Whither thee, Artcast?

With the inevitable return of my art tutorial video podcast (previously known as “The Artcast”), I'm considering a slight change in what it's called. Read on for my reasons, and please feel free to offer your thoughts/opinions on the idea.

Obviously, “Artcast” was originally just a mashup of the words “Art” and “Podcast”. This, to me, is generic enough to be just a category more than it is a brand, and could benefit from something a little more unique that fully represents the content. I've always felt this, and am certain that now is the best time to change the name.

I started “The Artcast” in 2006. During that time, I don't think that there was anyone else doing quite what I was publishing. Or, if they were, they weren't very findable. Now, however, Google tells a much different story.

Also, there's monetization. I'd like to think that this is something that I might eventually profit from. I mean, who wouldn't want to make a little money from something they work hard on, right?

I have a few choices here:

• I can charge for the show (which I will never do).
• I can hope that merchandise is enough (t-shirts, mugs, etc.).
• I can attempt to build sponsorship or advertising (which I know very little about).
• I can sell the downloadable resources from each episode (too sneaky?).

I don't want to be evil about it, but out of these things, I know the least about sponsorship. So, I just need to decide which of these routes is the least evil for everyone. Capitalism isn't evil, it's just ugly to deal with.

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