Twitter's Silent Majority
Happy Labor Day, yo! I'm honored you have allowed a small place in your inbox for this little ol' newsletter. I'll be eating a cheeseburger in your name today. On a potato roll. Or maybe a pretzel roll. Those are the roll rankings, everyone knows this.
And now the links:
According to Wired Magazine, Thrillist makes north of $100 million a year. I wrote about what I see as a growing trend: the content-first startup. After I wrote that post, I interviewed DuckDuckGo founder Gabe Weinberg for 99U on his book about gaining traction with a new startup. He views content as one of the 17 "traction channels" that businesses can use to draw attention to their product. His caution to me: when you're a hammer, everything can look like a nail. Don't assume content is the best or only way to build an audience. Tough medicine for us writer/journalist types.
— Related: GE runs a pretty robust content shop. This is why.
Here are 71 ways to monetize digital content.
Ferguson. Gaza. ISIS. The events this August have brought out lots of strong opinions on social media. I'm sure you, like me, wish that social media was a place where we could have great discourse about the hard stuff in the news. Instead, we get stories like the feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian getting run out of her home for voicing her take on women in games. On the internet, the innocuous can seem like a personal attack and the extreme always gets the attention. It feels like the only solution is to stay far, far, far, away and only have the hard conversations in person. And it turns out that's exactly what a "silent majority" is doing.
This is why you shouldn't always do what you love. This is also why healthcare is such an important issue. But lets talk about that in person, k?
And now for the newsletter's end of summer review: In the northeast U.S., this mild summer was a welcome reprieve after the worst winter of my lifetime. But it turns out, everyone else is having an awful summer except for us and parts of Russia.
I've always had two suggestions for high school students: either fight like hell to try and go to an Ivy League school (the networking, man, the networking!) or save your money and go to a cheap public school that allows you to have a life and explore your interests. Well, the New Yorker contends I may be wrong about the whole Ivy League thing.
ENDORSEMENT: It's the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1. Did you know Belgium flooded its own country to sabotage a German advance? Did you know there was an hours-long treaty on Christmas 1914? Did you know Franz Ferdinand was killed hours after surviving another assassination attempt in what has to be the most massive coincidence of all time? I've spent 12 hours these past two weeks entranced by the Hardcore History podcast about how truly gruesome/interesting/relevant WW1 really was. Seriously, I was nearly late to work on Tuesday because of it.
NYT: "It was their early rush into what Dr. Allen calls pseudomature behavior that set them up for trouble. Now in their early 20s, many of them have had difficulties with intimate relationships, alcohol and marijuana, and even criminal activity. " Why being the cool kid in middle/high school makes you more likely to have stunted social skills as an adult.
Quiz: This is a post about young people being entitled. In what year was it written? The answer may surprise you. #clickbait
Email is still king when it comes to continually engaging your readers. Like usual, Quartz is ahead of the curve with its new email-focused homepage design.
Continuing a thread about "luxury cities" from last week: People are moving to places like Texas and Georgia because "real wages" are better there. Also people are supposedly happier in the suburbs. And with that, lets allow Ben Folds to play us out.
Thoughts? Complaints? Links for next week? Reply to this newsletter. I promise I'll read and reply to every email.
-Sean
P.S. You should know, this edition was written live on an Amtrak train from Wilmington, Delaware to New York, New York. Go Amtrak.
And now the links:
According to Wired Magazine, Thrillist makes north of $100 million a year. I wrote about what I see as a growing trend: the content-first startup. After I wrote that post, I interviewed DuckDuckGo founder Gabe Weinberg for 99U on his book about gaining traction with a new startup. He views content as one of the 17 "traction channels" that businesses can use to draw attention to their product. His caution to me: when you're a hammer, everything can look like a nail. Don't assume content is the best or only way to build an audience. Tough medicine for us writer/journalist types.
— Related: GE runs a pretty robust content shop. This is why.
Here are 71 ways to monetize digital content.
Ferguson. Gaza. ISIS. The events this August have brought out lots of strong opinions on social media. I'm sure you, like me, wish that social media was a place where we could have great discourse about the hard stuff in the news. Instead, we get stories like the feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian getting run out of her home for voicing her take on women in games. On the internet, the innocuous can seem like a personal attack and the extreme always gets the attention. It feels like the only solution is to stay far, far, far, away and only have the hard conversations in person. And it turns out that's exactly what a "silent majority" is doing.
This is why you shouldn't always do what you love. This is also why healthcare is such an important issue. But lets talk about that in person, k?
And now for the newsletter's end of summer review: In the northeast U.S., this mild summer was a welcome reprieve after the worst winter of my lifetime. But it turns out, everyone else is having an awful summer except for us and parts of Russia.
I've always had two suggestions for high school students: either fight like hell to try and go to an Ivy League school (the networking, man, the networking!) or save your money and go to a cheap public school that allows you to have a life and explore your interests. Well, the New Yorker contends I may be wrong about the whole Ivy League thing.
ENDORSEMENT: It's the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1. Did you know Belgium flooded its own country to sabotage a German advance? Did you know there was an hours-long treaty on Christmas 1914? Did you know Franz Ferdinand was killed hours after surviving another assassination attempt in what has to be the most massive coincidence of all time? I've spent 12 hours these past two weeks entranced by the Hardcore History podcast about how truly gruesome/interesting/relevant WW1 really was. Seriously, I was nearly late to work on Tuesday because of it.
NYT: "It was their early rush into what Dr. Allen calls pseudomature behavior that set them up for trouble. Now in their early 20s, many of them have had difficulties with intimate relationships, alcohol and marijuana, and even criminal activity. " Why being the cool kid in middle/high school makes you more likely to have stunted social skills as an adult.
Quiz: This is a post about young people being entitled. In what year was it written? The answer may surprise you. #clickbait
Email is still king when it comes to continually engaging your readers. Like usual, Quartz is ahead of the curve with its new email-focused homepage design.
Continuing a thread about "luxury cities" from last week: People are moving to places like Texas and Georgia because "real wages" are better there. Also people are supposedly happier in the suburbs. And with that, lets allow Ben Folds to play us out.
Thoughts? Complaints? Links for next week? Reply to this newsletter. I promise I'll read and reply to every email.
-Sean
P.S. You should know, this edition was written live on an Amtrak train from Wilmington, Delaware to New York, New York. Go Amtrak.
Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to Sean Blanda's Newsletter: