Oh, What a Year, says Jason Kottke, ending his “micropatronage experiment” a year after he got $39,900 from his enthusiastic audience. Here’s what I thought of it at the time, and I’m pretty glad now I didn’t contribute. I’d been hoping for two things out of the Pro Plan, which would have had me dropping a significant donation in the pot post facto: a revival of 0sil8, and a general spam cleanup. Neither thing happened.
Feedback on Metafilter is largely cynical about the whole affair. Felix Salmon talks about promises. And Bitter Pill looks at what might have been.
I think I can sympathize a bit with JKottke, though: as someone in the process of launching a semi-independent venture myself, I know what it’s like to watch the days slide idly away while plans stay unchecked on the to-do list, till, before you know it, a year has passed. A clear separation between “work” and “play” actually helps me maintain productivity in both fields, which is why I don’t think I’ll ever make brownpau.com a “Pro” source of income — never mind the unfeasability of this weblog actually being considered a genuinely marketable web publishing venture.
Hmmm. On the other hand, there is lots of room for a nice big red Chitika leaderboard at the top of the front page…
4 Comments
If anything, I thought Kottke’s general quality declined over the year. Maybe he is one of those guys whose creativity is best sparked when it’s somewhat on the edge of consciousness – and when he focuses and stares at the monitor – he’s got nothing.
ODonnellWeb is pro – in the sense that ad income covers hosting, and pays for a handful of CD and DVD purchases over a year.
“Professional blogging” has always struck me as oxymoronic…
P.T. Barnum/Micropatronage Hack
ProTip!!
COD – Yes, I’m “pro” in that sense as well, with Adsense revenue from HNBP being more incidental than intentional, just to cover server costs and such.