We were thinking about whether there is any way to do some kind of income sharing agreement, but given how messy those tend to be (see all the Lambda school stuff as an example) we couldn't figure out a way to make it work.
Maybe if everyone was definitely starting a Substack we could take a small cut of Substack revenue for the next year or two, which would be straightforward enough.
If anyone has ideas, I would definitely be curious to hear them.
I think the volume would really be a lot. For the program we'll be dealing with 900 (!) blogposts (30 residents times 30 blogposts). I doubt something with that volume would actually end up with many subscribers
Also, I would feel bad about splitting the audience of the authors. I feel like you really want to build your own audience early on.
And last, I am worried it would push people towards homogeneity. My ideal outcome from the whole project is that we will have a bunch of really very different blogs and essay writers find traction who share little of an audience, but add some important perspective to the world.
Definitely not "same subject" if we are thinking of something as narrow as "Frontend development" but I would like many people to find a niche/style/perspective they feel at home in. Something as consistent as simonwillison.net seems good for many.
Also, my guess finding such a style/niche will take a bunch of exploration, so I think most people should probably write in a bunch of different styles and on a bunch of different things during Inkhaven to get more evidence about what they enjoy writing about the most (and which of their writing people want to read).
Maybe if everyone was definitely starting a Substack we could take a small cut of Substack revenue for the next year or two, which would be straightforward enough.
If anyone has ideas, I would definitely be curious to hear them.