I don’t use their products, but I’m a big fan of the 37signals blog. Today’s post talks about exploiting different revenue streams.

Your self-imposed limitations on how to make money are often just that: self-imposed. Seek out other routes to your destination.

It’s one of the big advantages that small, agile companies have. They can experiment and change directions quickly. Plus, multiple revenue streams help you diversify so all your eggs aren’t in one basket.

I know a lot of web comics creators and diversification is their bread and butter. Most of them give the “main” product away for free (they rely on people passing the comics along for free word of mouth) and then sell secondary merchandise as the main source of income. Shirts, prints, books, a little advertising – these are the things that pay for most web comics.

Not many indie developers take advantage of the multiple streams thing. The Behemoth is an obvious exception. Alien Hominid was funded partially through house refinancing (risky) and partly because they made and sold the action figures before they finished development. Profits from the toys paid for the game.

More indie studios should consider at least selling shirts, I think. A lot of them have these huge fan bases who hunger for ways to show their allegiance between game releases. And with a year or more between releases, some interim cash seems like a good idea. The risk is that you end up spending too much time or effort on the secondary work (the creation and distribution of physical stuff is not the same as making downloadable games). On the other hand, the risk of leaving money on the table is that you run out of cash before your next project is finished.

(P.S. here is one where 37signals makes my “ideas are cheap” argument but, you know, articulately.)