The High Price Of Free
May 18, 2004 | 
35 Comments
This is a bit of a rant, and may seem unfocused. It is, but I assure you there is a point in here somewhere.
Much of the Web is free, and that is a very, very good thing. You can get great software for free. You can get great content for free. If your creative you can get music, really great software, movies, and pretty much anything else digital for free.
Again, this is a good thing.
I’m typing this in Movable Type right now. A version of Movable Type that I got for free. I’ve not upgraded to the new “not free” version, nor do I plan to any time soon — if ever. I’m just not sure if the new version is worth paying for.
Now, had this version not been free and had been reasonably priced I probably would have paid for it. If I, and lots of others, had paid for it, maybe the new version would be worth paying for. Maybe not. What I do believe is that free is not always a good thing.
Free may have killed Movable Type. But I don’t want to talk about software, I want to talk about content.
Who Makes Money On The Web?
Let’s face facts. If you are an honest, hard working person it might be hard for you to make money on the Web. There are a few shining exceptions, but it seems to me, and I might be blind to some great success stories, so clue me in if I am, those who make real money on the Web are mostly scammers, spammers, porn producers and the like.
Now, there can be lots of reasons for this. But, in general, it seems like if you are willing to take advantage of others you have an advantage when it comes to making money on the Web. I would hope this changes in the future. At least in that honest people might get something for all their hard work.
Nothing Against Free
I’ve got nothing against free content or software on the Web. Obviously. I work my own ass off to provide free content to my readers both here and at Digital Web.
To be honest, I do make a bit of money (more on that later) but it’s not much and my readers don’t have to pay for it.
What I Worry About
Good software, good content and good services all require work, and lots of it. Work can be stressful, work can be thankless and work that you don’t get paid for, no matter how good your intentions, can eventually drain you dry.
Doing work for free is a short term, no-win situation for all but the rarest of individuals. Eventually most will either sell out, burn out or get so busy elsewhere they can’t focus on their “free” stuff anymore. I see this all the time. Look at Zeldman. Can he afford to post every day? I don’t think so.
Look at people like Meyer, Bowman and Cederholm. I’d bet they hold some content off their site so they can put it into books, or speaking gigs. Doesn’t that make sense? It does to me. The good content, the premium stuff, comes at a price and rightly so!
What The Motivation of Free?
I started this site with no intentions of making any money. It really started as a hobby. I wanted to learn about blogs and try to learn to write. At the same time I wanted to document my experiences and share some lessons learned. It was pretty humble beginnings and, for the most part, little has changed.
I still don’t expect to make much money, but what I do get from my Google Ads does help to keep me going. That I can’t deny.
As people began to read my site and find value in it, the pressure to provide good content began to rise as well. I do my best to step to the plate and deliver. For the most part I think I’ve done that. Yet, at one point, a year or so it began to seem less like a hobby and more like work.
Mail began to come in. People with questions. People with praise. People with complaints. I still do my best to reply to every bit of mail I get. But, people, let me tell you — it’s hard, hard, hard. Then there’s the spam — fucking spam — losers trying to make money of my hard work and effort, trying to take advantage of myself and my readers.
I realized I was spending lots and lots of time on this site and the more it seemed like work, the less I wanted to do it. I mean, here I was, working and I wasn’t getting paid. Who wants to work for free? What’s worse is I was working to ensure spammers weren’t taking advantage of me.
So I began to think about how I could make this work worthwhile, without “selling out” or giving up completely. I tired those Google Ads and they brought in a modest amount of money. Enough to pay hosting. I thought that was pretty cool. My expectations were, and still are, pretty low.
I also redesigned this site to make it easier to maintain and more focused on content. This has helped quite a bit. But there are times when I still struggle to keep focused.
I Am Not A Role Model
I think I do remarkably well providing what I feel is good content. I realize I’m not the best writer but I try and open interesting discussions and give my readers a few posts a week that might get them thinking.
While it is quite hard to keep things fresh, it’s something I generally enjoy, even at it’s most stressful.
But then criticism rolls in, and trust me I get my fair share, most of it from people who probably don’t read the site much. But I’ll be honest, every time I get it I wonder why I bother.
I am a professional Web designer with a full time job, a busy freelance business, and an active social life. Oh and I donate a huge chunk of time to Digital Web. I’m not a professional writer. I don’t get paid to write anything. I hope to change that in the future but for now:
My content is free.
Asterisk is, at it’s most basic, a personal site on which I write about a myriad of topics. I do my best to provide my regular readers with things they care about. I don’t expect anything in return.
So when someone writes in to complain about my ads, which are my sole source of income from this site, and tells me that I shouldn’t have them because my writing isn’t “good enough” it pisses me off.
Hey, you have every right to share your opinion, but until you pay me, I don’t have to care. I write about what I want, and there are times when I’ve got no clue, but hey, I’m not a role model. I’m just a Web designer with lots of interests and a love for writing.
So, it’s true, I might not be the best writer, but what I do better than most is write good, relevant titles for my pages. What this means is that when I write things, Google finds those entries and provides (usually) related ads for them. This is why I have those ads there.
I’ll let you in on a secret. I get something like 200,000 visits a month and over half of those come in through Google searches. Most of them probably finding something related to their search. It’s to these folks that those ads are targeted to, not so much my regular readers.
I could very easily “sell out” and start writing posts specifically targeted at getting people in via Google and I guarantee I’d begin to see the financial benefits of that right away. Would that make me a professional writer? I’d be getting paid after all.
Can you begin to see a bit the dangers of free? Now I’m not saying I should get paid for anything I do on this site, and I’m not saying I’m going to quit trying to give something back to the various Web professional communities I write to.
What I am saying is that if I feel I can leverage my content to make some money via advertising, I should feel it’s my right to do so. It’s one thing that helps me continue to keep writing. Eventually if I were to write a book (yeah right — all my good stuff is in here somewhere! Ha!) or find some other means of income of this site, I may rethink that. But for now, this site is work. Fun work — work that I enjoy, but make no mistake — it’s work.
Some people see something wrong with that. Some people get hacked when people try to make legitimate money on the Web. Some people expect everything, and I mean everything, for free.
For the life of me I don’t get why. I’m quite sure there are lots of independent content providers out there that feel the same way and are in the same boat. This is something I feel needs to change.
We Have Options
The Web is the only place I can think of where you have so many options, many of them free. You can get just about anything you want with out spending a single red cent.
Content should be free, I believe that, but let’s not kid ourselves. All good content will eventually come at a price. We’re getting to a point where you can actually make a tad bit of money by doing your best to provide good content at little or no cost to your readers. I, for one, think that is great.
“You get what you pay for,” has been kind of a joke on the Web. Don’t expect that to hold true for everything. There will always be exceptions, but in general, if something is good enough to “sell out” you should expect that to happen eventually.
Just hope it’s done in the right way.
Filed under: Web General
Comments
1. Jason Santa Maria said:
Why would you need to pay to upgrade your MT? Hiding more authors somewhere :D ?
Posted on May 18, 2004 08:50 AM | #
2. Keith said:
Haha…Exactly! I’m not to impressed with TypeKey, so…I don’t have any real reason to upgrade – but I would have paid for this version and maybe then they’d have been able to put something into the upgrade I’d want.
Then again….who the hell knows?
Posted on May 18, 2004 08:55 AM | #
3. JBlount said:
As a somewhat loyal reader, let me again express my gratitude for the things you do, writing, helping, teaching, and anything else the requires time away from your other projects. It’s become my recent understanding that the vocal minority is usually coming from a critical standpoint, and that can leave any content producer thinking that the work they do is going unappreciated.
On a only somewhat related side note, it took me about 12 seconds to find the google ads on this posts page, i had forgotten they were there, and am excited that they are covering hosting costs for you.
Cheers, and good luck.
Posted on May 18, 2004 09:37 AM | #
4. Scrivs said:
So Keith what’s really on your mind? :-)
The way we have both transitioned into our Google ads I think is the correct way to go about the independent content route. Other people intentionally start blogs just so they can place ads on them and wonder why they are not making any money.
There will be a time when I cannot afford to post daily or even weekly at Whitespace and we both know that finding something of quality to write about is not the easiest thing in the world, although you pull off the trick pretty well.
The people who get peeved about having to pay for content and whatnot are usually the ones that are going to use the content in one form or another to make money on their own.
I have been asked many times when I am going to write a book (what the hell would I write a book about?) and used to find myself saying “Just look at my site and everything is there.” Now I find myself writing entries and thinking if they could be expanded later down the road for longer entries, articles, book chapters.
I mean Zeldman did it. 37Signals did it. And it looks like Cederholm is going to do it as well. They used previous content that they gave away for free and made them into books. How successful were they? I have no idea, but they did it.
This is getting too long so I will cease right here.
Posted on May 18, 2004 09:39 AM | #
5. Keith said:
JBlout – I do try and keep them a bit unobtrusive. But, to be honest, I’m tinkering with ways to get them to show up better (get clicked more) while at the same time keeping them relevant and as much out of the way as I can.
Thanks for the comments, it really means alot.
Posted on May 18, 2004 09:43 AM | #
6. jarv75 said:
I’ve read some really interesting stuff at your site many times and, like many other blogs, use them as a launchpad for other relevant content (usually on other blogs).
Please keep up the good work.
Posted on May 18, 2004 09:58 AM | #
7. Sean said:
Keith,
If “loyal” means visiting more than once a day, then count me loyal. Your posts are insightful and you hooked me up with some movable type settings the other day. I know you didn’t write this post so that people would come out of the woodwork and compliment you, but I wanted to let you know I appreciate reading everyday. But by all means, if it EVER becomes a chore, walk away.
Oh, and it’s “Role” model. ;)
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:12 AM | #
8. Mike P. said:
heh - you and Scrivs are a lifeline for some of us, well, me anyway. At times (i.e. when doing boring monotonous parts of web design) I am *really* thankful when one of you guys posts… otherwise, I’m happy to see a new post ;-]
It’s nice to think!
(tho I can totally see how the expectations of blogging could get a little heavy).
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:15 AM | #
9. Keith said:
Thanks for the kind words.
Sean – see what I mean? It’s work, and I can’t afford an editor! ;) Damn typos. Funny thing is I knew I was going to do that and still didn’t catch it.
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:19 AM | #
10. Christopher said:
Keith -
Some are going to see this as a “pat me on the back please, ‘cause i need some love!” but those are the same ones that torch opinions left and right no matter what. I appreciate your candidness and have gained perspective through your thoughts. Everybody has to make a living so nothing is free in a sense. We all sacrifice time, blood, sweat, and sanity on occasion for things we believe in and make nothing for, but those of us that do this with honesty and integrity will be the better for it in the end. If the google ads help keep you talking where I can listen - keep em.
Thanks for the always good perspective. :)
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:29 AM | #
11. Ste Grainer said:
The problem with most free content on the Web is mainly the lack of actual content. I can think of plenty of sites that promise a lot and deliver very little, many of which unfortunately show up in the first page or two of searches. The shining examples (in my opinion) are those that labor to offer great content for free - more and more of which just happen to be weblogs.
Just as an aside, there’s a wonderful web success story in your own backyard. The guys at Penny Arcade (the video game-based web comic) make enough money from their site to employ several people full-time (the artist, the writer, and a few “support” people, I think). On top of that, it seems that they can actually be selective of ads and only promote products/games they support.
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:40 AM | #
12. Keith said:
Christopher – Yeah, I can how some people might see that, and to be honest, that might be some of my motivation for writing this. It’s nice to know people appreciate your hard work.
But the main reason for this is that I’m sick of people making money off of other’s hard work, and people who expect that good things be handed to them for nothing.
There are a lot of people like that out here on the Web and they represent what is worst about the Web, independent content and free and open communication.
I just wanted to say I think it’s OK with me for anyone who is honest about it to do whatever they need to do to make they’re work worthwhile. It’s not all about the money, otherwise I’d not even bother – but, let’s face it, it helps and is a sign that people value what you’re doing.
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:41 AM | #
13. Mike D. said:
You’re absolutely right about the fact that you shouldn’t give much weight to non-paying complainers. We get things like this at ESPN all the time:
1. Why must you have such huge ads on every single page of your site?
2. Why do I have to watching a fricking ad before I can see video?
3. How dare you tell me what browser I need to use in order to view your site!
My internal response to these comments is:
“Sorry about that. Let me refund the money you paid for our service. It comes to zero dollars and zero cents. Have a nice day.”
External response is:
“ESPN is a free service. Either the customer pays the bill or the advertiser pays the bill. We have decided to have the advertiser foot the bill. Sorry about any inconvenience this may be causing you.”
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:44 AM | #
14. Sascha said:
Here is an idea. Why don’t you offer the people that complain about the ads an cookie based add switcher. They are not going to click on them anyway, why not offer them to just turn them off? You state that you don’t expect the regulars to click anyway, so this should be no problem.
My opinion. Just do whatever you like on your site. It’s YOURS. By the way, if you use your favorite RSS Reader nothing but the content is shown. You should just tell this to the ppl who complain.
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:54 AM | #
15. Keith said:
Mike – exactly. Thanks for putting it into perspective a bit.
Sascha – I’ve thought about your suggestion, but if anything I want more people to click on them, not less. My goal is to have them be relevant so that people who click on them might actually get some “use” from them. I’m concentrating on that rather than ways to have people get away from them.
Oh and to be clear, I don’t “expect” anyone to click on them. But I’m not going to make a special case for those who get the most value out of this site. That doesn’t seem to make much sense.
As far as RSS readers go. What’s going to happen when you can serve ads in them? I’m pretty sure I’d consider it. Ohh, scary. ;)
Posted on May 18, 2004 11:02 AM | #
16. Andrew said:
Just chiming in with another word of thanks. The ads are a tiny fraction of the page content, clearly marked as advertising, and you’re not forcing anyone to click on them. It would be simply petulant to complain about them.
Posted on May 18, 2004 11:02 AM | #
17. Tom Werner said:
It *is* difficult to provide high quality free content, especially when you run a freelance operation and have that voice in the back of your head that’s telling you that you could be working on that paying project right now instead of writing for your weblog.
I find your writing to be wonderful, succinct, and daring. You have every right to place google ads on your site, and I think you’ve done it in a very discreet manner.
Something that I think might be a solution is the concept of tiny-payment-donations. Paypal already has a donation facility, and others like BitPass have similar methods for viewers to make small payments (as low as one cent). The key factor, I think is that the payment method needs to be one-click, so that viewers can donate easily whenever they’re struck by the mood. Hmmm, I’ll have to think more about this. It could make a good post…
Keep writing, and I’ll keep enjoying it!
Posted on May 18, 2004 11:03 AM | #
18. Chris Vincent said:
Keith, I’d have to honestly say that you’re among the a-listers on my a-list. Sure, you get typos and spelling problems, but like you said, we bloggers don’t typically have editors. :)
Posted on May 18, 2004 11:10 AM | #
19. Keith said:
Chris – Thanks! You know I do try my best. I think my main problem is I write too much. If I had less to say I might spend more time editing and trying to write better. That said, I make no bones about the fact that I could really use a copy editor.
Posted on May 18, 2004 11:18 AM | #
20. Chris Vincent said:
Oh yeah, and RSS ads.
That’s gonna be a good thing, in my opinion. I wrote about it some time back, but I won’t bother to hunt the entry down.
What comes down to is this: RSS is an extra service provided by your website. Each service should ideally pay for itself (and more for profit :)). I’m sure I’m not the only one who notices that my RSS feed constitutes a considerable amount of bandwidth, due to the way it’s used and the way feed readers fetch it.
The bottom line: RSS ads will be good. Of course, you’ll get complaints. Just go the usual way and provide a feed with and a feed without.
Posted on May 18, 2004 11:19 AM | #
21. Thomas Baekdal said:
Ahh… another interesting topic. I see no problem in people getting paid on the web.
Advertising: It is hard to do right. People do not come to a site, or any site, to see the advertising. And, if you start building your site around profit you need to make sure that you are also delivering the product. The product is the content - the articles. So you advertising must stay non-intrusive in order for you to have high-quality content.
Pay-per-article: This is another option. Charge a fee for every article. Then comes question - how much is an article worth?
Well in comparison an issue of Fast Company Magazine (at your local newsstand) costs about $5 - and it includes about 40 articles. A copy a daily morning paper is around $0.5-2 and it includes several hundred articles. Not to mention that they are already printed.
Then there is the question: Are we not already paying you? (WHAT?!?! Are you insane Thomas)
There are two reasons why I think that:
Personal Branding
Why do companies have websites? To sell products? No (eh, well a few does). They have websites to promote themselves and to increase brand awareness. Too companies this is worth a lot of money, and it is also worth a lot of money too us - blog owners. So your visitors (and all other blog owners) are getting paid trough increased brand awareness - your personal brand. Example: 2450 sites are linking to yours (according to Google).
Comments
You spend a lot time writing something, and then a lot people spend time reflecting on it and provide feedback. That is also direct payment. Of course the “amount” varies greatly.
I am not writing this to criticize in any way. But, just as you are paying your visitors with content, they are also paying you back because of the things above.
—
I think the best way for independent publishers to make a profit is not by advertising or pay-per-article. Instead I think they/we should focus on extra publications. Like reports - e.g. a 50 page report about good writing on the web could be sold for, say, $5-10. It could also be premium content, more in depth articles, on a subscription basis - but again you can get a Fast Company Magazine subscription for 12 months (that is 480 articles) for $12 - printed and delivered to your front door.
(sorry for the long post - I got carried away… again…)
Posted on May 18, 2004 11:42 AM | #
22. Keith said:
Thomas – You bring up some good points and there are some truths to what you say. I guess it would vary from site to site and person to person, but you may be placing a bit more weight on “personal branding” and comments than is actually there. At least for lots of folks.
I think for some personal branding might be a big deal, but in-order to achieve any value in this you have to work your ass off. But it’s a valid point that does hold value with me and many others. But you’re right it all starts with the content and the value of that content to the reader.
As far as the comments, that is true to a certain degree as well. I figure if I don’t directly get any value, and I often do, other readers do. But then again, it’s a lot of work to enable that exchange.
You have to ask yourself as a content provider how much these things are worth. This is where the “danger” comes in. If all I get paid in is personal brand awareness that amounts to nothing and comments, well, that might not be worth my efforts….You see what I mean?
As far a extra publications, sounds interesting, but I can tell you that advertising might be the way to go if it’s done right. There are many independent content providers out there who are starting to do pretty well with advertising. The key there I think is to do it right.
It’s a fun question to talk about with no easy answers. I do think we might be on the cusp of a change with content on the Web. I for one think it could be good in a number of ways.
Maybe we’re getting close to a day when people with Web sites will get paid to work hard and provide quality, rather than getting paid to spam and trick the search engines. Just a thought.
Posted on May 18, 2004 11:56 AM | #
23. Kyle said:
Thomas brings up personal brand and comments. I find this pretty funny. Not that it’s not true to some degree. Here’s why I think it’s a bit ironic:
Comments and comment spam are where the scammers and spammers try and take advantage of that very personal branding Thomas is talking about.
Everytime you comment Asterisk pays you back with a link to your site. Now I know Keith might not have the massive readership of some of the A listers. But he’s shown that he is far more “Google friendly” than most of them.
That’s got to be worth something. Good post, as usual. Keep it up!
Posted on May 18, 2004 12:01 PM | #
24. Daniel said:
Just a quick thanks for your free content. I’ve been a read for quite some time and always try to click those google ads on the blogs I appreciate. I know it helps, and your content helps. so thanks!
Posted on May 18, 2004 12:57 PM | #
25. Milan Negovan said:
Keith,
You run some really really (that’s said twice) interesting discussions here. I love the topic diversity too. As a matter of fact, some of them came in perfect timing and helped me in my line of work.
I don’t know the roots of this rant but whoever badmouths ads or your writing style—don’t listen to them.
I’m convinced its geeks like us—who put a lot of effort for free—who brought the web to where it is right now. The goodness of free content will never be diminished. And, hey, you are a role model (in a good way).
If you are ever concerned about the perception of your site I’d suggest posting a survey or something. Let them speak their mind. That’s what I did on my site to see what people think. Since we’re on the topic of “free” I will give away a copy of Eric Meyer’s book for free to whoever pitches the most creative idea. :)
Keep up the great work!
Posted on May 18, 2004 01:40 PM | #
26. Thomas Baekdal said:
Oh yes I do. Personal branding is important to some and less important to others. So far I have justified my expenses by calling it branding. I justify my domain expenses by calling that securing my digital identity. I do both in hopes, and in preparation, for what I will do in the future.
I do not think my site is worth the expense if I did not have future plans for it - and I think this similar to what you thinking now.
I do think a personal brand is important, and I also think it is very valuable. But, if you only build you brand but never use it - its value is like an empty shell. When you instead build your brand (like you have done) and then start selling content with it then I think it is worth it - and great.
When writing this I am reminded by Gerry McGovern, and specifically his “New Thinking” newsletter. It’s free and it exists to build his personal brand. With it he can travel around the world speaking at conferences and help varies companies manage content (for a high price). I purchased his two books after reading “New Thinking”. I do not think I would have done that if he did not have a free newsletter where could read about his ideas.
Advertising: I do also think non-intrusive advertising is a great way to earn money on from your website. And, Google’s text-based advertisements are a wonderful example of that. I was shivering when Google announced they would introduce images into their AdSense program.
Posted on May 18, 2004 03:06 PM | #
27. jake said:
Keith,
Along with agreeing with you about being upset by the critical minority I just wanted to say one thing. I love what you do with your Google ads. You not only make their style fit in, you slip them into a very nice position on the page. I’ve grown weary of the un-styled variety on most sites, and also for the simple, blatant place of them in most sites “side-bar.” Good job. :)
Posted on May 18, 2004 03:28 PM | #
28. Nakijo said:
I think it was Mike P who stated that you and Scrivs are lifelines for some of us. I completely agree. Every time I look at my ambitions and think I’m getting out of my depth, I think back to the example you provide. Whether you like it or not, you ARE a role model. After all, you won’t catch me reading Zeldman, Meyer or Bowman on a regular basis. They’re too big now. Too removed from what I experience on the day-to-day. I may not comment often, but I read every one of your posts, and every one of the comments. I’ll even come back a few days later to get any comments that I might have missed
It is because of the value I receive from Asterisk that I have zero problems with the concepts of having ads. Objections to that are just dumb. It is your site. If people don’t like what you do with it, they don’t have to come here. I don’t visit any sites with prominent ads… ever. Text-based ads are fine, as long as they don’t interfere with the functionality of the site and they are in a regular position. After all, sometimes I read an article and think it might be interesting to see what ads are associated with it
If that helps you (or any author out), then good. I’ve also considered that a PayPal (or whatever) ‘tipping jar’ is something I would be willing to contribute to on sites like this. Except, of course, that none of the folks I read on a regular basis have such a thing, so I’ve never done it
Posted on May 18, 2004 05:21 PM | #
29. Michael W said:
I only found your site a month or so ago, and since I’ve been coming back everyday to see what you’ve written. I think you do a great job on this site, and I will continue to look forward to coming back to see what you’ve written.
It’s really disapointing that people complain about the ads, they are unobtrusive and i think it’s fair enough that you should seek a little finace to keep the site alive.
Keek up the good work :)
Posted on May 18, 2004 07:35 PM | #
30. Sean said:
Keith,
Someday you’re going to come out and say, “This is how it is” on something. I know it. You’ll come out like Andrei and declare Verdana a bane on websociety. Or you could just keep putting up thought provoking, grey-area topics like this one. Every topic seems to have multiple solutions and I dig it. Keep it up. This is not, of course, a bash on Andrei, his stuff is uber-cool as well.
Posted on May 18, 2004 10:24 PM | #
31. Andrei Herasimchuk said:
Sean… Too late! Keith has joined the dark side. 8^)
Posted on May 19, 2004 12:49 AM | #
32. Richard Rutter said:
Keith, I reckon you should take your foot off the gas a little. The pressure you talk about is self-inflicted, and there’s plenty of room for you to relieve it a bit should you so desire. As a blogger with some degree of audience myself, I can see you put huge amounts of work into asterisk - the shear number, length and quality of your posts astounds me.
I guess your gripe is folks having a go at you for running ads, rather than the amount of work you put in, but seriously if you missed out one big post a week no-one would mind and you could get yourself an evening back. I assure you you’d not lose any audience and you wouldn’t lose out on GoogleAd revenue as you estimate that probably comes from searchers rather than regulars.
Go on, put your feet up a bit (bet you can’t though ;-)
Posted on May 19, 2004 02:16 AM | #
33. Ram Yoga said:
Keith,
I just wanted to thank you for summing up my own personal feelings on the subject so well. It’s actually spot on to what I’ve been thinking for some time now. I’ve been writing on the web for free for almost ten years now, and it DOES feel like a job that you don’t get paid for sometimes. Personally, I got burnt out some years back, and haven’t really recovered from it since. Luckily I had gathered a “crew” that could step up, and take over, but the motivation is waining for them also. It takes tremendous amounts of effort just to maintain sites and content. Not to mention to be creative and funny.
It’s a funny thing that most people only take contact with you if they have a problem or if they want to complain. It’s actually pretty rare for people to say ‘thank you’ unmotivated. Although, I see a trend for the opposite in the blogosphere.
Do what you have to, to keep going. This is your site, and I for one will keep reading even if you get banner ads. :-)
Keep up the excellent work!
Regards from Norway. :-)
Posted on May 19, 2004 06:14 AM | #
34. Dan said:
One thing to remember is that you can’t tell people who their role models are. You put up some really, I repeat, REALLY great stuff. From newbies to Art Directors, there is a lot of interesting reads… I think whether you like it or not, you are a role model. Deal with it! :)
One Request:
Don’t forget about all the people that appreciate your work because of the parasites and nit-pickers. For all the people who compalin there are 10 more wanting to thank you.
And I am one of them. Muchos Gracias!
Posted on May 20, 2004 02:59 PM | #
35. Indranil said:
WOW!
Well said Dan, and I am right behind you. If you take a look at my site, I am a budding web designer with 2 horrid pages to my discredit. And I always look here for tips. Now that I have my own blog, I can be more creative :)
Posted on June 3, 2004 12:11 PM | #
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