Long-term answer – no clue. Short-term answer, yes, for me, anyway. I’d like to welcome you all to Aerocles 1.0 – My very own “Tiny Letter”
1.0 being a bizarre regression from the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, this blog, my writing for Ad Age, and other such endeavors. A newsletter, however tiny, seems like an unnecessary anachronism. Which is why I was so confused upon submitting it’s magical lure. I’m even more astounded that anyone even signed up to receive this thing, given my average daily tweet count that must be well over 100. So I guess, for those of you that have already subscribed, thank you for that, and for those that haven’t yet, please do. I hope I don’t disappoint, but I’m honestly not quite sure what direction this initiative will take.
I’m about halfway through Frank Rose‘s “The Art of Immersion,” in which the Wired contributing editor explores the history and evolution of what we now call the “Transmedia” narrative or experience. One of the examples he gives is the way in which Charles Dickens used the newsletter of his time as a way to communicate with his readership between editions of his serial stories, soliciting feedback which he usually ignored but occasionally impacted the direction of his work. (For the record, I was never a fan of Dickens – content suffers when you get paid by the word.)
That’s my plan, for now. I will be taking a hiatus from blogging here on The Legends of Aerocles, as there’s no point in duplicating my Ad Age efforts, but in doing so, I’ll be losing the valuable back-and-forth with my few, but oh so appreciated, readers (you) (hi mom). As such, while I contemplate shifting the nature of my blog (if you have any suggestions, I gladly welcome them), this newsletter will serve as my direct connection to you, so I can let you know what I’m working on and hopefully, you’ll give me some feedback. This means pimping out my writing for Ad Age and all the conferences I’m working on, but don’t think of it as shilling, think of it more as exclusive access to vital insider information đ I’ll also share links to articles that I think you’d enjoy. What? A Human Content Aggregator? Shocking, I know. But I’ll do my best to filter out all the crap and stuff you’ve probably already seen and keep it to 1 piece of recommended reading per “edition.”
I don’t quite consider myself a journalist in the traditional sense, but the modern industry blogger/trendhunter/writer/quasi-journalist, and in that role, I very much rely on you, my readers, to tell me what you want so I can pander to your every whim. Or at least take it into consideration.
For my first trick, I’m going to direct you all to check out our upcoming Media Evolved Conference which I’ve been working on for a while now and really hope you attend and enjoy.
For my next trick, I’ll let you in on a little secret – I’m working on a write-up exploring the future of eCommerce, looking at several possible routes online shopping can take – with my own unique POV that I know you’ve come to love. Â Obviously, “social” shopping is one future iteration with significant potential, but it’s not the only one. Nor is Groupon (Damn I hate that name). So please, my first request to you, aside from general feedback on this whole “TinyLetter” concept, is to clue me in on your thoughts and predictions for eCommerce – innovative integrations, data-mining operations, partnerships, new platforms or sites…and all that jazz.
So with that, I bid you a temporary farewell. Trust me, when the “Legends of Aerocles” Rebrand, Refocus, and Redesign is complete – I’ll make sure you know, whether you care or not. You may still see occasional posts here, but until I figure out exactly what to do with my blog so that it augments or supplements my Ad Age writing, I’m going to focus most of my writing into Twitter, Ad Age, and now, Aerocles 1.0.
To everyone who has read and commented on this blog for the last 2+ years, Â Thank you for at least pretending to give a crap đ
~David
Legends of Aerocles 