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Anti-free software? I don't think free software is antithetical to the movement for charging a leg and an arm. The hard part is figuring out how to charge an a

by kiba 15y ago

Anti-free software? I don't think free software is antithetical to the movement for charging a leg and an arm. The hard part is figuring out how to charge an arm and a leg for open source software. However, everyone take the easy way out by closing down on mission critical and open source the rest. I thought of a possible solution that allow everyone to charge an arm and leg while still being open source, or even public domain. Mainly, I am inspired by the kickstarter idea, but I am less interested in curating projects for one time event and more interested in business model automation. Here how it would works: You have a webcomic and you have an ever expanding archive of past comic strips. However, the next comic strip, already finished, is not available. To make the comic strip available, you ask for a collective donation of 100 dollars. Some donate 1 dollars, others 20 dollars, until the money is raised. This ensure that you will get paid every step of the way while your comic archive acts as advertising. The value for my users is the automation of numerous drudgery involved with the business model. That included tracking who donate what, tracking the deadline, the release, and so on. With an API for the service, people can get especially creative with how they release, or how they incentivize their customers. Another twist to this idea is sponsorship by advertisers and allowing advertisers getting involved with the fundraising process. They can aid the fundraising in either matching user donations or offering discounts. Of course, this will be just another idea if nobody took any effort in building the service and nobody will attempt this business model, easily. I am working on it, but it's more of a half-baked project on some private repos somewhere rather than a serious startup.

quanticle 15y ago
So... er how exactly would you bootstrap this business model? Yeah, this might (with a very small probability) work if you're already an established, successful webcomics author. If you're starting out, though, you have no chances of success. Who's going to chip in for a comic that may or may not be good when it is finished?
- kiba 15y ago
  In my experience with this business model, I started with a free archive of the magazine with previous essays for people to look at. Then I use a formula to determine the ransom price. All my ransom are met, because I didn't have an extreme expectation that I was going to raise hundred of dollars at the beginning of the publication. Compared to advertising, it performs far better in term of revenues. More importantly, it doesn't uglify your site or make your site worse unlike what advertising usually does. How much better? I would need to perform manual collection to get these figures. With automation, I would be able to tell you, right down to 8 digit place. The problem with this business model is that people doesn't do the work that allows them to reach their goal, or they have an extreme expectation of how much money they are going to raise. If you don't have the fanbase, you ain't going to raise much money. It's not that it might work with a very small probability. It will works, to varying degree of success, depending on the popularity, how loyal your fans are, and so on. I seen a writer who done the exact same thing, but I don't have the link handy. So, I know it works. The more interesting question is how it will perform compared to other business models such as advertising, selling in dead tree format, merchandising, live performance, and so on, depending on the relevancy of each business model for particular industries. Like I said, advertising earn me money, but it perform terribly to how much money I can get by ransoming contents.
daemin 15y ago
I don't think he meant to say "anti-free-software" in that case, but rather "anti-free-software-as-a-service". Specifically it's the "service" part that shouldn't be free, primarily because it's an ongoing cost to keep it running, where as the development of the software is a sunk cost.
mcantor 15y ago
Anti-free software? I don't think free software is antithetical to the movement for charging a leg and an arm. I think he meant "free as in beer", not "free as in speech".

by kiba 15y ago

quanticle 15y ago

So... er how exactly would you bootstrap this business model? Yeah, this might (with a very small probability) work if you're already an established, successful webcomics author. If you're starting out, though, you have no chances of success. Who's going to chip in for a comic that may or may not be good when it is finished?

kiba 15y ago
In my experience with this business model, I started with a free archive of the magazine with previous essays for people to look at. Then I use a formula to determine the ransom price. All my ransom are met, because I didn't have an extreme expectation that I was going to raise hundred of dollars at the beginning of the publication. Compared to advertising, it performs far better in term of revenues. More importantly, it doesn't uglify your site or make your site worse unlike what advertising usually does. How much better? I would need to perform manual collection to get these figures. With automation, I would be able to tell you, right down to 8 digit place. The problem with this business model is that people doesn't do the work that allows them to reach their goal, or they have an extreme expectation of how much money they are going to raise. If you don't have the fanbase, you ain't going to raise much money. It's not that it might work with a very small probability. It will works, to varying degree of success, depending on the popularity, how loyal your fans are, and so on. I seen a writer who done the exact same thing, but I don't have the link handy. So, I know it works. The more interesting question is how it will perform compared to other business models such as advertising, selling in dead tree format, merchandising, live performance, and so on, depending on the relevancy of each business model for particular industries. Like I said, advertising earn me money, but it perform terribly to how much money I can get by ransoming contents.

daemin 15y ago

I don't think he meant to say "anti-free-software" in that case, but rather "anti-free-software-as-a-service". Specifically it's the "service" part that shouldn't be free, primarily because it's an ongoing cost to keep it running, where as the development of the software is a sunk cost.

mcantor 15y ago

Anti-free software? I don't think free software is antithetical to the movement for charging a leg and an arm. I think he meant "free as in beer", not "free as in speech".