PhotoDude.com

Tue. Feb 24, 2004

Web Busking

Web Busking – I woke up this morning, and my ears were burning. ”Reid Stott – MR. Photodude- are you out there?” OK, is this one of the voices in my head, or a legitimate request? ”I want to hear from you on ’busking for dollars’ regarding internet content. Why? Because I imagine that’s a topic on which you have a well thought out and considered opinion – one I’d like to hear.”

”A well thought out and considered opinion”? Obviously, not one of the voices in my head. They know better.

First, a little context. Catherine isn’t a voice in my head, she’s an artist I’ve ”known” (in the digital sense) for a long time. And now she is planning a new … project. One that may require a bit of extra funding. Like me, I think she’s always been too proud stubborn reluctant to ask her readers for funds, even though it has become relatively commonplace, and is certainly ”accepted behavior” on the web. A lot of people have no problem with asking, but for some of us, it still seems a bit … indecorous. It’s just not appropriate for me to plead for funds towards the $600 lens I desperately need to replace, but can’t because I got stiffed for six times that amount in ”uncollectable accounts receivables” from last year.

Or so the voices in my head say.

But when Catherine returned to the web after an absence, she did so without a digital camera (hey, they die like anything else). Bit by bit, her readers contributed $5 or $10 or $20, and before she knew it, they’d contributed enough to purchase a replacement camera. And that helped her get past those too proud stubborn reluctant feelings: ”And I stopped feeling weird because I figured it this way: you can stop reading. You can make a face of derision. You can smile. You can chuckle. You can say ’sell that car first!’ Or you can just ignore it. I’m not asking for milk money or gas money – I’m saying if you’re the type who pays for web content in some way, or throws a quarter at the guitar player on the corner (which is what we all are who publish web sites for mainstream consumption) then my guitar case is open for business.”

Which brings us to the next part: defining terms. If you have a PayPal or Amazon button on your home page, the proverbial ”tip jar,” and occasionally mention ”your contributions keep this site going,” that’s ”busking.” You’re doing what your talents allow/dictate (and what you’d probably be doing anyway), and hope that anyone who stops by might be moved to toss a buck in your guitar case tip jar.

I’ve had a ”tip jar” in the right column at PixelPile.org for over two years, and it has collected a total of $115 in that time. In my personal experience, you can count on ”busking” to perhaps pay for a few months of web hosting fees each year (welcome help at a community site, to be sure), but that’s about it. If you have a higher traffic site, or your readership feels you are providing them something particularly unique, the tip jar can be a far greater source of income. But it’s highly variable. Those who are most successful at it seem to be those who mention it with relative frequency. I don’t think you can just ”hang out a shingle” and expect the dough to roll in. Not in any significant amount.

However, I’ve never had a ”tip jar” here at PhotoDude.com. I guess I’ve been too proud stubborn reluctant (I do have an Amazon wish list that recently garnered me some excellent lagniappe). Plus, I’m an Entrepreneur and a Capitalist. I decided that I would solicit money from people, and give them something for it. Like, a tangible object. An archival print. If you’re going to give somebody forty bucks, wouldn’t you at least like to get a framable piece of artwork?

PhotoDude Labs has been in operation since May, 2003, and my ”gross sales” are … pretty gross. $680 for 9 prints in 9 months. Better than busking, and I’m thankful for every print ordered, but frankly, that’s about a quarter of the sales volume I’d originally anticipated.

Of course, we have to move outside Reid’s Personal Experience to find ways to make money on the web. And as someone with a couple of decades in the advertising business, I am not too proud, stubborn, or reluctant to see how I can profit from ad placement. It’s brought me a little over three figures in six months or so, just from placement on the individual archive pages. I’m considering adding BlogAds on the home page, as they’ve certainly been a success story elsewhere. But not everyone has the traffic to truly make ads a worthwhile moneymaker, and in the case of a site like Catherine’s, I somehow don’t see ads ”fitting in.”

Which brings me to the real success story: projects. Tell your readers all about your dream assignment in great detail, and how you hope to accomplish it. With their help. I think at least two freelancers have funded a trip to Iraq that way. And more recently, Josh Marshall told his readers he wanted to cover the New Hampshire primary, up close and personal, and report it on his web site. He raised several thousand dollars in less than 24 hours.

And of course, we have the Web Daddy of pledge drives, Andrew Sullivan. His appeals to readership have raised, by my count, well into six figures, and he can now afford to appear on the Sunday Morning TV shows dressed like a professional pundit. He sold it well: if you like what I do here, give me enough money that I can devote full time to it.

But there’s a problem here. With a politically oriented project, or going to cover a war, it’s easy to spell out the details of your plan to your readers. It’s easy for them to see, ”yep, that’s going to take money.” Unfortunately, creative projects take money as well, and are not as easy to nail down in a detailed advance plan. It’s a creative project, it can’t be fully predicted, and if it could, would likely change along the way anyhow.

So, your appeal ends up sounding like … ”So, coming soon to catherinejamieson.com is an exciting new thing. Not quite a ’book’. Not quite a ’magazine’ and not quite a … well, not quite an anything. You’ll like it, I promise.”

Artists don’t sell themselves well. I don’t pick on just Catherine, as this goes way back. Just ask Michaelangelo, who would have much rather lived off his beloved sculpture instead of painting ceilings … if he could have only convinced his benefactors. It’s an artistic conundrum: how do you generate enthusiasm about something that not only hasn’t been created yet, but even you aren’t yet sure what it will be?

How do you pull the vague yet slightly defined creative idea out of your head, and lay it out on the table for people to at least begin to understand?

It is tough for a creative person. Some of us don’t like to ”talk” about the work, it just comes out. Defining it in advance can seem very counterintuitive to some creative people. It can be especially tough for those who are visually creative. Putting visual ideas into descriptive words is a minefield of misunderstanding.

<Begin Tangential Joke> Three newlyweds at a posh resort are comparing notes after their wedding night. The first woman says, ”my husband is a Pilot, and boy, did we reach new heights.” The second woman gushes, ”well, mah hubby is a Rodeo Cowboy, and it was sure a wild ride!” The third woman bursts into tears. When the other two ask her what’s wrong, she says, ”my husband is an Art Director, and all he did was sit on the edge of the bed all night long, telling me how great it was going to be.” End Tangential Joke>

As I was saying, properly describing a creative visual concept with mere words can be quite frustrating for everyone involved. But you have to try, if you hope to excite people into helping you. I think people will give to creative projects, in addition to political ones (though it’s clear what predominates this election year). However, you’ve got to sell it just as hard. I think you have to give your readers a firm proposal; here’s what I will do for you, if you do this for me.

Try to focus on two things; goals and means. Let your readers know where you’re going with this. Give them as much information as you can about ”the final product,” even if you’re still not sure how you will get there (i.e., this descriptive process could be good for you, too). If you’re still not sure about the form, tell them about the content. If the content is yet to be determined, describe what you hope it will become, and how it will be unique. Let your readers know, this is a journey with many forks, but here’s everything I know about where we’re going.

Then, tell them the things you will need along the way. The means. Whether it is ink jet cartridges, more bandwidth or space for your web site, or a cheap room at the Motel 6 outside Yosemite, detail the things you will be spending their money on. Help them previsualize exactly how their twenty bucks will help you. For example, when I see a picture on Catherine’s web site today, I know that the $20-30 I gave her last year paid for about one tenth of one megapixel on the sensor that recorded the original image.

That makes me happy. Help your readers previsualize those tangible returns. My guess is that you will learn more about your project than you knew before you had to ”sell” it to others. That is almost sufficient reward in itself. However, if you sell it well, you’ll also get the help you need.

But you gotta sell it.

Of course, it’s near impossible for any random Joe or Jane to set up a Blogspot site and expect something like this to ”happen.” You have to have traffic. You have to have a reputation. A background. A history. A body of work. You have to be a ”known entity.” All of the things that you, Catherine, are. You’ve got all the tools to make this happen.

You asked for my ”considered opinion,” but I won’t hold that random lack of judgment against you. I’d love to see you create the first significant reader funded ”art project” by an individual on the web (at least, the first of which I’m aware), one where people contribute a couple thousand dollars towards a thing of beauty, just as quickly as they gave a similar amount for fresh political coverage of New Hampshire. I think you’re perfectly positioned to do such a thing.

But you gotta sell it.