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Ending our Medium integration

write.as

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Re: Ending our Medium integration

#371

Post by owens99 »

criddell wrote: post #175
tonystubblebine wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good partnership for us. - they handle distribution and are better at it than us. - they pay more than we'd make in ad rates or conversion to our own services. - it lets us focus on what we love doing, which is the writing and editing, without managing the other side of a publishing business. We have license to the copyright for most things we've done in the last 18 months, so it's not a full lock-in either.

I'd make sure you have good backups. Medium doesn't feel like it's going to be around for a long time. One question though - what do you mean by distribution?

I’m not a fan of Medium (mainly because of the UI both on mobile and desktop) but it doesn’t seem like you have anything to back up what you are saying.

Re: Ending our Medium integration

#372

Post by yxhuvud »

kareemm wrote: post #138

Somewhat related - I think write.as has a huge opportunity here to sell to businesses. When I've done content marketing my core problems were: 1. I want to write a draft, solicit comments to improve, edit, spell check, and run through tools like Hemingway 2. I want to publish to different platforms like LinkedIn, a blog (static site using markdown or Wordpress), an email tool like Drip, and Medium. Maybe missing some…

Looking at your requirements, what you need seems more to be a PR & communications tool. One example of that is the company I work for, Mynewsdesk (www.mynewsdesk.com), where the stripped down version include more or less what you ask for (more or less, we have our own email integration against sendgrid, and no integration against Medium). But we handle other stuff you list.

Our cheapest nonfree alternative cost $120 a month though, but perhaps that is close enough to be interesting? If not, there are many other companies in the PR tool market - perhaps one fit your needs.

Re: Ending our Medium integration

#373

Post by yxhuvud »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #145
kareemm wrote: post #138

Somewhat related - I think write.as has a huge opportunity here to sell to businesses. When I've done content marketing my core problems were: 1. I want to write a draft, solicit comments to improve, edit, spell check, and run through tools like Hemingway 2. I want to publish to different platforms like LinkedIn, a blog (static site using markdown or Wordpress), an email tool like Drip, and Medium. Maybe missing some…

This isn't what you're looking for, more an indication that there is a real need for these types of services. Checkout: https://www.wordable.io/ - which focuses solely on Google Docs to Wordpress. It's kind of nuts to think that these somewhat "edge" cases are so large as to be able to build a business around.

It is not an edge case - the PR tool market is huge and there is a lot of business that serve it. Perhaps not super many that serve the micro/small sized segments (which this would be), but there are several alternatives to chose from.

Re: Ending our Medium integration

#374

Post by criddell »

owens99 wrote: post #371
criddell wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd make sure you have good backups. Medium doesn't feel like it's going to be around for a long time. One question though - what do you mean by distribution?

I’m not a fan of Medium (mainly because of the UI both on mobile and desktop) but it doesn’t seem like you have anything to back up what you are saying.

Well they laid off a bunch of people, changed their business model, and are trying to raise another round.

They aren't some scrappy startup anymore, they are the big dog in the space and doing those kinds of things doesn't exactly signal that all is well.

Re: Ending our Medium integration

#375

Post by manigandham »

IshKebab wrote: post #340
new_here wrote: post #56

Quora also started out as an awesome service just like Medium. Eventually though, the VC's need the promises they've heard during fundraising to be fulfilled. That's when the platforms start with the dark patterns. Non-VC companies are a longer and less glamorous slog to get off the ground but also don't come under pressure to compromise on their morals.

I don't recall Quora ever being good. What decade was this?

It was fantastic before 2012 when it had a small focused audience (similar to HN) and simple site before all the spam started.

Re: Ending our Medium integration

#376

Post by thebaer »

kareemm wrote: post #370
thebaer wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's definitely good to know -- I appreciate the insight! We were indeed headed down this route in the early days with these integrations. In another life, I might do this. Particularly, having a simple format (like plain text / Markdown) that could then be interpreted in its own ways by all these platforms was the original dream. But the consumer space is our sweet spot. I can genuinely talk about why I care about…

Thanks for the response. TBH I was a little confused about whether you were trying to serve personal customers or business customers. From your response above it's still not clear =) It sounds like you don't care much about the business customers (great! focus is good!) But then you say: > And we have plenty of avenues to business customers, from support [0], to more API access, to larger community hosting [1] I thin…

That's great feedback. I've always felt the way it's presented was sub-optimal, so it's good to at least confirm that :)

Consumers are our focus, but we do need those few business customers to help get us to profitability quicker. That, and the fact that we solve some niche business needs, is why I still want to target them in some way. I have a few ideas in mind to do this (particularly around marketing) that I want to implement soon. Would you mind if I picked your brain on some of the changes I've been thinking of?

Re: Ending our Medium integration

#378

Post by mastazi »

quantum_magpie wrote: post #351
mastazi wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try old.reddit.com - it was originally created for users who want to revert to the old desktop layout but it has an additional, unintended feature: even on mobile, it maintains the desktop layout without switching to the mobile site (note: it is not responsive so you will have to zoom - but personally I prefer zooming compared to the nagware "features" of the mobile site).

You can use i.reddit.com on mobile, it's even better.

Thank you! I didn’t know that!

Re: Ending our Medium integration

#379

Post by koestie »

burger_moon wrote: post #94
smacktoward wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard disagree. It's barely acceptable on desktop, but on a mobile device it's awful. All the links and buttons are tiny , and they're all so crowded together I frequently end up doing dumb things like tapping "flag" when I meant to tap "discuss." With just a little bit of work HN's UI could be so much better.

Seriously I get that they want the 'shit plain look to scare off normal people' schtick but it's also terrible for accessibility. For being a company that beats the inclusive and equality drum they seem to go out of their way to make it impossible for people who don't have incredible dexterity or eyesight to use this site. I love the simple layout but make it accessible to everyone.

I've been using hn.premii.com for years now ... also available as apps across iOS, Android and Windows UWP. Gives me an optimal reading experience on all my devices, but I'm mostly a lurker so YMMV.

Re: Ending our Medium integration

#380

Post by kareemm »

thebaer wrote: post #376
kareemm wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the response. TBH I was a little confused about whether you were trying to serve personal customers or business customers. From your response above it's still not clear =) It sounds like you don't care much about the business customers (great! focus is good!) But then you say: > And we have plenty of avenues to business customers, from support [0], to more API access, to larger community hosting [1] I thin…

That's great feedback. I've always felt the way it's presented was sub-optimal, so it's good to at least confirm that :) Consumers are our focus, but we do need those few business customers to help get us to profitability quicker. That, and the fact that we solve some niche business needs, is why I still want to target them in some way. I have a few ideas in mind to do this (particularly around marketing) that I want…

Email away! It's in my profile.
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