Miscellanea
Wednesday, June 14th, 2006
at 7:20am
This week's news that Om Malik is leaving Business 2.0 to head up his own start-up is interesting and exciting. I don't know Om, but I've been a reader of his blog and his work in Business 2.0 for several years. He's definitely a smart guy, and I wish him the best in his new venture.
It's particularly interesting that Om's last big article for Business 2.0 was How to Build a Bulletproof Start-Up, which has been dubbed by David Heinemeier Hansson as the blueprint for now NOT to do a start-up.
Om mentioned yesterday that he felt he'd be blogging more (!) now that he's on his own. I hope he's able to do that, and he'll keep his readers posted on how closely he follows the steps he outlined in his last Business 2.0 article. It would be extremely valuable for current and would-be entrepreneurs to hear about how well that guide holds up in practice in the real world.
Onward and upward, Om! Please keep us posted.
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
at 12:13am
Om, this sentiment is going around. I posted on it yesterday, but seems to be worth mentioning again.
As Boris suggests, *link* to the different voices. Having someone else write on your blog really violates the premise that your subscribers subscribed under.
Subscribers generally subscribe to read *your* voice. They did not subscribe to read the voices of others ... perhaps your opinion on the voices of others, but once the line is crossed into an actual full guest post, you're now sending subscribers something they didn't sign up for.
I'll stick my neck out here a bit: Guest blogging is a new form of spam.
Crazy, you say?
Not really. A base definition of spam is "unsolicited or undesired bulk electronic messages," after all. A full discourse on what spam is covers a lot of ground (and I realize that the definition of spam is a hotly debated topic) ... but the general gist is that spam is something I don't want that I'm getting anyway. Doesn't have to be commercial -- it just has to be an unsolicited message distributed in a bulk fashion.
In other words: a guest blog post.
Sorry guys, it is what it is.
Monday, April 17th, 2006
at 9:36am
Is it me, or is the trend toward "Guest Blogging" about the most obnoxious thing to emerge from the blogosphere yet?
If you've got something to say, say it. If you don't have anything to say, say nothing for awhile. It's okay, your Constant Readers probably won't unsubscribe unless you go completely silent for a couple of months. We all have busy times, or periods where we just need to take a break from blogging.
To those who think Guest Blogging is a great idea, please consider just posting some links to the potential guest's blog. If I think what he or she has to say there is worthwhile, I'll subscribe to it. Just don't assume that because I subscribed to your blog that I want to get posts from someone else.
To those who have been Guest Bloggers -- what benefit did you see from doing it? Any increase in readership? Any backlash?
I just don't see the point. More specifically, I don't see the benefit to the readers. The Guest Blogger concept seems invasive to the reader, as if the "opt-in" inherent in subscribing to a particular feed populated by one author has been violated by inviting another author to post without the reader's consent.
Is this trend just a result of boredom by bloggers who've been at it for a long time? Or is there something else I'm missing?
Updated: I'm not the only one getting annoyed by this.
Monday, April 3rd, 2006
at 1:03pm
In looking at 1000tags, 360yahoo, 301url, 180news, 43deals, 43folders, 43places, 43things, 37signals, 30boxes, 30daytags, 30gigs, 24eyes, 24sevenoffice, 23hq, 16bugs, 9rules, 8by1, 4shared, 3bubbles, there are some real opportunities for a new startup being overlooked.
What to do, what to do? Well ...
First of all, shoot for the teens. Not teens as in MySpace teens; just look how crowded it is in the 40s, 30s and single-digit company space. 16Bugs just launched today, so there's plenty of room left there.
Second, astounding as it may seem, these companies are all using ".com" domains. I know, I couldn't believe it either. So there's plenty of opportunity to differentiate with a name that's a play on integrating the TLD extension into the company name itself.
Finally, again with the exception of 16Bugs, there is zero representation of the animal kingdom. (Zillow is worth mentioning here, since they represent the animal kingdom as shown on the Z page of Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! ... but alas, no numbers in their name, so they don't really count.)
So in the spirit of sharing that drives Web 2.0, I offer this name for the taking: 19em.us
Not only does it include the correct plural spelling of emu, but an emu graces the cover of Learning Perl/Tk, a language combo that does not yet have an overhyped framework associated with it. We're talking about double-golden opportunity here.
Finally, it picks up some prime real estate in the teens. Who wouldn't want to be nestled into the love sandwich of 37signals on top, and 9rules on the bottom?
The only restriction I place on my contribution of this kick-ass company name to the community is a 5% equity stake so that when you flip it, I'll get my piece of the action. Thanks to the Web 2.0 Generator, all we need now is a product. (And hey, given that the emu is a flightless bird, there's nothing saying that 19em.us can't be a productless company! We'd be in good company there.)
Well, there you go. The domain's available--run, don't walk!
