I’ve frequently enjoyed the writing and reviews at MacStories, but hesitate to spend $50 per annum for the Club MacStories level.
Any Club MacStories subscribers here? Do you find good value in the subscription? For me, that means useful information and advice I wouldn’t find elsewhere.
I subscribed this year mainly to support their work. Won’t renew when it finishes and don’t think the addicional content is worth $50
…but for all that they write over the year, I’m happy to have paid 1 year.
I think Federico needs to make more explicit what is involved in becoming a member. I really have no idea what I’m missing, although I did hear on a recent podcast that they’re building a library of Workflow actions for members to use, which could be increasingly useful in upcoming months…
I’ve been a member of a bunch of similar communities, but never really stuck around after the first year or two. The one exception that sticks out, I think, is my yearly membership to Tidbits.com. I’ve read Tidbits since 1990, when I downloaded the newsletter from my local Mac User Group BBS as a text file! And membership has some great benefits, in terms of discounts on some of the best Mac software around, and year-round discounts for Take Control ebooks.
I support it at $5/month. Very painless and I like to support people who are doing good work. I do this for a few podcasts, some of which I don’t listen to that often. Is MacStories worth it? That’s a toss-up, but the value to me is intrinsic. Besides, they are very responsive so suggest what you would like them to cover.
Right. I joined not for the newsletters but to support them.
I think membership programs like Club MacStories (and similar ones at 512 Pixels, Six Colors, and our own hosts’ RelayFM) are more about supporting what these sites do and publish publicly than about the members-only content. The members-only stuff is a nice bonus for folks who choose to support these sites, but the members-only content alone is not really intended to provide value commensurate with the membership cost. The value is everything the site produces, not just the members-only stuff.
Perks and Workflow Corner makes it worth it to me. News from around the web is added bonus, as well as working as a reminder about macstories own articles.
I’m at the $6 level, and love what they do, and how they do it. I look forward to both the email on Friday and App stories podcast.
I figure we need more folks like Federico, John, etc doing what they are doing (like, ahem, here) so to trade the few dollars I can afford is well worth it to me.
And I will say that they have saved me hours of time and dollars with their suggestions.
If you are interested in automation, the Workflow Corner is excellent. That, plus helping to support a great website, makes it very much worth it for me.
-Jeff
Thanks for all the suggestions here. I’ve purchased the 12-month subscription, and satisfied it was a good idea.
Takecontrolbooks. Although have not read them all. 