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February 21, 2006
Building Bleeding Edge
We pause for a word from our sponsor. Last week we came up with an offering that allows our readers to contribute to the future of this site and the forum for a very small cost, and to get something in return - an email copy of the Bleeding Edge columns which will no longer be appearing in the online editions of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
You might not have thought about the potential value. It will provide you with a searchable database to back up the print version - which is still by far, the preferred delivery method, even for us. Somehow the column looks better with the heading and the illustration. But keeping each week's clipping isn't a practical archiving method. We constantly receive requests from readers who've thrown out the Green Guide, but want to find out what we recommended months earlier. Now you can have it on your hard disk, constantly updated.
We've made the price for that service very cheap, and we've been gratified to discover that by far the majority of subscribers have voluntarily paid us more than we asked - anything from $20 to $52. We're looking at other ways of adding value, possibly with a subscriber-only section of the blog, which we'll probably call The Bloodbank. It will have a lot more information than we run on the public part of the blog, and it will be cheaper for subscribers to access.
We're asking you to think about what Bleeding Edge represents to you, and to think very seriously about contributing to its survival. This is no ordinary blog. It's not just someone putting a personal spin on other people's stories. Most of our stuff is independently researched and written. It's a local, community-based resource that not only entertains and informs you, but also helps you save money and avoid problems. How often has something you read in the column, on the blog or in the forum been of real value to you? Why not put something back that will help us deliver even more value in the future.
Posted by cw at February 21, 2006 03:42 PM
Comments
Charles. Have you considered packaging a branded "Bleeding Edge" deal? For example, you could include a FastMail subscription with the rest of the offering as described above. Naturally you would have to increase the price a bit but I'm sure your pal Jeremy would give you a good deal on the Fastmail component. You might even persuade him to allocate you a BE-specific domain?
Just a thought.... AB
Posted by: aussieboykie at February 21, 2006 05:24 PM
I think it's an excellent idea, even though you have trained my thinking to why pay when can obtain for FREE.. Am willing to pay as have obtained so much usefull information over time from BE.
Posted by: dirkgently at February 21, 2006 06:17 PM
I'm in Charles, send me the details so I can transfer you the money! A bleeding edge one can archive and search and all for less than a years worth of razor blades... Not only that but one that is uncut, unhampered by those subs and the limits of the size of the Green Guide page.
Posted by: tflip at February 21, 2006 07:12 PM
Testing TypeKey.....
Oh, I like the email idea.Maybe you could have a subs only domain where we can all get goodies.....
:) :)
Posted by: Newman at February 21, 2006 11:02 PM
I genuinely hope your new subscription based model is a winner & I’d be happy to dob in. But on a much less salutary note, how many blogs are worthwhile money making ventures? If you call ‘Crikey’ a blog [which I don’t] then there is one that springs to mind. But even with ‘Crikey’ it took a long time to achieve.
At the risk of making myself a target, I would aim for B.E to be a viable interest, but look elsewhere for a worthwhile income. Maybe putting a proposal to MelbPC to publish “PC Update”, as it really needs a make over. Just a thought!
CW: Thanks for the ideas, Stuart. I've thought about PC Update - it's a pretty pathetic little rag these days - but how could I be an honest critic of Melb PC if I took money from it?
Posted by: Stuart at February 22, 2006 11:33 AM