Re: POLL: Get Ready For More Comics (Score: 3, Informative)
posted Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 04:22 PM (
#18522)
Lots of good comments in here; I'm going to address them all in this post.
Why not not pause it, but not require that people donate right now? If it's open, and people are able to donate, then they can donate if they want to. If they can't yet (or still), then they can wait until they can. Just keep donations open permanently!I'd love to be able to keep donations open permanently, but we've tried this in the past and it fails in the long run. Any time we post something new on the site, like a donations drive or a new merchandise item, initial response is always the best, and then interest tapers off over the next few days. Keeping donations open permanently would almost guarantee that we would cease to get any after a few more weeks.
You may remember that we used to have a monthly donations goal some time back; that started out well, but people lost interest in it after a while, and we had to switch to a subscription model. I'm hoping that by limiting the donations drives (maybe we'll try one once a year or something), people will be more enthusiastic about it.
Also, it's a pain in the ass when someone is begging you for money all the time. I don't want to be that guy if I can help it.
I was thinking it'd be nice if the extended info for each strip mentioned whether the original art was still available.Like I said before, we're working on this, but i wanted to explain some of the specifics. More than half of our donations came in from people who wanted to purchase strip art; it would be silly not to make this an option. When we get the chance, we're going to set up a database containing all of the available art. Each strip that has art available for it will have a link underneath that will allow you to purchase the art. Once it is purchased, the link will disappear.
We may also use this same system to sell hi-res signed prints at a somewhat more affordable price. I'm not sure when we'll have this in place except to say that it will be as soon as we can get it up and running.
The price per piece will probably go up somewhat from the $100 we're asking for in the donations drive. That's called
incentive.
Could you keep open the option of original art for a $100 donation even if the drive isn't officially going? 'cause I'd like me some art, and may (possibly) be able to afford it in the next couple months...Like I said, once we have the above system in place you'll be able to purchase art for all available strips. The price may be a bit higher, though -- probably not by too much. But all art purchases will count towards the next donation drive and towards the 5 strips per week goal, so no worries there.
Separately, what kind of donations have you received most, though; $100 plus for strip art, or smaller donations? I've noticed that when the meter goes up it always seems to go up in hundreds, so I'm guessing that most people are really looking for something in return...
How about cheaper 'rewards'? Like signed prints or things which can be reproduced much more easily? The meter goes up in hundreds because I only update it once a day or so. But about half the donations have been for $100 or more, which is somewhat unbelievable to me.
If we get signed prints working (as I mentioned above), that would certainly be something we could include as a reward, but we'll have to figure out how that will work. All these projects take time, unfortunately, and I have very little of it. But someday, hopefully.
Thanks to everyone for the excellent suggestions!
--
"I don't wanna be an inventor. I wanna be something useful like a teacher's aide or a prison guard or a science-fiction cartoon writer." - Cubert Farnsworth
