
Are you the customer? - breily
http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/05/are-you-customer.html
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andreyf
Re: the PS, I'm more than happy to buy books via your affiliate links. It's
very nice of you to go out of your way to find relevant material, instad of
copping out with AdSense or banner ads. Letting readers reimburse writers in
such a win-win way seems like the best model to fund blogging as a hobby... do
you make enough off the referrals to agree?

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raganwald
The money I make off referrals is insignificant. What I do is take it as gift
certificates, which I spend on books and music.

I'm grateful for those, in a way that's a lot better than cash. If it were
cash, I might be tempted to ask whether writing really pays. The answer is
definitely it does not pay compared to just about anything. I could make more
money doing menial labour building Koi ponds and have lots of fun.

However, the buzz of getting a book or CD is way higher than the equivalent
cash value. It's very irrational: If I take two hours to write a post, and I
earned $14.00 from it, I would be devastated to earn $7 an hour.

But if I get a copy of The Goldberg Variations that I'd never heard before
from that article, and I get hours of enjoyment from it... It feels like a
terrific bargain to work for two hours and then enjoy a wonderful piece of
music.

(I am not getting into the other rewards of writing. I am strictly responding
to the question about referrals.)

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michael_dorfman
Nicely expressed.

It's odd (to me) how deeply American culture has ingrained in its subjects the
notion that they are first and foremost consumers.

For me, the cognitive dissonance first surfaced when I thought about
television: The TV networks are the producers, the advertisers are the
consumers, and the viewers are the product. TV is not primarily a means of
delivering entertainment to viewers-- it is a means of delivering viewers to
advertisers.

It seems natural to think of ourselves as the end, but sometimes we're just
the means....

~~~
raganwald
may I quote you?

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michael_dorfman
Of course, anytime.

~~~
raganwald
done, on the OP

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rantfoil
raganwald -- Great observation. It's absolutely possible for your biz dev team
to force you to take your eyes off the ball. Great cautionary tale.

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raganwald
Note the p.p.s.

~~~
gills
From the p.p.s: "Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.”"

Isn't this a recursive statement?

~~~
raganwald
Absolutely. And in this case, she was discussing an idea and people in one go.
I'm of two minds about that...

