Introducing New Membership Features and a Slack Team
I'm excited to announce a number of new features attached with Above Avalon memberships. Last May, I began writing daily analysis and perspective about the world of Apple and sending it exclusively to members. How have memberships been going? Great. Things have exceeded my expectations. With members from 38 countries, holding various backgrounds and areas of expertise, a vibrant member community has been formed in just eight months. In terms of numbers, I'm fortunate to have recently raised my one year subscriber goal.
New Features for Members
Archive. Beginning this week, Above Avalon members now have access to all previous analysis and perspective sent to members. While Daily Updates sent to members are timely and focused on current news events, they include stories that are also quite valuable for future reference. In addition, an archive makes it possible for me to seamlessly link back to previous articles, which was not possible before.
The archive is found within the Above Avalon team in Slack.
New Above Avalon Team in Slack. Let me cut to the chase. Slack is the future, available today. I'm not a fan of web forums for many reasons, so I never had an interest in having an Above Avalon member forum. However, after jumping with both feet into Slack, it quickly became obvious that this is something with which I want to associate with Above Avalon. Since more than a few Above Avalon members were already familiar with Slack, I knew the transition would be easy. Over time, I think most teams as well as subscriber and hobby groups will be on Slack. With great iOS apps available for iPhone and iPad and a nice web interface for Mac and PC, Slack has everyone covered.
The Above Avalon team in Slack is a great place to meet and communicate with members from various industries including tech and finance circles. There are four primary channels or "forums":
- dailyupdates_archive - An archive of Daily Updates sent to members.
- dailyupdates_comments - A place to talk about the Daily Updates with the group.
- intros - A place to introduce yourself to the group.
- random - A place to chat about various topics.
- thursday_qa - An opt-in channel for asking questions to be answered in Thursday Q&A, a feature where I answer a few member questions each Thursday.
It was very important to me that these new features be positioned to increase the value of Above Avalon memberships. This means that joining the Above Avalon team in Slack is optional. All of my analysis and perspective can be found in the daily emails throughout the week. I will not post exclusive content in Slack. If you don't join the Above Avalon team in Slack, you will still receive much value with your Above Avalon membership. That was a key consideration to make Slack opt-in and not a mandatory signup.
Additional Ways to Consume Analysis. While all Daily Updates will continue to be written for easy email consumption and sent daily via email, members now have additional ways to consume stories including RSS, Twitter and Slack.
RSS: Available here (membership is required to read content)
Twitter: Available here (anyone can follow, but membership is required to access full content)
Members continue to have the option of a consolidated weekly version of the daily emails for those who prefer to have everything in one spot delivered right to their inbox.
Subscribe
Membership is the only way to get the full Above Avalon experience and receive all my exclusive analyses and perspective on Apple. My Apple analysis is focused at the intersection of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. I am a former Wall Street analyst with a finance/engineering background. Accordingly, topics will range from Apple financial modeling to product marketing and business strategy. In addition, I cover all of Apple's competitors and the industries Apple is either operating in or looking to enter in the near future.
A subscription costs $10/month or $100/year. For more information, click here. There is also a membership FAQ here. You can subscribe using the signup forms below.
Please contact me directly if you would like to purchase multiple subscriptions (five or more) for your team or company.