Daring Fireball

Daring Fireball

URL	DaringFireball.net
Type of site	Blog
Available language(s)	English

Daring Fireball is the web site of John Gruber, an Apple enthusiast and writer. Daring Fireball hosts Gruber's opinions in the form of a blog, and also some of Gruber's software. In April 2006, it became Gruber's sole full-time job, funded by advertisement revenue, membership fees, T-shirt sales, and donations from various software projects also hosted on the site, like Markdown.^[1][2]

Gruber has since expanded into other media, including several podcast appearances and a Macworld Expo panel spot on Macworld's dime.^[3] Gruber also covered WWDC 2006 on location.

Style and content

Gruber has described his Daring Fireball writing as a "Mac column in the form of a weblog".^[4] The site is written in the form of a tumblelog referencing material, with occasional articles that discuss Apple products and issues in related consumer technology.

Common article subjects are the media's reflections on Apple's affairs (especially refuting of myths and misunderstandings), user interfaces (and the consistency thereof), software development and emerging Mac applications. Gruber also runs a linklog called The Linked List where brief commentary is provided, and the List shows up interweaved with the longer articles on the front page by default.

The blog has no option to leave public comments. Instead, Gruber encourages people to send him their comments by e-mail.

Revenue

The original Daring Fireball T-shirt

Since 2004, Gruber has solicited memberships,^[5] where readers donate an amount of money annually to show support for Gruber's writing and also to gain access to other perks. The perks included more detailed feeds, but Gruber has downplayed the importance of the extra features, comparing them to "PBS tote bags".^[6] Perhaps as better "tote bags", Daring Fireball motif T-shirts are also sold—the T-shirts include a membership, and members get a discount on further T-shirts. There is no members-only content, however; all of the site's content is freely available, and in early August 2007, Gruber made all of the site's feeds freely available as well, and each week the feed features an exclusive sponsor.^[7]

Gruber's last account of his part-time Daring Fireball income called it in the ballpark of a substantial side income, but much too short of a full-time wage.^[2] For most of the time when Daring Fireball was a spare time endeavor, Gruber worked as an independent web designer; between late 2005 and April 2006, Gruber's day job was at Joyent where he helped with the TextDrive acquisition.

Since 2006,^[8] the site displays advertisements from The Deck, a small advertising network serving sites like A List Apart and 37signals in addition to Daring Fireball. In addition to this, many Amazon.com links carry Daring Fireball's referral ID, and the site's preferences even allow a choice of local Amazon store.

As of August 2011, Gruber charges $6,500 per week for RSS feed sponsorship which includes a "promotional item during the week" and a "linked list item" to the sponsor at the end of the week.^[9]

References

1. ^ Gruber, John (2006-04-20). "Initiative". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/2006/04/initiative. Retrieved 2007-08-17. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Gruber, John (2005-10-27). "Membership Numbers". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/2005/10/membership_numbers. Retrieved 2007-08-17. 
3. ^ Gruber, John (2007-01-15). "Daring Fireball Live at Macworld Expo 2005". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/2007/01/df_live_mwsf_2007. Retrieved 2007-08-17. 
4. ^ Gruber, John (2003-07-08). "Independent Days". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/2003/07/independent_days. Retrieved 2007-08-17. 
5. ^ Gruber, John. "Membership Information". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/members/info. Retrieved 2007-08-17. 
6. ^ Gruber, John (2004-06-16). "Something Daring". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/something_daring. Retrieved 2007-08-17. 
7. ^ Gruber, John (2007-08-16). "Feedback". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/2007/08/feedback. Retrieved 2007-08-17. 
8. ^ Gruber, John (2006-02-02). "Bedecked". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/2006/02/bedecked. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
9. ^ Gruber, John. "Sponsorship". Daring Fireball. http://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/. Retrieved 2011-8-26. 

External links

• Daring Fireball
• Mark Webster (16 February 2011). "Webstock: An interview with the Daring Fireball". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10706690.