When The Loop relaunched on September 1, it was a completely different site that focused on the content, not advertising or pageviews. It was a major change for Peter and me to stray from the traditional advertising model, but with the help of Fusion Ads, it’s working out just fine.
As part of the redesigned site, we began offering a membership for our readers. This was a way for people who wanted to support the site to do so at a minimal monthly cost ($3).
In addition to helping support the site, we offered members a full text RSS feed. It was a thank you from us for the support.
Until this weekend, every comment about the new design and business model was extremely positive.
After four months of effort in designing a new business and site design to go with it, I was kind of shocked to get this email from a reader:
Jim love the new site redesign. Despise the truncated rss feeds.I just can’t see paying for the loop when Gruber’s site is free and doesn’t make me jump through hoops.Seems odd an Apple enthusiast site that doesn’t put it’s product first. This is a step below the full page dragon dictation ads you forced us to x out of to read your articles.I am not a google fan but they and John know how to advertise with tact, and seem to be doing very well because of it.I’m a fan of your writing but question your business model.
I responded:
Jump through hoops?I’m not asking you to pay for anything. You can view the site for free with less ads than most Mac sites on Internet. I have the $3 a month as an option for those people that want to support the site, not for people like you that feel everything on the Internet should be free.This is how I make my living and support my family. I’ve done this for almost 20 years and I believe I’m good at what I do. If this is what you think of me and the site, I hope you never come back.Jim
It is true that John Gruber monetizes his site in a slightly different way, but that’s a good thing. I talked to John on several occasions before the launch about my ideas, as well as a number of other people.
There is always work to do when running a Web site, but I never thought of the RSS feed or membership as making readers jump through hoops. There is a free truncated feed available and the content on the site is always free to everyone.
To those people that have paid for a monthly membership, we thank you very much. The support you’ve shown and the money that you pay is going to our families and to help expand the site.
We appreciate the support!