If you have a website, forum or blog and would like to enlist your readers to help save HijiNKS ENSUE you can use these banners:

Please HotLink the images directly so I can update them with new donation subscription totals.
Please link the images to:

http://www.hijinksensue.com/donations

You can also link your readers to this post for more info about what’s going on:

http://hijinksensue.com/2008/08/05/the-state-of-the-experiment-save-hijinks-ensue/

Check out the sidebar to the right and you will see the updated donation subscription totals. As of this post we are at $325/month. That’s 13% of the $2500/month goal.

Thanks, guys!

Greetings Fancy Bastards and casual readers alike.

Four months ago I began an experiment, provoked by the sudden loss of my day job, to see if I could make a living from HijiNKS Ensue. In that time I’ve focused almost exclusively on the content of HE (the comics, the podcast, etc) and the community (emails, comments, the forum, Twitter), and less so on the capitalist endeavors. I did launch a New Store last month. I also began offering Comic Prints and Custom Designed Avatars for the first time, but I haven’t added to the shirts the way I intended.

I agreed to run that experiment for 4-6 months depending on how my finances held up. I must have run the numbers pretty accurately because in two months I’ll be out of funds (as in unable to pay bills). Considering the job market, I certainly can’t wait 60 days to START looking for work.

I believe in slow, managed growth of a business. This is why I haven’t jumped the gun and plastered the site with ads, put up 40 crappy shirt designs, or rushed a book to print. I want to do these things right. The truth is that this IS going to take longer than 6 months. I feel like if I quit now (return to a day job) I won’t be able to recapture the momentum I’ve gained since beginning the Experiment.  Quitting now would most likely mean the end of HijiNKS Ensue.

So, is this the end of The Experiment? Not necessarily (this is where you come in).

I have 100% faith that given another 6 months to a year I will have no problem generating a full time income (enough to support my family, pay for our modest house and cars, and not be entirely broke at the end of the month).

After much deliberation, the only solution I have arrived at is a DONATION DRIVE.

If we can come up with at least half of the income I need to meet my monthly obligations ($2000-$2500) through Donations, I should be able to continue The Experiment. I don’t plan for this to be a permanent solution, but rather a stop gap measure to buy more time until ads, and t-shirts and such can really take over supporting the site.

To this effect I have set up PAYPAL DONATION SUBSCRIPTIONS. This will allow you to set up a recurring monthly donation of $5, $10 or $20. You are certainly still welcomed to make one time donations in any amount you are comfortable with. The subscriptions will allow me to better gauge how much to expect each month, but a donation of $50 or more has the same effect as a 1 year subscription. Subscribers will get access to The Vault each month. Regular donors will get Vault access for the month they donate.

The DONATION DRIVE TO SAVE HIJINKS ENSUE is starting today. If, at the end of 30 days, things are looking promising I will continue the Experiment for as long as possible. If they are not looking so promising I will have to find a (real) job and scale back my involvement in HE. This will most likely mean less comics and fewer (to zero) Podcasts.

“I Don’t Want to Subscribe. How Can I Still Help?”

Glad you asked.  Again, you are welcomed to make a one time donation. This is very much appreciated. Many of you have given more than I would ever expect and for that I am very grateful.

You also don’t have to contribute and get nothing in return. You can still purcase T-Shirts, Comic Prints and Avatars. I’ll be adding new print packages and shirts to the store this week (if possible).

Since starting the experiment 4 months ago I have received around $1000 in one time donations and $110 in donation subscriptions. The goal is roughly 20 times that number of subscriptions to keep HE alive. Can we do it? I sure as hell hope so, because this has been the most rewarding work I have ever done. I LOVE THIS JOB and I don’t want to give it up without a fight.

Regardless of what happens I want to thank you all, you Fancy Bastards, for you support both financially and emotionally. Your encouragement and generosity never cease to astound me. Often I’ll find myself in a moment of self doubt and at just the right moment receive an email from a reader telling me that HE is the favorite comic or a notification from Payapl saying someone just donated $100. $100!?

I’ll add a counter to the sidebar so you can see how close we are to the goal. The next 30 days will decide the future of HE, so let’s make it count.

Thanks,

Joel Watson

“Godspeed, You Fancy Bastards”

The all new HijiNKS Ensue store is up and running at www.hijinksensuestore.com.

All the shirts from the old store are there, and for the first time you can buy Signed HijiNKS Ensue Comic prints.

I’m very excited about the new store and the prints, so please check them out and give me your feedback.

If you’ve been following The Experiment you know that HijiNKS Ensue is now my full time job. Thus I am at least mildly interested in making a full time living from this endeavor.

To further that end I have (finally) launched my donation incentives site “The HijiNKS Ensue Vault of Secret Awesome.“

Every donation will get you access to:

• Desktop Wallpapers
  (New Desktops Each Month!)
• Behind the Scenes Art
  and Blog Entries
• Works in Progress
• Original Sketches/ Concept Art
• Exclusive Audio & Video
• Contests and Giveaways

If you have already donated you’ll be getting an email with a password to access The Vault. Also, considering the month’s almost over I’ll be using the same password from now through July.

I’ve posted a few cool behind the scenes things on the vault, as well as desktops, and will be adding to it all through out the month. If you have ideas for Vault content feel free to drop me a line.

You can learn more about how Donations fit into the HijiNKS Ensue Experiment here on the new Donations Page.

If you enjoy any part of HijiNKS Ensue (the comic, the blog, the forum, the podcast or the videos) and you want to show your support, please consider donating through Paypal.

Here’s a piece of the original sketch from Monday’s comic:

I’ll be showing off more rough art, unpublished ideas, and complete orignal comic sketches (before the comics go live) on the Super Secret Blog that only HijiNKS Ensue Donators will have access too. I’m working on this now and hope to have it all squared away this week. Anyone that has EVER donated to HE in the past will have access to this content as if they donated the month it goes live.

It’s going to work like this: if you make a donation, you’ll get a password emailed to you that will give you access to the Super Secret Blog (need to pick a name for this). You’ll be able to view all the content from the beginning up through the month that you donated. The password will change each month. If you donate the last few days of the month, you WILL get next month’s password.

I’ll be posting: 

• Unfinished/Rough Art for comics, books and shirts, etc
• Monthly Desktop Backgrounds
• Videos and Audio that won’t be seen on HijiNKSEnsue.com
• Behind the scenes blog posts and such
• Various contests, drawings and other fun stuff

Remember, Donations are just that… donations. If you want to buy something valued equal to that of your monetary expenditure, please visit the store. If you want to help support me for making the comic, the podcast, the video blog, the forum, etc, etc, etc. then please consider donating. The Super Secret Blog and extra content will serve only as incentives or “thank you’s” for your generous contributions, and are not intended to be any sort of subscription based premium content.

Regardless, I’ll be playing this by ear and listening to your suggestions and feedback. Hopefully this will turn into a fun part of the HE experience, and help allow me to continue making the comic/podcast/etc. by supporting myself with these endeavors. 

Oh, I met an HE reader (that I didnt already know) for the first time. We were at a karaoke party hosted by FarrisG. He was a damn fine singer and had shoes with toes… like barefoot shoes.

“60 Day State of the Experiment”

Also, check out 3 new pages on the site with info about the Experiment:

The Experiment Overview  |  The Whole HE Story |  The “Digital Age” Artist’s Manifesto

“The Cost of Doing Business”

Part of my Video Blog where I record the trials and tribulations of trying to make a living from my webcomic. The end goal is to create a road map for creative people to earn an honest living from their creativity.

This one is about mainstream artists and others that subscribe to the same philosophy as “The Experiment.”

A glimpse into some of the initial mistakes I made with the first round of shirts. Nothing negative. Just learning from, and trying not to repeat them.

Cuz’ it’s the first of May.

If you ordered a shirt from April 3rd to April 18th (or so), it is shipped. All except for a few unlucky Fancy Bastards that ordered XL Roslin ‘08 Mens shirts. I was a dumbass and ordered 2 too few of those. I will make it up to them with special presents. Maybe I’ll send them a free print of any comic of their choice. Lesson for next time: order extras of popular designs.

Speaking of, I have 1 extra Godspeed shirt in a men’s large. If you are in need of such a thing, it will go out very quickly because it’s sitting on my desk.

I’m sending off the next round of shirts to the printer tomorrow, so if you want to get in on that batch, head over to THE STORE.

I’ll be posting a video blog shortly with my first impression of trying to be a clothing store disguised as a web comic. I made LOTS of mistakes this time, and learned many tips and tricks for next time. You’ll notice a few changes in the store based on what I learned:

• 2XL and 3XL (adding 3XL soon) will be $2 more because they cost me more to print and more to ship. I had no idea.
• Shipping to Canada will be $7. I figured it would be cheap to ship to Canada. It’s not.
• Shipping in the US will be $4.50. Turns out I have to pay for Envelopes and Labels and other crap.
• Ladies Shirts will be $1 more than mens. They actually cost me $2 more but I would feel shitty charging $2 more just because you have boobies.

The whole “Experiment” is just that, so I am learning more about the realities of full time comicing each day.

Look for a new video blog, and Podcast 13 this week, and a new comic tomorrow.

Last thing: Check out FB Aaron’s plans for the Shitty VHS Movie Challenge.  (original post here) Also check out his very kind review of the comic and the podcast.

Godspeed, you Fantastical Motherfuckers! (doesn’t have the same ring to it)