I very much appreciate his self promotion tactics. This isn't disingenuous at all. He's simply sharing his own experiences and giving advice to others who were in the same boat as he was. There's more than one way to skin a cat. What I mean by that is Joel's advice may work great for many people but he's definitely not the final authority nor does he ever claim to be. My totally unprofessional and uninformed opinion of your comment is that it seems to maybe stem not from Joel's writing but probably from seeing a ton of blog posts just like it on HN from others. I get it. I've had HN burnout before too and when it happens you just look at everything on the front page and think to yourself "what a bunch of bullshit. I think we've beaten all these horses to death already". When the balance of reading to to doing tilts toward reading far more than doing this kind of attitude comes about or at least it does for me.

So lay off. I believe you're annoyed but you're not the only one Joel is writing for. The guy is doing a good Jon and a lot of us really appreciate the documenting of his experiences. I personally can really relate to everything he talks about. I'm smart enough to know not to take is as gospel but it's damn helpful nonetheless. Joel isn't running a product pricing blog. It's a blog about his own experiences running a startup so be prepared to read about those types of experiences including how he approached pricing Buffer when you click the link.

It's one thing to disagree with everything he's saying and back it up and another to just accuse him of being disingenuous and self promoting because you've read one too many posts on HN today.

"I very much appreciate his self promotion tactics."

I agree the self promotion is good for Joel. I know who he is because of what he has written even though I've been critical along the same lines as the parent. But the parent's thoughts are important also in pointing out to anyone reading this (who is green) that isn't aware of what is going on here. Then they can decide for themselves how they want to listen to or use the advice.

People are clearly interested in the topic of pricing. Since we're here, can you give us a source of better advice or explain what's wrong with this article?

Without wading into this drama, the below article on pricing experiments is a fantastic resource as it provides a lot of different perspectives on pricing (I'm not affiliated with the site).

http://conversionxl.com/pricing-experiments-you-might-not-kn...

With all things "startup" (pricing, design, customer on-boarding, etc), there are no absolutes. So articles which offer frameworks that help you ask the right questions or think through the process are generally more valuable and this one does that IMO.

He runs a company that charges for their product, why are you so wound up about this? He at least has some experience with the topic, and half of the article is quotes anyways.

No one is forcing you to read anything here.

Will you give us a post on a subject you clearly have very big experience with?

Joel built the business and he is sharing his experience. Did you do the same? Do you have a successful business?