I was inspired by Grayhaze's post on donations ( https://www.wincustomize.com/msgboard.asp?BID=WC&id=167122 ) to write this article.

In the good old days, a WindowBlinds skin or a Winamp skin or whatever could be started and finished in a few hours. I know, I used to make them.

As time has gone on, a good skin now takes 20 to 50 hours each and that's assuming no colorization support, no sub-styles, no plugins, etc.

Stardock's been working to make it easier to create the more common style of skins with a new skin format called the Universal Skin Format. With USF, the title bar buttons can be on the left or right but are otherwise pretty much set and a lot of the other parts of the skin are automated.

But UIS2, the skin format for WindowBlinds that is very free form, will continue to evolve to gain new features. And as a result, making a fully featured skin of quality now takes a lot of time to do. I think the same thing will happen to other skin formats as the programs they are for become increasingly feature rich.

And while non-skin authors sometimes have a hard time understanding it, there is an invisible threshold between when something is fun to do and when something becomes work. And at that point, the author will want something in return.

That something can come in many forms. Props from their friends. I can tell you that a kind word, a showing of appreciation, recognition, etc. goes a long way. When I make something and share it freely with others, it really does make it worth it to see people say kind things about it or for a website to feature it or whatever.

But another form of compensation is financial. I think what will increasingly happen is that skin authors who have been around a long while and have freely contributed for a long while, having created fan bases, will start to occasionally release "suites". Pixtudio started the trend and others have followed. To keep that fan base strong and to keep public recognition and to keep the community thriving, these "pro" skinners will still release lots of free stuff. In fact, arguably, it'll be the "pros" who release the most/best free stuff because they can justify the time because a) they like doing it and it helps promote their non-paid stuff.

But going Pro means putting ones business hat on. It means making a decision whether to go it alone or to work with a publisher. Going with a publisher means giving up a large percentage of the proceeds in exchange for hoping to get more income overall.

This can be a bitter pill to swallow on the surface. For instance, on Galactic Civilizations, Stardock paid for development, hosts the website, handles the support, and does quite a bit of the marketing and our HOPED for per unit revenue on this $40+ game is about $10. 25% of the sales price. I.e. that's our BEST case scenario. But the idea is that instead of selling only 5,000 units at $40, we'll sell 60,000 units at $10.

The same is true on skins and themes.

A good suite sold by Stardock, for instance, can sell anywhere between 1,500 to 2,500 units per year. At $9 apiece, that's up to $22,500.  25% of that would be $5,600 in royalties.  So then the question is, can you make more than $5,600 selling it yourself or in some other fashion? Is $5,600 worth your time to create a suite?

And if so, what about making 2 or 3 of them per year? Now you're at $10,000 to $15,000 per year. Enough to upgrade your hardware and justify to yourself and your parents or wife or husband the time you put into it as well as "feeling good" about the community.

Which is where things return to -- the skinning community. Joe graphics designer is not going to be able to make mega skins and get them sold in quantity without having already become well known in the community. Similarly, skin authors who go "pure pro" are likely to lose out because as competition grows, people will choose the suites made by people they've heard of and who have given a lot to the community in the past and present.

So ironically, it is my belief that as time goes on, it may be the for pay suites that help drive the creation of free skins. Free skins from up and comers who are trying to gain recognition and a resume and free skins from pro skinners who are trying to keep that recognition and be able to supliment their income by doing something they love and are good at.