

Ask HN: What happened to Mixergy? - donky_cong

After a year break I came to the site and..<p>1/3 the site is commercials for 'courses'.
1/3 the site 'advice' from 20 year old who have yet to make any real business<p>And 9/10 out of the remaining interesting interviews are paid.<p>Half hour of browsing and I ended up d/l one interview that I am only half interested in.<p>I understand Andrew's want to make money, but it looks like the quality dropped sharply too
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ISeemToBeAVerb
Hmm... I'm not sure why you think the quality has dropped. If anything, I
think his interviews have improved in quality and diversity.

It's true that some new content is premium only, but all of the interviews are
free the week they're released, and many of the older podcasts are still free
to listen to.

I commend Andrew for finally deciding to monetize the business more. While I
certainly agree that he could do a better job on the marketing side (I don't
use Twitter, so I dislike having to tweet for the sample content), I think he
deserves to get paid.

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mgallivan
Mixergy has a very... fluffy feel as a website. It reads like it's going to
sell you a PDF document that will change your life in 5 quick steps.

But once you get into the actual interviews there is real substance. Andrew is
an excellent interviewer - I just think he needs to rebrand the site.

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ISeemToBeAVerb
I agree. People that have followed Mixergy know the content is worthy.
However, I can certainly see how someone finding it for the first time might
be turned off.

My main constructive criticism would be this:

Don't make people spam their Twitter followers just to view the premium
samples.

a) It annoys people that don't use Twitter (yes, we exist) b) It makes me have
to have a relationship with you before I've even evaluated your content.

In my mind, it's more effective to allow people to sample your premium content
with the least amount of resistance.

Keep the list building separate from the sample content. You can always find
something to give away specifically for the list subscribers.

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james_ash
I challenge you to find a better place to go online for specific, actionable
advice on the many facets of building an internet business.

~~~
glimcat
<http://news.ycombinator.com>

~~~
james_ash
that's not a serious answer.

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corkill
Quality seems to be always improving to me. Occasional questionable guest but
that's to be expected when you pump out so many interviews. Having random
people on there is good I think it exposes everyone to new ideas.

He has really focused on extracting actionable tactics. Check out the courses
section. Worth the money I think.

btw as far as I know you can still get every single interview free on itunes.

The only thing I would like to see is a short summary of
points/tactics/interesting stuff for each interview. No-one has time to watch
them all or read all the transcripts.

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AznHisoka
I watched/read some of their interviews. They were interesting, and some give
us a very good picture on what the process of starting a business is like in
the early stages. he covers a wide range of businesses too, which I like
(sites from Thrillist to DailyBurn). However, I wouldn't pay for the content
because it ultimately didn't teach me anything I didn't already know.

I did like the one video talking about someone's failure, though. I think they
need to do more of it: we can learn more from failures sometimes.

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andrewhillman
I understand what 'donky_cong' is saying. I have nothing against the quality
of videos or the content provided, it's great stuff if you're willing to dig
deeper than scrolling past all the class titles, but at _first sight_ the
website comes off like one of those one page "I made $1m in 365 days" sites.
However, his content is of quality, but the design implementation could be
better - not an easy problem to solve and I am sure he thinks about this a
lot.

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aymeric
Although the premium content is getting more present on the website, I still
believe Andrew delivers a lot of value for his non clients.

But at $25/month, the amount of value is unbelievable, and if you'd look a few
years back, $25 wouldn't look much for everything that is being offered.

Information seems to devalue very fast.

As wannabe entrepreneurs, we should encourage people who are trying to make
money, not criticize them when they do.

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mapster
At Mixergy I feel there are 3 categories of interviews: 1) 4 hr work week -
book selling hucksters, 2) valley insiders built then sold for undisclosed
bank and now have new site to promote, 3) regular shmo built a business
online, doing well, and has lots to share. Andrew works very hard to cover a
broad spectrum of tastes. I prefer learning from group #3, but that's me.

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nhangen
I stopped listening when he started doing interviews with Internet Marketing
types and bloggers. For a time, there was great content/interviews, and while
there are still some gems buried amongst the rubble, I couldn't help but be
turned off by the App Sumo promotions and later, the courses engineered by
hucksters. Sadly, Mixergy now feels like a Don Lapre commercial.

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taphangum
Depends on what you're looking for.

If you're interested in direct, actionable advice that WILL make you money.
Then Mixergy is the single greatest resource out there. If that isn't your
interest then maybe it isn't.

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biopharma_guy
I have been watching Mixergy for last two years as a non programmer and I can
say it is worth watching. It has forced me to think what entrepreneurship is
and motivated me to learn programming. If you criticize then do it
constructively. I mean show me a site/blog which has brought so many founders
(both successful and unsuccessful) to their knee to spit out their real life
experience and I will take your word. And I am sure there are so many niches
out there screaming to be exploited in other fields (biotech, pharma,
commodities etc).

