I am the sysadmin and part-time artist for Friend Bear and I agree that there is not much to profit from with the webcomic world.
We run our site with unrestricted free access to our content, on our DSL connection in the basement here in Edmonton. Our DSL is on a static IP, we pay for "business-grade" DSL at our house to keep our provider from blocking our port 80 outgoing packets and unfortunately our domain name is registered through Verisign (although I'm working on getting it transferred). We have few expenses. The DSL costs us about $48 CAD a month, although I would be using it anyway if we weren't running the site here so it's not exactly a "true" expense. The domain name is $29 USD a year. We don't have a problem with bandwidth since the strip isn't huge (not everyone can dig surrealist, MS Paint-drawn crudely sketched strips), but there is a problem:
We get told all the time about how we should be selling merchandise and/or accepting donations. I have nothing against a donation based system or selling merchandise - the problem is getting merchandise put together. We have a cafepress link up but it doesn't generate much revenue because CafePress is too expensive, especially to the majority of people who read our strip (Canadians, since our marketing is word-of-mouth only and I'm Canadian). I can't convince people a Friend Bear t-shirt is worth over $30 Canadian. I don't think it is. *grin*
Anyway - we have been told by many that we need to make a compilation of our strips in book form and get it published, but I haven't got much of a clue how much money it would cost to start this initiative, or where I'd go about doing it. Does anyone have any suggestions? It's funny because I actually work at a publishing company as a graphics artist/page layout guy, but they probably wouldn't go for putting something like Friend Bear out. It would have a limited distribution and would not make a lot of money.
I don't really want advertising on our site, and I don't want the strip to be a big capitalist sell-out, but I would love a way to make enough money for Friend Bear to be my day-job and thus have enough time to put new strips up -all the time-. I have no idea where to start, though.
Does anyone?
This is the guy who completely sold out MP3.com and made it a hellhole of commercialism and a place where now, any artist who ever posted their mp3s on the site, has no way at all to remove them from their database. They have officially become 'property' of MP3.com, which is basically a subsidiary of Universal at this point.
In any case, he has a pretty bad track record when it comes to lawsuits. Expect to start getting fabulous offers (that you can't afford to refuse!) sent to your physical mailing address 'compelling' you to upgrade to future new subscription-based versions of Lindows XP. Ha.
I find that here in Canada, or at least in Edmonton where I live, a lot of smaller ISPs are doing just fine. The big guys around here charge slightly higher prices for the most part, and provide slightly crappier service. Where the small ISP wins most of the time is with technical support. A lot of the time, an informed internet user will find an obscure (or at least a non-AOL-style) ISP that will let them do a standards-based PPP (or whatever) logon with no special software required.
It gets to the point around here where the local and small ISPs are actually growing and are healthier than some of the bigger ones. There are probably more Interbaun customers in Edmonton than there are Sprint Canada, as an example. Interbaun is a locally-started ISP that has a lot of support behind it because they are cheap, fast, reliable and can also provide DSL (they sell the bandwidth over the telco's wires).
A small ISP can survive if it is managed properly with a tip of the hat towards the customers "in the know". Referral services work great for them, friends sign up friends for free months, and so the chain goes. Just some ramblings.
I'm in Alberta, Canada.. DSL via a local provider named Interbaun (www.interbaun.com), who is the biggest competitor to the local Telco Telus, which is basically the Canadian half of Verizon. I'm paying (after sales tax) $37 a month Canadian for 1.5 Mbit downstream, 640kbit upstream, no bandwidth limits (100% unmetered), web space, emails and two static IP addresses. They do not use DHCP. The modem is leased to me for the duration of my contract (which is a monthly renewal, so I'm not tied in to any long term contract). That's $37 a month Canadian, which equals out to about $24 USD a month for the service.
They let you run any server you want, don't port scan, and their tech support actually is very good. The service is extremely fast and rarely is there any downtime, and when there is it's usually because Telus (who owns the wiring throughout the city because they're the local phone company here) is doing something stupid in one of their wiring centers.
So it kind of seems to me like DSL is strangely overpriced in the US compared to here. Why, when there are more subscribers there, more bandwidth there, and (speculating here) more competition?
Manufacture our own CDs, go into chain stores, and leave them in the appropriate bins. Down among the established pop hits and top 40 product, these CDs await those curious few who take them to the counter.
Then what? Witness the confused faces of cashiers and customers alike when the CD does not show up in the inventory. But they'll most likely make the sale, and the CD known only as THE DROPLIFT PROJECT will go home with yet another customer. Mission accomplished.
On the weekend of July 28th, 2000, all across the United States and Internationally, ordinary citizens walked into record stores with copies of THE DROPLIFT PROJECT hidden on their person. They proceeded to leave them, well filed, in the stacks, and walked out.
Why do this? Surely the artists know they won't get any MONEY from this puzzling act.
Ah, but perhaps you are starting to understand already.
The artists on THE DROPLIFT PROJECT make and find recordings of the stuff we all hear on radio, TV, in the news, on other CDs and tapes, and from everywhere around us. Then we cut it all up and rearrange it to make new art, social commentary, parody, and contemporary criticism.
It's nothing new. Artists have been making collages for the last hundred years. The world of Fine Art has long recognized the artist's right to use found objects in a new context to make a comment.
The world of music has been a little behind.
Record companies reject our works outright, wishing to avoid unpleasant harassment lawsuits. CD Plants, acting on an RIAA mandate to curb piracy, are skittish about pressing material that might contain recognizable samples. Even free music venues on the Internet refuse to allow sample-based works.
Is it illegal? Depends on who you ask. We know we are protected by the First Amendment and the Fair Use clause of the Copyright Act. Apparently the Music Industry does not follow such things.
The atmosphere of stark panic about the creative reuse of material has really got us in a bind. Our only recourse was to manufacture and distribute a disc on our own.
In this way we find ourselves in the awkward position of acting in a way that is seen by some as criminal.
So here it is! Listen to it! We're not doing this for our health. This is a deliberate attempt not only for our talents to be heard, but to encourage some discussion about artists' use of sound samples in their work. If you like the disc, spread the word! Write an article, play it on your radio show, make tapes and CDs for friends, and help us get it out there!
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You're an asshole. Not to be a name caller, but get your elitist know-it-all head out of your ass.
I am the sysadmin and part-time artist for Friend Bear and I agree that there is not much to profit from with the webcomic world. We run our site with unrestricted free access to our content, on our DSL connection in the basement here in Edmonton. Our DSL is on a static IP, we pay for "business-grade" DSL at our house to keep our provider from blocking our port 80 outgoing packets and unfortunately our domain name is registered through Verisign (although I'm working on getting it transferred). We have few expenses. The DSL costs us about $48 CAD a month, although I would be using it anyway if we weren't running the site here so it's not exactly a "true" expense. The domain name is $29 USD a year. We don't have a problem with bandwidth since the strip isn't huge (not everyone can dig surrealist, MS Paint-drawn crudely sketched strips), but there is a problem: We get told all the time about how we should be selling merchandise and/or accepting donations. I have nothing against a donation based system or selling merchandise - the problem is getting merchandise put together. We have a cafepress link up but it doesn't generate much revenue because CafePress is too expensive, especially to the majority of people who read our strip (Canadians, since our marketing is word-of-mouth only and I'm Canadian). I can't convince people a Friend Bear t-shirt is worth over $30 Canadian. I don't think it is. *grin* Anyway - we have been told by many that we need to make a compilation of our strips in book form and get it published, but I haven't got much of a clue how much money it would cost to start this initiative, or where I'd go about doing it. Does anyone have any suggestions? It's funny because I actually work at a publishing company as a graphics artist/page layout guy, but they probably wouldn't go for putting something like Friend Bear out. It would have a limited distribution and would not make a lot of money. I don't really want advertising on our site, and I don't want the strip to be a big capitalist sell-out, but I would love a way to make enough money for Friend Bear to be my day-job and thus have enough time to put new strips up -all the time-. I have no idea where to start, though. Does anyone?
This is the guy who completely sold out MP3.com and made it a hellhole of commercialism and a place where now, any artist who ever posted their mp3s on the site, has no way at all to remove them from their database. They have officially become 'property' of MP3.com, which is basically a subsidiary of Universal at this point.
In any case, he has a pretty bad track record when it comes to lawsuits. Expect to start getting fabulous offers (that you can't afford to refuse!) sent to your physical mailing address 'compelling' you to upgrade to future new subscription-based versions of Lindows XP. Ha.
I find that here in Canada, or at least in Edmonton where I live, a lot of smaller ISPs are doing just fine. The big guys around here charge slightly higher prices for the most part, and provide slightly crappier service. Where the small ISP wins most of the time is with technical support. A lot of the time, an informed internet user will find an obscure (or at least a non-AOL-style) ISP that will let them do a standards-based PPP (or whatever) logon with no special software required.
It gets to the point around here where the local and small ISPs are actually growing and are healthier than some of the bigger ones. There are probably more Interbaun customers in Edmonton than there are Sprint Canada, as an example. Interbaun is a locally-started ISP that has a lot of support behind it because they are cheap, fast, reliable and can also provide DSL (they sell the bandwidth over the telco's wires).
A small ISP can survive if it is managed properly with a tip of the hat towards the customers "in the know". Referral services work great for them, friends sign up friends for free months, and so the chain goes. Just some ramblings.
I'm in Alberta, Canada.. DSL via a local provider named Interbaun (www.interbaun.com), who is the biggest competitor to the local Telco Telus, which is basically the Canadian half of Verizon. I'm paying (after sales tax) $37 a month Canadian for 1.5 Mbit downstream, 640kbit upstream, no bandwidth limits (100% unmetered), web space, emails and two static IP addresses. They do not use DHCP. The modem is leased to me for the duration of my contract (which is a monthly renewal, so I'm not tied in to any long term contract). That's $37 a month Canadian, which equals out to about $24 USD a month for the service.
They let you run any server you want, don't port scan, and their tech support actually is very good. The service is extremely fast and rarely is there any downtime, and when there is it's usually because Telus (who owns the wiring throughout the city because they're the local phone company here) is doing something stupid in one of their wiring centers.
So it kind of seems to me like DSL is strangely overpriced in the US compared to here. Why, when there are more subscribers there, more bandwidth there, and (speculating here) more competition?
Oh wait, it's for the media terminal. Never mind. Yay for Nokia!
While it would be great fun to play xbill or Quake on my cell phone... is it really that feasable?
The idea came suddenly.
Manufacture our own CDs, go into chain stores, and leave them in the appropriate bins. Down among the established pop hits and top 40 product, these CDs await those curious few who take them to the counter.
Then what? Witness the confused faces of cashiers and customers alike when the CD does not show up in the inventory. But they'll most likely make the sale, and the CD known only as THE DROPLIFT PROJECT will go home with yet another customer. Mission accomplished.
On the weekend of July 28th, 2000, all across the United States and Internationally, ordinary citizens walked into record stores with copies of THE DROPLIFT PROJECT hidden on their person. They proceeded to leave them, well filed, in the stacks, and walked out.
Why do this? Surely the artists know they won't get any MONEY from this puzzling act.
Ah, but perhaps you are starting to understand already.
The artists on THE DROPLIFT PROJECT make and find recordings of the stuff we all hear on radio, TV, in the news, on other CDs and tapes, and from everywhere around us. Then we cut it all up and rearrange it to make new art, social commentary, parody, and contemporary criticism.
It's nothing new. Artists have been making collages for the last hundred years. The world of Fine Art has long recognized the artist's right to use found objects in a new context to make a comment.
The world of music has been a little behind.
Record companies reject our works outright, wishing to avoid unpleasant harassment lawsuits. CD Plants, acting on an RIAA mandate to curb piracy, are skittish about pressing material that might contain recognizable samples. Even free music venues on the Internet refuse to allow sample-based works.
Is it illegal? Depends on who you ask. We know we are protected by the First Amendment and the Fair Use clause of the Copyright Act. Apparently the Music Industry does not follow such things.
The atmosphere of stark panic about the creative reuse of material has really got us in a bind. Our only recourse was to manufacture and distribute a disc on our own.
In this way we find ourselves in the awkward position of acting in a way that is seen by some as criminal.
So here it is! Listen to it! We're not doing this for our health. This is a deliberate attempt not only for our talents to be heard, but to encourage some discussion about artists' use of sound samples in their work. If you like the disc, spread the word! Write an article, play it on your radio show, make tapes and CDs for friends, and help us get it out there!