david wolfpaw

thinking about monetizing passions again

david wolfpaw   •   16 Apr 2024   •   Reading time: 6 mins

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I’ve kinda been circling around this for a long while, but I’ve slowly been making strides this year to try my paw at being a full time creator. Or at least part time in a meaningful way.

What this means to me is that I want to be able to share creative projects that I’m working on, do deep dives into things that I find interesting, and above all share educational resources with others freely.

I have always felt a bit weird about asking people for money. I realize that’s not a unique trait. I tried Patreon for a bit, but it mainly became useful to get support paying for tech.lgbt‘s server costs. By the way, we celebrated our seventh anniversary yesterday! Look, I can commit to some things some times 🤣

Anyway, I’m not starting something right right now, but I’m lining up some ducks in a row to hear them quack. Then interpreting the meaning behind those quacks, until I too am a quack.

I think that this is just some way of saying that while I feel like an impostor at about all times, I don’t want to rely on the same direct-to-client work that I’ve been doing for the past fifteen years for all of my income, which is admittedly rather tiring. I enjoy doing it, but the process of building things is much different than the process of pre-selling those same things.

So that’s my thought. Thoughts that have been swirling for over a decade: organizing my online life to the point where I feel comfortable offering the trade of, “you give me small bits of money monthly, I give you interesting and educational things that you can use however you want”. Making those things as well as I can. And giving them to those who can benefit the most without expectation of profit.

Maybe this is an announcement that next week I’ll be back with a plan? Let’s go with that 🥰

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A clear breakdown, with stats and analytics, of a site that previously was a helpful resource for interesting retro game news, and now has seen traffic plummet while their content is scraped for Google search

I forgot that Pokémon Pinball came out before Gold and Silver. I played that a ton, and now I want a copy to play again!

“Yes, it runs on DOS loaded from 5¼-inch floppy disks, but it’s still serviceable”

🎥

He makes listening to someone talk about some niche concept for hours on end fascinating.

I don’t really like the framing of, “omg porn/fetish art in my feed” as the main story, even if the youtuber does clarify that we should support the artist. It’s only what it is in the eye of the beholder, and using that as an excuse to ignore the bigger message of capitalism destroying Workers’ Rights is disheartening.

I shouldn’t be ashamed that I’ve driven by all of these but only been to like three, right? And I can confirm, Dezerland is more a tax write-off than an interesting place. That lack of proper AC in the dark mini-golf suuuuuucks

Stunt comedy doesn’t always work, but this one works well

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Despite many misgivings with Patreon moderation, I do appreciate a lot of what they have helped to normalize for creators, and hope that it doesn’t become challenging to have a variety of platforms to support creators, and not just a few titans and ossification.

I remember seeing Pokémon 2000 in theaters, and this song slaps.

If you made it this far, why not share this newsletter with a friend? Or share with me some of the things that you found that you liked this week. Either way, I’m thrilled!

🌙 ☀️