Re: FLASH: price quote on flash animation?

[Wayne Townsend]

To:

flasherchinwag [dot] com

Subject: Flasher Income & Market Realities


Reprint, by Elaine Woodhurst.,

>Better read this, boys and girls...


Subject: Just to throw in here...

From: Brandon Hall


To:

flasherchinwag [dot] com

Subject: Flasher Income & Market Realities



>Just to throw in here...

>

>I develop Flash for Fortune 1000 companies, I teach Flash to many of those

>same companies, and I develop training and other educational material at

>well...  I am working on getting to 6 figures right now. Thats just how it

>is.  Grant it, last week I was out getting piss ass drunk on my 21st

>birthday, but thats another issue entirely.  I usually don't talk about the

>$ issues on the list, since largely I feel its none of anyones business,

but

>I would love to see the work that nets someone a cool mil a year, because

>personally I think its horseshit.

>

>-= Branden J. Hall


Hello Brandon,


>personally I think its horseshit.


No Brandon, this is coming from the horses mouth, not the other end.

;)  Thanks for giving me a chuckle.


I'm very familiar with your work, and often in awe.  You have shown

us many times how far this technology could be pushed, and have

inspired my work over the past couple of years.


I mention this because about a year ago, your action scripting

triggered me to realize that one can do something more than write

websites with Flash.  Specifically, you can build *web-applications*.


Web-Apps are the future IMO, and signify the beginning of the next

generation of the web.


Most significantly, they are *products*.  And this is *the key* to

the income thing.


Writing websites with Flash makes a lot of people a good living these

days.  Often in the range of a fully degreed professional.  Not bad

at all.


But there is a limit on what anyone can earn doing it because you are

trading straight labor for a pay check, and there are only so many

hours in the day.  Also, hourly rates are driven by an industry

standard although some very talented people are able to exceed the

standard because their work indicates they are worth it.  I believe

you fall into this category, Brandon.


At any rate, money is not the prime motivator for many people, and

that's fine.  Money is not the only measuring stick for success.  I

never said that it was.  Success is a personal thing.


But there is indeed market opportunities now, and if you're a pro at

Flash, this window is open wide for you this year, assuming you can

handle a paradigm shift about the web and what it is becoming.


Independent thinkers, listen up....


Think *Web-Apps*.  What's that?


Simply an application that runs on the web, preferably written in

Flash.  It differs from the desktop apps that you use mainly in that

it is a *community* application, and runs from a server instead of

from your desktop, and the audience files stay on the server.


It is a program that is not marketed in the traditional way, ie.

boxes on store shelves, but instead there is one copy on a server

that everyone accesses.  Lots of marketing problems go away with

Web-Apps, from distribution costs, instant POS satisfaction, to copy

protection, to knowing exactly who your audience is. And on, and on.


Some old-time programmers may recognize this as a circle back to the

days of mainframe - dumb terminal networks.  I'm not here to debate

the merits of PCs over NCs, I'm just saying that with the way that

the web has evolved, the opportunity exists.


Larry Ellison is not entirely wrong about his network computer

theories, and his day will come, but keep in mind that he didn't

originate the idea either.  A lot of people knew this was coming a

long time ago.  But the stage changed in ways people didn't predict -

enter Flash-4.  As Flashers, we have the advantage because we can

make a lot of this work in software, and we don't require people to

change their hardware- what's out there now will do just fine.  So

we, because we are Flashers, can lead the way, today.  And our system

is better, because the client's PC is in general a heck of a lot

faster and smarter than Larry's box, not to mention already

established in the market.



In regards to income, building websites is limited.

Building *products* is not.

Because you can market your *products* many times over.

If your web product is one that earns real money for the company you

sell it to, your price can be at a level that reflects that, as ours

are.  It's a ROI thing, not a matter of development hours @ X/hr.

That doesn't even enter into the picture.

If your web product is one that earns real money, you also have the

option to operate it yourself, and keep *all* of the income.


But you have to be able to create a *hit*.  That's what it's all

based on.  Just like TV, the movies, and all that.  The web is now

merging into that world.  The bottom line is *If* your Flash Web-App

becomes a hit, you are set, and I'm not kidding.  You have the

opportunity to create one, because you know Flash, so if I were you,

I'd get to know it a lot better.  Two words, "Action Scripting".



There are two ways your Web-App generates income.


Either pay-for-play, or sponsorship / advertising.  There are others,

but these two are the majors.

If your Web-App becomes popular enough, then the sponsorship dollars

come into play, and that's serious money.  That's what built the TV

industry.


At Accesson, currently we're into internet gaming because it is a

sector that is proven to be very profitable.  Web-based training is

the other one, and will become huge, I predict much larger than

e-commerce.  Like a lot of people, I'm still waiting for Amazon.com

to actually earn a dime not to mention the thousands of others that

are hawking products over the net.  That's not really where you want

to be.


But games aren't the only kind of Web-Apps.  There are literally

thousands of possibilities.  Just look around.  Ask yourself "What

program would the audience pay for? or what would be really popular

program? -one that would build enough traffic that advertisers would

be interested in paying for it".


Your advantage is that Web-Apps are far *stickier* than your average

website, meaning that people spend a lot more time on them, and that

is of paramount importance to sponsorship revenue.



People, you hold in your hands the key to creating a successful

Web-Apps *now*.  Flash is scriptable, and that's what it's all about,

baby!  It makes it so that you can run real applications in the

browser.  It works cross-platform, and it has incredible

distribution, a feat MacroMedia accomplished that is the envy of the

industry. You can write real web-based applications with it, which is

far more profitable than fancy websites.


I've proven it.  BingoMagic is a game, and not everybody writes

games, but games are good because they push the technology and always

have.


Now look at what that Web-App is doing with Flash, and apply that to

your Web-App.

http://betaserver.metgames.com/permtest.html


It's handling hundreds of users at the same time, and that amount is

scaleable just by throwing more servers at it as the traffic grows.

It's saving client data.  It's handling tons of variables.  It's a

Flash Web-App that is giving a community experience.  And it has

production values that blow away anything you can do in HTML or Java.


All the best,


/w


Wayne Townsend

Founder, CEO, AccessOn

waynetaccesson [dot] net

Alt:

waynetabsolute [dot] net

studio: 760.329.9990 (US)

Toll Free: 800..399.4969

cell: 760.902.5299 (US)

AccessOn.Net

http://www.accesson.net



flasher is generously supported by...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     flashforward2000 and the Flash(tm) Film Festival

 July 24-26, 2000, NEW YORK CITY, Hammerstein Ballroom

                  www.flashforward2000.com

   Produced by United Digital Artists and lynda.com

 Sponsored by Macromedia, Adobe Systems, Fusion, Inc, AtomFilms,

           shockwave.com and Electric Rain.

 1.877.4.FLASH.4  or (1.805.640.6679 outside the US and Canada)

 Register before June 30 and save $200!!-- www.flashforward2000.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/flasher or email

helpchinwag [dot] com