Another one is almost in the bag. Lots of interesting stuff this year, though probably the most important story in “world-historical” terms, the genome-editing of babies in China, hasn’t really ended.
Ushering in 2019 with a $20.19 Tardigrade t-shirt New Years Eve sale at DNA Geeks. And 30% off everything with code WELCOME2019.
I am playing around with Member Pass to create a leaky gated model for this website. Suggestions are welcome in the comments (I’ll say that I’m not going to gate archives).
I think 2019 will finally see the ancient India DNA. They can’t keep putting this off. My review of the new Tony Joseph book is up at India Today by the way.
I think we’ll see more “Golden State Killer” style stories. Well, actually, perhaps not…because it’s becoming so banal.
We won’t be able to predict what happens in the genomics space, because it’s moving so fast. But the stuff that David Mittelmann and I said in our Genome Biology comment will really apply.
We’ll get more ancient DNA of course…but I don’t know what, as it seems Europe is tapped out.
The plot will keep thickening in “archaic hominin” land.
What are you looking forward to?
Re memberpass. I think it’s more important to have a clear business model/approach you are using to monitize, than any particular tech.
FWIW. Think best model is freemium, free weekly article with subscription pay for during week updates. This is the Ben Thompson model. As yes, it means being full time. But there are perhaps variations on this.
The next best is patron style with pay for support. This approach rewards partisanship, so need to be careful with it. But can work.
I don’t think mixing a subscription model with patreon style model is sensible. So you have to choose.
Just my two cents. Good luck however you decide to go.
was thinking monthly fremium. not weekly.
would patreon work better? i don’t like taking things off this website
It’s already well into 2019 where I am, so I will wish you a good one.
What I’m looking forward to – hopefully: (1) more work, having finished the year on a high note with a truckload of it; (2) no big typhoons like the one we had in September, which had me seriously worried about both wind strength and storm surge; (3) learning more about the pre-history of China. Q.Fu seems to have been ominously quiet for quite a while now, hopefully because she’s working on something big, not because of internal opposition from the hyper-nationalistic paleoanthro old guard. She’s not alone, there are others on her wavelength. Last I heard she was scouring Chinese museum collections for Denisovans, then silence, unless I have missed something.
Tanner Greer could do me a big one by turning his attention in this direction, but it’s probably not an era that interests him. Maybe we could get him interested (hint).
yes. waiting for fu too….
Razib: I think the biggest problem in the way of you making this a pay site is the quantity of content you turn out, not the quality, which is first rate. The quantity is excellent for a guy with a day job and three kids, but I am not sure that it is enough to get people to pay. I pay for several sites, including National Review, Commentary, and Ricochet. Each of them has full time staff generating content. They charge something around $100, but I want to support them.
If you do quit the day job, then the site owns you. No vacations, no sick days, you got to keep pedaling as fast as you can.
I wonder what kind of arrangement Instapundit has with PJMedia. You might also want to talk to the Ricochet people
If you had people
WS, this wouldn’t be a ‘real job.’
the price point per month would be lower than something like NRPlus.
not sure it is ‘worth it’ for me to gate it for me tho if the uptake is too low. otoh i may just stop blogging at some point at this rate since it’s an opportunity cost hobby….
Happy NYE, Khan.. I found the blog while ago through Moldbug’s comments and like it a lot, and hopefully you’ll continue to write and recommend various literature in the future. There’s also interesting discussion in the comments which I appreciate.
Pipe dream: yersinia DNA salvaged from teeth in a mass grave in Cucuteni or some other Neo/Chalcolithic site in that culture. Near a block of wood wiggle-matchable to a specific year.
Patreon is a better model.
can you elaborate?
i changed to non-full rss feed. the # of ppl who read longer increased A LOT. i am chill with full feed as long as i’m not monetizing.