2023 updates

This post will be an introduction towards a new phase for Reconfigured. I have planning it for a while and now it is time to proceed forward with it in 2023

A new platform: Ghost

Before moving towards Ghost, I was using a self hosted static site to upload the content hence when I push a new update to Github it will compile everything to static content but this setup has a drawback that I have manually work everything in details

While the setup is decent to begin and I did have lots of control on everything like how the SEO tags should be formed and how everything gets displayed, it is not scalable when I have loads of articles to manage and when things gets bigger (as what is happening right now)

From these issues the most notable and visible ones are content publishing and updating. On the old workflow I have to manually upload each post as a static file, eliminating the workflow to automate and schedule content in bulk

I was going to use Substack but Ghost is open source and they give you the ability to move around in any way you want instead of being stuck with a service that you cannot migrate away from in an easy way

Those problems get solved with Ghost and interesting integrations that I can do with the site in the future

Cutting content into digestible pieces

One of the biggest comments I have received is that the content I am providing is large and not searchable or instantly accessible.

Take for example a 2 hour episode with a guest, you have to watch the entire episode to benefit from the content it provides (which is the typical when watching/hearing a podcast) but the content is not searchable in ease which means you have to re-watch the entire thing all over again

What I will be doing is cutting those clips into searchable yet digestible pieces of information that tackle a specific topic/issue and you will be able to search for them in the search bar in ease

And this includes writing content based on the podcast episodes and other elements related to this

Collaborating on more than podcasts

The source of the podcast's guests are coming from Polywork, at the moment I have people come up on the podcast by applying for the podcast opportunity exclusively on Polywork (but reaching out to us privately is an option)

I am considering the idea of collaborating on blog posts in a similar fashion to the podcast in the sense that interested individuals would apply to write guest blog posts on Reconfigured by tackling a topic on different points of view (technical, business, economic) which it gets peer reviewed before getting published

All content done by collaborators will be attributed with the collaborators name and links, I respect everyone who aligns with the vision of Reconfigured in any form or way

New type of content: visualized version of the content

I want to say this straight up that I want this section to be inspired by Visualize Value (https://www.instagram.com/visualizevalue/ Jack Butcher is doing amazing work on VV and his courses are worth investing in)

What I am planning on doing is to take parts of the podcast episodes and visualize them into simple artworks, I will begin with regular artworks then might hire a video editor to do video based artworks

A lineup of interesting guests from various backgrounds

When I first started the podcast, I was getting technical people on the show but I tried experimenting with non technical people who might be in-directly related to tech

Now I am shifting towards bringing non technical people at all, bridging to other topics that might interest the audience and bring benefits back to the community

A new process for handling guests

In the past I would get the guest email's address and I would send all the required information to proceed forward. There is a decent back and forth with the guest to decide which day fits best and I have decided to invest in an entire workflow to make the process smoother and easier for the guest

This includes utilizing a scheduling service, doing pre-alignment call before the episode to get things clear, and much more

Working on a collaboration platform

We always send the questions to ask on the podcast beforehand in the sense that the guest can make sure that all the questions align with them and if certain questions require PR reviewal from the company they work at

The process is pretty straight forward that I would send the questions in a pdf file and would expect an answer with a thumbs up/down response

I am planning on developing a solution to make this process much easier and requires less steps and friction for the guest (this will be applied to other types of collaborations)

This solution will not be available till Q3-Q4 of this year, it requires time to develop and I don't know if this solution would evolve towards something else

Monetization, partnerships, and sponsorships

At the moment I run the podcast and this site on my own expenses, there are no sponsors that is funding it including the services that makes the podcast function (recording, scheduling, scripting, and much more plus the expenses that I have to pay for the rig like the microphone which is the industry standard Shure SM7B microphone)

The entire content catalog is available for free to the general public at zero cost, I want to bring value back to the community at zero cost as much as possible but I want to generate revenue at least to make it break even

In the future certain content will be marked under a paywall, the paywall will exist for the sake of supporting the entire workflow and fund back to bring more people on the team to help (right now it is a one-man show) and it can fund to bring exclusive content that is not achievable for free like for example is bringing someone who has a decent background and experience but charges for their time to do this type of work or if one of the collaborators wrote an interesting article worth paying them for their hard work (and keeping the attribution)

At the moment this paywall will not be activated and I will be running it on my own money but expect this to happen at Q3-Q4 of this year. The good thing about Ghost is that the Stripe payments done on the paid newsletter is 0% off which means the subscription you will be paying is going to arrive at a 100% rate (Substack takes 10% from subscriptions)

I am open for collaboration, partnership, and sponsorship on many levels. This includes sponsoring a set of episodes or number of newsletter posts or wearing merchandise for that company on the episode or writing a sponsored article explaining the service (if it aligns with our values, not going to accept anything randomly)

Moving forward

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