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---Wait For The Music---Go Full Screen--- The Dan Daily Sites
When Only The Best! Will Do...
Laughter is the Sun that Drives Winter from the Human Face. Please Spread It Around...
Good Morning All! "Living with Your Computer: Where Have You Been Danny?"
Dear
Danny: I am glad you are back. You have been gone for a long
while and before you left you sent information out on a CD that you created.
I lost the information due to PC problems. Please send it to me again.
Thanks and Welcome Back; you have been missed. I missed the Computer tips not the adult jokes LOL.
I was thinking of downloading 8.0 but since it just came out I was a little concerned now I am not :-). I realize you, and many like you, love the tips and not much else. I must tell you though, the sites were in serious danger of closing due to skyrocketing costs of maintaining it. If you remember, in the beginning, only the tips and various other pages were on it. This is what got it in trouble originally. The tips site now, to date, runs about 1/3rd of all total hits to the sites. But, it only represents about 2% of the paying membership. People that enjoy the tips site don't join. It's clear and simple: While I would love to give everything away, present day realities don't make that possible. I had only one choice, to either expand the content of the site or lose it. That's why the focus on "Danny's Daily's" and "Priceless Moments:" "Danny's Daily's" was always an email based e-zine and was what I always did. Computer tips came later. "Danny's Daily's" was my "bread and butter" so to speak. By incorporating Danny's Daily's into my main web site, my hope was that Danny's Daily's could support the tips and itself. I wasn't wrong. It caused a ton of problems all by itself, but I wasn't wrong. "Danny's Daily's" and it's readers, also love "Priceless Moments." I have to give my paying readers what they want and tips just ain't one of them. Meanwhile; without writing anything new for the tips site in months, it still continues to eat fully 1/3rd of my resources. 88% of all search engine hits, hit the tips site. Now imagine if I'd kept writing new columns every two weeks, in all that time, where it would be today. I would bet, and I should know, that the tips site would be eating over half of my resources and it only supplies 2% of the revenues. My sites just can't take that and it's not fair to the people paying the bills. It's tough enough without it, believe me... "The Dan Daily Sites" has become an animal! I couldn't be happier... Couple that with the fact that the tips pages are BY FAR the most difficult to write and I develop an attitude about it. It's not easy taking computerese and converting it into normal everyday language that everyone can understand. I'm the only one that I know of who does it. I've tried everything I could think of to encourage the Tips readers to Join: I tried extra content in the Pay Tips site; nothing, who cares. I tried taking away the printer friendly pages and making them a members exclusive; nothing, who cares. I tried making personal tech support exclusive to the Inner Circle only; nothing, who cares. I tried explaining to people with problems that personal tech support was ONLY for the Inner Circle and give them the advice they needed and tell them I expected them to join; nothing! Not ONE joined! Who Cares!!! I even tried begging them! Nothing!!! You're not a member yourself for cripes sake. Take the article I wrote on
new computers being too fast: I told the readers to join the Inner Circle to find out the configuration I recommend.
Not one did! That article alone would save you hundreds of dollars, maybe a thousand!
Yet, still, not one joined; who cares. My AOL 6 article saved an aggregate tens of thousands of dollars to the masses, just by them NOT installing it!
I was the lone voice; I got thrown off the AOL beta testing team because of it and STILL!!!
No one joined because of it; who cares. I was even sited in the New York Post!
And no one joined. Then, finally, all the journals had to warn about
AOL 6 even though they got advertising dollars from AOL. So what? You know who cares? Me! And I seem to be the only one. What I could never understand, and still don't, is that these people pay thousands for their computers, at least 2 to 3 hundred dollars a year to an ISP, get totally frustrated by the tech support these companies have, and won't give me a lousy 15 dollars to teach them how to use it! And that's 15 dollars a YEAR! Not 15 dollars a pop. It doesn't make sense but it's the reality, they just won't join!!! Why shouldn't I turn my back on that which has turned it's back on me? I'm not someone's punching bag here. The AOL 8 article took me almost 12 hours from start to publish. Who helps me? What's my time worth? Much more then I'm getting, I can assure you. Yours is one of only a handful of emails I received even thanking me! I'm sorry, I'm not going to continue in an area where my work is not appreciated. If I see a change, I'll continue in a more steady way, but not until. That's the best I can do or promise. I
still do tips, but in other forums. I have a whole series of
articles on Raid backup at Extreme Tech. I also contribute at
DSLreports.com, PCMagazine and various other journals from time to
time. This is all computerese and I don't have to worry about the
bandwidth, it's on their sites. I also have a whole series of
article on Web design and HTML coding tricks. I get more paying
members from these places but not because of my sites at all:
Because of answers to individual problems. These people do care. And of course gang, she didn't join. Just recently I sent out a mailing to thousands of people saving hundreds of them a full half on their AOL bills and three free months of AOL. No one joined: I rest my case. You freeloaders don't deserve me or anyone like me! Be happy with what you get because you don't get what you pay for... I'm holding my head up high, are you? Dan Daily
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