Open Source Blogging

Yesterday Mike Arrington took us off the rails and into the idiot land.

Listen, I’m as egotistical as the rest of them. I can say “follow me” along with the best of them. According to Loic Le Meur and Mike Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, I have more authority than either of them because I have more followers on Twitter. Their words, not mine.

That idea is patently idiotic. We have been derailed from the promised land of smarter conversations on Twitter and have moved into the idiot land if that’s the way we think.

Even worse, my post yesterday about this got … Continue Reading

I’m working on a column for Fast Company Magazine about how microblogging companies like FriendFeed, Twitter, and Tumblr might make money. Here’s a little sneak peek based on a conversation I had today with Tumblr founder/CEO David Karp.

First, we didn’t focus on just advertising. Tumblr is joining media sharing sites Flickr and SmugMug into charging its users for stuff. People in the industry call that the “freemium” model. Give away one version, but charge for more features. Like what Flickr does. SmugMug goes further and just plain charges, but it’s worth it for … Continue Reading

I have the honor of co-presenting on an upcoming webinar entitled: "Right Content. Right Response. How to create content that brings traffic, fosters engagement and boosts conversion." My esteemed co-panelists are Brian Massey, author of the Customer Chaos Blog, and Joel Granoff, founder of BeGreeted and resident webcast expert.

Just for attending the event on August 26th at 12pm EDT you’ll receive two pretty cool freebies. Register now  … and you will receive the top line report, "B2B Sales Lead Generation: Integration of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 Media" a
Research Insights publication by the very smart folks … Continue Reading

In my last post “Please Steal My Content” I talked about how I found myself on this journey of open source blogging, letting my creative writing and web content go.

I promised that in my next post, this one, I was going to talk about what I learned about being vigilant about trying to protect my online content and why I’m less fussed about it today.

Let’s talk about some experiences and realities for a moment:

The minute you publish your information and content on the web, it is fair game. Now maybe it shouldn’t be but that is just the … Continue Reading

You might know that Facebook, this afternoon, will have its second press conference surrounding its platform. Go to TechMeme if you want to know the news. I’m sure there will be dozens of articles. I decided I would go, though, mostly to find smaller stories about what developers are doing on that platform. Talk to you later.

Thanks for all the continuing feedback about the rant I wrote the other night. It’s really hard to get off of the “write about the latest shiny object” game. I think I need to go to a detox program for tech bloggers. … Continue Reading

Who is winning the race to get more traffic?

This 14-year-old kid, Fred. He’s gotten MILLIONS of views! 45 million at last count.

This is what happens when you try to simply be entertaining.

If traffic is your goal, here’s the formula. Do something really stupid that’ll make people laugh.

Me? I’ll stick with having a few thousand people passionate about learning more from innovative technologists and other leaders.

Why not get into the traffic race? Because I’d rather be in the race for a smart, focused audience. That’s where the real action is.

It also says volumes about why YouTube is losing … Continue Reading