>> Hmm… I'll think about the donation button. <<
Okay.
>> Time is far shorter than cash is (though cash isn't boundless) so I gain a certain psychological benefit from recognising that hobbies are hobbies (not work or chores) and treating them as something I primarily do for myself. <<
That's an important distinction, and if you want to stick with that, by all means do so. Hobbies are valuable.
>> Also, professionally, my time is worth at least $30 an hour (based on a quick back of the envelope calculation) which prices it way beyond what I'd expect crowd funding to be able to raise for this kind of thing. <<
Lots of thoughts here ...
1) Do not underestimate the power of crowdfunding. I never thought I'd get anyone spending $100/year on poetry, but I do, and some of them spend way more than that. Conversely I've had people totally ignore fiction. You just never know what people will go nuts over.
2) I have years of experience in editing and writing. The only places I make what my skills are worth is private work, crowdfunding or freelancing. If I average out an hourly rate from my fishbowls, it's usually in the 30s or 40s these days. That's about what a professional calculator pegs my worth at.
3) Consider size of project. Things that take only a little while don't cost much. I have short ($5) and medium-short ($10) poems as well as epics ($31.50+). If it only takes you twenty minutes to add on a tidbit of code, $10 is perfectly reasonable. If you're looking at something that would take several hours, well, maybe more than one person would like to chip in. Some of my fans buy whole epics, but they're more often microfunded. Most crowdsource/crowdfunded code projects -- and there are whole websites devoted to this -- have multiple backers.
4) Consider what you can get. My editing rates are cheap because, despite the prevalence of more expensive offers online, people just don't want to pay much for it. So, I charge what the market will bear. It's not as much as my skill is worth, but it's enough to make my time worthwhile.
>> Though I suppose that gap might pave a way to crowdfund the hobby coding a little while keeping it clearly a hobby that is done for relaxation. <<
If you want to explore whether to do a particular activity for fun or profit, a single project is a very good way to test the waters. And of course, if all you do is put a PayPal button at the bottom of the page, it requires no extra effort from you, it's just there in case anybody wants to throw money at you.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Re: Welcome!
Date: 2014-01-14 10:12 pm (UTC)Okay.
>> Time is far shorter than cash is (though cash isn't boundless) so I gain a certain psychological benefit from recognising that hobbies are hobbies (not work or chores) and treating them as something I primarily do for myself. <<
That's an important distinction, and if you want to stick with that, by all means do so. Hobbies are valuable.
>> Also, professionally, my time is worth at least $30 an hour (based on a quick back of the envelope calculation) which prices it way beyond what I'd expect crowd funding to be able to raise for this kind of thing. <<
Lots of thoughts here ...
1) Do not underestimate the power of crowdfunding. I never thought I'd get anyone spending $100/year on poetry, but I do, and some of them spend way more than that. Conversely I've had people totally ignore fiction. You just never know what people will go nuts over.
2) I have years of experience in editing and writing. The only places I make what my skills are worth is private work, crowdfunding or freelancing. If I average out an hourly rate from my fishbowls, it's usually in the 30s or 40s these days. That's about what a professional calculator pegs my worth at.
3) Consider size of project. Things that take only a little while don't cost much. I have short ($5) and medium-short ($10) poems as well as epics ($31.50+). If it only takes you twenty minutes to add on a tidbit of code, $10 is perfectly reasonable. If you're looking at something that would take several hours, well, maybe more than one person would like to chip in. Some of my fans buy whole epics, but they're more often microfunded. Most crowdsource/crowdfunded code projects -- and there are whole websites devoted to this -- have multiple backers.
4) Consider what you can get. My editing rates are cheap because, despite the prevalence of more expensive offers online, people just don't want to pay much for it. So, I charge what the market will bear. It's not as much as my skill is worth, but it's enough to make my time worthwhile.
>> Though I suppose that gap might pave a way to crowdfund the hobby coding a little while keeping it clearly a hobby that is done for relaxation. <<
If you want to explore whether to do a particular activity for fun or profit, a single project is a very good way to test the waters. And of course, if all you do is put a PayPal button at the bottom of the page, it requires no extra effort from you, it's just there in case anybody wants to throw money at you.