What Content Sites Can Learn From the Porn Industry

 -Andrew Grossman

June 15, 2009

     In all the studies, projections and conjectures from experts and creatives about how to successfully make the internet a content for fee model, there is one large truth that is never stated:  the porn industry has learned how to make a fortune off the internet.

     While porn content does have an innate appeal, especially to a male audience, the industry has also clearly developed effective strategies for delivering content. All content providers can learn from these strategies, because what works for one kind of content will ultimately be effective in selling other types.

     Let me list several ways in which porn site owners excel at content delivery:

1.  they interlink their sites

2.  they build sites with very specific niche content

3.  they don't dilute their message with content that is off-topic

4.  they make their storefront easy to access

5.  they update their content on a regular basis

This entry is part of a larger article. To receive the full article, contact:

andrew@andrewgrossman.net

Category:  Online Sales, Online Marketing

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or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Andrew Grossman.

He can be contacted through the All Content Network at:  andrew@andrewgrossman.net

Freedom

-Andrew Grossman

May 4, 2009

   From the first moment that a creative thinks of making a living through her freelance work, and thus be able to structure her time as she pleases, coming and going on her own schedule, working in a home office, on the bed, on the porch, under the tree in the backyard or at Starbucks, the internet becomes the key to freedom. Every step in the process is involved with the internet. What is the most secure place to write and store your work? The internet. What is the fastest and cheapest method through which to send your work to end users? The internet. What is the best way to do background research for your work? The internet. What is the fastest, most secure way to receive payment for your work? The internet.

   The internet has leveled all playing fields for the freelancer. No longer is there the need for a middle man between the creative and the public. Those middle men have been known by various names in various professions over the years-publishers, syndicates, music companies, studios-but they have always offered the same dream:  sign this contract, give me 90% of the future revenue of your work, and I will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. I will give your work to the world. I will make you famous and wealthy. I will handle the business of this business so that you can spend all of your time doing what you most want to do:  create.

   It's a good dream. Of the small percentage of creatives who have been offered the dream by a middle man, a small percentage have actually achieved fame and fortune. Of those, a small percentage did not eventually come to resent the control exerted over their careers by these production and marketing firms known as middle men. And then there are all the others whose careers were blighted by the old economy process. All those creatives who never really launched their careers because they could not interest a middle man in offering them a contract. Without a contract, the creative's assumption was that she did not have the talent to write or act or draw or sign for a living.

   Most people do not have the talent, but the question of what appeals to the public should be answered by the public, not by the middle men. The internet brings creatives directly to the public. No longer are creatives enslaved by the opinions of production and marketing firms. Production and marketing firms do not take risks. They give their support to creative work that is as close as possible to a sure thing, which means they want books that read like books that are already best sellers, they want songs that sound like the songs that are already Top 40 and movies that are sequels or prequels to already popular movies.

   The irony is that the most popular creative work is always groundbreaking. There was nothing like 'Harry Potter' or 'Star Wars' or 'Doonesbury' before these juggernauts came along. The public wants the new and the different and the unusual. The online channel flows directly from creator to end user. Your vision is alive on the internet, and reaching in real time the imaginations of tens of millions of potential fans across the world.

This column is part of a larger article. To receive the full article, contact:

andrew@andrewgrossman.net

Category:  Music Industry, Fiction Income, Cartoon Income, Online Sales

Daily Content Comment is Copyrighted by Andrew Grossman.  All rights reserved. 

The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached

or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Andrew Grossman.

He can be contacted through the All Content Network at:  andrew@andrewgrossman.net

The Jolly Creative

-Andrew Grossman

April 27, 2009

   Katie Vogel is the star of a new reality show to be broadcast on YouTube, called

'Green Eyed World'. Vogel is a previously unknown singer-songwriter from England,

with a bubbling personality and a cute but not threateningly beautiful look. By that,

I mean she has the super-average persona which increasingly appears to be what plays

well with an internet specific viewing audience. The internet is the ultimate leveling

field:  small group of dedicated people can build a company on the web to the billion

dollar valuation level; anyone can be the star of their own blog; all opinions are welcome

without accreditation or curse filters usually required.

   How will these egalitarian characteristics effect web content? Let me put it another

way:  if you were an author who is selling her novel via an internet selling page, would

the photograph of you on the 'bio' page show you smiling or unsmiling? The web may

be an unwelcoming atmosphere for the 'Olympian' persona effected by many authors.

Purchasers of books or other creative content on the web may need to feel the creative

is their buddy/equal/confidant in order to purchase her work. There are no intimidating

brick and mortar temples to the intellect such as Brantano's on the web. Distance does

not play well.

   The successfully selling web author will be involved in the purchase process right

up to the moment when the buyer clicks the PayPal button. Questions such as, 'Will

I like this book?' and 'Are there scary parts?' will be routine. After the sale, the author

will be engaged in community boards with readers who are currently reading her title.

Feedback will be instantaneous, constant and possibly overwhelming. The book tour

will be 24/7 in real time. Ultimately, more and more books will be merely supervised

by the 'author', and actually written in conjunction with dozens of collaborators and

fans.

Category:  Online Sales, Fiction Income, YouTube

Daily Content Comment is Copyrighted by Andrew Grossman.  All rights reserved. 

The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached

or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Andrew Grossman.

He can be contacted through the All Content Network at:  andrew@andrewgrossman.net

-Andrew Grossman

April 22, 2009

    The online sales culture for content promises to radically change the relationship

between contract cartoonists and their home magazines/websites. Specifically,

the low expense of publishing and drop shipping books through print on demand,

rather than risking print runs upfront that may not sell, makes it affordable for an

individual cartoonist with a substantial fan following to be his/her own publisher.

Logically, the same capacity for matching production runs directly to orders will be

available for the sale of cartoon t-shirts, tote bags, calendars and other products.

   25 years ago the leading magazines in the country that included cartoon content were

National Lampoon, Playboy and The New Yorker. National Lampoon ceased publication

in 1998, but the other two magazines continue to flourish in their hard copy editions: 

Playboy reports a worldwide circulation of 6.3 million as of October 2008; the New Yorker

reports that their circulation is over a million, and has increased an average of 3%

annually over the last five years.

   The power of the Playboy and New Yorker brand name has always added lustre to the

reputations of their contract cartoonists. Eldon Dedini, Gahan Wilson and Shel

Silverstein based much of their fame on their Playboy presence, and a large number of

outstanding cartoonists, such as Charles Addams, Charles Barsotti, Roz Chast and

George Booth followed similar career arcs through the New Yorker's pages.

   The question now is:  once a cartoonist has built a fan following through association

with the big two magazines, do they still need the active connection, or can they, like

movie stars, become their own producer and make a much heftier share of the sales profits.

   Each magazine has established a sizable online presence. Playboy's attempt to avoid

cannibalizing their hard copy sales has come through a strategy of refusing to allow

fully nude photos and videos unless viewers subscribe to the Cyber Club, which

costs as little as $7.95 per month. Text content, such as the famous Playboy Interviews,

is available in its entirety without an online subscription, and cartoons can be

viewed for free in a slide show format. What this suggests, of course, is that in the

online world, Playboy assumes their soft porn pictorials have more value than

their other content.

   The New Yorker goes even farther in offering free content online. Virtually the entire

content of the current issue is available for free. Also, by signing up for an online account,

the viewer has free access to much of the New Yorker archives going back to 1925.

For a small fee the viewer can have full access. Product sales of New Yorker cartoons

are offered through their cartoon store at CartoonBank.com. Revenue is split between

the New Yorker and the individual cartoonist, but the prime online revenue that really

counts to Conde Nast, the New Yorker's publisher, is ad sales, and subscriptions to

the hard copy magazine, as well as to other CN titles, such as GQ, Gourmet and Vanity Fair.

   There would be a price to pay if a contract cartoonist broke away from the New Yorker's

sales engine in favor of selling through their own store, but would the price be economic?

Contracts can be renegotiated, or one party can choose not to re-up. Does Roz Chast need

the New Yorker at this point in her career, or does the market value of her work now depend

solely on her brand name?

This column is part of a larger article. To receive the full article, contact:

andrew@andrewgrossman.net

Category:  Cartoon Income, Online Sales

Daily Content Comment is Copyrighted by Andrew Grossman.  All rights reserved. 

The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached

or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Andrew Grossman.

He can be contacted through the All Content Network at:  andrew@andrewgrossman.net

Creatives Fight to Survive

-Andrew Grossman

April 8, 2009

        The fight against unauthorized use of copyrighted content on the Web is not merely being taken up by large media outlets such as AP, which on Monday announced that they will pursue copyright infringement suits against web sites that use work from AP without permission. Individual content creators are also part of this life and death struggle for payment and control of how and where their content is used. Professional writers, journalists, columnists, cartoonists, illustrators, photographers and film makers are on the front line of this battle. What is at stake is their capacity to make a living from their creative work. In other words, their careers.

        In the Old Media, freelance creatives in print media sold their work to magazines and newspapers. Some would eventually sign contracts with media companies such as United Media and King Features to distribute their work in return for splitting the profits. Others were able to forge successful careers by representing their interests directly in sales to print media. That success has now been made inestimably more difficult by the advent of the internet.

        At first, when the internet was young, the sale of rights was made in a package-the primary rights, those that would allow media to publish the content in hardcopy editions, were what the publication was purchasing. Subsidiary rights, for online publication, were considered too minor to charge additional money for. Print media certainly treated online rights this way, since there was no prospect of generating additional revenue from online editions.

        As the internet has matured, and as hardcopy publishing is moving rapidly toward near extinction, the online rights are now the primary reason for purchase. Print publication has become the subsidiary sale. That means that for profit creatives have been sucked into surviving in the internet world, and that means that individuals face the same daunting task as media companies-how do we make money in this new form? What complicates the formula is the tradition of the internet, back to the pre-dawn of web

history, for providing an open source culture. Open source essentially means that everyone shares and shares alike, no money changes hands.

        Battling this online model is now the primary and formidable task of media and its content providers. The enemy comes in many forms:  amateur artists who 'are just delighted to be published on the web'; bloggers who have never expected to be paid, since most of them approach their work as non-information oriented diarists; savvy creatives who have assumed that offering free content online will swell the audience for their work and thus make offline sales more likely; overseas creatives who look

at the internet as a chance to break into the American market.

        They are all making one fundamental mistake-they do not realize that the internet will soon be the only surviving content delivery system. There will be no other forum in which to sell content. It must happen online or not happen at all. Given these parameters, the imperative of the new model has changed how to conduct a creative career:  it is no longer of paramount importance whether the content is of highest quality (although quality is still a factor in become a professional). All that matters is name branding. All that matters is strengthening the perceived value of what you present electronically.

Category:  Copyright Laws, Article Income, Cartoon Income

Daily Content Comment is Copyrighted by Andrew Grossman.  All rights reserved. 

The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached

or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Andrew Grossman.

He can be contacted through the All Content Network at:  andrew@andrewgrossman.net