Still spinning from this idea in 's "Making in Public": that when the economics of consumption don't work—e.g. because the product is a public good—a more viable model may exist around the economics of *production*. That is: when might production *be* the product?
Conversation
This is a compelling angle for many (especially older) Kickstarter projects: when what you're buying as a backer is not the eventual product, but rather causing the product to be made at all. You're buying its production. The eventual product is like a positive externality.
1
7
95
Subscription content producers have a similar vibe. Buyers aren't paying to unlock some article's paywall; they're buying into creation of future work. I wonder if this is more compelling if purchases plausibly cause marginal output: "I'll write fulltime when I get X subscribers"
4
8
62
Nadia observes that sometimes the production "product" being bought is access—feeling closer to the creator, a private community, sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes, etc. My instinct is that this offering can only scale so far, but I'd be curious to learn about counter-examples!
2
3
47
This has been a compelling angle to think about funding my work. In this frame, my output artifacts are public goods (essays, interfaces)—positive externalities from an ongoing process which is itself the product. My "customers" buy a verb, not a noun.
2
6
71
Of course, I don't know what it means to make my production process a product. Patreon still has a "charity" vibe that doesn't seem right. I'm increasingly thinking of it more as "crowdfunding an NSF CAREER grant," which captures the causative angle. Still feels like not enough.
8
5
69
All this has helped me understand why I feel so adverse to promoting my own Patreon: absent a clear, positive-sum proposition as an offering, the default is that it feels like asking for charity, which in turn feels very inappropriate. Save charity $s for needier causes!
7
3
35
What if someone else was willing to promote it for you? Under what circumstances would that be attractive?
1
Replying to
Hm! I'm usually grateful when people do this. For whatever reason it feels more plausibly positive-sum when others promote: "I like this and want there to be more of it—if you agree, join me!"
Replying to
That’s a good point.
Would you ever pay someone to do this? Like an agent?
1
No, not as the “product” is currently defined. The plausibly-positive-sum element of others promoting depends on their authentic personal interest.