Like many independent websites, The Viking Herald over has generally looked to advertising to meet costs. Unfortunately, this can impact the readability of the website and also leaves us reliant on the whims of Big Tech and advertisers for our survival. For this reason, over the last year or so we have been trying to take our first steps towards becoming a reader-funded publication.
This is why we created our Patreon page – there, we have been asking our most committed readers to pay a small monthly fee that helps keep us going. We can also share exclusive content and behind-the-scenes stories.
Together, we have made a great start – growing contributions from our Patreon subscribers have meant we have been able to remove the most annoying pop-up ads from the website.
But we would like to take a further step: we want to make The Viking Herald completely ad-free.
So what’s stopping us?
At this point in time, we still rely on the money we get from ads to cover some of our technical costs. So we are asking our readers for further support in a special campaign.
In short, the more new Patrons subscribers we get this year, the more adverts we will switch off. If we get enough subscribers, we will be able to turn all the ads off and go totally ad-free (see full calculation at the end of the article).
Discount and benefits for May 2026
In the month of May, as a thank you to anyone who signs up we are also offering a 75% discount off the first month of Patreon membership.
Patreon members can look forward to:
- Exclusive articles only available on Patreon
- A peek behind-the-scenes of our work
- An opportunity to shape our content
- The chance to give all our readers a better experience on The Viking Herald website
If you happen to be interested, please The Viking Herald Patreon page to find out more.
In the meantime, we would also like to say a huge thank you for all Viking Herald readers. It doesn’t matter whether this is your visit to our site or the 50th, knowing that there are other people out there with a passion for Viking history really does keep us going!
Jonathan B and The Viking Herald Team
Calculation
Calculation: More subscriptions = fewer ads
USD 25 = 25% ad removal
USD 50 = 50% ad removal
USD 75 = 75% ad removal
USD 100 = 100% ad removal
i.e. If we have five more Viking Warrior Patrons, or one more Viking Chieftain Patron, we will remove 25 of our ads. If we have 20 more Viking Warrior Patrons, or five more Viking Chieftain Patrons, we will remove all of our ads.
In other words, if you sign up to Patreon, you are directly helping make the site more independent and more readable for everyone.
Feel free to reach out to discuss potential stories that may be in the public interest. You can reach us via email at [email protected] with the understanding that the information you provide might be used in our reporting and stories.
