It actually seems to be working already, for what it's worth. :)
DF has the advantage of being able to provide a feed for free and offer an 'upgrade' to that - Cocoa Weblogs doesn't
There's no free version of the Linked List feed.
In my opinion, there's a ridiculous amount of content made available for free that I could realistically put behind a membership wall. That includes all of the Cocoa Dev Central articles, all of the Theocacao content, and everything on the Cocoa Blogs site.
The only thing that is walled off is a links feed, and the only reason that's walled off is to balance things out. That is, if it's going to be a link vending machine for some people, I'd at least like them to make a donation so I can fund other things.
Considering all of this, I think $21 is more than reasonable to ask for. In any case, you're not kept from anything important if you don't pay. The feed is simply a convenient "upgrade" perk/thank you for supporting a range of services which I think are worthwhile to support.
I'm pretty sure you don't personally disagree with any of this, but I just want to be clear for anyone reading the comments here. I do understand what you say about the three sites not appearing as connected as they could. Maybe there's something to be done there.
What would I do? I would lower the threshold to, say, $10
I don't think that's reasonable. Remember, this isn't like software where you have to purchase something to use it. People get the content first, then have the option to pay. If you had to pay before gaining access to everything, I'd be happy to lower it to $10 because the volume would more than make up for it.
I would also move the focus of the donations from the individual CDC tutorials
The reasoning for it being on the individual pages is so that you can effectively vote for what you want to see more of. It (unintentionally) happens this is the same premise as PBS: you pledge during the show you like.
but frankly being met by the top form *before I've read the tutorial* seems cheap
I think you might be misreading the intent. The idea is not to generate a payment right then, but to make it clear before you start reading that this took some real effort to create, and if you like it as you read along, a donation would be very much appreciated before you leave.
If I only put it at the end, a lot of people would never see it. Plenty of folks seem to learn things from a tutorial without reaching the end.
Cocoa Weblogs to some sort of umbrella drive
I think this makes sense, but the current solution is just that -- the current solution. Also, keep in mind that I'm mainly publicizing this on Theocacao at the moment, so I figure you guys follow the whole story more than the average person swinging by Cocoa Dev Central.
by Scott Stevenson — Dec 19
It actually seems to be working already, for what it's worth. :)
DF has the advantage of being able to provide a feed for free and offer an 'upgrade' to that - Cocoa Weblogs doesn't
There's no free version of the Linked List feed.
In my opinion, there's a ridiculous amount of content made available for free that I could realistically put behind a membership wall. That includes all of the Cocoa Dev Central articles, all of the Theocacao content, and everything on the Cocoa Blogs site.
The only thing that is walled off is a links feed, and the only reason that's walled off is to balance things out. That is, if it's going to be a link vending machine for some people, I'd at least like them to make a donation so I can fund other things.
Considering all of this, I think $21 is more than reasonable to ask for. In any case, you're not kept from anything important if you don't pay. The feed is simply a convenient "upgrade" perk/thank you for supporting a range of services which I think are worthwhile to support.
I'm pretty sure you don't personally disagree with any of this, but I just want to be clear for anyone reading the comments here. I do understand what you say about the three sites not appearing as connected as they could. Maybe there's something to be done there.
What would I do? I would lower the threshold to, say, $10
I don't think that's reasonable. Remember, this isn't like software where you have to purchase something to use it. People get the content first, then have the option to pay. If you had to pay before gaining access to everything, I'd be happy to lower it to $10 because the volume would more than make up for it.
I would also move the focus of the donations from the individual CDC tutorials
The reasoning for it being on the individual pages is so that you can effectively vote for what you want to see more of. It (unintentionally) happens this is the same premise as PBS: you pledge during the show you like.
but frankly being met by the top form *before I've read the tutorial* seems cheap
I think you might be misreading the intent. The idea is not to generate a payment right then, but to make it clear before you start reading that this took some real effort to create, and if you like it as you read along, a donation would be very much appreciated before you leave.
If I only put it at the end, a lot of people would never see it. Plenty of folks seem to learn things from a tutorial without reaching the end.
Cocoa Weblogs to some sort of umbrella drive
I think this makes sense, but the current solution is just that -- the current solution. Also, keep in mind that I'm mainly publicizing this on Theocacao at the moment, so I figure you guys follow the whole story more than the average person swinging by Cocoa Dev Central.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.