Supporting macTALK...

Totally free! That's macTALK! And this is our promise to you...

We mean no charge for subscribing to the macTALK list; no charge for participating in macTALK; and no charge whatsoever for using any of the many features on the macTALK website!

Furthermore, macTALK promises to keep all that annoying private advertising well away from the individual and compilation emails which are sent out as "list traffic" (which is one of the main reasons we decided to move to private list hosting, away from commercial providers who are in it for the money).

Of course, membership of macTALK is strictly reserved for fully paid-up members of the Yorkshire Mac Users Group, but since YMUG is the biggest Mac user group in the country, annual membership can be pegged at only £5.00! This not only represents terrific value, but it is the cheapest subscription fee by far!

You should be aware that macTALK is still owned and run by the original creator - a YMUG member - largely at his own expense, and that unlike the official website, only the barest minimum of your YMUG subscriptions fees goes towards reimbursing the basic macTALK costs. All extra costs, time and efforts for development and administration tasks and so on, are met by the list owner.

You will see no requests for donations (though they will not be refused - I'm not stupid!); no buttons to click to make PayPal payments to show your thanks; and no obligations for you to contribute anything at all. Furthermore, macTALK is not a commercial venture; does not knowingly appear in any search engines; and is purley reserved for the use and enjoyment of macTALK members.

If you do ever feel like making donations to the upkeep and betterment of macTALK, then please contact the list owner, but this entirely up to you, and not obligatory. You can feel sure that any such gifts are ploughed back into macTALK as you would intend.

So, how can macTALK remain free?

Well, apart from donations, by clicking your mouse - it's as simple as that!

The macTALK website contains minimal sponsored links to carefully hand-picked advertisers, and we ask you to visit any of these links which interest you by simply clicking them with your mouse to see what they have on offer. Please note that these advertisers do not pay advertising fees to macTALK, but should you happen to make any purchases from them within a short time of clicking the link on this website, then macTALK earns a small commission. But best of all, this costs you nothing extra on top of your purchase, and although we ask you to support macTALK in this way, there is no obligation whatsoever for you to do so!

These "sponsored links" are all hand-picked to be useful to you as Mac users, so that you are more likely (we hope) to take a moment to click! By this, I mean that you will definitely not see adverts on macTALK for DFS, Baines & Ernst, or the Personal Accident Helpline; but will only have to put up with the likes of Apple, the iTunes Music Store, Amazon, BetterWebSpace, the iPod Store, and so on.

So as an example, you want to buy one book from Amazon for £10.00. Don't go straight to the Amazon UK website - go there via macTALK! The book will still cost you the same £10 but macTALK, as an "associate", will receive a modest "referral fee" of a few pennies on the sale, and this will help us keep macTALK free to its members.

Similarly, if you are planning to buy a new Mac or "Tiger" - the latest incarnation of Mac OSX - then please consider going to the Apple Store via macTALK. It won't cost you any more, but you are helping macTALK, as well as the Apple Macintosh platform! You can help macTALK whilst upgrading to Tiger by clicking the link on this very page!

Another quick and easy way to support macTALK is by each time you make a purchase from the UK iTunes Music Store, do it after clicking any of the several links to iTunes scattered around macTALK. It doesn't cost you anything but a few seconds of your time, and macTALK gets a few pence each time you make a purchase from iTMS! Here's one now!...

So, if the commission is so modest, why bother?

Well as they say, every little helps. The macTALK service is not cheap to run - a three figure sum each year. Just some of the costs involved include: annual domain registration fees (payable two-yearly); monthly web hosting fees (the more you use, the more you pay); training and reference manuals; and so on. Remember that only the bare minimum of expenses are now reimbursed by YMUG.

Thought you said "no adverts"?!

Yes, I did, and while there's a macTALK, it is my commitment that there will be no adverts carried on the macTALK list.

In closing, I just want to reiterate that there is no revenue received from advertising on the website; only from referral fees (hopefully)! Furthermore, not only are the sponsored links selected for their special interest to Mac users, but I have designed the website so that wherever the links appear - it's a case of one click and they're off!

Please take a moment to support macTALK!

Getting the most from macTALK...

I am planning to produce reference materials - in the form of QuickTime movies on a CD, and standalone documents in PDF format - to help you get the best out of macTALK and its many new features.

Details will appear here in the not-too-distant future.

Please feel free to participate in macTALK, or just 'lurk' if you prefer; but in any case, I hope you will enjoy using macTALK!

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