37signals Is Selling Sortfolio. What Happened
mixergy.comAm I the only one that can't stand this video garbage? The internet is one of the few areas where the written word communicates substance over style. Please, let's not lose this.
Unless the concept lends itself to video, don't use it.
Or at least include a transcript at the bottom so people can parse out the useful info without sitting through the video or trying to skip through and (likely) skipping right past the relevant nuggets.
Even transcripts are a problem for me though. A written piece flows like a book, a transcript doesn't. It's like reading a play.
I'm trying to hire a writer to help pull out the key points for you.
Hit me up by email if you want to tell me what your ideal version would be.
An article?
I'm pretty sure most of the print media out there do exactly what you're doing - performing one or more interviews about particular topic. The good ones though take that material and turn it into an article that attempts to make a point using the information gained from the interviews as support.
There isn't anything wrong with what Mixergy is doing per se, it's just that there on the internet, I normally prefer the article format that can be skimmed first to determine my level of interest.
When something is written, you present the content and then ask for the readers time. With video, you demand the time and then present the content. Since my time - especially on the net - is precious, I'm rarely inclined to give it to you for free.
Mixergy always has transcripts; this one just isn't ready yet.
It takes a couple of days for the transcript to be up, but I always have one. (Unless the interviewee specifically asks me not to because he/she doesn't want what he says to be google-able.
Mixergy also has audio versions of their shows - we stream it over the office sound system every morning...
Link for the latest -http://s3.amazonaws.com/Mixergy/Audio/Jason-Fried-(Sortfolio...
Yes, I only listen to the audio versions of Andrew's interviews.
I add them to iTunes and then listed when I'm on the bus or walking to some place.
Since I don't have much time to watch/listen online, it helps me make my commuting time much more productive.
With HTML5, it is possible to speed up the playback, which can make video tolerable. Unfortunatly, the wistia player is flash only. Once you get used to hearing pitch corrected audio at 1.5x-2x, watching videos can be tolerable.
Wistia does support HTML5, it's just that the current implementation of tweetperview is not capturing the HTML5 version of the video. The video is currently being loading in an iFrame by tweetperview.
We'll reach out to those guys and see what we can do.
http://www.enounce.com/ works for this.
You can also download the MP3 of each interview and use your iPhone/Android/whatever's speed options.
Is this what things have come to? "Tweet to watch this video"
I remember a couple of months back when someone posted this (tweetperview) as their new startup and everyone agreed it was a terrible idea, then they added the "no thanks" part. Still sucks, but you used to have to tweet.
news.yc post I mentioned: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2281881
a.w (mixergy) replied too: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2284013
Yeah! Thanks for remembering.
I really like the guy who made this.
Agreed, and I saw the "No thanks, just show me the video" message too. This is still annoying.
At times there is also a large popup nag to sign up for the newsletter or something like that on the site (I was already signed up because I like the content btw)
I really like what Andrew does and I feel like these kinds of aggressive moves might have some negative effects on the brand.
Meetup.com does similar annoying things with a nag screen to tweet about a meetup you singed up for or are attenting and there are no profile settings to make them go away so they come back whenever you switch browsers or reset safari etc.
Anyway, know your audience and stay classy please.
I'm using software that launched here on Hacker News.
Where possible, I want to be your beta tester.
So, how can TweetPerView be improved?
I'm not sure the original idea (hold a video hostage in exchange for tweets) can be improved. It's rather user-hostile.
What might be worthwhile is the social-media-isize your video feature. An easy-to-use tool for embedding twitter/facebook/linkedin/whatever posting inside the video sounds relatively useful. Maybe have this stuff pop up when the user pauses the video, or when it ends.
Demanding that people do your advertising for you is a death sentence for using social media. You want to enable them to advertise for you, forcing it just fosters ill will.
Especially when you combine it with how people following a link on HN are expecting an article, not a video. So having to watch the video itself is the first barrier, and the tweeting ends up as the second barrier.
Have it just be a caption under the video asking users to tweet if they like it. Maybe even have it slide down into view after the video, or 5 minutes into it, or right after the best part of the video.
Blocking the video with the prompt strikes me as hamfisted. Particularly for a technical audience that's aware of how these sharing mechanisms work.
How about a "Don't ever show me this again." option? I really resent being nagged like that right up front. At that point I don't even know if the video is something I want to share since I have not seen it yet.
Or what about something less intrusive that shows up next to the video or slides down like a google video ad after I have been watching for a few minutes. At that point I'm already engaged and more likely to say, "Hey, this is really good - let me tweet it." Maybe you get more traction with the tool that way. I'm not really sure.
I’m the creator of TweetPerView. I give Andrew a ton of respect here. He really means it when he says he’s here to help ambitious entrepreneurs. He’s done a few tests on older shows, but really put it on the line by implementing TPV on a brand new interview - with Jason Fried, no less! The idea behind the whole project is to help grow an audience and engage viewers. We'll see what happens. Thanks Andrew.
A more user-friendly approach would be to do something similar to what soundcloud does with comments - I think the ability for people to leave inline comments within a video would rock. You could still tie this in with tweets, with a link to jump straight to the part of the video being commented on. You'd also be adding more value by actually encouraging discussion on the content, like a disqus for video.
I have ton's of respect for Andrew as well and that's why I had to comment about how your tool made me feel when I went to watch the video. I don't think it's a bad idea but I don't like how in your face it is and now we are talking about your tool instead of his interview and I'm not sure I would call that a win for Andrew or even for your tool.
You probably missed the "No thanks, just show me the video".
Looks like things aren't... getting real.
My experience of Sortfolio, tested paid listing for a few months - 0 leads, just lots of outsourcers looking for work, would be interested if anyone had a good experience
I've been working on my new startup with a local designer I found on Sortfolio.
I think it's a great tool to find top quality local designers, because in general someone who's listed there is not the typical low-quality outsource design firm.
I was hired at my current job because my boss found me on Sortfolio. As far as freelance work goes, the best I've had is one near-miss.
Wow, that was a good interview. I haven't seen Jason talk so openly about things before. He was really relaxed in the video. I came away very impressed with him.
He seems like a great guy.
Andrew is easy to talk to which makes it fun to open up. I think he's one of the best interviewers out there.
Thanks Jason!
Agreed.
I'd love to start a discussion here about LTV! So, AFAIK:
LTV is simple: customer revenue per month * months with your company
Segmenting beyond that - it is not very possible because google analytics hides your per visitor data. If products like clicky/google analytics would dump out full data sets, this kind of software would be very easy to create.
Otherwise, you need an end-to-end solution. Meaning from visitor to customer tracking.
Does anyone know something I don't about segmenting customers LTV?
By the way, where have they listed it for sale? (I haven't heard the interview yet.)
it's the infinite scroll. no one likes them.