Hidden Frequency

7 rules to making millions as an Internet talking head

As broadcast television goes through it’s prolonged demise, more and more people are turning to the web for the kind of talk show entertainment TV pioneered. Two shows in particular; What the Buck and Rocket Boom are almost mirror universe twins of shows like The Daily Show and Talk Soup. What’s really fascinating, not only do they get an audience that some cable networks would love to have, they’re actually making money. Real money. What the Buck host Michael Buckley and Andrew Baron, producer of Rocket Boom are making more than many of their broadcast television counterparts. Some estimates have What the Buck earning $100K a month. With 180 million video views, I think that’s possible.



So what’s the secret of their success?
For starters, both talk about pop culture and celebrities. The potential audience for that is just about everyone. That’s a good place to begin. But they both have their own unique slant and target towards specific audiences. Rocket Boom has gone through a series of hosts, all of them attractive women capable of delivering irreverent pop culture news to a geeky audience. Michael Buckley is flamboyantly gay and fits the stereotype of the snarky gossip queen. Both shows know their audience.



But it takes more than that. Fortunately it doesn’t take any money. Thanks to the never-ending bandwidth at YouTube you can broadcast to as many people as you want no matter how ridiculous the video.

Here 7 rules to becoming a successful talking head on the Internet:

1. You have to “pop”
In television we talk about people who “pop”. It can be a subjective thing, but usually it’s not. It’s not always about looks or charisma - but having those help. Someone who pops is a person that easily stands out from everyone else. A very pretty girl with no personality isn’t going to pop as much as a more average girl with a sense of humor and style. Again, it’s an odd thing. You know it if you see it. If you don’t see it in yourself, that’s no big deal. Just become a producer like Andrew Baron of Rocket Boom. He finds people that pop and puts them in his shows.

2. Be funny
Just about every talking head on the Internet has this going for them (or extreme sincerity like Leo Laporte). This can be tricky. Rocket Boom and What the Buck are probably a little too snarky for general audiences, but they are perfect for their demo. If you’re not sure if you’re funny, you’ll soon know in the comment section of your videos.

3. Know your audience
Michael Buckley didn’t start off by trying to promote his delivery and his videos to born again Christians who don’t watch television. He aimed his videos at the kind of people that read Perez Hilton and watch TMZ. You shouldn’t pander to an audience, but you need to have a clear idea who you’re trying to reach.

4. Write and speak really, really good well
To get people to watch you day after day you have to sound like a professional. Those “ums”, “you knows” and other bad speech habits we use in day to day life have to be nixed when you want to reach a very large audience. This starts by writing good copy. Yes, write down what you’re going to say. Then say it like you’re not reading it. Sound tricky? That’s the biggest difference between someone who looks likes a pro and someone who sounds like an amateur.

5. Find a formula and make it feel new every time
You’ve got to be consistent at what you do. You also need to keep developing material and bits. Don’t do the same show everyday. After a while people will get bored with it. Chances are they’ll get bored by it before you do.

6. Make it visual
Both Rocket Boom and What the Buck have simple sets, but they both use lots of graphics and music to make the show visually interesting. It’s so easy to add images and graphics to your video, there’s no excuse not to.

7. Promote, promote, promote
To get and audience you need to get people to watch your videos. To do that you need to make sure you’re following good meta information procedures and telling everyone to come see what you’re doing. Pick up a bullhorn and don’t put it down.

After you’ve followed these rules and earned yourself a What the Buck or Rocket Boom-sized audience, the monetization part is easy: Sell ads in your videos and get a cut of the YouTube ad action. ‘Nuff said.

Have some rules and examples you want to add? Send them to me!

Have a comment or suggestion? Email me at andrew@andrewmayne.com

A jar full of hope: Why Brett Rounsaville of Greatest Employee in the World says online donations and tipping can work

In response to my post A jar full of fail on why online donations and tipping don’t work on the Internet, my friend Brett Rounsaville of Greatest Employee in the World (and of AmTrekker fame) has responded with a counter example of how his entire effort to criss-cross the country and live out his bucket list was entirely supported by the largess of people on the Internet.

Hey Andrew,

For nearly two years I traveled the United States and Canada while maintaining a daily blog about my adventures and producing a weekly video series. More importantly, during that two year period, 100% of the experiences I had while criss-crossing North America were supported by donations from readers, viewers and fans of the website. (That’s not totally true. I was paid $500 to be an extra in a movie at one point…) Bottom line: I feel like I may have enough real world experience to advocate a couple of the devils in your last post.

To be clear, I actually agree with a lot of what you had to say in A Jar Full of Fail but I think there are enough exceptions to your rules to seriously strain said rules. It’s not that I’m a huge proponent of donations or even that I think they can support large undertakings, but when you lead off with the line, “Online tipping is for natural disasters and not your blog or podcast…” I think you’re missing the mark a full one eighty. If ever there were a place for donation subsistence it’s with independent blogs and podcasts.

In the post you seem to hold up the failure of TipJoy and TipiT as evidence that the idea of small donations to websites and bands has faltered out of the gate. However, I would say the reason TipJoy and TipiT have failed has nothing to do with the idea of donation based monetization failing. Saying tipping isn’t a viable form of monetizing because TipJoy and TipiT couldn’t make it happen is like saying people hate dogs because pets.com failed. No one will ever succeed in business trying to squeeze their way into a market owned by an 800-pound gorilla like Paypal by adding another middleman. If anyone can set up a Paypal donation button in under ten-minutes then why put someone else’s icon on your site just so you can hand over an extra transaction fee?

Problem #1: In the real world you get tipped when you make eye contact.
Not one way, but both ways. I see you, you see me.

Agreed. But on the web this can still be accomplished simply by acknowledging your audience. They always see you. That’s why they’re called “viewers.” That’s half the equation already accounted for…all that’s left is for you to let them know that 1. You’re listening and 2. When they speak up you’re willing to offer an answer. Maybe it’s not quite mutual eye contact but at the very least it’s mutual respect, and that’s some pretty powerful stuff.

Problem #2: A bigger crowd doesn’t always mean more tips. The degree of personal responsibility your audience feels is inverse to the size of the audience. If your audience knows you have a big audience, the individuals feel less responsible.

I like this rule too. However, I think it should stand as a reminder that: The degree of personal responsibility your audience feels is directly proportional to the amount of responsibility you allow them to take. Again, this is the difference between a participatory experience and shouting into the void.

I hesitate even to bring up this example because it’s such an unique situation, but in the case of Amtrekker I set out on my own with a list of fifty things I wanted to accomplish and refused to come home until every item was crossed off my list. For those engaged in the story it was up to them to make things happen. I’ll be the first to admit that I absolutely, one hundred percent, could never have accomplished what I did with out the incredible kindness and generosity of complete strangers. When you see that #12 on the list is to “Take part in a civil war reenactment” it’s pretty clear that someone has to step up to the plate or that’s never going to happen. And, yes, I could have made phone calls to strangers all day trying to set up these adventures but people LOVE to be part of a team. Why not let them play for your team? For those that couldn’t help accomplish a task, they still wanted to help somehow…which is where that little orange “donate” button comes in handy.

It’s literally the same reason people use the word “we” when they talk about how their favorite sports team is doing, or in a more twisted light, why people join gangs. Everyone wants to be part of something bigger than themselves. Give them something to be part of.

Problem #3: Tipping creates price uncertainty. If the value of something is entirely subjective it makes it very, very hard for people to make a decision.

Yep. Sometimes that works in your favor…usually it doesn’t.

Problem #4: Why pay for something that’s free? If we think it has no value, isn’t going away and have no personal connection to it, why would we give up something like money that has value, is scarce and we’re very deeply personally connected to?

There doesn’t have to be a physical connection for there to be a personal connection. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, people want to be part of a team…but it’s up to you to be the kind of teammate that people want to help to the finals. That personal connection is absolutely the most important part of the equation if you ever hope to so much as cover the costs of blogging or podcasting via donations. What you’ve said is pretty dead on for the vast majority of bloggers out there. Most people are content to upload an article or a podcast and let that be the end of it. That will not make people care. Period.

The last point I’d like to address is “Why not at least try it?”
Chances are you will get a few donations if your blog or podcast is popular. Probably more than the $.00124 a head Wikipedia gets (I irrationally blame all those One Laptop Per Child children in poor countries for bringing that average down). But at what cost? The moment you put the donate button on your website you’re calling yourself a charity case. You’re putting a value proposition into people’s heads and telling advertisers that they get to call the shots on pricing.

This is one of the few points on which I actually whole-heartedly disagree. If you’re doing it right and putting time into finding the right advertisers for your niche then all donation subsistence proves is that you have an engaged audience that cares enough about what you say to spend their dollars on keeping you in business. Which, in most cases, is exactly what a niche advertiser wants. (I’m using niche very loosely here. REI is in the outdoor adventure niche, Coke is in the soft drink niche and International Merchandising, Promotion & Services is in the plastic Smurf collectible niche.) Felicia Day and The Guild may be the perfect example for this point. The fact that they had fans engaged enough to be willing to donate to keep the series alive in its first two seasons was much more important to them landing their Microsoft deal than the donations themselves were.

I could easily run this article into the ground by telling more Amtrekker stories but it’s pretty clear you know what you’re talking about. I’m loving Monetize This, Andrew! Keep up the good work.

Thanks for listening, Team.

I’m done.

Brett.

—————————————————————————————————————

I think Brett has some great insight. Check out his latest project at Greatest Employee in the World.

My limited response:

1. My original post was about using donations and tipping as a sustainable business model. You only have to ask Leo Laporte how well this is working for the TWiT network. Running a business and helping out some hipster hobo fulfill his hobo dreams are very different goals. That said, not everyone wants to turn their hobby into a business. Brett makes a fine point for how getting people engaged can be great for one-off ideas.

2. I used TipJar and TipJoy’s difficulties as symptoms of online tipping. They were intended to fulfill a service PayPal does not in microtransactions where a small donation would normally be wiped out in services fees. There were others that came before them and they failed too. As it is, tipping amounts like $.25 with PayPal doesn’t work.

3. I think Brett’s absolutely right to say go try it - if you think it’s the right model for you. Brett’s experience and The Guild are examples of projects people were going to do no matter what. The Guild started life as a television pilot. When that didn’t work they put it online and built up a fan following to produce more episodes. They started *making* money when Microsoft sponsored them and they began selling DVDs. But donations helped them get there.

Brett has made a very good case for using donations for one-time projects and as a way to launch something that people feel really engaged in. It’s something to consider.

Have any questions or comments? Email me at andrew@andrewmayne.com

How to monetize a YouTube video you’re not making any money on

Sounds like a trick question, doesn’t it?  Currently my iPhone Trick video on YouTube has about 1,300,000 views.  Since YouTube never invited me to do revenue sharing (and declined my request while offering rev share on my much less popular videos???) it’s not like I was making money directly from it.  But don’t feel sorry for me.  I figured out a way to profit from it.  Not mad, mad make it rain in a strip club with $100 bills and spray stal on the strippers money; but enough to make the effort worthwhile and see continued gains from it.

Because the video promoted a web site I owned, I was getting good web traffic.  Those 2,000 views a day were sending me 1,000 visitors a day to my iPhoneTrick and iPodTricks.com sites.  Since those sites offered more free tricks and weren’t really intended to be anything other than a way to share some fun with people; I wasn’t making anything directly off their visits, I used the sites as a way to promote me, my line of magic tricks and my mailing list.  That alone made it worthwhile.

I never considered Google Ad Sense because it makes no sense when you’re traffic isn’t really huge, even then, there are far better ways to monetize a web site.  The cold hearted do-no-evil Google algorithm doesn’t have as much insight into my audience and potential advertisers as I do.  It works great on a massive scale, not so much in a niche.

When I decided to put ads on the site I went to makers of magic iPhone apps and offered them a pretty good deal to get in front of my audience of people who love iPhones and love magic.  When my own iPhone apps were ready I advertised them on the site.  The net result is a few hundred bucks a month earned from a video I don’t make any direct money on.

Here are the three things I did to profit directly and indirectly from the video’s success:

1.  Put links in the video and the description to my website and mailing list.

2.  Monetized the web traffic by selling ads on my site to a very focused group of advertisers.

3.  Created product in the form of paid iPhone apps that served the audience I was getting.

Always ask yourself what’s your intended consequence.  Making money is a result, but a consequence should be the steps in a chain of events that cause some objective thing to happen.  

My video was watched -> People watching the video saw my web site -> Some of those people went to my website -> I sold some of those eyeballs -> I sold some of my own products to some of those eyeballs.

If you can’t make money off of something, then use it to get an audience you can hold on to.  That was my first step with the video.  After that I figured out way(s) to monetize the traffic in a more direct way.

So here are my suggestions:

1.  Use the video to get people to sign up for a mailing list.  Put this information directly in the video or in the description.

2.  Use the video to promote a website you can monetize.  Also put this information directly in the video or in the description.

The last thing I want to point out and the thing that most people screw up most of the time (including myself) is the “call to action”, this is marketspeak for getting people to do something.  The ideal call to action makes it easy for people to do something when they are most likely to do it.  Give people a url to click on.  Don’t tell them to write it down.  Put the thing you’re talking about in front of them.

Have a question or a suggestion?  Email me at andrew@andrewmayne.com

How my YouTube video got over one million views

Dumb luck. That’s the simplest way to explain it. I didn’t set out to get over 1 million views on YouTube nor was it even the most clever video I think I’ve done (that would be the ultra-violent puppet movie I made: Sunnyland Vice). It pretty much happened by accident when a confluence of events took place and gave it momentum.

It started with the iPhone. Right around the time the original iPhone was announced I bought a few different iPhone domain names including iPhoneTrick.com. I wanted to do something magic related with the iPhone but since this was before the App store the only option was web apps. I sat on the idea for a while and then one day thought up the idea behind iPhoneTrick.com; what if you used it as a way to play tricks on someone else’s iPhone?

I created the entire iPhoneTrick site in less than 24 hours. I shared the site with some friends and people on my email list and that was about it. During that time its traffic was about a few dozen people a day. Not a lot, but it was a cool gag for me and my friends and was even used on David Copperfield.

Months later on April 1st I decided to put up a YouTube video that showed people how to use the site to pull pranks. I showed all the features, gave out the url, uploaded the video and forgot about. Literally. I never bothered to check the numbers. Then one day probably six months later I was looking for an embed link and discovered it had 500,000 views. I was very, very surprised. The views kept growing at about 2,000 a day.

So what made this video go ballistic?

• I was one of the first people out of the gate with tricks for the iPhone.
• My video showed people something cool they could do.
• The key words for the video were simple; magic, iPhone, trick.
• My early starter advantage gave me better search ranking.
• My video pops up a lot in related videos.
• Other sites linked to it and embedded it.

What can you do to get your videos more views?Since I haven’t broken 100,000 views with any other individual video I’m not the best expert on this, but I do have videos that routinely get views above 10,000. I have *some* insight.

In my own experience, the more closely I follow these guidelines, the higher the view count my other videos get.

The best single piece of advice I can give is the same thing I tell people about getting web traffic: Find new places to talk about what you have. Don’t keep pushing it to the same people.

Have a question or suggestion? Email me at andrew@andrewmayne.com

Are Google fans too cheap to pay for anything?

Does Google=Free?
I consider myself a Google fan. And my reluctance to actually buy anything from them makes me wonder if I just keep looking to them like the rich kid down the street we’re all nice to because he keeps trying to buy our friendship.

I love many of the things Google produces. I even own a small amount of Google stock. I think Google has collected some of the smartest people on the planet and is changing our world in ways that few have ever done before. Yet, I think despite the things that Google does well, there’s one thing it’s not so successful at: Actually selling things to fans of the Google brand. Apple fans get excited about what Apple is going to sell them. Google fans get excited by what Google is going to give them for free.

I’m not talking about AdSense and AdWords. Those are primarily business to business services. I’m talking about the things Google has tried to sell directly to end users where we give cash to Google: Google Video, pay-per-view movies on YouTube, the Nexus One and to a degree Android apps.

What does Google mean to people? To most people it’s not “Do no evil”. To them Google means “free”. Our first experience with Google was as a great search engine with minimal advertisement that was free to use. Services like free Google Calendar and free Gmail expanded on that.

Because of this, Google is known to the larger public as the company that gives you free stuff that’s supported by advertising you’re free ignore.

Then Google tried launching things that cost money (not counting B2B stuff). After the failure of Google Video (which featured paid content) they bought YouTube and went back to a free content model for video for a while.

I think the way people interact with Google and what they expect might be a reason that even though Android phones are very popular in general, the Google name is why Android applications don’t sell anywhere nearly as well as iPhone apps do according to developers.

I’m totally willing to be convinced that Google can be a brand people buy stuff from. But here are some example cases that say otherwise:



Google Video
We don’t need to do much analysis here. Google made a very big noise when they launched this platform to sell TV shows and movies. Not many people wanted to buy episodes of Deep Space 9 or Charlie Rose from there and it lost to iTunes and Bit Torrent. The meh design of it didn’t help either. Now it’s a search engine for video



YouTube (pay per view)
Recently Google tried an experiment when it offered Sundance feature films like The Cove as pay-per-view downloads on YouTube (Wired). How badly did it fare? The entire slate of films took in only $10,709 during the 10 day period (NY Times). Google says it was “happy” with the outcome. Kind of like the AppleTV is a “hobby” for Apple.

Google backers try to dismiss the effort by saying the movies were too indie and the project was under marketed. The problem with that is The Cove had a lot of buzz going into it and the whole enterprise had the biggest online marketer in the world behind it. This either says the Google machine isn’t very good for selling things (which I find hard to believe) or the Google brand isn’t something we want to pay for. We go to YouTube to watch stuff for free.

In my own experience with Google AdWords trying to push my own DVD’s I found that a person typing “Andrew Mayne DVD” into Google search was far more likely to be looking for a torrent of the DVD than actually a place to buy it. Then is symptom of an ecosystem where people expect everything to be free.



Google Checkout
Launched four years ago, Google’s effort to compete with PayPal has been disappointing. While more of a business service, its front end is faced towards consumers. Even after trying various ploys to get merchants to use Google Checkout, it still has negligible market share. PayPal gets 30 times the traffic. If it weren’t for the fact that Google Checkout is already 4 years old and you know, owned by Google, it’d be easy to make excuses for it. Crunchbase on Google Checkout

I would love for Checkout to be a much stronger contender. As an online vendor I’m not comfortable with PayPal being my own practical option. Yet I’m not willing to take the Checkout plunge myself. Nor are a lot of other people. I don’t think it’s a trust issue. I just think when we see the “Google” name we don’t feel like reaching reaching for our credit cards.

Making matters more vexing, Paul Boutin at VentureBeat.com writes that part of the problem with Android app purchasing (see below) is Google Checkout: Why so few paid Android Apps?



The Google Nexus One
Every Nexus One user I’ve talked to loves their phone. By all accounts it’s a worthy phone to compete with the iPhone. However, even an Apple fanboy like me is confused by the rather low sales figures for the phone. 135,000 in 74 days? This is scary for two reasons. The first is that it indicates that the Google brand isn’t nearly as strong as many thought - at least as a brand you actually buy things from. The second reason is that it questions the use of Google as an end to end marketing solution. Google has put a large amount of effort into selling the Nexus One. Type “phone” into a Google search and it’s the first sponsored link. For weeks it was the sponsored video on the YouTube homepage and popped up in Gmail. Check out Chris Matyszczyk at CNET’s observations on that: CNET

Unfortunately that synergy didn’t move the needle very much. The Droid sold over one million phones in that same amount of time and put Android in ten times as many hands as the Nexus One did. There are a number of mitigating factors like timing, televisions ads, etc. But none of them adequately explain the sad sales figures for the Nexus One. An article at Design by Gravity insists that Google’s overmarketing and underselling are all working according to plan. I think otherwise.

I have a couple theories. One is just the fact the Google=Free to most people and actually *buying* a product from Google is a very alien concept to most of us. The other theory is that this perception exacerbated the problem when Google wanted to sell an expensive consumer device.

Prior to the launch of the Google Nexus One there was a lot buzz about a potential Google branded phone. Some of this speculation even put Apple fans to shame. Even BusinessWeek speculated that a Google Phone might be free. But don’t blame rumormongers for starting that. The seed of a free phone was planted by Google CEO Eric Schimdt back in 2006 when actually said that mobile phones should be free (MSNBC). Now he was talking about a far off distant time when mobile advertising rates would cover those costs; but who would know better than Google when that time would come? Who better to make it happen?

When Google’s first branded phone actually arrived it was a bit of a letdown for people who were expecting a free or even heavily discounted phone. The fact that it cost $400 more than a (subsidized) iPhone was like finding out Santa was going to invoice you for Christmas presents.

Many were expecting a revolutionary phone and business model. What they got was a solid iPhone competitor and less revolutionary business model. Google’s excitement that you could buy it online directly from them wasn’t as groundbreaking to the rest of us.

Given the fact that Verizon sold a heck of a lot more Android phones than Google did, it seems safe to say that Google may not have the edge on actually selling the platform.

Google fans were expecting Google to bring the Google=Free to smart phones. When they failed to do that, their fans failed to show up.



The Android experience
Giving away the (again free) Android OS to phone makers was a great way to create a Google friendly mobile platform for their advertisers and offer up competition to Apple that Microsoft and others weren’t able to deliver. Trying to replicate the entire iPhone experience however is problematic: As someone who wants to sell something I’m much more excited by Apple fans than Google fans. So far it looks like Android users are only into free apps. 98.9% of Android downloads are free apps

There is of course a large community of people who use jailbroken iPhones to run cracked iPhone games and apps. But as a percentage of iPhone users it’s miniscule. The entire iPhone experience works well enough that it’s easier to buy the game for $.99. How many iPhone app developers do you hear crying about lost revenue to piracy?

It’s also interesting to note that when we routinely hear about iPhone publishers having million-dollar months in the App store PC World, it’s cause for celebration in the Android community when someone cracks $15,000. Android is new to the game compared to the iPhone and developer revenues will go up. More apps in the Android market will help and as the number of Android users edges closer to iPhone users it will become more lucrative for developers. However I doubt we’ll ever see parity with the iPhone.

As the Android platform matures and Google phones get into the hands of more law abiding citizens as opposed to bit torrent-prone early adapters it’ll be a solid place to make money; provided the OS fragmentation and hardware variability doesn’t screw things up too much.

The danger for that market from a developer’s perspective is that Android’s openness makes it very easy to pirate. And the tools for doing that are only going to become more ubiquitous. Given the current problems with the Android Market (only certain phones see certain apps, the carriers can restrict what’s available, etc.) more and more people might start choosing to go elsewhere to get apps - sites like Pirate Bay.

Another question we don’t have an answer to is what happens to the Android handset if the iPhone goes unlocked to a specific carrier? A big part of the adoption of Android is because of AT&T and people being locked into other carriers. Most of my Android using friends bought the phones because they couldn’t or didn’t want to go to AT&T.

Because Apple makes money from actually selling phones they have a lot more invested in marketing, developing and keeping users happy then Google does from a product they give away for free (except the Nexus One - but they even undermarketed that).

The fight between Apple and Google to buy mobile advertiser AdMob is a sign that both of them see a big future for ad supported applications. As a developer I have to wonder if Google thinks that’s the only future for mobile applications?


Will Google always equal free?
Soon I’ll have to spring for a larger Gmail account. I’ve said for years I’d love to pay for a better YouTube experience. I’d even pay for Google Voice if I actually used it. I’d also pay for machine translation and a host of other things Google does pretty well.

I think service by service Google will change its perception to a brand that you buy some things from. But it won’t be a quick path. I also think core fans of Google will either complain or not show up whenever Google tries to actually charge them for something.

Until then I’m convinced that for the Google faithful Google=Free.


If you have some counter examples or think I’m overlooking something, you can email me at: andrew@andrewmayne.com

A jar full of fail: Why tipping and donations don’t work on the internet

Online tipping is for natural disasters and not your blog or podcast…

I love the TWiT podcast network.  MacBreak Weekly is my 60 Minutes and Tonight Show rolled into one.  Leo Laporte is a broadcasting god among men. Yet, for the life of me I can’t understand why TWiT uses a donation system to support itself outside of advertising (check out Leo’s latest post where he explains the “tenuous connection” between listening and donating).  I can kind of sort of see how to Leo it seems the nice thing to do and it kind of sort of looks like the way NPR and public broadcasting support themselves, but it’s not.  

For starters, every previous attempt at creating an online system for tipping has pretty much failed.  TipJoy is now defunct.  TipiT has minimal traffic and suspended its services while it deals with a massive fraud problem.  The little donate buttons we were supposed to click on to support our favorite bands as we gave the finger to the RIAA never panned out.  It turns out we really were just cheap bastards that didn’t want to pay for music after all.

Besides the failure of startups like TipJoy and the problems of TipiT in making it easy to do micropayment tipping, there are other more fundamental problems.  Take this from a guy that used to do magic for tips as a teenager.  I know all kinds of ways to fail.  
 

Problem #1:  In the real world you get tipped when you make eye contact.  Not one way, but both ways.  I see you, you see me.  It taps into millions of years of evolutionary behavior.  If I don’t make eye contact with you, there’s no complicit acknowledgment that we had some sort of imaginary agreement.  It’s hard to get anonymous strangers to tip. 

Problem #2:  A bigger crowd doesn’t always mean more tips.  If I perform for 200 people, 180 of them consider themselves bystanders watching the people watching me.  When it comes time to tip, in their minds they weren’t there for my show, they were there for the crowd.  Your blog and to a degree your podcast is like that. This gives rise to this rule:  The degree of personal responsibility your audience feels is inverse to the size of the audience.  If your audience knows you have a big audience, the individuals feel less responsible.

Problem #3:  Tipping creates price uncertainty.  If the value of something is entirely subjective it makes it very, very hard for people to make a decision.  It also says you don’t know what it’s worth.  And that’s the same as telling people it’s worthless (which it’s not).  

Problem #4:  Why pay for something that’s free?  If we think it has no value, isn’t going away and have no personal connection to it, why would we give up something like money that has value, is scarce and we’re very deeply personally connected to?

Those four problem underscore the basic problem of online tipping.  It’s not about people being greedy or not caring.  It’s the opposite.  The average person cares about a lot of things and is generous to a lot of people.  But between their family, the waitress at Outback Steakhouse and earthquake victims in Haiti, you don’t factor.

What about Wikipedia?

How to make money on a fan podcast (using Harry Potter fan podcasts as an example)

Let’s say you and your friends are huge Harry Potter fans and have a very popular podcast with thousands of other fans tuning in every week.  How do you make money from this?  The obvious answer might be to sell Harry Potter book and DVDs.  But let’s be realistic, your fans already have those items or have put them on back order on Amazon.  It’s a tough sell to sell something they already have.  What’s a entrepreneurial witch or wizard to do?

The key is to think of yourself as a gateway.  You have a large, intense audience that’s really into something and that something has characteristics that make them a unique target for certain things.  The first step is to figure out some things that make them different than any random group of people on the Internet.

For starters we can assume:

• They really, really love Harry Potter more than the millions of us who just bought the books and saw the movie.
• They probably really, really like magical fantasy that has a romantic and real world bent.
• They listen to podcasts and spend a lot of time on their computer.

The next step is to look at who might want to market to your audience.  Here are some starting places:

• Convention organizers who put on Harry Potter themed conventions.
• People in your audience who have things they think your fans might want (custom clothes, memorabilia, their attention).
• People who create content specifically to that audience (there’s a whole genre of Wizard Rock bands that make Harry Potter inspired music).

The thing to keep in mind with most of these groups is that they’re doing this because it’s fun and not because it’s a lucrative business.  

Wizard rock
A wizard rock band isn’t going to spend a lot on promotion of a CD, but they might spend something.  Here are a couple options:

• Charge them a fee (like $50) to do an on-air spot for their CD.
• Work out a revenue sharing deal with them where you promote their songs and sell them on your site as digital downloads.  You can use an affiliate system for e-delivery so everyone is kept honest.  

Selling their content in digital form on your site could be the most lucrative option for wizard rock.  It gives you a consistent source of revenue that you can plug on every podcast.  It gives them a no-cost way to get their music out there and make money.

I’d recommend releasing and selling the songs on an individual basis and keeping the price in line with iTunes $.99 per song pricing.  The split is between you and the band to decide.

Conventions
Potter conventions are put on by people who are passionate about Harry Potter who hope at best to break even.  There’s not a huge budget for them to spend on marketing.  But every registration puts them closer to breaking even and making a profit.

You have two options:

• Sell them a podcast spot to promote their convention.
• Do revenue sharing with them.

This is another group where it probably makes the most sense to do a revenue sharing deal.  In exchange for promoting them on your podcast and pointing to a special sign-up page you get a cut of everyone who registers.  A way to really make this work is to promote signing up through you as a way to get in on a special event for listeners of your podcast at the convention.  This creates extra incentive for people register and to do it through you.

The cut you ask for depends on the cost of the registration, but it wouldn’t be out of line to ask for something like $20 per person you sign up.

Fan crafts
The trickiest part about this is that this group has the most narrow of markets, no real advertising budget and are the least attractive to do revenue sharing with.  While there’s a market for handmade wands, clothes and other wizardware, it’s very hard to predict what will actually sell.

One way to service these people is to offer a lower cost podcast spot.  To protect your pricing for these spots, this could be sold as a “podcast classifieds” spot that’s shorter and comes at the end of the podcast.  Several 15 second $10 spots in a row could comprise your “podcast classifieds” section.

On your website you could also have a classifieds section that you direct podcast listeners too.  This should be way more lucrative than Google text ads.

Where to find advertisers
A final suggestion and probably the best one of all is a way to find potential advertisers for your podcast.  One approach is to see who is advertising on similar sites and podcasts.  But to grow the market and not just fight for advertisers, look in other places for people who want your audience.  Ideally you want a list of people who are willing to spend several thousands of dollars to reach an audience just like yours.  

What’s the best place to find that list?  Find out what vendors bought booths at prior and upcoming Harry Potter conventions.  Market to them.  They really, really want your audience.

Have any thoughts or suggestions?  Want to add some ideas to the list?  Email me at andrew [at] andrewmayne.com

Making an iPhone app paid versus free

I launched an iPhone app called Lottomatic (iTunes link) a few weeks ago (it’s a scratch-off lottery ticket game).  I decided to charge $.99 for it, but contemplated making it a free app supported by advertising and in app purchasing.

Since it’s been on the iTunes store there has been some interesting feedback.  Some people really like it, while others have been suggesting features they think would make it better.

It’s a very fascinating experiment to see how people want to use something.  It’s also helpful in figuring out what should go into version 2.  The feedback has been helpful in deciding what features I left out should end up going into the game.

If I was going to make the app free there were two strategies that came to mind for monetizing it:

1.  Putting in game advertising for lottery and gambling sites

I leaned away from this because I suspect that a large percentage of the audience is too young to gamble or buy lottery tickets.  I’m also a little uneasy with the idea of real lotteries in general.  I’m not sure how fair it is to tax people who are bad at math.

2.  Selling tickets in game

This idea has more appeal to me.  A free app with several built in free scratch-off games would probably get a ton of downloads.  Building into the app the ability to buy additional scratch off games creates a different way to make money.  The question is what kind of sell-through rate would be reasonable to expect.  I suspect not a very high one.  A lottery game isn’t as compelling as a first person shooter or some digital pet that you’re emotionally invested in and want to buy nice things for.

All things considered, I think the best strategy for the game is to keep it a paid app and incorporate some new features in version 2.0 and actually raise the price of the game and see what happens.

5 ideas for making money on a flash fiction site

365 Tomorrows is a flash science speculative fiction blog that publishes a new story every day.  It’s audience is lovers of science fiction and people who are interested in the process of writing science fiction.  Currently they have a sidebar that features links to related sites and books for sale.  What would you do to monetize this blog?

Online writing workshops

One idea would be to capitalize on the segment of the audience that’s interested in writing science fiction.  365 Tomorrows could bring in well-known sci-fi authors to do online writing workshops.  It’s a niche audience, but an audience that would be willing to pay upwards of $50 for the pleasure of being able to talk to a published author.  This could be a monthly feature with different authors and different topics to encourage people to come back and try different seminars.

Audiobooks

The content itself has potential value too.  A 365 Tomorrows compilation audiobook narrated by a professional voice actor could have a market to readers of the site and potential beyond.

Vanity Press

Writers want to be read - or at least published.  Creating a companion vanity press (where people pay to get their work published) could fill a need for writers who want to see their stuff in print.  The press could do ebooks or print actual books using an on demand printer (www.BestValueCopy.com has great prices).

Sponsored Contest

A great old timey promotion is to have people write why they like something in so many words.  It’s also a tactic the Communists used to brainwash people…  If you can find a sponsor that really wants to get their product across you can run a competition for the best flash fiction story that involves their product.

Thinking big

Beyond individual audiobooks and ebooks is the idea of creating a niche Audible for this kind of content.  365 Tomorrows could sell reasonably priced yearly subscription that provides well produced original content on a periodical basis.  The key is making the subscription an impulse buy at the right price.