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Or maybe the lesson is to develop a following first before developing a product. The music blog didn't happen by random chance, and his overall approach seems b

Or maybe the lesson is to develop a following first before developing a product. The music blog didn't happen by random chance, and his overall approach seems better than developing a product and hoping for a following.

godzillabrennus 10y ago
Alternatively you can partner with a community and build a product for them on revenue share.
- swedish_coder 10y ago
  Interesting take on the concept. Do you have any experience with this? Know where I can read more about this sort of thing? :)
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    Facebook might qualify with their third-party apps leveraging the social netsork and FB targeting.
    - fiatjaf 10y ago
      Are you serious? Facebook developer ecosystem is horrible, and it stinks more in this case.
      - nickpsecurity 10y ago
        I said "might." I know they have a developer ecosystem with some way of getting paid. I didn't know past that. Figured more knowledgeable people would chime in.
- abrookewood 10y ago
  Both this and the parent's approach are good options.
- fiatjaf 10y ago
  I tried to do this, but since the "community" had no leader, I couldn't talk to no one except its single members, and individually they didn't seem to be too interested in the product I had already built.
pjlegato 10y ago
Then the article should be mostly about how he built the music blog, rather than eliding over that in a sentence.
vacri 10y ago
Building a following over 7 years doesn't seem to fit into the title's '10 months'...
fourstar 10y ago
I did this with the intention of promoting the product. The issue was that I built it on someone else's platform. Something I've known to be a cardinal sin and a disaster waiting to happen. Alas, I built /r/lifeprotips and it quickly became a default on reddit. I started building the site (lifeprotips.com which is no longer up) around the same time. Some moronic moderator named reddit.com/user/krispykrackers banned me because I was promoting the site on the subreddit. They still use artwork I paid an illustrator to design for my site that I re-used there. tl;dr: don't build a following on someone else's platform. You will be penalized because in 2016 there is no loyalty to the game anymore (I've been building sites since the late 90s so I know how corporate this environment has gotten). Also, big middle finger to reddit for trying to be a big boy corporation but failing to address issues like mine -- I spent so much time and energy getting that subreddit to where it is today and I get rewarded with a punch in the face.
- fiatjaf 10y ago
  Thank you for sharing. Do you think you would be as successful in developing an audience outside Reddit as you were inside it? Where? In a blog?
  - fourstar 10y ago
    Of course. Honestly, probably not. Reddit was the perfect audience for that particular type of content, so it made perfect sense. There's only one other player in that space that I know who is really killing it and it's lifehack.org. Life Pro Tips focused on digestible pieces of content, but in order to monetize, it seems like you need more long-form types of content (that of which lifehack.org provides). I've moved on to other areas (like I've always done). I've had wins and I've had losses. The losses are necessary in order to keep the wins going.
- sundvor 10y ago
  I like that advice; don't build a following on someone else's platform. It could be extended to not building something that relies entirely on service X's API being open, because the moment they see the value in what you're doing, they'll want to shut it down and do it themselves. Also - great work, congrats on the success!

godzillabrennus 10y ago

Alternatively you can partner with a community and build a product for them on revenue share.

swedish_coder 10y ago
Interesting take on the concept. Do you have any experience with this? Know where I can read more about this sort of thing? :)
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  Facebook might qualify with their third-party apps leveraging the social netsork and FB targeting.
  - fiatjaf 10y ago
    Are you serious? Facebook developer ecosystem is horrible, and it stinks more in this case.
    - nickpsecurity 10y ago
      I said "might." I know they have a developer ecosystem with some way of getting paid. I didn't know past that. Figured more knowledgeable people would chime in.
abrookewood 10y ago
Both this and the parent's approach are good options.
fiatjaf 10y ago
I tried to do this, but since the "community" had no leader, I couldn't talk to no one except its single members, and individually they didn't seem to be too interested in the product I had already built.

pjlegato 10y ago

Then the article should be mostly about how he built the music blog, rather than eliding over that in a sentence.

vacri 10y ago

Building a following over 7 years doesn't seem to fit into the title's '10 months'...

fourstar 10y ago

I did this with the intention of promoting the product. The issue was that I built it on someone else's platform. Something I've known to be a cardinal sin and a disaster waiting to happen. Alas, I built /r/lifeprotips and it quickly became a default on reddit. I started building the site (lifeprotips.com which is no longer up) around the same time. Some moronic moderator named reddit.com/user/krispykrackers banned me because I was promoting the site on the subreddit. They still use artwork I paid an illustrator to design for my site that I re-used there. tl;dr: don't build a following on someone else's platform. You will be penalized because in 2016 there is no loyalty to the game anymore (I've been building sites since the late 90s so I know how corporate this environment has gotten). Also, big middle finger to reddit for trying to be a big boy corporation but failing to address issues like mine -- I spent so much time and energy getting that subreddit to where it is today and I get rewarded with a punch in the face.

fiatjaf 10y ago
Thank you for sharing. Do you think you would be as successful in developing an audience outside Reddit as you were inside it? Where? In a blog?
- fourstar 10y ago
  Of course. Honestly, probably not. Reddit was the perfect audience for that particular type of content, so it made perfect sense. There's only one other player in that space that I know who is really killing it and it's lifehack.org. Life Pro Tips focused on digestible pieces of content, but in order to monetize, it seems like you need more long-form types of content (that of which lifehack.org provides). I've moved on to other areas (like I've always done). I've had wins and I've had losses. The losses are necessary in order to keep the wins going.
sundvor 10y ago
I like that advice; don't build a following on someone else's platform. It could be extended to not building something that relies entirely on service X's API being open, because the moment they see the value in what you're doing, they'll want to shut it down and do it themselves. Also - great work, congrats on the success!