I know of various designers who sell or used to sell plans using very different business models that seem to fall on a spectrum from, at one end, inexpensive plans with little to no builder support (high volume, low price) and, at the other end, very expensive plans with direct builder support from the designer (low volume, high price) I also know of designers that have included complete plans sets (at reduced size, of course) in books or magazines knowing that most builders actually undertaking the project will end up buying a set of large printed plans. Some of the examples I have in mind are boat designers and others aircraft designers, but the principles are the same.
Here's an idea...what about offering complete downloadable aircraft plans at low cost (say $50 including free updates and revisions by email) and then offering builder support on a subscription basis? Maybe a private forum not unlike this one, monitored by the designer, plus other benefits? Selected experienced builders would be invited to become mentors with lifetime free forum access. The free or low-cost plans become an advertising tool, and the subscription fees become the way to pay the designer for his/her time.
For the subscriptions, maybe $5 per month gets you access to the private forum, $50 per month gets membership an active-builders-only group with print/photo/video library and group video sessions with the designer, $100 per 30-minute session gets you a one-one-one video chat with the designer. If you can sell 25 sets of plans per month, get 250 people in the forum, 25 people in the builder's group, and 10 individual video chats per month, that would be $1,250 + $1,250 + $1,250 + $1000 = $4,750 per month, not a fortune but more than enough to make the time investment worthwhile.
I am curious, given the popularity of subscription video streaming, sponsored content like Patreon, and other such things, how many HBA members would consider joining such a model to build a plane from plans?
Here's an idea...what about offering complete downloadable aircraft plans at low cost (say $50 including free updates and revisions by email) and then offering builder support on a subscription basis? Maybe a private forum not unlike this one, monitored by the designer, plus other benefits? Selected experienced builders would be invited to become mentors with lifetime free forum access. The free or low-cost plans become an advertising tool, and the subscription fees become the way to pay the designer for his/her time.
For the subscriptions, maybe $5 per month gets you access to the private forum, $50 per month gets membership an active-builders-only group with print/photo/video library and group video sessions with the designer, $100 per 30-minute session gets you a one-one-one video chat with the designer. If you can sell 25 sets of plans per month, get 250 people in the forum, 25 people in the builder's group, and 10 individual video chats per month, that would be $1,250 + $1,250 + $1,250 + $1000 = $4,750 per month, not a fortune but more than enough to make the time investment worthwhile.
I am curious, given the popularity of subscription video streaming, sponsored content like Patreon, and other such things, how many HBA members would consider joining such a model to build a plane from plans?
