41–50 of 83 posts
5/month is too much. Consider how many different websites you're reading in one month, then imagine they all cost $5/month. It will start to hurt. On the other hand, sites that charge you directly have to charge a minimum because of banking fees etc. What we need is some middleman that will charge you $15/month then distribute it somehow along all the sites that you wish to support. Criteria to be done, maybe evenly,…
How do you know that "a lot of people" are paying to read stratechery.com? Any sources to back this claim?
He makes $200k / year from his newsletter: http://www.niemanlab.org/reading/ben-thompsons-stratechery-i...
It's not a blog or a newsletter but proper journalism and definitely worth the $5/mo I pay for it. I don't think there is any newsletter that just recycles other people's content would be worth the money.
I support content creators that have used similar strategies in other mediums. Some examples:
1. Exploring ES6 [0]. The book is freely available online which means I can access it anywhere and easily share relevant sections if the need arises, such as when having an online discussion or explaining to a beginner how a specific feature works. I happily bought a copy and regularly recommend it to others.
2. Textual [1]. It's an open source IRC client which charges for the precompiled version. I like having the option to dig into the source and compile it myself if the need arose. Paying for it allows the developer to continue working on bug fixes and improving the tool.
If I were more involved in the topics they covered, I'd happily start paying for LWN.net [2]. They allow linking to articles without paywalls and seem to produce very high quality content.
[0] http://exploringjs.com/es6/
[1] https://www.codeux.com/textual/
[2] https://lwn.net/
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is it bad if I'd say absolutely none? If you're okay with ads or donate to journalistic non-profits, I think it's okay. Otherwise, it is unsustainable.
I've been blogging since 2004 with no real ads or affiliate revenue to speak of, and it's news to me that it's "unsustainable." But then, I guess it depends upon whether we mean "sustainable as in keeping me motivated to write," or if we mean, "financially sustainable as in keeping me in fresh sock garters and Camambert risotto." I get maybe $500 a month from people buying my books, and another $20 a month in amazon…
Some kinds of blogging/newsletter-writing is cheap. Other kinds, particularly the investigative kinds, are not.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been blogging since 2004 with no real ads or affiliate revenue to speak of, and it's news to me that it's "unsustainable." But then, I guess it depends upon whether we mean "sustainable as in keeping me motivated to write," or if we mean, "financially sustainable as in keeping me in fresh sock garters and Camambert risotto." I get maybe $500 a month from people buying my books, and another $20 a month in amazon…
> It's very rare for someone to make their primary living from blogging. But that's true of most creative things, be it writing, music, art, custom bicycle frames Some kinds of blogging/newsletter-writing is cheap. Other kinds, particularly the investigative kinds, are not.
I think that blogging is not the same thing as journalism, in many, many ways.
Is it bad if I'd say absolutely none? If any I read started charging I'd find similar content somewhere else.
I'd double down on that, any site that has a free article limit (looking at you NY Times) I don't even bother with.
Or any site that whines about running an ad blocker.
True they need to make some cash to keep the lights on but I have never in my life bought something from seeing an online advertisement and don't really appreciate being tracked all over the interwebs.
I'm willing to pay $5/month for one blog: my own. That is what a basic VPS with plenty of bandwidth costs. edit: Interesting, this is fast approaching my most downvoted comment ever. Wonder why that is. I didn't even bother to link my own blog in case that came off as overly self-promotional. If you think that content should be free, what is wrong with putting your money where your mouth is and giving your own away?
I am also willing to pay for good reporting and writing, e.g. the New Yorker and my local paper, because they require actual work. I wouldn't pay for Stratechery, which is just an opinion blog.