Media, Morals, and Money

• The framework problem. - Let's say you are making a website about dog breeds. Do you make a blank, empty, or "framework" page for the dog breeds that you haven't written content for yet? I really hate visiting sites that turn out to be mostly empty -- there are a lot of big-name companies that control mostly-empty pages (CNET comes to mind. They have "review" pages for hundreds of products that don't actually have any reviews. ugh) On the other hand, simply because there isn't custom content for a particular topic doesn't mean you can't provide value. Mashups help folks, automated data generation can help folks, collecting links to other resources and putting them in an easy-to-use format helps folks.

  
  Decision? If I'm writing a site I take a look to see what kinds of blank pages there are out there. If I honestly feel I can provide a level of improvement over what's currently available, then it's in my reader's best interest for me to create a framework page. But if I'm just keyword-stuffing, I'm not doing it.

• The misspelling problem. - If you are writing about something that people misspell, should you target some of your work to people who can't spell the name correctly of what they are looking for? This is one of those things that sound like a "trick" to people using the internet. Why write a site with a page like "face book login help"?

  Decision? People can't spell, let's face it. Instead of wishing for a world where everybody was literate and erudite, I should accept the world as it is. That means targeting pages to people who can't spell, people who have low reading skills, heck, even completely illiterate people. I feel like this is appropriate as long as I provide the correct spelling at some point on the page. After all, I don't want people visiting my site because they've been tricked. If they can't spell, try to help them, but helping them means helping them fix their spelling too.

• The useful tool with the salesguy who is a tool - How do you handle recommending a tool to somebody when the tool is useful but the guy is awful at developing and maintaining a business relationship, treating customers as potential paychecks instead of people? When I wrote my latest review on hn-books, part of the review mentioned this tool called "micro-niche finder" Several hackers I know have recommended the tool, and the author of the book I was reviewing made it a point to call it out as useful. But the landing page was something out of Bad Web Design 101. Muddying the waters for me was the fact that there was a commission from ClickBank for any sale that might be made. I usually don't have problems with commissions from links, but with a poorly designed landing page? If just didn't make me all warm and fuzzy inside.

  Decision? This one had me stumped, as there were many conflicting points of view. So I did what I always do when confused: I bounced my problem off of somebody else. I emailed several HN members and explained the situation. They all told me -- without consulting with each other -- the same thing: explain to your readers the pros and cons as honestly as you can and let them decide. One guy said "Daniel, that's one of the things I like most about your online personality: you are honest and straightforward"

  I think that one comment taught me as much as a dozen startup books have. Funny how having the right attitude is so critical in life.

• The bad review question - How do I handle the fact that on hn-books it is in my best interests to pump up a book? Isn't that a problem of agency? Or as one guy put it, why would I ever mention a bad book? There wouldn't be any money in it.

  This is actually the easiest of the problems to solve. I review books that I find many hackers recommending to each other, and I only review books that have tons of positive reviews already. Why? Am I trying to cheat? Hell yeah I am. I only have so much time in the world and I don't want to waste it reading bad books. So I make sure before I start that the book has a lot going for it.

  Even then, there have been a couple of books I didn't like so well. So I didn't review them. Why would I? Somebody else might like them, and I'm certainly no Oracle of Truth and Beauty. I'm just some schmuck trying to figure out how to run a startup. If I find a great book and share it? It's good for everybody. If I trash a book, it doesn't help anybody, I might be wrong, and look at how I've (perhaps) insulted the author and the other readers who did like it? I'm not trying to be excessively nice here -- I'm just wrong a lot. And I've never written a super-cool book or made billions. A little bit of humility is probably in order.

• Being offered money - What should I do when people offer me money for various things, like posting a link in my blog or "comping" free stuff in hopes I'll talk about it? This one is fairly new: I'm getting emails about once a week with various money offers. Nothing substantial. Stuff like fifty bucks if I'll put a link to a casino on a certain page.

  These folks I tell to go jump in a lake. I don't sell my opinions. However there are also folks who would like for me to try something -- read their book, try out their app, etc. For those folks -- as long as I'm not pressured into doing anything -- I try to oblige. After all, they are just trying to get by in the world. If I find something good, I'm happy to share it. If not, well maybe I call it out and maybe I don't. I make sure that these folks know that they don't get any special treatment simply because of a comp. This is a common problem for professional writers, and I think being a freelance writer in my 20s helped me understand how to deal with that.

• Reviewing tools - Right now hn-books is little more than a hobby. I think I've done the math and for every week or two I spend reading a book and reviewing it, I might make one or two hundred bucks. At 50 cents or a dollar a pop, sales just don't amount to much. Should I take a look at things like hacker tools, where commissions might be enough to make the site viable?

  This is the current dilemma. Should I add other things to hn-books that might have a higher commission? Right now I'm leaning towards "yes", but with the same rules as books: only things that other hackers use and recommend and that have many of other positive reviews. I think tools naturally go with startups, and I think by reviewing tools I can demonstrate how some of these principles you learn from the books can be put to work practically. There's a powerful synergy there. I'm still not 100% convinced. If I continue to have doubts I'll ask around again. Outside perspectives are invaluable.

Interesting side story about the micro-niche guy. From my book review, bitly reports that over 500 people that visited his site, And none of them made a purchase. So all of that worrying was for nothing. Really strange result, though. If you've ever written for the web you'll know that usually an audience that understands what it is clicking, and shows interest in the product is going to convert at a rate of at least 1 or 2 percent. It's just a terrible landing page.

I went ahead and bought the tool. Immediately after buying it I got a email from the owner. Praising me for my purchase? Offering some advice? Well kinda. He was really trying to sell me on yet still other tools. Since then I've been getting one email a day from him, sometimes two, and they always are pumping one product or another. When you start thinking of your customers less as friends and more as an easy paycheck, you lose all credibility and goodwill.

I've decided to keep him in my email white list. Always pumping for sales, always trying to shove you in a sales funnel, always looking for a "trick" instead of providing value. He makes for a good example of what I never want to become.

Maybe all these problems seem simple to you. Maybe you think I'm completely smoking crack with some of the decisions I've made. I know different people think differently about things like this. But after all of that experience, when folks tell me they just have a business and don't think too much about morals or values? I really have no idea how that can be true.