Make My Own Media...

The big shift? Yes, but not soon...

Simon McGrath picks up on a recent thread discussing the debate over when television advertising dollars will follow the eyes that have shifted to the Internet. Several years ago, numerous studies indicated that people were spending more time in front of their computers than they were in front of their television. So the hot question became, "If people are spending more time on the Internet, when will the large chunk of advertising that goes to television begin to shift over to the Internet."

Simon's take is that while the switch it may seem imminent, he believes that it will take some time. While more eyes are glued to their monitors and online video advertising is growing, it isn't growing fast enough to predict when it might overtake television.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: ashley rose,

Amazon Adds Kindle Self-Publishing For Blogs

Woo hoo, you too can make ¢29.7 a month for each Kindle subscriber to your blog. The Amazon Kindle blog publishing platform is now open to EVERYONE. If you can get 337 subscribers, you too can retire on $100/month.

Hmm, selling E-docs is publishing?

In this article from the Washington Post, they cover Scribd's announcement that they will begin beta tests of an e-commerce platform. The platform will permit document producers to sell E-documents. A key quote form the article is:

Scribd, which has offered free uploading and sharing of documents since launching two years ago, believes that the rise of Amazon's Kindle has made the notion of buying texts online much more acceptable.

Although, after checking the site myself I couldn't find the store, neither could I find an announcement of the store. Weird!

Schwag: The future of collectibles

Hmm, didn't even know they called it that, at least they didn't back in my days. If you're younger than 25, don't you just HATE THAT? No, I'm not talking about how to avoid getting screwed with ditchweed (low-grade weed). I'm talking about the free stuff like hats, t-shirts, cups, stickers, you pick-up at conferences, concerts, etc. The term is synomously used for souvenirs.

A friend sent me a link recently to a web-site I just surfed through the other day. That sort of coincidence makes me take note. The link was to this article from the New York TImes entitled, "Do-It-Yourself Magazines, Cheaply Slick." The article discusses a new website called MagCloud which now offers "vanity" magazine printing. Costing $0.20 a page, the new service allows anyone to create a glossy magazine which can be bought and printed on demand.

If personal appearances, art shows, speeches, are the new business model for content, I think it would be pretty cool to do a series of publications that can be either sold or given away. You could even do one-offs, one of kind magazines that you could give-away, creating instant collectibles. Another idea would be to give a limited edition mangazine to the first 50 people to attend a presentation. Hmm, the mind boogles with possibility.

It's going to take more than pretty words

I've got a lot of respect for TechCrunch, they've really been able to go from nothing to something that sways a lot of people, and been able to make a living doing it at the same time. But lately, I've noticed that some of their op-ed pieces aren't really, helping. They just seem to put out articles that skate all around an issue without really nailing the triple jump.

I first caught wind of this with "Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet." When I first read this, I thought it was pretty relevant, but after reading through the comments and thinking some more, I began to have my doubts. In the article, Eric Clemons, hangs the future of the Internet on selling things, on the Internet. He also claims that Internet advertising will shrink from now on. He may have a point but I just find it plausible that as the Internet totally eclipses television in importance the advertising dollars won't follow. Perhaps what he means is that advertising on the Internet, as we know it today, will diminish, but the Coca-Colas, Pepsis, and Budweisers of the world will have to follow the eyeballs. If they continue to shift to the Internet, they'll HAVE to follow.

In a more recent article, Brian Solis asks "Can the Statusphere Save Journalism?" While it is not entirely clear how the statusphere will save journalism, I'm guessing ultimately it involves people buying stuff over the Internet.

As many have grumbled, maybe we let the genie out of the bottle when we started giving content away for free. That may be true, but I don't see how saying that people will buy stuff, means that it will happen. Just ask the open source community. I think it's just human nature, but when it comes to the Internet and buying, I don't ever seeing us putting the genie back in the bottle.

The best solution I've heard is from Seth Godin and others who claim that, as Brian says, you've got to build a community. Then you sell the only thing that is scarce, you. I just don't see how that translates into saving journalism, websites, or anything else. How does a newspaper (website) siphon of the cult of personality from it's stable of writers into offline scarcity. Does every newspaper need to become O'Reilly Media?

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: rabasz

Alternatives to raising comic book prices

While there's some pretty flaky justifications for raising prices, it was interesting to read about how different publishers are facing the same situation. In this article by Vaneta Rogers in NEWSarama, "The Price Is Right? Publishers Discuss Rising Comics Costs," she identifies three strategies that are available when sales drop and costs rise:

Stay the course and hope that volume will make-up the difference.
Raise prices for the same product.
Raise prices, but add additional content.

I guess that some would say, what about lowering costs? Anyway, among the flakiest comments was from Filip Sablik, publisher at Top Cow Comics:

"...Creative costs have increased as creator cost of living goes up."

It sounds shitty, but brother, we are all in that boat, and if everyone raises their cost structure to adjust for cost of living increases, doesn't that sort of snowball out of control? Sure talent retention is important, but at in this economy, not too many people are voluntarily leaving their jobs. No, I think that you can pay more for talent, but a company has to absorb that with cost cuts elsewhere.

A little friendly advice

Sometimes, you just have to be able to accept things at face value. While it's never quite clear whether something you read, someone you meet, or something someone says, is "right", I say if it feels right. Do it!

What I'm trying to say is be open to a little friendly suggestion. Sometimes, the subtlest encouragement can slip past you, if you're not in the moment. I share this, because, I've had it happen to me a couple of times now, in just the last few days. The latest is from Steven Grant, who writes the "Permanent Damage" column for Comic Book Resources. In a recent column, he shares some advice for "getting into the business." Of course, as he puts it, your mileage from his advice may vary, depending on what "getting into the business" means for you.

For me, at least at this time, it is getting a comic book printed. As he correctly identifies, ultimately, "getting into the business" should mean building an audience. But, baby steps to an audience.

Printing a comic book probably used to be a lot harder, but thanks to Lulu.com, my impression is that it is pretty easy. Of course I'm not talking about selling some books, although that would be sweet. I like many, intend to use Lulu.com like a vanity press. While you can make a comic book (or e-book) for free and make it available for sale on your own site or in the Lulu.com store. You can also just order copies for yourself, where all you really need to charge (pay) is enough to cover Lulu.com's costs.

While Steven recommends the online comic route, what his column made very clear to me was the proof of what I had already been thinking earlier today. No matter what my first comic ends up looking like, the first step HAS to be completing the first actual issue.

So that's the goal! "Getting into the business" will require writing, drawing, and publlshing my first comic book. Since the topic is based on some upcoming event, I've got to try and push myself so that I can can capture some of the hype related to the event, and a commemorative film happening later this year.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: bulent_yusuf

My Blog List