Magazine to newsletter

wavesource · 2015-07-03 01:45:15

philwareham wrote #292506:

I can set up a MailChimp account once I know what our official Textpattern general email address is (waiting for confirmation on that from Robert).

Just want to make sure you’re knocking the rest of my offer on the head. I was offering a Sendy license which TXP peeps can install anywhere they like. I am also offering to pay for outgoing emails via Amazon SES as part of my SES account. Mail Chimp and any other 3rd party once you get over the free limits is not worth it, and the cost using SES is minimal, deliverability is excellent, and spam reporting rock solid. Plus you can use the Sendy API for subscription forms just as well as anything Mail Chimp offers. I also have it integrated into some client Textpatterns where they can send an article, or series of articles in a page template, to the queue in Sendy via API, ready for an admin to approve within Sendy’s admin backend, and kick out the door. Requires allow_url_fopen.

(Of course, if TXP devs want to pay for SES per-email rates, they can set up their own account)

The only thing Sendy isn’t really great at is targeting subgroups within a single list. No fluffy buttons for that. But you can have as many lists as you like, and you can have custom fields so tagging subscribers then exporting via CSV and creating subgroups like that manually is relatively straightforward. … And a lot of subgroup functionality you can achieve with separate lists as the logical units, as compared to subgroups… if you’re clear about what you’re doing, then it’s fabulous and effective. And cheap.

So just let me know you’re pulling the rug on that so I can settle back on the front porch in the sun and await relevance with a G&T

Otherwise, I can go grab TXP a license and you can get moving with that.

And of course, I am happy to maintain that license for TXP.

Last edited by wavesource (2015-07-03 01:59:33)

philwareham · 2015-07-03 06:25:22

Oh, if Sendy is your recommendation then that’s seems fine to me – I only suggested MailChimp because I’ve used it before and know it.

wavesource · 2015-07-03 06:39:59

I’ve used MailChimp. I recommend it to some clients who are just starting up and are attracted to the free offer, and I’ve done some API integrations with it. I just prefer open scripts I can run on our own servers wherever possible.

colak · 2015-07-03 06:41:47

wavesource wrote #292538:

I just prefer open scripts I can run on our own servers wherever possible.

Any particular one you would recommend?

wavesource · 2015-07-03 06:45:13

colak wrote #292539:

Any particular one you would recommend?

In the context of this discussion, mailing lists, I’ve pushed forward Sendy. Mailgun has a similar API and concept but last time I looked no one had developed a front end like Sendy operates for Amazon SES. That was a while ago, though.

wavesource · 2015-07-03 06:46:29

Of course, Textpattern is my first and only choice for CMS development.

Destry · 2015-07-03 06:59:55

wavesource wrote #292533:

Sendy isn’t really great at is targeting subgroups within a single list.

I doubt there’s any need for sub-lists. A single list for general community news-pushing on a regular interval will go far and is easy to maintain. Presumably it can be styled a modicum with Txp’s colors.

maverick wrote #292528:

Medium.com almost has what you want.

I love Medium for it’s usability and focused presentation. In that respect it might be one of the best publishing system in existence, if not the best. (Yes, yes. Subjective.)

What I’ve never liked about Medium is that your content — and I mean carefully crafted longform, not social spittle and brain farts — is on someone else’s fly-by-night server, which is one reason I’ve not brought myself to publish anything there so far.

At least I thought that was the case…

You can also pull published articles from other sites/blogs into Medium and push them out to other websites.

Didn’t realize that. Always thought it was a publish-in-duplicate situation if you wanted content at both places. Google doesn’t really like duplicate publishing, if I’m not mistaken. Plus I don’t know what your copyrights are if you allow content to push (be pulled?) to Medium’s boxes.

(Apparently Medium is having some trouble too, not the least of which is figuring out what it’s really supposed to be offering — is it a platform for publishers (the original idea), or just another social blogging tool like Tumblr? Seems to be headed to the latter.)

Last edited by Destry (2015-07-03 07:07:20)

gaekwad · 2015-07-03 16:22:02

Bloke wrote #292352:

Shweeeeeeeet.

You have mail.

maverick · 2015-07-04 04:28:15

Destry wrote #292546:

Didn’t realize that. Always thought it was a publish-in-duplicate situation if you wanted content at both places. Google doesn’t really like duplicate publishing, if I’m not mistaken. Plus I don’t know what your copyrights are if you allow content to push (be pulled?) to Medium’s boxes.

This is a feature added in the last year. I’ve not tried it yet, but found it recently when I became editor for a Medium publication.

Medium Import

Embed URLs/Preview into Medium

Medium

Destry wrote #292546:

(Apparently Medium is having some trouble too, not the least of which is figuring out what it’s really supposed to be offering — is it a platform for publishers (the original idea), or just another social blogging tool like Tumblr? Seems to be headed to the latter.)

I really liked the early incarnations of Medium, which seemed more platform for publishers. The slow evolution does seem to be heading in a different a different direction, as you noted. I don’t care for the new direction quite as much.

Still, it’s an well thought out piece of software imho.

Destry · 2015-07-09 17:52:32

maverick wrote #292528:

You can also pull published articles from other sites/blogs into Medium and push them out to other websites.

After reading this by the ever-amusing Mike Monteiro (co-head of Mule Design), who makes a great point about putting your message where people are, I’m inclined to think pushing Txp’s high-profile content to a Textpattern channel on Medium (while it’s popular) would be wise.

Once the dust settles, of course.

etc · 2015-07-09 20:31:32

And if Txp want’s to grow its user base, it needs to go out where potential users are. ©

Don’t mind, just kidding :)

wavesource · 2015-07-09 21:04:40

Where are the people you want to convert to TXP users? That’s the question. If Medium, then sure. You’ve got a Twitter feed, that’s excellent and high value.

If Medium why not rehash the TXP mag, like a synopsis each issue, and post to Medium, to avoid content dupe, and link to full content on TXPcom?

ie. I see my contribution being to not only draft stuff for approval for main release, but also draft subversions for release elsewhere. Hack hack hack. My point being: please don’t collapse to a simple strategy only because you think you have resources just to do it once per release.

This is under the rubric of:

1. Full release on TXP owned/branded site, echoed through RSS
2. Accompanying Twitter tweet
3. Secondary rehash to Medium and email broadcast, and …… and …..
4. Next issue: repeat

And do you need a second strategy to target TXP developers?

Last edited by wavesource (2015-07-09 21:05:58)

Destry · 2015-07-12 17:00:52

wavesource wrote #292990:

Where are the people you want to convert to TXP users? That’s the question.

If we want to get serious serious, we should back up even further and map it out right:

What is the Textpattern project’s mission? I.e., why does Textpattern exist? What does it want to be when it grows up? What does it care about doing? (A good example. Another one.) Everything is spitting in the wind without this initial perspective.
What are its goals/objectives for achieving that mission?
- One aspect of goals is the strategy for it’s content and marketing. (What is the content marketing mission, and what are the sub-strategies/tactics for editorial, social media, referencing…?
Who are the top audiences? (This is where the community usually jumps in with “advinions”.)
What are the key messages those audiences should get in relation to those goals? (Alignment between “biz” objectives and audiences.)

Then your question would come: Where do the target audiences hang out?

This is under the rubric of:

1. Full release on TXP owned/branded site, echoed through RSS
2. Accompanying Twitter tweet
3. Secondary rehash to Medium and email broadcast, and …… and …..
4. Next issue: repeat

That’s a feasible process for even Textpattern, with some likely caveats in each case:

The “Txp-owned site” should probably be the .com blog, not the magazine, which has too much overhead as currently designed to keep up right.
Twitter is indeed a good channel, but only in so much that it’s employed well. For that to happen it needs a dedicated user with a bit of enthusiasm for Twitter, and that person should follow the social plan and focus on the key messages, as mentioned earlier. Sure, one use is pumping out links back to blog articles, but that’s not very effective use of Twitter by itself. I think Txp devs use Twitter grudgingly or not at all. Thus, another job opening.
With all that seems to be going on right now, I’d leave Medium out of it for the time being and focus on the newsletter. Maybe when a system release or two is out the door, then revisit the idea of Medium as a possible place to talk about Txp (the specifics of what and how are irrelevant at this point).
Not sure what you mean by “issue” here, so question is: What constitutes enough content to start each cycle? I would say a single blog post is enough to cycle through the distribution process. The newsletter shouldn’t be so frequent, however. Maybe once per month is often enough for that, and it mentions all blog posts that may have happened in that time, whatever interesting community news is worth adding, etc.

And do you need a second strategy to target TXP developers?

Probably. Differences with messages, distribution channels, and/or frequency are usually a factor when considering each target audience. Treat everybody the same and you won’t get as much for the effort.

wavesource · 2015-07-12 22:53:50

Destry wrote #293095:

What is the Textpattern project’s mission? I.e., why does Textpattern exist?

I think that’s very important. I’d love to hear any concepts that filter down: would be great content for the blog/newsletter. However, just by allowing this promotion vehicle to occur, TXP devs would be indicating they are open to the possibility of the promotion activity succeeding and helping to drive change. So I would be happy to just leave it at that and let them worry about their end of things when the time comes. But if you want to push that concept elsewhere, and it was a public venue, I’d be happy to put my bum in a seat and watch.

Twitter – yes, I can assist with that, ie. forming useful stuff. In fact, I hope to drag my business partner in who handles our social media/competition analysis/keyword research so that we can be effective. I agree 100% blanket replication is not what we’re after. Perhaps we need to have a rule or two: no cat memes?

By “issue” I am nodding to the “magazine” concept, so I’ll stop nodding. I guess that date archiving is important, seeing some if not most material would be contingent on specific TXP release, so blog format sounds relevant. Categories could be types of content generally (more below). Tag cloud? Does anyone think they are useful?

Maybe we need to settle the concept authorship, but I was thinking along the idea that there would be no mention of people doing the editorial. We’d pull it together as much as possible as an anonymous single voice, just presenting the content, which may include and feature individuals.

If it can be done, section on TXP.com would be magic.

Re name (I imagine TXP Magazine would be reserved as it has an existence of it’s own and might surely roar again another day): How about something short, functional, and totally unambiguous like TXP News – eg. for emails sent out, that would be the name of the sender. However, each category can have it’s more curly title, this would be the Subject of the emails with a month and year added, so (just flinging ideas to the wind here, get ready to duck) news from TXP development could be “Core Text” – you could have similar title for plugins discussion when something new comes in or gets revisited. We can maybe decide on three general topics to start with, and they would form once per quarter broadcast, cycling through the topics monthly. So that means 12 blog posts a year. Pull out tweet content and keyword it on a weekly basis, plus obviously respond in the moment to anything interesting that arises on ad hoc basis.

And thank you for your time and commitment to this subject, Destry.

Last edited by wavesource (2015-07-12 22:55:57)

hcgtv · 2015-07-13 01:49:27

Destry wrote #293095:

What is the Textpattern project’s mission? I.e., why does Textpattern exist?

Let’s start with Why does Textpattern exist?

Well like anything that’s created, Dean had a need and he filled that need with Textpattern. Eventually he licensed it under a GPL license and people started to flock to it, users and developers alike. Along the way the enthusiasm was extinguished when the WordPress juggernaut took us all by surprise. Textpattern was not unique, every Blog or CMS coded in PHP had the wind taken out of their sales, many perished in the open water, only a handful survived, I should know, I track them.

Now What is the Textpattern project’s mission?

Where would we be today if Linus would of said, screw it, Windows runs everywhere, what chance does my Linux operating system have? We’d all be running IIS and serving ASP pages, the horror! Like I said, most every project I was involved with lost their momentum when WordPress blanketed the web. It was like, screw it, why am I going to code for free, for what?

or what it should be?

Textpattern’s mission at this point is for the core developers to get together, look each other in the eyes, and decide how far they want to take this. Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.

You know where I stand, next to Linus ;)

Linus & Snoopy

Textpattern CMS support forum

#61 2015-07-03 01:45:15

Re: Magazine to newsletter

philwareham wrote #292506:

#62 2015-07-03 06:25:22

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#63 2015-07-03 06:39:59

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#64 2015-07-03 06:41:47

Re: Magazine to newsletter

wavesource wrote #292538:

#65 2015-07-03 06:45:13

Re: Magazine to newsletter

colak wrote #292539:

#66 2015-07-03 06:46:29

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#67 2015-07-03 06:59:55

Re: Magazine to newsletter

wavesource wrote #292533:

maverick wrote #292528:

#68 2015-07-03 16:22:02

Re: Magazine to newsletter

Bloke wrote #292352:

#69 2015-07-04 04:28:15

Re: Magazine to newsletter

Destry wrote #292546:

Destry wrote #292546:

#70 2015-07-09 17:52:32

Re: Magazine to newsletter

maverick wrote #292528:

#71 2015-07-09 20:31:32

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#72 2015-07-09 21:04:40

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#73 2015-07-12 17:00:52

Re: Magazine to newsletter

wavesource wrote #292990:

#74 2015-07-12 22:53:50

Re: Magazine to newsletter

Destry wrote #293095:

#75 2015-07-13 01:49:27

Re: Magazine to newsletter

Destry wrote #293095:

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