What I don't like is some company with millions of dollars launching a crappy product or service and pumping millions into advertising to turn a tidy profit.
*Cough* Playstation Move and Microsoft Kinect *Cough*
Excuse me.
. So, LBTL and action, for all your talk about "evolving monetization", you offered no real suggestions as to what additional services content creators can supply that you would be willing to pay for. Why is that? I believe the answer is simple: they couldn't do enough to impress you enough to pay them.
You're right. In their current state, they don't make anything cool that I would be interested in purchasing from them. That doesn't mean they're incapable of producing something that I may be interested in purchasing. I simply mean that, at this moment, they don't offer anything I'm personally interested in purchasing.
Let's take the Angry Video Game Nerd and his website, Cinemassacre, as an example. I've been watching their material for countless years now, many of those years with adblock. I generally love the work they've done with AVGN, James and Mike Mondays, Board James, etc.
Do they offer anything for sale that I'd be willing to drop money on? No, I'm sorry but they don't. Since you asked me to come up with some ideas for stuff they could produce that I'd actually be interested in paying for, how about:
1) Custom, high quality, AVGN or Cimemassacre-themed controllers for retro and modern consoles, ideally also with USB connections. That'd be cool and I'd pay a premium for an AVGN N64 controller, for example. N64 controllers are tough to find as it is and an AVGN one would be awesome! I'd even be willing to pay a premium for it over a new controller on Amazon or something, especially if it was custom-built. Imagine, a custom line of higher-than-official-quality controllers. That's cool!
These are the guys who have connections to people who can build Nintoasters and get Famicom systems with A/V outputs and longer controller wiring. I'm sure they can build custom controllers.
2) How about, pay a small donation to put a James and Mike Mondays game request higher up on a queue? The amounts and "power" of this queue pushing could be limited to prevent it from becoming a clusterfuck but it would allow people to effectively pay for the content they want.
3) AVGN-themed video game cases, especially for cartridge-based consoles. Again, for people with large NES, SNES or N64 collections could get AVGN-themed storage units, briefcases, etc for their games. Cool!
4) A CD with various remixes of the AVGN theme music...or a DVD or blu-ray with music VIDEOS to go along with them.
Is this hard work? Sure but it doesn't rely on ad revenue to pay the bills.
Let's face it - I'm not a marketing major. I don't have all the answers. But that's also called being an "entrepreneur". As an entrepreneur, it's your job to make something that people are willing to spend money on. If I had the answer to this problem I'd be doing it and already being the next big thing on the internet.
Now let's list some stuff they they HAVE released which is actually pretty cool:
- An AVGN Movie. This has sold reasonably well. I haven't picked it up, however, because I basically got the gist of it from Nostalgia Critic's review of it. It didn't look all that great to me so I didn't buy the movie.
- An AVGN video game. This is even available on steam! That's an awesome idea!
- Typical merchandise: T-Shirts, etc. Nothing wrong with going that direction!
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Something else I don't know is how much money they get paid for showing up to conventions. The AVGN is often at various game conventions and I'm positive he isn't doing that for free.
Why do I bring this up? Basically, I'm extremely convinced that Cinemassacre isn't hurting for cash. I don't have much incentive to turn off my extremely convenient ad block in an effort to support what is essentially the "microsoft" of gaming videos. They don't exactly need my 3 cents a month to get by. I'm sorry but my sanity is more valuable to me than you getting my 3 cents of ad revenue.
The AVGN has basically reached "celebrity" status at this point. I don't feel like he's exactly hurting for cash. I have no reason to worry about his well-being and lack of ability to continue to produce content. Yes, this is me being selfish but again, it's time and effort for me as a consumer to go out of my way to make sure he gets his 3 cents a month from me. When I know he's raking in big bucks and that 3 cents a month is insignificant, I'm just not going to make a big deal out of it.
Again, because that control is in my hands, the hands of the consumer, that's why ad revenue systems are inherently broken.
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Now there are some things I'd "pay" them for right now if they were more practical. For example, I've become a "Fan" of sorts of Cinemassacre over the years and I think it would be great to see them at a convention.
Problem: I live in Calgary, Alberta. Video game conventions don't really come here and I can't afford the trip to PAX or wherever. Yeah, if the AVGN came to a show in Calgary (or Edmonton or Banff or somewhere close-ish) I'd be psyched and I'd go!
Now suddenly all that free video watching I got all these years is paying off for HIM! He hooked me as a fan and now I'm part of the fanbase that makes it worth the convention paying HIM to have him there. The videos acted as an investment to build the fanbase.
The videos are acting as a support for his other ways to make money. That's what I'm getting at! What the "other ways" are is a case-by-case basis for each content creator. They need to find their own direction for how to do this and this is what makes the true marketing geniuses and business people of the world.