Hello everyone,
And welcome to a round of YourDailyGerman Neuigkeiten – the ultimate news show.
Now you might be like “Oh, please no, I don’t want this insanity in my German.” but don’t worry.
We’re not going to talk about what’s happening the crazy real life circus that is our world.
I mean literally
News about YourDailyGerman
Because I have a piece of news and also a couple of questions where I’d love to hear your input.
So… let’s jump right in.
***
And we’ll start with the news.
The end of two per week
This really feels like the end of an era. Which is probably the reason why I kept delaying this, but …the “Two free per Week” system will end soon. The site used to be donation based, and the two per week system was meant to keep that spirit of accessibility alive for casual users, and also to give new readers a chance to explore the content a bit.
But AI is really changing how people find information and how they interact with it and I really feel like this site has to evolve to survive and thrive. We can’t fight nature, after all. But we ARE nature, so evolving is our natural state of being.
Gee, that sounded a bit over the top :).
So yeah, I’ll retire the “2 free per week” system and I’m switching to a new system:
1) Free Trial
You can now get a free two week trial membership with ALL the features. No payment information required for this one.
2) Mixed Newsletter
My plan is to mix up the newsletter content. So sometimes, it’ll be a member article and other times, it’ll be a free one. In particular, I’m planning to do more reviews and short posts every now and then, and those will be in the free category.
3) Longer Free Section
Right now, most articles had an intro and then you’d see the paywall. I’ll slowly change this so the paywall comes much later, so about half of the article will still be free.
4) Sponsored Memberships
This is not new at all, and it won’t be changed, but I wanted to mention it again, to make sure everyone of you knows it.
I do give out “free” membership accounts for people in need. “Need” can be that you’re in a country with a very weak currency where a year’s membership would buy food for a month.
Or it can be that you’re in a country under sanctions that has no means of payment (like Iran for example). Or it can be that you’re on disability or retired and money is really tight. It doesn’t matter. I don’t need proof either, I’ll just take your word for it and so far, in 10 years of doing this, I felt potentially lied to only twice.
One of the great things about the internet is that makes education more widely available than it was before and I don’t think money should gate-keep that.
And I’m not alone, because many of the paying members do pitch in a bit (or a lot) extra to fill the sponsorship pot. Thank you to all of you, you know who you are!
So yeah… if you’re broke and you want to learn, please do reach out. There is no shame in that!
All right. And last but not least:
5) Full Access Option – For Casuals
If you’re just a casual reader and a membership really doesn’t make sense for you, but you do want to read an article every now and then, there is an option now:
Just search for the article on Google. I have made it so you have full access if you come from Google. I might add Reddit to that too and other search engines if you have a particular preference.
You will NOT have access to things like note taking, pdf download or the vocabulary overview (which is coming soon), but you can read the lesson.
But hey… this is NOT meant for heavy use and if I see that it gets misused, I’ll turn it off again :).
Cool.
So that’s the news, and now for the questions.
E-Mail Challenges for Members
I know that one of the biggest “issues” with my site is that there is no real guidance as to what to read when.
The grammar course is somewhat structured, but that’s about it.
I’m currently restructuring the vocabulary archives a bit to make things more organized and “streamlined”. There will for instance be a dedicated “course” for German particles, that has its own archive AND its own dedicated “complete” buttons. But more on that soon.
My question is this:
While doing this, I thought that I could actually offer sort of Challenges to members. Like for instance the “30 day German Particle Challenge” or a “30 important verbs challenge”.
I’d basically create a newsletter series that sends you one article from the archive every day (or every two days or whatever) that you can then read and at the end, you’ll have completed a field or topic.
I feel like this might be helpful if you feel lost and don’t know what to do.
This would be completely optional for members. You can just start whatever you feel like whenever you feel like.
So now I’m wondering if you all are interested in this.
So please vote :)
And while we’re voting, there’s another thing I’m wondering about: should I do an overview over all the functions that I actually offer on this site?
I have a hunch that even most members are not aware that you can slow down audio examples, take notes on lessons and dictionary entries and blur out German or English versions of examples (or both), so you can practice translation and so on. And some don’t even really know that I have a dictionary.
So yeah… I’m wondering if there’s a need for a comprehensive overview over what you can do, because I feel like many of you are missing out.
Really curious for the result.
So yeah… I think that’s it for today.
If you have any feedback or ideas for the site and how to make it more useful for your German learning, please let me know everything in the comments.
One of the next things I’ll do is offer a quiz archive, so you can pick quizzes based on topic without having to go through an article. That’ll come soon.
But yeah, let me know all your ideas in the comments.
Oh and do let me know if you see any layout glitches. I’m working quite a lot behind the scenes, and things sometimes get messy with the browser cache and I don’t know about it. Like… my dictionary search actually wasn’t working for a few days and I didn’t know.
So yeah… jedes Feedback ist willkommen. Ich freue mich drauf.
Ansonsten, habt einen schönen Tag und bis ganz bald.
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
I’ve been trying to think about what I would want to know if I didn’t already know what the site has to offer. I think it might help to have more ways to find different types of articles. Maybe a category you can click to find things like unique expressions, colloquial words that are good to know, or how to talk about different things like “to remember” or “to mean.”
And I know I’ve said this one before, but maybe show off the dictionary a little bit more. I think people should know there’s this place they can come to get quick, easy-to-understand explanations that you can’t find anywhere else, often with examples and a real human pronunciation.
I do still wish there was a way to find more of what’s in there, though. I feel bad that there are things I may never find because I don’t know to look for them. Not just because I want to learn, but also because it’s a labor of love that’s worth seeing. I’ve tried hard and found a lot, but I know there’s a lot I’m missing.
Just an aside, I miss the comment formatting options and the dates, which were also helpful to know what I asked when, and how far (or not) I’ve come since then. I also like to come back and look for new comments I might have missed before. I’ve learned a lot that way. I try to remember what I’ve read and just scan for what’s new, but that can be hard, especially with the older articles that have tons of comments.
I’m actually working on adding a clickable category to the articles. I just had to reorder them, because some of them had like 6 categories and I want to streamline it more, so now it’s max two. Then, I’ll split up the “complete button” trees so you can complete the separate categories.
As for the dictionary… yeah, I’ll soon integrate the vocabulary associated with each post in the post for members, so you can see all the dictionary entries, and possibly just run through examples as an exercise.
And I really have to clean up the “my words” archive and make it more useful.
As for the comments… I have removed the date as a test and I do see an uptick in comments on older “sleeping” posts. It looks like people do feel discouraged from commenting if they see that the latest comment is 4 years old, so those are not coming back.
You can see all your comments in two separate archives though, one of which you might not know about.
Let me know if you need a pointer :)
Oh also, comments are ordered newest to latest, so the newest ones are always on top. You can reorder to oldest to newest as well.
Uhhh, so you are trying to fix layout glitches? I have a report: the Recaptcha verification from the 2-week offer’s account registering page isn’t appearing.
I did encounter a wonky header on the site a couple of posts ago, but it seems fine now. And I really like your proposed projects (assuming the vote continues the way it stands now), particularly how it’s all laid out, so I can see what I need. Great work!
Yeah, I do all my development work on the life site so sometimes it’ll glitch out. Sorry for that.
My initial thought as I read through the article and got to the point where you suggested eliminating the two free articles was “UH OH, no one is going to find you any more.” I know I would never give out my email for a free trial unless I already was impressed by the content.
Then I got to the point where you suggested free access via search engine linking and thought that yes, that could work. (Please add duckduckgo, because google IS evil. Reddit is a good idea, too.). People need to find your work; once they do, it speaks for itself. You have, hands down, THE best explanations on the internet. If people can find that, a certain percent who are able will want to support it as well as use it.
Which leads me to my primary point.
I, for one, joined really only to ensure you were compensated for your excellent work and encouraged/incentivized/enabled to continue doing what I was learning a lot from. I was already getting plenty of access without even intending to evade. (Let’s face it the the two per week limit isn’t based on Fort Knox level security technology anyway.) I didn’t expect to use any of the features that were actually unavailable to me at the time.*** The articles were plenty. If we want capitalism with humanity we have to make sure the folks that start out as passionate hobbyists can actually make a living, and most of them undervalue their own contributions.
So basically, make it easier for the people of good will to give you money. Prioritize a sponsorship option for the lifetime members. That has already been suggested more than once in this thread, so you know there are people who are being actively impeded from donating more because it will mess up their membership. I imagine you may well have this money segregated into a sponsorship fund and don’t even consider it “yours”, but it really is ultimately part of the same pot. I hope that doesn’t sound patronizing, but anyone who would even offer a scholarship option probably wrestles with moral/ethical questions like that. I would too, and I probably wouldn’t survive in business.
Honestly, one of my biggest qualms about getting the lifetime membership was that I knew that if I used it enough for it to pay for itself you would eventually stop being compensated by one of the people getting the most value from your work. Don’t stop offering it; I was drawn by not having to worry about recurring renewals. Just give an option for those folks to pay more later if they want. BTW, recurring renewals would be a good idea, and convenient for users.
Also, a straight up donation option was suggested. That is a good idea, too, though I would say make it very unobtrusive. Maybe a single button in the header menu. Non-pestering, but findable. The people who would use it would look for it.
***Finally, a last word for anyone stumbling across this post who is considering a membership. While I didn’t expect to use the members only features, I use them a LOT. I like being able to track my progress, and the AI tools are great for someone with limited exposure to real life language use.
Wow, that was a really long post. Sorry. :)
hear, hear on DuckDuckGo – google is evil.
Added!
Thanks a lot for taking the time to share this! It was really interesting to read and there are lots of little take-aways for me in it.
I had already added a recurring monthly subscription a few weeks ago just to see how it goes.
I think I have a good way for the sponsor-support pot too, that doesn’t force people to use PayPal if they don’t want to. I’ll put that up soon.
And I’m really happy to hear that you’re making use of the “tool box”, as scattered as it may be :).
I personally structure, so any way you can add that in to give more direction, I’m all for that.
I’ve appreciated many of the features, especially the English and German blurring options to help with my aural understanding before I see the written word. And I love the humor and writing style, although I admit I’m just now getting back into my Deutschlernen.
One suggestion: Perhaps it would help if you created a gifting tool. As one example, for those people with lifetime memberships (may you still be writing into the far future), it is hard to figure out how to provide you funds for a gift membership without screwing up the record keeping for the lifetime membership. Or perhaps I’m just missing an existing tool?
There isn’t such an option at the moment. You’re right that it would indeed mess up the membership. I can of course manually reset it to lifetime, but that’s not really a proper solution. I’ll look into providing gift memberships or something like that.
Really appreciate the offer, for sure.
Oh and I am super duper happy you’re using the blurring feature. I feel like this is one of those most people sleep on.
I also want to make it store your settings so you select once and that then just stays that way on any page until you change it. It’ll be browser dependent first but I’ll save it to profile eventually.
I second the usage of the blur function, I always turn it on when starting reading an article, since just like DKirkJ I find it is more useful to train my ear for listening, rather than just go ahead and read.
I’ll make it so the site remembers your settings soon and you don’t have to set it up every time :)
Keep up the good work. I like the humor and your teaching method has never become stale.
The tour of the site is something I’ve been meaning to mention for quite some time, mainly because I suspect that most folk (no names, but…) are only using a tiny fraction of the capabilities of this site. If that’s by choice then no problem, but if it’s because things are difficult to manage, and seem to end up being either forgotten or abandoned then it’s a different matter.
Sorry, focus, focus, must focus… What I’m getting at is that it’d also be super-interesting to hear how other members of this site are actually knitting together the available features into a useful whole. Having that information in one place, rather than buried in the comments of a related article would be helpful, so maybe it’d be worthwhile having a request for such contributions within the article outlining the site’s features. No offence to your projected explanation/tour/guide whatsoever, of course, but hearing some tales from the trenches might be even more useful, both for you and for the audience.
I would love to have more help directing my learning- I feel so random and ineffectual;( vielen Danke!
Yeah, I think this is the biggest problem of my site at the moment. It feels like a library, but there is no guidance. I want to add more guidance.
Ich hätte gern das Schwierigkeitsniveau der Quiz auszuwählen.
Das ist super super schwer.
Die Quizze sind fast immer themenspezifisch, und manche Fragen sind super einfach, andere sind schwerer. Ich kann das nicht wirklich mit einem Label bewerten.
I won’t use Google or Chrome because of its extensive and intrusive tracking. I use the Chrome-based browser Brave, with its own built-in search engine, they don’t track anything. Brave is pretty popular. Not sure how deep in the weeds you want to go with supporting different platforms.
All right, should work.
I was going to make a similar comment regarding duckduckgo. As the only privacy respecting search engine I’m aware of, would suggest adding them if you go that route.
AI is certainly changing a lot – I’m so happy to be on the earth to take advantage of it – great tool. What I don’t understand is how it’s affecting your site – I’d be interested to know exactly what you mean by the way AI is changing how people find info and interact with it influencing your site – feel sorta confused on the connection there.
While I understand I could get AI to do a similar version for me – especially now with the agent feature on Atlas, it would take way more time for me to direct it (like a symphony) and it would never be the same – it would be a reasonable facsimile.
What am I missing here?
The mere thought of receiving e-mails with a challenge makes my chest and throat tighten – I need more mail showing up in my mailbox like I need a wart on my arse.
Okay, so in search there, there is a concept called “search intent”. One of the most common search intents is “informational”. So you go to Google or wherever to find an answer to something or information about something.
And this is EXACTLY what AI is eating up.
Many people go to ChatGPT to ask about the world, and Google has the AI mode AND it also puts AI answers at the top that give an answer to such information based queries.
The AI does give links as “sources” but users usually don’t click because they got their question answered already and have no reason to read an article anymore.
Google search was already awful before because of all the SEO garbage sites and when you click on a page, you get hit with cookie banner pop-up, newsletter popup and blinking ads, so many people are actually very happy to just have the AI give them an answer.
Long story short, traffic to my site is down about 50% and hence new members are also down. Not by 50% but enough to feel uncertain as to how sustainable this is as a business medium term.
I don’t have doubts about my content, I think there’s a market for it. But if no one comes here, no one knows. It’s difficult for me to run ads (I never have) because I don’t have a clear value proposition. My site is a library with a bunch of nice tools, but most people feel lost.
Also, the hurdle to start reading my long form essays is steep and you won’t know the character and tone until a few articles in.
So yeah… the challenge is to get people to find me and then to make a clear enough offer to convince enough people to sign up.
Totally get your dislike for more emails. I am that way too, and it’ll be completely optional (opt-in, not opt-out).
But I hear that these challenges do work really really well. Many people do feel motivated by the thought of this.
Thanks for the explanation. As I see it, AI isn’t really eating up much but rather revealing what is lacking, NOT in your content, but in relation to what those you have lost are really seeking. As a sociologist, I would say, you are not losing clients, you are retaining ones that are here for your content. The fun, the unicorns, the humor, the alternative angle, Thomas and Maria, the community. AI has provided a more focused source of information. Why pay for the info you want, without having to read about Thomas and Maria, wade through the humor, ignore the unicorns, when you can get it free and fast via AI? In my opinion, google sucks, and has become suckier since AI showed up. AI is a sucky google and those that don’t know how to use AI (spoiler alert: it’s NOT google) pro’lly won’t like AI. Good riddance, I say to the people of whom you have been relieved. What brings people here? Dunno, ask them. I*m here for the humor, the unicorns, Thomas and Maria, the beer, the community. The fun. Accent on COMMUNITY. I can interact with anyone that has left a comment, provided they respond to my response to their post, which is a response to….
YOUR content. THIS is exactly what AI can’t do. (Not yet anyway). AI is NOT community – but you are. What would I invoice you a vulgar sum to inform you via a boring 25 page suggestion to do? Ema: jack up the COMMUNITY. Any way you can. The newsletter challenge: I can have ChatGPT do one for me every morning, especially now that I have access to the agent- mode. YOU, Ema can give me COMMUNITY, connection, relationship in the challenge. AI cannot. You are NOT competing with “content” – dude, RULE NUMBER 1: no one buys a product (this includes content) – they BUY A LIFESTYLE. This piece of advice cost my parents a ridiculous amount of tuition fees for me to learn. It’s yours. For free. ‘Cause I luv ya, bro. For everyone in the back not paying attention: Thomas and Maria, unicorns, the beer, the humor, the COMMUNITY, (this means you Berlingrabers, Ilonka, Rosekidsmom, octavia, Elsa, FrauSchneider, Voldemort, RuthE and everyone else). Do I still use AI when I need a quick answer? Yep. ‘Course I do – I can get answers in a dozen different places – NONE of which are fun, nor a lifestyle with which I want to associate. GIMME a GROUP challenge, says the lady who doesn’t play well with others. The woman who ABHORS competition – put me in a group with 3 others to compete in the challenge – and I’d be willing to receive e-mail from hell for that. MORE stuff that makes us feel TOGETHERNESS – think “Sesamstraße” – think everything that AI can’t do. AI isn’t taking over anything -it’s revealing deficiency, shortcoming, what lacks, mediocrity. There is ALWAYS room for the best, or something ELSE – especiallly what AI can’t do: community. And no, it won’t be replacing relationships either – it will just put pressure on the bad ones, reveal what the bad ones lack and give ’em a run for their money. Get to work, Ema – you’ve got some comnunity to build and to keep that personality/lifestyle strong. No pressure.
Wow, that was VERY interesting and inspiring.
“As I see it, AI isn’t really eating up much but rather revealing what is lacking,”
Love it! Thank you for that!
I’ll let the community idea simmer. I totally get what you’re saying, I just don’t know right of the bat what I can do with it. Anyway, onwards to the next chapter!!
I’m team Thomas and Maria… keep being you. I laugh out loud reading many of the articles.
Happy to hear :)!!
Will the old articles generally be paywalled then? There are a handful of articles that I think every learner needs to read, and I often post links to those in German chat groups or classes. I think it would be good have a few “the first one’s always free” articles, like the first word order article, that people can share and that bring in traffic, without having to set up an account. And then they will want to explore more deeply.
This is a very very interesting point actually. I’ll have to think about it. Maybe switching to two per month could be an option.
It does suck to get a recommendation only to find it pay-walled.
For what it’s worth, the “2 free per week” rarely works for me anyway. Sometimes I get through the paywall, other times I don’t, so I think it’s fine to abandon that model. I never have figured out whether it’s an issue with my browser or just an email handling thing, but in any case it tends to be a fun surprise when I actually get in.
I would probably be a casual-user-through-Google, though I do really enjoy the quizzes. Like another commenter, I tend to overestimate my attention span and honing my rusty German skills is definitely more hobby than need, so a subscription would probably go unused.
I agree with other comments regarding a Donate option. While I probably wouldn’t make full use of your excellent resources with a full membership myself, I would be happy to contribute towards a membership for someone who would.
Thanks for all your hard work and generous approach!
I’m one of those “feel lost and don’t know what to do” people so having the email challenges would be wonderful. And the quiz archive would be grand as well. Thanks for asking!
I just want to say that as a paying member, I’m extremely happy with the information you provide. This is easily the best resource for understanding the connotation of vocabulary, and your approach to building vocabulary around root words and exploring prefixes is incredibly intuitive, yet surprisingly I’ve never seen it anywhere else. I’m very happy with my membership and I’m happy to be supporting content that AI would never be able to replace.
Thanks, much appreciated :).
And happy that you seem to use the site beyond just the newsletter and new articles. I want to encourage more people to do that, I just have to find a way to make a compelling offer.
I voted no on the overview, but my training wasn’t really either of the options listed. I just know that I wouldn’t really read/use the overview even if it were available.
Looking forward to the updates!
All your ideas sound great. I appreciate the need to survive, and hope they work out. Unforch I have no REASON to join (no German friends now, alas). But I would happily contribute to Octavia’s Donate button towards sponsored members.
PS: I think the plural is “buses”.
Hallo,
Some typos first:
“what’s happening the crazy real life circus” (what’s happening in the crazy real life circus)
“everyone of you knows” (every one of you knows)
Thanks for the info, AI is indeed changing the nature of work and we must evolve accordingly. I’d love to do a challenge, so yep, great idea :)
The idea with the quizzes is also fantastic, please do implement that :)))
Bis bald!
I think the feature overview is a good idea and would fit naturally in an “about” panel in the upper toolbar.
I also think the 30-day challenge thing is a good idea and kinda goes along with the “daily” idea. And it seems like a good way to be new-fashioned without doing too much of an overhaul to how you’re already set up. I myself might be more likely to do a 14-day challenge, I’m done with overestimating my attention span.
The reason I subscribed to this site years ago is because your series on declensions was threeeeeeeeeeeee articles long and I needed to read all three. I hungrily signed up for two weeks free, thought “dang this is actually really good,” and then forgot about your site for ages because for some reason your newsletters quit showing up. Then somehow years later they started showing up again – maybe because I had gotten back into studying German, and had read one of your articles again, so google was picking it up?
But that was the olden days I suppose… maybe nowadays free articles from google is a good idea. I would maybe not advertise that as a feature of the site, let people think they are getting in through a backdoor or something.
Speaking of olden days versus current days … I think having a big fat American DONATION BUTTON is a lot more acceptable now. Currency moves a lot more. People expect to pay for things. Your subscription style is really generous and conscientious, and people who have money coming in recognize that and also recognize that you have costs. So if it’s shyness about asking money that’s stopping you from making it easier to donate … stop being shy! Money is energy, you put a LOT of energy into this site, let it flow! That’s my opinion, you’ve heard it before but here it is again.