Every single day for more than two years, I have logged into Music Think Tank to either post articles or to manage the site. Today is my last day as the Community Manager of Music Think Tank.
Although I will still be writing articles, the job of managing and growing the community is being passed on to Bruce Houghton and his team from Hypebot.
The goal of Music Think Tank has always been to create the tallest “stump” that site contributors can stand upon to broadcast a message. To this end, merging Music Think Tank with Hypebot will ultimately enable the height of the stump to grow to a size that is equal to, or greater than, any media outlet that targets this audience.
Over the last two years, MTT has grown to welcome over 30,000 unique visitors a month; we have over 5,000 regular subscribers (RSS and Email combined); over 1,000 of you have registered to contribute to the site; and over 5,000 comments have been posted to date. And, this was all achieved under circumstances where not a single site contributor had to invest much more than a few hours of time! It has been the network effect of all of us combined that has grown this site.
Music Think Tank has given me so many gifts that I am thankful for. First, I had to read every one of the 5,000 comments that have been posted on this site. The true value of the site can be found in the comments. To everyone that has left a comment on Music Think Tank - thank you for making me smarter. Second, Music Think Tank has given me a blueprint for utilizing a community to bypass traditional press to establish authority on the Internet. I am now helping others to replicate the Music Think Tank model to form marketing cooperatives within other industries.
What’s going to be different on Music Think Tank? Not much. Bruce Houghton has agreed to continue to operate the site under the ownership guidelines we published over a year ago. Under these guidelines, both the manager and popular contributors to MTT can acquire ownership in the site. Hypebot will be putting some advertisements on the site. Although I ran the site (and paid for all the site expenses) out of my pocket, we can’t expect anyone else to do the same. Please trust me when I say that the advertisements are not going to make anyone rich. We are all going to obtain a much larger audience, and Bruce will be able to recover the investment required to successfully operate and grow Music Think Tank.
Why am I moving on from Music Think Tank? Most importantly, the merger with Hypebot is the fastest way to grow our audience. After that, I have four beautiful kids that I want to spend more time with. I am going back into the startup world this fall. Writing plans, raising capital, and growing a business is time consuming, and I need every hour I can get to grow my next venture.
Finally, I want to thank Andrew Dubber for his private advice and support over the last two years. MTT’s initial success comes from the promotion and the author recruitment efforts that Andrew donated to the site; without his enthusiasm and collaboration, Music Think Tank would not exist today.
Thanks again for all your great articles and comments.
-Bruce
About Bruce Warila and on Twitter