On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 7:31 AM, Robert P. J. Day <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rpjday@crashcourse.ca">rpjday@crashcourse.ca</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
(i posted a longer form of this on the kernel newbies mailing list<br>
earlier this morning, so i'll just hit the highlights.)<br>
<br>
to make a long story much shorter, i'm sure there are a number of<br>
people who know that, for quite some time, i've been a fairly prolific<br>
writer of things tutorial and educational, including my former kernel<br>
newbies column at <a href="http://linux.com/" target="_blank">linux.com</a><br>
(<a href="http://www.crashcourse.ca/wiki/index.php/Kernel_newbie_columns" target="_blank">http://www.crashcourse.ca/wiki/index.php/Kernel_newbie_columns</a>).<br>
sadly, all of that has been a labour of love as i've never charged for<br>
any it, i've always just given it away.<br>
<br>
at this point, i'd like to keep writing that sort of stuff for the<br>
edification of kernel programmers (primarily for newbies, i enjoy that<br>
kind of writing), but i really need to get something in return to<br>
justify the time i put into it. so i suggested a couple possibilities<br>
on the KN list and, after pondering, i think here's what i'll try.<br>
<br>
at the moment, my current web site is being revamped totally and<br>
when it's done in a few days, i'm just going to toss up a paypal<br>
donate button. other ideas were collating content into actual<br>
sellable books, or a small monthly subscription service (a la LWN),<br>
but those models didn't seem to work.<br>
<br>
i'm open to other ideas but, for now, i think what i want to do is<br>
just add a donation button next to what will be a plethora of kernel<br>
documentation i've written, and let readers judge for themselves what<br>
it's worth. new visitors could start with a one-time contribution of,<br>
say, 5 or 10 bucks and, sometime down the road as long as i keep<br>
writing and adding to what's there, they might decide to toss<br>
something in again, who knows? as long as i keep writing, some people<br>
might choose to throw something in on a regular basis.<br>
<br>
i'm mentioning this here since i'm interested in feedback, of<br>
course. your thoughts? how many of you would be a target market for<br>
that sort of thing? and if you found the content useful, would you<br>
consider supporting it? or, given the vagaries of human nature, do<br>
you suspect that everyone will simply read, take what they want, and<br>
leave?<br>
<br>
and is there anyone out there who's tried something like this? what<br>
did you do? did it work? etc, etc. i realize this post is again<br>
more than a little self-serving but i finally decided that i really<br>
enjoy writing good tutorials and i'd like to keep writing them, but i<br>
just need to justify the time invested.<br>
<br>
rday<br>
</blockquote><div><br>
You are approaching this wrong, with unrealistic expectations. Let me
explain.<br>
<br>
Stuff on the internet is there for everyone to "consume" unless you put
it behind a paywall. Once you put it out there, people can read it,
there is no obligation on them to pay it.<br>
<br>
Remember that there are lots of stuff out
there on Linux. Are you differentiated enough that your site is THE
resource on the topic, or would searching Google reveal similar
information? Why would someone donate to your site, and not the tens of
others?<br>
<br>
I am in a similar situation, but my expectations are different. Having
been active in Drupal for 7 years now, I wrote many modules, authored
many articles, spoke at conferences, ...etc. My articles on Drupal
performance are a recognized community resource. When at conferences, I
get tens of thanks for them from many people. Total strangers too.
Satisfying for sure, even though it is not money.<br>
<br>
Many years ago, I put a tiny donate link on my site. I think in 4 or so
years, the total amount is about $30 or $40. So, it is not significant
at all, dollarwise. That is why I am not hopeful that it would be
anything significant for you.<br>
<br>
Go ahead and continue to write these article. Write them for the sake of
writing, and not much else (labor of love as you put it). <br>
<br>
If you want to monetize it, then run non-annoying ads on the site. This
can net you any where between a few dollars a month to hundreds,
depending on your traffic and many other factors (short version: a tech
audience is blind to ads, so don't expect anything more than a few
dollars).<br>
<br>
Or you can have expanded versions of the articles collected in a printed
book from one of those print on demand services (<a href="http://lulu.com">lulu.com</a>,
<a href="http://cafepress.com">cafepress.com</a>, and many others).<br>
<br>
An side effect of being a prolific article author is that you will get
recognition in a certain field and that will help bring you business in
consulting and services, or maybe writing books for a publisher. I
stress that this is a side effect, and should not be the main purpose of
writing, or speaking at events. It is far more genuine and useful to
the community as a whole when you do it because a) you like it, and b)
you want to benefit the community. Writing just to be recognized, from
my view, is akin to an MBA founding a company for the sole purpose of
getting acquired and making big bucks, rather than having a useful
product/service: artificial, and pretentious!<br>
<br>
These are my thoughts., in summary: donations are meagre, no matter how
useful your site is. Continue to write because you like it. Hope that
the side benefits happen.<br>
-- <br>
</div></div>Khalid M. Baheyeldin<br><a href="http://2bits.com">2bits.com</a>, Inc.<br><a href="http://2bits.com">http://2bits.com</a><br>Drupal
optimization, development, customization and consulting.<br>Simplicity
is prerequisite for reliability. -- Edsger W.Dijkstra<br>Simplicity is
the ultimate sophistication. -- Leonardo da Vinci<br>