Two, theres some new material in the book, so theres that. Why didnt you just say, Im going to abandon this website and go find other projects? And when you do meet me, Im actually kind of a nice guy. I was making comics and I felt like Reddit would take my comics, get them on the front page, I wouldnt even submit them and then what would follow was like 20 pages of hate about The Oatmeal. Chairman of the board of Vanderbilt University. Andrew: So I see a lot of people who take content thats available free on the web and they repackage it into a paper book and they sell it. There was a sense of urgency, as apparently there was an offer from another party to buy the site for commercial use. So most people that say, Oatmeal should go kill himself, or whatever, they usually get Dugg down and the people who compliment my comics get Dugg up. I was building computers that would provide backup servers for all our old FreeBSD boxes. So, I messaged a couple and was like, Im sorry, I dont know when we met, but I dont know what I did to offend you. And most of them either didnt write back or they wrote back and said something like, Oh, yeah, we actually never really met, I just saw you once, or I never met you, I was just kind of on a witch hunt. So, that kind of stuff, I was like, Im tired of reading Reddit. Its like this Christmas tree of lights aglow inside my head and I start writing things down in my notebook. On one hand, Inman sees himself as a comedian, an artist who has to answer to nobody, a guy who works for himself and is thus finally free to mock people who dislike his work. Ping me if you think its taking me too long to post it. I dont want to operate off of what sells the most merchandise. But when I learned how to code, I kind of just put it on a back burner for a while. And they rewarded me for it, so thats awesome because now Digg, they like having me on their website. The two-day event was to take place in May 2020 in Portland, Oregon, U.S. In 2010, Inman said The Oatmeal received more than four million unique visitors per month. And one of the questions I asked him was what kind of feedback did you have on your work and did it change your work. Yeah. I had to respond like, Well, Im sorry you feel that way. Inman alleged that FunnyJunk, a content aggregator website, repeatedly infringed The Oatmeal's original content. There were seven or eight comics that I didnt release on the web, so there was that. Matt: It was horrible. Make something funny. I dont want to operate off of these little trolls. It would just be to create comics themselves. He added that he enjoys making people laugh, and although he can't actually see the reaction of others to his work, he still appreciates seeing the high number of page views that his website receives. Metadata Updates Get more 0at.org metadata updates. [4] Fast Company described Inman in 2012 as a "millionaire". I get to add it to my website and thats what my sites about. I dont she has a lawyer, but the pipe or the crowbar seems more likely. Matt: I didnt know that. Matt: When I launched the site, I think I was doing one to four comics a month, maybe less. I try to make things that I think are funny and that I enjoy. Andrew: Why? Matt: I integrated it into the blog section on my site because I sincerely wanted to see what would happen if I had comments. I had this expectation that I would [inaudible 21:48] and I think had a couple hundred of these books to sell, and that Id get all this traffic and selling them would be super easy. Matt: The old formulas I used to use when I was building comics and quizzes for clients was I would take the specific word that I want to market, so if Im trying to sell dishwashers or laundry machines, I would take that word and then basically just come up with a series of random nouns and try to attach them to it to try to create something whimsical or funny or draw connection that you didnt see before. But that is, hopefully the one that stands alone. And plus they knew comics really well so it was my first choice. I dont know what it is about being locked in a cabin with crappy food and pressurized environment. Matthew Inman is 61 years old and was born on 06/21/1961. Or with a team of employees? Cool. With me, I took an opposite route. So I get traffic for that from people who are searching for the word semicolon. But that wasnt the goal. Im on Digg. I think it was a grammar poster of How To Use an Apostrophe, was the first product. And then I became a web designer, and I got good at vector graphics and drawing icons, logos, websites, things like that. Digg I see as outside traffic, new users. Being caffeinated generally seems to help. Andrew: Gotcha. So when I decided to make a website, I really had no way to name it after what it was themed. Would you tell them that I said that Shopify is the easiest way to build a robust store? FunnyJunk's lawyer, Charles Carreon, attempted to shut the campaign down, alleging it violated Indiegogo's terms and conditions. Andrew: Thats kind of a tough question for me to ask because it feels like Im confronting you with that information, but it just occurred to me, and I figured Id bring it up. Youll read an article or an image and you actually dont ever commit what that logo is. Login or become a premium member. In the last panel of that comic, I think theres something that not perfect, but it could be better. Whats the value for readers who see the content online in buying the book? What will you sell online after you discover the power of Shopify? Didnt you trick her? Matt: They did well. What was the revenue breakdown between the two of them? Matt: I set up a Rickroll, a Rick/Cher/Snow-roll and enjoyed the absence of commentary for a while. [3][1], Exploding Kittens is being made into a Netflix series by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. Matthew Inman Instructional Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at University of Mississippi Memphis Metropolitan Area NSI-MI Technologies, +1 more University of Mississippi Matthew. Andrew: Yeah, it seems like, for him, its an e-mail newsletter, where he sends, what does he call it, one of his drawings a day. I think youre still spending thousands after you switched. Andrew: I also have here on my list, I wanted to ask you about e-mail. I feel like its happening to me, for some reason, here today in this interview. In the beginning, that was sort of the goal. Is that true or is that an exaggeration? [68][69][70] On July 3, 2012, Carreon filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in his lawsuit against all parties without prejudice. And when you started to do them more frequently, back in, I guess, was it October 2010, did I get that date right? Shopify Remember the interview I did about how the founder of DODOCase sold about $1 mil worth of iPad cases in a few months? Matt: I needed a vacation from Reddit. Teamwork Project Manager Project management made easy. If I can do two to three, thats amazing, but usually its about one. [4], Inman lives on Bainbridge Island in the Seattle area, . Well, in my opinion, those are kind of two different things. Then eventually I switched to printing it myself because, with Zazzle, I think I sold 10,000 posters and I got a check for like 50 bucks. But in the beginning, they actually banned me. Matt: Not really. Matt: Yeah. That was a big part of it. Some arent. [2], Inman said that when he started the comic, he felt that drawing was a chore. And if they dont like my comics, theyll bury them or they wont get promoted. How much more productive can you be if you use TeamworkPM.net? I actually had a book deal on the table and a few interested people and I actually went to an agent and got one and then had her go negotiate and help me because it was just a totally different animal and some publishers wont even talk to you unless you have an agent. Matt: I think it was when I was comparing the words then and than. Or actually, no, sorry, thats from a completely different comic. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "[6], One comic, "Why Nikola Tesla Was the Greatest Geek Who Ever Lived", was heavily critiqued by a writer for Forbes. With The Oatmeal, the goal was to not do SEO for a living anymore. Matt: I think, with donations, youre not getting product and youre giving somebody money. So I started doing client work again. Lets make my own website that can generate, be sufficient and not have to work for anybody. So thats what was the real decision for me. So I just submitted comics from The Oatmeal, called it the Oatmeal. It was like real obvious. You could do that with comics, let people embed your comics on their websites and add anchor text that makes sense and that doesnt violate Googles terms of service and that does help what youre trying to build. Andrew: I thought when you launched TheOatmeal.com that what I saw was a series of quizzes. I had a donation page up for about a month, and then I took that down when I was able to actually have real merchandise on hand. If you check out what other have built on Twilio, I bet youll get inspired. You just embedded one of the Facebook commenting systems into your site. I dont want to operate off of my traffic. Matt: Yeah. You used to be a consultant who showed other companies how to do search engine optimization. Andrew: [Laughs] I actually find that section very funny, but I saw people were complaining about it so I figured Id bring it up. And then when The Oatmeal started to pick up speed, I did a second order of a couple thousand copies, and I sold all those in three weeks or something. Matt: Hows that different from an employee that gets shares? And sometimes I do put out things that arent perfect, even if Id actually worked on it a bit, I would have been better. Andrew: I notice for myself, sometimes in my interviews Im less articulate than other times. Inman says this work was the inspiration for The Oatmeal. Matt: I think the real strength that I had with SEO wasnt really the technical aspects of SEO itself. Will you let something go out there that you feel isnt perfect because you have to put something out there? Andrew: What about optimizing sales pages, landing pages, the way you present what youre selling? I did it kind of in an odd way. 142 with $1.5 billion. Matt: Oh, I was terrified. I didnt actually take it down, but I removed all the links because I was so ashamed of how awful it was. Matt: Sometimes. For example, I was on a plane and my girlfriend and I were talking about apps and there was an app that was $1.99 or $1.00 and I was stressing about, oh, its $2.00, I dont know. I hate that theyre adding WiFi to planes now. So when you did start to publish them more frequently, how did it affect your work? It was around October 2009. Ive gotta find some other Maybe I should just go to jail or something. Its a website designing package. [1], Inman opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). I know it, but Im sure my audience doesnt. Theres a sense of community with that, but its sort of halfway there because its a community and there are people commenting but they arent repeat users, they arent signed up, they arent doing anything. I've been publishing comics on this website since 2009. Actually, no, I just banned from Digg the first two months The Oatmeal was online, which is funny now because now Diggers love me. The whole goal of his site is SEO. I havent done SEO in two years. But the gripe one is one that I sort of embellished a little more because it seemed to resonate with people. You could create some kind of funny little viral quiz from that. Andrew: So at first it was a book and it was ads. Andrew: I find that too for me. Musk then donated $1 million for the development and construction of the museum. Andrew: By the way, if youre seeing me, or if anyone in the audience is seeing me adjust the mic a lot and adjust the computer, Im trying to somehow get the mic to not pick up on the fan on my laptop thats just going nuts for some reason. Estimated net worth of $2.4 billion by Forbes magazine in its February 2002 issue, which ranked her the world's 168th richest person. Andrew: Why didnt you degrade the quality of the images? Matt: Well, what Ive noticed with humor, in particular, is my characters are much funnier when theyre kind of bloated, sallow, obese people rather than lean, good looking whatever you want to call them. At that point, werent you nervous? Andrew: And you send all your comics to her now? For me, I cant go back and delete myself and dub over my voice and fix the way that I sound. So, what about this though? I see that thats often an issue for writers. Its got a years worth of comics and a bunch of new comics in it. With Twitter and Facebook, those are my own fans who have committed to following me. Andrew: Howd you get started in web comics? Because I didnt want comics on my major comics, but on the blog I sort of looked at it as little cutesy comics that arent good enough for the main section. I just finished Hugh Macleods latest book, an he seems to think of e-mail as his direct channel to his fans. [1], Inman created websites for others from age 13, and he moved to Seattle at age 17 to work in technology. . I found that certain themes, that if I attack, will actually drive traffic like crazy and that other things wont. Illustrator is much better or just pen and paper mixed with a pad and Photoshop. Ive been on Digg since the site was founded, pretty much. Like I was saying about the dating site, they were there to build links like, How many five year olds could you take in a fight? or What are your chances of surviving a zombie apocalypse? And eventually, the illustrations I was doing within those quizzes, the headers and the badges evolved into drawing comics. I dont go to conferences. Andrew: How do you go from having no idea, to suddenly getting the idea, to drawing it, to putting it on the computer and getting it out? We dont want him to have to work with clients, so lets go buy his book and that way he can.. Matt: I used to play a game called Quake when I was a teenager, and when I played online and I always used the name Quaker Oatmeal. I have these little notebooks. Inman said that he found it is much easier to gain exposure for his work through the internet than it would have been two decades earlier. The website is theoatmeal.com and Matt, thanks again. [12], The Oatmeal received 300,000 visitors in its first month and within 10 months had received 4.5 million visitors. So I think with The Oatmeal, for them to actually remember my name, they probably had to visit my site 10 or 12 times. [52][53], In May 2014, Inman produced a comic on The Oatmeal titled "What it's like to own a Tesla Model S - A cartoonist's review of his magical space car",[54] and a follow-up comic titled "Part Two: Man Vs. Motor"[55] in which he talked about Nikola Tesla, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors. I think its artifacted garbage. Twitter or Facebook? So with The Oatmeal, I do get traffic through SEO, but it wasnt intentional. It was kind of informal, and the understanding was I had X percent of the company if we were to sell and when I quit, that kind of dissolved. What did you do just before then that turned things around? The Oatmeal's unique, charming wit delights and informs clueless humans about their . Matt: It just drove traffic up for me. Or with a virtual assistant? Youre a good looking guy. Im one of the oldest accounts on there. Andrew: So was there a mistake with the semicolon when you put that out there? Like, Things That You Shouldnt Do In E-Mail, How to Suck at Facebook, Words You Should Stop Misspelling, these are all gripes. Im tired of making comics and thinking, are Redditors going to hate this or are Redditors going to like it. Inman said that he loved The Oatmeal but "Im just tired and its been a decade of writing comics for strangers from my basement, and I want to try something different for a while. It was that I was good at creating things that drew in a lot of links, and that could be boiled down to creating things that people like. Andrew: And this was in July 2009 when you launched? Matt: I think having more creative control of your work. Andrew: And you were spending thousands of months on bandwidth costs? How do you get your ideas out there? Clearwater, FL. What was going on in your head? Books - Best Sellers - Oct. 28, 2012 - The New York Times", "Paperback Advice & Misc. Im The Oatmeal on Digg. So I decided to tackle the problem and figure out how to use it, and then I documented that experience and turned it into a comic. Andrew: So let me ask you this. I think ads about 20 percent and 80 percent is the merchandise. Matt: I believe it was posters. I dont speak publicly much. The last time I did an interview with you, lots of people ended up e-mailing me through that saying, Oh, I didnt know you lived in Seattle. Shes got a degree in, I dont remember, library sciences or something, but shes the expert. I dont do that. Would you check out TeamworkPM.net? Matt: I used to think it as useful, but I actually found its just more poisonous than anything. . So I tried to just pick a bunch of different things that I knew I could make work. Whats your full process from nothing to something that everyone Diggs and interacts with? In particular, writing about a gripe. Matt: It was called Hungover Aliens and it just was the most horribly received comic Ive ever done. GitHub uses Shopify to sell t-shirts and mugs to its fans. And how did that shape what you were creating? Its the worst, worst, worst thing to read that. A few months ago, the founders of GroupMe used Twilio to build a group texting service. And the publisher I picked was Andrews McMeel, who is the same publisher who published Gary Larsons The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Doonesbury, Foxtrot, all these comics which I loved. And I think the money is worth the [inaudible 21:17], especially if Im interested in selling a poster or something. You know, now that were talking about SEOmoz, I remember that I interviewed Rand Fishkin, the founder of SEOmoz, and when he was telling the story of how the company launched and grew, he never mentioned your name. At that point, I wouldnt have gotten on Digg and been like, Hey, your mom and I made love under the stars. . What was the next product after the book? Say something someone hasnt said. Stick with me for a moment. Theyll actually have a cover designed and the publisher wont allow them to use it. . What I did was I found this cool script that you can run on a 24-bit PNG that will actually make it look exactly the same as it had before, it just is a lower file size. Right now, I try to do one comic a week. Any Internet commentary can be pretty negative and that can be pretty poisonous to the creative process. 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