Author Archives: Admin

Owning an Online Guru for 10 Hours

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So, Ryan Caldwell and I have created a little competition in hopes of spurring our weight loss dreams to life. Check out Blogging Weight for more details.

The best part is that if I win, I will have ten hours of Ryan’s time to do whatever is within his power to help me out. I could get him to do silly things like installing WordPress blogs, updating installations, or making him use silly voices in a podcast, but I think I will probably stick to the things I know he can do better than me.

Ryan has had huge successes online with running Performancing, PopCrunch, and College Startup, as well as a variety of other sites, and so I would probably use him as a focused sounding board for about a third of my allotted time, as I look towards building up my own brands online. His skill at monetization would also play a large roll in the time I have with him as a consultant.

I would also be looking at maybe getting some content creation ideas done up, as some of my most successful posts have come from the mind of Ryan Caldwell. He has an innate ability to take something that shouldn’t be all that important, and tweak it into a post that can still give a fair bit of long tail traffic, months later.

What would you get someone like Ryan Caldwell to do for you? What questions would you ask him? I could use some more ideas and suggestions on making the most of his time, if I am able to win the challenge.

Originally posted on March 17, 2008 @ 2:47 pm

C.E.O. Blogger Interview with Steven Finch

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David Peralty: So, as with any and all interviews on and off the web, the most pressing introductory question is, who are you, what do you do, and where can people find you online?

Steven Finch: Hi.. well I’m Steven Finch and I’m currently the CEO of a new media company here in the UK named Insomnia. Additionally, you can find me at my personal weblog, Crenk.com.

David Peralty: So, new media means a wide variety of things. Can you tell me more about Insomnia and what they deal with?

Steven Finch: Well Insomnia is a media company. We currently have our majority of assets in the music industry, and we are just about to launch our first web assets, which is also based in the music market.

The first web asset is called Routenote, and is a music licensing and distribution company.

David Peralty: Crenk.com talks a fair bit about what is going on in the online world. It seems like you are joining two very competitive niches. What made you think that you could build a successful company, and blog in the current marketplace?

Steven Finch: Both companies are definitely in two very competitive markets, but two markets that I think are changing very rapidly.

Personally, I have been pretty much living on the Internet since a young age, and I have always taken notice of the Internet and where it was progressing. This, mixed with my knowledge in how business really works, seem to really help in the growth and progression of the company in both sectors.

David Peralty: So, as a CEO of a company, you must have an interesting view on the blogosphere. Do you think it will continue to expand endlessly or have people already reached their saturation point when it comes to blogs and online media?

Steven Finch: Well at this stage, it is definitely growing, but I always believe in information overload. Blogs are about having your say, but sometimes it is very difficult to find voices or publications that are actually worth reading. This will always be an issue when the blogosphere is continuing to grow.

David Peralty: Why did you end up choosing WordPress for Crenk.com? Did you try any other options?

Steven Finch: I tried blogger for a while, but it didn’t seem to have the customizations and plugins that I was after; hence, WordPress. It seems to be the most adaptable, and seemed to get my vote from the moment I started using it.

David Peralty: If other CEO’s are looking to join the blogosphere, what would advice would you give them? Warnings, tips, tricks are all good.

Steven Finch: A warning I would hand out is don’t ever personally attack someone, be it a blogger or even just a user of your site because at the end of the day, the users are always what makes or breaks an internet company, and loyal ones are very hard to come by.

Additionally, make sure you disclose all of your conflicts of interest, with regards to other companies, advertisers, stocks, and etc.

David Peralty: Do you have any blogs that are great inspiration for a new blogger? Be they technology, PR, corporate, or other?

Steven Finch: Well Xfep of course, but I am also a fan of Dosh Dosh for blogging, Read/Write Web for technology and also Centernetwork.com. Additionally, I have learnt a fair bit from Foundread.com.

David Peralty: And lastly, when can we expect Routnote.com?

Steven Finch: We are currently in private testing at the moment and should be opening to the public in approximately two months.

David Peralty: Thank you again for taking this time to talk with me. I would love to see more CEO’s get into the blogging world, be they new media or not. I am looking forward to the increasing build up of Crenk.com as well as the launch of Routenote.com.

Steven Finch: Thank you very much.

Originally posted on February 29, 2008 @ 2:23 pm

Promises and Living Up To Them

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As a network backed blogger, I am under constant pressure to perform well beyond the average blogger, and especially because of my more technical background, I find myself as the only person able to step up with regard to certain tasks, which doubles my to-do list. The hardest problem I have is living up to the promises I make people.

With so much on the go, it seems like my list of things to do is never ending, and add to that my inability sometimes to properly prioritize, and you have a situation where I constantly am setting myself up to underperform in the eyes of someone.

Recently, a friend of mine questioned me on why I had time for “project x” and not his “project y”? Another person asked me why I hadn’t made any progress on another project. And I always find myself feeling like I am starting my week behind with regards to how much work I want to get done versus how much work I accomplish.

What I am quickly realizing is that I have to stop adding new projects to my plate, and I have to stop promising to get this, that and the other thing done for people. Between my full time job with Splashpress (that usually ends up being more than “full time”), this blog, and my wife, I really don’t have much time to enjoy myself.

If you are looking to become a full time blogger, my new advice which I will be shouting from the rooftops is to never promise more than you can deliver. In fact, take a lesson from Scotty from Star Trek. Always under promise and over deliver. Or more simply, give yourself extra breathing room, so you look amazing when you deliver before your own cut-off deadline.

I can’t tell you what it is like to constantly feel over worked, under appreciated and scatterbrained, living minute to minute on information overload and having some wonderful physical signs (chest pains) reminding you to slow down.

Originally posted on February 6, 2008 @ 3:11 pm

Blogging for Money: Learning to Sell

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Steve Pavlina is one of those guys I would love to sit down with and just pick through his brain. His blog is very inspiring and always interesting. His articles are long, but well thought out. His advice is helpful, but never condescending. Suffice to say, I really enjoy his stuff. When perusing through his archives, trying to catch myself up, I noticed a post entitled “Blogging for Money“.

One of the sections, also one of the longest parts, is where he brings up that bloggers need to learn to sell.

Eventually I figured out that if I wanted to run a business, I needed to learn how to generate income. This meant I had to focus on income-generating activities, and game development wasn’t one of them. I made the decision to become active in the Association of Shareware Professionals, a trade association for independent software developers like me. That was an incredibly eye-opening experience for me. I met people (online) who were making $50K, $100K, $250K a year selling their own software. In many cases when I saw their products, I felt I had much better technical skills, but they had customers, and I didn’t. I made some good friends and picked their brains as much as possible, and they were happy to share what they knew. What I learned really surprised me. Most of the people who were doing well financially spent less than half their work time developing software, often much less. But they invariably spent a lot of time working on marketing and promoting their businesses. By comparison I’d been spending about 80-90% of my work time on product development.

I don’t think there could be better advice for pretty much anyone in any business, but bloggers specifically, including myself, generally seem to have a problem with this. I know many successful bloggers that will back Steve up in his statement.

My eyes have slowly been opened to this reality, and I hope if you are reading this, you won’t have to take the long, hard road to slowly realizing that selling is important and make it your top priority. Content is king, but if you never earn a return on your work, will you continue to create such content? If you are in it to make money, I highly doubt that you will.

Originally posted on March 3, 2008 @ 3:06 pm

Questions and Answers Live on Ustream

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I am looking at having a live session on Ustream where people can ask me their blogging related questions. I will be running the session from 8pm EST tomorrow night until I get tired of it. I will be using Ustream.tv’s built in recording function to record the session.

I am hoping at doing more of these as I have always enjoyed them in the past. If you have a specific time or day that would work better for you, please let me know.

Also, if you would like a one on one video session, I am available for consultation.

Join me on my Ustream.tv channel tomorrow night.

Update: Didn’t work out as Ustream wouldn’t transmit audio from either of my computers. More on that soon.

Originally posted on March 8, 2008 @ 12:24 am