blogging

Showing 178 posts tagged blogging

"The More You Give Us, The More We'll Be Able To Do..."

I love this. Andrew Sullivan is taking his blog indie. And he’s not doing it through advertising, but through a pure (and smart) payment layer:

Our particular version will be a meter that will be counted every time you hit a “Read on” button to expand or contract a lengthy post. You’ll have a limited number of free read-ons a month, before we hit you up for $19.99. Everything else on the Dish will remain free. No link from another blog to us will ever be counted for the meter - so no blogger or writer need ever worry that a link to us will push their readers into a paywall. It won’t. Ever. There is no paywall.

An easy way to think of this: the most dedicated and loyal readers pay while everyone else doesn’t — with the hope that they’ll become dedicated and loyal readers who do eventually pay. Again, I love this.

I get pinged quite often about monetizing this site — I’m simply not interested in doing that by way of advertising. I am sort of interested in the payment layer just because it seems like something along these lines has to work eventually if content is going to survive.

Right now, the barriers to pay on the web still seem too big. There needs to be an iTunes-like one-click payment layer for the web. Maybe it’s a big company like Amazon, maybe it’s a startup like Stripe, or maybe it’s someone else.

But it really is and should be simple in my mind: if you provide value to people, they’ll pay for it. I’m not a regular reader of The Dish, but you better believe I’m donating to the cause.

Breaking: Instagram Exodus!!! [UPDATE] [UPDATE] [UPDATE] [UPDATE]

Here’s what I saw, reading the tech news this morning:

BREAKING: Instagram lost tens of millions of users due to the TOS backlash!!!

Update: Actually, it wasn’t very many.

Update 2: Actually, any loses had nothing to do with the TOS fiasco.

Update 3: Actually, the data is fundamentally flawed.

Update 4: Actually, Instagram has gained users since the situation.

Update 5: Fuck. Whatever. This still totally matters. Reasons.

Another sterling day for the tech press.

Jason Kincaid on his time at TechCrunch (which yielded him the awesome piece of art above): My initial instinct was to shrug it off with an ‘aw, shucks’ — after all, I’d only done what any self-respecting geek would do in the face of such awesomeness. But it also made me reflect a bit on my time at TechCrunch. Few people get the chance, as I did, to stand on a platform that high and point at neat stuff and have it make a significant impact on peoples’ lives. When I was still writing for TC that influence was something I tried not to dwell on — it made me anxious — but in hindsight it just makes me feel remarkably lucky. High-res

Jason Kincaid on his time at TechCrunch (which yielded him the awesome piece of art above):

My initial instinct was to shrug it off with an ‘aw, shucks’ — after all, I’d only done what any self-respecting geek would do in the face of such awesomeness. But it also made me reflect a bit on my time at TechCrunch. Few people get the chance, as I did, to stand on a platform that high and point at neat stuff and have it make a significant impact on peoples’ lives. When I was still writing for TC that influence was something I tried not to dwell on — it made me anxious — but in hindsight it just makes me feel remarkably lucky.

"(And yes, I’m going to point out just how right I was each time one of these stories hits over the next year.)" Everybody makes mistakes.. But Journalist like you never admit yours.. Lets see if you have the guts to own up to your mistakes a year or so later..

Asked by Anonymous

Yes, LETS.

Your Brand Should Piss Someone Off

Austin McGhie for Fast Company:

Polarization is good. Traveling the middle road, as broad and tempting as it may be, is always and unequivocally bad. Like people, brands are defined by the company they keep. But they’re also defined by the company they don’t keep.

The same is true of writing. Everyone has their opinions. Embrace them. You may not piss anyone off if you don’t, but no one will remember you either.