Why I dropped paper.li after two “issues”

A couple of days ago I came across what I thought was a unique concept for building and sharing web content and news. I’m in the market to find a new blog theme that would both allow me to publish my original content, but still feature and promote news that I thought was relevant.

paper.li seemed to be the answer to that.

It’s not.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a radical concept and a cool program that pulls from your Twitter feed and daily (or at your chosen interval) publishes an online “newspaper.”

So if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s great.

My problem is that I have no control over the content. Even though there are options to “manipulate” the feed and what it reads, it’s not even pulling stuff from my own blog.

Plus, what about the advertising revenue? Who gets that?

If I publish “The Daily Write Side” and you read it in my Twitter stream, then you’re never going to my site for original content, and perhaps more importantly, never visiting my advertisers.

So, this afternoon, I deleted the “paper” after only two days.

Now, if someone wants to develop (or has and I just haven’t found it) a similar concept that 1) gives me complete control over content and 2) gives me complete control and ownership of the revenue streams, I’d be intersted. I’d probably be interested even in paying for it.

For now, it’s off to search for blog themes.

Am I being unfair to paper.li? Have you had a better experience?

1 comments

  1. i agree with you that what your looking for would be an awesome concept. i have not found it yet nor determined how to develop a system like that. in the mean time i enjoy paper.li. it gives me an additional outlet to reach a different audience and give my loyal audience additional material. many of which are not on twitter.

    in regards to getting your blog content on paper.li, i was able to get my content from my blog to the paper. i tweet my content from my blog. right now the paper works for me. i have various audiences, #newbiz, #dcfashion, #causemarketing, #fashion, #hamptonroads. still on the look out for what your looking for as well though 🙂

    good luck!
    http://about.me/kristie.p.hale

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