dshipper

It's hard for me to take seriously any article that so consistently misuses "than" vs. "then"

Worth noting that the guy who wrote this is 17 and still in high school. Pretty impressive stuff.

Cool but the animation makes me dizzy...

Really sorry that you feel that way. I tried to write it in a way that would speak to some of the things I've learned over the last few years. That advice may seem obvious, but I'm continually surprised at how many people don't think about things that way.

I know a lot of entrepreneurs that refuse to think they ever need help, or who do the "flip-flop" I described where they change their opinions every time they talk to someone new. Sorry again that you felt like you didn't get much out of it, I'll think about how I might be able to change that.

You get out of college what you put into it.

I certainly have friends who are learning to "be a cog in a wheel" but that's not at all the only possible outcome of a college education. Insinuating otherwise is questionable at best and incredibly misleading at worst.

The guy who bought it also had a few other projects going on at the same time. I wish I still had it because it was a reliable money-maker for me. Just needed attention that he couldn't give it - especially because he couldn't code it himself.

You can still get stuff done! Read: http://danshipper.com/the-choices-are-fake-and-the-truth-is-.... Feel free to email me at dan@danshipper.com if you have questions :)

yea pretty fun to wake up it. the site's not down because of traffic though. as others have alluded to I sold it a while ago.

Feedback Army was my best competitor: http://feedbackarmy.com/

Hey guys great to see an old article of mine like this posted here. For the people who asked, the site is down because I sold it and the new owner neglected to take care of it :(

Read about the experience here: http://danshipper.com/110636263

Happy to answer questions about it if you have them.

Isn't it possible though that things that stand the test of time only do so because they're convenient for living people who use them to advance their own ends?

See The Bible, or frankly any other religious/political text.

P.S Not to take away the fact that those texts are legitimately interesting and valuable in their own rights. But they are by dead people propagated as instruments by the living.

But by definition when the dead gave their advice they were alive. Just because they're dead doesn't mean that their advice doesn't serve a purpose for them or for people like them. Wouldn't you run into the same issue? You never have a total vacuum.

Thanks for your comment. Not 100% sure how it related to the post but I agree. It reminds of a Dalio quote from Principles"

"Self-interest and society’s interests are generally symbiotic: more than anything else, it is pursuit of selfinterest that motivates people to push themselves to do the difficult things that benefit them and that contribute to society. In return, society rewards those who give it what it wants. That is why how much money people have earned is a rough measure of how much they gave society what it wanted—NOT how much they desired to make money"

Innovation for its own sake is dumb. Don't build a house with 8 doors instead of 8 windows just because you can.

How do you tell the difference between people who want to exploit your ability and the people who generally want to help you? There are definitely points where their incentives are aligned and their advice would overlap.

I love when people apply what I have to say to situations to things I've never thought about. Good luck out there :)

Did not know that about Tim Berners-Lee. Thanks for commenting!

Thanks! Although to be honest I have been guilty of that. It's just a matter of finding balance as cliche as that sounds.

Probably better :)

Completely agree with you. The basic point of the article is that advertisers have to be sensitive to the context shift between selling things on Google and selling things on Twitter.

It's possible to create a successful marketing campaign on Twitter, but it probably looks very different than a successful one on Adwords.

That's a really interesting point. I think Twitter search is one area where the product is grossly lacking. And you're right, targeting ads in the search area would definitely capture intent.

That's interesting. It's a fine line though. I think I'd get annoyed pretty quickly if after every tweet I was solicited for something.

I've been thinking about a real-world analogue for these types of social communities (e.g. synagogues) that actually makes money. The only one I can come up with is something like a fraternity. You pay dues, and have a local chapter that's also part of a larger national organization.

I'm not a giant fan, but it's very similar to the App.net model. Obviously you don't see massive scale, but you do get money without interfering with the social dynamic. Interestingly, the very fact that it costs money may make it more appealing to join. Curious to see where that goes.

I agree. In some ways social ads are a step back from that, but only because you establish contact with your customers much before they have needs that you can satisfy. So the time to first sale is a lot longer.

But I think, on the flip side, the relationships you develop with them are a lot stronger and a lot more powerful. The problem is, it's very hard to back that up empirically because it's a lot more complicated than just measuring CTR.

A lot of my most popular blog posts are ones that I've written to address questions that I had as a younger version of myself but that I've since answered with experience/introdpection. This is definitely a viable technique.

Agree with you there

Thanks for writing! Sorry to keep asking questions, but why does it have to be any every day thing?

At least for me, the quality of the content goes down significantly if I have to do it any more than once every couple of weeks. Really impressed that you're able to keep it up :)

I'm actually a subscriber! How did you get readers? Just by word of mouth?

And do you think it can be as successful if you only send the email once every two weeks or so? Or does it have to be an every day thing?

Honestly sorry you feel that way. But I guess it's not for everyone. Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks! Really happy you've enjoyed it :)

Interesting idea. I think writing 500 words a day is great. To me this looks like something that is more meant for you, than for your readers. If that's the case that's completely fine - at least for me part of the nice thing about blogging is it helps me to refine my thoughts. This also looks like a great way to just get better at the craft of writing. But if you really want to be read, you'll probably at least need a slightly different format than this one.

If that's not the goal though, then I really like your idea in making this.

Honestly, it's awful. I used to really like it back in the early days. But since they got acquired (and even before when they started to concentrate on Spaces) it really started to go down hill. I need to switch to Wordpress soon, but I honestly just haven't had the time.

"And I'd say consistent publishing -- especially in the face of apathy or silence -- is a huge part of building readership." That's absolutely right in my experience.