[crossposted from my Patreon Activity Stream]
I just received my first Patreon payment:
Apr 1, 2014 at 2:00 am
+$1,046.52 processed to your account from your patrons.
$1,167.30 Pledged / $62.40 CC Fees / $58.38 Patreon
…and I just wanted to share some updates about what’s going on with my Patreon and the various rewards I’m currently working on.
The 6 year anniversary of The Experiment is just around the corner and, as of yesterday, I have officially begun my next phase of it… it being The Experiment… ANYWAY I STARTED A PATREON!
It’s just like the monthly donation subscriptions I’ve always done with Paypal, but now you don’t HAVE to use Paypal, and I have a cool backend for managing rewards and such. It’s also got a bit of Kickstarter peppered in for good measure, in that there are rewards tiers for donations and milestone goals that unlock more comics, more content and more awesome along the way.
Don’t have time to read all of this? Watch the video I made explaining everything. It’s only 3.5 minutes and my adorable Kiddo steals the show.
Pledge at $3, $5, $10, $20, $50 or $100 a month and you will be supporting me being able to do what I love for a living: Making comics.
I’ve posted a new Experiment Video Blog over on my YouTube channel (SUBSCRIBE HERE).
It also contains my method for dealing with a scratch on your Wacom Cintiq or other expensive, draw-right-on-me tablet PC type device. It also works for regular, non-monitor digital drawing tablets.
You can also watch the full stream of the Google Hangout I did with Jack Conte Of Pomplamoose and Patreon (a neat new way for content creators to get paid just to create content by the people that enjoy it) for Global Geekend/The Daily Elixir.
It was a great conversation about making it as a digital artist, and I’m a HUGE fan of Jack’s so I highly recommend listening to what he (and sometimes I) have to say. Pomplamoose had a huge effect on my original plan for The Experiment and I owe Jack a great deal for the inspiration that he provided when I was trying to figure out how to be professionally unemployed giving comics away for free.
Comments (2)
Today is the 5 year anniversary of The Experiment. That means HijiNKS ENSUE has been my full time job for the last 5 years. That also means it’s the longest job I’ve ever held. What I’d like to say is, “Thanks for sticking with me and making it possible for me to do what I love for a living. Without your support I would still be in some soul-sucking, creatively bankrupt job, but instead I get to do exactly what I want to for a living. It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done and I’m humbled and honored that I get to share it with you.” And while those statements are EXACTLY true, they are not the whole truth.
I started The Experiment with the goal of being extremely transparent about the successes and failures of trying to turn my passion into my job in the hopes that someone else would read about my experiences, be inspired to do their own thing and hopefully not have to make all of the same mistakes I’ve made. Over the last 5 years I’ve heard from at least a dozen people that started “experimenting” for themselves after following along with my adventure in self employment/ dream fulfillment. Other than being a father, I think that is probably the most important thing I will ever do. If even one person allows themselves to lead a full life of risk and passion and reward and danger and all of the things that are the antithesis of punching the clock, being miserable and constantly waiting for things to get better because of something I wrote or said or did, then I’ve left the world a little bit better than I found it.
If you are a fan of The Experiment and would like to see it continue, please consider making a donation, buying something from the HE Store or Sharksplode or checking out my Amazon Wishlist. I am quite literally 100% dependent on the kindness of strangers. It’s a weird job, I know.
If you want a ZERO DOLLAR way to support HijiNKS ENSUE, please post a few of your favorite HE comics to your site, blog or social media outlet of choice with a few words as to why you think your friends might enjoy reading HE as well.
Hearing from other “experimenters” is certainly one of the most positive outcomes of this whole ordeal. But transparency isn’t just about sharing the positivity. It’s also about sharing the hardships, and the uncertainty. Continue reading
I didn’t realize until after I got home from Emerald City Comicon that I had forgotten to mention the 4 year anniversary of The Experiment. I have officially been professionally unemployed making comics for 4 years as of March 31, 2012. People used to ask me all the time, ” How is the experiment going?” To which I would reply, “It’s going. I’m still doing it. There are ups and downs, but I haven’t given up.” The more and more I gave that answer, which I thought to be a bit an over simplified response seeing as how I didn’t want to get into the details of nearly missed mortgage payments, mounting credit card debt due to travel expenses and rest of the struggles that come with self employment with every person that asked, the more I realized it was actually the most honest answer I could give. There wasn’t actually an end goal for The Experiment. I never said, “If I can do this for 5 years, I have won.” The goal was to just keep doing it. To keep making comics for a living. To sustain myself and my family through following my passion and doing what I love. The unspecified addendum to that ideal was that in order for it to be a success, I had to keep doing it forever. So the actual and honest response to, “How’s The Experiment going?” is “As long as this is my job, I am winning.”Continue reading
@dragongears · 85 weeks ago
1 reply · active 85 weeks ago
hijinksensue· 85 weeks ago