Disclaimer: These are ramblings based on my own explorations!
If you’re a small business, an entrepreneur, a creative or an Artist, the digital landscape has much to offer now.
There’s the Facilitators for your work – the Society6s, the Curioos’, VIDAs and RedBubbles to name a few. They will publish; print; ship and number your work, with varying percentages according to the licences you give them.. If your work is found, if your work is good.. on trend, or timeless. It’ll make you a penny or two if you sell enough- and all you need to do is make it – they do the rest.
There’s the Crowdfunded approach, with Kickstarter and Patreon – got a good idea? Got something pressing you must do and some support would be appreciated?
Even Amanda Palmer is releasing Music this way. So you make it, Talk about it, Share a little exclusive content, collaborations limited editions – Get yourself noticed and you, like many others can at least- supplement your income – with a dollar or two, or five or ten, per month per piece, however you like.
Then there’s the Etsys and Ebays, The WordPress, Shopify and the rest, The Marketplaces.
Here’s the platforms, large and small, with communities, and Back-end content Management Systems of varying complexity, You don’t need to be an enterprise size business to be on the field- the enterprise businesses want you there – and will give you some of what you need. Then it’s up to you. To ship it, make it, print it, write it, sell it, promote it, keep them all happy and more than anything- get noticed.
Then there’s the Fivers, and PeopleperHours, the freelancer portals for remote work. A sea of customers and opportunity. an endless supply of collaborators and partners. Quick fix and a Quick buck. You can be on both sides of the coin, hire a pro, or sell your services or both. For a cut. And at Cut price. You can offer further services that would take you an age, or just wouldn’t meet your own expectations- for a fraction of the cost by subcontracting. And you will see what your day rate is worth in India. Work quick though, build up a reputation – It almost feels like a game- pounds for points. But this is a very real source of income, again, to supplement – not necessarily replace your bread and butter ventures.
Is that the landscape? Are these the places we want to draw our audience, our clients, our customers?
And the channels? the methods? How do we get heard?
Thanks for reading, I’m exploring some of these things and will be launching my own Patreon, you can read more here