Many people have pitched in with their own reply blog posts. Notables like Pete Cashmore, Fred Wilson, and Loic Le Meur - founder of Le Web conference in Paris - have participated in Jeremiah's comments sections. Pete Cashmore's comment is particularly interesting.
America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for HireMark Penn, Hillary 2008's top guy ... more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers ... blogging is an important social and cultural movement that people care passionately about, and the number of people doing it for at least some income is approaching 1% of American adults. ... a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income ... one percent of the nation, or three million people, can create new markets for a business, spark a social movement, or produce political change ... The Information Age has spawned many new professions, but blogging could well be the one with the most profound effect on our culture. ... Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated ... It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year. ... Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as "spokesbloggers" -- paid by advertisers to blog about products. As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around -- but it can also be quite profitable. ... Pros who work for companies are typically paid $45,000 to $90,000 a year for their blogging. One percent make over $200,000. ... Bloggers make money if their consumers click the ads on their sites. ... bloggers say they are overwhelmingly happy in their work, reporting high job satisfaction ... There are more questions than answers about America's Newest Profession. ... hard to think of another job category that has grown so quickly and become such a force in society without having any tests, degrees, or regulation of virtually any kind. ... a lot of interest now in Twittering and Facebooking -- but those venues don't offer the career opportunities of blogging. Not since eBay opened its doors have so many been able to sit at their computer screens and make some money, or even make a whole living. ...
This guy Dave Winer has an ugly looking blog, and he runs no ads, but he makes millions blogging. How?
To get excited about blogging is to "get" 2.0. And if you have been missing out on 2.0, it is not possible you are on the cutting edge.
(1) Value
The market rewards value. Are you meeting some kind of market need? Your blog adds to your value. It helps your marketing efforts. It is real intimate talk with your most important clients. Like A VC says, if you read his blog, and that of his five partners, it is like you sit with them in their office every day: that intimate.
(2) StartUp/Corporate
If you are a tech startup person, you breathe blogging. That rectangle on the screen is your office. And the blogosphere is a big chunk of it. Blogging becomes that fundamental, indispensable skill. It is like, can you type? Can you do that keyboard thing? If you can't, I think you are still beautiful, but how are you going to get any work done? Blogging is what typing was. Are you blogging literate? That is a fair question these days. (3) Lifelong Education
Blogging is to the brain what jogging is to your thighs. If you are an active blogger, chances are you keep up with the news in your chosen field. You think about the hot issues of the day. You are alert. You can still type as of today.
(4) Living Life To The Full Zappos says somewhere that because he tweets, he lives life more fully. Blogging makes you more alive as a person. You are more likely to squeeze that last drop out of each moment.
(5) Plenty Of Money
Write great content, regularly, jack up your traffic, and let the ads do their work.
I just added these buttons to my blog. I figured they will help spread the word out a little. Although my blog has best served me for small group communication purposes. This is no mass traffic blog. It is a communication tool. Helps me get my point across. And also speaks to my blogging hobby. It is both business and pleasure, like James Bond says in a movie: "Hopefully both!"
You do want a larger audience. You do want to build a community around your blog. Post it and they will come does not cut it. You have to go where people are already assembled.
You add the buttons and it is one step easier for visitors to help you spread the word if the spirit might move them.
One glitch for me now is the two buttons work for individual posts only. Otherwise your general blog URL is what gets tweeted. Still, no complaints. So if you want to tweet/digg a particular blog post, get on the web address with that particular blog post, then press the button.
ooVoo - an incredibly easy way to have free, high-resolution, face-to-face video chats with up to 6 www.ooVoo.com SpeakLike -- lets you email and chat with people who speak other languages. www.speaklike.com Tigerbow - Tigerbow lets people send actual gifts to virtual places. http://tigerbow.com ProCompare - Business Technology Recommendations, powered by a global community of IT professionalswww.ProCompare.com
This was a new venue for the New York Tech MeetUp. The Diller building was razzmatazz. But this was a bigger venue, a better location, and nobody was pushing you out of the building as soon as the show was over. I paid cash so I had to wait. They did let me in right before the beginning, after having processed all those who paid online.
The presentations were great. The stage was great. Nate did a great job of hosting. Although I think he should say no to all announcement requests like Scott had decided to. Later I told him one one one, Nate, you are a public figure, one of the most important skills you will learn is to say no. He said, but if I were to say no to you you'd think I am a dick. I said you already said no to me, and I respected you for that. That was in reference to a funding advice I sought from him over email.
The presentations were great, but the mingling right after was greater, and the after party after that was the greatest. Thanks Alicia for buying me a drink, and thanks for the tip to go to the Sloan group on LinkedIn to try and get a MBA person. I shot out a few quick emails once back home.
Oh, hi there Stan.
I went from booth to booth afterwards and did the tech version of nice pin, nice tie. Met the guy who organized the Shorty Awards. That is for Twitter, for those of you who don't know. They just did the first one, now they will do it every year.
Most presentations tend to be dot coms seeking to add value in the online space. Some are going for ads, others are seeking to charge users for use. There were some remarkable applications on show.
Twitter changed my life. Then TweetDeck came along and it changed my Twitter life. Twitter.com is you driving a car. TweetDeck, and you are in an 18-wheeler. You feel the power.
That is when you really get it. Twitter is no longer a waste of time, but essential to your work and life. If you don't tweet, your career suffers a little that day. If you don't tweet, you are a little less happy that day, unless it is your day off. I recommend taking one day off a week.
Bumping into great links, either to news or to information or sites - like Padmasree introduced me to Science Daily - is half the fun, the other half is bumping into great people. On Twitter I am a heat seeking missile looking for tech entrepreneur types. I have found some big ones, and several not so big ones, all exciting. Since I have never been a big fan of beer, this beats meeting them over beer. Or maybe not. I'd love to meet them in person. But Twitter is the only way for me to get to them one on one now. There is absolutely no other way.
But I am not just after celebrities, actually I avoid the non tech mini celebrities. Quite a few times I have ended up asking, excuse me, but are you someone famous? It is called not owning a TV.
One of my recent delights has been going on a Twitter world tour. And finding people in the top cities of the world. This beats New York City. In NYC you mostly see people from all over the world. On Twitter you actually interact with them, at will. I wish the NYC Subway were more like Twitter. I wish the subway was where you went for easy, impromptu conversations.
I understand about 10 languages as is, six of them really well. But then one day I wrote to Steven in Chinese, he wrote back to me in Hindi. The guy does not speak a word of Hindi. In case you are wondering who Steven is, he is my very own personal emissary to China, my own Marco Polo, if you will.
I have tweeted in Russian, Portuguese, Spanish. To the world out there I say, bring it on.
Not long after I got on the flying saucer, I mean the TweetDeck, I went on a world tour. I went to some of the fanciest cities in the world, and checked out some of the top Tweets in those cities, started following some of them. My ranks swelled.
Since I really like to follow people I follow, I can't follow too many people. So for my next world tour, I think I will only visit cities and Tweet pages to read and comment. If some of that leads to me getting more followers, I am not complaining. Who wants to be a millionaire? Who wants to be popular?
If I had only one hour to spend, and it was a choice between Facebook and Twitter, guess where I am going! Facebook does not even compare in terms of the online experience of tweeting. Twitter is more fun than Facebook, it is more fun than email, heck, it is more fun than search. Search is work, Twitter is fun work. Twitter is the smartest career move I have made this year so far. And this is not fun you later regret, like the morning after a bad - as in badass - college party. This is fun and thrill, as in the fun and thrill of knowledge, networking, great company, the feeling of living life on the edge. There is the feeling of uninhibition. Twitter is a drink that quenches and makes you thirsty.
RE: [newtech-1] Web 3.0 StartUp Seeks Round 1 Funding (2/16)
I was not even aware of this dust storm. My friend James Gillmore sent me a Facebook mail to alert me and so I came looking what the fuss was.
Alex Genadinik To Andy Badera: "total lol...I think this was a funnier email than that lady who wanted to be taken off the list and didn't know how. :)" Andy Badera: "*wahahahaasplat* dang it, where's my monitor cleaner?"
Alex. Andy is my sidekick on this show. Take it easy, or take it with a grain of salt.
Miles Rose: "the only way to do these small rounds is to put some money in yourself and piece out the rest to friends and family as first rounds are always the highest risk but also the highest return"
Miles. Any relation to David Rose? You are right about round 1 seeing the best return of all rounds. I have limited family in the city, and that is why I am trying hard to make as many friends as possible, online as well as offline.
Robert Mah: "talk to a securities lawyer before raising money from anyone outside of friends and family"
Why do you think I am trying to become friends with people first?
Miles Rose: "technically you may be right. I have a feeling the poster isnt in the usa and im sure they haven't ever raised money before. is it an offer or a solicitation of interest? I think the later. as i thinks it a work in progress the advice to get a lawyer is prudent. but its not a crime to ask, is it?"
Miles. I am very much in the USA, I have been for over 12 years. I am in NYC. I was at the last NY Tech MeetUp. I am friends with Scott (MeetUp) and Upendra (DayLife). Unlike what Andy said at another mailing list, no, I don't have a Nigerian address. I have prior experience. I was part of the dot com mania in the late 1990s too like many of you. You are right, this is a solicitation of interest, hence the scant details. The vagueness. You meet interested people, strike friendships. Business happens much later. No crime. No crime. We have to change the culture in this city. In the valley you raise money based on a few lines on a paper napkin. And then get that money from guess where? New York.
Matt Weinberg: "I got the impression that the solicitation, and the posts about Web 5.0, were all just a joke."
No crime. No joke either.
Eliza Shevinsky: "Miles, it may or may not be illegal to "ask" but Robert makes the excellent point that doing things by the book will provide legal protection down the road. And in today's litigious climate, Mr. Bhagat will need all the protection he can get."
This email feeler is designed to set up face to face meetings with people to get to know each other. That is all. Business will be conducted by the rules.
Andrew: "I think the poster is a bot. Or an experiment in satire."
This guy is a troll.
James Gillmore: "Well, he claims to be in the USA, as you'll read in the quoted text from his blog below...But the real problem is that he doesn't even tell us what product, service, web app, whatever he wants investment for. He links to that "Web 5.0 is da Bomb" article, and deep in it, near the end, he uncovers his business plan:.........My favorite line is: "ENGINEERS YOU HIRE" "
Who are these two guys? Victor and Bashar, what are they pushing?
James Gillmore: "Andrew, he's not a bot. You can reach him on twitter, facebook, etc--and actually talk to him. He's a nice guy with a lot of enthusiasm. I just hope he can learn a thing or two from how everyone is viewing his actions and what he's saying....But it would be a great idea to make a big automated experiment where all the tech communities are pummeled by a hyperbolic example of a delusional tech newbie looking for funding, teaching everyone along the way about what Web 2.87 is. The funny thing is just like all the attention we've given him, he'd probably be able to scale his popularity as a tech celebrity quite quickly and effectively. Think VH1, Valleywag, etc."
Ryan Clarke: "Great advice Rob. I find myself in the same situation as the original poster but trying to go legit. Any good/reputable lawyers left that any one can recommend? Just googled mine and found out he swindled 26 families out of there homes. And he was a college friend. Any advice appreciated."
A slew of companies like Google wrote off billions of their investment in Clearwire recently. Did Google get swindled? They think not. Eric Schmidt said they still feel that was a great investment. Not all investments succeed. Actually most fail. Mine will succeed.
Andrew: "Just because "he" or "they" maintain social networking accounts, doesn't make the behavior any less bizarre. I'm still going with some kind of joke or hoax being perpetrated here."
What James meant was that I was in the US, I was in NYC. And that I can be contacted. I can be met in person. Like a slew of people did on February 3. Stan. Nate. Mark. Jeff Harvis. Etc.
Eliza Shevinsky: "There should be some way to remove this kind of poster from our list. The last thing that I want is for us to skyrocket this guy to VH1 stardom! I tend to agree with James that we're dealing with a real person, albeit a real person who thinks engineers are something that "you provide." Argh! But whether he's a bot or just a clumsy newbie sending spam every other day, I think most of us would like to keep this list both bot and spam free. Nate? What can be done to be freed from the never ending Da Bomb postings? This guy has insulted developers, and that's just the last straw... "
I think we just moved from tech startup territory to free speech territory. When I said "engineers you hire," I meant entrepreneurs hire engineers, like I have. I was not expecting James or Eliza to hire engineers for me. I am not a newbie. I have a few flamed dot coms under my belt from the past decade. I am rising from the ashes.
James Gillmore: "We can not respond to them...but I'll be honest. I'm quite entertained by his threads, as a lot of us or we wouldn't respond. I guess that's the VH1-Tabloid dumbing down of society effect."
I am okay in blog and Twitter territory. I have no desire to get into tabloid territory. I don't qualify. That would be Donald Trump.
After all that school work, it was time for a coffee break, so I went ahead to this list: New York Top 1,000 Tweets. I decided to follow many of the attractive women on the list. Women are more likely to respond back on Twitter than on Facebook or Plenty Of Fish, I think. On Facebook, it is like, oh no, I don't even know this guy. On Plenty Of Fish, it is like, do I want to spend the rest of my life with this guy? I don't think so. On Twitter there is none of that pressure. And so people talk. Women talk. Not all of them. But a few.
If you can find great people to follow, Twitter becomes a whole different experience.
Let me go ahead and list the people from the first two lists.
Some of the professors started talking back right away. And these are busy people.
And my followers' count has gone up to 107. I think it was 70 before I enrolled at the Community College. I am calling it community college because I am glad the word community is in there.
Image via CrunchBaseMy short answer is no, not at all. 
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