M is for Making Money Online

Baffled!

I've been making a bit of money online for years - initially with ebay, just selling excess random stuff I'd collected over the years but then moving on to microstock photography sites, Etsy, Zazzle and of course, blogging. The beauty of some of these methods is the residual income - even though I haven't seriously submitted new photographs to my stock portfolios for about 3 years, I still get some income from them!

This post isn't a how-to post though, rather it's a query post about why the WoW community seem so resistant to making a bit of cash from blogging but are ok with the behaviour of some streamers and content producers. I'm not going to pretend to have any answers as it totally baffles me.

If there is drama in my Twitter feed it is usually one of two things - Blizzard's boy's club attitude/feminism or begging. I was very hesitant to put any adverts on my main blog due to the general attitude against them - especially ads for Gold Making Guides but I've read the ones I promote and I think they are pretty damn good for someone with more money than time. Yes, I agree with the naysayers that everything in them is available online for free but if your time is precious, sometimes the $15-$20 for a good guide will seem like a bargain if it saves you 20 hours (or more!) of searching for the information amongst the numerous blogs, streams, youtube videos and podcasts available now.

I, personally, don't have a Paypal Donate button on any of my blogs but I have no problem with those who do - it's up to the reader whether they want to donate or not, after all. What I and a few others call begging, is the incessant highlighting of the donate button, either via tweets or mentioning it in streams. More recently, there have been a few go fund me's popping up - some seem reasonable but others have been crazy it seems to me. I still think that if you are podcasting/streaming/blogging video games then you should fund it yourself or monetise in an unobtrusive way - it is your hobby after all!

There are people who say they want to make a career out of it and are streaming/Youtubing as a full time effort so why shouldn't they ask for donations. I say, put your content somewhere viewers have to pay for it and make it a business then! I would love to become a professional photographer but I have to fund it myself and do the work in my spare time. I don't put up a portfolio of free pictures or make a video slideshow and ask people for donations if they enjoyed it! No, I provide a product and a service and my customers give me money for it.

Why is streaming/videos any different? It's a product after all. I know you are up against 100's if not 1000's of other streamers/content creators who are doing it as a hobby and providing content for free but as a photographer, so am I! Every man and his dog has a mobile phone now that can take pictures and they all seem to think they can take photos good enough to put on their wall.

I've done Craft Fairs where bad watercolor sketches have outsold photography 10-1, not because the photography was bad but because customers who can't draw/paint know they can't but they all think they can take a photo! They disregard the fact of getting the models, makeup & hair people, locations etc or travelling to exotic places - oh no, they can get a great pic on the cellphone!

So there's my rant for this year - I don't rant often enough according to friends but it's there - it just takes a lot to get to critical mass and get publicly revealed! And if you are someone who asks for donations, please don't think this post is specifically about you - it's a general post - I'm not intending to attack anyone, I am seriously baffled by the resistance to gold guides and advertising but asking for donations repeatedly being ok.

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