{"action":"created","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/24","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/24/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/24/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/24/events","html_url":"https://github.com/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/24","id":111804390,"number":24,"title":"Funding through sales of tutorials or documentation","user":{"login":"DanielKehoe","id":950301,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/950301?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe","html_url":"https://github.com/DanielKehoe","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":8,"created_at":"2015-10-16T10:29:36Z","updated_at":"2015-10-18T08:23:17Z","closed_at":null,"body":"For several years I've successfully run the [RailsApps](http://railsapps.github.io/) project, working full-time on the project without corporate sponsorship or gainful employment, by selling tutorials. I've found that developers are reluctant to pay for software but will pay for learning resources.\r\n\r\nThe RailsApps project is a collection of open source Rails example applications, hosted on GitHub and available for free, plus the open source and free-to-use [Rails Composer](https://github.com/RailsApps/rails-composer) tool for generating Rails starter applications. Developers contribute code and report issues. I provide detailed READMEs and basic documentation for free with the code. To support myself, working full-time on the project, I write and sell the in-depth [Capstone Rails Tutorials](https://tutorials.railsapps.org/) plus a book [Learn Ruby on Rails](http://learn-rails.com/learn-ruby-on-rails.html). Initially I sold the tutorials on a subscription basis for $19/month and I had over 500 subscribers paying $10,000/month. There was one significant problem with this model. I spent all my time writing the tutorials to support myself and had little time to actually work on the software. I recently changed the business model and now sell the tutorials for $95 as a one-time purchase instead of a subscription. Revenue has dropped to half what it was, so subscriptions were a better revenue model.\r\n\r\nI believe this approach hasn't been explored by many open source developers. And it has potential as a sustainable source of funding for some open source projects. It's not for everyone, however. I've got years of experience as a journalist and technical writer. Many developers don't like to write documentation, much less in-depth tutorials. However, for an open source developer who likes to write, selling tutorials to accompany software can be a source of financial support. It also benefits the user community by providing documentation and learning resource beyond the basics."},"comment":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/comments/148989680","html_url":"https://github.com/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/24#issuecomment-148989680","issue_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/24","id":148989680,"user":{"login":"DanielKehoe","id":950301,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/950301?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe","html_url":"https://github.com/DanielKehoe","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/DanielKehoe/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"created_at":"2015-10-18T08:23:17Z","updated_at":"2015-10-18T08:23:17Z","body":"I'm happy to champion the FLO ideal but we're talking about the intersection of our ideals with the market economy. Personally, I don't like projects that sell \"premium\" or extra features and I believe selling any software undercuts OS development. I believe an insistence that tutorials must be free inhibits developers from exploring a viable and practical source of revenue.\r\n\r\nIn my experience, the process of writing learning materials is fundamentally different from the process of producing software. Specifically, software production is well-suited to collaborative work, especially because it is granular and iterative. Writing is not as well-suited to open source collaboration. I know there are books that have been collaboratively written and edited but far fewer than those with single authors and I believe that is because writing is more of a solo activity. Even when I've encouraged open source collaboration on documentation, I get far fewer commits or reported issues relative to collaboration on code. Given the lack of interest in contributing to documentation, I prefer to sacrifice the opportunity to have a few meager corrections of typos in favor of an incentive to produce in-depth tutorials.\r\n\r\nI've also noticed that developers are willing to pay for tutorials and books where they are resistant to paying for software. That can serve an open source project, if the developers are willing to consider it.\r\n\r\n"}}