Daring Fireball
Encyclopedia
Daring Fireball is the web site of John Gruber
, an Apple enthusiast and writer. Daring Fireball hosts Gruber's opinions in the form of a blog, and also some of Gruber's software. In April 2006, it became Gruber's sole full-time job, funded by advertisement revenue, membership fees, T-shirt sales, and donations from various software projects also hosted on the site, like Markdown
.
Gruber has since expanded into other media, including several podcast appearances and a Macworld Expo
panel spot on Macworld
's dime. Gruber also covered WWDC
2006 on location.
referencing material, with occasional articles that discuss Apple products and issues in related consumer technology.
Common article subjects are the media's reflections on Apple's affairs (especially refuting of myths and misunderstandings), user interfaces (and the consistency thereof), software development and emerging Mac applications. Gruber also runs a linklog
called The Linked List where brief commentary is provided, and the List shows up interweaved with the longer articles on the front page by default.
The blog has no option to leave public comments. Instead, Gruber encourages people to send him their comments by e-mail.
Since 2004, Gruber has solicited memberships, where readers donate an amount of money annually to show support for Gruber's writing and also to gain access to other perks. The perks included more detailed feeds
, but Gruber has downplayed the importance of the extra features, comparing them to "PBS tote bags". Perhaps as better "tote bags", Daring Fireball motif T-shirts are also sold—the T-shirts include a membership, and members get a discount on further T-shirts. There is no members-only content, however; all of the site's content is freely available, and in early August 2007, Gruber made all of the site's feeds freely available as well, and each week the feed features an exclusive sponsor.
Gruber's last account of his part-time Daring Fireball income called it in the ballpark of a substantial side income, but much too short of a full-time wage. For most of the time when Daring Fireball was a spare time endeavor, Gruber worked as an independent web designer; between late 2005 and April 2006, Gruber's day job was at Joyent
where he helped with the TextDrive acquisition.
Since 2006, the site displays advertisements from The Deck, a small advertising network serving sites like A List Apart
and 37signals
in addition to Daring Fireball. In addition to this, many Amazon.com
links carry Daring Fireball's referral ID, and the site's preferences even allow a choice of local Amazon store.
As of August 2011, Gruber charges $6,500 per week for RSS feed sponsorship which includes a "promotional item during the week" and a "linked list item" to the sponsor at the end of the week.
John Gruber
John Gruber is a writer from the greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area of the USA. Gruber received his Bachelor of Science in computer science from Drexel University. He worked for Bare Bones Software from 2000 to 2002 and Joyent from 2005 to 2006...
, an Apple enthusiast and writer. Daring Fireball hosts Gruber's opinions in the form of a blog, and also some of Gruber's software. In April 2006, it became Gruber's sole full-time job, funded by advertisement revenue, membership fees, T-shirt sales, and donations from various software projects also hosted on the site, like Markdown
Markdown
Markdown is a lightweight markup language, originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz allowing people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML "...
.
Gruber has since expanded into other media, including several podcast appearances and a Macworld Expo
Macworld Conference & Expo
Produced by Boston-based IDG World Expo, Macworld | iWorld is a trade-show with conference tracks dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform. It is held annually in the United States, usually during the second week of January...
panel spot on Macworld
Macworld
Macworld is a web site and monthly computer magazine dedicated to Apple Macintosh products. It is published by Mac Publishing, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California...
's dime. Gruber also covered WWDC
Worldwide Developers Conference
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, commonly abbreviated WWDC, is a conference held annually in California by Apple Inc. The conference is primarily used by Apple to showcase its new software and technologies for developers, as well as offering hands-on labs and feedback sessions...
2006 on location.
Style and content
Gruber has described his Daring Fireball writing as a "Mac column in the form of a weblog". The site is written in the form of a tumblelogMicroblogging
Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
referencing material, with occasional articles that discuss Apple products and issues in related consumer technology.
Common article subjects are the media's reflections on Apple's affairs (especially refuting of myths and misunderstandings), user interfaces (and the consistency thereof), software development and emerging Mac applications. Gruber also runs a linklog
Linklog
A linklog is a collection of URLs that the maintainer considers interesting enough to collect.Like a weblog, entries are listed in reverse chronological order. Unlike a weblog, though, postings are limited to just one link per posting and a title...
called The Linked List where brief commentary is provided, and the List shows up interweaved with the longer articles on the front page by default.
The blog has no option to leave public comments. Instead, Gruber encourages people to send him their comments by e-mail.
Revenue
RSS (file format)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
, but Gruber has downplayed the importance of the extra features, comparing them to "PBS tote bags". Perhaps as better "tote bags", Daring Fireball motif T-shirts are also sold—the T-shirts include a membership, and members get a discount on further T-shirts. There is no members-only content, however; all of the site's content is freely available, and in early August 2007, Gruber made all of the site's feeds freely available as well, and each week the feed features an exclusive sponsor.
Gruber's last account of his part-time Daring Fireball income called it in the ballpark of a substantial side income, but much too short of a full-time wage. For most of the time when Daring Fireball was a spare time endeavor, Gruber worked as an independent web designer; between late 2005 and April 2006, Gruber's day job was at Joyent
Joyent
Joyent is a cloud computing software and services company based in San Francisco, California, since 2004. Joyent provides application virtualization....
where he helped with the TextDrive acquisition.
Since 2006, the site displays advertisements from The Deck, a small advertising network serving sites like A List Apart
A List Apart
A List Apart is a webzine for web designers. It covers various topics of interest and advocates the use of web standards in the design process. Regular articles are written by contributing authors who are not part of the editorial team....
and 37signals
37signals
37signals is a privately held web application company based in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was co-founded in 1999 by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim as a web design company. Segura left in 2000 and Kim left in 2003, leaving Fried as the only remaining founder.Since mid-2004, the...
in addition to Daring Fireball. In addition to this, many Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
links carry Daring Fireball's referral ID, and the site's preferences even allow a choice of local Amazon store.
As of August 2011, Gruber charges $6,500 per week for RSS feed sponsorship which includes a "promotional item during the week" and a "linked list item" to the sponsor at the end of the week.