Trapani: I did have mixed feelings about it, too, but I was mostly optimistic about it. What was your feeling about that kind of pay structure? You got a base rate, and if you exceeded a certain number of page views, you got a bonus after that. Then it went down to the individual and how they did with traffic. For a while it was based on quarterly site growth, with everyone getting bonuses based on traffic at that site. They were controversial for obvious reasons - like how far would a writer go just to get traffic and get paid. Then Gawker incentivized the authors to get paid more for popular posts, and that formula evolved over time and got crazy.
And then I said, ‘This is great, writing 200 words and slapping on a link.’ But I wanted to write lengthy features, but didn’t want to get paid $12 for a post that took five hours to put together. When I first started it was a straight-up $12 per post. The formula got more complicated as time went by, and a little more controversial. Did it get to a point where you just couldn’t figure it out? I heard a lot about the complex pay structure for Gawker writers based on page views and “banked” bonuses. But it was untenable because I was doing 12 posts per day for Lifehacker and answering emails, and I said, ‘I just can’t do this work for Kinja anymore.’ I started writing Lifehacker, doing that half time and Kinja half time, and was being paid for both of them. A month or two into my co-workers said, ‘Oh, you have coding experience, you should be paid for your work.’ So I was being paid for it. Trapani: At that point I was a part-time contractor for Kinja. Was it part-time or were you a contractor at that point? I got really excited and said, ‘You could do this, or do that, and have you heard about this piece of software?!’ So he asked me to write it on the spot, and we developed the look and feel and mascot and design. I loved the idea that Nick wanted to do a site on software, because he already had a site on gadgets with Gizmodo. He mentioned off-hand that he had registered the domain,, and it turned on a light bulb in my head. So I would go out to lunch with him and ask him about the business. He registered the domain,, because he had heard of this thing called life hack and I was interested in Gawker and business. He already had several sites going - Gawker, Gizmodo, Fleshbot - and he was always constantly looking out for ways to expand the publishing empire. Trapani: I would say it was a combination. When Lifehacker came about, was it your idea, Nick’s idea, how did that happen? Trapani talks about how coding is similar creatively to writing (and not): So that’s how I got to work with Nick Denton every day.
BEST FEED READER LIFEHACKER FOR FREE
I met Anil at a party through a friend, and Meg put out a call for interns at Kinja, and I said I would work basically for free just to be around these people. I love writing and love keeping a journal, I wrote my own publishing system, and was fascinated with all the figures in blogging at the time like Meg Hourihan, who did Megnut and founded Blogger. I started out as an intern, and was keeping my own blog,. I was a freelancer working for Nick, doing web development for, which also doesn’t exist now.
I was doing freelance web development work, which got me working for Nick Denton, who runs Gawker Media. I built community features for teenagers from 2000, through 9/11, until 2003. I worked at a community website for teens called, which was shut down. Gina Trapani: I was a web developer living in Brooklyn, and I worked at a couple dot-coms in Manhattan. What was your life like before Lifehacker? She started a new blog, Smarterware, is doing some freelance writing, and catching up on all the Firefox extensions she started developing. What She’s Doing Now: Last month, she left Lifehacker as daily editor, but will continue to contribute weekly columns.
BEST FEED READER LIFEHACKER UPGRADE
Trapani has parlayed her background in web development and blogging to become a noted expert in productivity and wrote a book, Upgrade Your Life, while being the lead editor of Lifehacker. The blog is ranked #7 on Technorati in authority, and according to its Site Meter stats, had more than 6.7 million visits in the past week. What Makes Her a Thought Leader: Trapani was the founding blogger for Gawker Media’s Lifehacker blog, featuring tips and shortcuts to be more productive.
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