Update on T-shirts and Merchandise

I'm really not happy with the cafepress store I have set up now. There are too many limitations that outweigh the convenience of it. However, it is better than nothing, so feel free to buy stuff from it. I hope to get some other kind of store set up fairly soon with more options and more interesting products.

Several people have expressed interest in particular designs that they want on a t-shirt. My suggestion to you is to create the t-shirt yourself through cafepress. It's very simple, and totally legit since all my images have a creative commons license. First, download the image you like from my flickr page in its highest resolution. You can do this by first finding the specific image in my flickr stream or in this blog, then click on the image, which will take you to the picture's flickr page. Above the image are a bunch of little icons. Click the little magnifying glass that says "all sizes." There will be a list of available sizes. Click "original" on the right, and download that, since it has the highest resolution. Then go here, choose which kind of shirt you want (I recommend the value T), follow the instructions using the image you just downloaded, and your done.

If you do create a shirt like this, please email me a picture of you wearing the shirt so I can put it up on this blog.

Of course, I don't make a profit off this, but that's not really the point right now. I receive enough income elsewhere, so I'm not dependent on income from my art (which is good because right now there isn't any). So I have room to experiment with ways of generating income from my art. As an online artist, I am very interested in coming up with a sustainable business model that allows me to "give away" my work online through my blog, podcast, etc, but still make the money I want to make. One thing that the Internet does for media is it eliminates scarcity (at least to a point). I can upload an mp3 to my podcast, and anyone in the world can listen to it at no cost to me. This is one of the many gifts of the Internet that I believe should be valued and protected. However, I obviously don't make any money off that podcasted mp3, at least not directly. And I think that might be the key. The Online Artist can't generate income from his work directly because he "gives it away," but indirectly he can channel the interest generated by his work from a place of no scarcity to a place of scarcity where he can charge money for stuff. (I myself have yet to fully grok what this means, but it seems true, so I'm going with it). Merchandise (t-shirts, prints, zines, etc) can serve this need simply because you cannot download a t-shirt, hence scarcity. I'm not primarily a t-shirt designer, but t-shirts might become the primary source of income generated by my art. However, my sense is that there are more sophisticated ways of generating income than mere t-shirts. I don't know what those ways are yet, but that's what I'm interested in experimenting with.

related links: from gaping void and Publishing 2.0