A Non Absinthe Inspired Epiphany

Funny how a seemingly banal thought that passes through your head after too much time spent at a bar can spark an idea for a potential business plan.  It was something that I've thought hundreds, if not thousands, of times before, and that I've blogged about on at least one occasion, but this time something clicked and has continued to keep its grip on me.

The thought?  It's totally plausible that [idea] could have 1,000,000 users who'd be willing to pay $1 per year.

I'll get to the [idea] in a minute, but let's talk about my pie-in-the-sky numbers for a minute.  Even before starting my own business, I've been trying to find the right balance that would allow me to charge for content without feeling like I'm fleecing my customers.  I hold the belief that I should work for something that contributes to the public good or makes people happy without destabilizing society or the planet.

I don't need to work towards the most noble efforts of humanity, but I need to do something that improves people's lives at least incrementally.  The travel industry falls squarely in this objective.  There are certainly concerns about travel's impact on global warming and that it causes fatigue at certain popular tourist spots, but few people would argue that, on balance, travel is a destabilizing force in society.  Ergo, I felt justified, with little rationalization, working in the travel industry for nearly two decades.  In my current and future endeavors I need to work on something that meets at least this minimum criterion.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I'd be happy to make a living blogging (and I still like the idea), but there are a few logistical issues with such a career path:

• My average monthly users clock in around 100 people.  [Also, thanks again for all of you who continue to read.  It's thrilling to see my audience grow, and it's nice to see I'm contributing some value towards people's lives.]  I don't need $1,000,000, but let's say that I'd be happy with a cool $50,000 a year to go to my yacht fund.  That means I'd still have to charge each of you $500 per year.  I'm entertaining, but, sadly, I'm not that entertaining.
• I could entertain alternate revenue models, like ads, to lessen any subscription burdens.  But that runs into privacy and performance issues.  I frequently browse recipe blogs, and those sites quickly become unusable within about one second of loading.  It's a quandary for the creators - recipe sites are popular, so ads there catch more eyeballs, but, because they're so popular, authors load them with ads, making the user experience extremely unpleasant.  I wouldn't be averse to having an ad or two on my site, but my subscription base isn't high enough that I'd make any money from the effort, so I'd essentially be degrading your experience without any benefit to either of us.  I'm not a purist.  If I can derive some reasonable income from an ad or two, I'd certainly entertain the possibility.  But if I packed my site with too much filler, I'd quickly sink to my knees, rending my garments and gnashing my teeth while declaiming "WHAT HAVE I WROUGHT"!  I know it run counter to our winner-take-all culture, but I'd prefer people pay me less money for content they're interested in, rather than fill my coffers quicker for the second galley at the stern of my yacht (let's be serious - you can't have a yacht with one galley.  NB - I'm wildly impressed with myself for my use of nautical terms).
• Content creation takes a lot of effort.  If I'm going to charge you $500 a year, I'm probably going to need to blog more than once a week.  I'm a fairly avid reader, and I buy my (e-)books.  I'll probably go through about two books a month at around $15 per book.  That amounts to $360 a year for a range of authors and viewpoints.  Unless my content is better than all authors, dead or living, combined, I can't charge you $500 a year.  But, hey, could I interest you in a discounted membership of only $359.99 per year?

There are certain steps I could take to make blogging a more viable option - namely increasing my readership.  And, over time, I probably will take a few more proactive steps.  I'm not averse to promoting content on social media other than the wheel o' fun that is LinkedIn, but I have to decide how much time I want to spend on each of those platforms and whether or not some of them are better suited for my audience.  I'm also concerned about trolls.  Not that they'll have any impact on my self-worth (I can do enough damage on my own), because I know there are lots of assholes out there.  I'd be more concerned that I'd want to engage the trolls and get sucked into the honeypot rather than realizing that 99.9% of the feedback I'm receiving is positive.  I've been good about keeping my distance from the few negative responses I've received on LinkedIn, but sometimes it's hard.

One change I'm anticipating - I am strongly considering moving my content to Substack, so I can (hopefully) gain greater exposure and open up my site to an optional subscription or donation model.  If I ever do reach 10,000 readers, I'll probably create a split-tier model, but keep it at a low annual subscription amount like $1 or $5 (I think I'm worth skipping one extra latte per year for my keen insights on the human and mechanical conditions), assuming Substack allows me to charge such an obviously capitalism-affronting amount.

I could also podcast or videocast, but no.

And, as usual, my opening topic has turned into a blog post of its own, so I'll have to tease you along on the mysterious [idea] a bit longer.

Until next time, my human and robot friends.