I’m a new Insider so a big hello to all you Insiders out there!
Lovely to read about your fellowship experience, Nishant. Don’t know why but I feel proud that you were 1 of 11 of 200 :) Your piece sparked enough thoughts for me to issue a TL;DR alert upfront. There’s probably a ton of angles I haven’t considered so take it with a dose of salt.
One way to think about the free vs paid question is to say that the system you’ve is the inverse of a decoy pricing model. In decoy, Small is $5, Medium is $7.5, and Large is $8. The point is to nudge people to buy Large. With you, there’s no Small. Medium is $0 and Large is $8. So, it is possible that most people are attracted to Medium.
Perhaps you could consider your free content differently. Since your free stuff is in multiple formats, you could close off one (videos?). Before that, I would first put out a lot more videos than you have previously, make it a more key part of what you share, and then shave it away from free.
A couple of thoughts on communities. Average web community is great for the watchers/lurkers and it is always left to the 2-3% initiators to drive things. So, if you could make the average member invest a bit more into the community, they perhaps would care more. Throwing out ideas here. Gamification (system of redeemable rewards for participation) or grandfather pricing (for those who add the most value to the group) or featuring members’ work or even initiation rituals (everyone has to introduce themselves through a limerick).
Your point about the decoy pricing model is great. I tried that for a while with BuyMeACoffee, but it's frankly unsustainable for a single creator. I would much rather keep it simple on both ends - myself and readers. Now that I am becoming more comfortable with different media, shaving one away from free is where I am leaning as well. Once the current experiment is done, I will try to play some more games.
Re: community, those are some good ideas. Offering prints and originals is my first step towards enticing more members to participate, and I continue to think of more ideas.
I just finished reading this post. Lots of information to digest and so relevant. It presented a great many points for reflection. Your work has always been this beautiful immersion of words, art, and mental thought. There is a richness that you allow us to take away and put into our lives every time we come from exploring and experiencing your work, whether it be your newsletter, a sketch from IG or TikTok or your podcasts. I would love to offer you ideas at this time, if I had any right now, but your creative fountain of possibilities seems infinite and amazes us. For example, even your questions impress and astound your guests and they have said this on many podcasts. Whatever our gifts are, we are all here to enrich the lives of others, to share them and at the risk of sounding cliché, to make this world a better place. I especially favored the post and sketches when you were with your family. That was heartwarming and human. We all need a sprinkle of warmth to the heart as often as it is available. I know everyone they chose for this fellowship program well-deserved it. Since I am not as familiar with the other candidates, I can only say that I was so excited you were chosen. It could not have been more appropos. I am truly looking forward to your expansion in this new year. However you walk this path, I am sure it will be glorious! Good luck and thank you for sharing your gift, Nishant!!
For me, my favorite thing from you is the podcast. It gives me a little of everything - your illustration journey and methods, your thoughts on many different ideas, and of course hearing from your guests. Also, it fits into my daily life better because I can listen on my run and my daily commute. An idea that would be interesting to me that you haven’t done much is to record a podcast of just yourself and your thoughts on a topic. I am new to illustration and I am not trying to earn a living from it so the topics that interest me most are about learning in general, methods, resources, how you and other people learned illustration and how you fit it into your daily life.
Regarding your question about social media, I have not used it to promote my work for profit but it’s the only thing I use it for - to post my drawings and look at other artists’ work - but I find it all very concerning after watching the documentary Social Dilemma and reading a few books about it and have since removed the apps from my phone so I don’t engage nearly as much.
I really enjoyed seeing the story about you on the news. It’s the first time I’ve seen a video of you and it’s nice to put a face to your voice.
Hello Lisa! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I am delighted to hear how the podcast fits into your routine. Your idea for my speaking my thoughts on various topics is great. It is something I have wanted to do for awhile, and you can see some of my attempts in past Insider posts. But I still have not pushed myself to do this regularly or to release it to the wider audience. I'm going to take your words as inspiration to change that. It is certainly part of my plans for a project starting next month.
I agree with you completely about social media. It is today nothing but a poisonous presence in our lives, tearing us away from our reality and reducing us to machines. I wish I could afford to be off Instagram and TikTok, but I try everyday to use them in only the most functional ways.
I’m a new Insider so a big hello to all you Insiders out there!
Lovely to read about your fellowship experience, Nishant. Don’t know why but I feel proud that you were 1 of 11 of 200 :) Your piece sparked enough thoughts for me to issue a TL;DR alert upfront. There’s probably a ton of angles I haven’t considered so take it with a dose of salt.
One way to think about the free vs paid question is to say that the system you’ve is the inverse of a decoy pricing model. In decoy, Small is $5, Medium is $7.5, and Large is $8. The point is to nudge people to buy Large. With you, there’s no Small. Medium is $0 and Large is $8. So, it is possible that most people are attracted to Medium.
Perhaps you could consider your free content differently. Since your free stuff is in multiple formats, you could close off one (videos?). Before that, I would first put out a lot more videos than you have previously, make it a more key part of what you share, and then shave it away from free.
A couple of thoughts on communities. Average web community is great for the watchers/lurkers and it is always left to the 2-3% initiators to drive things. So, if you could make the average member invest a bit more into the community, they perhaps would care more. Throwing out ideas here. Gamification (system of redeemable rewards for participation) or grandfather pricing (for those who add the most value to the group) or featuring members’ work or even initiation rituals (everyone has to introduce themselves through a limerick).
Welcome, Satyajit.
Your point about the decoy pricing model is great. I tried that for a while with BuyMeACoffee, but it's frankly unsustainable for a single creator. I would much rather keep it simple on both ends - myself and readers. Now that I am becoming more comfortable with different media, shaving one away from free is where I am leaning as well. Once the current experiment is done, I will try to play some more games.
Re: community, those are some good ideas. Offering prints and originals is my first step towards enticing more members to participate, and I continue to think of more ideas.
Thank you for your comment!
I just finished reading this post. Lots of information to digest and so relevant. It presented a great many points for reflection. Your work has always been this beautiful immersion of words, art, and mental thought. There is a richness that you allow us to take away and put into our lives every time we come from exploring and experiencing your work, whether it be your newsletter, a sketch from IG or TikTok or your podcasts. I would love to offer you ideas at this time, if I had any right now, but your creative fountain of possibilities seems infinite and amazes us. For example, even your questions impress and astound your guests and they have said this on many podcasts. Whatever our gifts are, we are all here to enrich the lives of others, to share them and at the risk of sounding cliché, to make this world a better place. I especially favored the post and sketches when you were with your family. That was heartwarming and human. We all need a sprinkle of warmth to the heart as often as it is available. I know everyone they chose for this fellowship program well-deserved it. Since I am not as familiar with the other candidates, I can only say that I was so excited you were chosen. It could not have been more appropos. I am truly looking forward to your expansion in this new year. However you walk this path, I am sure it will be glorious! Good luck and thank you for sharing your gift, Nishant!!
I appreciate this very much, Celeste. Your comments always give me strength and renewed purpose. Thank you very much!
Hi Nishant,
For me, my favorite thing from you is the podcast. It gives me a little of everything - your illustration journey and methods, your thoughts on many different ideas, and of course hearing from your guests. Also, it fits into my daily life better because I can listen on my run and my daily commute. An idea that would be interesting to me that you haven’t done much is to record a podcast of just yourself and your thoughts on a topic. I am new to illustration and I am not trying to earn a living from it so the topics that interest me most are about learning in general, methods, resources, how you and other people learned illustration and how you fit it into your daily life.
Regarding your question about social media, I have not used it to promote my work for profit but it’s the only thing I use it for - to post my drawings and look at other artists’ work - but I find it all very concerning after watching the documentary Social Dilemma and reading a few books about it and have since removed the apps from my phone so I don’t engage nearly as much.
I really enjoyed seeing the story about you on the news. It’s the first time I’ve seen a video of you and it’s nice to put a face to your voice.
I hope this is useful!
Lisa
Hello Lisa! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I am delighted to hear how the podcast fits into your routine. Your idea for my speaking my thoughts on various topics is great. It is something I have wanted to do for awhile, and you can see some of my attempts in past Insider posts. But I still have not pushed myself to do this regularly or to release it to the wider audience. I'm going to take your words as inspiration to change that. It is certainly part of my plans for a project starting next month.
I agree with you completely about social media. It is today nothing but a poisonous presence in our lives, tearing us away from our reality and reducing us to machines. I wish I could afford to be off Instagram and TikTok, but I try everyday to use them in only the most functional ways.