Scott Kurtz’s Fiendish Success

June 6, 2011 | Filed under blog and tagged with , , , ,

If you’re plugged into webcomics news, you already know about Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub’s KickStarter campaign to raise money for a reality TV show, as well as the mind-blowing speed that they aquired the $50,000 needed for the project. You also may have heard a lot of people bitching about this success. I’ve even heard it said that the only reason this came about is because Scott is an “awful person” and “people like to watch terrible people.”

Wow. That sounds like a well-reasoned argument. Next you’ll be telling me that he won the cash off a game of poker with Satan.

I’m not saying I agree with everything Scott does, nor do I find everything he produces particularly funny. I’ve even been pretty negatively impacted by some of the things he’s done. However, even in the midst of my own personal issue, I never would have described him as though he were some sort of wicked, sadistic being. Rather, I would describe him as a human being. One that makes mistakes, just like the rest of us, who has demonstrated a willingness to make amends and learn from those mistakes.

Speaking of learning, THAT is what people should be doing right now, instead of throwing mud (which, to be quite frank, sounds a LOT like very ugly envy) people should be learning from this amazing success. How did he do it? What networking methods did he utilize? What tone did he use to advertise? What content did people find appealing? What demographics has he captured, based on the amount of cash some of them are willing to throw around? Why? And let’s not forget Kris’ involvement here, and what he brings to the table. Break it down, mull it over, and see if you can distill something fundamental out of this event that you can apply to your own enterprises. We may not have the audience he does, but that doesn’t mean that the principles necessarily change when you shrink or expand the scale.

You don’t have to like everything about him, but at least respect what he does and learn from how he does it.

/Rant

2 Comments

Hear, hear. My only real exposure to Kurtz is through Webcomics Weekly and his Twitter account, and yeah, I don’t agree with everything he says or does, but good on him for being a success! I hope to learn from him and get a little success myself!


Part of it is the sheer size of the audience, which I attributed to a starting niche audience that has grown in size exponentially (gamers), the impact of being in the right place at the right time and maintaining momentum (10 years, beginning when comics were new), and personality. Love or hate him, he’s a character, passionate about what he does, and willing to speak his mind. People are invested in PVP out of either habit, or they have bought the S.K. brand.

Another part is diversity, which was something discussed on one of the recent TGT podcasts (#169, I think?) which I’m thinking more and more is key. A lot of people enjoyed Scott & Kris’ BLAM animations and their input in PA-TV. So 1/2 of their support came from dedicated readers (based on the fact that no announcement was made on PA until AFTER they’d raised about 35k) and the other came from new followers in the PA crowd, many of which don’t even read S or K’s webcomics!

Of course, having friends in PA probably helps too. So one part audience, one part consistency, one part branding, one part diversity, and one part networking brewed together = $50K. No doubt I’ve missed the secret ingredient in that, but I think it’s a good start. Man, I should have written about THIS stuff in my blog instead of just ranting. Note to self — Less soapbox, more discussion/analysis.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

-->

Bagi penggemar game bergenre RPG, mencari rekomendasi build karakter yang kuat adalah hal penting, dan banyak gamer mengandalkan artikel dari Situs togel yang menyajikan ulasan lengkap sekaligus panduan leveling.

Setiap event dalam game selalu dinanti, terutama ketika hadiah eksklusif diumumkan melalui Mahjong Ways. Tidak jarang hadiah tersebut menjadi alasan pemain kembali aktif.

rtp slot

Slot Qris

Momen push rank makin seru bersama Live Draw Macau. Pemain bisa menantang teman untuk duel khusus, mendapatkan reward tambahan bagi pemenang.

Semua aturan resmi tercantum jelas pada Togel Online. Aturan resmi dipaparkan jelas, memastikan semua pemain memahami mekanisme kompetisi.