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Image by HowardLake, via Flickr
If you commented on my last post, I thank you profusely. Every response helped me develop my thinking about donation-ware, and about the larger subject of making my crafty content here sustainable. I also want to say a special thank you (with a hug on top) to Kelly Farrell, Martha Winger, and Tori Coke, who all made donations in response to the post.
I heard two important themes in your responses, which I’d like to address directly:
• I didn’t donate for the tutorial because it wasn’t something I could use.
This idea was repeated over and over. And it revealed to me that I was apparently thinking of “donation-ware” in a very different way than many of you were.
When I see a donation-ware pattern, I make the decision to donate based on all the value I’ve previously received from the blogger, not really based on the pattern itself. I donated for a copy of June’s crochet Valentine heart pattern, for example, because June’s blog has taught me a whole lot about making amigurumi over the years. The pattern itself was of less importance to me – it’s lovely, but I don’t have immediate need of it. It was just a good opportunity to thank June for all the bloggy value.
Most of the commenters, however, seemed to like the idea of donation-ware, but flipped over into more commerce-based thinking about the pattern. The question seemed to be: “Is it something of high value that I’ll use?”
I thought this diversion of perception was really interesting, and it definitely points to the tension we’re all feeling between an overabundant online landscape and a tough economy. But I think it may also point to an overall reluctance in our community to support things as nebulous as value and inspiration.
Image by ferrett111, via Flickr
• I’d donate for “something of value,” but don’t have any specific ideas as to what that is.
This statement is an aggregate of the relatively few people who actually addressed my question of what kinds of projects they’d be more likely for donate for. The phrase “something of value” was pretty universal.
…But again, what exactly does that mean? I think it means something different to every one of us, and as such, it’s not that easy to design any one project that will garner a reasonable amount of support – particularly for a crafty omnivore like me. And does it make sense to invest 10-14 hours per tutorial over and over again, trying to arrive at that magical project that inspires donations?
Well, it doesn’t make sense to me.
This is why I’m giving up on making tutorials… at least, free ones.
I know it may seem like I’m quitting after only one try, or picking up my toys in a huff and going home. So let me assure you, this decision has been in the works for a very long time.
When I started blogging six years ago, making tutorials was a compelling new hobby. I made how-tos because it was all kinds of fun, and I loved sharing ideas and projects with the community. And I was getting “compensated” by growing my writing and photography skills – not to mention, enthusiastic comments.
Over time, though, I developed my tutorial-making skills to a point where people started hiring me to make them. And after a while, my feelings about making tutorials began to shift. Once it’s a professional skill, there’s no getting around the fact that it begins to resemble work a little more than play. (Awesome, enjoyable work, to be sure, but work nonetheless.)
Last December was my big final hoorah in free tutorial-making – I published eight of them in a 17-day period! And it was hours and hours in front of the computer, and I got pretty tired out, and you know what? Not that much else happened. The tutorials didn’t drive any new sales in my online store, and they got relatively few comments.
That was when the seed of this decision was planted in earnest. I realized that the time I spent making free tutorials was time I wasn’t spending, say, working on my granny square blanket, or embarking on that quilt I’ve always wanted to make. I was pouring hours into things I thought you all would like, at the expense of my personal creative time. And we all know, this isn’t the healthiest state of affairs.
Tutorials make the world go ’round, but what does that mean?
Here’s some more interesting data for you. My tutorial content is the number one traffic-driver to my blog – and pretty much always has been. In fact, tutorials that are years old consistently show up in my top ten posts for any given month. (What you’re seeing here is January through April 19th of this year.)
So, it would stand to reason that, by giving up on tutorial-making here, I may be hurting my blog’s traffic numbers. I’m sure that’s true – and I’m okay with it.
Because at this point, six years into my blogging journey, I’m beginning to feel a distinction between “passive traffic” and “engaged community.” And I’m ready to focus on the latter. I’m ready to stop focusing so much on what will please others and earn their support, and turn this blog in a direction that pleases me.
As I’ve said before, the people who support my online classes and publishing projects are extremely important to me, and this blog will continue to offer free value for their needs. After all, there’s an equal and fair exchange in place there – they are willing to pay me for the value I provide. And I wholly appreciate it.
…But for crafty content, I can’t seem to forge a similar equal exchange. (That thinking isn’t just from the result of the donation-ware experiment, by the way. There are other precedents.) It’s nobody’s fault that we can’t forge an equal exchange for crafty content. Some of the reasons stem from me, and some stem from you, and some from this crazy, chaotic online landscape we’re in. And it’s all okay.
So my crafty content here, from now on, will encompass things I’m making and things I like. In other words, things of value to me. And if you like some of them, that’s awesome. I’ll also use those tutorial-making hours I’ll regain for reading and supporting more of your blogs – and especially those of you who so kindly take the time to comment here regularly.
…And of course, whenever someone’s kind enough to hire me to make a tutorial in future, I’ll post a link to it here.
Image by SimplyShutterbug, via Flickr
Don’t get discouraged!
My biggest worry in making this decision is that some of you who are newer to blogging will get the message that “it’s useless. There’s no way to make a living blogging.”
So let me just wrap up by saying that you absolutely can make a living blogging. But it’s not all that easy to make it from the act of making crafty blog posts. What you’ll need to do instead is just what I did: look at the unique skills you have to offer, and then look for ways other people might be able to use them. Then, make the effort to meet lots of people and make lots of connections. And consider who your customers are! Can you sell crafting to crafters? Well, not easily. But what else do crafters need? Or, who, besides crafters, might need crafting? Or, what advertisers might want exposure to those crafters?
The opportunities are out there. What I’m doing now is nothing more or less than the natural evolution of a long-term blog. It’s up to each of us to find our own balance-point between business and pleasure in this odd new world where it’s more possible than ever to blend the two.
Thank you so much for listening.
Right you are, Sharon – the relationships used to be much more clear cut. I think this was possible because few people had control over what information could be accessed. I love this crafty renaissance moment brought about by the internet, but agree with you 100% – we bloggers are doing work for free that magazine and book editors used to get paid to do. We get compensated initially by the giddy freedom and new frontiers of it all, but there comes a point where we have to re-evaluate whether all these hours of free effort are really worthwhile.
I am so glad you are giving up on free tutorials Diane. I’ve never understood how you do so much.? I have a tiny blog compared to yours, and I post tutorials occasionally and know how long they take to make. Thanks for sharing with the public your “time spent” results. I think it benefits everyone to understand what goes on behind the scenes and helps to promote the real “value” of it.
Thank you, Monica – I agree, this is a good time for some visibility. There are a lot of hidden realities to running a craft blog!
Thank you, Joanie – I really appreciate your ebook orders! You’re right that the free stuff draws some people to support this blog with purchases, but honestly, I’ve had to accept the fact that free crafty tutorials are misaligned with the products I primarily sell, which is blogging and social media instruction. You’re among a small group of readers who comes for the crafty and then decides to purchase. If I’m being a smarter business-person, I should be doing more Free along the business-y lines where I earn my living, so I can draw more purchases there.
It’s a really tricky balance. There’s no question that all the Free I put out there early on has led me directly to the career I have now. It’s more a matter of how long any of us can keep up that stream of Free – and whether the community is willing to chip in a little so they can help each other keep it up over time.
I’ve been thinking more about the topic of free…and wondering if at least the huge boost in traffic is worth it in some respect?
I’m not sure how one can measure the worth, but certainly it gets your name out there, builds credibility and such. Hopefully it would generate sales as people peruse your website…or perhaps an upsell has to be worked into the aspect of free…because nothing is ever really free… :P
Of course, I understand that after a certain point, you’ve created enough of the base to drive traffic…but what happens to all that traffic after they finish the tutorial? I know it gets into a lot of the techno-sales-babble stuff… but I do believe in the whole call to action thing. After a free tutorial, maybe we do have to learn to try and offer something to the audience that can generate sales. I know there might be a lashback of those who think it’s pushy, but to sustain free…it has to lead to sales somehow. Perhaps we need to be more direct about it? I would definitely like to do some experiments myself…hmm…
I think traffic is currently the magic “juice” that leads from Free to opportunities. The whole reason to put Free out there is to become visible in the online landscape. Once you’re visible, you have access to more opportunities, more contacts, and more collaborations.
So, traffic is great, but traffic isn’t permanent. I worked like crazy on CraftyPod for five years, but now that I’m busy elsewhere, I’m watching my traffic numbers drop. New stuff is always a click away, and there’s little reason for anyone to stick with a blog when there are fresh blogs all around. So in a way, you’re never 100% done with Free.
…It still comes back the the ROI. What do you want, specifically, to happen as a result of you putting Free out there? How long do you want this outcome to take? And most importantly, do you see signs that you’re reaching your goals?
You are 100% right that we all need to get better at the “call to action” language. It really doesn’t have to be sales-y. But if we don’t tell people what we need in order to sustain the Free, who will? If you do some experimenting, I would love to hear about the results!
I agree with a lot of what you say here. I have found your blog whilst looking for other ideas but felt compeled to comment. My blog has tutorials which were ripped off by a Turkish blog which pays contributing writers which were using my posts to earn money! I have put PDF’s in my Etsy store but not sold any but most of my traffic is for my tutorials. I have paid for PDF’s myself Sarah London is my most popular purchases, but I do not seem to get that for my work. I will donate if I like the idea not just if I will use it. Most do not cost a great deal as I am not using my car, paying parking or paying for P&P, and I believe that some cost must have been incurred if actual samples were made as part of the tutorial so why not contribute for that if you want to use the plans. We live in a funny old world and yes we do like to sometimes get something for nothing but then there are times when perhaps we should not.
Ack! I’m so sorry to hear that! What a nefarious person, to grab someone else’s original work and try to profit from it. I agree, this is a funny old world – funnier than usual at this chaotic start of the Info Age.
[...] via Paypal) product as an experiment in sustainable tutorials. You can read more about it on the CraftyPod as well. Basically, I want to share my work and ideas on this blog, thus I will continue to post [...]
Thank you so much for your valued insight on this topic, just what I needed to hear before making some new decision about my own blog. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts here.
Hi Dianne,
I have only been blogging for less than a year, but I have been asking myself many of the questions that you address in this blog post. It reminds me a lot of the days of downloading “free” music from Napster and other file sharing sites. It used to be socially acceptable to do so until, everything changed and then it became socially UNacceptable to “steal” music. Duh, I always ask myself why I ever thought it was OK in the first place. The only thing that’s happening now is that no one is stealing content, and the creators of the content do not really understand it’s value. Actually none of us know the value of a lot of the content being generated right now. We do know the monetary value of a song- about 0.99-2.99 or a movie, thanks to itunes, Amazon and others. We are still wading through the swamp of defining the value of a lot of really amazing ideas and their various formats. I know every time I come up with a great idea for a blog post I think, if this were a project in a book it would be worth something, or if it were a magazine feature, I would get paid for this, I love to share, and exchange ideas, but I have a feeling that I have enough good ideas plus some left over to share for free that there has to be a way of making a go at this blogging thing. You really are forging ahead with some of these ideas that I think are going to come to define the internet craft/art/design small business model in the future. I look forward to taking your eclasses and being a bigger part of this conversation. I used to think that I needed to just come up with more ideas and get them to the right people to make my blog successful, now I know I need to do the kind of thinking that you are talking about and take measured steps forward. Thanks and Matta Ne.
Thank YOU! I think this is a big collective figuring-out. The models that have ended up working for me won’t work for everyone else. Each of us has a unique skill set, a unique audience, and a unique relationship with that audience. It makes for a nice, wide-open landscape of possibilities that’s also pretty frustrating because there’s so much trial and error to do!
But I totally agree – content has value, and eventually the consuming public will come around to that fact. (It’ll take a long time, and a lot of chaos.) Interestingly, for some of us, content will be the freebie we put out there to grow a big enough audience to sell exposure to them to advertisers. In this context, the value of content is the extent to which it can attract traffic – not what went into producing it. And others will end up selling the content itself. Making those two approaches co-exist in the marketplace sure is tricky!