Camen Design Forum

That which is never discussed: Money

append delete Kroc

So, Camen Design is getting reasonably big (120K+ unique visits per month) and my style is being cramped by being on a shared host (PHP-as-CGI, *still* no PHP5.3) and in an ideal world I'd like to address this by moving to a dedicated or virtual server. This costs money, lots of it. At the moment I pay a very small amount and get a huge amount for it, so the continual cost does not bear down on me.

Whilst I could probably afford a more expensive host, I don't like to be tied to anything expensive and to have the weight on my mind. I work fixing computers as my regular job and I travel by bicycle, which costs me nothing. Going to a job, doing a job and leaving all technically costs me nothing, so I never have to have the pressure of necessity on me as regards money. I charge what is appropriate to the effort involved and there can be days where I earn a lot, and days where I can be out 10 hours, cycle 20+ miles and earn nothing. This does not bother me; a job well done is worth more than a job well paid. This is proven because I am inundated with work and no longer have to advertise.

When it comes to Camen Design, I avoid any commercialisation because I in no way want any monetary requirements to be making decisions for me. It's complete bullcrap and I won't stand for it. I made this site with no IE support, when everybody else wouldn't dare to because of fear of leaving out IE-users for unquantifiable reasons mostly around "marketshare", which really translate into "ad revenue". Because let's face it, even with the CSS, my site is still accessible in IE, and in the end IE is just 4% of my stats, not 50% like everybody kept telling me.

The point is that if I am to take Camen Design to the next level I need to produce a revenue that:

a. Does not, in any way, impact my ability to do what the heck I want, when I want, how I want

b. is reliable and stable, (or large enough to cover a year's cost up front) such that Camen Design can pay for itself, by itself, instead of negatively impacting my regular work

c. befits my non-IE, standards-loving audience

d. is the work of my own effort or recognition of others and not blind corporate targeted advertising

The answer to this may be multi-faceted. Here are some particular examples:

* Donations. I would only accept donations under the conditions that you are donating because I'm awesome, and you support that, and not that your donation holds me accountable to you. If you donate to me, I really won't hold back from offending you in some future blog post. Plausibility: unlikely, unless coupled with other options

* Provide options to purchase photo / art prints: In my photo / art section, I could provide a link to purchase a print of the picture. This I would do through DeviantARTs print service. My concerns with this are that a. the quality of my photos are not particularly good and b. I can't imagine why anybody would want to buy my art; it would not be a reliable or large enough income (like donations)

* Write a book. This way people would be getting good value for their money, than me just reselling what I already have. I would not write a book about how to write code, nothing bit-rots faster than source code examples in books. If I was going to write about anything web-design based it would be about how to change your perspective in order to be a better programmer and artist rather than copypasta code examples for people trying to get a job done immediately.

* Any other suggestions?

Please note: this thread is not to discuss available prices of servers, it doesn't matter how cheap you can get a server, I’m not interested in moving unless my readers will be happy to pay me for something I can do for them.

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append delete #1. JJ

I don't know about a suggestion. I would say this is your choice. If I were you, I might try my hand at writing a book. Not a small task, and theres maybe a chance of complete failure in that regard, but its what I would consider.

I've been thinking about getting a VPS to host node projects on. While it's definitely pricier than shared hosting, it seems very worth it: total autonomy over your server.

You mentioned PHP 5.2 isn't good enough right now (I agree). Would you take CD a radically different direction on a vps? Would you go down the path of python, or dare I say it...ruby? If you are looking for some new direction to take CD backend-wise, I highly recommend Node. (I'm flat-out addicted to node right now, and have gained a lot more reverence and respect for JS than I ever thought I would.)

append delete #2. Kroc

I'd like to have options open to me. Right now, I can only do things through PHP. What if I wanted to run a Minecraft Server, or dabble with Radio2, or use lighttpd, or just generally rethink the way I publish on the web. If I could run my own mail-server, then I could move away from Google. So there's lots of possibility, but I won't really know what sticks until I try and PHP is not nearly enough.

append delete #3. TorbjornLunde

I'm not sure if this suggestion is acceptable to you but I think it's at least worth mentioning. Having so called “high end” adversitisng, such as The Deck (decknetwork.net) or Fusion Ads (fusionads.net/…. I add sites that use ads like these to my adblock whitelist. They are usually relevant and tasteful. A problem is that they are invite-only.

Flattr (flattr.com) micropayment system might be an option.

Readability (readability.com) is a bit like Flattr, except only for written text.

I really hope that you find a way to fund your ventures, both this forum and your main website are among my favorite sites on the web.

append delete #4. theraje

Kroc, I personally think you should totally write a book. It would be a good way to tell people how to become more "free" from the pressures of market-share, and think on their own.

It would certainly be a major contribution to your mindset of "content, content, content" and not "profit, profit, profit," all the while giving you the option of having fiscal support set aside strictly for your Web playground. You could even make it free to download an e-book, with the condition that if the book is helpful and you want to express appreciation, show your support by buying the physical book.

And of course go with on-demand publishing to further prove that this is the age that you don't have to be the ottoman of some faceless corporation who would throw you in the ditch if it made a profit in order to be a success.

append delete #5. Kroc

@TorbjornLunde Traditional ads are going the way of the dodo. Even if some people don't block them, the trend is clearly towards all browsers having ad-blocking, just as pop-up blockers before it. The whole ad market is based around trying to force people to look at junk, and dressing it up as hip as possible doesn't escape the fact that it's a dead-end.

I don't feel that profiting from Camen Design should be about showing someone else's content that I don't know, use, or care about, on my site.

Flattr looks like they want to build a brand, rather than solve the business model problem. I’m not interested in contributing to them becoming the next PayPal.

Readability is for cleaning up unreadable sites. My site is free of crap to begin with, and doesn't need cleaning up.

I’m not interested in building up somebody else's brand :)

@theraje. Sounds like a "learn how to get rich" scheme :P I make a book telling people how get rich, and I get rich off of them buying the book, which tells them to get rich, selling get rich books :P

But yes, it seems like the only viable option, even though it is daunting.

What I don't like about the write-a-book model is that it seems counter-intuitive that the only way to profit from a website is to write something on dead wood. I don't agree that I should withold information in a non-HTML format in order to promote an open web. If I were to write anything, it would be freely available to read online, in HTML, and available to purchase for reasons of supporting me.

append delete #6. theraje

~~~
Sounds like a "learn how to get rich" scheme :P I make a book telling people how get rich, and I get rich off of them buying the book, which tells them to get rich, selling get rich books :P
~~~

Well, at least it's not a "get rich *quick*" scheme. XD

~~~
What I don't like about the write-a-book model is that it seems counter-intuitive that the only way to profit from a website is to write something on dead wood. I don't agree that I should withold information in a non-HTML format in order to promote an open web. If I were to write anything, it would be freely available to read online, in HTML, and available to purchase for reasons of supporting me.
~~~

Yeah, I had a feeling you would say that, which is why I mentioned the free e-book and paid physical book model. With on-demand publishing, you can still publish your e-books free most of the time. I know you can with CreateSpace and Lulu, at least.

append delete #7. cthom06

Don't hold your breath on the minecraft server unless you're prepared to pay for one hell of a VPS.

I've always been more partial to the donation model myself.

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