Ok don't get why so many people think this? Lots of producers do just that...
Really? The only ones I've ever heard admit that they do are you, Sidious, and Tommy. Last Laugh (I think? I'd have to go back and check) said that even when he broke the Top 10 on Clips4Sale he only got a few extra hundred a month. I mean, I live in California. I'd have to clear three grand in sales just to
pay my rent.
I think you're assuming everyone gets the same traffic and throughput that you do. I certainly don't. My store gets as many hits in a month as you get in a day in spite of my Preview threads here getting thousands of views. Even when I was advertising on the sidebar it didn't bring in that kind of traffic.
Now, you could totally say "has it occurred to you that your stuff just isn't any good?", but I'd offer two points to counter that. One, that as people keep pointing out, tickling is a niche, limited market. If people are spending all of their money at your studio, they're not going to buy from anyone else. Two, I have nearly a thousand followers on Instagram. People who are obsessed enough with my stuff to Like every post I make, and in some cases go back and Like all six hundred posts in my history, or send me creepy messages, or any number of a hundred other things. I'm pretty sure that unless these people are complete idiots, there is enough of a quality to my material to engage users. If it wasn't any good, this wouldn't be happening. And yet, none of these people think it'd be a good idea to drop me a fiver every once in a while. If even ten percent of my Instagram followers bought
one clip a month my sales would skyrocket over a hundredfold.
I mean, I've literally produced the exact content that people posted on this forum that they wanted to see, and pointed those people directly to it and they still didn't buy it. I can show you the threads and the sales figures to back that up, too.
But yeah, maybe my stuff's just crap and these guys'll Like anything with toes in it. All the more reason for me to pack it in and call it a day. But I still think you, turtleboy, have a skewed idea of what it's like to operate in today's market. You got in on the ground floor and built a customer base when your only competition was Jeff, Elliot, and that chick who ran Solefully Yours and since people would rather cut off an arm than try something new, they'll be your customers until the end of time.
if anything it'd be very difficult to keep a company going for any length of time if you aren't making a living. That's why the hobbyist/home producers don't tend to stick around for long - it's way too much time commitment unless it pays the bills.
Exactly. And that's why there's only like five companies that have been doing it for as long as they have. The rest of us basically bleed money until we give up.
But, you wanna talk about taste being subjective? Comfort Eagle's been mentioning Octopus a few times now as a new guy that's doing okay, so I went and checked his studio out. Of all the creepy, cheaply-produced, skeevy crap I've ever seen, that's some of the worst. I wouldn't pay that guy a dime for his content. But, that said, I'm not the kind of narcissistic asshole who's going to come here and point at that and insist that the entire industry should stop making skeevy crap if they want MY money, I simply buy from the guys I like and realize that everyone else is obsessed with Saran Wrap and baby oil and that's really none of my business. So, yeah.
But you don't have to make a living, you just have to sell more than you spend in order to justify it, because a profit is still profit. I have a day job, but let's say I spend an afternoon filming and editing, and when all's said and done I spent $250 this quarter and brought in $400. I can't live on that but it's still extra money in the bank as mostly passive income.
In closing, though;
cletus said:
I'm impressed. I mean... there's wrong, moronically wrong, so wrong it's on another plane of existence... and then there's this; wrong on so many levels I just have to marvel at the sheer beauty of it. Well done.