First off, I’d like to ask you a favor. Could you please take a couple of minutes and fill out this survey? The suits at FM Publishing want to hook potential Truth About Cars (TTAC) advertisers on the quality of our readership. As you are all Harvard MBA’s earning seven figure salaries ready to buy whatever high-priced goods we tout, FM should have no problem landing a major sponsorship deal with BMW (you know, aside from the whole flying vagina thing). No really; do what we do: tell the truth. Much obliged. Now, to my main point: should TTAC post once or twice a day, or more?
Last night, TTAC contributor Stephan Wilkinson returned from a somnambulistic sojourn at the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance. He fired up his Mac and discovered a large pile of our New Content Notification emails sitting on his e-mat. Wilkinson was not pleased. STOP CRANKING OUT SO MUCH MATERIAL! Wilkinson wrote that TTAC’s twice daily editorial output threatens to overwhelm readers with automotive information.
There’s evidence to support Wilkinson’s “no mas” position. Every time I put up a new post, at least fifteen subscribers unsub. The dearly departed who reply to my “Oops” email report that they’re drowning in TTAC emails (which renders my email a heavily ironic gesture). I’ve responded to these protests by A) shutting off the New Content Notification System as of today and B) commissioning Redwing Studios to create a program that will allow subscribers to limit/eliminate their New Content Notification emails. But the central point remains: two 800-word posts a day had dozens of subscribers hanging up the cybernetic do not disturb sign.
Is less be more? Would you be happier with just one post per day? As a jobbing journalist used to cramming prose into the infobeast like a French farmer preparing a duck’s liver for foie gras, the idea of cutting back on content scares me witless. In fact, I’m so freaked by the prospect I’m reluctant to try an experimental literary liposuction. But I can certainly see the advantages of streamlining our operations, for both of us.
Posting once a day would liberate editorial time/money we could use to improve each article. We could pay our writers more (maintaining their loyalty). We could afford our own review photographs and, perhaps, add video. We could bring back the stats and stars, in an expanded form (similar to the system I designed for Jalopnik). It would give me more time to commission, think and hone. And once-a-day frequency would give our highly intelligent, worldly and literate readers a full 24 hours to hash out the issues raised by each post. On the other hand…
I want TTAC to kick ass. Providing you’re not a triskaidekaphobe, click on “editorials” button at the top menu bar. I’ve split the content into 13 sections. In an ideal world, I’d have reporters for each of these beats. Even if we Zen down to once post per day, the math doesn’t quite ad up: lots of writers, lots of stories, seven posts. In other words, if TTAC published once-a-day, critical stories could get left behind.
Of course, that’s not your problem per se. TTAC’s strives to provide the highest quality automotive writing we can, in a form and frequency that suits you. So, again, I put it to you, the life and soul of this website. How often would you like TTAC to publish new material? Assume that the NCN email problem is solved and that maintaining our current pace (or more) would not require sacrificing quality. Meanwhile and in any case, thank you for your patience, consideration and support.
I created an account just to say ‘please do NOT change to once a day!’. I am an avid reader and check the site a couple or three times a day for new content.
If anything, I would say post MORE often than twice a day. As far as I’m concerened there is no such thing as too much content.
Nuff Said.
Posting once a day is just fine. Just make it about the same time every day. Or, if you really think you have something that needs to be on the site sooner rather than later, post it at the same time as the first piece. Keep up the good work.
I’d rather have one excellent post per day than two good ones. If you continue with two or more per day I would limit the emails to one notication for the entire day.
Mo’ content, mo’ better. Turn off the email notifications if you find them annoying. I surf in on my own a few times a day without need for email notification of new content, generally looking for industry news. Frankly, I’d love to see more, timelier posts reacting to or interpreting breaking developments. Keep it up, RF!
The ideal scenario would be to keep the number of posts up, but encourage all NCN recipients who don’t like all the emails to move to RSS. That way, they only get content when they want (by starting up their RSS reader).
Don’t reduce the number of postings. More content=more better. I read TTAC because I like the articles, not because it’s some sort of homework assignment. Nobody is forced to read every single article. Complaining about the number of postings (as long as the quality is good) is like a homeless quy getting upset when you hand him two dollars instead of one, making his pocket too full.
Add as much new content daily as possible. But limit the emails to a single daily “newsletter” format as other sites do. Many of us visit the board multiple times per day anyway, and the individual emails are an unnecessary distraction.
I have an rss feed to TTAC which I eagerly check a few times a day and when I see something new I tend to read it immediately. I’m no marketing genius, but I would think more clicks/page hits per day is good for advertisers and good for the site.
Perhaps sending out one email that has a summary of each article for that day with links to the full articles online would be an nice email option.
more posts would be better than fewer. i get bored at work and eagerly await my new content notifications. maybe you could have one polished article per day that sends a new content notification and then have 2-3 lesser quality rants posted per day that either don’t send a new content notification or a notification of a different class that we need to specifically sign up for.
also is there a bug in the new content notifications or is it just me – i get three almost identical emails for every new content notification.
I love the two updates a day. I miss TTAC on weekends. What I’ve done is set up my Google homepage to by my RSS reader and keep up on TTAC that way. No muss, no fuss, I find out if new content has been added every time I load up my browser. Encourage more people to go to RSS and leave e-mail notification off by default. Then people who want e-mails can turn them on and the rest will watch their feed.
Once a day is best, even if the email contains more than one post. Any more and it can get annoying. Or worse, lose subscribers.
1. Please don’t shut off New Content Notifications. thats how I get you.
2. Too much of a good thing? Ridiculous. If you don’t want to open the NCN, delete it.
3. One all encompassing per day would be fine if you must.
4. and whats this crap about “good” and “excellent”? Its all excellent.
I also agree with more content = better. Why not offer a “daily summary” optioN ? I like getting a new e-mail on each new piece of content, however if people don’t like that, perhaps they’d like the condensed version in an e-mail at the end/beginning of each day.
More posts = better.
Twice a day? How about 3 times.
Those getting to0 many e-mails can just turn off the notifications. That they no longer get notifications does not mean that they no longer visit the site. I don’t get notifications (I actually NEVER do, too annoying) and yet I seem to stay up to date on TTAC content.
I see 63 subscribers on Bloglines.com. That’s not a lot, but it’s my sense that this site isn’t square with bloglines.com’s demographic. Still, some pretty popular sites have less than 100. I guess I’m saying, that’s a decent subscriber base on that site.
It seems to spit the same posts back to me whenever there are new comments, but that’s probably a setting of mine. Otherwise, I would say you’re insane to limit how often the content comes out.
Keep it coming. I’m not terribly worried that you’re going to change for advertisers, just because they’re there. We’ll notice if you do. Let the readers judge. I think you did the right thing.
One a day is fine for me. More photography is good as well.
I have no problem getting up to 3 emails with the article summary. They are a nice break. Often I quickly delete about half of them because they aren’t of interest to me.
With no new notification emails, I doubt I’ll be visiting the site looking for content. If you want me attention, it should be pushed.
Couldn’t the profile information contain an option as to whether new article notifications are desired?
New Content Notifications are annoying
Three posts a day would be better
Consistency is the key. Keep two releasess a day, but at the same time. One nice and early say 10.00 am and then one at 4.00 pm. Keep it the same everyday. No need for NCN system.
Other unsolicited opinions:
1. I do not like QOTW/QOTD.
2. I do not like articles that are thoughtless and not based on solid logic.
3. Fresh is the key. I want to go “Wow, I didnt know that” everytime I read TTAC.
I watch for new TTAC content based on the RSS feed that I have bookmarked in safari. I recently cleaned out my list of monitored feeds and this one passed the test.
I’d be all about MORE content, more frequently. But the way it is now is also nice, since I generally have something to read in the morning, and something in the afternoon (just when i need a break).
I don’t think those people you lose as email subscribers are also lost as readers. I think people just get too much email clutter, and hope to cut down on it.
Once a day is enough. Focus your (presumably) limited resources on the most significant event or article of the day. You can always send out a “breaking news” email if something truly significant occurs such as GM announcing that it’s being taken over by Microsoft. Heh.
Robert: add a new notification option where email notifications only once a day regardless of how many posts actually appear on the site. Problem solved.
You could also note that RSS is available and is less likely to bug people who get overwhelmed.
Personally, I wonder how many people who post on here and dispel certain cars in higher-brands, or the entire brand as a whole can truly afford, or have even driven the cars of which they seem to think they know so much about.
Side note: I think the grill on the M6 looks like 2 flying vagina’s…But maybe that’s what Bangle was going for?
Jon.
Some forums have an option where they notify you of new posts, but only once- the first new post after the last time you’ve visited the thread. After you’ve visited the thread again, it’ll notify again if there are any new posts thereafter- again, only once. Not sure how easy it is to implement, but it’d make my inbox easier to deal with.
Oh, and two a days are ideal for me… unless they’re all going to prophesizing the demise of healthy automakers. I kid, I kid.
Once-a-day posting is fine. It’s nice if it occurs on a particular schedule. Reloading a web site all day to wait for content you know is coming to actually make it to the front page is not fun.
If you want to go twice-a-day, then at least one of those two posts should follow some sort of theme based on the day of the week. Say, Tuesdays and Thursdays are review days. Mondays are GM Death Watch. That sort of thing.
TTAC needs more podcasts. This is sort of an orthogonal issue to the posting schedule. If posts are once-a-day, then podcasts can be attached to the posts and discuss related topics. If posts are twice-a-day then podcasts are posts to themselves.
If you’re willing to consider it, TTAC forums would be a lot of fun as there’s quite a lot of energy among the commentors that would make for some terrific discussions. I’d highly recommend you take a look at a forum program called Vanilla which is lightweight, fits the clean design of TTAC already, and is free.
I say the more the merrier. I would love to see more podcasts. They are really entertaining, especially when it’s just Mr. Lieberman and Mr. Farago shootin’ the breeze.
By the way, I read via Bloglines and I see 105 subscribers. And I also don’t have the problem stormj had with posts reappearing due to new comments.
I can digest way more than 1600 words a day… One magazine a sitting is about what I used to hork down. I need MORE… gimme!
The more posts the better. I don’t use notification so I’m not bombarded with emails, and yet I still come to TTAC a few times a day looking for new stuff. Then it is a pleasant surprise when something new pops up.
I too am happier with more.
I prefer the news type articles to reviews, though I still enjoy the reviews. (I laugh every time I see the new grills on a Subaru. I was going to buy one, but now I can’t)
I don’t often view large pictures on my screen at work. People might get the wrong idea. ;)
A schedule would be ok, but not crucial to me.
The more articles the merrier. I do agree with the consensus of you e-mail update per day encompassing all the article posted that day. I check the site frequently anyways so I don’t need the e-mails anymays.
Quality rules over quantity. The amount is irrelevant compared to the content. 27 posts a day would be FINE, but ONLY IF they were all excellent. But like Mohammed said about wives, you can’t really have quality AND quantity (autoblog is a nice illustration of that), so limit yourself to a handful and make them all excellent. If handful equals one a day some days, and three another day, so be it.
As for email notifications… who needs it? I get my notifications via RSS, built right into my browser (Safari) so a counter on my bookmark bar tells me I have something to read. Email is for conversations between human beings, not autogenerated content. If you are pushing out the latter you are at risk of being labelled a spammer.
I agree with RobD: More pics. Mind you LESS pics provided by the manufacturer and more taken by actual reviewers (or some handy human who knows how to wield a camera) please. The perfectly lit beauty shots from the carmakers can make a turd look edible.
–chuck
there is no such thing as to much automotive news! 3-4-5-12 times a day. you post it. i read it. i think one post per day and i would likyl not visit each day as i can skip a day or 3 and catch up easy. I also frequent a site called leftlanenews.com they update during the day with all sorts of news and announcements. though they dont have test-drive reviews or editorials. BUT they have alot of content each day and i read every last article.
The more content available the better. Instead of delivering New Content e-mails for every peice of prose, how about a summary e-mail sent out at the end of the day?
Many of us, both readers, and contributors check back numerous times throughout the day to check new comments, posts etc. and don’t “need” new content e-mails. Those that don’t might appreciate a summary of the 2-3 intros that accompany the current New Content notifiers so they can plan their daily read.
Keep the current level of posts. As always, I sort received e-mail messages into what interests me and delete the rest. This applies to all e-mail, not just from TTAC. Those who complain about “too much e-mail” need to enroll in an e-mail management course.
I like at least 2 a day from TTAC, if not more. Get rid of the email notification system, those systems went out of popular use several years ago (about the time that everyone’s inboxes drowned in spam). Email notifications and subscriptions are dead, hooray for RSS and targeted advertising panels.
for the love of god do not only post once a day!! i find myself on this website alot during the boring times at work.
if anything post more!
this website is fantastic. though the comments get a bit childish but you are not the cause of that!
MORE MORE MORE!!!
p.s. are you gona review the tesla when it come out?
I browse twice a day I d`ont allways log in the reviews have been a lot better lately, better balanced.Quality over quantity works for me.
I second this:
chuckgoolsbee:
August 23rd, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Quality rules over quantity. The amount is irrelevant compared to the content. 27 posts a day would be FINE, but ONLY IF they were all excellent. But like Mohammed said about wives, you can’t really have quality AND quantity (autoblog is a nice illustration of that), so limit yourself to a handful and make them all excellent. If handful equals one a day some days, and three another day, so be it.
I like twice a day (and more wouldn’t bother me).
I’m feverishly working on getting a Tesla
They don’t have press cars at the moment.
Perhaps a weekly digest, a la yahoo groups… send one consolidated email with all of the week’s articles, allowing readers to pick and choose whichever ones they’d like to read. This also allows them to read at whatever pace they’d like, while not pestering them several times a day.
The issue isn’t the amount of posting, its what you’re posting. Make sure every piece that goes out is compelling, and the problem takes care of itself. I’m not saying theres been “bad” writing per say. But it does seem like you guys are having a little trouble coming up with ideas.
Strangely, alot of the QOTW have had titles that I’d be interested in if they were actual articles. How about a REAL piece on how to define quality, and determine reliability? That has legs, while I don’t much give a shit about what the new aston martin is like.
And make more of these suckers podcasts. Its alot easier to listen to a bunch of reviews and columns than to read them.
Two posts a day is perfect. The quality of the articles now is perfect and I don’t really care about filling them out with pictures or video if it was slimmed down to one post a day. I also agree with the aforementioned idea of a schedule for postings so that one can expect when to check out the site each day.
More please. :)
I would say post as you get material (or save some of it up for ‘dry spells’ or vacations). Nothing good for a day? So be it. Lots of news hits and you have 3-4 articles in a day? Fine too. I care more about the quality of the writing than making sure i see two new articles a day.
I just started grad school–the less time I spend here the better! Just kidding. I agree that quality>quantity. So far it seems like the two posts a day are of very good quality, with rare but quite tolerable minor errors in the articles. If this pace is burning the TTAC staff out, you might cut back to one a day, or average 4-6 a week. This site is already so much better than the majority of auto websites that I really look forward to reading it, catching up at least every few days.
I don’t mind the new content emails. I like the RSS feed too. Grown people can press ‘delete’ if they don’t want to read an email.
I like reading all the content. If you guys have more to post, that’s excellent. If you need to cut back to spend more time on each posting, that’s fine too. I’ll read it when you post it.
This site is wonderful.
I am a web developer and the best answer to this question is… let the user decide. It is not difficult (however may be too costly at this time – ask your web guys) to set up your email system with a email frequency setting for each user. Have a link on the email that says ‘change email frequency’ or the less specific ’email settings’. That will take them to a page where they can pick the frequency of emails they desire: 1/month, 1/week, 1/day, every time there’s an update. Then send an email with leadin paragraphs and links containing the articles that are new for them. So if a user decides they want 1 email per week, that email may have 14 article leads (assuming 2 new articles per day).
If it is too costly I would say send out the email 2-3 times per week which would include all the content from that time period, however keep posting articles as much as you want (the more the better as far as most of us are concerned). There’s no reason why the email should have a 1 to 1 correlation with the posts.
Jonny:
Testing a Tesla would be awesome! Also, did you see the new Lotus ethanol Exige?
Jon.
I has another thought. If you allow user to config their email frequency you should also allow them to pick which types of posts they want notification on: editorial, review, qotd… etc.
keep up the multiple posts, but perhaps send one email per day listing the new articles. perhaps even offer a “weekly summary” option. and of course let people know they can use RSS instead. make it easy for people to temporarily disable the notifications if they know they’ll be unconnected for a while.
Give people more control over their email frequency. That should solve your unsubs.
Better photos and ratings might be nice, but in depth analysis is even better. Witty/passionate articles are good, but not if they don’t hold up under withering TTAC readership scrutiny.
If posting once daily improves content depth and quality at the cost of certain areas not getting covered daily, then choose once daily.
I keep up without getting any emails, because you’ve trained me to believe that there will be new content every day.
I would say that 2 a day is fine, as long as it is not two editiorials in a day. I wouldn’t mind 1 a day. Who says that you have to be strict on 2 posts per day everday, why can one day have 2 posts then the next 3 days only have 1 post per day? Do what works best.
I’m at my PC throughout the day and evening so more than one post a day is fine. More than one Email is OK too. I get almost all my “news” style information from the WWW. No newspapers, no TV news here, so I’ve plenty of time to read TTAC articles relevant to my interests.
Why limit TTAC to twice a day? 3? 4? 10 new articles a day? TTAC is different than any other car site because of the unique perspective your authors bring. No need for me to read between the lines on any other site to see if the author is writing from the press kit and hasn’t even seen the car in person.
If you’re worried about being able to pay the authors more, and afford new things for TTAC, this will all come once the billions of dollars of advertising money starts rolling in. You will then be able to focus on editing and perhaps pay someone else to do site maintenance.
And about those emails… I have never received one, even after your “thanks for joining TTAC” email warning me about them.
Perhaps one email at the end of the day summarizing that day’s activities?
More Farago please. I miss the editorial wit present in the early reviews.
I didn’t take time to read all “Comments”…
So…if already suggested, I apologize….
Send ONE Global Email per day listing all site updates with a short synopsis below each link…we can then choose to read or delete (aka AutoSpies approach)…
That said…too much info is better than too little…
For those with no interest and little time, “Delete” is on every computer.
Thanks for a great site.
You can’t please everybody. But the more the better.
One is fine, Two is fine, More is fine.
I’ve got a TTAC button at the top of my browser. when I have downtime, I whack it. I *always* read the reviews.
I’d say the press photos are fine, but if you’ve got your own photos, pop ’em in here too. I’d love to see them, espically if you’re pointing out something specific.
I’m less interested in video, since It’s difficult to watch it at work.
Keep up the good work!
I’ve never gotten a “new content” email either, and I’m glad. I think an option that the user could set would solve the problem. I would also agree that just because someone unsubscribed, doesn’t mean they aren’t still reading the site. They just “turned off” the notifications.
Finally, I second Rocketeer… Robert, you’ve been less witty and sarcastic than you used to be. Seems like you’ve “tamed it down” a bit. Of course, I wouldn’t want you to force the wit and sarcasm… just don’t hold it back.
I’d rather have 2 good articles than 2 bad articles. But I’d rather have 1 good article than 2 bad articles.
Also, opinion piece are fine as long as they are relevant. The complaining about different manufacturers placing the ignition on different side of the wheel is plain dumb. It may confuse journalists who drive 8 different cars per week, but I can assure you, after 2 days in a car, I know where the headlight button is and how to turn up the heat. It gets even better after 6 years.
Finally, I would appreciate more articles by you. You were the author I wanted to read from back when there was 3 contributors and 2 articles per week. So more RF articles.
I hit return accidentally while taking the survey, and it let me submit an incomplete one. Oops, I’m sorry!
But please, don’t drop down to 1 a day. There a few sites I visit like that, and in order to spend more than just a few minutes reading, I only visit once a week or so. More is better. Your writing quality is just fine!
Once or twice a day is fine for me. I’d prefer seeing your own photos, but then I’m a photo-nut. The manufacturer supplied ones are nice and all, but seem to conceal as much as they reveal.
I’ve been very impressed with the quality of the reviews (and associated commentary) of TTAC. If you have to reduce the posting to keep the quality, that’s a trade off I could easily live with.
Post multiple times per day, as long as they’re quality (informative, insightful, humorous) editorials, reviews and articles.
As long as TTAC is healthy and posts regularly, your readers will know to check for new information daily, so they won’t need e-mail notification. RSS readers essentially replace e-mail notification.
I am one of the ones who unsub’ed. I got tired of the emails, not your content.
Keep up the pace, or whatever pace you can maintain. Give me the option to get the emails or not. I can still come to your site and read when I want.
one post is plenty. fewer editorial, more reviews
Post as often as you have content. Do people turn on CNN once a day to get their news or do they check back in a few times a day. If they are bothered by the NCN, then they should turn that feature off. Post away!
“Post as often as you have content” means “post whatever, as long as it’s content”. TTAC should be about “Post as often as you have good content”, which realistically implies a less frequent update than as-it-happens and at least some kind of deadline to terminate the wordsmithing process.
I read Autoblog and Jalopnik for the news. TTAC isn’t for that.
Keep posting at least twice a day. When I found this site, it was the number and variety that attracted me initially, then the wit and (generally good) quality that kept me coming back. Cutting back to once a day will make it much harder to attract new folks. It also risks losing some of us regular readers, i.e., if you happen to hit a string of several days with postings that are “boring” to someone, they may learn to live without the daily fix of TTAC. Much less likely to happen with two a day… Keep them coming. (RF – Don’t overanalyze this situation – sometimes you have to go with the feel of things).
More steely dan references…
I miss the stars and other info on the reviews
Send 1 email with new content once a day with several links, that reduces the spam factor.
I’m not a big fan of the 10 minute audio things. If you were interviewing some hot women and we could learn what turns THEM on about cars then I might change mind
Better proofing and spell checking. I’m stupid with english and even I can use a spellchecker. They even have them for web pages you can run against any site.
Definately have content notification be somewhat selectable for the people who think a few emails somehow costs them money or physically harms them.
If you ever close down TTAC I will visit you in the night and it won’t be pretty.
Thanks,
As long as they are quality articles, which is what we all have been reading in the past (with a few exceptions). As long as the articles make a solid point, leave a question or two for readers to respond to, I’ll read them, if not multiple times! Farago is my hero! I have a myspace (I bet all of you have immediately lost any sense of respect for me) and we can list our heroes. I put alongside Bill Clinton and Martin Luther King Jr. Robert Farago. You seriously are amazing. This site and the articles are unlike ANYTHING I have ever read about cars. Truly a gift from the Gods!
Oh yea. I hate it (and I’m sure lots of other readers find it annoying) when some articles spend 2-3 paragraphs complaining about irrelevant crap nobody cars about, or are just long rants about how ugly a car is. I think any reader here can decide whether a car is ugly or not on their own.
I laugh at least once everytime I visit this site. It’s hilarious!
Robert,
I also miss reading your editorial wit. I often found myself reading a review or editorial that I would not normally be interested in…your style and sarcastic humor are what this website is rooted in.
In-so-far as the email notifications as concerned, for those who may find them annoying, how about a link on each email allowing the subscriber to turn off the notification feature immediately.
I don’t believe a good journalist/publication can limit himself/herself/itself to only one or two reviews/editorials per day. The number is directly related to what information is available on any given day. If you have only one article with content, so be it…if you have ten articles with content, so be it.
Twice a day is fine. More (good) stuff would be even better.
My big beef is with long comments sections … like this one. I’d even live with cookies that would keep track of comments I’ve already read and fast-forward me to the spot where comments are that I haven’t read.
I took the survey. Where are my five bucks?
All kidding aside, I say post whenever you have something good to say.
Well, it's late. I've read all you comments and get the feeling that it's a question (or answer) of posting as much as I can while maintaining the quality, and giving people a choice of how often they'd like to be notified.
Keep posting. I'm listening to every word. And hey. Thanks for taking some of the pressure off.
Post as much as you have. Don’t arbitrarily limit yourself to once or twice a day.
Don’t however, use fillers like the Question of the Day/Week. I’m not a fan of those. The reviews and editorials make TTAC unique and is why I return here day after day, reading your site instead of doing my work!
If you’re still listening, I especially enjoy it when I get to read the interplay between the main writers on the comment sections, and the author of the piece. If anything, the comment section is often as informative as the main piece. However, with too many pieces per day, the comment section appears to only be “live” for about half a day, then fades away – I think this detracts from the comment sections. I would rather see richer comment sections with commentary from the principal writers as well as the editor in chief, than more new posts per day. (RF – you were suspiciously absent during the Audi bashing in the post a day or two ago.)
In general, the editorials seem to generate the most commentary – perhaps a review and an editorial daily would be a good balance.
I vote to bring back the stars as well.
Isn’t it up to the individual whether or not they receive notification of posts? I don’t receive any, unless I subscribe.
It appears you have a loyal and devoted following RF, keep it up! (the good work I mean…)
I say post as much as possible, but take a once-per-day approach to content emails. Yahoo mailing lists, aka groups, allow for a digest format that sums up all of the posts made during a certain period of time. Adapting this sort of approach to a daily or even weekly release from TTAC should make everyone happy.
@TampaWRX
Not a bad idea..perhaps a choice between daily/weekly summary or something along those lines.
The more content per day…the better. I enjoy reading two articles a day and would hate it if you slowed down to only one.
I do subscribe to the new content notifications and they don’t bug me.
MOre Content – MOre better!! Turning of the notification feature and/or adding an opt-out button is the way to go…. Like other readers I check this site several times a day and Love it!
I will also endeavor to check out every advertiser who shows up on the site – I aim to support the goodness found here and challenge everyone else who reads this post to do the same!!
In an ideal world, we would all be spending our time pursuing our obsessions, like digging into autos and the auto industry for hours each day, living off high yield stocks and bonds. In a real world, most of us have to produce goods or services other people are prepared to pay good money for. To those of us in that predicament, TTAC can be a distraction. Now, if I knew that there would be one, and one only editorial at TTAC each day, I could read it once a day and be finished, then I could look forward to another excellent read tomorrow. So – I tend to side with those who feel they are getting a bit overwhelmed by the volume of material you send our way. Those 15 subscribers who unsubscribe are an indication of this. So – if posting once a day doesn’t affect click-throughs and advertising revenue in disastrous ways, I feel one posting is more manageable.
Also – in this instant world – you have the luxury (I believe) of being able to experiment. If you change to just one editorial a day, you will immediately see what effect this has on readership and click-throughs.
Anyway – you have a great site – and I will read it whatever decisions you make!
If TTAC posts regularly, and at broadcasted times, what purpose do the NCNs serve? I don’t use them, as frankly I can do without the clutter, because I know when I go to read TTAC every lunchtime (UK Time) I know there will be at least two articles to read.
2 articles per day suits me down to the ground, just enough to allow me to read the discussions too, which by the way are fantastic and add a lot of depth and interesting viewpoints ot whatever matter in hand.
My tuppence.
more cowbell!
dolo54 wins the thread!
There is a choice in whether you receive NCN's. If you are a user, if you log in and are on the My Account page, you can determine settings if you want to receive NCN's and for what categories you would like to receive them by clicking on the "New Content Notifications" link. If you want all posts, you can simply check Reviews, Editorials, and Podcasts and you will receive all NCN's. If, for instance, you're only interested in getting NCN's about Audi reviews, simply check the Audi checkbox.
If you aren't a user with an account, you can receive NCN's by clicking on the
New Content Notifications link under the "Updates" area on the left column of the home page or simply click here: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/subscribe.php. Enter your email and we'll send you an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Once you confirm you'll receive ALL NCN's. So, if you prefer to have a choice about what categories you receive NCN's for, I would suggest creating an account and signing up as listed above.
All NCN's that go out have an unsubscribe link at the bottom that points back to the subscription page. Users simply have enter their email and check the "unsubscribe" radio button and submit it and they are removed from the list.
The majority of people who are opting out of the subscription to NCN's are visitors who's emails we ported over from the old system (public subscribers) not necessarily the "core" of the existing users of this site. Most recipients of NCN's are "public" subscribers (2000 +) vs registered subscribers, around 134 of which have decided to receive NCN's.
For getting updates about the site, I would recommend RSS but to each his own. If you're interested in getting an RSS reader for sydicated content, you can go here: http://blogspace.com/rss/readers or here: http://allrss.com/rssreadersmac.html and find one for your platform.
If you use Firefox as your browser, you can use the following extensions to read RSS in your browser:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/424/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/629/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/361/
Those of you who use Safari as a browser are probably already aware that Safari has a built in RSS reader. If you use Thunderbird as an email client, you can receive feeds with that by going to File –> New Account and then choosing RSS News & Blogs. You'll then have to add the RSS url to the subscription area. I believe Internet Explorer 7 will also include an RSS reader but using Microsoft products always has its [greater] security risks.
Giving users the most options to suit their particular tastes for receiving content is probably the best option here: RSS, daily NCN, weekly NCN, etc. RF will make the final decision on what that looks like.
miked you were receiving 3 emails each time because your email address was in the database 3 times. 2 times as a "public" subscriber and once as a registered subscriber. I removed the two public emails.
Ben
Redwing Studio
I doubt anyone has an issue with the number of articles per day.
More likely (as indicated by a number of comments above) is the number of e-mail notifications per day.
I do not personally have a problem with several e-mails per day, but I can understand that others may prefer one e-mail per day notifying that day’s articles (that could one or several articles).
Ideally this e-mail would be sent at around the same time every day, so that it arrives at a similar place in the In-mailbox reletaive to other daily notifications.
Additionally, I would suggest that it would be helpful if all your e-mail notifications came from the same e-mail address ex: TTAC – rather than the different contributors names. This would help automatic sorting by e-mail address. Currently, TTAC is included at the beginning of the title.
Mr. Farago,
TTAC is a fantastic site. I admit I spend way too much time here already with the current two posts per day setup. (I try to read every comment also.)
However, if the posting is cut, I’ll be the first one to say, my time here will be cut in half.
(Half the posts = half the time…never mind.)
Good Day.
Tyler
I think it’s key to be able to turn off email notification. If I check the site every day I don’t need spam in my inbox telling me that there’s new stuff. I know you guys update on a regular basis.
If I really care that much about what’s new, I’d rely more on an RSS feed (being the tech savvy car guy that I am) than email notification anyways.
In short, post as much as you want, but let the readers decide on how much they want to be notified. Personally, I’d aim for more content (really, how can you have too much TTAC?) and less notification.
As editor of a site in another industry, I think posting more times per day is good. We post daily but are looking at ways to bring people in more frequently because it means more eyeballs seeing the content–and the ads of the companies that keep us afloat. The weenies who count eyeballs like that.
But the content has to be (a) relevant and (b) good quality. IMHO the editorial content on TTAC is usually both of these so if you have good content, then post it. If not, don’t post something just to put up something new.
Also good to track are the numbers of (a) unique visitors and (b) numbers of repeat visitors. I know I will come back 2-4X a day if there is a topic I’m interested in as I want to read the commentary. Your survey asks how often people visit, which gives you a semi-useful range, but acquiring hard numbers can be very useful as you go after ad dollars. And as you get ad bucks in you can start tracking the clicks to those advertisers.
By turning off the New Content Notification sender, you have solved the problem of overburdening the e-mails of people on the road, without laptops, to keep said e-mails down to a manageable level.
Your question of “To post twice or once” resonates with me much as Hamlet’s question did with him; and for the same reason (as you know). I make my living – in part – by writing about automobiles (with the other part currently being working in the auto parts business).
But there is truth in the old saying, “Man does not live by bread alone.” My soul (assuming I have one) was fed, and still is, to a degree, by the editorial writers (columnists) for a variety of publications. Sadness is still there, in my heart (or more likely and accurately, my brain) over the fact that I can no longer read Brock Yates, every month in the C/D that comes to my mailbox. His columns were, to my mind, like a letter from home. Fortunately, there is still Patrick Bedard, who being only a decade or so older than me, remains my more coservative older brother, telling me not to worry about global warming, but sharing my love of the uniquely quirky technology underneath hybrid automobiles.
But the older I get – and the clock is indeed ticking – the more I face the reality of needing money, much as I can, often as I can make it.
So as they used to say in the 1980s, the bottom line is this: go to once a day posts and pay the writers for TTAC a bit more. It would also allow those of us who take photos to get our own shots posted here, too. (Yes, I would probably finally get a digital camera – another write off for 2005.)
For what it is worth.
>>I also miss reading your editorial wit. I often found myself reading a review or editorial that I would not normally be interested in…your style and sarcastic humor are what this website is rooted in.
I second this
Well, thanks for that. As I edit every single article that appears here, I like to think my spirit is in everything you read.
I’m taking steps to hive off some of the work so I can sharpen my pen on your behalf.
Meanwhile, thanks again for all your advice. Rest assured, I’m taking most of it.
Oh, I got an idea! I’ve noticed that usually the daily articles, usually two, are posted near the same time and then are allowed to be read, etc. What happens is the article posted second gets the space above the article posted first, and the article posted second gets more attention/comments/reads because people who log in or visit TTAC automatically go to the newest article first (or maybe that’s just me). Look at the latest articles, and if there were two articles posted on the same day, usually the article posted later in the day will have more comments/reads/etc.
So maybe if one article was posted early in the morning, and one was posted sometime in the afternoon or something? That’s assuming there’s two articles.
Hopefully you understand the idea I’m trying to get across, but if you don’t that’s fine because I’m not good at articulating stuff.
Just an observation! BYE!!! TTAC RULES!!!
P.S. Is it normally wise to buy an older-model car (still new, though) and save tons of cash because of the discounts or buy the newly-introduced model and get the new technology and whatnot? For example, a ’06 Camry for 13k or an ’07 for 21k?
Once per day is best. I enjoy the site, but find the more emails I receive the more I want to delete. One kick-ass email per day would be better than two good ones. Like everyone, very busy.
Since I seem to have started this whole thing, I should now mention that’s my point. “Very busy.” I never meant to say that it was too many NCN e-mails that bothered me. It’s that there currently are at least three editorials on the home page that I’ll never even bother reading, since they happen to be about subjects that only marginally interest me (trucks, among other things).
If they were the Post Of The Day, I _would_ read ’em, knowing that they’re probably quite good and I suspect well worth reading. But the stuff keeps pouring out of the site, and I know I’ll never get to them.
I suspect the division breaks down to there being a whole lot of people out there sitting in offices bored out of their skulls, hoping against hope that something gets posted so they can take a break and read it…and a smaller number of people who are just too damned busy to stop and read that often.
Obviously, Robert should do what Group #1 wants and needs.