Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
davemorin.tumblr.com
Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
1–10 of 20 posts
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#2It'll be interesting to see how this goes. It has some intriguing possibilities, but it's also a pretty saturated market. The "market" for free information is indeed super-saturated, but the market for pay information is quite saturated as well. I already have more books, e-books, journal articles, conference papers, magazines, e-zines, etc. to read than I can possibly buy and read in any reasonable period of time. Where will reading premium blogs fit into this? I guess into the "e-zine" category. It'll be nice to get more quality stuff in that category, but there isn't really a current shortage of writing I can buy for money. So it'd have to be particularly compelling--- and also has to compete with the premium-quality-but-free online writing that's subsidized via other payment mechanisms, like blogging professors, who get paid in ways other than monetizing their blog directly.
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#3This viewpoint fails to see that the author benefits just as much as the reader, if not more, from writing quality stuff that attracts eyeballs.
A famous blogger has much better ways to monetise their fame than monthly subscriptions. A blog is a delivery tool to direct people's attention to places - you can sell stuff via your blog. A successful blog is also a powerful reputation-building mechanism. You can sell yourself through your blog. A successful blog is also a great way to open doors - you can introduce yourself thanks to your blog.
By charging your readers, you decrease the value of your blog... to yourself.
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#4This viewpoint fails to see that the author benefits just as much as the reader, if not more, from writing quality stuff that attracts eyeballs. A famous blogger has much better ways to monetise their fame than monthly subscriptions. A blog is a delivery tool to direct people's attention to places - you can sell stuff via your blog. A successful blog is also a powerful reputation-building mechanism. You can sell your…
To what degree would you say that this line of reasoning would be different if you replaced "blog" with "product?"
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#5This viewpoint fails to see that the author benefits just as much as the reader, if not more, from writing quality stuff that attracts eyeballs. A famous blogger has much better ways to monetise their fame than monthly subscriptions. A blog is a delivery tool to direct people's attention to places - you can sell stuff via your blog. A successful blog is also a powerful reputation-building mechanism. You can sell your…
>A blog is a delivery tool to direct people's attention to places - you can sell stuff via your blog. A successful blog is also a powerful reputation-building mechanism.
Reputation goes down the toilet the moment you start selling stuff on your blog. Affiliate links are the scourge of blogs, because you don't know whether it was an incidental monetization, or whether the blogger thought "How am I going to get this thing to pay by indirectly and inefficiently taxing readers?", scrounging around for some sort of affiliate junk to claim to be over the moon with.
Examples abound of prominent bloggers flushing credibility and reputation down the toilet when they chose the "Sell" route for monetization.
Reputation itself is a bias, though. Some of the worst blogs are the ones where the writer is clearly preening themselves for future employers.
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#6It'll be interesting to see how this goes. It has some intriguing possibilities, but it's also a pretty saturated market. The "market" for free information is indeed super-saturated, but the market for pay information is quite saturated as well. I already have more books, e-books, journal articles, conference papers, magazines, e-zines, etc. to read than I can possibly buy and read in any reasonable period of time. W…
I think it also ignores that many of the blogs I find most endearing are from new bloggers finding their writing voice. I find that by the time a blog has become big enough to secure its author a book deal, or a paywall slot, its best days are over.
Of course that may be just my personal quirk.
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#7There's an evolutionary process at work here. Once e-mail newsletters become passé, we'll see weekly fax shots, then snail mail, skywriting and, finally, personal visits at $1000 each. Then you realize you're a consultant.
I jest, I started an e-mail newsletter myself a week ago ;-) It's interesting to think where all this might go though. I bet if celebs could charge a few bucks a month to follow them on Twitter, there'd be a massive revenue stream there from gossip hungry admirers.
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#8It'll be interesting to see how this goes. It has some intriguing possibilities, but it's also a pretty saturated market. The "market" for free information is indeed super-saturated, but the market for pay information is quite saturated as well. I already have more books, e-books, journal articles, conference papers, magazines, e-zines, etc. to read than I can possibly buy and read in any reasonable period of time. W…
I think it also ignores that many of the blogs I find most endearing are from new bloggers finding their writing voice. I find that by the time a blog has become big enough to secure its author a book deal, or a paywall slot, its best days are over. Of course that may be just my personal quirk.
Another issue is that "big" blogs often hire other writers to increase traffic and revenue. TechCrunch, for example. I still love Arrington's posts but some of his new writers leave a lot to be desired - I preferred TC when he was the sole writer and even though his posts are as good as ever, the SNR has fallen.
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#9This viewpoint fails to see that the author benefits just as much as the reader, if not more, from writing quality stuff that attracts eyeballs. A famous blogger has much better ways to monetise their fame than monthly subscriptions. A blog is a delivery tool to direct people's attention to places - you can sell stuff via your blog. A successful blog is also a powerful reputation-building mechanism. You can sell your…
>A blog is a delivery tool to direct people's attention to places - you can sell stuff via your blog. A successful blog is also a powerful reputation-building mechanism. Reputation goes down the toilet the moment you start selling stuff on your blog. Affiliate links are the scourge of blogs, because you don't know whether it was an incidental monetization, or whether the blogger thought "How am I going to get this th…
> Reputation goes down the toilet the moment you start selling stuff on your blog.
I'd say there are a great number of exceptions to that. My blog has several thousand subscribers (for whatever you want to define an RSS subscriber as) that have been following my blog for years, they know I have been working at early stage startups for years and they value my opinion, even going out of their way to ask if I have an affiliate link for something I might have mentioned on Amazon before or elsewhere.
One guy even held off buying a big DSLR camera on Amazon for a few days until he was able to get my affiliate code from me while I was out of town.
People can have a voice that is valued online and sell stuff through their writing/blog. Affiliate sales on my blog alone pay my rent while I can run around doing startups with no compensation.
Ken Rockwell comes to mind too. He reviews cameras and has amazing guides. Each camera page has a blurb about asking readers to buy it from sites that have his affiliate code.
Re: Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.
#10''Recently, Eric Schmidt, of Google, remarked that “There was 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003.” He continued, “Now that much information is created every 2 days.” We are creating more than ever across this ever expanding medium that we love.''
I feel like a visionary! I wrote recently that ''we have more written-word saved in Google's servers than all previous written-words combined since the invention of the written-word.''
http://makebelieve1.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/a-pc-appears-on...
I wonder,though, how did Eric Schmidt calculate the ''5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003.'' Because I thought about the same thing and I decided that given the incredible variery of mediums from clay tablets to books to computer discs it would be impossible to know. Do you know how he arrived at that number?
And I realize that some HN readers will downvote me for referring to my own blog but so be it, this is a very interesting question for me. I wonder how he arrived at that figure he quoted.