Tuesday, February 22, 2005
2:09 pm <|> The news of the day is all about Kottke.org, a site that I used to read sometimes, but haven't in quite a long time. Jason Kottke, a well-known, long-time blogger, one of the first I ever really followed, has quit his web design job to pursue his blog full time for one year. This is an interesting experiment, one I think bloggers the world over are jealous of today. Granted, it is an extremely dangerous move... he's hoping people will become "micropatrons" to help support his effort, though he's not charging people to actually view his site, nor is he offering any special extra content for the people who do donate (though those who contribute $30 or more are entered into a chance to win a bunch of donated prizes, a lot of which are quite nice... I'm hoping for an autographed copy of my favorite book myself!). Well, I'm pretty darn poor, but after reading his entire post I couldn't help but shed out a donation. Reading it actually really inspired me and for what I've been going through lately, that in itself might have been worth the contribution.
Why shouldn't people who offer something of themselves that people come to read often, hopefully taking something away from it in the process, get something in return too like the ability to keep it going? I'd much prefer to pay a little to support something I enjoy then look at a constant stream of ads everyday. That's the thing - he's doing this ad free, as his site has always been. That too speaks to me, because back when I ran my first domain and it got pretty popular, I dealt with all the hype around it too - all the while insisting I keep it ad free, as the web was already beginning to get cluttered with advertisements and that was still early in the online advertising game. I stuck to my cause until I stopped having time to run it for enjoyment, that's the only time when I started to let some advertising creep in and only then it was a decision to just make enough back to keep the site going even though I wasn't going to be activly updating it anymore.
People who write books about themselves and their lives make money off of that - why shouldn't people make money off of writing blogs if others are willing to come and pay for it? I'm not supporting a pay only site, because I really don't like that model. That makes it into something of an online newspaper, which I also hate it when they charge, but they find ways around it like allowing you to access articles for a week for free, but then once it hits the archives you gotta pay... ok that can work. But for a blog, I don't think this model can apply as much. So to simply ask for a donation for a job well done, which is only suggested IF you think that to be true, then fine, it's not hurting anyone - you aren't taking away their content, and if it really bugs you, you'll go somewhere else and read your daily babble and get your links to steal. I prefer the interaction of a blog to a cover to cover read of a book anyday, that's what makes the web so interesting. That is what drives me to want to study it further and go to grad school for the general concept. Man, this whole thing inspires me in a number of directions, it hits home all too well. If only I could do the same thing (I'm thinking like every other blogger now today), but I'm not jealous, just envyous... and hopeful that if his dream can work out, mine and everyone elses has a chance too. It speaks to the artist in me and the person who sees all her friends wishing for simliar opportunities, though for my artist friends it means having grants or something simliar to allow them to do their artwork full time. It's always a topic amongst us and it's been even more so on our minds very recently. It's just like doing a blog full time too, there can also be an art to that, and for me, well I do both, so it REALLY speaks to me a lot.
Perhaps he will do well with this approach. If he got 1,667 people to donate $30 each he'd have himself a $50,000 salary for the year. Not bad - though he moved to live 'cheaper' he does live in Brooklyn, so 'cheap' there only goes so far I believe. He's got 103 people on his 'micropatron' list as of my writing, which doesn't include me yet so I will assume there are a number more to still get posted on there with his next update of it. So if he's just over $3,000 after a day's work, I'm going to bet this angle is at the very least going to help him get through the startup of his undertaking. People are so quick to attack other's when really to me it seems like it comes out of a secret jealously they won't admit to. If it doesn't hurt you, why must you worry so much about other people's fortune or misfortune? I guess everyone can't have the same outlook, but it's how I try to approach these things at least. So best of luck Jason, I'll be following along!
Being that I just posted along with last night's entry two other entries from the last two weeks finally, I realized I really should devote some time to redoing the way I post my blog entries. If I just updated them through a web portal of some kind (sigh: like most bloggers - what is the fun in that?), instead of taking the time to make the indivdual page and then finding a moment to ftp the file to my site, things would move along much more smoothly since I write from multiple locations now.
Just like my rant on vegetarianism/environmental issues (one of the two you might have missed), this is another area of my life in which I have devoted a part of myself to it, but have failed to take advantage of all the new advances within it. What I mean is, I've been "blogging" for about 9 years now if you really look at it - long before it was called blogging, long before other 13 year olds took their domains off the free servers and put them up on their own domain name. Yet, I always did things by hand for the most part. A few years ago, as this pheomenon got more and more popular, I was excited about it, but I had started to be busy with other things. I was still writing online all the time, recording my thoughts down daily enough, but I just didn't seem to have the time to learn all the latest programming and software to keep up with the automated part of the blogging world. I did take one stab at it and was even able to pass it off as a project for class my junior year. It was called BlogLogic and it was, yep you guessed it, about blogging - why we blog to be more precise - and that was a fun project. Recently when considering whether or not to renew that domain actually I almost let it expire (but I never throw anything away!!) and just weeks before it would have, someone emailed me wanting me to transfer the domain right to them if I wasn't going to keep it. Two minutes of looking into it and I figured out he was a reseller, grabbing up blog related domain names as fast as he could - so I quickly renewed my now more precious domain and resolved to try to reopen the project at some point in the future.
Now, where is all this coming from? Well, overall with feeling better, I've been feeling this creative pulse coming back at me. I want to create again and all the ideas have started flowing. This is dangerous when you have a lack of time and energy, and while neither of those things are around for me to waste, I do find myself wishing to make room for another project or seven! ;) I will reserve this feeling for now though, because I do in fact have another project to soon focus all of my time upon. Sticky Art will soon be ready to debut. I've been doing some prep work for it - getting a list of stores and galleries to send press kits to, figuring out what remaining supplies I need and ordering them, etc... but because I can do those things on breaks here and there, that's been the easy part so far. What's hard is finding time once I get home in the evening to work on the remaining important stuff - like finishing the design of the checklist/cover card for the packaging and the vending machine front design too. But, officially I approved ALL the proofs for the stickers with the printer last night, so the stickers themselves are hopefully starting to be printed as I type this now and should be ready sometime next week to ship. I'm so excited! I can't wait to hold them in my hands, finally, after all this time!
So my day is far from over, but I'm feeling that I might still manage to be productive later tonight before bedtime comes. I have my HiNgE meeting as I do most Tuesdays, then I'm supposed to hang out with friends for coffee after that. I'm meeting Dan right after work for dinner and we're getting Hobbes and Callie back tonight! (They were at my parent's house since Saturday night because of the apartment issue) Things are all coming back together as they should and we're a little worn, but all the more ready to enjoy good things to come I think. Now how's that for a positive ending?
<211> Blog Your Cares Away: So I've been working pretty hard all day and it's now time for me to take a break and write a bit I think. Being that I don't take my given hour lunch break in the actual lunch room (I prefer to sit back, eat my lunch, and read up on what's going on today), I feel little guilt in doing this at work.