Digital Ventures - Patreon and E-Commerce

 Here we are in January (well, February now...it was January when I wrote this.)– a whole new year, filled with potential, possiblity, and yes, still haunted by the pandemic. While I'm not happy about the pandemic, and the multitude of challenges it presents to everyone, I am grateful for having gotten the last ten months (and probably the next ten to twelve) to be here, at home. The time at home has allowed me to really begin to dig my toes into the dirt here, and start to delve into work I really want to do. It has helped me to have enough space and quiet in my brain to be able to form both a picture, and a plan. 

A booth I shared with Darrell at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo a few years back.  Not something I'll be able to do again for quite a long time....Photo by Darrell Markewitz.

 

If I truly want to start to shift the balance of my working life from 85% theatre/15% Elfworks (that's at a rough guess – I haven't done any math on that.) then I also have to begin to shift my income possibilities. That has always been clear to me. How to make it happen is the mystery. It still is, but having had some time to consider, I'm exploring possibilities. I don't expect it will happen quickly, if it ever does, but I'm slowly coming around – and finding that I have the time – to give it a genuine effort. With time, I'd like to shift it to at least 50/50, maybe even further with theatre taking up only say 25% as an eventual goal. The truth is that as much as I love the theatre, the split life is beginning to wear me out...it takes a lot of energy to live in 2 places – especially when you don't really have a home base in the one it feels like you spend more than half your time in.

So, how does one go about making that shift – especially in the midst of a global pandemic? The answer in part, of course, is to expand your digital footprint and hope it successfully generates some income. This, of course, is not as easy as it sounds. Nor are there any guarantees – the internet is a huge open marketplace, and it means competing with the whole world. It also takes a dedicated amount of time and effort just to get it going, never mind maintaining it, monitoring it, adjusting it... Then of course there is simple fact that almost everyone else is trying to do the same thing, as a way to supplement, generate or replace their income. To put a topping on this particular cake – I'm not good at it. I know the bare minimums of what I need to know to do any given thing digitally. And computers often don't like me, as I'm sure I've mentioned.

The digital world can be a big, scary place. The ground shifts underfoot constantly. The learning curves come fast and often. It is wide open to all kinds of people, and the potential for all kinds of unknowns – both good and bad. While it is easy to get lost, there is really no place to hide...and while I'm fine with having a public face, I treasure my privacy.

I've resisted wading into the digital pool too deeply for any number of reasons, but it is time. I've had an Etsy site for a while, but that, too, is a very busy playground.  (Etsy Shop Link) So, I've been building. I'm writing more for this blog, and actually remembering to post what I write with greater regularity. I'm trying to use facebook more (Facebook Page Link)– actually post on a more regular basis. I've started an Instagram account (Instagram Link) – which as a side bonus will force me to do more photographic documentation than I normally do. Not to mention I will actually have to take a critical look at and process those photos, and file them in some sort of orderly fashion. That has to be a good thing, right?

As I do that I will work to beef up my Etsy site and get some new product on there. I am not planning to duplicate the product on the Etsy site onto the  e-commerce site - different pieces will stock each site. 

So that is a beginning. Thanks to a program being offered by the Ontario government just now, I'm also working on an e-commerce site all my own. (For information on the Digital Main Street/ShopHere program, go here: https://programs.digitalmainstreet.ca/)  I'm hoping that the new site will be live by mid-February.

Along with that I've decided to create a Patreon page. Now, Patreon is something that was brought to my attention years ago, by several people. I looked at it when I was made aware of it. I thought it was a great idea – for other people. I could see how it could work really well for creators of digital content, “visual artists” (painters etc.), writers, all sorts of people. I couldn't see how I could possibly fit there. That, and I didn't think there was any reason why people should want to become a patron for me. Not that I think what I do doesn't have value, more that I had trouble with the idea of making that pan out in some sort of physical (monetary) form other than buying a product.

In the years since, it has sat in the back of my mind, being turned over on occasion, re-examined and then ultimately re-buried.

I was searching for something on the web about 8 months ago, and I followed a sideline to the site of an author/editor that I admire. https://www.terriwindling.com/

There, on the side of Terri Windling's page, was a little statement about her Patreon page and her reasoning for it – I clicked on the link to allow me to read what she had written. Suddenly, it began to come into some kind of focus that I could fit - somehow. It would just take some thought. You can read the writing that inspired me here:

https://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2017/11/patreon-launch.html

Reading what she had written brought a lump to my throat. Terri Windling shy about a Patreon page? It all struck a chord, and somehow, gave me the push I needed to see if I could make it work. Thinking about it now, it seems rather backwards. I'm not putting myself in the same league as this person I admire, not by a long shot, but whatever the reason, reading that explanation opened a pathway for me. Over the last number of months I've toyed with the idea, formulating and rejecting things I thought might be feasible for the venue. How could I do this and actually offer content that I thought was worth contributions from persons unknown? If I chose to use product, how could I structure it to be sure that I would cover shipping costs, not having any clue what they might be? How would I make the numbers work to be sure that I wasn't adding more work to my plate, but ending up with an unequal monetary exchange? How could I do all this and still make it affordable, and not feel like I was asking people to give me something for nothing? Was there a way for me to not set myself up for failure – make it enticing but not promise the moon and fail to deliver?

It wasn't until November or December that I came up with a plan that I could be comfortable with. As I worked, I found myself getting excited. I had started from a standpoint of “how on earth can I create enough regularly scheduled content to make this work?” I realized that this could be a huge opportunity for me.

While I have been getting better about posting on this blog, it has taken me time to get more convinced that I have something to say. I've always loved writing, and in the last while I've gotten back to doing more of it. I had never stopped, but the frequency had fallen off, and it all became more and more private – and I became more tentative about it. As I've begun to write more, a lot more, I've remembered how much I love it.

Another thing I won't be able to do anytime soon is my theatre work.  My dear departed friend Georges Molnar pictured as "The Bear".  Photographer unknown.

 

I realized that Patreon could be a place for all the writing that doesn't fit here, and more. It could be my motivation to really dig into the research that I want to do but there seems to be no reason for. All those alleys that I travel from idea to product, all the threads that wend off into their own rabbit hole worlds could be collected and developed and have a home.

The more I thought about it, and the more I started to really work on the writing I was doing for my “About” page for Patreon, the more excited I got. Whether or not it ever helps me to make a living, it is a place to explore all the avenues I've neglected. As much as I enjoy pursuing knowledge for its own sake, there is a limit to how much I can motivate myself to gather it all together from cryptic notes on slips of paper into cohesive presentations when I don't have a venue for them.

When I restarted this blog, I chose to take it down a different pathway, and yes, I can put some of that here – and I will, as I continue to write more. What Patreon has given me is a vision – not one of monetary gain so much as a home for my voice that is both public and private. This blog will be here for me to keep voicing my thoughts as they pertain to the evolution of Elfworks in both an inner and outer nature. If anyone wants more, there will be other places for them to go that are still Elfworks Studios, and if anyone chooses to help Elfworks Studios evolve with a financial contribution, Patreon gives them a place to do that.Patreon Link

Shifting Patterns

It is now winter and I need to settle down to work – to really work on the business – the making of stuff, the promotion of stuff, hopefully even the selling of stuff. Once again, this means looking at how I do things and what will get me motivated.

Winter sets in at Wareham for another year

I've been doing lots of little bits of tidying up – clearing little annoyances off the lists to help clear a path for me to have less that can potentially “call me away” from the tasks before me. Once again, I'm studying my spaces – particularly my desk, to try to figure out what will work for me. I already know that I need to like a space to want to work there. A good space helps draw me to it, gives me an anticipation and excitement, inspires me. That doesn't mean it has to be beautiful or perfect – but it has to have an inviting energy...I guess that's the best way for me to describe it. It has to be comfortable or I will spend my time being distracted by all the things that serve as an irritation in the space.

I need too, to find my groove. I've been trying different patterns of the day to see what fits. For a while I was working on the pattern my partner uses – practical in many ways, particularly in the wintertime when it is colder. It seemed a good fit, since I have a more nocturnal habit and I prefer my waking to be a more relaxed affair.  Get up, make tea, go to the computer and start there – doing email, communications, writing and all that. Then move on to the other work – the making and doing late morning or after lunch, depending on how much time the computer work took.

I've been trying to make that pattern work for quite a while now, because it is good logically. I'm finally admitting that it does not work for me. I get onto the computer and I get lost. I lose my drive, I lose my creativity, I lose my will. I find it draining.

The computer is something that I find useful, but I've never become enamoured with digital tools. When I am brutally honest, I kind of hate most computer work. It is okay for writing, and some of the stuff can be interesting for a short while. Figuring out how a program works and what it can do for you, the ability to do print work and manipulate photographs for use can be interesting. It doesn't hold me though, and it carries as much frustration as it does interest. There is too much relying on something I only vaguely understand for me. And it is constantly changing, not just the how but the rules and the speed and the capacity. There is too much time wasted on things that are "necessary evils,"(no offense meant to all the computer oriented people out there.

I've also done enough time working in offices where the computer was where I was stuck all day (or all night) that it has always represented work for me, and not my favourite work by any means. I know just enough about them that certain things are very easy for me, and I type well enough that they are an incredibly useful tool. I know just little enough about them that I find them frustrating and often arbitrary, temperamental and sometimes vindictive toward me. They have been known to inexplicably cut me off from what feels like lifetimes of work with no recourse. I can see the file, but I can't open the file – or some such madness. The computer and I are not best friends.

My desk is nice and close to the stove.

I still like handwriting things, stories, poems, letters. I type faster than I write, but I like the feel of writing. When I read, I take notes by hand – the act of writing the notes out helps me to cement the knowledge in my brain. I have noticed that the more time I spend on a computer the less I am able to remember things I know that I know. And I can tell that the increased screen time is beginning to mess with my eyes – and as a wigmaker particularly, my eyesight is something that is very dear to me.

So I am trying new patterns. Read first thing in the morning – whether for work or pleasure. Come to the computer at lunchtime or thereabouts....and limit it to lunchtime, then another quick shot at the end of the day just before dinner. Take days off, entirely, from it...something I used to do with regularity and do rarely in recent months. Ideally I will start with a walk in the morning – or most mornings. Or stretching at least – something active rather than sedentary. The computer may get relegated entirely to just before dinner, at least some days. I know there will be days, if I am to manage to survive, that will have to be all computer – the digital world will demand it. But I can hope that they will be strategic, rather than habit.

There will be lots of patterns tried and tossed, I'm sure, before I find the one that works here, in this space and time. I am just glad that I've stopped following blindly based on habit and trying to convince myself that I can make something so unsuited to me work.  With every step, I learn - (or I hope I do.)  There is lots of winter left.  Come spring, patterns will shift again.