Patreon: I changed my mind...

OK, call me a hypocrite...

So let's just pull the bandaid off the wound and get it over with...

Last week I opened up a Patreon page.

I know in the past I'd expressed a distaste for how the service has become an incubator for far too many self-important podcasting types.  

Do we really need to provide a platform for the next Ryan Seacrest?  

Psy - Gangnam Style

Would the world be worse off if Psy or Justin Bieber had remained in obscurity?  

For most people the answer is obvious but somehow the cringeworthy still manage to have fans and make a living off being annoying.

We live in a social world with varied tastes.  It's both blessing and curse which has lead me down paths of discovery impossible less than a decade earlier.

If you can't beat 'em....

Over the years I've had well wishers and encouragement but none of it ever seemed to translate into an activity that could support itself.  

Here's the difference between me and the other guys..

I don't for one minute think I'm entitled to anyone's money for the kind of work I put out there.  Nobody is paying me a salary or directing what I do.  

It's not unlike my IT consulting career.  You can't expect compensation just because you hung up a shingle.  Someone other than you has to find value in whatever it is you're offering.  

As such, I'm well aware that the world owes me nothing.

That's the part I don't like about most Patreon creators.  There's this prevailing attitude among them that what they do is important just BECAUSE of the value THEY put on it.

I look at it differently.  If someone wants to support what I do I appreciate that and it validates what I've been working so hard to accomplish.

I have no fantasies that what I may write or produce in a video is anything but an expression of my own creativity and ideas.  

I hope to entertain and inform but none of it is an edict.  I'm not demanding anyone find what I do valuable.  I'm just hoping you enjoy and find my work useful.

I am an authority on nothing but my own experiences.  If that experience is of value to you then I appreciate your support of my voice.

If it isn't, no harm no foul.

Because I grew up in a time where traditional ideas about work were still very much in force it's taken me a while to fully embrace the idea of doing something different.

Even as an independent IT consultant I still operated my business as though it were a regular job.  My schedule may not have been 9 to 5 but my time was never really my own.  I was actually working MORE than I ever did as someone's employee.

Which isn't unlike a lot of folks making a living online these days.  So I was halfway there.  It's just taken me awhile to accept that online is a viable career path.

Considering how bad the job market has become even for skilled people like myself I'd be stupid to ignore the possibility.

But it is hard to make money online and the paltry payouts from blogging, Amazon and YouTube have forced alternatives.  For now that's Patreon.

So I've come into the fold but I don't expect much.  I'm hoping to be surprised but that doesn't mean I don't have to work at it.

If you want to help me out just click the Patreon button up in the corner and know that I profoundly appreciate it.

Thanks and see you soon!