Steven Hodson of WinExtra.com

An Interview by jeff

Steven Hodson likes to describe himself as a cranky old fart that wanders the Internet causing mayhem as he goes. He has experience in podcasting as he was one of the special guest co-hosts for the L337 Tech News Podcast as well as appearing on several others. Steve is also a contributing author at Mashable.com.

First off Steve, tell us how your blog ended up with the name WinExtra.

WinExtra as a name predates the blog. It actually goes back to when it was just a set of nntp newsgroups that I setup after Lockergnome had closed down his newsgroups. It was intended as a way for people who had gotten to know each other on the LG newsgroups to keep on helping people with computer and software problems. It was also a static site for any development work I was doing at the time.

About three years ago is when I first started toying with the idea of setting up the site as a blog and moving the newsgroups over to a web forums setup. It wasn’t until 2 years ago that I actually started to blog seriously though after a few false starts.

What has it been like for you in your blogging venture to write about technology?

It’s actually been a lot of fun. Sure there are the typical frustrations and doubts that any new blogger will go through but I like being able to use my years of experience right across the computer field to try and keep things a little on the real side. I also tend to look at technology from the regular users point of view so that I can bring a different perspective to what is happening.

The technology niche is filled with rumors, drama, and egomaniacs. How have you managed to keep yourself and the blog away from that material?

I think my age and experience help there. I don’t have patience for people who are full of themselves or think they are better or more knowledgeable than others. We are all in a constant state of learning – or at least we should be.

What are your thoughts on the supposed A-list of tech bloggers?

Personally I think they are needed. They give those of us working our way up the ranks something to shoot for. Sure I make fun of them a lot of the time but it is stupid to suggest that such a thing doesn’t exist. It is part of human nature to rank things/people. We do it all the time whether it be celebrities, sports stars and even scientists – after all the Nobel Prizes area a form of ranking aren’t they? They tell us who some of the brightest and best are. So ya they are good to have around.

Is their a person or a style of writing that inspires your own writing style?

Hmm .. this is a hard one really because my tastes vary. I like everything from the snappy sarcastic posts of Valleywag to the long thoughtful post from people like Kevin Kelly to Alexander van Elsas.

How long did it take for you to make your first $100 from Google?

If I recall correctly I believe it took over a year for that first check but since then I’ve almost been able to cut the time between checks in half each cycle. Right now I’m approaching a check once every three to four months.

You have podcasting experience under your belt to go alongside of blogging. Where do you see mediums such as blogging, audio and video heading in the future?

Blogging will always be a mix of professional and purely personal but the personal will probably decline to a certain extent as things like Twitter and FriendFeed gain larger footholds. Professional blogging will probably consolidate around major brands and good solid individual pro news/opinion bloggers.

Podcasting I think will grow within the professional news and opinion arena but I don’t think it will grow much within the hobby/personal area. Videocasting though I think will grow in both areas but for the professionals they are going to have to make it a part of the mix as I don’t think that pure video ‘blogging’ is something that “right now” will be something that people will make time for. that might change as technology changes, peoples tastes change and we see more professional quality video; both short and long, come onstream.

What is it about technology that fascinates you?

Hmm … I think it fascinates me because of the potential it has both good and bad. And it never stops advancing. It continually gives us the opportunity to learn and grow.

Is there anything on the horizon as it relates to technology, software or blogging that really excites you?

If there is anything that really excites me at this point it would have to be cloud computing as I believe it will be trans formative. Not just of technology but also our society. But it also worries me so I guess that also adds to the interest and excitement.

At the end of each interview, I have a hall mark question that is asked and that is, what is the future of blogging?

I think blogging is definitely here to stay. Hell it hasn’t even really hit the mainstream yet as far as readership so the marketplace is still to be developed. I also think that over the next few years we will see a real amalgamation of heritage media and new media – we can learn so much from each other if we’d just stop being so territorial. Ya I think the future for blogging is still very bright and I hopefully will still be doing for a very long time to come. I look forward to growing with it.

Special thanks to Steven Hodson for taking some time to answer my questions. You can check out his work at WinExtra.com

This Interview was published on October 29, 2008 at 3:17 am • Did you like it? Subscribe!
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