I don’t care about Steve Jobs or Michael Dell.
There I said it. I don’t even care about the guy who just secured $9 million in venture funding. I don’t care about Tim O’Reily waxing philosphical about online serendipity. I don’t care that TechCrunch says Google and Adobe are great places to work.
I care about the guys (and women) in the long tail of it all. Not making a million bucks, but making it. Cashing a $2,000 adsense check? Good for you! How? Getting by on 8 new customers a month? Great! How? Figured out how to make a living without going into an office? Fantastic! How? Moved your brick-and-mortar successfully online? Awesome! How?
Look there is a tremendous amount to learn from the analogs of Steve and Mike and the rest - no question - I’ll watch, I’ll read - but for the love of God, stop letting internet media stay at the 30,000 foot level - You want to succeed? DIG DEEPER!
Philosophical diatribes won’t help you succeed in the trenches. Vague predictions about “new media” or “social marketing” aren’t going to put food on the table.
Tactics, execution, dedication - How are you doing it? Be specific! Speak up!
[Author's note: No one is going to respond to me. I know it. Either no one is listening (possible, this site is only a month old), no one cares - that too, then you might as well go back to solitaire, or no one has any idea how to really do it...Then tell me that.]
Ok, of course the day I post an article with this title Digg has a page one article speculating on Mr. Jobs’ health. The man is a genius - I hope the rumors are just that, rumors.
Another great one, Problogger:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/12/31/review-your-blog/
How much do bloggers make? Progblogger answers with survey results.
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/01/02/how-much-money-do-bloggers-make-blogging/
One by one, I’m using social media to make connections with prospective customers. I visit forums, online communities, etc, and offer advice when I feel I’m qualified to give it, and I ask questions when I need help. This generally drives people to my blog which I set up a month ago. That’s how I’m doing it.
Great post! It needed to be said!
Great, great site Marc!
I’ve just started and the first thing I did with my upstart was to submit to sites that talks about startups(i.e. programmableweb.com, killerstartups.com, and now scrappyupstarts.com). Thanks to sites like “Scrappy Upstarts”, I got my starting exposure.