I recently wrote about Gather, how we think about the company today, and what value we believe Gather creates for our members. By far, the most common reason people come to Gather is to make new friends who share their interests.
Today, I want to share with all of you a new community building program we have been working on here at Gather called Socialwrite™. The Socialwrite program is designed to reach thousands of new people who have never heard about Gather before, and introduce them to the community around topics that may interest them.
As part of an initial test, over the past few weeks, we have contracted about ten freelance writers who are posting daily “water cooler” conversation starters on a variety of topics including politics, news, sports, entertainment, health and family. The goal of the water cooler posts is to bring new people to Gather and then provide easy icebreakers to engage them.
We have been excited to see that many of the people coming to Gather to read these icebreaker stories are staying to explore more of Gather and join the other great conversations that members are having.
You may have noticed a few of these new writers on the site and we wanted to explain the program and our goals. The Socialwrite program is in its test phase and the participating writers are being compensated differently than other Gather members:
- Participants do not earn Gather points. To the extent that they bring new people to Gather and increase our opportunity to earn additional revenue, they increase the points earning opportunity for other members, but they do not draw from the points pool themselves.
- Socialwriters are required to adhere to a program style guide for each post
- During this test, participants are compensated monthly solely on the unique audience each piece of their content generates for Gather
- During this test, participants can earn up to $450 each month
We are still working to calibrate and improve the program based on what we are learning from our initial test and will be making tweaks to it as we learn.
We are in the process of expanding our initial test and bringing 10 additional writers on board in the next month. If this test goes well, we intend to continue to expand the Socialwrite program throughout 2010. We would love members of the Gather community who are interested in the program to join the Socialwrite team as we grow.
Currently, we are looking for Socialwriters in the following categories:
- Sports
- News
- Politics
- Entertainment
- Food (recipes/holiday content)
If you are interested in applying for the test program, please send your resume and a writing sample (or link to one) to socialwrite@gatherinc.com.
For everyone else, we want you to know that you can continue to enjoy Gather and earn Gather Points exactly as you do today. We hope you will welcome new Gatherers as they come to the site, and enjoy some of the content shared by our Socialwriters along the way.
As always, we welcome your thoughts and questions.
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Comments: 184
We use more modern methods that help us identify reader interest (the "demand side" of the reader-writer transaction, if you want to think of it in economics terms). We train our Socialwriters to identify these topics and write within a topical area for the specific topics/ideas/current events that interest people.
You are right when you suggest that this particular test program is about accelerating not just the reach of Gather, but also the revenue engine of the company. We believe that, with next week's launch, we will be in a position to bring new members on board to read content across a wide variety of topics more easily. We will also allow our most active members to cultivate audiences in their own moderated group spaces with much greater success.
To be sure we can invest in the platform, technology and team needed to grow Gather for the great people that spend time here (and those that have invested their capital or time building this place), one part of my job is to make money. If we don't do that, we can't do all the other things we enjoy here.
I have no money, I can't tell you what to do with your business. But I will tell you that selling out can only bring you bankruptcy and heartbreak.
Quality matters to me. I want to encourage real dialog on Gather across a variety of topics (some high brow and some just for fun) but quality matters. I want to distinguish Gather by having some of the brightest minds in the world here (and I think the quality of this conversation shows that we have a small, but decent start there).
The Socialwrite program is a small test for us. We are considering different ways to expand it. As we continue to expand this test, we will be evaluating how things like how quality of writing and length of piece impact (1) reach, (2) conversion into membership and (3) engagement. But we hope to bring some excellent talent into this test (some from Gather and some from outside) and train them to write in an online, conversational environment if we expand the test.
That said, I want to reiterate that it is a small test for us. And, because it's a test, we will try a lot of different things (most of which will not work, some of which will). I look forward to your thoughts as we continue to explore together.
Thanks again, Ferosh!
Thanks for replying, and I do hope that you find some things that work for you and everyone else as well. I don't wish to leave Gather.
If quality really matters, can I suggest that the things you tell your Socialwriters™ to write about and the stuff that Gather staff pumps out for SEO views doesn't overlap so much? I'm getting tired of seeing multiple Gatherfluff™ pieces about the same topic.
(That so much of the Gatherfluff™ is automatically published in the Gather "News" Essential makes me want to cry every time I hear an NPR plug for news.gather.com...)
Did these people get picked by gather staff or did they apply or what?
These are the things that initially brought a good many of us here to begin with. It seems like the focus is now just to get page views for Gather.
Our goal is to bring new people to Gather, many of whom we hope will become members of the community. The program will increase our reach and page views as you suggest. This helps us to bring in the revenue we need to continue to develop the platform and provide services to the community.
And there was one guy here once who started out really awful (horrible forced rhyme and sappy romantic themes) but we all cheered him on and he got pretty good after awhile, actually. He really did become good.
The latter recognizes that there is value when a broad audience consumes a work. The commercial writers select topics with mass appeal, write for those audiences, and accept a style guide that appeals to this mode of writing. These writers hope to feed their families with their writing effort and acknowledge they give up some control over their work in exchange.
I believe both can exist in the same place (as they do here). But I think it's important to choose a path explicitly. To write for the sake of the art and be disappointed by the commercial success of that effort would seem foolish. Likewise, to write for commercial success and expect critical acclaim might seem to be overreaching as well.
Nothing I write would ever be of Critical Acclaim. I'm not THAT full of myself nor am I that naive.
I appreciate the 'broad' audience, which in the long run is helpful to 'artists' and 'writers' as it gives them more views.
Apologies for the sarcasm.
GRIPE>> GRIPE>> GRIPE:: that's what I'm doing right now you know..
This kind of reminds me of the 'gamblers' brain.... people want click, reward, click, reward, NO? We're all wired differently....
People love them once they get here (and, as Peter describes above, often begin to participate in writing themselves and genuinely improve over time). That said, we have not yet found a way to bring a sufficiently large audience to Gather around those topics.
To be self-sustaining, Gather needs to achieve audience reach of about 5 million people/month. We currently reach about 1.3 million (don't worry, we are growing quickly). Finding creative ways to reach and bring new people to the site, like this pilot program, is key to our long term growth as a company.
I do take a lot of time and pride in my work when I publish a recipe, but that does not generate views in the end.
This is a test program, so we are learning together with our writers. We will improve our techniques over time and continue to pass that learning on to writers in the program and those on the site who do not participate. We hope that these skills will help those who want to write commercially learn new skills for the digital age.
so your compensating these writers up to 450 a month for this meanwhile your loyal gatherers are making less and less it seems. i went from being able to make 50 dollars a month to making 25 ever 2-3 months if i'm lucky.
how is this going to keep your points based gatherers interested in remaining here?
looks like i'd be better off as a "socialwriter" for you and spend very little time here than i would as a normal gatherer. so why should i continue to tell people to join gather?
so far all i've seen of these new "socialwriters" has been more cut and paste news stories that i can get from any other site.
but honestly, why should they receive greater compensation than those of us who are sharing our bit (in my case, my professional work) with gather?
Is it wrong to align appeal with economic reward? It's a difficult question when it comes to art.
The master of the vineyard hires workers throughout the day, but in the end they all receive the same wage. Naturally the workers who'd been toiling for ten hours grumbled that the workers who'd only put in an hour of sweat received the same wage.
The master said, "Hey, I'm the boss and I get to compensate each worker as I please. Did I short-change you according to our initial agreement?" Well, no, the workers admitted that they'd received what had been promised.
"So scram," the master said kindly.
Gather is 'growing' faster than some of its users. Some are gonna fall by the wayside.
I think I can understand the 'feeling' of some of these members because a lot of people are hurting financially during these times.
Unfortunately business is not about 'feeling'. It's about market share.
We know there was/is no employer contract between Gather and its members.
I think I've only gotten a couple hundred points in a couple of months since the new Gather... so I rarely pay attention to them any more. I didn't even know about the financial share when I became a Member, so it doesn't bother me much. I have friends on the site, I try to improve my communication skills, etc.. The site has been exquisite for personal growth, etc.
I have ideas on how the system might work better.... but I'm not going to give them away just yet.
Hope that made sense.
C.C. - The intersection of art and commerce is a difficult one, as I know you must understand. Our most successful writers bring in thousands of readers. If you had a painter that brought 5,000 people to an exhibit and one that brought 15, would you expect them to earn equally? What if you thought the painter bringing in far fewer people displayed more talent?
Is it wrong to align appeal with economic reward? It's a difficult question when it comes to art.
sounds to me that your making that distiction with the writers. it's no different than visual art, it's still an intellectual artistic outlet.
sorry if my comparison of my profession to your question of why i write appears to have confused you that much.
perhaps i should just start posting pictures of michael jackson and kate gosselin to compete with your writers who supposedly drive up viewership. oh wait, i can't. i have integrity when it comes to what i do. and apparently my posts that garnered 2k+ page views didn't help drive your traffic at all. or is it just easier to ignore that because i'm not technically getting paid by your company.
like katie says farther down, what incentive are you really giving us, who helped make your site, to want to continue putting in the time and effort we have in the past?
My reason for Gathering has always been to indulge my love of writing. How have you determined: the most common reason people come to Gather is to make new friends who share their interests. Just curious about that statement. For me, it is that I want/need to write and I'm lucky to have a place like Gather that caters to writers, in fact encourages writers, so that whatever other views people have, at least I am connected to them by a love of writing and reading.
We have found that conversations are the great icebreakers of the Gather experience. Our creatives begin thousands of conversations every day. People come to know one another and connect to one another through that dialog around shared interests.
Perhaps it's escaped your notice that this is no longer a given on Gather?
I could care less about the socialwriter's program - but I sure do miss the conversations and relationships that once were the mainstay of the Gather experience.
Who welcomes new people any more? Who bothers to wade through the junk in the feeds?
So little true engagement any more; it's sad.
We plan to extend those feeds to call out ongoing conversations on the site as well. That will take us a little more time, but I am starting to explore that work with our team. Stay tuned for more, but we expect this will help generate significantly more dialog (and, as a result, relationship building) than we have experienced on the site before.
"Socialwriter" is a term that we have created to describe people that are interested in acting as topical hosts on Gather, focused on writing on specific topics and bringing new members into a discussion on those topics here on Gather.
I think Liz nailed it (below). It's interesting to read about attracting new members-- but what about member retention?
Actually, we're way ahead of Tom. We're testing his theory here...
Please sit before the keyboard in whatever position makes you comfortable (no liver treats for that), but let's not dismiss new methods of understanding the media marketplace until we have explored them together. Even we old dogs may find the new tricks bring greater reward, well executed.
Reckon we all have our own definitions of what 'greater rewards' means.... If you're a dog, you get dog treats... and so on, and so forth....
In any given situation, I think you'll get what you're looking for. Originality and creativity is a beautiful thing, but it doesn't pay the 'bills'.
I tend to thrive when part of a dynamic group of individuals, some who know 'more' than me, willing to give a 'hand up', and some who might know a little less than me where I can reach a hand down, but with dignity and respect.
I don't embrace change well as oftentimes I'm just not a quick study. We can stand still if we wish and watch it all go by, or jump in and do something different. Either way, we're moving on.
When trusted and embraced as the individual that I am, I tend to totally immerse myself in my 'part' whatever that might be, all the while trying to take a look at how I might apply the knowledge elsewhere.
Business is business. It doesn't change, but we do have the power to change HOW business is done. Sometimes warts come from the frog, and bites from the dog, but I love them anyhow and recognize they're just doing what they do.
Upon reading this article and Tom's other article, I came away believing that this change, though maybe not welcome by all, is the way it has to be.
I'm trying to find 'my' part, whatever that might be.
I must respectfully disagree, MC. My bills have been paid through the use of originality and creativity for the better part of a half-century. I think Bill Gates, Stephen King, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and a thousand other original thinkers would also disagree with that statement. I really don't think it's necessary to sell out your talent through "training". There are plenty of sites that cater to the SEO market by hiring writers to churn out two-cents-per-word pieces and it's saddening to see Gather go down that road for the benefit of their bottom line.
I'm in no way demeaning what you and others have done and continue to do with your talents.
I was not around 'back in the day' when Gather was a 'babe'. From what I’ve read in article and comments, it was the 'creme de la creme' and for a fortunate few, a launching pad to better things. I'm sorry I missed that time.
The statement I made about originality and creativity was probably more self-talk than anything. Originality and creativity happen within many contexts, including the new phase of Gather.
I happen NOT to think that Tom is selling out - selling yes - selling out, no, but that’s only my opinion.
I see the new ‘experiments’ and tests as an opportunity to build ‘bridges’ between people and ideas. I don’t see the “old” Gather going away. It’s still here obviously or we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Gather is no longer an ‘exclusive’ group. It’s become an ever widening and changing social experiment. Opportunities abound within it and I think that can happen without those around ‘back in the day’ losing any integrity.. But that’s just my opinion.
It has to become ‘inclusive of others or it will fail, as businesses do. As much as I hate to say it, "we are a global community". A lot of the mysteries and legends have been exposed for what they are.
I'm sure many will be around waiting should Gather fail, to say I told ya so. But I'm not one of them at this point.
I'm not fond of the 'zillions' of cut/paste quick sell articles, but I have enough savvy to navigate my way around and through them to get to the 'treasures'.
Others do too.
I might be a commoner then. In fact, a commoner I am.
I find beautiful pictures of trips, lovely snippets from life, feisty members, higher than average IQ's, limited IQ's, teachers, wordsmiths, philosophers, miscommunication, mis-identifications, and a whole lot of amusement.
But that's not what the thread is about... it's about yet another change, sigh.
That said, we know points are important to many members, particularly in the current economy. To grow our points system, Gather needs to grow our revenue. This test program is designed to help us meaningfully increase our reach which will, we expect, allow us to increase our advertising sales in the months and years to come. If that works out, we would share some of that increasing revenue back with members over time, growing our points program.
it strikes me that the intent of this program is very market driven. not meaning that in a disparaging way, just asking. in other words, the writers in this program will be trained to write around Google/bing trending topics or similar subjects, items which appear to be of immediate topical interest?
you may recall that I was one of the early members of the correspondent program. my audience was/is largely the MPR/NPR/Speaking of Faith demographic, interested in discovering and discussing new ideas rather than hearing a lot about trending topics. is there are place for reaching that audience in this new program?
Over time, as we expand it, we expect to get into an increasingly broad set of interests. We have a member (whom I hope to see apply for this program) who brings thousands of people to Gather to discuss crafts. I would hope to find thousands of people like this, succeeding on thousands of topics (some large, some small).
we could start a group...
Then I think we'd be up somewhere near the golden apples.:)
I've witnessed or participated in the culling of all three.
Not willing to put my energy into posting any more!
I will go check-out some of your earlier content myself. I found Scotland to be a truly beautiful place when my family visited two decades ago. I would love to learn more and visit again someday.
I hope you will look at Ishbel's articles. They're great and bring a unique perspective and voice to Gather. and Ishbel, I hear you.
The articles are obviously not interesting to the wider membership here, simply because they aren't about Jesus or anti-Mr Obama!
Who are your "target" members and how can you get more of them?
I have been learning a lot about the professional writing space from her and how the approach to professional writing is different (for the vast majority of people) than writing as a craft. I am still having these conversations with her, but I would welcome them as a discussion here too.
The one thing that has become clear with the failure of so many newspapers and magazines in the past 12 months: the economic engine behind traditional media is broken. The cost structures of newspapers and magazines and their revenue models no longer align. And yet, if we want to support some of the best writers in the world (like those writing for CondeNast or The New York Times), we need to develop a new economic engine.
The overall goal of this pilot program is to experiment in this area. We will test a lot of different things as part of this program. Trying varied levels of investment in writing (and watching the impact of the quality that results) should be one of them.
Thanks for raising this point. I look forward to discussing it more with you.
Webbie,
thanks for bringing this up. It's one of my questions about this too.
being one of those writers who has written for top publications, I will be interested to see how this goes. I hope your conversations with the editor prove fruitful. I'd change your wording /thinking of 'support some the best writers in the world' to 'work with,' however. it's an agreement between equals.
Why re-invent the wheel, Tom? You had a brilliant idea and it was working!
We know that Gather is "working" for many people. That's why we decided to test new methods of introducing the Gather experience to larger audiences. We need to grow to several times our size in the coming year so that Gather has a sustainable business model.
This program is a small test for us. As I explained above, I hope we have an opportunity to grow it through 2010. That said, we are running this (relatively modest) test to better understand the space and we just wanted everyone on the site to be aware and, if you like, have an opportunity to participate.
I was originally a significant participant at Gather. For some time now, I have not been one. Although I have not been inspired to write [I am writing a Creative Writing Workbook for veterans and am relatively busy outside of Gather], I do come here to those groups that draw me in and comment. LYR is one reason that I come back. I should think that there are a number of us ... persons to retain who come back regularly to comment but who are not prolific. Someone up there above spoke of retention, I think that they might be right. Someone else asked about a place for serious writers. There must be a format that accommodates each ... and then again I would add a philosophical conversational category such as LYR.
I can only assume that those who do not write anything of value but who do socialize a lot are the people who bring in money. Many of us have asked you for a long time now why Gather can not accommodate writers and socializers. Again why not? I ask as it has gotten fairly fluffy around here.
I hope that a new homepage that we launch on Tuesday will help answer your question. We will be bringing forward a new interface that makes it easier for people who participate in experiences like LYR to find and explore those experiences more frequently. This, in turn, gives members a reason to create and curate those experiences.
We want to put member-created experiences (like LYR) forward so that people can find and return to the experiences that appeal to them most. We know that different experiences appeal to different people. Some of us like jazz bars, others prefer dance clubs. Some like a quiet lounge, others a packed one full of energy. Since we can't possibly create experiences to meet the needs of our diverse and growing population, we want to bring great experiences that members create forward. And once a member joins those experiences, we will help them return much more easily.
I hope the work we are doing for next week will take a big step in that direction. Please take a look when it launches and let me know what you think.
What's the word on Gather holding another contest to get a poet or serious writer a publishing contract?
The site has veered off a writer's course, on to socializing. And, to who really cares about writers. That's my opinion.
I've noticed that there are always generalized topics as what to discuss. Like, politics, sports and such.
I've never been a big fan of this candidate did this or that.
My focus has always been on fiction. Poems, novels, short stories, etc.
I would really like to know why on a big social site, why most people would rather discuss what the President is doing, rather than having an escape into a fictional world, every once in a while.
This is not directed towards you in particular.
Just Gather members in general.
As a very serious, unpublished writer, I would really love it if more of my friends would forego a hot button issue for at least ten minutes and swing by my stuff.
I wouldn't say I'm a genius by any means.
Just someone who loves critique.
Sorry, if rambling. I just thought I would get my feelings across.
There's your answer.
I wouldn't say I'm a genius by any means.
Just someone who loves critique.
You are in the wrong place. Most of us who came here with that in mind (because we were told that is what this site would be) have left. Obviously, Gather is not about originality, quality, or writing. Send me an email address and I'll let you know when we have a writing site to move to.
I had originally come here under the impression that this was a site for creative people, and that the creativity was valued and rewarded. As much as I need to write (and it is very much a need for me), I am not much for "sharing" my writing unless there is some value (critique making my work stronger and/or financial incentive) in doing so.
Instead of trying to improve the quality of content on this site by providing carrots to members who produce good work... Well, we end up with this.
Well, I'd rather read and write about more meaningful things than the typical water cooler conversations anyway. [sigh!]
I've been working hard to get some good science content in my relatively new group Science In An Eclectic Universe. So far it is going as well as I expected - slow at first, but gaining a bit of momentum lately. Ya just can't expect fame overnight. :-)
I do try to throw out some humor from time to time also just to spice things up a bit, but... maybe that's laughable, eh? Ahh, yes, some folks are funnier than others, but me? Well, sometimes my humor is just humored. Join the club, Tom! :-)
:O\
I am sorry see that you haven't been posting your photography here as much lately. You have some beautiful work in animal photography and I would love to see more of it on Gather. Is there a reason you have been posting less of it lately?
Thanks James. I am grateful for your thoughts.
I have noticed that the last photos I did post did not take all that much time and the article on my art for a Halloween contest of 32 photos did not take even as much time to post as one photo did before. So it seems you have fixed what ever problem there was in posting photos.
Also my health has not been the best for a while so most of the time I have spent working was just on local photos for friends and such.
it seems to me from your description that the $450 a month you mention as compensation is derived from ad revenue/page views that a writer generates, rather than being a a retainer or a guaranteed amount. do I understand that correctly?