So I’ve been hinting at some ideas for changing how I run this site - mainly because I need to increase income from it - and the last day or so I’ve realised the changes need to be bigger - much bigger - than I imagined.

Follow up:

See, over the weekend I’d been catching up on some blog reading from Bad Astronomy, in particular the post on politics and religion. This is basically the author’s rant on how he’s sick and tired of how people complain that he often doesn’t write about astronomy, but heads off into stuff about politics, religion, and other topics. In the post, he reminds people that it’s his blog, and he’ll write what he wants - and that his blog is in fact skewed towards skepticism, rather than ‘just astronomy’.

It got me thinking about my own site, and how frustrated I’ve been feeling about the direction it’s been going. After reading the post, I suddenly see things clearly on how I’m going to go about it. This includes a lot of stuff I’ve been thinking about before, but a lot of new ideas too.

For a start, I’m reclaiming my site. Because it grew naturally out of blogging about my builds, and has become a behemoth of a general FAQ about puppetry, I’m going to try and remind myself every day that this is my site, and I’ll run it how I want. (No offense to you readers; but if I cater to other people’s whims rather than my own, I’ll very quickly lose passion for doing this anyway) I’m going to develop a set of rules: things I’ll write about, things I won’t. I kind of started writing a short list of things that bug me, and will go over it, update it, and create a policy for myself based on that.

So in that vein, I’m going in a completely new direction. This site’s taken a lot of changes, due to my changing needs, and the largeness of what I’ve been attempting to do. Now I’m going to kind of set in on a proper course; stop treating it like I used to (a mere archive of my builds) and treat it like it is (a fairly decent compilation of puppetry info).

What I’m planning is to split this site into two: the shop, and the learn online page. This is something I learned from my Arts Hub days: the creators originally had forums and all sorts of stuff, but found that nobody used them. They realised if they stuck to their main aims (news and jobs), then they had better quality content, a better product overall, and more interest from members.

My offline attempts this year - and last - have shown me that it’s not only unnecessary to try to diversify myself away from the net, but it’s also an incredible waste of my time. There are far fewer opportunities offline for me, because I don’t have constant contact with local venues or companies; don’t have a decent profile with any particular community group or event; because I’m not a performer and don’t wish to do children’s shows; because Sticky Apple Legs has literally no money for a new show; and I don’t have the same opportunities I would in say, the US. Limiting myself to an online campaign, is in the long run, easier for me, and proving much more economically viable. (When I released my latest shadow puppet, I also did a test campaign on Etsy, posted the info on Puppet Hub, Puppets and Stuff, and Puptcrit; and got one sale and a whole host of comments and views. As compared to the half-hearted glimpses of bewildered passers-by at the market and elsewhere)

This is serious. I’m at the natural stage in the process to say that I really need to sit down, have a business plan (or something akin to that), get some advice, and make this work. It’s clear to me from the growing popularity of the site that I can indeed make this earn some money, and I just have to sort out the proper mechanisms to do so.

So this is how it’s going to work (vaguely, I’m still working on the how, when, and what):

• I’m not going to be doing anything offline (at least probably not, perhaps shadow puppet classes in the future, but I’m thinking in a few years’ time). The 2010 School of Puppetry is still going ahead, but I will not plan anything after that, even if those classes end up being popular and well-received.
• Because of that, I’m developing a whole plan of attack for the website. The mantra: shop and tutorials.
• I’m really feeling comfortable working within shadow puppetry. It’s obviously where my talent lies, and as such I’m going to discontinue working in other areas. How this will affect the current products (puppet eyes, noses, and the moppet patterns), I’m not sure yet. The eyes and noses are especially popular both locally and internationally, but I do believe that continuing to offer them will confused potential customers as to what exactly I offer and what I am interested in making. I do get tired of fielding the question: “do you make muppets?” This is going to apply to the FAQ too, I’m only going to post content and do tutorials I’m interested in (although of course, there will be overlap with what you the reader, wants. I’m just saying I’m going to continue doing what I’ve been doing, but not do polls on what kind of puppet to make next, etc.)
• On the same point, I am however thinking of taking the moppet patterns, splitting them into smaller pieces, and offering them as small pattern downloads at a few dollars a pop (in the same vein as my idea to offer video tutorials, and may complement the patterns with videos at a later stage), removing the big patterns from my shop, and just having them linked in the FAQ. In this way I can still get some use out of the patterns (and the hard work I put in), but not have them so visible on my shop…. And it occurs to me that the noses and eyes can also be turned into tutorials, and this way I can still get some ‘use’ out of the design without necessarily offering the products as handmade items personally.
• I am considering removing my shadow puppet patterns too, as I don’t seem to sell a lot of those. Even if I don’t remove them, I am going to overhaul the instructions, to make them a little more parent/teacher friendly. That’s mainly to do with the instructions for the rods.
• I’m going to continue widening my shadow puppet range
• I will definitely be moving to tutorials in bite-size, pay-as-you-go format. Although in my poll, having a monthly magazine was winning, I decided that hey, it is my blog, my site and it’s best to go with the manner which is more comfortable for me. You don’t like it, too bad. I don’t like the idea of having to force myself to come up with content every month and pack it in to some sort of magazine or CD. I do like the idea of releasing content as and when suits me, so I can fit it in between sales, builds, and getting new tutorials to look and sound good. It’s better to take time with these things than have really crap content.
• I am probably going to write a few mini books, one of which I’m halfway through.
• The forums are going. Apologies to anyone who signed up (or had that old membership thing - if you got a membership, please email me and let me know. I have some ideas as to how to compensate you for the loss of the membership stuff), but nobody uses them. I also recently had to remove the sign-up function because of a particularly nasty troll who’s been visiting my site and didn’t want them signing up under my radar. People use the commenting system so much more anyway, so I may as well kill the forums and continue as before.
• The Gallery page will get an update, just to remove old pics, things I’m no longer happy to have in there, and simply to make it more oriented towards shadow puppetry
• I may consider moving the NPF diary in with my blog page, just so that I can reduce the site down into a more palatable and navigable set of pages. This may occur with the links too, I may put them in with the FAQ.
• I’d really love to be able to completely split the two things out (ie. the FAQ on a different domain name than the shop/blog stuff), but I don’t think I will. Although the FAQ now seems to warrant it’s own site, I don’t want to lose all that good Googley love that I’ve got going. This may be something for down the track though. UPDATE: I’ve changed my mind on this. They really do need to separate, at least for my own clarity’s sake.
• I’m going to consider overhauling the FAQ layout. It’s getting incredibly difficult to navigate all the posts, and though the related links is helping, I find I’m doing searches for content just because it’s easier than scrolling.
• I will be seeking advice from my ex-bosses David and Fiona, because I really think their insight into online businesses will help, especially in terms of upscaling the site, earning money from it, and marketing strategies. I’ll also seek their advice about layout and design, although I may check out how feasible it is to get a web designer, or have a similar layout to Bakerella. She recently upgraded her Wordpress blog and while there’s a lot on her site, it’s easy to navigate and visually interesting. I don’t, of course, have the budget for a designer, but I would at least like a professional to tell me what’s wrong and what’s right with my site: I get a little blind and don’t see my site as an average reader does.
• I’m going to think about having two templates, one for the FAQ and one for the shop. And changing it so the FAQ is more of a “brought to you by Puppets in Melbourne", than part of the Puppets in Melbourne site itself.
• I’m going to attempt to invest more time in getting better photos. My camera isn’t really designed for professional shots, but (again) I don’t have the budget for a new one either - and I’m not one to buy something when I already have a useful, if not fabulous, camera already.
• At 20 000 hits per month over the last 6 months or so, and growing, I have the potential for a really unique FAQ. So I’m also going to look at the feasibility and functionality to offer online workshops - for a fee of course - and other content. There’s a real, growing market for it, and I already have a discussion going with Gary Friedman about getting something similar going. So it can’t hurt to also look into it for myself.
• Note more for myself: A reminder to change my ABN to reflect the PIM name
• Another note: time to upgrade the blog program. I’m on version 2.4.2, and version 3 has been out for a while and is a lot better (save and edit feature!)
• I’m going to clean out a whole bunch of materials and tools bought that I won’t need, seeing as how I’m going to avoid making other puppet types. I will buy items as necessary when they’re required for tutorials, but need to do a massive clean out anyway as it’s getting a little crowded at home.