Wanking Around, Wondering...

[wombat]

There haven't been strips in the pay section in a while that I remember. It's mostly blogs and no more frequent than the free section. The most recent post is a preview of the "much delayed volume 3."

[pmcd9]

Are there in fact strips in the pay section?

[littlefallsmets]

You would all be proud of me.

Dude was asking for donations on facebook and I did not start posting all kinds of shit about "well, if you put your efforts into expanding your fanbase with frequent free side-content instead of putting all those things behind an expansion-limiting paywall, maybe you would still be selling more books and shirts and stuff such as was the original business model that let you quit your day-job, son".

The little blogs and stuff were the things that developed fans, got them hooked between the strips, kept them coming nearly every day even when there were two strips in a week or one or whatever.

But I didn't lace into that. I didn't make an ass outta myself.

I browsed away to pornography instead, like a good little monkey.

[wombat]

Are there in fact strips in the pay section?

The regular strips post there. I think there have been a few weird extra strips here and there, but that's not mostly what it has been.

[AugustWest]

"well, if you put your efforts into expanding your fanbase with frequent free side-content instead of putting all those things behind an expansion-limiting paywall, creating content and updating more than once a damn week maybe you would still be selling more books and shirts and stuff such as was the original business model that let you quit your day-job, son".

FTFY

[littlefallsmets]

Fair enough, Aug.

But I think it is also fair to say that if the stuff he puts behind the pay-wall was being tossed out there as filler between actual strips, as it originally was, it would ameliorate the lack of updating that at this point HAS to be cutting into his ability to grow new readers that are then new merch-purchasers.

It is hard to get involved enough with an internet comic to the point where you would have loyalty to actually PAY for something if, after the archive binge there's nothing more to look at for weeks.

Because he did go through periods, not THIS bad, but long stretches where he didn't update the strip frequently but the free side stuff carried me through.

There still aren't that many people in the world who will pay for internet-only things unless they have a feeling of sweat-equity in their fandom.

The rise and possible fall of Achewood, it is an interest illustrative of this.

Though, of course, yes. That is only part of the problem.

Taking a strip that updated three times a week and ramping back to three times a month is a big chunk of it too.

[pmcd9]

I wonder what he's working on that is keeping him from his work on the strip?

[JorgeFabregas]

Crying in his kitchen.

[wombat]

I think LFM's arguments about this all being about the pay wall, would make more sense if there was more content behind the paywall than there is free, but at the moment there really isn't. He has been updating that infrequently enough that even if that stuff was out there, it still wouldn't be much updating.

I guess he may have been working on the much-delayed volume three, it will be interesting to see if there is a whole lot of added stuff in that that accounts for the drought.  If he's been working on a book he can sell for money, that might make sense as a priority.

[Asherdan]

I think the waterbed full of bourbon finally won.

[AugustWest]

He broke his drawing hand whilst beating up his wife.

[greenkoolayd]

He broke his drawing hand whilst beating up his wife.

i think his wife broke his drawing hand whilst beating up him.

[Asherdan]

And yes, there will be a new strip later Friday.

TOMORROW CHICKEN

[Arachno-capitalist]

"Please help us keep the servers lit and firing! We're having the second "fund raiser" in our nine years—please consider dropping a little spare change in our (Paypal-powered) tip jar.

And yes, there will be a new strip later Friday. Thanks for your sense of humor about the summer schedule. "

This guy is kind of a dick and I don't think he has a solid grasp on the finer points of business relationships. It is not a fuck*ng fundraiser. You are a for-profit business that is begging me for money and then in the same breath flat out lies about delivering a product. This arc started in May and all that has really happened is Nice Pete and T went to denny's.
COOL STORY, CHRIS, COOL STORY. THE PERRY BIBLE fuck*ng FELLOWSHIP AND YOU MUST BE ON THE SAME UPDATE SCHEDULE.

[littlefallsmets]

The sad thing is that at this point, I would probably donate fifty bucks to him if he'd discontinue the paywall for good but I would not pay him three bucks a month to see behind the paywall.

I have gotten Ideological about this.

Asking for donations to keep the strip going while also charging extra for the ephemera that used to BE the buffer between strips, it BUGS me.

From a purely A-CAP sorta money-only perspective, the guy HAD a business model. The guy had a business model that allowed him and his wife to do just this thing and it seems like he slit the throat of the goose that laid the golden eggs by changing it up too fast in hopes of an expanded cash grab.

Not just the paywall bullshit but just overall. Putting so much time and effort into the Dark hoss books (it seems) and the promotional travel (it seems) to the detriment of... the actual core model.

Step 1: create such an engaging comedy world that fans feel an ownership of it and give it out on the web
Step 2: sell crap with cats on it to those fans
Step 3: profit

I dunno. Or maybe the dude just can't balance the difficulties of being a work-at-home father to a small kid with doing the strip.

Possible too. But as it does not reinforce my ideological narrative, I dismiss this concept out of hand. haha.