A very interesting article today in Newsweek by Andrew Zolli. Titled “The Future Won’t be Free” he argues that the first decade of the internet will ultimately be seen as an aberration where information was free. I find it very interesting how he talks about vaporous business models based on free and how the new wave of devices are finding ways to charge for content that is free on the internet.

One example he gives is that to read a newspaper on his Kindle he pays for it, versus browsing it for free on the internet. We pay for apps on the iPhone (at least, the really good ones) and the iPad is coming along too. Businesses are finding that they cannot stay in business by giving it all away, eventually they have to make money and advertising isn’t cutting it.

I worked at a big “new media” company myself in the heady days of the dot-com boom and I remember those speeches, I remember the rush to throw things up at any cost. The author is correct in that we’ve built the expectation that content is free over the last decade. Is he also correct that these new devices will pave the way to reverse that trend?

Well I’m sure content producers hope so. It could be a good thing for those of us who love to make comics but struggle to find a proper business model. Many have wondered if the iPad is a path that can be taken to finally get paid for our work. Only time will tell.

It’s interesting that philosophies like this fly in the face of “freemium” and other such ideas. Can they co-exist? I can’t imagine that even success on these new devices can turn around deeply ingrained expectations regarding web content. But again, only time will tell.

Read the article here.

You know it is. You have this Great Idea. You think about it all the time. Sometimes you even work on it. But chances are, you have found it hard, if not impossible, to take your Great Idea from the world of inspiration to the world of existence. Somehow those Great Ideas seem to live just one burst of creativity short of getting finished. Ever wonder why?

There’s an interesting article at ZenHabits which might just help you shut up your Lizard Brain and overcome your own resistance. Let this be the year that you finally, really, get that project done.

The New York Times talks about media outlets trying to prepare for charging fees for their content. It’s an interesting article that certainly relates to the current thinking in publishing on the web – comics and otherwise.

One interesting quote is that “most industry experts agree, entertainment will be easier to charge for than news.” Because what entertainment offers is unique enough on a case by case basis. Whereas with the news, you have thousands of outlets reporting the same stuff in general terms. Driving this discussion is the fact that the advertising industry has suffered more in recent years than in any other time in history.

The “free content supported by advertising” model on its own doesn’t quite cut it anymore for a lot of media outlets – especially the big ones. There’s plenty of skepticism on whether fees can be pulled off, however. Free content will always be one click away. Can they make their content valuable enough to have people pay? Currently the Wall Street Journal has some success with fees. They are definitely not your run-of-the-mill news outlet.

For those of us in independent comic publishing, advertising has not seemed to be a big source of income. While it seems to be a nice additional stream of revenue for some, it seems that it’s really the sale of books and related merchandise that drives those who find success.

Here at Wishtales we know that independent publishing can succeed with a mix of pay and free content. Marooned made a very modest profit selling only around 50 books using a high cost print-on-demand process. Obviously the book sales were driven by a free comic. But the book offers material that is *not* free or available on the web. Better success lies in bringing our printing costs down and sales up. Only time will tell how that will go.

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple years, particularly with sites like Hulu. Will the bigger media outlets successfully charge fees – any kind of fees – for their services? Time will tell, but there apparently some big decisions coming up this year.

This story is interesting for a variety of reasons. Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Alvarez created a short 5 minute film and posted it to the web some months ago, claiming he only spent $500 making it. Stop right there. Just getting to that point seems to be so hard for so many people. It’s not the raising of $500 – anyone can do that if they’ve got a little talent and a little drive.

But this guy put his best foot forward and spent the time to complete a project and get it in front of people – of course for free. He didn’t charge anyone to see it, he just put it up and told everyone he knew. Sometimes step one is just getting something out there that shows what you can do.

He didn’t worry about making some kind of epic or making the most sophisticated piece of film he could. He put something out that evoked some emotion and showed what he could do. And what happened was that people liked it, and they told other people, and suddenly the video went viral.

And when it went viral, the right type of people took a look at the film. And the end of the story is, Mr. Alvarez now has a $30-40 million dollar film deal. He’s going to write it and make a film based on his $500 gambit.

He crossed a lot of hurdles just getting that project done. Nobody was paying him – in fact he shelled out $500 – which in these times can be a lot of money for a lot of us. But, he believed in his project and his talents. I’m sure it took a lot of time, and the film was not without its critics, either. I agree with the writer of the original article that the story doesn’t really deliver and there’s not a whole lot going on other than some major destruction and cool looking robots.

My long winded point is that nobody is going to take a chance on you, if YOU don’t take a chance on you. That’s what we’re doing here at Wishtales. We’re taking a chance on our own stories. And we urge you to do the same. Do what it takes to get your product in front of people. Don’t get stuck in your sketchbook, reworking things looking for the ultimate perfect story, the perfect drawing or the perfect animation.

Get it done. Show it to the world. Rinse and repeat until you breed your own success. Just like Federico Alvarez.

Here’s the film.

Josh Selig has posted a great article at the Kidscreen website on the differences between dreamers and doers. Is if time for you to stop dreaming about what you want to do and get up and do it? Could be. Maybe.

Probably.

Read Josh. Drop him a line. He’s got a point.

Thanks to Mike Gibson for the link.