Agreed that Ellis went about it the right way. I admire the balls of collecting $500 from readers.

Oh, and your check is in the mail…

If you mean Kottke I take your point. The experiment may have been a little self important and I agree with the Adam Greenfield’s analysis from the link, the blogging under the micropatronage experiment did not appear to provide more in depth or original content. But hey don’t forget the dude raised $40,000 for a blog. Somebody had to be the first to do it and it was Kottke. I read the blog occasionally but he never drew me in. However that was more a matter of personal taste than his talent as a writer. It’s interesting he is retiring the micropatronage idea now.

If you are referring to Joshua Ellis’ experiment then I would again agree with Greenfield. Ellis succeeded as he was very clear from the outset. He presented an idea, he told all involved exactly what he was going to do, solicited donations and then he went and did it. Now we have a CC licensed piece with accompanying photos and video that you or I or anybody can use for whatever we feel like. There was something tangible at the end of the experiment.

As to the idea of micropatronage; specifically, selling yourself being cocky and self important unfortunately it’s the cocky self important, self mythologising, self publicising, ego massaging bastards that get to the front of the queue every time. The shrinking violets never get anywhere in this world. You have to stand up on the table and start screaming ‘Hey look at my stuff, look at me I’m doing tricks!’ And if you’re lucky maybe some people will stop by and toss you a few coins.

The most successful writer I have met was just such a person. Not that he was a shit, far from it he was a lovely guy, a drunken pathological liar, but a lovely guy all the same. He couldn’t help that he was a journalist to boot. Anyway I digress, this man unlike many of us never sat around wishing his life away. Wishing he could write a novel one day or wishing he could get this qualification or that job in order to pursue his creative goals. He just went and did it. Towering self confidence and a neck like a jockey’s bollocks. He wasn’t any happier for his accomplishments but neither was he boorish or overbearing. He just made sure he was at the front of the queue. Made sure he pushed himself to the top.

I don’t know Mr. Ellis from Adam but he decided he was going to push himself to the top of the queue and start shouting. I happened to be passing by that part of the internet at the time.

As to getting anyone to buy your content I think it depends how you view the blogging process as a whole. Why are you really doing it? I hope and I cringe to use this phrase, the blogosphere will become a far more interesting environment as it matures and more non-technical people become aware of the possibilities of creating your own online space. When you can subscribe to a favourite writers blog or journal suddenly we all become the Star Trek/Star Wars geek in the room. Professional writers both established and up and coming looking to build an audience would do well to take heed of that. Qualms about professional distance or encouraging stalkers aside if you give people a space to make a personal connection even if it is just one way they become more than just readers, they become fans. That’s short for fanatic.

On a personal level I see this site as a kind of gym where I come for a creative workout. I post mainly for friends and acquaintances but anyone is welcome so I try not to be too obscure. However for the fiction pieces I will set a bar for myself. Some level I’m pushing for beyond where I would be satisfied for my own consumption. If you take any degree of pride in what you do sticking stuff on a public website should make you go that little bit further for the people who take the time out of their day to read it. Something one should always be grateful for.

The blog makes me write, it sits there forcing me to get on to the next story. I need that. The Gurrier stories are my workout regime. They never really go anywhere or develop into anything and they are often repetitive. But they exercise me and they’re fun to write.

Chris you’re an interesting case. You have a ‘traditional’ web column. Can a web column be traditional now? And you have a blog. You could make a case for getting people to pay for your web column but you would be harder pushed to make a similar case for people to pay for your blog. However in some future scenario it would be no great leap of the imagination to see you parlay your web column and your blog into some form of paid scribbling employment or at the very least make a stronger case for it than someone with no established online presence. So why do you do it then?

Right this comment has gone on long enough. One last thing this is for you. All cheques payable to Donal Murphy thanks, Paypal also accepted.

But it still seems so cocky and self-important, doesn’t it? What’s interesting, though, is that I think it’s egotistical as hell to pay someone to blog, but I didn’t have a problem buying you a drink when I met you (and vice versa — thanks). Arguably what we blog is better thought out, and therefore more valuable than the shit that comes out of our mouths at the pub, though. Perhaps, in buying you a drink, I am rewarding you for the direct acknowledgment of me. If you wrote a blog that was addressed to ME, I might pay you for it. But still not very much.