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December 2nd, 2006

Giving cartoons away for free

meI was reading a post on this blog reviewing ‘The Long Tail’, a book and concept that has become popular in certain internet circles. I was struck by this line:

5. Don’t underestimate the power of free. You can build a business that involves 90% of your customers not paying anything (like Yahoo or Skype).

I went on to find a few other articles talking about giving what you do away for free. See Comment is free: Freeconomics and broadband Britain and Financial Times: Why giveaways are changing the rules of business.

I’m wondering whether it is possible to give cartoons away for free and still make money. Hugh does it:

Like I’ve said many times before, I much prefer giving away my cartoons for free, rather than trying to sell them. It saves everybody a lot of hassle, myself included.

I would absolutely love to open up all my cartoons to all churches everywhere to download and republish for nothing. I’d have to make my money via donations and other work that came my way as a result of the (hopefully) greater exposure.

Would it work? I’ve no idea. What do you think?

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7 Responses to “Giving cartoons away for free”


  1. Mary says:

    I think the key to some free sites is advertising and product placement. Or maybe you could offer a “basic service” for free, and an upgraded service which costs.

    You could try contacting suppliers of freebies see if they’ll tell you where they make their money. Freebies I have used are:
    AVG Antivirus
    Zonealarm
    Ad-aware
    Spybot

    to name but a few.

    December 2nd, 2006 at 7:21 pm
  2. Sarah B says:

    I think your license scheme whereby churches pay a set “donation” and then use as much as they want is kinda like that. I think I’d find it harder to get a voluntary donation through the usual channels of ecclesiastical accounting. So maybe you’re doing FREE already!

    December 2nd, 2006 at 9:02 pm
  3. MadPriest says:

    Anybody can have anything I come up with for nought but, as a priest, I get paid a stipend and so I don’t need payment. When you get to the point where you have enough money to live on (and no more) then think about giving more away. Alternatively, become a monk – but do ask your wife first (you’ve been married quite a few months now so she’ll probably say it’s o.k.).

    December 2nd, 2006 at 10:41 pm
  4. Richard says:

    Hugh can give his cartoons away for free thanks to his marketing involvement in Stormhoek – the people who ‘accidentally’ released their 40% discount voucher for Thresher on their blog, and are now getting free publicity on the BBC out of it – and English Cut, probably the best known Savoy Tailor in the world. Cartoons are just his sideline really.

    Having said that one ironic way he does sell his cartoons, which started off as designs on the back of business cards, is by selling them as business cards.

    December 3rd, 2006 at 9:50 pm
  5. Chris says:

    Dave, although I’m a big fan of giving stuff away, and think it’s a big part of the future, I’m not sure it’s the entire future. As it is you give away a lot of stuff already, and your licencing is both very reasonably-priced and extremely fair.

    Would you be able to generate the kind of buzz giving cartoons away just to churces? After all, the examples mentioned above have cast their net very wide to support themselves. I’m not saying ‘don’t do it’, I’m saying ‘know your market’.

    December 4th, 2006 at 9:35 am
  6. matt says:

    Dave,

    Thanks for an interesting post – I don’t agree with the idea of giving work away for free.

    It demeans the time and skill – and by implication, the craft – that allows things like good cartoons to be made.

    Best regards,

    Matt Buck
    Cartoonist
    http://www.mattbuck.com
    (Not very faith-based I’m afraid)

    December 4th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
  7. Katie says:

    Dave,

    I actually came to both of your websites while searching for “free cartoons for blogs”. (You had two listings on the first 2 search pages of Google… something a lot of people would kill for.) As a grad student and start-up blogger, I don’t have the money to pay for cartoons to put on my posts, but don’t like filling my page with only text. I only heard of you because you are offering some of your cartoons for free.

    But when I got the chance to see some of your offerings, I was really impressed and am looking forward to giving you publicity by using them on my blog. (And recommending you to other bloggers I know.)

    I was thrilled to find some quality cartoons I can use and I hope you keep letting bloggers use them for free. After all, you just gained one more blogger who will be checking your websites frequently!

    Regards,

    ~Katie

    December 17th, 2006 at 8:28 am