

Goodbye Blog. Hello Letter.   - vibhavs
http://davemorin.tumblr.com/post/1048332443/goodbye-blog-hello-letter

======
swombat
This 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.

~~~
ergo98
>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.

~~~
PStamatiou
> 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.

<http://www.kenrockwell.com/>

------
_delirium
It'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.

~~~
frossie
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.

~~~
petercooper
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.

------
bpm140
Maybe someone with great knowledge can chime in, but it seems like this is
classic Prisoners' Dilemma. If only some people lock up their content, those
who give it away for free will eat their lunch.

I applaud Dave for believing in his position enough to take his writing behind
a pay-wall, but I think game theory is going to show this to be a poor
solution in the long-term.

------
petercooper
There'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.

------
DotSauce
Is it just me or is the letter.ly subscription page really bland? Too
minimalist? I think it needs color, a more detailed description, anything
compelling that might make me consider subscribing before closing the page.

A real subscribe 'button' and proper capitalization could help as well.

------
zeynel1
''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...](http://makebelieve1.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/a-pc-appears-on-every-
desk-and-finally-internet-changes-consumer-habits/)

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.

~~~
mkramlich
I'm guesstimating that he guesstimated.

~~~
zeynel1
Even just guesstimating seems difficult to me. I wonder then how did he
guesstimate?

~~~
inerte
It was his interview question at Google, now he has to live by these numbers.
He became the choir.

Just kidding. He has no idea if these numbers are true. The important meat of
the message, that humanity now stores more information than ever _jedi hand_
and Google helps you make sense of it _/hand_ is what he wants you to believe.

And believe you will. I mean, we're so much smarter than previous generations
(as usual), we've got to be doing whatever, better than previously.

It fits their company purpose. They are the good guys. Add 2+2. Why do you
have to make so much trouble with these questions?

