May I consult your excellent brains on something?

I’m still at work re-tooling the podcast, as per our last conversation and all your stellar input. My progress, sadly, has been stalled by issues with iAmplify – turns out, iAmplify sucks. They’re either chiseling rats or going out of business, because they’ve never paid me one dime of the podcast revenues I’ve earned through their site. They won’t respond to my emails, and considerable searching has not turned up any phone numbers that work. (Although interestingly, they’ve removed my “Why CraftyPod is Leaving iAmplify” podcast from search results on their site. So apparently, someone is still pay some kind of attention over there.)

…This has made my re-tool all the more complex, because now the show also needs a new home.

If you’re a current iAmplify subscriber, I’ll soon send you instructions on how to shut down your account. If you’ve purchased any individual shows, now is the time to download them from your iAmplify library page. And I’ll notify you as soon as my new podcast site is live. We’re in the process of a lot of testing and tweaking.

Obviously, I’m frustrated by this turn of events, but I refuse to give up.

Image by .michael.newman., via FLickr

Anyway. Here’s what I want to ask you about…

Here’s one thing I noticed when I started selling shows: those 126 free shows make the process of selling way harder. I had originally wanted them all to be free forever, but the problem is, if there are 126 freebies for you to listen through first, then you have a good year or more of content to enjoy before jumping into a paid subscription.

That doesn’t lead me to a viable business. I have no intention of sequestering all the shows behind a paywall, but I am seriously considering reducing the number of free shows I leave out there.

Image by Andrei.D40, via Flickr

I’ve been analyzing the back catalog, and realizing that there’s actually a healthy little contingent of shows that feature magazines, websites and projects that no longer exist. I’m seriously considering removing these altogether. There are also a few shows in there that honestly, I’ve just never loved – they have bad sound issues, or the interview just isn’t all that compelling. All in all, I’m thinking about pulling about 20 shows – and all of these are old – from between 2005 and 2007.

I asked my Twitter community how they felt about this idea, and responses ranged from “Go for it!” to “No way, keep them all! to Don’t delete the show I’m in!”

Image by deeljea designs, via Flickr

They’re mine, but they’re kind of yours, too.

I know what the sound business decision is here: lose the shows that don’t have lasting value and reduce the number of free shows to about 50. I’ll move the rest of the free shows to a special archive for subscribers to access. In the show’s future, you’ll have a mix of free and paid access. So everybody gets something, and I can make this thing sustainable, so I can continue making shows.

…But you guys often see things I can’t. So I decided to bring this question to you: how do you feel about losing 20 older shows for good? How do you feel about the free archive being reduced?

I think it’s very natural to feel protective of the complete archive. In many ways, so do I. It represents my growth as a podcaster, and it’s a little window into the growth of the craft community. And for many who’ve been guests in the past, it’s a time capsule. All of that has value.

But at the end of the day, either this show becomes sustainable, or it has to go away altogether. So I’m hopeful for a compromise position that satisfies everyone. Any thoughts?

UPDATE: Seriously, THANK YOU all for your thoughtful takes on this question. As always, you helped me see a couple things I hadn’t seen before.

I realized that I had underestimated the extent to which many of you are attached to the archives, so I’ve greatly reduced the number of shows I’ll remove. (And this handful of shows is all about things that no longer exist.) All the rest will remain available to subscribers, and I’ll keep about 30 in the free archive all the time.

…And I promise, I’ll have more details on the re(re)-release of the show soon! It’s a lot of work, getting it all set up on our own server, but it’ll be worth it. Thank you again, you excellent brains, you!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I apologize, but this show is temporarily offline. Unfortunately, iAmplify turned out to be a bad business partner. I’m working on a new hosting and delivery solution for the podcast, so this show will be available again soon. In the meantime, you might want to enjoy something from the free podcast archive.

If you purchased this show through iAmplify and are having trouble accessing it, please feel free to email me.

In this podcast, I talk with Jan DiCintio, who designs, produces and wholesales her own organic cotton fabric line under the name Daisy Janie. Jan is a great example of what I’d call a “pioneering business” – she’s doing something not a lot of other people have attempted, and she’s had to hike a lot of learning curves to figure out how to do it.

What interests me about Jan and creative entrepreneurs like her is that the internet has provided us with many “just add water” business options. You can fire up, say, an Etsy shop in just a few minutes. You can create an online T-shirt store just as easily with services like Zazzle. And these entry-level opportunities do give so many of us a way to dip our toes into doing what we love for a living, but I think Jan’s story represents the next step in creative entrepreneurship: identifying something that hasn’t been done by lots of others, and then doing all the learning necessary to bring that to life.

What’s your ultimate dream of a creative business? I think you’ll find some useful tools for getting there in Jan’s interview.

Learn more about Daisy Janie and Jan:

• At the Daisy Janie website, you can learn more about the fabrics, and at the Daisy Janie blog, you can learn more about Jan.

• Jan’s also on Twitter and Facebook, as well as Flickr.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Image by Nicole Rixon, used with permission

I apologize, but this show is temporarily offline. Unfortunately, iAmplify turned out to be a bad business partner. I’m working on a new hosting and delivery solution for the podcast, so this show will be available again soon. In the meantime, you might want to enjoy something from the free podcast archive.

If you purchased this show through iAmplify and are having trouble accessing it, please feel free to email me.

This podcast looks at an ongoing debate between professional crafters and hobbyists: is it okay to do craft work for companies for free?

Professional craft designers, of course, want to be paid for their professional services. But in recent years the internet has put craft-industry companies in touch with a legion of hobbyist crafters, who are often happy to trade design services for no other payment than free product. The issue is further complicated by the craft companies themselves. In their struggles to navigate online marketing, they often expect crafters who design for them to take on the role of marketers as well, promoting the company on Facebook and Twitter.

Each side of this debate tends to feel strongly that its points are valid, and, as usually happens with conversations about money and livelihood, emotions run high.

At the heart of the debate are “design teams.” These are groups of crafters a company contracts to create craft projects from its products. The company uses these projects in its blogging and social media marketing. Some design teams are compensated with money, and others with only free product.

In this show, I interview two crafters who have very interesting thoughts on this debate:

Jenny Barnett Rohrs runs Craft Test Dummies, which offers reviews of craft products. Jenny’s also a craft designer who manages design teams for craft companies and consults on social media marketing. Jenny feels strongly that designers should be paid for their work, and she believes that companies should always structure their design teams as paying contracts. (For the record, she has no problem with hobbyist crafters designing in trade for product – listen to hear her thoughts on how that can be done equitably.)

Nicole Rixon owns a small craft business called Sweet Stamp Shop. She relies on a design team to help her promote her business, but currently can’t afford to pay them. Instead, she’s attempting to create alternative incentives so that she’s making a fair exchange of services for product. She’s interested in challenging the industry’s unpaid design team model and finding fairer solutions that benefit both professionals and hobbyists.

Image by Nicole Rixon, used with permission

Want to go deeper into this debate?

• You can catch up with Jenny at CraftTestDummies.com, or on Facebook, or Twitter, or Pinterest, or on YouTube.

• You’ll find Nicole at Sweet Stamp Shop, as well as on Facebook, or Twitter, or YouTube.

• Here’s a wide-ranging discussion of this whole issue that happened on my blog. Good points are made by all sides.

• Emotions ran higher in the discussion on Jenny’s Facebook page.

• Kim Werker also write about this subject.

• In the show, Jenny mentioned that if you take product in exchange for design services, you’ll actually need to report that as taxable income. Here’s some more information on that, from the IRS website.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

So, I know the holiday cheer has been light around here this year. I’m currently buried in work projects (getting ready for a big new year and all), so I barely have my tree up and will be squeeeeeeeeeeaking to the finish line on my gifts.

BUT! Mom and I didn’t want to neglect our tradition of an annual holiday podcast! So we put a little something together for you guys. It’s a little less formal than usual – we recorded some remeniscing about our favorite Christmas cookies and best-ever cookie-baking failures. We laughed a lot, and we hope it’ll make you giggle, too.

To listen to this wee show, pop over to Mom’s blog, where things are a lot more Christmas-y. (‘Tis a free show, of course.)

While I’m here, I want to say THANK YOU one million times for all your insightful and helpful comments re: CraftyPod 2.0. K and I are hard at work implementing changes from your suggestions, and we’ll have lots to share in January.

Meanwhile, I should give fair warning… I’m going to follow your many admonitions and raise the price of the show in January. So, ahem, if you want ‘em at 99 cents, now would be the time to get them.

Oh – and I totally stole these images from my Mom’s awesome blog. Hopefully, The Daugter Card will cover me. :-)

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Image by ~Shanth, via Flickr

Oh, my friends. It’s never easy, trying new business ideas on the internet. But it’s always educational!

We’re a little more than a month into my six-month Podcast 2.0 experiment, and already I’m hitting roadblocks and looking for ways to flow around them. I’d like to involve you in these decisions, since without you, there’d be no show. I always respect your thoughtful opinions and ideas.

So, how are sales going?

Well, the numbers are already sobering. According to my iAmplify stats:

iAmplify keeps a healthy portion of my sales (in exchange for giving you all easy access to syncing the shows with your iTunes account), so I have earned, in total (drumroll, please)…

About sixty dollars.

…That’s $60.00 payment for producing five shows so far, with each one taking about 10 hours to create. I’m not even gonna do the math on what my hourly wage is at this point!

OK, so, I’m not freaking out yet, but it IS clear that a major course correction is needed.

Why are people not buying the downloads?

I see several of reasons, really:

• I’ve already heard resistance from many of you about how inconvenient it feels to have to create an account on iAmplify to complete your purchase. People keep asking me for two things: easy iTunes access or an option to pay with PayPal.

Well, iAmplify gives you easy iTunes access from a convenient library page (see above). Apple, unfortunately, refuses to allow audio podcsters to sell their shows directly through iTunes. You have to go through a third-party service like iAmplify.

Unfortunately, iAmplify won’t take PayPal as a payment method (I asked). I’m considering offering the shows for sale on my own online store as well, so people can use PayPal. But unfortunately, I can’t offer you the easy sync with iTunes.

(Interestingly, you have to create an account during your first purchase with any website, PayPal and iTunes included. But since we use these accounts so often, I think we forget this and it feels easier.)

Image by the_moment, via Flickr

• Secondly, there really is a “mental transaction cost” to buying even a very inexpensive thing online. (That’s Nick Szabo’s concept, not mine.) I think a lot of you are weighing the value of 99 cents against the value of your time to complete the transaction. And this weighing more often than not seems to be resulting in “I’ll just buy that later.”

(What’s really interesting is that traffic on the 126 free shows in my archive has actually increased during this period. What seems to me to be a tiny price is really just making people flow to the Free.)

Image by dougwoods, via Flickr

• Not only that, I’ve been researching online consumer behavior and learning some important things. I think Clay Shirky is mind-blowingly perceptive in saying that none of us are really “consumers” on the web. We’re users – and publishers. When we find a good piece of content, we naturally want to share it with our circles. Only, by sequestering my podcasts behind a paywall, I’m preventing you from being able to do that. So, while the show may be of high value, it’s also inherently useless to you as a user/publisher – you can’t really share it.

Image by MyEyeSees, via Flickr

I still believe in micropayments. I still believe we need a sea change in the way people value the content they get online. But clearly, we are not there yet, on either front. I know people love the podcast. I get email every week from folks who tell me how much it’s taught them or how many hours of enjoyment they’ve had from the free shows. But even with that, the psychological barrier to paying for it, it seems, is just too high for most.

If you have purchased a single download or a subscription, I want you know how much your support means to me. Thank you so much for being willing to help the show stay in production, and for voting for independent content.

Image by Karen Eliot, via Flickr

So, what’s to be done?

OK, so I can be sad about this state of affairs, or I can look for solutions. I love the show, I love making it, and I really want to continue making it. But I can’t afford to wait six months to see whether more of you might get around to purchasing downloads. The hours I’ve already spent on the show have consumed a lot of time I could have spent doing things that actually pay my rent. If I can’t find a way to make the show sustainable, I can’t make the show – and this weighs on my mind constantly.

So, I’m seriously considering going against some philosophies I’ve shared in previous posts. I’m looking at offering the show in two versions: as a free show with ads, and also as a paid download with no ads. (So, if you’re already a subscriber, nothing will change. You’ll keep getting ad-free shows, with a side of my undying gratitude.)

Image by Christopher Chan, via Flickr

With these two options in place, there’s no “mental transaction cost,” you can get and share the show freely, and there’s extra incentive for those of you who want an ad-free version. My podcast host has a decent ad program I can participate in with fairly minimal time investment.

Have I suddenly started to love advertising? No. (One thousand times no.) But at this moment, it’s an option that blends better with human internet behavior and allows me to fight for the show’s future. Even so, ads won’t begin to pay all my production costs, so I’ll likely be implementing other options in addition to this.

(If you missed it, we had a lot of discussion of various options over here.)

Image by Mr. Ush, via Flickr

Your thoughts?

So, before I take this plunge, I wanted to consult you…

• How would you feel about this program? Would you listen to the free shows, even though they contain ads?

• If you’ve already paid for the show, would you feel you were being cheated in any way by this turn of events?

• What are your thoughts on “mental transaction costs” and user-hood?

• Would you be willing to take this short demographic survey to help me find advertisers you won’t mind hearing from?

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Image by marioanima, via Flickr

I apologize, but this show is temporarily offline. Unfortunately, iAmplify turned out to be a bad business partner. I’m working on a new hosting and delivery solution for the podcast, so this show will be available again soon. In the meantime, you might want to enjoy something from the free podcast archive.

If you purchased this show through iAmplify and are having trouble accessing it, please feel free to email me.

In this podcast, I talk with Siim Teller, who’s the Community Manager for Flattr.com. We’re talking about something called “micropayments,” which is an easy way to support the bloggers, podcasters, video-makers, pattern-designers and others who make the online content you enjoy every day. Micropayments are also one way you, as a crafty maker of things you share online, can be paid something for your efforts.

People who consume internet still feel a fair amount of resistance, by and large, to paying for it. But at the same time, making a good blog costs money. So does making videos. So does (ahem) podcasting.

Do you get anything valuable from the stuff you enjoy online? Do you learn new things, or get inspiration, or connect with like minds? What if you could pay just a few cents to the people who give you all this? What if you could earn a small, sustainable income for your blogging efforts?

This is what micropayments are for. Siim explains why they’re an important part of the future of online content, and how you can begin using them, whether you make online content or enjoy it – or both!

Some micropayment links for you:

• Visit Flattr.com, and if you don’t have an account yet, I can hook you up with a a free 5-Euro balance to start you off. Just email me with “Flattr” in your subject line. (Hurry! I only have a limited number of these to give out!)

• Here’s an interesting comic about micropayments and why they’re so important to independent creators, from Scott McCloud.

• Siim mentioned a podcast from How Stuff Works about why advertising initially won out over micropayments in the internet landscape. Have a listen!

• Did you miss Pay a Blogger Day?

• Here’s how you can Flattr any Twitter account, whether the person is currently on Flattr or not.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I apologize, but this show is temporarily offline. Unfortunately, iAmplify turned out to be a bad business partner. I’m working on a new hosting and delivery solution for the podcast, so this show will be available again soon. In the meantime, you might want to enjoy something from the free podcast archive.

If you purchased this show through iAmplify and are having trouble accessing it, please feel free to email me.

In this podcast, I talk with cross-stitcher Bridget Franckowiak about “irreverent stitchery” – the growing community of embroiderers and cross-stitchers who turn these crafts on their heads. They stitch to make pop culture references, celebrate internet memes, make social commentary, or work out personal issues in an artistic way. And their work is very compelling.

Bridget is also an editor at Mr. X Stitch, a stitchery blog she curates with Jamie Chalmers. Together, they feature stitchery across a wide spectrum of humor, subversiveness, political statement, personal history and much more. The website has become an epicenter of this community of irreverent stitchers.

So why have the stitching arts, among all other crafts, become the medium of choice for these kinds of expressions? What is it about embroidery and cross stitch that lend themselves so well to irreverence – not to mention, serious cultural exploration? Bridget and I attempt to answer these questions.

Image by Jamie Chalmers

Be warned, please: You can’t talk about this kind of stitchery without using some adult language and discussing some adult themes. This show contains a bit of both.

Image by Bridget Franckowiak

Find Bridget online:

• Bridget has a big archive of her cross stitch work over on Flickr. Be warned! There’s strong language and very mature themes over there.

• Don’t miss Mr. X Stitch, which Bridget edits with UK cross-stitch artist Jamie Chalmers. They also do a podcast together, called Stitching n Junk.

Check out the artists Bridget mentioned in the podcast:

Julie Jackson, founder of Subversive Cross Stitch
Penny Nickels
Todd Hensley
Alaina Varrone
Marshall Thompson
Jennifer Sutcliffe
Alexandra Walters
Luke Haynes
Joetta Maue
Bascom Hogue
Connie Barwick, your About.com guide
Ruby42
Noelle Mason

And finally, a guide to the pop culture references in this show:

• From the video game Portal, the phrase The cake is a lie

• From songwriter Jonathon Coulton, the song First of May

• The podcast You Look Nice Today

• Dr. Horrible

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I apologize, but this show is temporarily offline. Unfortunately, iAmplify turned out to be a bad business partner. I’m working on a new hosting and delivery solution for the podcast, so this show will be available again soon. In the meantime, you might want to enjoy something from the free podcast archive.

If you purchased this show through iAmplify and are having trouble accessing it, please feel free to email me.

In this podcast, Lisa Congdon and I talk about the actual day-to-day process of having a full-time creative career. Lisa works as an artist and illustrator based on San Francisco. I started reading her blog back when she was working full-time as a project manager at a nonprofit. And slowly, she made the transition to focusing on her art.

I read and listen to a lot of stories of fellow creatives who’ve made that same leap. And these stories are always inspiring to hear, but I’m also always hungry for more details on what happens once you’re a full-time artist.

Lisa has evolved a number of very practical and wise processes for managing the day-to-day challenges of being in business as an artist. How do you, for example, cultivate inspiration every day? How do you keep expanding your base of income, so you stay sustainable? How do you manage all the non-creative parts of a creative career?

I think you’ll enjoy hearing about how Lisa does all this.

Find Lisa online:

• See more of her beautiful work over at her website and blog.

• If you want to say howdy, visit Lisa on Twitter or Facebook.

More good reading on the day-to-day of a creative career:

• Kim Werker digs deeper into that mythical idea that “the money will follow” if you do what you love.

• Megan Auman raises an interesting point: many businesses will eventually hit either a production ceiling, or a marketing ceiling.

• …Speaking of Megan, you may enjoy this podcast from the free archives. In it, we discussed the “pro-am” community over at Etsy.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

All images by Jeffery Rudell, used with permission.

I apologize, but this show is temporarily offline. Unfortunately, iAmplify turned out to be a bad business partner. I’m working on a new hosting and delivery solution for the podcast, so this show will be available again soon. In the meantime, you might want to enjoy something from the free podcast archive.

If you purchased this show through iAmplify and are having trouble accessing it, please feel free to email me.

In this podcast, I talk with Jeffery Rudell, a paper artist who creates beautiful and unexpected things from this ephemeral material. You may have seen some of Jeff’s work – he’s done paper constructions for large brands, and he’s built paper props for national magazines. He’s done paper-sculpted window displays for Tiffany & Company, and he has a wonderful archive of paper tutorials over on CraftStylish. He also has a book of Halloween silhouettes that just came out.

Jeff approaches his work from a true sense of mission, and that’s what our interview is about. How does an artist arrive at what his or her creative mission is? Once you know what your mission is, how does that change the way you work – and what you make? And how is a creative mission different from a business plan?

Jeff is also an extraordinarily articulate person with great ideas on the nature of creativity. I think you’ll enjoy hearing him speak as much as I did.

After you listen, share your thoughts!

What is YOUR creative mission? How does having a mission affect your work and life? Or if you aren’t sure what your mission is, what are some skills you have that you enjoy using? Tell us in the comments below!

Find Jeff around the web:

• You can explore Jeff’s tutorial archive over on CraftStylish.com.

• Want to chat with Jeff on Twitter? Here he is.

• This Google Image archive will show you more of his work.

• Want some Halloween silhouettes? Jeff shared a few from his book over on CRAFT.

Thinking about your creative mission? Watch these!

• This was the video that first got me thinking about missions: Jamie Oliver discusses his mission at TED.

• Bill Cunningham, a fashion photographer for the New York Times, is to me a near-perfect example of working from a sense of mission. This documentary about him is phenomenally inspiring and emotional.

• Design geeks will enjoy this film about legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser. It’ll get you thinking about why you make what you make.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

All images by Tara Swiger, used with permission.

I apologize, but this show is temporarily offline. Unfortunately, iAmplify turned out to be a bad business partner. I’m working on a new hosting and delivery solution for the podcast, so this show will be available again soon. In the meantime, you might want to enjoy something from the free podcast archive.

If you purchased this show through iAmplify and are having trouble accessing it, please feel free to email me.

In this podcast, I talk with craft entrepreneur Tara Swiger, who can usually be found at Craft Your Independence and Blonde Chicken Boutique.

Tara talks about the many income streams she’s developed for her small business. She explains how she evaluates a new business idea before she puts effort into developing it, and how she can tell whether an income stream is successful. She also shares some tips for staying organized when you’re doing lots of different kinds of work.

Artists and crafters will gain valuable insights into why diversifying your income leads more business stability. Don’t be afraid to branch out!

Some other links you might find useful:

• Tara did this great post on multiple income streams at Crafting an MBA.

• Tara’s Map-Making Guide may help you arrive at some good income stream options for your business.

• This is an oldie but a goodie – Knitting author and podcaster Brenda Dane talks about why she develops income streams on CraftSanity.

• I can recommend Laura Bray’s ebook on multiple income streams.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Update: The test is concluded – thanks to all who participated! If you want the new free show, you can get it here.

Oh, my friends – you can’t imagine the journey of research, discovery and frustration I’ve been on with this podcast relaunch. But I’m happy to report that we may just have a viable solution at long last.

Wanna try it? I made a new show, in which I interviewed Tara Swiger about developing multiple income streams for a crafty business. I’m offering this one for free as a means of testing the new delivery method.

So… scroll to the bottom of my sidebar, see what you find there, and do what you will. And if you don’t mind, I’d love to hear your report of how it worked or didn’t work for you. (If you have problems, then I need to know what internet browser you’re using.)

If all goes well, I hope to formally launch next week! And I have killer interviews recorded with Jeff Rudell and Lisa Congdon to get us started. Woo!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

OK… so, a while back I did a little survey to learn more about your thoughts on how I might get the CraftyPod podcast going again – this time sustainably. About 300 of you responded (thank you!), and I promised to report back on the results. So here we go.

(This post got a little longer than I expected, but in the interest of transparency I’m leaving everything in. Pack a snack, okay?)

So, how do we pay for this thing?

As you can see, among the monetization options I suggested, the top two vote-getters were Kickstarter campaigns and paying a little for each download. I was glad to see this, because these were my top two choices as well.

I also had an open-answer space in the survey where people could offer other suggestions, and I heard a lot of interesting stuff there. Quite a few people suggested sponsorships, advertising, and related forms of selling audience exposure. Here’s the thing, though: I don’t think sponsorships are the best option for me. Advertising is a great monetization option for many bloggers, but in the context of this podcast, not so much. Here’s why:

• If I create an ad program for the show, I have to actively sell and administer it. This means I have to essentially create a whole extra part-time job for myself in order to help pay for the podcast. It’s just too big a time cost. Plus, I’m no ad salesperson and I don’t enjoy that activity – in the extreme.

• The minute I start selling ad space, I start having to tailor what I say to current or potential sponsors. I think one of the show’s strengths is that I’m able to say what I want to say.

• Consider this: many of us listen to podcasts while we’re doing other things, and often, away from our computers. This means that, if I speak a sponsor message in a podcast, you have to remember that there was a sponsor, remember their name or URL, and remember to check them out the next time you’re at your computer. That’s a lot of remembering in an information-dense world! If I were to sell ad space on my podcast, I’d need to be sure I could deliver the paying sponsor all the consumer attention they were paying for. And I honestly don’t think that’s a promise I can make in this case.

Why not use the podcast to sell other stuff?

There were also some suggestions that I keep the podcast free and then use it to sell kits, ebooks, print books, classes, etc.

What’s interesting about suggestions like these is this: if I need to make a podcast, and then make a whole other product to sell with the podcast, I’m effectively doubling or tripling the amount of time I invest in making the podcast sustainable. I appreciate these suggestions, and I know that this is how some podcasters do it, but honestly, the model just doesn’t work for me. To make that model cost-effective, I’d also have to inject a note of hard-sell into every podcast, which I wouldn’t enjoy (and I suspect you wouldn’t either).

The solution I’m going with is…

Honestly, what seems simplest and cleanest to me is to make good shows and ask a small, fair price for them. I’m looking into a distribution service that would make individual shows available for 99 cents via my site as well as iTunes and Amazon. It’s still not the rosiest financial picture – thanks to fees, I stand to keep only about 45 cents of each download. But it’s better than nothing, and it’ll make it much easier for you to get downloads.

The original 126 episodes, by the way, will always be free and you can enjoy those anytime.

Image by Bashed, via Flickr

What about paying your guests, since you’re charging for the show now?

I suspect that some of you will have this question, and it’s a fair one. After crunching the numbers, here’s what I come to:

I have a baseline income I’ll need to make on each show in order to cover my production time, distributor fees and administration. That amount requires about 400 download sales. (Ack! Those distributor fees!) So, if a show reaches more than 450 downloads, then I’ll pay the featured guest $50.00. Shows with multiple guests may need a different structure since there’s much more production involved. I don’t know the exact answer there yet.

You know, OTHER podcasters don’t ask for money!

A few people told me they’d rather not pay for a podcast at all, since there are so many free ones out there. I get it, and no hard feelings. I do think that many podcasts are currently free because it’s not at all easy to monetize a podcast. And that’s too bad, because every free podcast we enjoy took someone quite a bit of time to produce. I’d really like to see more podcasters being paid something for their efforts. But we’ve talked about all this before.

I may put up a free show from time to time as a thank-you, though – as with all things, that will depend on my time resources and ability to make rent that month. :-)

What’s the new show about?

Okay, moving on to the content of the podcast. Interestingly, you guys have widespread interests there, and this is just one more reason why I dig you. I think it makes sense to stick with the interview format I’ve been using, and do a broader scope that includes some business stuff and some explorations of creativity and its role in our lives. There were a lot of votes for more group interviews, so I’ll give that some thought as well.

Your responses indicate that you’d like a show that’s between 20 and 40 minutes long, delivered every other week. No problem! (Though if the distributor fees are too much, I might go monthly instead. We’ll see how that goes.)

Image by Mike Rohde, via Flickr

Giving it a fair shot

This is uncharted territory, of course, but I’m willing to give the project enough time to see if the community is really willing to support this podcast. I’ll commit to producing shows for six months, and we’ll see what happens.

Seriously, thank you.

I’ll tell you what, though: again and again, people commented in the survey on how much they loved the podcast and miss it. That absolutely warms my heart. Thank you so very much for your kind words, and for all the hours we’ve spent in virtual company as you’re working in your studio or on the treadmill or doing chores. Believe me, if I had the means, I’d make free podcasts constantly. But I really appreciate you being willing to enter into this discussion of sustainability with me.

I’m swinging back into production mode this week, and have several new shows in development. (I’ll keep you posted on when the first one launches.) There are a lot of moving parts to work out, but we’ll get there.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

So. Last we talked, I was taking an extended leave of absence from podcasting. Lately, I’ve been thinking hard about how I might be able to bring the CraftyPod show back, and make it sustainable.

I could use your help with this thinking. Can you please take about five minutes and respond to this little survey I put together?

Your responses will help me design the future of CraftyPod, so I really, really appreciate your input. Thank you!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Back before I stopped podcasting, I had signed up to be part of the blog tour for Kathy Cano Murillo‘s new novel, Miss Scarlet’s School of Patternless Sewing. So here’s a fun podcast interview with the Crafty Chica herself, all about the new book and her burgeoning career as an author of crafty fiction.

If you want a little more glimpse into the book, check out this video trailer Kathy put together!

(Usual disclosures: Grand Central Publishing sent me a review copy, and the title link above is an affiliate link.)

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I’d like to start this post with a little background…

At the end of 2010, I was surprised to find myself completely burned out. I had been running so hard all year, trying to grow my business and keep up all the Free I’d been doing on this blog, I didn’t even see how much of my life it had been consuming. I had stopped exercising, eating healthy, relaxing, crafting for fun – I was way out of balance.

That burnout led me to start writing about Free, and whether it’s sustainable, despite the many good things it brings. (If you’re just joining this conversation, you’ll see a whole lot of discussion here and here and here and here.) And, because you’re awesome, many of you got involved in the discussion, and helped me tremendously.

Image by cadin, via Flickr

If you shared a comment on any of these posts, I’m sending you a huge hug. Whether you agreed or disagreed with me, whether you had lots to say or a few words, your comments helped lead me through a tangled underbrush of thinking to some clarity. Quite a few of you shared that you’re feeling similarly about Free as I am, and that helped me feel less alone. Thanks to all of your insights, I’m feeling so much more positive and hopeful about the state of this blog, and the future possibilities of Free.

Honestly, I really could keep talking about Free – there are still whole rooms and hallways of this subject to explore. But for the moment, I think it’s best to take what I’ve gained already, and do some moving forward. So here’s what that will look like…

Image by fatboyke (Luc), via Flickr

A more reasonable pace

First, I’m going to scale back the number of posts I do a week here, at least for a while. I adore blogging, so I don’t love the idea of doing less of it. But at this moment, I simply have to regain some hours in my life. You can expect a minimum of two posts per week going forward, and I’ll usually shoot for three.

Image by Rosa Say, via Flickr

Crafty Fun vs. Crafty Biz

This bit’s tricky. At the moment, I make the lion’s share of my living from the crafty business services I offer. (Ebooks, online classes and consulting, in case you didn’t know.) So, conventional wisdom would dictate that I focus this blog on crafty business topics.

I love my students and one-on-one clients. I love the people who buy my ebooks. But if this blog became solely a crafty business blog, I’d be missing a big piece of my soul. I really need to blog about crafts, too.

…And yet, I have to face the fact that my purely crafty content eats up hours I need to reclaim, and at the moment it also doesn’t support my livelihood. It makes people happy, which is awesome, but I’m at a point where I have to weigh that awesomeness against the health of my business (and, frankly, the health of me). So going forward, I’ll be changing the way I blog about crafting. You’ll still get crafty – I’m looking at ways to team up with others, and of course I’ll still do an occasional how-to. This leads me to…

Image by Margarida Sardo, via Flickr

Supporting the Crafty Fun

Every now and then, someone hires me to produce a tutorial. (I love those people, too!) I’ll always share that stuff with you here. And in addition, I’m going to experiment with some forms of high-value crafty content you can voluntarily support if you want. You might see some donationware projects, like June’s. You might see some use of Kickstarter. I’ll be trying stuff, and I hope you’ll share your feedback.

Let’s be clear, though: this blog will never, ever be a 100% “pay-to-play” kind of thing. I still believe deeply in sharing with this community. All I’m looking for is a way to do this without burning out again.

Image by jbelluch, via Flickr

Audio and Video Podcasts (good news and bad)

OK, now I have to deliver a little bad news. After looking hard at all the factors, I’ve decided to stop making the CraftyPod podcast in its current form.

The thing is, each show (as I’ve mentioned before) takes 8-10 hours to make. And I’ve never made a dime from it. I deeply love my little podcast and all it has brought into my life, but at this point, it’s no longer sustainable as is.

Don’t worry! This isn’t goodbye forever to podcasting. It’s just a break and a re-org. After taking some months off, I hope to create a whole new show – one that has a longer format and a monetization plan built in. I’d love to survey you all down the road and get some input on how all that should look.

(And by the way, I’ll continue to pay hosting on the 126 existing shows. Those will always be free.)

…In the meantime, I’ve decided to stick with video podcasting on a regular schedule. I want to keep learning about video production, and an ongoing show is a great way to build skills. I have (what I think is) a pretty kick-ass idea for a video series. It’ll be starting up in a month or so, and I’m super excited about it!

Image by wok, via Flickr

So, will this still be a good blog?

I sure hope so! After all the discussion we’ve had, I’m willing to believe that there are ways to produce good Free and stay sustainable. Ways to be part of the crafty community and lead a balanced life.

One of the most powerful conclusions of all the comment discussion was the fact that, at the end of the day, it’s up to each of us to openly state what we really want from blogging, and how, specifically, we need our readers to support us in those goals.

So, that’s my opening effort. Let’s see how things go from here!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!