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A vegan sports news site has been experiencing problems following a recent surge in traffic.
Great Vegan Athletes, which shares news about vegan and plant-based sportspeople as well as detailed profiles, saw record-breaking traffic this October, with 53,000 unique visitors – 235 percent more than October 2018.
The Game Changers
This increase followed the release of plant-based documentary The Game Changers, leading the organization to partially credit the film for the massive surge in traffic.
According to Great Vegan Athletes, the additional visitors mean that the site has experienced problems such as pages loading slowly.
In a bid to tackle these issues, the organization needs to move to a new hosting provider with higher capacity. In order to do this, it has launched an appeal on Patreon, with supporter packages starting at $1.
‘Fantastic reaction’
‘Our original motivation was to shatter stereotypes and show vegans can thrive, so it’s amazing to see so many people enjoying our content,” co-founder Cris Iles, who develops the content for the site, told Plant Based News.
“Part of this is the fantastic reaction to The Game Changers, although we’ve also seen our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts grow and raise our profile – and this year alone we’ve added 40 news items of achievements by elite vegans in sport.
“We’re hoping we can find support above this level out there and buy a premium package for scheduling some of the social media material which generates interest in our site and the athletes. This would not only optimize material, but free up the time of our volunteers to write more, do more site work, get articles published, and generally promote what these amazing athletes are doing.”
On a shoestring budget
Co-founder and Director of Operations Peter Kirwan added that the site is run entirely by volunteers – with no wages paid. “We’ve achieved a huge amount on a shoestring, but if we want to do more, the reality is we need more resources,” he told PBN.
Kirwan said that while the organization doesn’t like ‘asking for money’ – and has operated for years without doing so – additional resources are now needed to take Great Vegan Athletes to the next level by improving the site’s tech.
“Anyone contributing $1 per month or more will get a monthly update on the site’s working, and pledges of $3 or more give access to the Supporters Facebook Group as well. Pledging $10 per month brings the above and a T-shirt too,” he said. “Any support is gratefully received. We’re confident that everything we do is excellent value for money.”
You can find out more about Great Vegan Athletes’ Patreon appeal here
