But an ad supported site is, ultimately, not the site I want to run — so before I go any further I thought it prudent to craft the kind of site that I actually want to run, or as is actually the case: a site much closer to the one I want to run.
I want a direct relationship with you, my readers.
So starting today the business model becomes even more clear 1 :
- You pay me.
- I write.
There are usually two ways of getting paid for your non-fiction non-journalist writing:
-
It’s called teaching. You write an article or book teaching me how to do something.
-
You’re a respected member of some technical area (philosophy, politics, science, etc) and you write an essay reflecting, interpreting, explaining (( also called teaching, it’s point 1 again )) on your area future / present / interaction with society. It’s usually presented and sold as a printed book.
Most “personal tech blogs” don’t fall on two these categories neither on the other possible categories of written works. I started this site mainly as my personal international/english-speaking soap-box AND as way of teaching mac “newbies” how to do stuff in the mac. (( I failed miserably at the second point as i got sidetracked by other stuff… )) Most “personal tech blogs” are simple “opinions” of lay man of the general tech world, random links to something they thought was cool and the occasional “people’s perspective” on some issue. Not writings of “grand players” of such world, or by big “experts” of such technologies. Regular folks, like you and me. Interested, opinionated, knowledgable but still mostly “sofa managers”. (( from the portuguese expression “treinador de bancada”, the strongest faith that every football fan has (americans call it soccer) that he is the really knowledgable team manager and the single one that knows all what the team needs to do in order to win, right from his kitchen dinner table… ))
I like most of what Ben writes or links to and i have read him since i started this blog, but i fail to see what added-value his writing really have to offer me. Think of it like this, if his website would vanish tomorrow would you really miss it? And from all of the websites that you check daily, which ones would you really miss and strive to recover back from?
If a developer would write a really good blog about the Apple developer experience and know-how, and if i was a developer, i could see the point in paying. A single person wouldn’t be able to keep the high volume needed to keep interest and payers, so it would evolve to a team. And then into a newspaper/magazine : “The Apple Developer world! – everything you need to know”. I could also see why one would pay to get the incredible insightful analysis of Asymco.
Now, if a guy writes or links to interesting pieces about general stuff or his random opinions but he is not really from the “area” or doesn’t have anything to add apart from his “interested regular joe” perspective, which i also have, then what exactly does his writing provides me that i should spend money on it?
I fail to see the answer to this in most blogs/sites that i check every day. Some i’m reading more now, others i’ve read in the past, many are just short-term playgrounds for the author. (( as i must also admit, is this one. )) What i do see is that some value their modest input as having a far greater value than what it really has.
I don’t think the “ad subsidized” model is perfect, or great, but it is a working solution that is good enough for the average to low quality of most works out there. Paywalls do work, but you need to really provide great content. Don’t think 99% of the blogs, news sites and others fall even near that valuable 1%. (( and in case i didn’t make it clear, i know that neither is this site, unfortunately. ))
So if you just want to write stuff and “opinionate” baselessly, adjust your expectations.