Re: Consession Stands -- Christopher Ford, Amateur Paranormalist

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Date Posted: 18:07:16 01/31/02 Thu
Author: ~Steve-o
Subject: Re: Consession Stands
In reply to: TechnoAtheist 's message, "Consession Stands" on 16:55:43 01/31/02 Thu

>I just read [url=http://www.steveospage.com]

Apparently having come directly from a Keen board :)

>The reason I'm smiling is that on my page there's a
>donations link. It's been there since day one.
>Nobody has clicked on it.

That's not necessarily a critique of your work, it's just simple math. If 1% of your readers are willing to make a donation, you need 100 regular readers before you get a single donation.

I do admit to buying the PvP comic book. Why? Because there's material in there that isn't on the site, and it's good material.

So why do I support Kurtz and not, say Carson Fire? Because the additional material Kurtz puts into his comic books is not inclusive of what's on his site. You don't have to buy the comic to "get" the web comic. And both Gisele Legace and Carson Fire have said that their comic books will contain major plot elements not available online.

>That said, and to play devil's advocate, creating
>heroin-ware is a pretty common practice (Hey Kids,
>first hit's free)

But crack lord tactics, while it may work for shareware, does not work for content. It's been tried. There have been numerous online content providers, everyone from magazines to ContentVillage, who have tried subscription-based reading. All have failed.

>and as is always true, the more cost associated with
>something, the less likely people will be interested in it.

This is doubly true when you have a free project that suddenly changes to a pay project. Sure, you'll have some fans who will carry over with the change. But that's the point where you need to decide what's more important, money or fans?

>The only book I've ever gotten like that is a Sluggy
>Freelance book (When Holidays Attack) and while I'm sorta
>interested in getting PvP#3, I'm not beating a path to any
>of the others.

Again, both of the books you just mentioned are tie-ins to the online content. They both provide additional material, but do you need them to enjoy the site? No.

>That said, I appreciate that folks who are giving away
>stuff are paying to do so. I do contribute on occasion
>to several tip buckets.

I would more often if I could. I bought a "Kitten" shirt, does that count?

Also, I wonder, seriously, about the people who bitch and moan about the cost of their bandwidth. If your host is really gouging you that much, change hosts.

[insert plug for Yahoo hosting here]

>The funniest thing too is that the two authors Steve
>mentioned, i had stopped reading because I stopped
>being interested in their stories, which makes the
>concept of me paying for them even less likely.

And both were admittedly working on their print comics when their stories started going down the tubes.

Let me just clarify my earlier point by saying that I'm not opposed to the business model, but I think charging your fans for the right to continue being your fans is ludicrous. If these artists came out with comic book series that were completely different than their online series, I would probably buy them, or at least try them. If they came out with print versions of their strips with new material that wasn't required reading for their websites, I'd probably buy them.

Here's how I think about it: Think about the way the Ford stories tie into each other. Now imagine that every other Ford story was published as a novel that cost 8.99 (64.99 Canadian) but didn't appear on the site. If you didn't buy every book, you'd be lost. How long do you think it would take for me to lose 99% of my readers?

The only instance I can think of this kind of tactic working was the "X-Files" movie, and that was just a one-time deal.

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Replies:

Re: Consession Stands -- Hetta, 07:41:55 02/01/02 Fri

Re: Consession Stands -- TechnoAtheist, 10:40:01 02/01/02 Fri

Re: Consession Stands -- Hetta, 13:41:36 02/01/02 Fri