George Denzinger recently asked what software Indie Auto was considering switching to. This is pretty inside baseball, so thought it could be most useful to answer that question within the context of a larger discussion: If someone is thinking about launching a small-scale automotive website, what would be the most helpful software to obtain?
Life is pretty easy if you only want to publish a casual blog as a hobby. You can pick one of the freebie hosting services and organize your images using whatever software came with your computer. Where things get complicated is if you have an interest in trying to monetize your work.
That can be a daunting task in today’s media. However, if you produce professional-quality work, why not strive to be treated like a professional?
First you need to choose a revenue model
Unless you can find a sponsoring organization, I see only three choices for generating revenue: through advertising, reader subscriptions or a combination of the two. In practice, the third option is a subset of the first two because inevitably you will need to make a choice of whether to prioritize ad or subscription revenue.
I would argue that a reader-based model has the most potential for a new publication. The market for ad-based automotive websites strikes me as being saturated whereas there are relatively few subscription-based websites.
In addition, I have thus far not seen a small-scale, reader-supported automotive website that operates with the business savvy one can routinely find in other fields. That suggests that there may be an opening for someone with the right skill set and strategy.
It’s true that a subscription model is fraught with peril, but even if you fail to generate adequate revenues it is arguably easier to add advertising to the mix than go in the other direction. An ad-based model all but requires a constant flow of content that generates lots of page views. Quantity inevitably trumps quality — which is not usually a good recipe for generating subscriptions.
There’s also an ethical consideration. Do you want to dumb down your writing just so you can maximize page clicks? Or do you want to write something meaningful to a smaller number of readers who appreciate the nuance that you bring to your work?
The clickbait treadmill is insidious because you can become so jaded that you forget the ideals which may have initially inspired you to get into writing.
Revenue model could inform your platform choices
A WordPress platform can work fine for a website that relies mostly or exclusively on advertising revenue, but other platforms may be better for a reader-supported approach. A key reason why is that adding a partial or a full paywall and subscription-fulfillment apps can get costly and complicated.
This helps to explain the growing popularity of platforms designed around the needs of reader-supported websites. Vendors such as Substack have yet to offer website templates with the design flexibility of WordPress, but they can be both less expensive and easier to operate for a writer with limited technical skills.
Also see ‘Wheel spinning happens when car buffs and scholars don’t collaborate’
Indie Auto started off with a freebie WordPress website but around 2018 switched to the format you see today. We are still WordPress based but hosted through Bluehost; I also have a subscription for an MH Magazine format template and an e-marketing service called GetResponse.
Over the last few months I have been testing out alternative platforms such as Substack and Ghost. At this point I’m leaning in favor of Substack despite some challenges. Indeed, it’s too bad that I didn’t make the switch in 2018, which could have saved me a meaningful amount of time and money. I had been hesitant to go in that direction because Substack website templates had somewhat less functionality than they do now.
What other types of software could be useful?
If it is part of your branding for your website to look amateurish, then you arguably don’t need more software than what you already have on your computer. However, having access to even a few additional programs can give your website a reasonably professional appearance. My personal bias is that aesthetics matter with publications just as much as they do with cars.
All of Indie Auto’s charts and graphs are produced in Microsoft Excel. Photographs and other images have been organized in Lightroom, where basic editing is also done. Until my aging Photoshop software died, I used it for more advanced photo editing as well as to produce fake cars. I have also found a desktop-publishing program called InDesign to be useful for building fake ads.
Communications professionals will recognize that all of the above software except for Excel is made by Adobe. I bought their full package of programs back when I could get a student discount. Since then the company has radically jacked up its prices so I have been investigating alternatives. Thus, George’s question.
I am leaning in the direction of buying the Affinity V2 Universal License along with ON1 Photo (Capture One also sounds promising but is a more expensive alternative). Even without discounts the cost is considerably less than an Adobe subscription (for either individual programs or as part of the “Master Suite”). This assumes that I buy a new round of non-Adobe software in three years to stay current with my computer’s operating system.
That said, I have been retired long enough that I don’t have very good contacts anymore with professional graphic designers. Thus, I would appreciate any feedback readers may have, either in the comment thread or as a note to the editor (go here).
Again, this is all pretty inside baseball, but my hope is that the discussion can be helpful to anyone who has been thinking about launching a small-scale automotive website. The field could use some fresh energy (as opposed to another iteration of same old same old).
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
Steve, when I first saw you post, I thought it was about imaging software. I had no idea this is what you were considering. I remember another post where you mentioned you were using Adobe Express for some of your images. I have access to the full Creative Suite software at work, so I attempt to try things out when I have time. I used Express for some social events I did for a friend and found it OK to use, but limited to what I can do compared to the full version of Photoshop. I see there’s been an update, but I haven’t had occasion to use it again, as I mostly do print production.
I’ve looked at Affinity more than once for my own freelance/amusement purposes, the price is attractive. I’m on PC at home, so I’ve considered good old CorelDraw for this purpose, too. I believe both of these are still available with a license and not a subscription which is very enticing to me.
Thanks for the other thoughts on hosting, I haven’t worked on websites in several years and it’s fascinating to see how the landscape has evolved. I only occasionally work on our Shopify sites (mostly back end pricing updates), so this has been enlightening. Thanks for the info!
I can most justify Lightroom’s cost because I use it every day, but I simply don’t have the scale to justify the cost of Photoshop and InDesign (let alone Illustrator, which I have used so rarely on Indie Auto that I didn’t mention it in the post). If I still had a communications business they would all be essential tools of the trade, but I don’t.
I hadn’t thought about CorelDraw so will check that out. Were you looking at all three Affinity programs or focused on one or two of them?
Affinity, for the price, is very hard to beat, IMO. I don’t know which platform you’re on, but for Mac folks who are subscription-averse, I would think Affinity would be close to the top of the list. That said, I have not tried out Affinity.
For PC owners/users there are more choices, but I prefer well known names, which is why I considered CorelDraw again. I already have used it in production environments, so I would think the learning curve would not be as steep for me.