Ransom/Pamphlet model
Seth M. Drebitko:
Thanks I will have to shoot you an e-mail. I guess thinking about it it is a bit different that ransom in a way. basically i will do the work and sell the more "deluxe" laminated pamphlets until the ransom was met (in part form donations and sales from the "deluxe pamphlets" at which point the pdf would be free but I would keep selling the higher quality pamphlets for those that may want them.
Ron Edwards:
Hi Seth,
That sounds needlessly complicated. Why not provide the simpler pamphlets for free (as PDFs) as well as selling the prettier versions - and that's that?
Best, Ron
Seth M. Drebitko:
The reason for the ransom is I want to make sure I recoup at least around 150% of my investment to make sure that I have money to fund the next project and save as a buffer for loss, or to use for marketing reasons. The ransom basically sets a minimum for me to safely have a self supporting hobby.
From a business stand point it is a tactic to eliminate what we used to call (when I was in sales) the 2/3rds rule. For not familiar with the 2/3rds rule it states simply on average if you have 3 customers (of your target market) you should have the following results.
1 will buy your with little need to sell beyond the product itself.
1 will not buy no matter how hard you try.
1 will be on the fence about your product and need motivation.
(Note; some days you might get all duds and other days all easy sales this is just an average broad example, and does not factor in people not in your target market.)
Since I will primarily be active on the intrawebs (and can’t be on them 24/7) I need a set up that sells to the best of its ability for me. The problem with just giving the meat and potato’s away free is that it pushes those on the fence sales onto the wrong side. However strictly having “hey donate and eventually get a product or just wait for others to do it for you” is not that great of an incentive either.
With my scenario the intent is to have them see that eventually the will be free digitally, but for a paltry investment (possibly even discounted until the ransom is met) they can get a quality physical version of the game that will also kick money in towards the ransom. They get a kewl product probably cheaper and a fuzzy feeling that they helped others out as well which would give me 2 hands towards pulling them to my side of the fence.
Does that help things make a bit more sense?
chance.thirteen:
Greg Stoltze, the author of The One Roll Engine (Godlike, Reign to name two) has experience with both traditional publishing and ransoming extra content. He might be a good person to ask about his experiences. He does have the advantage of having a long active product line and website.
Callan S.:
Hi Seth,
Have you made anything yet? If you want to be totally secure, you'd wait until people have (essentially) handed you money, then work. And if they don't hand you any, you hadn't done any work anyway. If you've already made stuff, then you've lost the opportunity for that total security - they may not hand any ransom to you but you've already done work. There's no way out of that - that opportunity for total security has been lost.
In terms of investment, what have you invested so far that's at risk? If they can print out a booklet themselves - well, it sounds like the most you will have done is made up a document? I think you might be looking at it backwards to call it a 'recoup' - you want money to make the prettier version, but if you don't get the money to do that - you've invested nothing anyway, so there's nothing to recoup. I mean, your saying you want to recover money you haven't spent yet and even if/when you go to spend it, it'll wont even be your own money your spending (it'll be ransom money)? Or am I reading you wrong?
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