Wisdump

It's been settled and the new site is already up with a grayscale design that will change over the week. Whitespace is moving over to Wisdump and instead of starting the redireting already, Colin has advised me to at least write one last entry giving everyone the heads up and manually changing their feeds to the new one.

I have already written an explanation as to why I have chose such an absurd name for my "professional" site so you can gain a better understanding over there.

It has been a great ride over here at Whitespace, but it's definitely time to move forward and out of these cramped spaces. Already excited since I get to move away from MovableType as well (it served me well, but I'm just not trusting its future) and onto WordPress. 9rules has grown on its own and this site must do so as well and besides when the team fires me at least I want to walk away with a site I still own.

As for the new site expect more types of media content to be published starting next week (might make it a weekly series) and in general more quality updates.

Tomorrow this site will redirect to Wisdump. Signing off. Comments closed.

Time to Move

I think it's time to do move this site to its own domain. I talked about this before when I held the domain name contest, but it has finally got to the point where having Whitespace on the sub-domain really bothers me. Also the name simply implies that this is still solely a design site, which even the casual reader can see it drifted from being strictly about design a long time ago.

As the tagline says the content is geared more towards design, business and web++ (2.0 won't last forever) so I need a domain that suggests that and if you could offer suggestions I would be more than willing to listen. With redirects traffic won't decrease so that isn't a concern, but this is as close to starting from scratch as I can get so I am a bit anxious and excited.

So if you could put your thinking caps on and help me out a bit I would greatly appreciate it.

*uck you, pay me: the TechCrunch Redesign

If you want read a design critique of the new TechCrunch redesign I suggest reading Mike's thorough analysis and thoughts. I would like to say though that after everyone is done analyzing and critiquing with all the negative feedback it won't mean jackshit to TC's bottomline. People will still read the site and continue to come back for his content (well most people), it's just a shame that the readers got put in the backseat, while the advertisers got frontseat privileges.

I know about monetizing sites and I know there is a fine line between keeping readers happy and making your bank. Actually, scratch that, keeping users happy usually just involves keeping up with your content. Arrington could put 5 more ads on the site and I doubt he would notice a dropoff in traffic. The redesign would have to be a black background with black text before people finally gave up. You wonder why gas prices continue to go up? Probably becasue we keep on buying it no matter what.

But just because he could put more ad places up there does that mean he should? He is pulling $7,500 per month just for each of the square ads in the top right with a 2 month minimum buy-in and I am going to venture a wild guess that the site doesn't cost more than $22,500 per month to run. Once the dollars start coming in it can be hard to remove your foot from the greed gas pedal, but in this case I think it should be done as a sign of commitment to his readers. Otherwise, in turn all they got was the same content with a worse design (sorry Rachel) and more ads cluttering the page. Seems like a raw deal to me.

It's obvious that this redesign was meant for one audience: the advertisers. In the spirit of Web 2.0 (which the site thrives on for its success) more means more. FM Publishing handles his "traditional" ads so I am suggesting he remove them, which might mean that his friendship with John Battelle might end and if he is an investor with FM (you never know with Arrington) that might make his investment worth less. Hmmmmm, maybe instead of an advertiser paying $7,500/mo Arrington gets a stake in the company, now that would be pretty cool wouldn't it? Eh?

Okay I know it's not fair to speculate like that, but if you read his writeup of the redesign none of it makes any sense. Hell, go back and read Tyme's entry again to see the conflict of interest he has. Here is a quote:

And if you’re wondering about the green theme, there’s a reason for it (hint - it keeps me focused on my goals).

Nah, he didn't just say that did he? He must be talking about eating 5 portions of broccoli a day or something because he certainly isn't saying money is his only goal. That's not the spirit of the web anymore (*cough*). That's not how Mike Arrington works. When we launched the current 9rules design I was a bit worried about how the audience would receive the new ad placement. I knew advertisers would love it, but how would our readers handle it. You know what? I have received zero complaints about the ads, which doesn't mean everyone loves them, but at least it shows they could live with them if done tastefully.

Next redesign will be green with 16 ads because we know you will keep on coming back no matter what right? Right?

But you know what? He will get more traffic this weekend due to how many people are going to write about it. He will get more RSS readers now because so many people will be turned off by the design that he will probably begin to monetize his RSS feeds as well if he hasn't done so already. And what's amazing is that he is able to do this with more ads on his site than either Yahoo or CNet. Maybe they just don't get the amount of traffic he gets...

ExpressionEngine vs. WordPress: Comments

Tyme and I do a podcast and the entries for these podcasts consistently get over a 100 comments with the largest receiving over 500. The site that currently hosts the podcasts and discussions runs ExpressionEngine, but we are planning on moving the podcast to its own domain and of course I requested that we use WordPress.

The problem is we can't think of any site that runs WordPress that receive such a large number of comments on a consistent basis (brain fart no doubt) so we aren't sure about performance issues. Also is anyone aware if comments can be paginated (eg. every 100 comments a new page is started)?

So if you could provide some examples of WordPress and its ability to handle large comment load I would greatly appricate it. I have no doubt it can handle the load, but it's always nice to have a little security on your side.

User Generated Content

User generated content isn't a new business model or anything, but it seems to have become one of the most prevalent models in this era of the web and it's interesting to me to see how different companies are having varying successes with this technique. I thought it would be interesting to look at the higher profile companies that are venturing towards this model and whether or not they are having an impact in my life on the web.

When attempting to base your business around user-generated content the main question that you have to ask is why would users want to place time into a site and help build up something they don't own?

Squidoo

Now I only get to look at Squidoo first because Mike did a great comparison between Squidoo and 9rules yesterday. Backed by marketing guru Seth Godin (Purple Cow, All Marketers Are Liars), Squidoo seems to be getting the cold shoulder from heavyweights (did I just fucking say "heavyweights"?!) Jason Calacanis and Mike Arrington (maybe because he didn't invest in it...*runs) because it doesn't seem to be anything close to a success and many people have given their reasons why.

Asking the question why would a user want to participate on the site the answer isn't immediately apparent. You get to create content on a subject that you are interested in (*cough* blogs *cough*) with the potential of making some money (highest paid lens' make $30/month). Not really the enticing features you would expect from a site that depends on user-generated content. Can readers edit the content? No. Is there any interaction between Lens Master? No.

From what I have been reading the general consensus seems to be that Squidoo is doomed for failure unless they make some drastic changes. You would like to hope someone of the caliber of Seth Godin can pull this off, but it seems to be lost in too much old-school thought to be able to bounce back. I would simply start off by making Lens' a collaborative effort so multiple experts can focus on one subject instead of 10 experts focusing on the same topic 10 different times.

Digg

One of the most well-known ventures in user-generated content, Digg succeeds because it doesn't attempt to keep the user-content to itself, but simply share it with the masses looking to find the user-generated content they are interested in. Nothing any different than Slashdot or Fark besides the fact that anyone can post and through democracy anyone has a chance of rising to the top.

Users want to get involved because the site involves them as a community and is actually helpful to them in their quest to finding stuff. This does not necessarily equate into quality content though over time due to the ability of anybody to participate.

Newsvine

Taking parts of Digg, parts of blog networks (users can create full-blown blog style entries), and mainstream media generated content, Newsvine is looking to mix the best of all worlds into one, but unfortunately will suffer from their negatives as well. When user-generated content isn't controlled in some respects (ala Slashdot) the quality is bound to diminish and I've heard rumblings that Newsvine is already walking down that path. Also, hoping that users create original content on a site they do not own means you have to find something more enticing than if they did so on their own site and I think Newsvine has that potential because of one simple thing: traffic.

If anything, users will be enticed to post original content just to be read by more readers than if they posted on their own site. They are also able to use Newsvine as a springboard to their own success. Build up a following on Newsvine (assuming the traffic is large enough) and then move over to your own site. Good for the user, bad for Newsvine, but you would think that for every great writer that leaves another one will take their place. At least you hope...

Did I mention this success seems to be happening even before they have offered any type of monetary incentives? Squidoo's main case to write on their site used to be the money, but once it was shown that you make more recycling bottles and cans they pulled that angle back. Newsvine doesn't give you a dime (but plans to in the future) and yet is able to get people to continually produce content for them.

Finally, we must remember that Newsvine is not totally dependent on user-generated content as they still act like any other news site with information from major news sources.

Blog Networks

I am not referring to networks such as WIN or Gawker since their writers are paid and I consider them as employees and not users. Most Networks seem to use a percentage-based model where the writer gets X% of the revenue their content earns. Same model as Squidoo in a sense, but you hope to make a bit more than you would over there. You still have to answer the question though of why would anyone want to jump into this model when they could start a site on their own and earn 100% of what they make along with keeping everything they have created?

Well like Newsvine, if you can get behind a network that has large enough traffic it's quite possible to earn more from a network site than an independent site and in the end you can still jump ship and take your audience with you. Unfortunately I can't think of any network that has this advantage yet so that leaves money as the main advantage and once money becomes the motivation you are doomed.

What makes great content great is the passion behind it. It's not the money or the traffic because once the amateur leaves and the professional enters the building many times the quality disappears.

Amateurs are Honest Professionals*

Amateur is not below professional. It's just another way of doing [media]. The root of the word amateur is love, and someone who does something for love is an amateur. Someone who does something to pay the bills is a professional. The amateurs have [more integrity than] the professionals. If you're an amateur you have less conflict of interest and less reason not to tell your truth than if you have to pay the bills and please somebody else.

I'm not a Dave Winer fan, but I must say I love this quote. It exemplifies all that is great with the independent web. I'm not saying that I totally agree with the fact that professionals will have less integrity due to having to pay the bills, but it's nice when you don't have to worry and you can speak freely. That's the joy of writing at Oreo CEO, no ads, no comments and really no caring if people visit or not.

We are starting our slow push into new forms of media to portray our content (eg. video and sound) and looking at how everything else is done around our Network, should our audience expect professional grade quality video production? In a sense you could say that our videos are very amateur. If you have seen any of our dance videos you now it's just us being impromptu in front of our cameras. No special lighting or equipment. It's simply us being us.

So does that lessen the value of what we have created or does it increase the value of the Network because we are connecting with our audience in new ways?

*And no not all amateurs are honest or even intelligent. I just liked that title.

Watching your back

A couple days ago 9rules Member Bryan Veloso wrote an interesting piece asking the question Am I Condemning Myself? It goes on to talk about how blogging can effect your career and it kind of sucks to think that once you pursue something with a passion you have to restrain yourself somewhat as to avoid any trouble. Now I understand the consequences of talking about work (either positively or negatively) and bad-mouthing co-workers, but what if you are talking about non-related stuff? Do you still have to worry?

It seems we live in an age of conflict. We scream for privacy yet are willing to throw all of our information onto dating sites and Myspace with the hopes of getting a little something, something. We want the freedom to talk about what we want, but that doesn't include when people talk bad about us. If you caught one of your employees running an erotic blog what would you do and I ask this from the perspective of being a manager.

Whenever you write a passionate piece do you think of not only the short-term ramifications, but the long-term ones as well? It's easy to say well we shouldn't work for people who base our careers solely by what happens online because they don't understand the new age of information we are in, but we know the world doesn't work like that. Maybe in a couple more years when the last remnants of the old guard remain we can breathe a sigh of relief and get on with our lives, but till then it's sad to think that we must always watch our footsteps, even when we know they aren't treading on anybody's path but our own.

Time for New Media Again

Tuesday over in Notes I asked is it time to bring the focus back to new media again? Over the past couple of weeks I have been playing with podcasts and vidcasts and have had great success with each and I am beginning to wonder why we aren't seeing more of this interactivity on our own sites or even business sites? I'm not preaching that we make a return to all Flash sites, but in this broadband everywhere world wouldn't offering something a bit more give you that advantage you have been seeking?

I think the web will always be ruled by text and rightfully so, but there are limitations to working in a text only web. I can write about how I work, or I can show you how I work. Which one do you think is more effective?

Should all your vital information and important messages be only in audio or video form? Of course not, but they should complement the text on your site. Wouldn't it be nice on the Company's About page where you list bios to have text and a video so people get to actually see the person and hear what they have to say about themselves. Sure you can have pictures up, but that doesn't give you that much insight into the person.

Maybe an issue is that so many of us creatives aren't comfortable with trying new channels of creativity. Once you get into the web design groove it's easy to want to stay in that comfortzone without having to push your limits any further. If that's the case, do you think a time will come where you will get left behind? In general though, why don't you think we are seeing a push into new formats of passing along information and communicating? YouTube and MySpace have shown how effective video and audio are to the masses so why aren't we exploiting these channels more?

Keeping the Competition Under the Radar

You know those thoughts you carry around in your head for days, months, or years and wonder when someone else is going to have the same thought because it just makes so much sense to you? Well today I finally found someone outside of the core 9rules group that has the same thoughts as me when it comes to the 9rules model. To say the least, Chrisitan Montoya in this entry has us pegged almost to a tee and I love that.

What I find most interesting about all this is that, despite all the blogging networks out there, there is still only one for people who blog for the sake of blogging. If you want to blog for money there are a lot of options, but for blogs that serve a greater purpose, there is only 9rules. In an industry that breeds imitation, I find this very surprising. 9rules is obviously a great business model, and they have even shared how you can build your own. The only thing missing is the courage and hard work to do the same thing Scrivs and Co. have done. The question is, why not?

What's interesting is that these networks do exist, but for one reason or another I guess aren't as well known as 9rules. Not once since we began this Network did we think we were one of a kind in the sense that nobody could copy us (and that's ironic since we are copying a lot of concepts the Web's past), but we did want to make sure we weren't following. Since we had the understanding that our model wasn't unique we had to find the things that would differentiate us from the competition.

Design

Design doesn't make the world go round and many Networks and sites have proven that pretty isn't always necessary to win, but we wanted that advantage. When you are asking independent sites to join your Network you have to give them something to be proud of and the first impression many times is our only impression. When we first started nobody knew what we were doing or what we were about, but we made sure to put up a kickass homepage and I'm sure for many people that alone enticed them to pursue admission into the Network or at least find out more about it.

It's interesting that so much of the "competition" doesn't put a greater focus on design because that could easily become a differentiating factor for them.

Community

We were fortunate enough to already have some strong connections in the design community so initially building up a community wasn't as hard as we thought it might be. However, not everyone else has that advantage. From the beginning we were able to pull in some recognizable sites, which got others interested and it kind of snowballed from there.

Another important aspect of our Community is that we make them happy because they are our customers. We don't want to have to go out and promote and hype 9rules because we know if we do our job our members will do it for us. People like to talk about things they are happy with and if they don't talk about it because they aren't happy it's in our best interests to fix that.

Balls and Stupidity

It might be because too many entrepreneurs only see the conventional blogging network model (put bloggers on payroll and have them write contrived cookie-cutter blogs) as the way to go. It might also be because very few entrepreneurs looking to imitate actually have the courage to do something as difficult as what Scrivs has done.

What I really enjoy about our model is that to many people the financial benefits aren't readily apparent and that scares a ton of people away from giving it a shot. Some might think it was courageous to do what we did, while I'm sure others call it stupidity for not trying to go the quick money route, but for us it's neither because we understood our vision and following that seemed like a no-brainer to us.

Same concept can be applied to 37signals (ahh shit here comes 37s again and Scrivs, everyone run or get your guns out). They consciously made the decision to move away from a successful consulting business to pursue development in a project-managment application that does a million things less than the competition (good thing). Balls or stupidity?

I'm all about taking risks, but they do have to be calculated. There are so many chances to innovate in this type of environment that it's said to see so many of us have fallen into the copycat syndrome hoping to cash in quickly.

Less is More™

We had two options with regards to bringing sites into the Network. Accept all of them or become very selective. Accepting all of them made no sense to me because we might as well start a web directory to accomplish the same tasks. Our path might make us look like the Evil Empire or the A-List club to outsiders, but with a good site anybody can get in and that's what is important. Name doesn't matter. Traffic doesn't matter. Content matters.

This level of exclusivity has helped us tremendously, but as we grow it will be tough to balance that image along with providing our readers and members with mroe great sites that fit their interests.

Final thoughts

I just wanted to highlight some quotes from Christian's entry that show viewpoints the public may have about us that we never planned on producing.

For one thing, 9rules has just about become the official word on what makes a good blog.

In a sense this is what we intended because we want our readers to know that every site we bring in is going to be good, but the downside to this is this thought...

Any blog that submits on May 17 and gets rejected is automatically seen as a lesser blog than any of the ones that make it in...

That causes some anger in a lot of people while others take it in stride and work on improving their site. We never claim to be the standard when it comes to quality blogs because honestly it's just a small group of people selecting the sites and who is to say we always know what we are talking about?

I enjoy reading entries like Christian's that give us an outsider's perspective on how 9rules looks because as I have talked about before, when you are on the inside your vision gets clouded and maybe you begin to lose sight of what is important.

Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0: User Content and Lock-In

A couple of weeks ago I linked to Rich Ziade's Reality Check 2.0 which highlighted how our Web 2.0 darlings compare to Web 1.0 counterparts. Yesterday, Colin, Mike and I had a discussion, which led us into talking about the brilliance of Myspace and their ability to keep you coming back.

Web 2.0 is about giving users the content and letting them run with it. APIs and RSS feeds keep content closer to us while in the Web 1.0 world you would never see something like this occur because to make money from advertising you need pageviews and what good is it to allow people to take the content off the site? When you get a new message or comment on Myspace you get an email simply telling you that you have a new message/comment. They don't tell you what the message or comment is and their reason for doing this is due to "privacy" concerns. If a Web 2.0 app did this you would probably here a lot of complaints, but not in the Myspace world.

And that's part of the brilliance behind it to me. Myspace does so many things wrong in our world, but they are about to become the most popular site on the web. So the question becomes have we listened to our geek peers too much in trying to make data accessible everywhere without thinking of keeping people coming back and greedily hoarding them to ourselves? As a user I think its obvious that we want data the way we want it, but as a businessman what do you do?

To us Flickr is the most popular photo site on the web, but they pale in comparison to Yahoo Photos and Webshots, but on Flickr I can export my photos while on the other two sites that becomes a major chore therefore keeping you on the site longer to avoid any hassles.

So in the end who do you cater to? Do you go for the glory?