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Thursday, September 17, 2015

Fun Funds



There are a lot of people having their adventures and posting their experiences on-line. I'm following a lot of people on sailboats, but also van dwellers and other travelers. One trend I've noticed is that a fair number have set up Patreon accounts. That's one way to help fund their adventures. I've mixed feelings about that.

One one hand if people want to donate money that's their business. Maybe they enjoy their adventures vicariously. Sending a few dollars to keep the blogs and videos coming is a reasonable price to pay for the entertainment. In a way it's not all that different from donating money to keep public radio and TV stations on the air.

On the other hand it would feel weird to me. Why should someone else fund my good times? Of course, I'm a terrible businessman and neglect many money making opportunities. Then again, I have noticed some of the more successful sites feature a lot of youthful women in bikinis. (I'm sure I'd look terrible in a bikini)

To be fair, I do have a regular source of income. It might be small, but it's consistent. Other people do what they have to do. Some practice their trade while traveling. That's great for writers and artists who can work from anywhere. Other people have skills that have value all over the world.

I wish I could remember where I read about the guy who made two circumnavigations around the world. The first trip cost him a few thousand dollars. At the end of the second trip he had more money than he started with.

Joshua Slocum, the fist man to sail single handled around the world, was able to make a fair amount of money off it. In the days before the Internet people would gather to listen to interesting speakers tell their tales. Joshua also wrote a book about his adventures and it holds up well even today. Here's a free copy of it.

Maybe if Patreon was available to him back in the day he'd have made good use of it.

-Sixbears

8 comments:

  1. guessing that some would pay you NOT to don a bikini?

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  2. Never heard of Patreon, so I watched some videos. It seems it would be a good idea to raise money for a project, but you would have to work really hard to keep the cash flow going. Maybe it would be better just to save for it yourself.

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    1. It's like working any other sort of fund raiser -it's actual work.

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  3. Hmmm. I'm a little scared of seeing you in a bikini.Don't want to deal with that. I don't do pay pal but I'd make a donation. I donate to Dakin snail mail.

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    1. You should be scared -it wouldn't be pretty. I'm not begging for funds. I do have advertisement on the site but that doesn't come out of my readers' pockets.

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  4. Remember Alby Mangel, the Australian who sailed all over the world, and made 8mm movies of his trips. Then he would go to small towns all over Australia and show them in the town hall, or a pup, or a school. He charged a small fee for entrance and narrated them himself. Later A&E bought the films, sound tracked them, digitized them, and put them on their channel . They were really, really good.

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  5. Very cool post and oh, so true! Passing on the bikini is probably a good idea!

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