Tell HN: Thank you • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#21

Post by rubyrescue » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 12:39 AM UTC

AndrewWarner wrote: post #9

andreshb wrote: post #8

The work that you are doing is very useful for all of us, and like faramarz says; perhaps you'll reveal what you are doing in Buenos Aires and meet up with the HN/Startup community here. Thank you!

One of the first things I did when I got here is help organize an HN meetup. 2 - 3 dozen guys showed up. I'd do it again if you want to help me set it up. I'm here because I wanted to go in a cave and quietly work on my work without distractions. I don't speak the language here so I don't get caught up in aimless conversations. Most days I don't even put my contact lenses on. I just spend most of the day improving my…

let's do it next week - thursday?

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#22

Post by staunch » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 12:41 AM UTC

I may be way off base, but the cynic in me sees your post as related to the recent changes you made with Mixergy.

I really liked Mixergy. I turned lots of people onto it. When you decided (almost out of the blue) to turn it into a strictly money making venture for yourself I felt burned. I thought you were following in the footsteps of Charlie Rose's interviews, Paul Graham's essays, or one of the dozens of great Podcasts that exist. Something fairly altruistic that may generate money for you, but not as its primary goal.

It turns out you were really just building an audience so eventually you could upsell us into into some kind of self-help guru educational pay site. Not that there's anything wrong with a site like that, but it's not the kind of site I would ever use, and certainly not something I would ever actively promote.

I think there were a dozen ways you could have made significant money off Mixergy that wouldn't have felt like bait-n-switch. Instead you took the easiest and lamest possible option. I don't visit Mixergy any longer and I don't promote it anymore.

For your sake I hope you're really successful with the path you're taking. For mine I hope someone moves in to take the role I thought you were filling: The Charlie Rose of the startup world -- not the Tony Robins.

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#23

Post by bendtheblock » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 12:47 AM UTC

Managing a startup, it's hard to stay motivated 100% of the time. There are hacks for this, such as visualising success (both professionally and personally), or planning to meet your friends one evening to relax, or re-enforcing financial pressure by checking your bank statements.

Another one is to listen to an episode of Mixergy. The interviews are the ideal compromise between high level strategic questions and the grass roots stuff, such as what were the scaling problems, how was a given process managed, what was the advantage of doing X over Y.

I'll be writing in future about how to 'cook your own MBA' - Mixergy will certainly be a key ingredient.

Good work Andrew.

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#24

Post by jswinghammer » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 12:56 AM UTC

Thank you for producing your content. I've found it very inspirational. I love that there are so many great resources for aspiring entrepreneurs these days and I'd definitely put your site on the short list for great content in this area. Your ads are good too actually. They are very topical and interesting for me so well done there, too. Good luck!

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#25

Post by kvs » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 1:02 AM UTC

babyboy808 wrote: post #13

gizmo wrote: post #3

May I propose a different title? > How Mixergy uses HN to get Access to Entrepreneurs and Investors to Boost Traffic and get Sponsorships for Free!

Why the downvotes?, that is pretty funny as in the titles of Mixergy's posts :) eg: "How A Site Made More Money In 30 Days By Selling Access Than It Did In 2 Years Of Selling Ads with Tim Bourquin"

I give you a point. I think Andrew can improve the titles and make them sound less like informercials.

What he does is good & valuable work. Note that the archive is the only one that he is charging money for. So, we still can get on the juicy stuff within the week.

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#26

Post by AndrewWarner » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 1:20 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #22

I may be way off base, but the cynic in me sees your post as related to the recent changes you made with Mixergy. I really liked Mixergy. I turned lots of people onto it. When you decided (almost out of the blue) to turn it into a strictly money making venture for yourself I felt burned. I thought you were following in the footsteps of Charlie Rose's interviews, Paul Graham's essays, or one of the dozens of great Pod…

I understand the frustration. I'm listening to the feedback on this the way I heard and adjusted to past issues.

I don't have the right formula yet. But I'll keep at it.

For what it's worth, I paid for 2 years of Charlie Rose interviews on Audible even though I could have watched them for free on TV. It took him a few years to figure out the paid vs free model that you (and I) admire. Hopefully it'll take me less time than that.

I don't want to BE Charlie Rose though. And anyone who heard me stammer through the intros to my interviews knows I can't be Tony Robbins.

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#27

Post by da5e » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 1:24 AM UTC

Thank you for your excellent interviews. I thought your very detailed explanation of your reasoning for starting to charge for some content at some time made a lot of sense.

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#28

Post by pkaler » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 1:25 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #22

I may be way off base, but the cynic in me sees your post as related to the recent changes you made with Mixergy. I really liked Mixergy. I turned lots of people onto it. When you decided (almost out of the blue) to turn it into a strictly money making venture for yourself I felt burned. I thought you were following in the footsteps of Charlie Rose's interviews, Paul Graham's essays, or one of the dozens of great Pod…

The Charlie Rose Show on PBS is underwritten by companies like Google and Pfizer. It is also resold to Bloomberg Television.

I'm not sure how that is different from what Andrew Warner is doing with Mixergy.

Also, I'm not sure what entitles you to Andrew's hard work for free.

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#29

Post by jey » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 1:25 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #22

I may be way off base, but the cynic in me sees your post as related to the recent changes you made with Mixergy. I really liked Mixergy. I turned lots of people onto it. When you decided (almost out of the blue) to turn it into a strictly money making venture for yourself I felt burned. I thought you were following in the footsteps of Charlie Rose's interviews, Paul Graham's essays, or one of the dozens of great Pod…

The Charlie Rose analogy is perfect -- Mixergy has the potential to be be a resource that has archives of interviews with The Greats. I love to pop onto the Charlie Rose Show's website occasionally and check out old interviews when one of The Greats enters my consciousness, but I do it so rarely that I wouldn't pay a subscription fee for the privilege.

It makes sense that you'd like Mixergy to make money, and I think micropayments would be the ideal way to go about this -- but until they become more practical, please try to find some reasonable middle ground. Were the sponsorships and other ad schemes not working out? You have a highly targeted audience that should be more monetizable than average.

Re: Tell HN: Thank you

#30

Post by brandon272 » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 1:29 AM UTC

AndrewWarner wrote: post #26

staunch wrote: post #22

I may be way off base, but the cynic in me sees your post as related to the recent changes you made with Mixergy. I really liked Mixergy. I turned lots of people onto it. When you decided (almost out of the blue) to turn it into a strictly money making venture for yourself I felt burned. I thought you were following in the footsteps of Charlie Rose's interviews, Paul Graham's essays, or one of the dozens of great Pod…

I understand the frustration. I'm listening to the feedback on this the way I heard and adjusted to past issues. I don't have the right formula yet. But I'll keep at it. For what it's worth, I paid for 2 years of Charlie Rose interviews on Audible even though I could have watched them for free on TV. It took him a few years to figure out the paid vs free model that you (and I) admire. Hopefully it'll take me less tim…

I'm happy to pay for content if it's the right model, but right now you don't have a model that I am willing to participate in. :)

In related news, I can't see a way to even access premium content on your site right now. I'm guessing that has something to do with the "[private_Premium]" tags I'm seeing on the for-pay pages.