2022 By the Numbers: An A+ Member Exclusive

Well, it sure is May and I sure did not deliver this post to you in January or FEBRUARY AT THE LATEST as I traditionally have been known to do! You might wonder why: why on earth did it take me so long to publish this annual report? The answer is not, “it took me five months to actually create and put together.” I created it and put it together in January.

And then the days passed, as they do, as I thought about if the words in the post were correct or if perhaps I should change them. I wondered if maybe I should ask Nico if they liked the words in the post? Whenever I add a second step to the publication of a post, I have essentially ensured I will never publish it. But, then, I don’t know…. other things happened, in my life, in this website, and at some point the existence of this post simply slipped my mind entirely. Like I lost even the memory of writing it? Or the knowledge that it needed to be published at all, let alone immediately?

Then one day (when? I couldn’t tell you?), I decided — or rationalized, really, if we’re being honest AND WE ARE — that it’d be best for the annual report to go up during the fundraiser we were having in March. I expressed this thought to Nico as though it had been my intention all along, to publish this little ditty in March, as part of our overall intention to inform you (the reader) about our Difficult Financial Situation. Then I guess the fundraiser happened, which is incredibly time-consuming for us all, and once more this Annual Report fled my mind.

Why are we now, finally, on the 5th day of May, publishing this fucking post? Why are publishing this post today when every single day of the year that preceded it would have been better and when I clearly kept dropping the ball regarding publishing it at all? It is because Nico asked me if I could publish it today so they could take a week off the A+ Advice Box and we’d still have enough A+ content! So, no big story here, besides that I just want to give credit where credit is due to Nico, for giving me a reason to publish this post even though it is MAY and probably nobody cares anymore.

Anyhow! 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 in 2021 and oh boy also in 2022!

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!


Most Popular Content of 2022

What Got Popular in 2022 // most popular new + UPDATED posts of 2022: 1. Very Special Gay Episode: In 1986, Golden Girls Created the Most Enduring Lesbian Joke on Television, by Carmen Phillips 2. The L Word Generation Q Season 3: Everything We Know, by Riese Bernard 3. The 200 Best Lesbian, Bisexual & Queer Movies Of All Time, by Drew Gregory 4. Quiz: Which Stardew Valley Character Should You Marry? by Darcy Cooper 5. Forget Astrology — Here's What a Person's Go-To McDonalds Sandwich Order Says About Them, by Niko Straits 6. 60 Best Queer & Lesbian Netflix TV Shows, by Riese 7. The 40 Best LGBTQ+ TV Shows on HBO Max With LGBT Characters, by Riese 8. Pop Culture Fix: Jodie Comer's New TV Series Sounds Very Gay and Killing Eve-y, by Heather 9. Quiz: Which "League Of Their Own" Character Are You? by Riese 10. Obsessed: Spiritual Guru and Alleged Arcturian Alien Teal Swan, by Riese // most popular posts in 2022 written before 2022: 1. 25 Streaming Movies With Hot Lesbian Sex Scenes, by Riese, 2. Shibari 101: Single- and Double-Colun Ties, by Cee, 3. Bondage 101: How to Tie Someone Up, by Ryan, 4. Shibari 101: Basic Chest Harness, by Ryan, 5. Your Completely Queer Guide to Horoscope Hookups, by Kate, 6. 240 Weed Edible Recipes Because F*ck It, Let's Get High, by Carmen Rios, 7. 6 Easy Steps for Fucking Your Friends Without Fucking Up the Friendship, by Vanessa, 8. Shibari 101: Let's Talk About Japanese Rope Bondage, by Cee, 9. Shibari 101: Leg Tie, by Cee, 10. The 100 Most Lesbianish First Names, Ranked By Lesbianism, by Riese // By Most Comments: 1. Our 13th Birthday A+ AMA is Now! Ask Us Anything, by The Team, 2. "Yellowjackets" Episode 110 Recap: Unsolvable Mysteries, by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, 3. The 200 Best Lesbian, Bisexual & Queer Movies Of All Time, by Drew Gregory, 4. "Killing Eve" Series Finale: Goodbye, Lovers, by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, 5. Sex With An X: The Perils Of Performative Spelling, by Abeni Jones, 6. The L Word Generation Q 301 Recap: Last Year I Gave You My Heart, by Riese, 7. The L Word: Generation Q Episode 303 Recap: Quiz Showdown, by Riese, 8. "Yellowjackets" Episode 108 Recap: Emotional Time Travel, by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, 9. Member2Member Advice: Gardening, by Nico, 10. The L Word Generation Q Episode 302: Los Angeles Traffic Jam, by Riese // Top Outclicks: 1.The Autostraddle Store, 2. "Best Lesbian Sex Positions" on Refinery29, 3. Shop Enby, 4. FLAVNT, 5. "Duck Butter" on Netflix, 6. A Tribe Called Queer , 7. Lockwood 51 , 8. Two Minds Press, 9. Otherwild, 10. Ash and Chess // TOP REFERERS: 1. Google, 2. Facebook, 3. Twitter, 4. Google News, 5. Instagram, 6. duckduckgo 7. Pinterest, 8. Bing, 9. Rotten Tomatoes, 10. yahoo search // 2022 Top Search Queries: 1. autostraddle 2. the l word generation q season 3, 3. vabbing, 4. how do lesbians have sex, 5. l word: generation q season 3 6. lesbian names, 7.peppa pig, 8.hey mamas lesbian, 9. shibari , 10. service top // Of the 100 most popular posts of 2022 written in 202: 56 were about TV, 19 were about movies, 14 were vapid fluff and 12 were quizzes


Who Wrote What

Heather managed to write even more posts than she did last year! Last year I noted, “big gains from Drew, Shelli and Kayla, with experts forecasting ongoing gains from Kayla as she is now Managing Editor” and indeed, Kayla not only made big gains but contributed to knocking me down to fourth place. Dani perhaps made the most significant gain this year, from unranked in 2021 to #7 in 2022, while Darcy and Nico also aimed higher in 2022.

Most Prolific Authors of 2022: 1. Heather - 238, 2. Kayla - 133, 3. Carmen - 130, 4. Riese -115, 5. Drew -111, 6. Darcy - 87, 7. Dani - 86, 8. Shelli - 77, 9. Christina -75, 10. Nico - 73, 11. Valerie - 42, 12. Natalie - 40, 13. Yash - 36, 14. Niko - 34


Money Money Money

Income & Expenses

In last year’s annual report, I wrote that we’d yet to earn approval for an SBA loan and shared that “this is also our first time doing a loan which is a whole psychological thing for me but it’s fine,” and indeed I was correct, it has indeed been a whole psychological thing for me! We took out the loan because in 2020 and 2021, we’d learned that doing multiple fundraisers a year was unsustainable and impossible for our team and our readers.

Some big wins this year: We made huge gains in advertising in 2022 thanks to our new Brand Partnerships Director Anya Richkind and our partnership with Q Digital — a 238% increase from 2021! We had an incredibly successful and very fast fundraiser in 2021! Unfortunately, we also spent $200k more than we earned in 2022 — even after the fundraiser — which’s approximately the size of that loan. As one might say: yikes!

ETA: Now that it’s May and not January when I first wrote this I would like to add that we are SO GRATEFUL for how y’all showed up big for our 2023 Fundraiser!!!!!

MONEY THAT CAME IN DURING 2022: EIDL Loan - 15% - Our team simply lacks the resources to pull off multiple fundraising campaigns per year, so to give everyone a break I took out a $199,000 loan from the SBA instead — our first loan ever. // A+ Members - 49% - Our revenue from A+ is up 7.3% from 2021. We are so grateful for every single one of you! // Advertising - 21% Donations - 13% - We had one incredibly successful speedy fundraising campaign this year! While a lot of the work was in the lead-up, we cannot thank you enough for the blessing of helping us meet our goal swiftly. // Merch - 5% - See a more detailed report of our merch below. // Affiliates - 1.3% Most Money Earned: 1. Crash Pad Series 2. Babeland 3. Shopstyle 4. Etsy 5. Bookshop 6. Pleasure Chest // MONEY WE SPENT IN 2022 Full-Time Employee Wages, Benefits and Payroll Taxes (57%) -This number accounts for 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 is up slightly from last year due to increased health care costs and adding a full-time employee. We weren't able to give any raises this year despite inflation. // Freelance + Contract Workers - 28% - 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 14% more on freelancers this year than last year. // Other - 9% 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 Fees: Payment processing fees for Stripe and Paypal // Printing Stuff - 6% - 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 is down from last year 'cause we only had one fundraiser.


Merchandise

Go peaches!!

Autostraddle Merch. // Most Popular Shirts of 2022: 1. Lavender Menace, 2. Rockford Peaches, 3. Who All's Gay Here Tie-Dye, 4. Queer as Fuck, 5. Caligula Inn. // Most Popular Non-Shirts of 2022: Kiss-in Print, 2. Gay Chaos Socks, 3.Queer Magnetic Words, 4. Gay Chaos Sticker, 5. Who All's Gay Here Sticker // Most Popular New Merch of 2022: Kiss-in Print, 2. Gay Chaos Socks, 3.Queer Magnetic Words, 4. Gay Chaos Sticker, 5. Who All's Gay Here Sticker


A+ Members!

Now it’s time to appreciate you — thank you, each and every one of you, for making our lives possible, for helping to get us through a pandemic, for contributing to 50% of our annual revenue.

a+ members as of january 2023: Cobalt Members (4,238) - 12.5% increase from January 2022 Bronze (1,538)- 12% increase Silver (1,351) 3% increase Gold (530)- flat Platinum (171) - 13% increase MOST-CLICKED-ON A+ POSTS OF 2022 1. Things I’ve Never Asked My Girlfriend of Three Years About Age Gaps, Topping and Our First Date, by Kayla Kumari 2. Things I’ve Never Asked my Girlfriend of Three Years About Her Childhood and High School Years, by Kayla Kumari 3. I’m a Lesbian and I Want to Hate-Fuck These 9 Men So Hard Their Kindergarten Teachers Forget Their Own Names, by Laneia 4. A Sleep to End the Heartache, by Heather 5. A+ Roundtable: The Relationships We Stayed In Too Long, by The Team 6. Interview With My Wife: Stacy, by Heather 7. Notes From Hell: Divorce Year, by Laneia 8. Interview With My Girlfriend: Amanda, by Laneia 9. Into the A+ Advice Box #73: Your Boyfriend Doesn’t Like Your Soft Butch Haircut 10. I Was Supposed to Be Good at Math, by Em Win WHO GAVE A+ MEMBERS THE MOST ADVICE IN 2022? Ro White - 114 Vanessa - 105 Nico - 97 Himani - 73 Darcy - 38 Meg - 36

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?

Join AF+!

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.

17 Comments

  1. love these posts no matter when they come out! honestly with the adhd time-is-fake you could’ve said ‘here’s the report’ and i would not have know it was off its usual schedule

  2. Proud owner of the two most popular shirts AND the blue Gay Chaos socks – love that for me! Now it’s time to re-read Laneia’s post about hate-fucking men again, tra la, tra la…

  3. Ok but what on earth is vabbing?? (I know I can look it up, but it’ll just lead me back here any way ;) )

    thanks for sharing this Riese! Better late than never, and also I wouldn’t have even realized it was late! The number breakdowns are always really interesting

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