Ryan McFarland

One of my least popular Instructables has been an entry for the “Fridge Magnet Challenge” on how to reuse cheap fridge magnets.  The contest was over a year ago and my Instructable only has 2,600 views.  (Compared to the cart-bike with 66,000 views, Kevin’s and my t-shirt printing press with 49,000 views, or my geek wallet with 198,000 views.)  I didn’t even rank as a runner-up in the magnet contest.

I’ve been very happy with the exposure that the Instructables site has given my projects.  My first project for the site ended up in Popular Photography magazine.  It looks like i’ll have two projects in the upcoming book.  I’ve had my stuff in Australian and Italian magazines.  Of course, i’ve won a number of t-shirts and a few other prizes but to date none have ever brought me any direct money.  (Not that i do it for money but some cash wouldn’r hurt!)

Then I got an email from someone at HowCast.  They would like to pay me $50 to use “my” idea for a video.  They also are offering 50% of the ad revenue generated if i embed the video on zieak.com or in my Instructable.  It sounds like they will do all the production but will “work with” me.

Since this project has been one of my bigger flops i’m willing to sell off my idea for a few bucks.  Maybe I’ll stop waiting around for worthy contests to create and post my ideas now.