Why am I still using Posterous?
I was sooooo excited when I first discovered Posterous. I thought the simple email posting was going to be the thing that would actually allow me to fit regular blog posts into my busy schedule. This is my first post in 4 months. So much for 'regular'.
The truth is that it's not the posting that takes any amount of time. I'm sitting in front of a computer most of the time, anyway. Besides, almost every blogging system has some sort of mobile interface now. What really takes time is organizing my thoughts into a coherent post. I've got a list on my G1 of blog post ideas that is a mile long (somewhat ironically, this one isn't on the list).
The real reason that I never get posts completed when I'm away from my desk is that email clients are crappy text editors. Sure, I can save a draft if I don't complete a post. But how often are you reminded of the drafts you need to complete? I usually ignore anything in my drafts folder because it's chock full of half-written messages that were auto-saved when I went through a tunnel or stepped into an elevator.
A text editor with a reminder system or a better drafts interface might help, but probably not much. I could make time in my day to write a blog post if I really wanted to. The underlying problem is that blogging has never become a part of my communication system or my branding strategy. And Posterous is partially responsible for that. I don't even attempt to drive traffic to my blog because it's nothing to see. It looks just like every other Posterous site. I think I could fill it with interesting thoughts, but there's nothing visual to draw you in. I can't even put my logo on the page!!!
Seriously, Posterous, even Twitter has some level of visual customization. Aren't you a yCombinator company? You should be at least a little bit agile in this regard. If you made a strategic decision for complete uniformity to be your differentiating factor, fine. It seems a bit contradictory, but we'll just agree to disagree. If you just haven't gotten around to it yet, then shame on you. SproutBox's latest project, online reservation engine ScheduleThing, includes visual customization for provider pages, including logos and custom color schemes. It took our dev team about a day to develop and implement the groundbreaking technology shown below.
Oh, wait. I'm posting from the web, so I can't even add a photo to this post. I guess I'll make another post via email where I'll actually show the screenshot. Please don't get me wrong. I love Posterous as a company. There is definitely a market that needs this product. I'm just not sure I'm part of it. I've got to go now, WordPress and Tumblr are calling.
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