Comments on: Picnics

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:36:03 +0000

To plan for a Blues Clues Party, start out by finding some pre made cards of the Blues Clues characters. These should be readily available with most online party suppliers. Can’t find any and have good home printer? Then find some good graphics of your child’s favorite characters online. Or, look for some paper or cards that have some dog prints on them!

By: All World In One Site » Blog Archive » Free is good. So is not so free. Know the difference.

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:40:45 +0000

[...] Hop on over to Chris’ blog and get a handle on how the picnic gets paid for. [...]

By: Free is good. So is not so free. Know the difference. | Business is Personal

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:12:00 +0000

[...] Hop on over to Chris’ blog and get a handle on how the picnic gets paid for. [...]

By: Justin Kownacki

Justin Kownacki — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:11:45 +0000

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.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:47:44 +0000

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.

By: Alister Cameron // Blogologist

Alister Cameron // Blogologist — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:31:35 +0000

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

By: Doug C.

Doug C. — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:21:52 +0000

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.

By: Steven-Sanders

Steven-Sanders — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:21:28 +0000

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.

By: chrisbrogan

chrisbrogan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:09:27 +0000

@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.

By: Laura "Pistachio" Fitton

Laura "Pistachio" Fitton — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:33:13 +0000

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.