Ben Thompson’s tech analysis is recursive, which is one of the various reasons to appreciate what he does. Practically speaking, I mean that Thompson constantly references his past work, linking to previous pieces in every new one. He builds new arguments from old ones, or rather extends his past assertions, instead of constructing each article entirely from scratch. Smart approach, whether it’s conscious or not.
Thompson’s recursive writing provides a sense of timeline, grounding each new post in a fuller body of work. This gives the reader a sense of ever-mounting value, and provides an intellectual narrative as Thompson’s own positions evolve.
So much of the content on the internet feels random, contextless. Often, standalone pieces don’t actually manage to stand alone. Thompson defies this trend, and convinces drive-by readers to become dedicated subscribers, by tying everything he publishes to everything else he’s published.
As noted in the headline, there is an internet cottage industry of people getting paid to write online about how to get paid to write online. See websites like The Write Life, Making A Living Writing, and many more if you Google anything along the lines of “professional blogger”. It’s a weird, self-referential phenomenon.
Empowering writers to make more money is obviously something that I support, and I’ve read a million posts about upping your personal ROI. However, I do think these “Unlock your potential!” types of websites deceive readers. Maybe not directly. But here’s the reality, a reality that’s unprofitable to admit: There aren’t that many well-paying writing jobs out there; most people are neither lucky enough nor talented enough to get them.
(I kept this post in drafts for a while, but I realized that I don’t have anything else to add. So… here ya go, world.)
Mike Licht has made and posted a million of these for some reason.
Necessary context for the upcoming screenshot: Ben Thompson is a popular tech blogger who offers an exclusive email newsletter for $10 per month. Recently some kind of bug inserted a couple of subscriber-only posts into the blog’s public RSS feed. Here’s a brief Twitter exchange between subscriber Blaine Wilson and Thompson:
Wilson: “Hey Ben, I’m interested to know if the RSS leak lead to any sort of upside in update subscriptions as people got a taste.” Thompson: “I’ve learned that RSS users aren’t really the types to pay for content :)”
I don’t have any substantive commentary on Thompson’s observation, but I think it’s worth noting. (Obviously, considering that here I am noting it.)
For those who aren’t familiar, Get Off My Internets is a blog and forum that lampoons popular ladyblogs—fashion and “lifestyle” blogs especially. (I don’t mean ladyblogs like Jezebel or The Hairpin, but mostly personal blogs.) GOMI users are often decried as vitriolic bullies, a complaint that is not entirely wrong but also not entirely correct. Commenters can be mean, but often they have a point, like “shilling for every random company makes you look cheap and tasteless”.
High-profile bloggers with “snark threads” on GOMI should pay attention to what their detractors say, especially since GOMI commenters are avid readers of the blogs they enjoy trashing. Some bloggers recognize that GOMI runs the gamut: Mike Gilger of The Fresh Exchange wrote, “I expected to be upset and angered, but instead, by the time I got to the bottom of the forum, I was feeling inspired. It inspired me to start being more open about work, rather than […] vague about the actual struggles we reference. I want to find a more balanced way to show the beauty and the grit.”
GOMI creator and moderator Alice Wright told The Daily Dot that the forum’s enthusiasts are “people who work really hard and read blogs for entertainment. They get […] annoyed when bloggers post about their hard, busy days of going to aerobics class, eating a bowl of oatmeal, and taking a picture of it. And if readers want to offer any critique at all, bloggers don’t want to hear it.” Much of the anger on the forum is a reaction to clumsy monetization attempts that don’t respect readers’ intelligence.
If you would like to obsessively read more about GOMI, which is what I do whenever I discover something that interests me, I suggest 1) checking out the site itself, and 2) reading “Inside the Internet’s Craziest Destination for Blogger Hate” by Chavie Lieber. Then, yanno, do some Google work. Whatever. I’m not your mom.
So ANYWAY, when you set up your GOMI profile you can link to your personal blog or any other website that you want to promote. If you have the time and inclination to add more ~social media~ to your life, it’s a good idea.
Of course, be aware that using GOMI in a spammy way will not work. That is a terrible strategy. Don’t try to play SEO games or who-knows-what may have occurred to you. On the other hand, frequenting GOMI in a way that contributes to the community is fantastic PR for your blog. You are given an opportunity to demonstrate your valuable insights to people who are dedicated blog-readers. People who are critical thinkers (mostly). Pretty much the optimal audience, right?
This post has been sitting around as a draft for more than a month. Whatever.
I’ve decided that I don’t want to be a freelance writer. Even if the effort-to-pay-ratio were better, I still wouldn’t want to freelance. I’m not interested in the kind of writing that brings in freelance money. (What’s lucrative? Business writing of various kinds.)
I want to write to entertain, which means that I’m competing with a million other kids who can turn a phrase. We all want a slice of the limited pie. I have to figure out how to make myself prominent, how to jostle to the front. Consumers must be convinced that my work is valuable.
The original subtitle for this website described me as an “independent writer”. That’s still how I identify. It describes my outlook, both practically and philosophically: I’d rather control the whole process, without catering to anyone else’s strictures.
Obviously I can’t completely do that. For example, I don’t know how to build a website, so mine is made with Blogger. I don’t know how to make printer ink, so I buy it. The list of things that I can’t do entirely by myself is endless. Even when it comes to the simple writing, I need support. One or both of my parents will read each first draft; often Alex does as well.
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