Friday, June 17, 2005

happy birthday, show me the money!

Happy Birthday Bif

Well, we've been creating our funny cartoons for one whole year now. Once a
week for twelve months we've produced a funny cartoon. Or at least, we like
to think they are funny.

We have learned an awful lot in a year. So where are we and where are we going?

Well, for one thing, I like to think we have developed a style. We experiment
a little here and there, but I think we have a recognisable and coherent style
throughout.

We have also developed a following of some description. It may be small, but
we see the same faces popping up to comment on a cartoon from time to time,
which means we have what we like to call fans.

For now, it is this proof that our funny cartoons appeal to people that has
kept us going. However I won't deny that making money from our endeavours would
be something both Bif and I would embrace.

Funny Cartoons as money makers

Our funny cartoons are produced on a shoestring. We have no budget and we make
no money. We enjoy the making of them, but we would like to make money from
them eventually. Unfortunately we do not have, at this time, a workable business
plan.

However, it is early days. I say this because although we have been going one
year, it is a sideline for both of us. Something we devote as much time as we
can to, but the 'day jobs' have to take priority. For this reason, perhaps we
have not investigated with enough vigour how we can begin to make money from
the creation of funny cartoons.

What are the options when it comes to making money from funny cartoons?

Well, the most obvious options are:

• Paid syndication
  
  


• Merchandise
  
  


• Advertising
  
  


• Subscriptions

Paid Syndication

Paid Syndication is notoriously difficult to land. I think we can rule this
one out until we are far more established.

Merchandise

Merchandise is probably our best option, but how to approach it? What products
are best suited to funny cartoons such as ours? And how does one distribute
merchandise? Café Press is probably our best option at the moment, given
that we operate on no budget and have no distribution network. On the other
hand, I have yet to be convinced that anyone can eak out a living using Café
Press as a means.

• T-Shirts - I wonder are our cartoons a bit too complex for t-shirts.
  Simpler designs are probably much better t-shirt sellers. However we may begin
  to design BifSniff-based simple t-shirts in the future as a test.


• Calendars - I think calendars are a good option. This Christmas we intend
  to try to sell a BifSniff calendar. Probably using Café Press.


• Greeting cards - Also a good option. I think some of our cartoons are
  very well suited to cards. Again, same issues of distribution etc apply. Also
  Café Press only have the option for a pack of six cards of the same design.
  A variety pack would probably be a better option…


• Mugs - I have a BifSniff mug and I think it's great. However I have no
  idea if mugs like these are a saleable item!

Advertising

Is there money to be made from advertising on websites, yes, probably. But not
much. As you may know this is an ongoing debate and click fraud is a huge issue
right now, which leads me to wonder whether there is any real money in advertising
like this. Even if there was real money to be made and it was a viable option,
we would need a lot more traffic to generate any real revenue.

Subscriptions

There are possibly various subscription methods we could explore, but again,
we would need to be a lot more established, I think, before someone would consider
paying for our content. Also, I'm not certain that anyone has really proven
the subscription route to be viable either.

So where are we?

So where does that leave us?

Well, for any revenue generating plan to work it's obvious we will need to increase
our traffic and therefore become more established. That's our primary concern
I think.

After that, well I feel there must be other ways to generate revenue from funny
cartoons that we just haven't thunk up yet. I am confident that myself and Bif
will invent some truly innovative revenue generation model that will be the
envy of the industry. So keep your eyes on this space.