Clive Thompson is a journalist who writes about science & technology for the New York Times Magazine, Wired, and other outlets. He's also the author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World in 2019, and he's in the midst of a new book right now.
We chatted with Clive to learn about how he uses Buttondown to grow his audience.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
I'm a writer who focuses on science, technology, and the clean-energy transition. I write magazine features for places like Wired, the New York Times Magazine and Mother Jones, and books -- my latest for Penguin was "Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World", and I'm currently writing one about how I cycled across the US last year, as a framework for thinking about how to decarbonize US mobility.
I've also been a blogger since 2002 -- for over a decade I blogged at Collisiondetection.net, then I started writing for sites like Medium and guest blogging for Boing Boing. Blogging is crucial to my thought processes; I really need to think aloud, online, in conversation with other people.
I'm also a musician on the side -- mostly with the Delorean Sisters, a country/bluegrass band, and Lipstick Driver, an indie-rock power trio.
What do you write about on your newsletter?
The "Linkfest" is pretty much what the name suggests -- it's old-school linkblogging about science, culture and technology. I follow about 450 sites using RSS, and basically hoover up their posts all day long like a baleen whale inhaling krill. Then every two weeks I take a few dozen of the most fascinating and remarkable things I've found online and write them up.
I call it "the opposite of doomscrolling" 😅
Where did you first learn of Buttondown, and what made you decide to give it a try?
I heard about it about four years ago when I was first thinking of starting a newsletter: It was one of the options I saw out there, including Ghost and Substack. I don't think Beehiiv was yet on my radar back then.
When I finally decided to launch the "Linkfest" in early 2023, I went with Buttondown because I liked the simplicity of the interface, and the fact that it was a very independent affair -- Justin himself would respond very quickly to any queries! I heavily dig smaller-scale tech and like to support it.
I also frankly appreciated that it was just a newsletter backend service, and wasn't trying to transform itself into a full-on social network or curated feed, the way Substack was evolving. I've been around tech long enough to have seen how VC "growth at all costs" pressure can deform publishing technologies. I didn't want to sign on with a place that was going to pursue that metastatic overgrowth.
What are some ways Buttondown has helped you run your email?
I particularly like the clean interface for writing posts, primarily. The analytics are also excellent -- since I'm linkblogging (i.e. I'm explicitly encouraging people to visit cool things online) it's always useful to see what people click on.
What are some things you’d be excited to see Buttondown build in the next few months?
I think I'd enjoy seeing a slightly clearer subscription flow for the type of Guardian-style subscriptions I offer. The way I run the "Linkfest" is that paying for it is entirely optional -- anyone can subscribe for free, but if you want you can kick in some monthly money, and the people who pay for it help keep it free for everyone else.
What seems to me, though, is that Buttondown's subscription flow is more geared to the more-traditional flow of newsletter subscriptions: I.e. someone signs up for a "free" tier that's maybe a bit limited, and they can "upgrade their subscription" to get the full paid stuff.
This doesn't quite fit the psychology or language that suits a Guardian-style model. There's nothing to "upgrade" to: The people getting it for free get exactly what the people who are paying for it get, lol. Really what would work best for a model like mine is to have a flow where you pump in your email and -- simultaneously, in the exact same HTML form -- you pick how much you want to support the "Linkfest" with: Free, or dial in some dough. If they pick "free", that's it, boom, their subscribed; if they pick a sum, then they get kicked to the Stripe stuff to give out a card.
It would also be nice for people to be able to, with one click, stop paying their monthly donation (if they can no longer afford to support me) but keep getting the newsletter. I'm not sure that possible right now? Seems like they'd have to unsubscribe then sign up again, this time for free.
Maybe there's already some way to customize the sign-on flow such that it operates these ways way? There didn't seem to be when I first set up my buttondown account. I've probably been too lazy to investigate it lolol