[Art of Hand]

I have a few 'for-sale' tutorials. I guess I have been real lucky - I got gifted most by the authors, and purchased one.

I started melting glass 4 1/2 years ago. I only had the internet and the free information/tutorials to guide me. There is no ways that I could scrape $5000 together to fly to the US, book into hotels, and pay my glass hero's for classes. I still cannot afford to fly all over the world for classes.

But then, one day I realised that I rather enjoyed figuring stuff out by myself. I still browse the internet looking for information, and try and figure stuf out. To buy a $30 tut, would take me 4 hours of nursing. That is how I equate anything that I buy. At that price, I back slowly away.

Currently I offer free tutorials. I offer them for free, because I feel obliged to 'pass it forward'. I got SO much from the community, and I know there is a lot of newbies that might be in my shoes. But, times IS tough, and that is why I offered the option to people visiting my blog to donate something, if they felt that what I offered them, is worth something.

At the same time, I do not offer PDF files that require 3 seperate downloads, and months of prep work, like one of my friend's did. Neither have I spent hundreds of $ to make sure that the tools that I offer is the best, and actually working. I did not need to employ someone to take pictures. Myself (and a tripod) were my only employees.

What I am trying to say, is that it is ok for people to ask money for their time spend.

On the other hand. What is the right amount, and what is wrong? The person that perpared a tutorial, is not charging the amount to just one person, but hundreds, if not more. How much would that person expect to 'earn' through sales, vs the amount of time put into the product? To make your knowledge available, means to me that the person is in a way divorcing themselves from the product. The value that they attatched to the product prior to the revelation should be higher. After the publishing the product becomes public domain. They can only claim being the originator/perfector of the design.

I do think that some tutorials is 'overpriced'. But then, I am a miser.