I'm slowly coming around on this. I've been stubbornly blogging for more than a decade. I never monetized at all. This was partially a recognition of my lack of time to produce consistent content. It didn't seem right to ask for money and not consistently offer something in return.
I'm not a FT comic creator, so maybe that's the distinction. I alternate between teaching and creating.
Now I'm beginning to rethink that, as I start to make Substack entries. I have insights besides my comics to offer. Maybe I should let others decide what they're worth, instead of making that decision per-emptively for them.
I find your experiences and insights valuable and useful, as I continually re-examine my creative output.
Thank you. I offer a lot here for free, and if people want to pay, that’s great. It’s a real help. Between Substack and Patreon, blogging finally paid off. If we feel we’re adding value, it is good that people recognize that value. Otherwise, it’s just big tech fooling us into believing we are getting something for free by using their tech. But their tech is useless without people providing the creative work that makes it go. We deserve a fair share.
Really appreciate you pulling back the curtain on both previous and current approaches to blogging and the economics around it! So easy to assume pie in the sky numbers on either side of the equation (ad or Substack/Patreon), this kind of transparency gives aspiring folks a lot of good data to work into the napkin math.
I haven't done much in the way of monetizing my social media accounts or my website. I wanted to have some solid content posted for visitors as I really got into trying to build an audience. So, in addition to simply enjoying all the content you post, Colleen, I've been a student of your ways. Especially how you make whatever content you post so engaging -- which I know springs from your personality. I really respect the way you bring the personal into your blogging, without going overboard.
Let me clarify to say I thought I'd preserved the backups, moved the blog, it crashed, backups gone. Almost gone. A handful remained, some I'd copied and saved in Word format, and the rest just wiped. It was both stressful and liberating.
I'm slowly coming around on this. I've been stubbornly blogging for more than a decade. I never monetized at all. This was partially a recognition of my lack of time to produce consistent content. It didn't seem right to ask for money and not consistently offer something in return.
I'm not a FT comic creator, so maybe that's the distinction. I alternate between teaching and creating.
Now I'm beginning to rethink that, as I start to make Substack entries. I have insights besides my comics to offer. Maybe I should let others decide what they're worth, instead of making that decision per-emptively for them.
I find your experiences and insights valuable and useful, as I continually re-examine my creative output.
And I liked your blog!
Thank you. I offer a lot here for free, and if people want to pay, that’s great. It’s a real help. Between Substack and Patreon, blogging finally paid off. If we feel we’re adding value, it is good that people recognize that value. Otherwise, it’s just big tech fooling us into believing we are getting something for free by using their tech. But their tech is useless without people providing the creative work that makes it go. We deserve a fair share.
Really appreciate you pulling back the curtain on both previous and current approaches to blogging and the economics around it! So easy to assume pie in the sky numbers on either side of the equation (ad or Substack/Patreon), this kind of transparency gives aspiring folks a lot of good data to work into the napkin math.
I haven't done much in the way of monetizing my social media accounts or my website. I wanted to have some solid content posted for visitors as I really got into trying to build an audience. So, in addition to simply enjoying all the content you post, Colleen, I've been a student of your ways. Especially how you make whatever content you post so engaging -- which I know springs from your personality. I really respect the way you bring the personal into your blogging, without going overboard.
Sorry, fixed big old weird typo.
Can we still see the old blogs?
Wiped in a blog migration, and not on purpose. I was able to preserve some files, and a lot of them I’m moving here one at a time, with edits.
Let me clarify to say I thought I'd preserved the backups, moved the blog, it crashed, backups gone. Almost gone. A handful remained, some I'd copied and saved in Word format, and the rest just wiped. It was both stressful and liberating.