Picnics

October 6, 2008 · Comments

free as in beer What should be free? Who pays for it? Where does it all go? Should blogging and money be kept far apart from each other? Should blogs have ads? Are all links really paid, as the story goes? How does money impact authenticity? Who should pay for the picnic? Let’s talk about money. Monetization. Loot.

These are questions that we all have opinions about. People and companies have been vilified for their choices. The righteous burn their effigies on the front lawn of any blog that mixes free content with advertising. The very notion that commerce and information exchange be permitted to mix seems incongruous. Never mind the fact that media works that way. Never mind the fact that CHURCH works that way. There has to be a strong distance between the exchanges, or else it seems evil. You’re charging your community, etc.

I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time. Partly because it’s my job to understand how to mix information and money-making. The other part of it is because I like to help people figure out how to do business in the Internet age. I experiment, share the results, and experiment some more.

I also run conferences, both professionally, and for passion. Between media making, conferences, and the other ways that I work in the information-for-money business, I’ve got some ideas, and I’m going to share my perspective. I predict this post will be one of the more polarizing of my last several months. You’ll either get it and agree, or you’ll tell me why the world must all function on what’s free. I can argue both sides of the coin.

The Triangle

In the fall of 2006, I quit my day job and joined the circus. Jeff Pulver, legendary VoIP pioneer and long-time producer of the VON conference series hired me. In the waning months of 2007, I parted ways and joined Stephen Saber’s CrossTech Media. During this same time frame, I also worked with Christopher S. Penn and Whitney Hoffman on PodCamps.

In events, there’s a triangle. I learned this mostly from Jeff. If you can, the best of all worlds goes like this:

* Attract the brilliant people and make them the community.
* Charge the businesses who support this community for the event.
* Make it worth it for those businesses, so that they want to keep supporting the event.

So, if you want your “friends” to come to a conference, make the event such that it will help them do their job better. Then, don’t ask your friends for money. Ask their employers for money (ticket cost). Then, ask exhibitors and sponsors who want the friends as customers for money. Then, you have enough money to run a conference, and make a living trying to build information.

For the content, focus super hard on the people/friends. Don’t look to what the sponsors/exhibitors think the story is. They know more about the today than they do the tomorrow. Unless you make friends with tomorrow-focused companies (my favorite plan).

That’s kind of traditional conferences in a nutshell. It’s WAY not easy. But that’s the rough premise.

Unconferences, like PodCamp and BarCamp and the like, do it differently. The premise is like this: we can all get together for a minimal cost and run something that’s useful, without making it a business unto itself. We can subsist, and everyone will leave better educated.

With PodCamps, we’ve built and built on the experience, such that the ones we run in Boston cost more than a typical *.Camp, but the payload is (hopefully) much more focused. We’ve asked for more money from the community, but we’ve turned that back around into a quality event. We find sponsors who want access to our community, and then we try to matchmake that relationship a little, so that everyone understand’s each other’s potential value. BUT we do it without a lot of heavy-handedness at PodCamps. It’s more organic. That’s the whole unconference thing.

YOU can start an unconference. You don’t need anyone’s permission.

So there are two models.

Content on Websites

The web has crushed a lot of former money makers. Look at newspapers. Look at magazines. We are VERY used to getting our content for free. We love it free. And we are finding more and more ways to get top shelf, quality content for free. It’s a great and wonderful thing. How many of us would pay a few bucks for a blog? Not very many. (Well wait, aren’t Kindle users doing just that?)

So there are all kinds of people churning out quality content, and the basic premise is that they’ll get their money elsewhere. I sure do. Lots of people do. But let’s go deeper for a second.

You learn actionable things from ProBlogger, from CopyBlogger, from Seth Godin, from me, and from others. All that content is free. It’s out there for you to learn from, profit from, build business with, and hopefully succeed. Heck, if we’re not helping you succeed, then why are we doing this daily?

Often discounted in these conversations are blogs about making money online. Those fall into another whole category of the web. And yet, some of those folks, like Ted Murphy are out there just trying to come up with new ways to build better relationships between people who have something to sell and people who want to facilitate that sale. There’s a whole culture out there figuring this stuff out, and I’m getting to know more and more of them. As I do, my mindset on how blogs interact with advertising and marketing has changed a great deal.

My Current Thinking Boiled Down

  • Making money isn’t evil. HOW you make money can be. Keeping the whole picture in place helps. (For instance, in my case, I sell certain services and information – like the New Marketing Summit, but then I give others away free/cheap – my blog and PodCamp).
  • Disclosure is key. If you’re going to sell something on your site, disclose that you’ve got a relationship with that company/product. ( I show my disclosures on my About page).
  • Maintain the triangle. I don’t want YOU to pay for my content. I want people who need my help professionally to pay for my distilled thinking.
  • Keep context. My site is about educating you. If it becomes about products to market, that’s a context swap. If I decide to build a site about selling you things, I’ll make that another URL, and you can opt to visit or not.
  • Someone has to pay for the picnic. There are some really great bloggers out there who are blogging a bit less lately. I won’t name them. They have jobs that require them to focus down hard on revenues right now. I try my hardest to have the things I’m paid for (like conferences) keep me out here on the blanket giving away delicious snacks. But someone always has to pay for the picnic.

Your Take

It’s your turn to weigh in. Why should everything be free? Why are ads evil? Where do you think this money should be made? If you were running the business, [chrisbrogan.com], or Scobleizer.com , or Annhandley.com , or whoever, what would you do differently? How would YOU make your money?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Photo credit, Timothy Lloyd

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  • I think people have become passive and the whole FREEocracy is quite ludicrous. If a person wants to make money, they need to create a product, add a price and charge. Yes, this is an oversimplification but, WTF!

    If a person chooses to write a blog without offering a product for sell, then they must rely on ads. Not many people make a living at this right? So, shift tracks, create a useful product, attach a price, and rock out with your *product* out!!

    cheers!!
  • Great, great article. Isn't it a constant battle that people have struggled with for years..."selling out." I feel that as long as the monetization you are receiving is aligned with \ your passion and what you teach, it should only help the people who read your blog. I think the more you can have corporation pay for the picnic the better, who doesn't love free food?
  • I am completely for making money, but I want to do it with integrity. I like how you've displayed your relationships and disclosures on your About page. I will do the same.

    I have started developing my own SmartWoman products and so far, my community seems to like it. I give away alot of info and resources, so I guess I have an ok balance. I tend to use the newsletter more for subtle selling, but still include lots of free helpfuls. Nothing drives me more crazy than someone always pitching, and my audience seems to feel the same way. Your 1:12 ratio for social media works very well so I use that approach too.

    Love your point of view, Chris. Please know that what you give is greatly valued and appreciated.

    Together, we are stronger.
    Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

    follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/smartwoman
  • Everything costs somebody something. It all boils down to disclosure. If it's all out on the table, then whatever the mechanism chosen to make money, there should not be a problem.
  • I like the idea of applying the "triangle" to a blogging business model. For instance, your blog could be about teaching people how to use a product, and your monetization could come from selling the product. Theoretically, if you focus on serving your readers' needs, (rather than just asking, "How do I sell this?" the sales should follow.

    Glad you are addressing this - It's really an issue that needs attention or else we might find ourselves with a shortage of high quality blog content.
  • I've run into this problem all the time as a musician. Should I charge for it, or give away for free? While I think a certain amount of "free" is perfectly acceptable, and important, I also think there comes a time when you should start charging for some of it. If you don't value your product, who will?
  • As an old school Web 1.0 community who has gone through the awkward early years of monetization, we've always found that full disclosure to your community is probably the most crucial aspect of any efforts to make a living doing what we love to do.

    Community members have to be a part of it too, though. You can't just foist off ads, a referral program, or some rich media campaign such as interstitials, roll-downs, or co-brands without talking it over with the community first.

    One way we've garnered community support for our advertising efforts is by reminding them that the ultimate goal is continuation of the site and everything that makes us worth coming to. The four annual events that we have and all the other fun stuff make 'putting up with ads' worth it for the core community. We can't slack on our end of the bargain though. The more money the site generates, the more we have to put back into community efforts.

    While the ideal of "content should be free" is a happy thought, those who consume the content need to remember that it is NOT free to generate content. We have to pay for it in hosting fees, time, and salaries. While the model is in place to deliver content for free, the money to pay for it has to come from what is ultimately a compromise - a dilution of content (in the form of advertisements) or up-selling products/services to consumers. It's no different from the model that network television or newspapers use.
  • Money isn't the root of all evil but it's often said that way. The love of money is the root of all evil. My interpretation of that goes further. If greed overcomes someone & they become blind to how that affects others, it becomes evil. If someone wants to make money from their writing, that's their prerogative.
  • Whether it is art or ideas. The originator is putting something presumably of value out to the consumer. I think it is worth dealing with some advertising to keep the content flowing.Each author/publisher has to value his or her own time and talent in order for it to be worthy of consumption. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be paid to write can bear more than those going it alone without that support.It is a difficult line to draw, thank you for your insight.
  • Hey Chris:

    If you look at the Seth Godin Model – you’ll see the best way to lead your tribe and charge them accordingly. As we know – Seth has a GREAT blog. Like you, he has much to offer.

    Notice, Seth doesn’t have any ads on his blog – BUT he does advertise his books for sale. Essentially, Seth’s books are his “premium content”. You can’t get his books for free - at least not his “in print” books.

    If I were running [chrisbrogan.com] – I would decide what my “premium content” will be – then I would charge for it – just like Seth does. His just happens to be books.

    I don’t believe everything should be free. However, if you understand permission marketing – FREE is all about getting the attention necessary to take that step toward obtaining permission and/or drawing people closer to your premium content.

    Ads aren’t evil – but you need to understand the dynamics of what makes them work. IMHO – they’re viewed negatively because they’re sort of deceitful. For example, if I go to a blog to read a post – I’m not going there to click on an ad – and if I do click on an ad – I’ve been interrupted.

    You could use the argument that the ads provide me the opportunity to access even more relevant content. However,
    we both know that’s rarely the case. They usually pull you off in some obscure direction.

    So, back to your original question – make money from your premium content. That’s a healthy way to make money and build your tribe.

    Best,

    Ed
  • Bingo! You nailed it. It's not about selling your content. What's the point in selling something that already exists? It's about having rock solid, consistent, and valuable content and then building a framework around that which allows you to make money.

    It's definitely the hard way to do things, and it sure as heck isn't a get rich quick scheme - after all, you've got to come up with all this amazing content, then get people to read it, and find enough value in what you have to say to then spread it to their friends, colleagues, employers etc. Only then will you be able to profit from it - be it book deals, speaking gigs, consulting jobs, teaching, what have you.
  • Ed
    Answering your tweet directly, obviously Oreos should pay for the picnic.

    Seriously.

    Who gets to be the dessert, the final taste, the beneficiary of the blog's effort that 'day'(week, month, series, etc)?

    To the victor go the spoils. And the bill.
  • Remember, though I'm talking about me, I'm also talking about you. People are still trying to figure out how to make money in this space. Most of them won't. For those who want to do so, there are avenues, but they take effort, and they take disclosure, and they require a certain two-way relationship and understanding.
  • If you and the others keep throwing the picnic, we the ants will show up for the great content and tips. Then it is our choice to click on the advertisements, and affiliate links.

    If the ad is worthy of the click, and the prize is worthy of the price. We as ants have the choice join the picnic, or buy the beer. And just which beer commercial would we all click on.

    Thumbs up for Miller Time?

    Gary McElwain
  • This is a post I'll be coming back to again and again.
  • Chris...you forgot one key thing: you gotta have a house band.

    Jeff had the Stray Cats. You gotta have a house band.
  • Guys I'll bring the beer on my tab! If you're all there to knock around ideas with, its the best investment I'll ever make!
  • When did making money become evil again? Didn't we/they in the personal growth industry handle that at the end of the 20th century by talking about right livelihood?

    For me, decisions if and what to charge for professional services (e.g., writing, editing, thinking fancy) depends on how generous I can afford to be at any given time. Gotta put that oxygen mask on my own face first, y'know.

    Also, some enterprises are rarely ever money makers. I've stopped being even remotely polite when I hear a wannabe author yipping and yapping about writing a book "to make money."

    Great post, Chris.
  • Hi Chris (and hi to Ed Welch, nice to see you, gosh they'll let anyone in here, won't they! :) )

    Thank you so much for addressing this. Yesterday, we posted our first affiliate recommendation - Chris and Ed, you might recognize who we carefully selected. The product dovetails with our content and intent, it delivers a fantastic value, and we fully disclosed the relationship in the post. Still, I struggled, wondering if readers would think we were crassly commercializing.

    Finally, I figured we're gonna hear about it one way or the other if anyone should care, so hit publish. As other realists have said above, it's about keeping a balance. You mentioned the Triangle above. Like a tripod or three-legged stool, if one of the elements is out of whack, it'll fall over. This is a very helpful image for us to keep in mind with our future evaluations.

    Thanks again!
  • Chris - you nailed it! At the end of the day, it's all about the disclosure. If you're up front about who you're doing business with and what potential conflicts might exist between sponsors & content, people can read/digest you knowing that there might be a bias. With that said, you always do a good job separating church and state.

    Aaron | @astrout
  • Chris, great post. Here's something to try... flip it on its head:

    Rather than selling to your community, think of it as creating new or sub communities of buyers.

    For example, with Thesis, we're not really selling a WordPress Theme... we're selling support and community that revolves around that theme.

    Sometimes charging money in a predominately free environment builds even stronger (albeit smaller) communities thanks as much to who is excluded as is who is included.

    Seth's new book Tribes nails this.
  • Hey Chris, interesting post on monetization. I'm always amazed at the many ways there are to make a buck. We have tried something a little different where I work.

    My company (employer) doesn't have any digital content for sale, but we did manage to produce a blog that receives relatively large numbers of hits every day, even though it has been static now for over a year and has few if any incoming links. This is due to a couple of things. First, the information is a type of technical reference and is very useful and reliable (it is scholarly and includes primary reference material), and second, it is entirely free. It is well indexed by all of the major search engines and it shows up in results from all over the world.

    The products we sell are actual, physical products for consumption by individuals. They are related to the information collected on the blog. We sell mainly to other businesses, with a very small minority of our revenues coming from retailing. The information, on the other hand, is given freely to the consumer base for our products. We have no way of assuring that the end user of our info is actually purchasing products from our customers, who are the ultimate retailer of what we sell, but our view is that a more educated consumer will eventually make the best purchasing choice and we can get a large part of that business. And that is really the sandbox that we want to play in (selling the best products to the best educated consumers).

    A different type of monetization.
  • Great post. Chris Anderson of http://www.thelongtail.com/ has a book he is in the process of writing that talks about the concept of "Free" and how it has changed our lives. There is nothing wrong with making money, that's usually a goal people strive for. If you charged a premium for people to read your blog, odds are you would lose viewers. Advertising is annoying but right now is the best way to maximize profits on the internet with a blog. Tough decisions but do what you have to do to make money.

    Craig
    www.budgetpulse.com
  • Hey Chris,
    Thanks for another thoughtful post. I have absolutely no objection to advertising as long as it is relevant. In fact, good advertising informs me of services and products that could be very useful to me, and I appreciate that.

    For some magazines, like "Wired," I make a point of reading every single ad, because the majority of them are of interest to me in some way. On the other extreme is MySpace. There every other inch is plastered with obnoxious advertising, and so I ignore everything. The ads on Facebook I tolerate and glance at from time to time because they are less intrusive, and I can vote away an ad if I'm so inclined.

    Bloggers who include banner ads for products that relate to their core topics don't bother me. In general, as long as the ads aren't too annoying, I don't get annoyed by their presence.
  • I found your post troubling, in that you say: "Maintain the triangle. I don’t want YOU to pay for my content. I want people who need my help professionally to pay for my distilled thinking."

    At some point, successful publishers need to move from entertaining, educating and helping their audience to selling them something. This can be very tough, as anybody touting a Freemium business model knows.

    I hope that the Internet develops a tolerance for direct payment for good advice and makes that third leg of the stool unnecessary. My new product does try to facilitate a direct payment model, so there's my bias.
  • I’m glad a musician piped in on this thread - we have similar issues.
    As a children's book author and illustrator, this is a subject I (and my fellow creators) deal with constantly. There are many expectations involved when people request authors to speak at their school or event. It's "for the children" - shouldn't it be free? Never mind the days of preparation, travel expenses, office time lost, or that teachers get paid for the same service (although not much, granted).
    People value the books we create, but they often forget to value the creator. We have bills to pay too. School visits are one of the main ways children's book authors and illustrators make their living (the average income is not high) and they can be profound experiences for the children. Many schools have budgets for this, while others have to apply for grants or organize fund-raisers. For those who flat out can’t afford to hire a speaker, most creators give back through free materials on their websites, or by donating one free engagement a year. Personally, I give away tons of free activities on my website and a new coloring page every week on my blog which has proven to be enormously popular. The question is, when is it too much?
    I give away what I do to attract interest to my books. The more I sell, the more I can keep doing what I love. But I am constantly hit with requests to do more, more, more - for free. The message seems to be, if you love what you do, you have a social obligation to give it away. Under those demanding expectations, how do we make enough money to continue writing and illustrating?
    My 2 cents,
    e
    dulemba.com
  • There's definitely something in common between the little bits of content, advice, attention, feedback that are expected to be "free no matter what" and the tragedy of the commons.

    Each individual perceives that they are consuming only a negligible quantity of the commons -- the blogger's ideas and intelligence, the event's value add, the colleague's "brain to pick" (OUCH, I think, EVERY time someone asks to pick my brain) -- and yet cumulatively it overloads and degrades the resource. It's not sustainable. Sometimes the beneficiaries of the commons are not happy with the kind of tradeoffs (price) they really *should* expect to pay in order to partake of the commons.
  • @Ted - you know how there's a group of peers, and then there's a group of customers? I think blogs are unique (and other online media properties like blogs) insofar as they are often mix-and-match with who's on them.

    Thus, we have a little bit of separating to do. I have to extract my customer base from my peer base, so that my customers will find their way to the products and services I create, while my peers and friends feel they're still learning and sharing with me.

    My customers are more than welcome to learn from my peers. I'm a big fan of sharing. That's what I do best.

    But you're right insofar as there has to be some kind of dividing line on what one might buy or not.
  • It doesn't seem to me like anyone has a problem with radio and the advertising they do there.

    So why should blogging be so different. Both are simply a person putting content for others to hear about or read, and then selling ad space, or displaying some sort of ad for a curious audience to visit.

    I say if you don't like ads, don't click them. Just read the content, and go about your merry way.
  • I can understand ads for big well-known sites where the ad might actually generate some small amount of revenue, but not for smaller ones. Ads are like pop-ups; they're annoying. As a small blog myself I would prefer not to annoy my visitors.
  • Another whole side of this conversation, one that is not really covered here that I can see, is the question of business models.

    Within the bounds of what we might all agree are OK ways to make a quid, there is still a lot of choice and variety in terms of business models. Here there are some who know how to manage cashflow and others who don't.

    Business model tweaking can mean the difference between making it to riches, and going broke on the way there.

    -Alister
  • Interesting read. The fact that free content exists makes it more difficult to attract a community, let alone drive revenue streams from them. I don't believe that blogging is a long-term sustainable business model, but I do believe that it is perfect for building a brand. Learning how to use your brand to improve the lives of others while making a living is a genuine way to make money without selling every affiliate product known to man. I like to highlight some of my interests on my blog, but if people don't want to buy them that is fine. However, I am a firm believer that if you help to open people's worlds to new ideas, like you have been doing, then they are going to show their appreciate with money spent.
  • A member of an arts organizations here in Pittsburgh was recently saying -- during the free "gallery crawl" event we have every 3 months -- that all these people coming down to the arts venues doesn't translate to profits throughout the year.

    As I see it, the problem isn't that they're spending too much time giving things away for free. It's that they're NOT spending enough time directing those free attendees and converting them into subscribers / paying customers / supporters of the arts. They bring them in, but then they don't know what to do with them, so the setup fails.

    Having an audience is great, but you also need a plan to engage them and make them a part of your own forward momentum, all while providing them something that improves their lives as well.
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