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At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

xconomy.com

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Re: At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

#11

Post by h34t »

I like the service. Helps keep me on track. For some reason I use this differently than paper journals.

I think there may be a market for online coaching for independent, creative / solitary workers. A 10 minute phone call each day with a coach could have gone a long way for helping me stay focused when I was working by myself on projects. Journal entries like this could be a natural "entry" into this space.

If they gave me the option of paying a monthly subscription for a qualified, trustworthy coach to read my entries and help keep me on track I might go for it. Knowing there was somebody who would read it would motivate me to keep going and put more thought into my life.

(Of course, I'd change the way I wrote the entries if I knew it wasn't totally private. It changes the nature of the service.)

Re: At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

#12

Post by troutwine »

h34t wrote: post #11

I like the service. Helps keep me on track. For some reason I use this differently than paper journals. I think there may be a market for online coaching for independent, creative / solitary workers. A 10 minute phone call each day with a coach could have gone a long way for helping me stay focused when I was working by myself on projects. Journal entries like this could be a natural "entry" into this space. If they…

I've been considering building a service for this very thing. Would you be interested in having a conversation with me? My email address is in my profile.

Re: At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

#13

Post by pkaler »

dabent wrote: post #2

I've been using this for a few weeks now. It's super easy to use, but I really wonder how they plan on monetizing this app.

Highly targeted advertising in the daily reminder email. They basically know your deepest darkest secrets that you don't want to publish widely.

Email CPM ranges from $10/CPM to $100/CPM depending on targeting. http://archive.newsmax.com/mediakit/newsmaxemail_rates.cfm

I'd imagine people would put health and financial matters in their private journal.

Re: At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

#14

Post by kirpekar »

swombat wrote: post #9

To offer a counterpoint, I signed up, posted about 3 entries, then got distracted and added these emails to the masses of automated mails that my eye automatically glosses over while looking at my overtaxed inbox. Then I unsubscribed the next time I had an automated-mail-culling exercise. So, "one more email demanding my attention" didn't work for me.

Same here. Kept up for about a week, then unsubscribed to rid the pain.

The solution has to be non-email related.

Re: At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

#15

Post by klous »

troutwine wrote: post #12
h34t wrote: post #11

I like the service. Helps keep me on track. For some reason I use this differently than paper journals. I think there may be a market for online coaching for independent, creative / solitary workers. A 10 minute phone call each day with a coach could have gone a long way for helping me stay focused when I was working by myself on projects. Journal entries like this could be a natural "entry" into this space. If they…

I've been considering building a service for this very thing. Would you be interested in having a conversation with me? My email address is in my profile.

I've had some similar thoughts for a set of services like this, I'd be up for a discussion. My email is in profile. (your email is not at the moment)

Re: At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

#17

Post by hugh3 »

kirpekar wrote: post #14
swombat wrote: post #9

To offer a counterpoint, I signed up, posted about 3 entries, then got distracted and added these emails to the masses of automated mails that my eye automatically glosses over while looking at my overtaxed inbox. Then I unsubscribed the next time I had an automated-mail-culling exercise. So, "one more email demanding my attention" didn't work for me.

Same here. Kept up for about a week, then unsubscribed to rid the pain. The solution has to be non-email related.

If you can't stand being reminded to keep a diary, perhaps you just don't really want to be keeping a diary?

Re: At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

#19

Post by hugh3 »

pkaler wrote: post #13
dabent wrote: post #2

I've been using this for a few weeks now. It's super easy to use, but I really wonder how they plan on monetizing this app.

Highly targeted advertising in the daily reminder email. They basically know your deepest darkest secrets that you don't want to publish widely. Email CPM ranges from $10/CPM to $100/CPM depending on targeting. http://archive.newsmax.com/mediakit/newsmaxemail_rates.cfm I'd imagine people would put health and financial matters in their private journal.

If I were they, I'd steer clear of directly targeting ads towards private matters discussed in the diary. Creep your customers out too much and they won't come back.

Re: At OhLife (YC S10), daily e-mails motivate a new wave of online diarists

#20

Post by hugh3 »

mkramlich wrote: post #16

for those who've used this and like it, how is it different than a blog? how is it different from or better than, say, Posterous?

I haven't used it, but surely the difference is that the diary is something you don't want anyone else to read (but secretly worry that somebody will) while the blog is something you do want others to read (though in fact, nobody ever does).
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