Former Lifehacker Editor-in-Chief Whitson Gordon explains his editorial process and packaging discipline to Nathan Latka.
Insight
Gordon: Download Squad and GHacks struggled because they neglected social marketing
“Look at all of these old sites that had, Good and interesting stuff like Download Squad or G-Hacks, which is still around, but isn't, you know isn't really sustaining very well, and they didn't market themselves as well as something like Lifehacker did. They d…”
Insight
Gordon: Lifehacker's growth was 50% quality content and 50% marketing
“I've always contributed to kind of 50% just having good quality content that people actually respect, and 50% knowing how to market that content.”
Insight
Gordon: Write detailed individual posts before publishing roundup anchor articles
“I would absolutely write the individual articles first. Because those are the ones that are, because you want people, when they go to that, you know, top 10 article, when that gets its biggest influx of traffic, which is going to be when you post it, and not n…”
Disclosure
Lifehacker separates genuine product recommendations from affiliate link monetization
“We recommend products we like, and then the business side will go say, okay, do these people have an affiliate program? Let's, you know, let's see if we can put that in. Rather than us saying, okay, who has an affiliate program we can try to recommend and make…”
Insight
Gordon: Productivity tool choice matters far less than execution and consistency
“The tool you use does not matter as much as how you use it or the fact that you're using it at all. You know, I spent far too long playing with different to-do list apps and different Evernote note-taking apps kind of stuff to find the perfect one, which fit m…”
Assertion Partly supported
Gordon: Lifehacker grew from 4M to 15M US monthly uniques
“Monthly uniques were probably about four million, and now Lifehacker is pulling in you know, the fifteen million, and that's just in the U.S.”