How Do We Monetize Digital History Projects?

How do we monetize digital history projects? This question preoccupies my mind. I am in a position where I need to seriously consider how I can make Ben Franklin’s World both self-supporting and a job that pays me for the time I put into the show.

In this post, you will discover how Ben Franklin's World has fared six months since its launch and six ideas for how history communicators might monetize their projects to earn the financial support they need for their work.

State of Ben Franklin’s World: 6 Months Since Launch

Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History launched just over 6 months ago. To date, it has 36 episodes and has received over 185,000 downloads.

Podcast Statistics

Statistically, Ben Franklin’s World has done exceptionally well.

Podcast hosting service Libsyn released statistics for January 2015. Libsyn hosts approximately 18,000 podcasts. In January 2015, new podcast episodes averaged 195 downloads within the first month of release. On average, each podcast experienced 1,921 total downloads over their entire catalog for the month.

New episodes of Ben Franklin’s World receive around 2,000 downloads within their first week of release and the entire catalog averages over 25,000 downloads per month.

Measurable Impact

Listeners engage with me to tell me how much they enjoy the show and specific episodes. Guest historians have told me that they have seen sales spikes in books after their interview aired. Recently, Mental Floss featured Ben Franklin's World in its list of “19 History Podcasts that will Delight Your Brain."

By all measures Ben Franklin’s World is a success. The podcast is realizing the goal I set out to achieve: create wide public awareness about early American history and the work of professional historians.

Financial Realities

I love producing Ben Franklin’s World and being a part of its success, but what started as a side project and hobby has become my full-time, unpaid job. In fact, I pay the podcast to keep it going.

Each episode costs $90 to produce. This cost includes website and audio hosting services, the discounted fees of my professional audio engineer, and the fees associated with the tools I need to promote each episode and help grow the audience.

This fee does not include any of my start-up costs: recording equipment and software, graphic design, website theme, educational resources, and professionally produced segment bumpers (the Ben Franklin’s World intro, outro, and in-show music and voiceovers). Nor does $90 per episode include my time.

Like many digital history projects, Ben Franklin’s World has become a very expensive hobby. As an historian without institutional support, my family funds my podcast. This needs to change.

I want to keep Ben Franklin’s World going, but I need to find a way to make the show self-funding. Ideally, I would find a way to earn enough money so that Ben Franklin’s World could start paying me for my time too.

I would also love to generate enough revenue to hire people to help with the show so I can produce more episodes, shows, and historic event podcast series (i.e. 10 episodes on the American Revolution, Civil War, Native American History, etc.) and add educational resources to each episode.

This leaves me with the quandary: How do we monetize digital history projects?

Ideas for Monetizing Digital History Projects

Presently, I have six ideas for how I and others with expensive, but worthy digital history projects might earn revenue to help support our work.

1. Advertising

Website Advertising: Google Adwords offers the easiest way to place ads on your website. However, unless you have a high-traffic website, you most likely won't earn enough income from Google Adwords to cover your website hosting costs.

The most profitable way to earn money through website advertisements is to seek out partners who want to reach your specific audience.

Podcast Episode Advertising: Many podcasters offer ads in their episodes. Some have national sponsors like MailChimp, Squarespace, Lynda.com, and Audible.com. Others have more local sponsors that are unique to their audience or they advertise their own products and services.

Podcasters present sponsor ads by reading a blurb about their sponsor or by talking about their experiences with the sponsor and their product or service. These ads might be heard at the beginning, middle, or end of the show.

Podcasters need to consider sponsor advertising carefully. When podcasters read or discuss a sponsor they provide an implicit endorsement of their sponsor.

2. Consulting

People who start digital projects often attract the interest of others who would like to start a similar project. History communicators might consider charging for the times we offer more full-length advice on how someone else can do what we do.

3. Grants

Most digital history projects should be eligible for state, federal, and private grants.

Most often this model provides only temporary support. Many public historians refer to grants as "soft money" because they offer a pre-determined amount of support for a pre-determined period of time.

With that said, I noticed at NCPH 2015 that there are many historical consultants who make a living income by pursuing “soft money” opportunities.

4. Institutional Backing

Similar to a sponsor, historians with digital history projects could seek institutional support.

There are several history organizations as well as university initiatives that have mandates or missions to support public outreach and/or digital humanities work. There is a potential that one of these organizations might be interested in bringing in a proven digital history project to help bolster their goals.

I imagine that such a partnership would require public recognition on the digital history project, consulting work to help others in the program get their projects up and running, as well as use of the proven project to help launch new, organizational digital history or humanities projects.

5. Charge Admission

Charge visitors for use of our projects.

Historians with digital history magazines, databases, podcasts, or exhibits could follow the model established by The New York Times and other digital media outlets by offering some content for free while charging for other content.

Some podcasters provide free access to their most recent episodes and charge listeners for access to their back catalogs.

I am not a fan of this option, but it does exist.

6. Crowdfunding

Sites like Kickstarter and Patreon make it possible to fund digital history projects through crowdfunding. Patreon provides a particularly attractive model.

Patreon allows content producers (bloggers, vloggers, podcast producers, writers, etc.) to ask their friends, family, and followers to become their patrons. In exchange for a monthly donation or some other reward, support for your work comes from those who consume it.

Some content producers have created four- and five-figure monthly incomes by using the service, although most content producers earn significantly less.

(See: Loug Mongello of WDW Radio and Kinda Funny Games.)

Conclusions

Digital history projects offer historians an awesome opportunity to reach out to and interact with the history-loving public.

These projects have played, and will continue to play, a large role in historians’ work to bring history back to the forefront of the public mind.

Unfortunately, all of these projects come at a cost of time and money and few academic or public history institutions have the resources to support them. This means many digital history projects will continue to be bootstrapped and exist in a precarious state until we find ways to support them.

I don’t know how I will make Ben Franklin’s World self-supporting. But, I will choose a method that ensures that all of its valuable content will continue to be available free of charge to anyone who wants to access it. This is a goal that is important to me.

What Do You Think?

Do you have ideas about how we might fund digital history projects?

Are you or your organization interested in sponsoring or forming a partnership with Ben Franklin’s World?

Let’s keep this conversation going! Leave a comment, tweet, or send me an e-mail.

History Communicators' Chat No. 1

On Wednesday May 13, 2015, historians interested in furthering the idea of "history communicators" and integrating the position into the historical profession convened on Twitter for the first of many #histcomm chats. Jackie Jecha storified the conversation.

Wanted: 21st-Century History Job

What kind of job are you looking for? Every so often I receive an e-mail, tweet, or in-person question about whether I am seeking a history job and if so, what type of job I would like.

I sincerely appreciate your concern for my well being and your support of my work.

Usually, I am unable to provide a straight answer because the type history job I would like to have does not exist, yet.

In this post, you will discover the type of work I would like to pursue for a history organization or academic department and the type of historical work that I think is necessary as we move further into the 21st century.

Job Description Must Haves

My ideal job would allow me to pursue the mix of academic and public history work I am presently doing.

Historical Research and Writing

I LOVE conducting archival research. I believe that the best way to understand the past is to use the historical record.

Like many historians, I am driven by questions and the hunt for information. Each trip into the archive is a quest to reveal something new or overlooked about the past.

I also love to write. I enjoy the challenge of sifting through the evidence, contextualizing it, and shaping what I have found into a coherent article, book chapter, or blog post. It’s through writing that I find my most exciting ideas. Writing also provides a great opportunity to convey the past to the present.

Collaborative Work Environment

The historical profession in the United States requires a closer collaboration between academic and public historians.

Academic historians do not work alone. Public Historians share the academic desire to present high-quality, well-researched history.

Each group possesses skill sets and expertise that when combined has the power to transform what we know about the past and the ways we convey it to the world.

Together both groups of historians can cultivate wide public awareness about the past and convey history in a way that makes it as relevant to the present as we know it to be.

Our cooperative efforts to show the relevancy of the past to the present will ease all historians' ability to access federal, state, and private funding and will increase history class enrollment.

Experiment with New Methods of Conveying History

Historians need to adapt faster and better to the changes in our forward-looking and tech-savvy society.

I love books; I hope to write several throughout my career, but the place of the book in our society has changed. People still read books and magazine articles, but far more consume information via blog posts, podcasts, internet videos, and social media updates.

There are so many new and exciting ways to consume information, which means that there are so many new and exciting ways to convey history. We need to adjust the way we communicate history to conform to our new reality.

I love blogging and digital exhibits, but presently, I am bullish on podcasting.

Podcasts allow historians to tap into two important human desires: Hear stories and accomplish something during normally unproductive periods.

Humans love to hear stories. Scientists have proven that we use stories to train our brains; they teach us how to think, perceive the world, and provide lessons about how we can solve problems.

Historians know how to tell stories and podcasts provide a way for us to convey the successes, failures, and issues of the past in an innate and very human way: orally.

Podcasts also provide listeners with a feeling of productive accomplishment. They can listen to podcasts and learn about history at times when they normally can’t be doing something else, like when they need to walk the dog, commute to work, or go for a run.

Additionally, the intimacy of podcasting allows listeners to form a connection with the storyteller. Listeners develop a virtual bond (dare I say friendship) that feels very real with the podcasters they listen to and this relationship leads them to feel vested in the podcaster, their work, and their message.

What could be better for professionals who seek to improve society by creating awareness about the lessons of the past?

Few other methods of conveyance offer the same opportunity to make history as relatable to the present as podcasts.

With that said, we live in a fast-changing world and I would like to work for an organization or department that recognizes that fact and is willing to experiment with other new technologies that promise the ability to cultivate wide public awareness about the past.

Public and Professional Interaction

I would like my future employer to support and provide time to meet with both non-specialist history lovers and professional colleagues.

Historians study the human-made past. Therefore, it is important that whatever organization or department I work for supports opportunities to interact with the public either through programs, tours, or other events.

Each year I give about six tours of Boston that focus on the American Revolution. These tours allow me to connect with people who love history. They also provide me with a better understanding about what non-specialist history lovers know and don’t know about the past. This knowledge makes me a better historian.

I also find great intellectual and social enjoyment in professional conferences. I enjoy learning about what my colleagues are researching and what challenges they face in conveying history.

Additionally, I would welcome the opportunity to attend conferences and collaborate with others who experiment with new media and work in marketing.

Like it or not, all historians need to be able to market the importance of history, it is part of cultivating a wide audience and making history relevant for non-specialists.

Job Description Wish List

Digital Database Access

If I am going to discuss what my dream job would be, I might as well mention the fact that great database and library access would be a plus.

I have cobbled together access to important historical databases and ILL privileges through the Boston Public Library and Boston Athenaeum, but there are other databases I would love access to.

Ability to Work Remotely, at Least Occasionally

We live in the 21st century and I would like to work like a 21st-century professional. I would love the opportunity to work in an office with colleagues nearby, but I also enjoy the freelance lifestyle.

It is nice to know that when Tim comes home and says “Would you like to go to Germany in two weeks,” I can go with him. Typically I work half days on these trips and use the other half of the day to visit historic sites an take in a different culture. These trips always provide me with a new perspective and make me a better person and historian.

Summary

In summary, my ideal job would involve historical research and writing, a work environment that encourages greater collaboration between academic and public historians, opportunities to experiment with conveying history through new media, and opportunities to interact with colleagues and non-specialists at conferences and events.

I have yet to see this type of hybrid academic/public history job offered.

However, when history organizations and academic departments finally post these types of hybrid jobs the historical profession will make a great and much needed leap into the 21st century.

I am glad to belong to a progressive and adaptable profession, but I often wish we had the ability to adapt more quickly.

What About You?

What is your ideal history job?

Are you already working in it? If so, please share your story.

4 Tips for How to Tailor Your Public History Job Search

Are you looking for a public history job? In the latest issue of “Public History News,” Nick Sacco, keeper of the National Council on Public History's wonderful job board, offered 4 tips for job seekers.

In this post you will learn about Nick Sacco’s 4 tips for public history job seekers. You will also find additional resources and insights that I have added.

(You may also find 5 Job Search Sites for Historians a helpful resource too.)

Nick Sacco's 4 Tips for Public History Job Seekers

1. Know What You Are Looking For

Public history covers a wide array of occupations.

The breadth of the field makes it imperative that you know what professional skills you have.

Sacco advises that you develop a “clear vision” of the type of job you want, your professional goals, where you want to live, and your salary requirements.

How do you identify your “clear vision?”

Research the different types of history jobs available. Read job descriptions and ask other public historians about what they do.

Reading job descriptions and talking with other public historians will give you a good idea about what types of jobs, titles, and responsibilities are available to public historians. It will also provide you with information you can use to direct your job search.

I interviewed 2 National Park Service historians when I considered becoming an NPS historian.

My interviews helped me realize that I did not want to be an NPS historian based on the fact that many of their responsibilities included tasks that I did not find appealing.

You may also find cost of living calculators and salary comparison tools useful as you try to determine whether or not to apply for a job or accept a job offer.

2. Be Aware of Deadlines

Apply before it’s too late.

Many job postings have strict closing deadlines. The government of the United States has very strict deadlines and if you miss them you will not be to apply for the position.

3. Look For Job Openings on the State and Local Levels

If you want to work for the government remember that the United States has 3 levels of government: local, state, and federal.

Many job seekers consider only the federal level, but many states and local communities employ historians too.

Sacco offered the California Association of Museums, the Association of Mid-West Museums, PreservationDirectory.com, and statelocalgov.net as useful sites that will help you find state and local history jobs.

If you live in Massachusetts, you should also check out HireCulture.org.

4. Look Everywhere

Check institution websites.

As the NCPH’s job site guru, Sacco has found that many cultural institutions promote jobs only on their home website.

Be sure to check the websites of the organizations you dream of working for. If you have a strong desire to work for a particular organization you may consider volunteering, which would allow you to network within the organization.

With that said, the panelists on the Public History Jobs panel at the 2014 History Camp Boston differed in their opinions about whether volunteer service would help you get a job. About half of the approximately 8 panelists said that volunteering would help, the other half said you shouldn’t work for free.

Conclusion

Nick Sacco offers fantastic advice for public history job seekers.

He encourages job seekers to develop a clear picture of the types of jobs they want and to cast as wide a net as possible when they conduct their job search.

Share Your Story

Are you working your dream history job? If so, tell us about what you do.

What tips helped you during your job search?