, 6. Bookshop" Sidebar: Amazon kicked us to the curb this year, meaning the network that once netted us nearly $40k a month closed its run with $1.6k. When you're booted from Amazon, you also don't get paid for money they still owe you, so we lost money there too. 2021 EXPENSES GRAPH: + Full-Time Employee Wages, Benefits and Payroll Taxes (54%) - "This number accounts for 7-8 full-time employees and covers wages, payroll taxes, medical, dental and vision  insurance for employees and their dependents and everybody's 401(k). This expense has remained steady." + Freelancers and Independent Contracters (26%) - "We have a lot of freelance writers on our core team and outside of it, as well as other contractors like our subject editors, accountant and web developers. (And guess what? THEY'RE ALL GAY!)  We spent more money on freelancers this year than ever before, with an increase of 20% from 2020." + Printing Stuff (11%) - "This is money we spend on printing and shipping things for the store and A+! So this is all the perks we printed for two fundraisers, the postage and supplies, and all the merchandise for the store. This cost DOUBLED from last year." + Other 7% - "Reference materials (e.g., Hulu, WaPo, NY Times, LA Times, books, movies), Server + storage, Online services (e.g., Slack, Parse.ly, Airtable, Mailchimp, Soundcloud, Vimeo, Dropbox, Piktochart, Jotform, Asana, Getty Images, Shutterstock), Office Supplies

Merchandise

This year’s big hit was Gay Chaos socks!

2021 Merchandise Sales Graphic Most Popular Tees of 2021: 1. Bette For President Tee, 2. Lavender Menace, 3. Queer As Fuck, 4. Grey Basic Scissoring, 5. Lesberado // Most Popular New Merch of 2021: 1. Queer Word Magnets    2. Scissoring Stickers 3. Read a F*cking Book Sticker    4. They/Them Pronoun Pin  5. Gay Chaos Socks // MOST POPULAR NOT-SHIRT MERCH OF 2021: 1. Queer Word Magnets, 2. Scissoring Stickers, 3. Read a F*cking Book Sticker, 4. They/Them Pronoun Pin,  5. Gay Chaos Socks

A+ Members

At last we have reached the part of this post that is why it took so long for me to unleash this little report upon you!!! MemberPress had an internal error that made it impossible for us to get an accurate count of our members by level until this very week!!!! But now we know!!! Thank you to our A+ Director Nicole and also to you, our beautiful A+ members!!! You can look forward to an even more diverse array of A+ content this year!

Autostraddle Plus Graphic: Current Population of A+ Members: 3706 Cobalt Members (up 23% from January 2021), 1355 Bronze Members (up 22%), 1351 Silver Members (up 21%), 527 Gold Members (up 9%), 149 Platinum Members (100%) Increase. /// Most Clicked on A+ Posts of 2021: 1. Here's Your Full Video Workshop Breaking Down Everything You Need to Know for Strap-On Sx, 2. The A+ Fall 2021 Ask Us Anything, 3. Into the A+ Box 32: What If You Choose Not To Have Kids Because of Climate Change?, 4. Into the Advice Box 42: Making Adult Friends, 5. S L I C K: Take me to Church, by Shelli, 6. S L I C K: Yuletide Fire, by Rainn, 7. Love is Not a Lit: Behind the Scenes of Heather Hogan's Wedding, 8. Into the A+ Advice Box #27: A Pattern of Growing Tired of Dating Cis Men, 9. Into the A+ Advice Box #36: How Do You Become the Mean Femme Top of Your Dreams?, 10. A+ Members: Help Us Seed Our March Madness Brackets With Your Favorite Fictional Couples. // Who Gave A+ Members The Most Advice in 2021? (Number represents the number of advice questions answered by each writer in the "into the A+ Advice Box" series) = Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya: 208, Ro White: 176, Himani: 122, Vanessa: 68, Nicole Hall: 47

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3303 articles for us.

20 Comments

  4. Been a member for a couple of years and this makes me so proud and happy. Of course I want more and better for y’all! But honestly seeing that A+ is HALF of the site revenue and knowing I’m part of that feels awesome. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for this place.

    • I am so glad you feel awesome about that because you should! You are awesome! When we say A+ members keep this place around, we really do mean it ❤️❤️❤️ Thank you for being a member and a part of Autostraddle!!

  6. Always love anything with a graph/numbers. Those Shibari posts keep being in the top ten – Autostraddle must be the number one place on the internet to learn how to get tied up :)

  7. Great post, but also…Bing? Bing as the #7 top referrer???? If there are any tech-unsavvy elder dykes out there who need help, hit me up, I gotchu.

  8. Yay the big numbers round-up! Thanks for sharing this info and also for the work you put into making very yummy data visualization. I don’t usually think of myself as a numbers guy but I can’t deny that these reports are always very satisfying to read/look at.

    (also, as if I didn’t need another reason to hate Amazon, wtf affiliate policy??)

  9. This is so great! I love reading these posts. Thank you for making them. Just curious, is there any progress on hiring a deputy editor? Or did you all decide not to hire in that role right now?

    • Good question! We weren’t able to find anyone during the last hiring phase for this role, and we’ve put a pause on it for now because we honestly cannot afford to hire another editor at the moment!

      • Thank you for your response! That is such a bummer. You are all so great and work way too hard. I so hope you can hire more full-time staff soon so you all can take a well deserved break.

  11. wow I love knowing that I am far from the only person trawling through autostraddle’s shibari archives, go team. and fuck amazon forever.

  12. I always love this post even though it always makes me feel wildly out of touch with autostraddle readership. (I made it through 1/2 an episode of The L Word.) Love y’all and appreciate all the great reading!

  13. Great post. I love charts. And now I know which articles which I have missed to read up on!

    I didn’t know that Autostraddle was booted from Amazon, is there story behind that?

  14. oh I’ve only seen this today and I hope it’s not too late to comment, but I’m always amazed by how much AS is able to do with such a small budget – it’s crazy! Why were you booted from Amazon? I imagine they don’t give a proper explanation. In any case, thanks a lot for the yearly update!

Comments are closed.