Download and listen to Andrea and me talk about the origins of Powered by Passion and our ideas for a community movement.
Key points include:
- You can be passionate and make money
- You can be passionate and have a purpose
- “Powered by Passion” is about doing what you love without any financial compensation
- You can join even if you made money in the past
Be sure to weigh in on the discussion so we can take the great idea and make it amazing. To do so, leave a comment or send an email to poweredbypassion@gmail.com.

Mark, what about oh say having a paypal donate button or the odd google ad in hopes of defraying some of the costs of production. We have that at brocasarea.ca, but no plans to ”make money’. Indeed, so far we could pay for one mic, or really maybe half of one, with what we have had donated to us.
Dave
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — October 22, 2006 @ 2:42 pm
I had another case for Judge Mark: what about the Cafe Press store I have on my site? I don’t have a markup, so Cafe Press makes money on it, but not me. The coffee mugs, button, and t-shirts are just for fun, and to help build community. Actually the only items that have sold are ones I bought and gave away.
Or: what if I decided to put a link to my Amazon wishlist?
Comment by Jim Milles — October 22, 2006 @ 6:44 pm
You are not allowed actually to say how much you make on google ads. But it is much closer to pennies for most of us..
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — October 22, 2006 @ 7:23 pm
Hey guys!
Our thinking is to keep it simple.
There are a million different cases of what can be considered “reasonable expenses” and what a “reasonable charge” is for those expenses. Then you have to consider world currencies (since we want this to be an open community). I mean, for Broca’s Area, expenses could be CDN$10/month, then for Check This Out! it could be US$20/month, for Electric Sky it could be CDN$5/month and a new semi-pro audio card and two shotgun mics and for Just One More Book it could be several visits to bookstores and online stores each week at $100 a pop. How do you define what is a reasonable limit and avoid having to “jury” every situation? Realistically, nobody asks for tips from others to fuel their book reading hobby, or donations to buy a new spinnaker for their personal sailboat.
Our thoughts on this are to keep it simple and avoiding having to write several complicated paragraphs to explain. If we say no revenue stream, it’s easy for someone to figure out on their own whether or not they qualify. It’s easy to explain that in a sentence. Much like Creative Commons has boiled things down to simple terms.
Again, this depends largely on whether this model can be adopted and sustained.
It seems that if we adopt these kinds of revenue streams, we would have to create a logo that indicates Powered by Passion and Google and a tip jar. :)
The community will have to make the final decisions. We are simply opening the discussion and leading the charge to achieve a community framework.
Your judges ;-)
Mark AND ANDREA
Comment by Mark — October 22, 2006 @ 8:49 pm
Hi Andrea and the other guy,
Hmm, I see the point, yeah I don’t ask for tips say oh when I make model planes (which I don’t do any more but that is beside the point). Then again, I like to cook, we have people over for dinner a lot etc. If someone asks ‘what do you want me to bring’ I usually say ‘you’. Then again, they are free to bring stuff, and most do.
Like I said, i get the poin t though. Food for thought if you will.
DB (and NOT Isabelle, as she is in another room….)
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — October 22, 2006 @ 11:08 pm
I like your point, Dave. I guess that’s why we suggest that gifts are okay. A lot of people, particularly show guests, like to acknowledge your support by giving you free tickets to their performance, autographed CDs and books, t-shirts, etc… We don’t see those as being issues for PbP.
In your example, your dinner guests are contributing to the evening by bringing a gift (say a bottle of wine) as a gesture. Rarely, if ever, would they bring cash and I’m sure you would feel awkward if they did.
The Other Guy
Comment by Mark — October 23, 2006 @ 12:48 am
That is hilarious, imagine that, someone bringing cash. “Hey, the liquor store was closed, so here’s 30 bucks”.
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — October 23, 2006 @ 6:44 am
Maybe it’s time I invite Dave & Isabelle over for supper..
Comment by Bob — October 23, 2006 @ 11:55 am
I wasn’t planning on declaring my dinner parties Powered By Passion because
I just can’t imagine getting rid of my dinner party tip jar!
Comment by Andrea — October 23, 2006 @ 12:12 pm
You are all welcome for dinner, though Mark may be too tall…..
I find it funny nitpicking on this side of the argument, as Broca’s is of course a hobby, and we have no plan to make money. Indeed, in the T6 profile on CPB last year, I said I wished that corporate types would get out of the game.
OK, so here are a couple of issues. If one has a hobby cast (as I do) and one that is intended to make money (I could certainly say that my lecturecasts are at least partly intended to promote Algoma U, as that is one of the reasons I do it, and that would increase our number of students) am I in a potential conflict? I link to my lectures on the Broca site. I do mention them now and then as well.
On the hobby thing. OK, instead of my cooking, let us go with the example of my model plane making. OK, say I enter one of my planes in a model making competition and win. Is that not getting paid?
I know I nitpick. For that is my thing that I do…
Dave
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — October 23, 2006 @ 6:27 pm
I have a blog and i love update it every week, but i never get a dolar but i would like receive a financial compensation , im crazy?
Comment by Javier Rodríguez — November 24, 2006 @ 11:04 am
[...] It’s probably a coincidence but I’m noticing that not long after Mark and Andrea Blevis put out their podcast, Powered by Passion – Explained, I began to find more and more really fantastic independent musicians have switched from a for-profit motive to putting out albums because they love making and sharing music. Josh Woodward, who according to my last.fm statistics is my most-played artist (and for good reason too!) says it well in an entry he recently wrote in his blog: There’s a lot of speculation of what the Internet has done to hurt the music industry. Easy access to free (legal or not) songs on demand (and the ability to copy them easily) have definitely lessened the perceived monetary value of music. Over time, I’m becoming convinced that this isn’t a bad thing. I’m not sure that music and commerce are meant to share a toothbrush. [...]
Pingback by Quirky Outtakes — December 16, 2006 @ 11:59 pm
[...] weeks I have blogged about the defining quality of Podcasts (context is king) and the concept for a Powered by Passion community. How fitting that the two have come together over the last few days to create yet [...]
Pingback by Mark Blevis » Equation of Absolute Success — January 26, 2007 @ 2:33 pm
I have a blog but i haven’t really make any money on it as yet! But i plan to just need to put in a bit more work get it up the ranking and compete with the big boys! BRING IT ON!
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Pingback by Private: Music - Powered by Passion « Quirky Outtakes — August 3, 2008 @ 5:49 am
You are not allowed actually to say how much you make on google ads. But it is much closer to pennies for most of us..
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — December 31, 2009 @ 2:59 am