Editing The Pen Addict 122/transcript (section)

== Advertising Budgets ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have. And so, let me make one comment about the pricing. So, and this is me extrapolating things that could be incorrect. But, the way I see, let's take an Apple blogger who is getting ads from, you know, different apps, different app companies. You know, different software, different hard goods. And this whole range of companies that they're used to working with is used to spending on advertising. They have an advertising budget. In our realm, in the Pen stationary realm, advertising's kind of new.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that is your problem. That is your problem. I agree with that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, like, only in the past year have companies started to, like, budget, like, really for advertising. And I haven't talked to any of these companies about this, about, you know, their advertising budgets or anything like that. But that's just, you know, my intake from seeing this world. But it's starting to change. So, they don't have, their companies that I want to sponsor, the blog, aren't used to purchasing advertising at all. You know, they don't have that background. Most of these companies are, a lot of them are brand new or doing things, you know, that just haven't been done before. Like, they're just not used to buying advertising. And so, that played into my pricing, too. Right? And it's definitely going to change, you know, probably in January.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But it was a hard choice. And it was trying to balance it out. And it was also trying to get through the imposter syndrome and being able to sleep at night, too. Right? But, yeah, I'm on board with what you're saying. But, and I tried to consider lots of things when I chose that, chose the starting price. And, I mean, I think you can tell by the booking so far, it was probably underpriced.

'''Myke Hurley:''' In three days, you had only four spots available for the rest of the year and that's weekly. Yeah. But that's insane here. Because that was why I said to you on Sunday, right? I was like, okay, can you see this now? Do you see? Yeah. Because, basically, I mean, all of this is to say, like, as well, if you are a person or a company who's listening to this, you will not get a deal as good as this in the future. Brad is charging $200 for a week right now. You should be picking up one of those empty weeks. You would be insane not to. I thought about just buying one for myself and just, I don't know what I'd do with it. Well, actually, I have a whole company. But I think that company gets relatively pretty good placement on your site anyway. But it's just, I mean, I'm happy. I'm happy for you. So happy. Because it's proving a point that you can do this if you wanted to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I wonder now, like, what's next? Because you've also laid out publicly on the line now your plan, i.e. to not be a company man forever. So, I mean, you have Nock. You have this. You have this show. These things bring you income. How much further do you need to go? Much. Much. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I can. I'm confident in that. That I need to go further and I can go further. Right. So that part I'm confident about.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you see the possibility from it all?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I see the possibility. Definitely. Definitely. So, you know, and it's hard a lot of days just because you're always wondering about when. And I know you go through this, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've been doing it every day for maybe the last two and a half years.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And it's tough. It's hard. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, you know, it's a. But, you know, you got to start somewhere and you're on that path. I look up to you and respect you for all those decisions that you're making around that. And I've learned a lot from you. And like our friendship and conversations offline have helped me in lots of things in this aspect of things. And I'm excited that they're down the line. There is a future in doing this. Good. And I think it's possible.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It definitely is. I look at you as one of those overachiever types, you know, you should definitely only be doing the things that you want to do simply just because it seems to me, at least in a time that I've known you, that everything you do turns to gold. And I think that that is not a luck thing. I think it's purely for your hard work determination and your shrewd businessman. So I see great things for you in the future, Donnie. I appreciate that. But I want to talk about one other thing that you did. Sure. So you just killed everything. So you just went into your website and you were like, right, sponsors now so I can just kill things. I mean, you know, the money's rolling in. So less work.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. So tell me what did you do?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Why did you kill the Inklinks, Michael?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I know. I'm so sorry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So. All right. This is a. So the sponsorships have been on my radar for a while. I mean, months and months and months and months and months. Inklinks. I don't have an exact date, but probably only within the last couple months has it been a little bit bothersome for me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's a huge conundrum for me. Number one. I want to promote the community in the best way I can. I think I have a responsibility to do that. I enjoy doing that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, we've had so many people reach out to us, Myke, and since we've been doing this podcast, how many blogs have been started? That they said, hey, we love what you guys do. And hey, I started this blog. Here's what I do.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I genuinely think we are responsible for a lot of blogs. So.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So. That exposure and that. You know, light I can shine on other people. I will do it all the time. I love doing that. And it's hard to not do that in a specific manner in which I've done for probably six years now in my Inklinks post on Saturday. But what I've found is that I think it's become a little bit less relevant, even though the people who really, really use that post are really, really going to miss it. But I think in the grand scheme, it's starting to get lost in the shuffle. It's starting to be a lot of similar links. It's starting to not be as much brand new discovery. Lots of other blogs are doing similar type posts, which is great. We need to keep sharing those links and, you know, bringing in other readers and showing people, you know, where they can go find other cool stuff from other cool writers. I just want to do it in a different way now. I think this post and this type of post for me has gotten stale. It's not unique.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's. But at the same time, I want to. Do something to promote the community. So.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like I said, when I when I started the Inklinks post, this is probably a bigger deal than adding sponsorships to the site for most people. And I think it was. The feedback I've gotten on both things, the sponsorships and the links have been hugely, hugely positive.