Netizen

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Big Money Is Not In Blogging

Top 10 Blog Monetization Strategies, Ranked In Order

America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire Mark 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. ...
U.S. Now Has Almost As Many Paid Bloggers As Lawyers

There is plenty of money in blogging, but the real big money is not in blogging.

How I made over $2 million with this blog (Scripting News)

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.

Google Analytics Says I Am Paul Krugman Friend, Cupcake Android Expert
What Does Your Resume Look Like Today?
Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess
Content Is Queen
Blogging: Monkey Business?
Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
Spamming Om Malik

Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts
Blogging Several Times A Day
Blogging Tips
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Sites That Pay You To Blog

Cisco's Big Dreams: A Clash Of Titans?

Image via CrunchBase

Cisco's Big Push into New Markets BusinessWeek In recent weeks, Cisco has cut deals with customers looking to use its technology in more expansive ways than ever before— Major League Baseball teams that want fully wired stadiums, the city of Miami as it develops a smart power grid....... While many companies retrench, the tech giant has strong profits and $33 billion in cash in its coffers. ...... the dominant provider of the networking gear that runs the Internet. ..... Just as the tech world revolved around IBM (IBM)'s mainframe computers in the 1970s and Microsoft (MSFT)-powered personal computers in the 1980s and '90s, Chambers believes Cisco has an opportunity now to make its digital networks the platform on which new innovations are built. ...... Cisco's stock, now $18 a share, is at the same level it hit in 1998. ...... hastening efforts to move beyond the core business of selling switches and routers. ...... digital billboards to stereos and video surveillance systems ...... "We're moving into new [areas] with a speed nobody has ever attempted" ........ danger of losing focus ...... concern is that Cisco will alienate key partners that as a group deliver more than 80% of the company's sales ........ HP and Cisco already have begun to spar publicly. ...... "[Chambers] is known for trying to find a win-win," says one tech CEO. "This isn't a win-win. It's a declaration of war." ....... Cisco could lose half of the $4 billion in gear sold each year by IBM and HP ....... P&G plans to install more than 75 of Cisco's high-end TelePresence videoconferencing systems in 55 countries by the end of the year to lower travel costs and hold more global consumer focus groups. ....... "No other company touches the content, the carrier, and the consumer—and the best part is they all drive each other," says Padmasree Warrior, Cisco's chief technology officer.

When it comes to the internet, Cisco has been for hardware what Oracle has been for software. These two are network giants. As the giants of the tech industry seek to expand, it is but inevitable that they will run into each other. C for capitalism, c for competition. Cisco just so happens to be in great financial health. John Chambers and Larry Ellison are very different personality types. Ellison is the brash cowboy. Chambers has the reputation of the smooth, warm, fuzzy guy, but never underestimate a guy who has done a marvelous job of keeping a relentless focus on the fundamentals of his business, innovation being one of them. You can't be in love with innovation and not seek out new markets to grow your company. To the world it might look dramatic what Chambers is attempting, but to his mind he is merely putting one step in front of the other. The internet giant deserves to take yet another stride.

Cisco Unified Computing System: To Tidy Up Data Centers

http://twitter.com/paramendra/statuses/1700944190
https://twitter.com/Padmasree/status/1260569556
https://twitter.com/paramendra/status/1227950181

Google Analytics Says I Am Paul Krugman Friend, Cupcake Android Expert

Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess

Google Analytics tells me I am a Paul Krugman friend and a Cupcake Android expert. So I might as well deliver. I am going to visit Krugman's blog as often as I can. And I am going to write a whole bunch of blog posts about Cupcake Android. I have a reputation to keep up with. Looks like.

What Does Your Resume Look Like Today?
Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess
Content Is Queen
Blogging: Monkey Business?
Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
Spamming Om Malik
Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts
Blogging Several Times A Day
Blogging Tips
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Sites That Pay You To Blog

Friday, May 15, 2009

What Does Your Resume Look Like Today?

Blog Daily

If you are a big believer in social media, and have an active blog, that blog perhaps is your resume gone alive. If resumes could have stories! People stay in touch with you through your blog. Like Larry Page said about a piece of code he wrote early on, it is not like you can answer a million phone calls, but you can respond to a million queries. You blog once, and it gets read about by many.

And here are some revenue streams, while you are at it.

Yours truly is now available for $1.99 per month, a la carte.

If you absolutely have to write, if you have that urge, that fix, blogging is for you. But blogging is so much more than that. Hillary 2008's campaign manager Mark Penn wrote an elaborate article in the Wall Street Journal calling blogging "America's newest profession."

America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire Mark 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. ...
U.S. Now Has Almost As Many Paid Bloggers As Lawyers

So if blogging is more than hobby to you, revenue talk is important. Write good content, jack up your traffic, and let the ad streams take care of the rest is a decent strategy. But in one of my near future posts I am going to argue the big money is not in blogging but in how blogging helps enhance your workspace which better be 2.0 rich in this day and age.

So if your blog is integral to your work, your career, your latest blog post is what your resume looks like today.

Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess
Content Is Queen
Blogging: Monkey Business?
Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
Spamming Om Malik
Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts
Blogging Several Times A Day
Blogging Tips
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Sites That Pay You To Blog

Mission Impossible Facebook - watch more funny videos

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

What Just Happened?

Yesterday I had 700 plus followers. This morning when I woke up I had 800 plus followers. I was pleased. But only a few hours later now I have over 1400 followers on Twitter. What just happened? This is rather drastic.

I am not complaining, quite the contrary. But I don't know what brought this about.

Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess
Job Hunting And 2.0

I hope my blog traffic sees a similar jump in traffic.

I can't put my finger on as to what brought this about. But, for the record, I am not going to stress about it. I don't need to know. As long as this keeps happening, I want you to know, I am o-k-a-y.

Define Social Media
The Stream, The Lifestream, The Mindstream
Converting To The Mass Follow Formula On Twitter
Twitter Is Not Micro
The Depth Of Your Friendships At Twitter
Goal: A Billion People On Twitter
Search Come Full Circle: That Human Element
The Search Results, The Links, The Inbox, The Stream
Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter
I Talked To Google Through Twitter And It Worked Like Magic
Twitter And The Time Dimension
What Should Facebook Do
TweetDeck, Power Twitter, Twitter Globe, Better Than Facebook
TCC: Twitter Community College
Twitter Tips: It's A Bird, It's A Bird
Mitch Kapor Now Following Me On Twitter
I Get Twitter

Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess

How do you market your blog posts?

https://twitter.com/growline/status/1773172868
David Risley: Confessions Of A Six Figure Blogger

(1) Search Engine Optimization

If you got a great blog, most of your traffic is going to come through search engines. Tags are important. External links are important. Hyperlinks are important. For all three these days you got Zemanta. Use it.

Great, regular content hence is also good marketing. Content is queen.

(2) Mailing List

Got to build a mailing list for your blog. The one that I started using for this blog is over 9,000 strong. I decided on it yesterday. And look what I got.

"My name is ______ and I graduated Columbia J School in 2008 where I concentrated in broadcast. I work at ABC News in DC now (the network) and I am working on this idea of Job Hunting and the Internet--pretty much exactly what you posted in your blog below. I am wondering if maybe we could talk on the phone about this idea."

One email a day, with five links to five blog posts: do you think that will work?

(3) Comments Sections Of Other Blogs

Like minded blogs. Celebrity blogs. If you are passionate about what you are passionate about, it is not possible you don't regularly read at least a dozen blogs that share your passion. Engage your favorite bloggers in their comments sections. Link to your blog from their comments sections. That helps jack up your Google rank. And that is a good thing.

JP, Confused Of Calcutta, is a big shot. I have never met him, but I think of him as a friend. He is CIO of British Telecom. I once came across a list in some magazine where Google CEO Eric Schmidt was number six, and JP was number 12. I really like his blog, that is why I visit his blog and participate in his comments sections. But that participation also jacks up my own blog's Google rank. I am not complaining.

I grew up watching Amitabh Bachchan. This here is me in 1993. Amitabh just so happens to be the most recognized face on the planet. His blog lets me interact with him and read his mind the way a handshake will not. In his comments sections, I have hope I will meet him one day. And, by the way, Amitabh was in Calcutta before he moved to Mumbai.

I am a New Yorker. I take pride in the New York Times. It is a good idea for me to leave comments in some of their blog's comments sections and hyperlink my name to my own blog.

I really like it that when I link to an article on the Google Blog, my blog shows up at the bottom of that post at the Google Blog. I am flattered, what can I say?

Mark Cuban is a loud mouth. I think that is a good thing for my blogging.

Huffington Post does Facebook and Mashable does Disqus. They don't make me create a separate account with them or fill up basic info before I can leave a comment. And they both have huge traffic. So it is a very good idea to participate in their comments sections. Read a post, then say what you have to say, and leave a link to one of your blog posts that might go with the theme. Or just leave a link to your blog.

And, by the way, Disqus is like Zemanta, a must have, also Add This. Also Google Analytics.

But primarily, you are looking to make friends in comments sections. Passionate bloggers with small traffic might have time for you. Get to know them.

Another way to figure out which comments sections to visit is by using Blogsearch. Make a blog post, then search the key term for your blog post. Relevant blog posts will show up. Read and comment and link back to your blog post. The weirdest part of the exercise though is that most blogs out there don't do Disqus, at least not yet. But the nice ones just ask for your name, email address, not to be published but required, they say, and website address. The not nice ones expect you to register with them. I almost always walk away when I see that red flag.

(4) Twitter Is A Versatile Broadcast Medium

Converting To The Mass Follow Formula On Twitter was a good decision. These two have been helping me expand my base: TopFollowed, MyTweetFollowers. And then you got SocialToo, Adjix, and TweetDeck.

The reason you want to follow everyone who follows you is because the Direct Message option is a great one. It is like a politician saying hello to you on the campaign trail. That is not shallow. He/she is not pretending to be family.

My Relationship With Ashton Kutcher

Twitterfeed is as grand as TweetDeck. Thanks to Twitterfeed, as of yesterday, my Netizen blog, this blog, BusinessWeek, CNet, and Digg will all feed my Twitter feed without me doing anything about it. Manual feeding is history.

(5) Facebook Notes

My blog is integrated with my Facebook account. So a new blog post shows up as a note in my Facebook stream. And I like to tag friends to those notes, so I show up in their Facebook stream as well. That is a fancy way of saying hello.

(6) Feeds

Don't allow feeds access to your full content. Give out the first paragraph. Let people show up at your blog if they want to see the whole thing.

Content Is Queen
Blogging: Monkey Business?
Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
Spamming Om Malik
Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts
Blogging Several Times A Day
Blogging Tips
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Sites That Pay You To Blog

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Google Is Working On Search

Image via CrunchBase

More Search Options And Other Updates From Our Searchology Event ordering results by time, by type (eg only reviews, only forum posts) .......... search will soon be synchronised between your desktop computer and your phone ....... showing you the relevant bits of reviews through 'sentiment analysis', and pulling out metadata (eg a star rating) thanks to support for RDFa and Microformats ........ a "related searches" system, but one that's displayed as an Ajax-driven spider diagram .........on-the-fly research spreadsheets. Type in "small dog" (their example) and it builds a table of breeds, pictures, vital statistics and other information automagically...... Google sees potential threats not from Yahoo, Microsoft or Ask ..... but from the likes of Twitter, which looks ready to pounce in real-time search, and from the yet-to-launch Wolfram Alpha, which is a very powerful data munger.
Searchologists Give A Glimpse Of What Google's Worried About
SearchEngineLand
Bits

It is good to see Google compete with itself. Search is so fundamental to the web that constant innovation is the only way to go. Windows can reach saturation, Office can, but not search. We are barely scratching the surface.

By now the way Google does search is so capital intensive. But real time search is not capital intensive, and there Twitter is the one with the buzz.

I don't think either Twitter or Wolfram Alpha will beat Google, but good thing both will keep Google on its toes. Because when it comes to search, much is lacking, much too much is lacking.

Search Come Full Circle: That Human Element
The Search Results, The Links, The Inbox, The Stream
Search: Much Is Lacking
The Next Search Engine
Email, Search, News

What If The Plateau Lasts Nine Months?

Image via Wikipedia

That Plateau Feeling
Job Hunting And 2.0
New York City: Transformed Forever?
Reimagining The Office
Microfinance, Nanotech, Biotech, Software/Hardware/Connectivity
David Gelernter: Manifesto
Visionary Entrepreneurs Will Recreate The World
Sites That Pay You To Blog

That Plateau Feeling?

I blogged about it: That Plateau Feeling. But have we really hit the plateau phase? Or are we still in the bungee jump phase? It is possible for the financial markets to hit the plateau phase, and for the job markets to still be in the bungee jump phase. Usually the financial sector recovers first.

Budget

Cut expenses mercilessly. This is for personal and family budgets.

Work

Even if it is a much lower paying job. Can't eat into savings too much, and not forever.

Reinvent

We live in a day and age when people will have several careers, not jobs but careers, over a lifetime. Reinvent yourself.

Focus On Personal Growth: Prepare For Takeoff

There is the bungee jump phase. That, by definition, can not last forever even if it lasts longer than anticipated. Then there in the plateau phase. Then there is the takeoff phase. The plateau phase is the time to prepare for the takeoff phase.

The Best Things In Life Are Free

Really. Life slowing down is not all bad news. In many ways it is good news. A slower life is time to discover people, relationships, hobbies. It is time to catch up on books you always wanted to read. It is time to hone on skills that you think you will need once it is time to takeoff.

This perhaps is good time to smell the roses.

That 90-10 Rule

If 10% of the people are unemployed, 90% are still working. But then there are pockets of 22% unemployment rates. And that is not even taking into account the chronic unemployment in the inner cities, and other underserved areas. That is not taking into account the permanent poverty in much of the world.

That Plateau Feeling?

What if America and the world hit a new plateau of lower paying jobs across the board? That would not be a happy plateau. Personally I don't think that is where we are headed. But then I am counting on the political leadership to deliver. (30 Points Down In The Polls) The financial markets will be regulated, and made sane. This economy will be restructured.

Time To Make Big Fortunes

The most trailblazing of companies have been founded in the most depressing of times. This time that is going to be extra true.

Globoeconomics: Name Of The Game
A Single Global Currency, A Global New Deal, A Global Economic Council
A Brighter Future Ahead
Needed: A New Global Financial Architecture
Stimulus: Make It A Trillion
Stimulus: Size Matters
Global Finance, Global Terrorism, Global Warming

'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where --' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
'--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.

Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Friday, May 15, 2009

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Tuesday, May 12, 2009