Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Sniffin' out a business model

Something I spend alot of time thinking about is money. I like it, I need it but I never have nearly enough of it. So I spend a, possibly, inordinate amount of time thinking about ways to make it. In terms of these funny cartoons of ours, it's something I really want to pin down. Not that I'm delusional and expect to make my fortune (or even a living) from this but I would consider it almost imperitive that they earn their keep, so to speak. It's something that Frank and myself have regular discussions about. It's very simple - we'd like to find a model that means we can continue to produce our funny cartoons without them becoming a drain on our resources. The new mini-toons idea is already putting quite a drain on our hosting and if it carries on like this, it'll start costing us more money. Which, in turn, means we'd probably have to pull them - we just can't afford to have, what is effectively, a hobby costing us that much money. We're just not that nuts. Having said that, we're not really looking to turn this into a business. We both have other interests we're pursuing. It's just that if it becomes a drain on our limited resources, it kind of stops making sense. I am, after all, an inherently lazy person.

Now, from what I can gather, the normal reaction at this point would be to stick up a paypal donate button and simper, apologetically, about how we need your help. But both myself and Frank really would prefer to give something for something. I don't see anything wrong with the whole donate button but really, I just wonder how sustainable it is. Anyway, we had pinned our early hopes on CafePress and the idea that people would love to ponce around in BifSniff t-shirts, sipping drinks form their BifSniff mugs and running their mouse over their BifSniff mousepad. It may still happen I suppose but since all we know is people look at the shop and leave, without buying anything, then we've got to start looking elsewhere. I've always felt we'd do well as greeting cards but it's a difficult game to get into and it'd probably be a bit arrogant of us to think we could achieve anything just as a sideline.

We're currently looking at signed prints and some sort of personalised e-card/printable card set up - charging a nominal subscription. But something like that is going to cost money to set up and if it's not a success, it'd almost certainly finish us. So the signed prints might be our next step. Eventually, I guess, we'll get around to a book - though I don't just want to do a collection of cartoons, I'd like to be able to do something a bit more original. Anyway, I don't want to seem like I'm doomsaying or anything, we're a long way off getting fed up yet. I just happen to spend alot of time thinking about money.