According to this Economist article, the two most notable paywall success stories are financial publications:
The two most prominent are the Financial Times, which lets web users view just a few articles each month before it asks them for money, and News Corp’s Wall Street Journal, which charges for much business and finance news.
In Slate, Jack Shafer tries to explain why only a few sites thrive behind paywalls:
Not all successful paid sites are alike, but they all share at least one of these attributes: 1) They are so amazing as to be irreplaceable. 2) They are beautifully designed and executed and extremely easy to use. 3) They are stupendously authoritative.
Good points to be sure. But maybe overlooking a more important lesson: The easiest way to get people to pay you money is when they think they’re getting something in return that will help them make more money.
FT and WSJ succeed because of the kind of information they deliver: financial analysis and info that enables its readers to invest wisely, manage a business better, and/or improve the bottom line.
It’s a lesson for anyone trying to figure out what to sell. Help people make more money and then forking over cash to you becomes a no-brainer. It’s not the only way to sell something. But it’s probably the easiest.
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Sortfolio uses Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (“a global, on-demand, 24×7 workforce”) to make sure no NSFW images make it into the galleries. It’s pretty amazing how quickly the processing happens. A visitor uploads an image. Above is the review screen the “turks” see in order to approve/reject. Then the image goes live. The whole thing takes just a few seconds and costs us only a penny per image.
Full disclosure: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is an investor in 37signals.
Around 20 minutes in, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey talks about how he hates working with people who aren’t willing to stand up for their views.
You have to have a culture where there’s no bad idea and people aren’t afraid to bring them up. I want the people who work with me to have very, very strong opinions. And I get really mad if I make the first argument against and they’re immediately like, “Oh yeah, maybe you’re right.” That drives me nuts.
Neat to see a leader who wants his team members to disagree with him and push back. Loyalty and mindlessly saying yes aren’t the same things. Smart people want to hear pushback. Not drama and emotional conflict, just healthy disagreement.
But when one — or a few people — hire and take special care to choose personalities who are a good fit (and then bring those people into the fold slowly), you get a culture where people feel ok speaking their minds.
Make decisions right before you do something, not far in advance. It’s OK to wing it. Just get on the plane and go. You can pick up a nicer shirt, shaving cream, and a toothbrush once you get there.
It’s something travel backpackers have long known. That’s why they pack light, avoid rigid itineraries, stay frugal, and follow a mindset similar in many ways to Getting Real/REWORK.
There is no need for pre-planned routes or pre-booked hotels. Get on the road and figure your way from there. I find the idea of not knowing where to stay overnight exhilarating.
Next up: The Less Principle & Avoid Preferences.
How many hours have you spent preparing your bag for every eventuality, packing too much stuff you did never touch while on the road. I once lived through 10 days just with just my hand baggage (My main baggage didn’t make it). Sure, I stocked up on underwear, a toothbrush and t-shirts but I imagined it far worse. I perfectly understand this doesn’t work for long trips or hikes, but you can believe me, I do no longer feel like I forgot something at home.
Along the same lines, “How To Think Like A Lightweight Backpacker” [The Ultralight Backpacking Site] lists some basic questions you should ask when planning a backpacking trip or looking at gear. Examples: How can I make this lighter? What lighter version can I carry? Can I leave this behind? What multiple-use items can I use to cut weight? Etc.
Ask of each item, “do I really need to bring this?” A small kettle can be used to fry things, in, so leave the frying pan home. Another question to clarify this is, “will I use it?” I carried a small chess set on more than one backpacking trip, but never found another player.
Got pitched on a couple of iPhone apps while down in Austin. One pitched me with a “Got an iPhone? Come inside and get a $15 iTunes gift card” spiel as I walked to the convention center. I had 20 minutes to kill so I said sure. I entered their venue (which probably cost a ton to rent) and downloaded the iPhone app. Then I had to use it once in front of ‘em. Then they gave me the gift card. Then I exited the building. Then I walked three steps and deleted the app from my phone.
The other one was an app at the trade show portion of the event that included some sort of location/geo/something-or-other. The woman demoing the app showed me how, using this app, she could pinpoint the location of Andrew, one of the app’s developers. (Andrew was standing right next to her.) Then she started using the iPhone to figure out his location. When it worked, she proudly showed me that her iPhone had spotted Andrew. I commented that this certainly was a great way to determine the location of someone who is standing right next to you.
37signals Answers (recently launched) is our first new app built with 37signals ID integration. That means everyone involved is using real names and avatars.
And wow, what a difference it makes. Trading anonymity for accountability has led to radically improved conversations.
I’d point to a specific example but it’s more what’s missing now. A lot less antagonism and a lot more thoughtfulness and general politeness. Great to see.
The First of Elvis [Vanity Fair] is an interesting profile of photographer Al Wertheimer’s days of shadowing Elvis Presley in 1956, the year Elvis-mania hit. Wertheimer describes what made Elvis different:
“He dared to move,” says Wertheimer. “Singers just did not move onstage in those days. You stood there like Frank Sinatra or Perry Como, and you sang from the waist up. Elvis broke all the rules. He moved his hips. He charged the microphone. He was introducing something that was just not acceptable to grown-ups and the more conservative groups. I have the William Morris guys getting him into a corner, and they’re giving him advice: ‘Now, Elvis, look, you get up there, you sing your song, but don’t move too much.’ Elvis dutifully listened. He wouldn’t argue with them. But once he got onstage he did what he wanted. And it created such a sensation. Not because you could hear him sing—there was too much screaming going on. The kids loved it. And the kids were the ones who bought the 45s.”
Funny to imagine those experts sitting Elvis down and telling him that he’s got to stop moving onstage. Shows you the problem with blindly following experts: They’re experts on the past. No one is an expert on the future.
Often, people “in the know” try to fit you into a mold of what’s come before. If it’s foreign, strange, or new from how they’re used to working, they’ll tell you it’s wrong. But innovators know to follow the screams, not the William Morris guys.
