…ok, I haven’t read the whole thing yet, just the part Mark Frauenfelder posted over at BoingBoing.net, but I LOVE reading candid interviews with successful bloggers who were instrumental in shaping the industry.
The entire Blogging Heroes book is available on Amazon.com here (no affil.). I’ll be picking it up tonight!
Tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 9th) at about 1130pm EST we’re going to do a live broadcast over at justin.tv/ipaul.
Yes, a friend and myself will be streaming a live video show over the web. We’ll be talking about things like technology, online business, the trouble he’s had with his computers lately and hopefully brainstorming “show” ideas.
Although I can’t promise that this will be a nightly occurance, really do hope it’ll be the start of something bigger.
So if you’re the type of person who slows down for car wrecs and just can’t keep your eyes off the carnage, no matter how disturbing, drop by justin.tv/ipaul and say hi.
I’m still trying to decide which live broadcasting service to go with: Justin.tv or Ustream.tv. On one hand, Justin.tv seems to have a “cooler” viewer base and more prolific broadcasters to draw them in. Ustream.tv gives you much more technical control over things like the chat so I can embed it into my own site. Choices…
Anyone else having issues with Wordpress 2.3? Some of my plugins, and some I’d love to use, are borked with no upgrades yet available. Is WP2.3 the Windows Vista of blogging platforms now?
I’ve always been a fan of lists of popular sites, particularly the most popular in a given niche. For me, If I’m into a certain subject I can simply go to a web page and get a good general idea of the who’s-who in that space.
Techmeme’s new leaderboard launched yesterday and it’s the hot thing being talked about on a lot of tech blogs right now. Essentially, it’s a list of tech sites, blogs and news sources, weighted by how much space headlines from those sites have occupied on Techmeme over the past 30 days.
That’s all cool and I like it. However, that list is NOT as important as some people in the tech-osphere are making it out to be.
Problem is, it will become more important as time passes, the more weight (ie. mindshare) the A-List bloggers give it - sorta like how Google’s PageRank became important in search engine optimization circles.
Personally, I like the Techmeme Leaderboard already, because I like reading about things in the tech space.
But I’ll argue that the most important element on that page right now is not who’s at the top of the list or what site is at # 77, it’s the accompanying OPML file.
So you spent $8 on the dot com version of your domain name, got yourself a $20 a month hosting account, uploaded wordpress with a great free theme and you’re in business.
That’s poor planning. Very poor.
Today, there are so many other services out there with opportunities for branding and promotion of your new blog it’s almost mindblowing.
There’s a Twitter plugin available for wordpress. It automatically posts a blurb to your Twitter account when you post to your blog. You DID check with Twitter before registering that new domain name, didn’t you? Was twitter.com/yourdomain available and did you secure it as part of your planning process?
What about a Youtube.com/yourdomain url and account. Myspace.com/yourdomain? What about yourdomain.blip.tv or a skype, Y!IM, MSN Messenger and AIM accounts with your name or a slight variation… and the list goes on. yourdomain@gmail.com (@yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc)
Not to mention, if you’re really serious about securing your name online, registering different .??? versions of your name, like .tv, .org, .net, .us, .ca, etc.
Enough. You get the picture. And posts on blogs by people who have unexpected popularity finding that their domains or slogans have been grabbed or are for sale to the highest bidder should paint that picture more vividly for you.
Of course, it’s not necessary. All you need is a domain, hosting and wordpress… but that’s short term and short sighted.
Get serious and spend a couple extra hours of preparation on your business, blog and brand by signing up to as least the most popular (or growing) services out there with your new domain. Heck, check all those services first before securing the domain itself.
Imagine being able to sell your site or blog in the future and having the added bonus of handing all those associated accounts over to the new owners. You’ll look a lot more like a serious player and those few extra hours of prep could pay off hansomely too.
Pulling out seconds before the life giving injection is made. Not only is Withdrawl a questionable birth control method, it’s a nasty tactic for a private investor to use to gather all the info they possibly can without actually delivering the goods.
It also destroys friendships and relationships, maybe even lives if taken just a little too far.
54 is dead in the water. My sincere apologies to the 150+ people who applied for a blogging position. If there were no legal or privacy ramifications present in the deal, I’d point you all to the person who killed it.
Oh well, another black eye and temporary limp. Time to heal and move on… Maybe next time.
