. Im guessing its probably between 300 and 1,000 people. Hayden was in an ultra-conservative environment and rebelled against those views. In a matter of hours you launched this online dating site, you showed the sketch of it online, you came here to talk about how you built it, how you grew it, how you got traffic for it. So mostly it was formally exposing me to way more publishers, because some still didnt even know who I was, and then negotiating for a better deal. Matt: I think I just e-mailed them and said, Hey, please unban me. I dont want to operate off of what sells the most merchandise. Matt: Originally, it was mostly StumbleUpon, and I think I might have gotten on Digg once or twice. Lets just put it to you that way. Inman said that the funds will be used to mount a live gaming convention, Burning Cat; and to hire more artists and produce three to five new games a year. I dont go to conferences. Im not going to try to sound greedy, but I know you have a good following. Andrew: And as a co-founder, did you invest money into the business? Matt: I didnt have any problem with that. GitHub uses Shopify to sell t-shirts and mugs to its fans. So I felt like the best use of what I was doing wasnt SEO anymore. Right now, I'm busy making an animated TV series at Netflix. So I just submitted comics from The Oatmeal, called it the Oatmeal. It was like real obvious. So I was actually spending three or four grand a month on hosting costs for all the images I was serving up, and I wasnt getting that back in. I need to hurry. Andrew: Whats the story behind you Rickrolling the people at Reddit? Every few years, I compile these comics into books, such as How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you. So if one guy can generate that much traffic, I feel like the Internet has kind of come to fruition. Whether that be something that we have a problem with, like the BS that we have to go to through getting onto an airplane or something minor like when you walk through a cobweb and the worst part isnt that you have cobwebs on you, its that you think theres a spider on you. Did it stop you from creating? Andrew: Ben Huh told me thats one of the things that he did when he acquired Lolcats or I Can Has Cheezburger. Its the stand-up routine where someone gets up there and says, Whats the deal with airline food? You take that and you apply it to a comic. Oct 2016 - Dec 20215 years 3 months. [1] Early comics regularly made the front page of Digg, driving traffic to the site. And that basically evolved straight into comics. Why call people out by name? I feel like right now the Internet is a wonderful place to be because its so easy to make something small and just explode it out there. Maybe theyre trying to pick something that sells better or something. Inman alleged that FunnyJunk, a content aggregator website, repeatedly infringed The Oatmeal's original content. . When youre working for yourself and a mistake can cost you personally money and cost you the business that you love, wouldnt you be more cautious? Some arent. I did notice that recently. And thats when traffic started spiking and when I realized I could actually do it for a living. Matt: Yeah. Join Facebook to connect with Matthew Inman and others you may know. Andrew: Its possible that he didnt mention you just because I didnt bring it up. If he got a haircut and dressed nicely, it wouldnt be any funnier. When I heard that that was when I was like, thats how I want to be. Andrew: So I see a lot of people who take content thats available free on the web and they repackage it into a paper book and they sell it. Youre one of the few good looking SEO tech people. I sent it to her. Hes a total jackass and blah blah blah. Or I removed all the links to it. Theres no two characters. View FREE Public Profile & Reputation for Matthew Inman in Oak Grove, MO - See Court Records | Photos | Address, Emails & Phone Numbers | Personal Review | $100 - $149,999 Income & Net Worth Matt: Adobe Fireworks actually used to be a Macromedia product. I started using Tumblr for the first time like a month ago and I love the software. Andrew: I think last time you and I talked, we talked about Mingle2, the dating site that you launched. Andrew: You mean, in the first book there was new material? Matt: I dont know really. With Twitter and Facebook, those are my own fans who have committed to following me. On one occasion, only one occasion, I actually pulled a comic from my site. That was a big part of it. It was more of . Matthew Inman in Texas. First, do you want to build a web app that interacts with phones? Andrew: Why do you think that you cant submit there? And one of the questions I asked him was what kind of feedback did you have on your work and did it change your work. Matt: Yeah. I had a lot of fans who were like, We want The Oatmeal to be able to do this full time. The other thing was that I found that utility sells better than just humor. I feel like its happening to me, for some reason, here today in this interview. [2], Inman said that when he started the comic, he felt that drawing was a chore. Matt: Yeah, sometimes I do. If not, they can just leave it alone. It was a Rickroll and I did Chers Do You Believe In Life After Love and the song Informer by Snow. He said that while the act would have afforded him more rights, he disliked like the way that SOPA would have put the onus on sites to prove their innocence. Im tired of making comics and thinking, are Redditors going to hate this or are Redditors going to like it. [3][1], Exploding Kittens is being made into a Netflix series by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. [4], Inman lives on Bainbridge Island in the Seattle area, . [77], The Oatmeal was created by Matthew Inman (born 1982 or 1983). As you can tell from The Oatmeal, Im a very creative person, very visually oriented, and at SEOmoz my tasks were mostly code, dev, system admin. [52][53], In May 2014, Inman produced a comic on The Oatmeal titled "What it's like to own a Tesla Model S - A cartoonist's review of his magical space car",[54] and a follow-up comic titled "Part Two: Man Vs. Motor"[55] in which he talked about Nikola Tesla, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors. Structural Info Filmography Known for movies Death Couch (2010) as Writer Chopstick Drummer (2016) as Writer The Machine (2010) Its dead simple and very effective. But in the beginning, they actually banned me. Ha ha ha. How many grammar ones do you make? I just started to see it as a real brittle business model and I just was never that passionate about it. So, eventually, I started using the name Oatmeal on the Internet when I signed up for things. How do you fit in there? I keep moving the computer away from the mic, and so far its helping but only a little bit. Andrew: [Laughs] I actually find that section very funny, but I saw people were complaining about it so I figured Id bring it up. This is going to sound super cheesy, but embrace social media. I dont know when the last time was that you saw a YouTube video and you scrolled through the comments and you were like, Ah, I feel better now that I read those. So my creativity was being rewarded by basically putting all of the value of our company into another company, in Google in particular and particularly one man at Google, who at any time can decide this is not a good linking practice and this is. Google PR-Yandex CY. In the beginning, when you were getting feedback, what was that feedback like? It banks on the humor and the insight in those comics and the utility of them. Im looking at the comic version of you, and hes a fat guy with a pointy hat and he looks ridiculous. At what point did you start to see consistent traffic coming from Digg? You got traffic for Mingle2, the dating site, through search engine optimization. So I found that if I can just get the warehousing and the distribution out of the way and deal with that, then I can actually make real money with it, rather than just chump change. Is that true or is that an exaggeration? So with Mingle2 in particular, that was what really pushed me over the edge, because basically my responsibility every day was to build quizzes, comics, little viral attractions, but the goal was to build links. Books - Best Sellers - March 31, 2013 - The New York Times", "L.A.-based tabletop game company Exploding Kittens wants you to throw (foam) burritos at your friends and family", "Kitty Letter is a cat-themed 'words with enemies' game by the creator of The Oatmeal", "The Creators of NSFW Card Game Exploding Kittens Are Bringing a Gaming Convention to PortlandAnd It's Weird As Hell", "Exploding Kittens to host live gaming convention Burning Cat", "Burning Cat | A convention from the creators of Exploding Kittens and the Oatmeal", "The Oatmeal's Latest Fundraiser to Save the Tesla Tower", "Help me raise money to buy Nikola Tesla's old laboratory", "Indiegogo project seeks crowdfunding for Tesla museum", "Tesla museum campaign exceeds fund-raising target", Backers raise cash for Tesla museum honoring 'cult hero', "Web Cartoonist Raises $1 Million For Tesla Museum", "What it's like to own a Tesla Model S - A cartoonist's review of his magical space car - The Oatmeal", "Elon Musk donates $1 million to Nikola Tesla museum after webcomic calls him out", "So, I had a call with Elon Musk earlier this week ", "Tower to the People: Tesla's Dream at Wardenclyffe Continues (2015)", "The Oatmeal vs. FunnyJunk: webcomic copyright fight gets personal", "Lawyer demands $20,000, so webcomic raises $100,000 from the Internet", "FunnyJunk is threatening to file a federal lawsuit against me unless I pay $20,000 in damages", "Website war earns big bucks for charity", "Cartoonist turns lawsuit threat into $100K charity fundraiser", Can I Sue You People? We dont want him to have to work with clients, so lets go buy his book and that way he can.. Twilio makes it easy. So I think with The Oatmeal, for them to actually remember my name, they probably had to visit my site 10 or 12 times. Like, as a designer, I was great at making things that were pretty, but I wasnt great at the other part of it, which is communication, feedback, iterating. And because I only do sales really rarely and usually big, like 40 or 50 percent, people respond really well to them, rather than the weekly 10 percent off this week, 5 percent off next week. I had this expectation that I would [inaudible 21:48] and I think had a couple hundred of these books to sell, and that Id get all this traffic and selling them would be super easy. And they may be right, but it happens. FunnyJunk's lawyer, Charles Carreon, attempted to shut the campaign down, alleging it violated Indiegogo's terms and conditions. [1][2] Born in Chino, California, he moved with his family to the small, rural town of Hayden, Idaho, when he was in grade school. But I only did that once. So, in the beginning, youre absolutely right, probably insulting my critics wouldnt have gone over so well. Matt: Yeah. It technically wasnt a Rickroll. Most people, they go get an agent, the agent negotiates the book deal and then you get your book. After publishing the comic, he tweeted Musk, inviting Elon to donate to the Tesla Museum. [1], Inman opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Andrew: So, how many people came to your website, to TheOatmeal.com, last month? Yeah. Andrew: What was in the original book? Its one of those all-in-one merchandizing solutions. Heres a comic. Its got a years worth of comics and a bunch of new comics in it. Andrew: You said October 2010 is when you stopped doing client work and went full time. With something even like animation, you have things like movement and voice narration, things that can actually change what people project into that character. Do you, on a typical day, bring in $1,000 in revenue and on Black Friday last year, did you bring in $70,000 in revenue? Ping me if you think its taking me too long to post it. [50] With the grant from New York state, the campaign totaled over $2.1 million. Matt: I think its about where it is now. On one hand, Inman sees himself as a comedian, an artist who has to answer to nobody, a guy who works for himself and is thus finally free to mock people who dislike his work. View FREE Public Profile & Reputation for Matthew Inman in Raleigh, NC - See Court Records | Photos | Address, Email & Phone Number | Personal Review | $100 - $149,999 Income & Net Worth In particular, writing about a gripe. But now Im kind of at this comfortable level. But on a plane its like being locked into this boring, boring room so you have nothing to do but farm your own brain for crops. [14][4], In January 2015, Inman, Elan Lee, and Shane Small launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for their project Exploding Kittens, a card-based, Russian-roulette-style game with art by Inman. Andrew: And this was in July 2009 when you launched? What will you sell online after you discover the power of Shopify? I didnt realize you made that many. Im the founder of Mixergy.com, home of the ambitious upstart. I need to hurry. [33] The campaign raised $1million in its first seven hours, and ultimately raised $8.8million, becoming the most-funded card game on Kickstarter. You post a comic on Digg and all the users are like, This is the worst thing Ive ever seen. Matt: When I launched the site, I think I was doing one to four comics a month, maybe less. But I look at them alter and theyre genius. Guys, thank you all for watching. Well, thanks for doing the interview. Just to troll them, mostly. [7] In response Inman made a second post going through the Forbes article, acknowledging some good points but picking apart others, including calling multiple sections "bullshit" and defending his work as "a comedian [who speaks] in hyperbole. Inman has produced a series of Oatmeal books with content from the webcomic and previously unpublished material, related board games, and other merchandise. Charles Carreon Drops Bogus Lawsuit Against The Oatmeal Creator. Why are things different there? You used to be a consultant who showed other companies how to do search engine optimization. I think when I launched How to Use an Apostrophe, I put out another grammar comic right away after that. Matthew Inman, creator of the geek-famous internet comic The Oatmeal, has a pretty great gig. I just dont read it if its about me because its usually not very nice. Please enter your email address to continue. For example, I was on a plane and my girlfriend and I were talking about apps and there was an app that was $1.99 or $1.00 and I was stressing about, oh, its $2.00, I dont know. I just finished Hugh Macleods latest book, an he seems to think of e-mail as his direct channel to his fans. So with that I saw, this is the type of book that I want to write, these guys, I know they wont try and screw with it, so lets work with them. Troll Lawyer Sues The Charities The Oatmeal Supports, "Lawyer Charles Carreon Suing The Oatmeal, American Cancer Society and National Wildlife Federation". My business doesnt bank on my reputation as much as just putting out great material. Thanks for liking this post. It got more traffic than anything Id ever done, so that was when I kind of decided I clearly have some kind of knack for this sort of creative stuff and I think its a better fit for me than making little marketing gimmicks for SEO. Most people wouldnt notice. [51] After the fundraiser, Jane Alcron of the Tesla Science Centre said the additional funds would be used to start converting the ruins into a science center and perhaps building a replica of the original tower. What was the revenue breakdown between the two of them? Matt: Its actually the same title as the new book. [67] Carreon also filed a pro se lawsuit Carreon v. Inman et al in United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Inman, Indiegogo, the American Cancer Society, and the National Wildlife Federation in response. The Oatmeal is a webcomic and humor website created in 2009 by cartoonist Matthew Inman. Do you know what I mean? [1] Other themes are zombies, horse care, English grammar,[5] dolphin brutality, and sexual congress between koalas and goats. Im a one man operation and I just calculated the number of pageviews I got in 2010. Find Matthew Inman's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading online directory for contact information. And then when The Oatmeal started to pick up speed, I did a second order of a couple thousand copies, and I sold all those in three weeks or something. He just wrote what he liked and what he thought was funny and that humor coincided with his fans. Matt: At first, it was the grammar ones because everyone that read them would e-mail me and say, Hey, you should make this into a poster. I did even all the layout inside and everything. 260 records for Matthew Inman. It just took time to build it up. Oatmeal Studios holds the trademark for their name and after The Oatmeal worked with another company to make greeting cards based on the comic, Oatmeal Studios argued that this was too similar and likely to cause confusion. I probably wont put them on the comics anytime soon. Matt: I think the real strength that I had with SEO wasnt really the technical aspects of SEO itself. Well, in my opinion, those are kind of two different things. Matt: Oh, as far as what generates traffic the most? But to actually remember my name and like me enough to buy a product, its got to be like an insane number of times. Andrew: Why not even further? I dont do that. Iman Abdulmajid Jones is a Somalian-American retired fashion model, actress and entrepreneur who has a net worth of $200 million dollars. She doesnt look very fast, so well see. [3], The format of The Oatmeal has been described as "storytelling-meets-infographics"[2] and as "a quirky and often crudely-drawn comic". So I dont have much to speak on that, other than free shipping tends to sell well. How much SEO do you use to bring traffic to your site? Finally, are you still coordinating projects by e-mail and wondering why youre not productive? Wouldnt you worry more that youd lose this whole thing that you love so much? And not necessarily that theyre being mean, its just that they seem to have room temperature IQs when they comment in YouTube comments. What was the next thing that you started selling? Matt: Well, for one, the book is something tangible that you can give as a gift. Stay co-ordinated and productive with Teamwork PM. A fundraiser to develop and produce a card game called Exploding Kittens raised $8.8 million,[15] and a game company co-founded by Inman received a $30 million investment in 2019. I think its artifacted garbage. Im Oatmeal at Gmail, Twitter and Facebook, all that. Theres a sense of community with that, but its sort of halfway there because its a community and there are people commenting but they arent repeat users, they arent signed up, they arent doing anything. Its Five Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth. It was 17 comics that I drew and I actually had it printed overseas. [2] In a 2010 interview, he said that when thinking of a subject to write about, he simply picks something he is interested in. So basically I was this giant image hosting machine. Andrew: And Digg. He usually worked at home, but as he finds it difficult to go long periods without social contact, he often goes to a coffee shop to work. I also make card games, such as Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw Burrito. I had to respond like, Well, Im sorry you feel that way. Andrew: I see. Matthew Inman is the creator of The Oatmeal, a web comic with millions of fans. View FREE Public Profile & Reputation for Matthew Inman in Cleveland, OH - See Court Records | Photos | Address, Email & Phone Number | Personal Review | $30 - $39,999 Income & Net Worth But I feel like it didnt really get into its stride until now with things like Twitter and Facebook and social sites where you can make one little thing and explode it out there. Andrew: I see. Matt: Honestly, I havent done much with that. While I was doing client work, it was a sharp reminder that I dont like doing client work. And now, I just do it based on if I think its poster-worthy and how much feedback I get. What about How did you get a book deal after you self-published your own book? Also, I am horrible with clients. Or with a team of employees? The last time I did an interview with you, lots of people ended up e-mailing me through that saying, Oh, I didnt know you lived in Seattle. This creative process was under this umbrella of control. Digg I see as outside traffic, new users. Im on Digg. But its what I know and its what Im fast with, so I stick with it. Some are personal. Ranks. So I keep moving the mic away. And sometimes I do put out things that arent perfect, even if Id actually worked on it a bit, I would have been better. So most people that say, Oatmeal should go kill himself, or whatever, they usually get Dugg down and the people who compliment my comics get Dugg up. 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