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50% Or Bust (16 comments)
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50% Or Bust

in Controversy by jon

Monday, July 28, 2003 - 03:41 PM

One of the bright moments of Comic-Con this year was getting to meet Scott McCloud in person. We had traded emails and chatted on the phone previously, but I had never gotten to meet the man in person, and I don't think you can properly judge someone from electronic communication (actually, I don't think you can properly judge someone until you've gotten blindingly drunk with them, but Scott had his kid with him, so I'll let him slide this time).

So I was pleased to learn that he's a pleasant guy with a good sense of humor. Scott had apparently heard of my misgivings about his new micropayments solution, and asked me just what it would take to get me on board with BitPass (I later learned that McCloud apparently has a stake in the company, so I can understand his desire to get as many people using the system as possible).

Anyway, I explained that I was going to need some cold, hard numbers showing that the system wasn't just a flash in the pan -- that it was something that would continue to bring in money over time, and not just from a handful of people checking it out for the first time out of curiosity. Scott suggested that we set a percentage of return customers -- people who came back for the second installment of his micropayment comics -- and use that as a measuring stick. I suggested that he would need at least 50% of the people from his first experiment to come back for his second before I would consider it a success. Scott agreed, and our gentleman's bet was sealed.

Given, I think it will be fairly easy for him to get 50%, as many of those folks who signed up for BitPass still have leftover money in their accounts (unless they decide to spend it all on Rich's BitPass experiment or Jim's excellent online graphic novel). And I think there are other problems with the system -- technological and psychological -- that will keep me from calling it a complete success even if he hits that mark. But I'm willing to give it a shot if he meets the goal.

So Scott gets me to try out his pet project if he beats 50%. What do I get if he doesn't? Bragging rights, I suppose. Smug satisfaction, perhaps. But not really. Because I do really want to see this succeed. I want to be wrong. I want there to be lots and lots of ways for people to make money with comics, even if this one isn't right for me. Anyway, I suppose we'll have to wait and see how it pans out. I'll keep you up to date.

Chad
Knackolyte

Posts: 23

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Sep 2000
Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2, Intriguing)
posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 05:48 PM (#7819)
I understand opining about micropayments. That's a nice thing to do. But can you go into what this means to us, as the readers, Jon?

Do you mean that if some study shows something that you'll start using micropayments for the thrice weekly comic? Or are you just gonna post up some more discussion about possibly it may given the correct circumstances be a viable business model? Are you going to make it an optional way that we, the readers, can show our thanks to you using nickels instead of buying premium or super premium?

I'm not trying to be alarmist or complainant. I'm mostly just interested in what you're actually talking about. It would surprise me if, based on some third party data made by a non-impartial person (that you've been pretty adamant about disagreeing with in the past), you would do something as drastic as require a BitPass or whatnot (I got no clue how those silly things work in reality) to read the site.

Please don't be defensive! I'm not trying to stir up things. It's just curiosity really. And boredom at work.
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zamphir
zamphir
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2)
posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 06:34 PM (#7820)
In Response to Chad (#7819):

. It's just curiosity really. And boredom at work.

16 posts?

Not bored enough!
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Chad
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 1)
posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 06:44 PM (#7821)
In Response to zamphir (#7820):

Ok, more curious than bored...

Stop referencing my number posts so people look at yours, Zamphir!
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jon
jon
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2)
posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 07:05 PM (#7822)
In Response to Chad (#7819):

Requiring micropayments to read the daily strip would be stupid and likely suicidal, not to mention mean. No worries. I would probably create some original content to try it out with. Honestly, I haven't even thought that far ahead. I'll let you know what I come up with when it becomes an issue.
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zamphir
zamphir
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2)
posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 07:17 PM (#7823)
In Response to jon (#7822):

create some original content

Yeah, that'd be cool.

Maybe something about a near future patent clerk.

:-P

;-)
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mea37
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 1)
posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 09:13 PM (#7824)
In Response to Chad (#7821):

Post-count envy. Tragic.

Not to say that post-count size doesn't matter. A nice, healthy-sized post count (say, in the neighborhood of 333) is a Good Thing, and to be sure, yours does appear to be rather small. But latent aspirations to be like Zamphir -- I mean, his is just freakishly large. It's disconcerting, really.
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jon
jon
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2)
posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 10:06 PM (#7825)
In Response to zamphir (#7823):

It's on my to-do list. First I gotta get the bills paid, tho.
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"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
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zamphir
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2)
posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 11:21 PM (#7826)
In Response to jon (#7825):

Paying bills is good.

The only problem is it doesn't stick. The bills come back next month, and need to get paid again.
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Dynedain
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2)
posted Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 12:02 AM (#7827)
In Response to mea37 (#7824):

compensating for something?
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unFalln
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 12:17 AM (#7828)
In Response to zamphir (#7823):

He could even branch out with a subscription-based crab city or something.

Imagine that, Jon holding up three separate comic strips.

If the micropayments system works, and Jon needed extra money one week, he could just write three comics per day for a couple of days, and subscribers would have to read all of them to keep up with the story! How easy would that be?

Who ever said a webcomic couldn't be full time?
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Grimoire
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Not Enough Vectors (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 06:48 AM (#7831)
The trouble with this micropayment system is that it's basically a frontend to Paypal. There are so many things we can use for micropayments, from paid SMS services on mobile phones to electronic "tip jars". I'd love to see this take off (I'm looking into a micropayment based site ATM) but as it stands it doesn't offer me anything.
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zamphir
zamphir
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2)
posted Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 09:17 AM (#7832)
In Response to Dynedain (#7827):

Maybe you should be more clear about to whom you are directing your comment.
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Dynedain
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 3, Insightful)
posted Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 06:43 PM (#7844)
In Response to zamphir (#7832):

if i was directing my comments at you, i would have replied directly to your comments :p
--
But do you ever see a person leave a cathedral toting a to-go box?

Coffins don't count.
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zamphir
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 2)
posted Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 07:40 PM (#7847)
In Response to Dynedain (#7844):

If you were directing your comments at me, I would have made fun of you.

Your response just made more sense in reply to Chad than it did mea37.
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Chad
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 1)
posted Wednesday, July 30, 2003 - 08:54 AM (#7865)
In Response to zamphir (#7847):

I don't think it makes sense replying to me. I got 17[1] posts!

Wouldn't that be like winking at a guy with a yugo, grinning, and saying "compensating for something?" Or are you implying I'm a very very poor compensator?

And anyways, you brought up the post count thing in the first place. But looking at your post count, you probably bring up a majority of the discussion in the forums in the first place!

[1] 18
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Rich
Rich
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Re: 50% Or Bust (Score: 1)
posted Wednesday, July 30, 2003 - 12:07 PM (#7874)
In Response to unFalln (#7828):

he could just write three comics per day for a couple of days

With all his free time right? ;-)

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