The GeekTonic home has seen it’s share of eReaders including the Kindle, Nook and iPad. But when it comes to reading books, the Kindle is our all around favorite – especially with Amazon’s price drop (down to $189). Now, CEO Jeff Bezos tells us that Kindle books are now outselling Hardcover books on Amazon. For every 100 hardcover book Amazon sold in the past 3 months they sold 143 Kindle books. In the past month it grew to 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books – a sign of further shifting towards eBooks.
But before we let this talk get too out of hand, lets consider that they are talking about hardcovers and not all books, such as paperbacks. Also consider that Amazon shoppers are obviously much more likely to use an eReader (particularly the Kindle) than the average bear too. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve got no problem with cross-posting. It’s often a good way to do things.
But is it really too much trouble to put the full post on both sites?
If I find the post interesting, I’ll naturally go over to the other site and see what else is posted there. But teaser cross-posts just make me feel antagonistic towards the other site and the poster, and make me want to avoid the writing of the poster altogether.
Read some Felix Salmon on how to handle such topics. In short, be generous to your readers, don’t make them jump through hoops, and you end up getting rewarded over the long-term.
Both Brad and Brent have been very gracious in allowing me to re-run some of their content. It’s a symbiotic relationship in that I get to share good stuff with my regulars while exposing folks to their sites.
I do hear what you’re saying, but I also want these guys to be compensated for their generosity. The stats clearly show folks click through more when run this way. For shorter posts I do run in them in their entirety, it’s the longer ones I’ll split. This particular one was on the cusp.
A large number of blogs have a ‘read more’ link, the only difference in this case is the ‘read more’ goes to a different URL (and starts at the top of the article). In the ZNF RSS feed I run the full text of posts written by Mari and I (and ad-free) which is less common these days – so hopefully that offsets some of this particular annoyance. Also, I recently turned off in-text advertising which will cost us several thousand a year but makes for a better reader experience.
Basically, I’m doing my best to walk on the right side of this fine line… and think I’m mostly succeeding.
Also, some additional perspective… ZNF has been under attack the last few weeks. Being able to syndicate solid content his given me some time to work on cleaning the hackage and harden the site… instead of just folding. Which has been very tempting. Yesterday afternoon and this AM I did some work redirection and blockage via .htaccess, file modifications, and communicated with my host on two vulnerabilities they uncovered. I’d rather write, but this has to get done if we’re going to carry on. And their content lets us keep the conversation going while I’m preoccupied.
“Basically, I’m doing my best to walk on the right side of this fine line… and think I’m mostly succeeding.”
I do love your blog, Dave. And I do think you are mostly doing things the right way, which I also think happens to be your trump card in the long run.
I just wish in this situation that all parties involved understood that it makes sense to fully crosspost. The eyeballs most valuable for click-overs are still going to click-over to the other blog with full crossposts anyway. The most valuable eyeballs are actively seeking information.
Simple page views are a lousy metric. Building relationships with readers and buzz throughout networks of people are where real value lies over time, (though harder it’s harder to measure in a snapshot.)
“Also, some additional perspective… ZNF has been under attack the last few weeks.”
My condolences. Good luck on achieving appropriate resolution. It’s always mystified me why it there aren’t decent and easily maintainable blog turnkey solutions available. It’s a situation of Internets FAIL.
Obviously you should do what you need to do to keep the product flowing while you deal with the issues.
I think one of the reasons ebooks sell more is because you can read faster on an ebook device.
I used to consume 40 to 50 books per year. Since switching to a Kindle I consume 60 to 70 books per year. I don’t spend any more time reading.
Well that’s the great thing about Dave’s site. He does it HIS way. I’ve checked out the other blogs from time to time. Clicking to another site is no big deal. If it is, google “The Whiner Line”. You’ll be in good company….
Keep up the good work Dave!