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

Frostclick is a blog that aggregates all the good, free, and legal content all over the Internet. It gives attention to the truly indie artists who do what they do out of pure passion and aren’t that focused on earning as much money as possible. I interviewed Kademlia, Frostclick content manager, about the mission and vision of this amazing blog.

For those who haven’t heard yet – what is Frostwire? Frostclick?

FrostWire is a P2P open source file sharing application. It was created by many developers around the world as a LimeWire fork to protect the developmental source code and to foster community involvement in further improving the Gnutella & BitTorrent protocols.

FrostClick is blog/directory of all cool and legal things you can download with FrostWire and beyond. We scan the web and pick the best of free and legal online content online. We support Creative Commons licensing model and whenever possible try to educate content owners on their licensing choices. We also use our relationship with FrostWire to promote the very best of the content we write about substantially increasing the exposure of our content creators. Some of our recent releases have been receiving more than 100,000 downloads!

What is your role in Frostclick?

I am the content editor and community outreach person. On an everyday basis I work with our contributors and make sure the content we feature is indeed legal to download free. I also schedule and prepare the promotions we do with FrostWire and communicate with our media partners to give the releases the most exposure possible.

Frostclick has got amazing content! There are tons of surprising great finds that are free and legal to download. Where do you usually find them?

Aside from the obvious ones for music (jamendo.com, freemusicarchive.org, archive.org) there is really no one place. Some of our best finds were very accidental. Sometimes I just scan the news, creative commons blogs, netlabels…once you immerse yourself in the independent contnet world, things just tend to pop out. Recently we’ve also been getting many submissions – both for Frostclick reviews and Frostwire promotions.

Since Frostclick is a blog with several writers, what are the obstacles that you had to surmount in order to find the best ones and coordinate among yourselves? What app/s do you rely on?

Well – that part we haven’t figured out entirely yet. The biggest obstacle is not having a steady stream of content coming in. FrostClick is a side gig for all of us and we write whenever we have time and find something worth sharing. I am still looking for contributors and found some great writers from around the world already. Hopefully as time comes, we will build up a bigger of a team to be able to release more than one post a day.

There are really no coordination issues. We all have log ins into the blog’s WordPress and create at our own phase. Once somebody is ready with an article, they save it as Pending and I look it over – generally for layout things. When it’s all done, I forward to a pile of posts ready for publishing. It seems to work well. We also communicate via Skype and email if anything needs to be discussed, but that doesn’t happen too often any more. We have our drill figured out already.

How did you build the Frostclick community? What social networking sites do you currently use?

The majority of the FrostClick community is composed of FrostWire users and in that respect we’ve been very lucky. I personally don’t really use any networking sites to foster community development simply because I have no time for it during the day. There are several FrostWire developers and other community members that take care of our Facebook & MySpace… I guess we are pretty active on Twitter if I would have to choose one.

What made you take up the Creative Commons cause?

There was a point in college where I produced a little feature with a group of my classmates. We have written, shot and edited eveything ourselves and really stumbled when it came to the soundtrack for the movie. At that point we did not know about Creative Commons and Jamendo did not exist so we tried to pick the most obsucre soundtrack possible and pay for the licensing ourselves. The agencies quoted us $10k – only to be able to show the movie in festivals… and our movie couldn’t see the light of day beyond the college scene.

I thought then that there must be artists out there that would want to share their creativity with others, that don’t care about the licensing fees because they do what they do out of pure love. I just didn’t know any of them personally. When I learned about CC it was a big AHA moment for me – somebody really understood what this whole content creation business is all about – at least on the independent side. Another AHA moment came when I learned how much of CC licensed and free and legal content is out there online and how little people know about.

This is my goal with FrostClick – to bring the independent, CC licensed/free content closer to the mainstream public and to legitimize file-sharing plainely as means of exchanging files – not just a tool to break copyrights as many in the record labels and government have perceived it in the past…

What has blogs like Frostclick and software like Frostwire contributed to the Internet?

I think sharing is the keyword for both. FrostWire enables you to freely and easily share your files with others, no servers and websites necessary. FrostClick recommends what we think is the best of the best in free and legal content out there from the content producers that want their creativity to be viewed/listened to and shared by as many people as possible. Community is always at the center of content creation and content distribution – no middle man involved.

What do you think is the future of content sharing online?

That’s the questions everybody close to us is trying to answer… and it’s a difficult one. Unfortunately a lot depends on how successful the big record labels and movie studios will be in influencing our governments to fight file sharing in the name of copyright protection. In general we all share more and more information online – voluntarily. We all upload pictures to flickr, videos to youtube, share our thoughs on Facebook and Twitter and most of that information is public! As the costs of content creation go down, more people will participate in the creative process and share the results free with the public.

I think that in time more and more content will be shared online. New business models and opportunities will develop and everybody will figure out a way to do their thing – whether it’s making money or simpy sharing their talent with the general public.

Read on to find out more about the blog and the secretive person behind it!

How was GeekMBA360 born?

It was a confluence of several factors. Since my college days, people liked to talk to me about career issues. I functioned like an “informal career counselor” which made me realize that people are hungry for down-to-earth, honest, and realistic career advice.

I witnessed several layoffs over the years so I feel strongly that there is no loyalty in corporate America. Hard working employees need to have the resources and support to help themselves to navigate job market and make career decisions and I feel that my blog can be that resource. Hence, the financial crisis gave me a sense of urgency to start the blog. I feel that a lot of folks were ill prepared for such a  major financial crisis. I’d like to help.

Last but not least, I love writing. I read a lot of blogs too which made me feel compelled to join the rank of bloggers.

I love the GeekMBA360 branding – “Career advice at the intersection of business and technology”. How did it come to you? How did you develop and maintain it?

I know that my niche is at the intersection of business and technology. I have a technical background, but I’m also very interested in business side of things and got an MBA a few years ago. So, I want a name that  reflects both tech and biz side of me. That’s how I came up with the name GeekMBA. However, the domain name “geekmba” was taken. I had to add something to it. One day I was watching the CNN news program “Andersen Copper 360″. I thought 360 is an easy-to-remember number to add to “GeekMBA”.

I’m glad that you like this brand. I was actually a little bit concerned about it! I was worried that having the name “MBA” in it might limit the readership — I want a blog that is helpful to professionals, not limited to business school graduates. Also, I know some people don’t like MBAs — they appear to be arrogant, overly analytical, and clubless at times. I was afraid that my brand might have negative connotation to some folks, but it all seems to work out so far.

You seem to be very careful about privacy, with no name or picture of you on your site. This is a rare thing in the blogging world, since it thrives on being “personal” and “easy to relate”. Why remain anonymous? How does this affect your blog? Does it affect your blog?

Great question! I’m actually a very open person, a straight shooter in real life. Sometimes it kills me remain anonymous in my blog because I love to connect with people.

I am very careful about privacy largely because of two reasons:

1) I have a full-time job, and blogging is a only a side personal project. Given the subject matter of my blog, I really want to avoid any mix of my day job and my blog. All of the examples I use in my blog were from my previous jobs, not my current job. I want to avoid a situation where co-workers read my blog and think that I’m referring to something at work. So, for now, I’m writing anonymously to prevent any unnecessary speculation/guessing.

2) I want my blog to have a brand that is separated from me, the person. This is not easy to to do since blogging is authentic, personal, and social by nature. But, my entrepreneur philosophy is to build a profitable venture with a system and a brand, so that the start-up venture will have a life on its own without being associated to me. We’ll see if I can succeed in doing this.

How do you monetize your blog? Have your methods been profitable? What is your advice to bloggers who want to earn money from blogging?

This blog is profitable. The monetization methods include ad networks for display ads, affiliate (e.g. Amazon) and premium reports (I currently have 3 premium reports on sales.)

In term of making money from blogging, my advice is to have your own product for sales since it is better than affiliate commission. On the other hand, affiliate commission is better than ad networks.

Favorite topics to rave about? Rant about?

I like to rave about individuals who have the courage to pursue their own path, and find happiness along the way. I also provide honest and balanced perspective on MBA education as well as practical, from-the-trenches career advice on job search, start-ups, and so on.

I rant about work place politics and frustration and the daily challenges to balance professional and personal demands.

What’s your favorite advice to those who have been severely affected by the recession?

The Chinese phrase for “crisis” consists of two characters: danger and opportunity. If you lost your job or lost a lot of money in the stock market due to the recession, it’s a personal and/or professional crisis on the surface. But think hard and think creatively about the hidden opportunities – you will definitely find them.

Why did you hop on to social media? When and how did you realize the potential of web 2.0?

That’s the funny thing, I have been involved with “social media” for as long as I can remember because I have been socializing online since before the web existed! I started out with those old modem dialup “Bulletin Boards” and never really looked back. I was hooked right away and progressed to Usenet Newsgroups, forums, email discussion lists … the rest, as they say, is history.

Who are your idols in the blogosphere? Why? Who/where do you draw your inspiration from?

I draw my inspiration from everybody and everywhere. You can learn something from each person you meet. Idols are not something I tend to have, but there are folks I deeply respect. My mentors at this time I would say are Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics, Mike Stelzner of Whitepapersource, Aaron Wall of SEOBook and Brian Clark of Copyblogger. Darren Rowse is a good friend and a constant source of inspiration, and who doesn’t love Chris Brogan. I have too many friends to list here who provide me with constant support and inspiration too.

What separates you from other specialists in your profession?

My main point of difference is my approach. You mostly are given advice around making a great deal of buzz, having a big audience, and such, whereas I teach to grow a smaller, more engaged audience of people who know, like and trust you.

Another difference is my background is as a techy first, then marketer (branding, advertising, direct marketing), and blending that with social media. So I am kind of strange in that regard!

Please describe your thought process when you get a new blog-writing/internet marketing project.

I always start with the audience and work backwards. Always.

What was the hardest work-related task you’ve had to accomplish?

My first entry into properly working with the internet was being given the job of setting up the college I worked at as an Internet Service Provider for the local area. That was scary and exciting in equal measure, particularly as at that point (early 90’s) there was very little help, nobody had heard of the internet or the web, it was the domain of serious people in lab coats! By the time I had worked it all out I had a real head start but it was a crazy time.

What are the advantages of using blogs and marketing via the Internet versus traditional tactics? Are online strategies good enough to stand alone to fulfill a marketing function?

Online can certainly work well, I do not do any offline marketing and most of my successful internet buddies do everything online, but when I work with clients I tell them the best approach is a blend – just because you go online does not mean you have to abandon what is proven, trackable and works.

Do you think micro-blogging is killing traditional blogging?

No, but it has taken some of the action. Whereas people used to do much more linking, short posts and comments, a lot of that has moved to Twitter etc. That’s fine, there are a lot of thoughts you can not convey in 140 characters.

What do you think is the next big thing for the internet? What kind of future do you envision for the web?

I have never been that good at predicting the future but I see everything becoming more accessible, more always-on, more ubiquitous. Consumption of media is becoming more and more time-shifted and immediate. CDs and DVDs have had their day, and I think books will become more commonly electronic with print being a luxury or souvenir rather than the default. I can see a time when the majority of our media is rented and streamed rather than bought and physical, and that will impact how we treat all of our online interactions.
Any parting words/tips for budding bloggers and netrepreneurs?

The biggest mistake I see people making every day online is that people forget it is human beings communicating. Forget the technology, connect with people. Treat others as you want to be treated and not only will the world be a nicer place, you will be more successful too!

This interview, however, is not about his disease. It is about him. It’s about how he managed to view his disability as a powerful motivation to make something out of himself. He cultivated his “this” abilities and managed to become an inspiring personality in his country. Instead of dwelling on the things he can never do because of Pompe, he focused on the Internet and became a blogger, freelance writer, and owner of Sparkplug Studios. Find out more after the jump!

What are your “this” abilities? How did you develop them and continue developing them?
I consider web designing to be one of my “this abilities”. Most of the things that I’m doing now I learned on my own. While I got my design fundamentals from college, my web design skills were courtesy of books and the internet.
Another skill that I’m proud of is writing. You see, over the years my hand dexterity has deteriorated to a point where my abilities to draw or paint are severely limited. So I turned to writing. While I’m not by any means a good writer, I do okay with blog posts and short articles. Writing is therapeutic for me because it allows me to convey what I feel. Most of my writing though has been limited to tech stories (mostly Mac related). My blog serves as the only outlet I have for other topics. Although I haven’t had time to update it recently, I plan to revive it in the near future.

What was the inspiration behind Sparkplug Studios? What difficulties did you overcome in building your own start-up company?

Sparkplug Studios was born out of necessity. I knew that if I wanted to work I would need to create my own opportunities rather than expect people to give them to me. I didn’t see myself working in a corporate environment so the logical step would be to go into business. Although the past year hasn’t been good for Sparkplug Studios and we have had to wind down operations.

What other projects are you currently handling?

Right now I have a contract with a client for short-term, full-time work. That’s what I’m concentrating on right now but I still have a few side projects such as creating the website for our non-profit organization (www.psod.org.ph).

Your last posts discussed your thoughts on faith. How has your faith in God helped you in dealing with Pompe?
I wouldn’t say I’m a very religious person. In fact in that aspect I think I’m still sorely lacking. I do have faith though – I believe in God, His greatness and His goodness. I’m certain that without God I would not have survived this long. There are a lot of things in my life that have been nothing short of a miracle, believe it or not. I shouldn’t really even be alive today but yet I’m here talking to you. I almost died when I was nineteen. Doctors said I wouldn’t live past the age of thirty but I believe that God made it possible.

I believe faith is a very personal subject. It’s really between you and your God. I don’t want to impose my faith to others but I will share it with people who are willing to listen.
What is your philosophy on life, the universe, and everything?

I believe that we’re put on this earth to make a difference in other people’s lives. This is so much evident now as we’re going through the devastation of Typhoon Ondoy. I see people’s heroism. That’s the reason why we’re here on earth. Somehow, in the course of our lives, we just forget it. In times of hardships though we remember it. We just need to live it everyday instead of just times of crisis.

Another thing is just to try and be the best that you can be. You may not be the best in the field you want to get into but you should still work on maximizing your full potential.

What are the lessons you learned in your difficult journey against the disease?

Life goes on no matter what. Life doesn’t stop because you’re sick or what. You need to push forward and move on. Also it doesn’t mean if you’re sick or have a disability that you can’t do anything anymore. You need to find something you can do and do that.

Disability is like a wall that’s put in front of you that you can’t climb but that doesn’t mean you can’t go around it. So you need to focus on things that you can do and not what you can’t and try your best doing that.

What’s next for Juan Magdaraog?

Honestly, right now I’m not sure yet. All I know is I want my life to matter. Working for me right now is a means to an end. I work because I want to save up and be financially independent so I can do the things that are important to me such as trying to help people with rare disorders.

I just pray that God gives me the strength to continue fighting through Pompe disease so I can do other things that matter.

Wanna know more about him? Read on for this exclusive interview!

So after you graduated, you set off for Honolulu to enjoy the beach and the weather. Then you moved to Arizona and worked as technical support. Then you quit that job and started blogging. What actually got you into blogging? Was there a specific point when you realized, “Hey, this is something that I can do really well. This is something I’m passionate about”?

Well, I’ve always been interested in building websites. It’s something I started doing in high school. Then, the whole idea of blogging started to become popular so I thought I would give it a shot. So I ended up starting a few blogs (all of which are dead now) in college and wrote about random things I was doing. It wasn’t until I moved to Hawaii that I really got interested. The main reason I started blogging at that time was to keep my friends and family back home up to date on what I was doing. From there I just got more and more interested in the whole concept of blogging.

As far as a certain point goes, it happened when I first saw more than 10,000 visitors on a single day. That’s when I really new that blogging was what I enjoy doing.

Many bloggers go pro but still maintain a day job. What made you want to do it full-time? Was the money really good? Sorry if that sounded a bit crass, but it seems that very few bloggers, i.e. the cream of the crop, actually can make a living out of only blogging.

Well believe it or not, one of the main reasons why my personal blog ever got popular was because I used to write about my day job. I wrote a lot about how I disliked it and wanted to change careers. So I was already looking for an alternative career since technical support was not my thing. Since I enjoyed blogging so much, I really thought it would be awesome if I could do that full-time.

As far as money goes, it was nowhere near good when I first started out full-time. I made a lot of sacrifices such as cutting the cable, selling my car, and getting rid of some of the things I didn’t need. The good news is that I wasn’t really in it for the money. It’s amazing how little you care about money when you’re able to wake up every morning and work on something you enjoy.

How did you make your blog grow from scratch? How do you maintain its success?

When I first started my main blog, it didn’t look anything like it does now. It was super ugly since I didn’t know a lot of about design at the time. I just stuck to writing posts as often as possible and over time I started getting more and more visitors. Since then, I’ve learned a lot in terms of developing so it’s been through a few makeovers.

The real key to success is writing quality content as often as possible. It’s also important to spend time getting your name out. I’ve attended a few conferences and spent a lot of time interacting with people around the web.

Zoopmedia. How was it born? What services does it offer? Would you say it has been a successful venture for you?

Once I went full-time, I knew that I wanted to do more than just write. So I had the idea of starting a company that helps people start blogs (or websites) using WordPress. Since then, we’ve added a few services including blog consulting and coaching.

It’s been a very successful venture so far. It’s grown a lot faster than I ever would of anticipated. It’s to the point where it’s difficult trying to keep up with everything that’s going on. But that’s a good problem to have

What are the difficulties you come across in running your own company? Any lessons you’d like to share with those planning to start their own online?

I think the biggest obstacle in running your own company is time. It requires far more work than a normal job since you tend to wear multiple hats. That’s the main reason why people always say that you need to be passionate about what you do otherwise it’s really easy to lose your motivation.

The biggest lesson I can think of is to start NOW. It’s really easy to plan things but never get them started. The sooner you start  the sooner you will get the results your hoping for, especially when it comes to online business.

Ahh, the favorite question: what do you think is the future of blogging?

It seems like everyday someone writes an article called “Blogging is dead.” However, I really feel that blogging is still the future in terms of producing content online. It’s just evolving now that different services like Twitter have become mainstream. I also think multi-author blogs will continue to grow since they seem to be the most popular ones around right now.

The interview is long and not only because Michael had many questions, but mainly because I tried to answer as completely as I could. I think I have some views on blogging which can be controversial to say the least and wanted to try to put them in place in the hope to avoid misunderstandings. Go read it now, because it’s my only ever online.

Franky, you’ve lived a dozen lives in a dozen places – none of them boring. What brought you to pro-blogging? And why England?

A dozen lives is probably even for my life an exaggeration, but you are right in that I have walked several paths in life. And all I remember is one big party. Lucky me, I guess.

Asking me after almost 4 years in the UK ‘Why England’ is poised to become the specimen of a story of epic FAIL. Just think about it: the weather generally is bad ((It always pisses down here)), the mainstream knowledge of literature can be resumed with the Page 3 culture featuring Page 3 Girl on the cover page. Binge drinking is still an active cultural event in the life of many, petty crime and fights are omni-present and somehow I am shocked every time I see billboards along these lines ‘Don’t drink too much if you don’t want to wake up with a STD’ and other IMO rather negative and 20 years too late general awareness campaigns. The Gouvernment gives George Orwell and ‘1984′ a run for his money and their place in history. Also, as you might have noticed by now, moaning and bitching are official national sports here.

Sarcasm aside, after a successful career in the bar and restaurant sector on the continent, I wanted to conquer, and finish my bar career in, London, a metropolitan I have loved. Sadly my approach bar life in the UK was poor and I was totally misinformed. There was no way I would be able to aim for the top jobs in UK cocktail bars with my continental and ‘classic’ background in mixology without starting all over again, a sacrifice I was not ready to make. The whole franchise culture in pubs did not help either either. Usually I would alienate interviewers with my tremendous international background and my drive soon be a top mixologist in the UK would only scare them off.

A change in sector brought this workaholic back to the computer screen full-time and I started blogging, although until recently I was not allowed to have a public identity due to contract restrictions. Blogging became my second life where I did whatever I wanted.

If your life had taken a different course, where would you be and what would you be doing differently? What stopped that from happening?

If my life had taken a different course I can only think of 2 possibilities. Whether I’d have followed the rather predefined family uniform tradition, been professionally successful, have a couple/bunch of kids and married three times and divorced four times by the age of 34 or I had gone to college, graduated, become professionally successful, have a couple/bunch of kids and been married three times and divorced four times by the age of 34. Much like most of my classmates actually.
I will be 34 next summer ((year for the next summer period in the UK is still to be determined)), have been successful in almost whatever I did but have never been married or divorced and have no kids (that I am aware of). The only reason why things went this way was my desire to travel, live Europe, not follow my predefined future and I did not like the uniform environment. Yes I tried it, but I must admit that going to corporate level meetings for a S&P500 company (on national level) in torn jeans was a much more enjoyable experience than the whole uniform thing.

Has blogging got a future, and if so does it look like this? If not, what’s it turning into?

I think blogging still has a future but in a different form, structure than we know it now. Actually the whole internet is undergoing structural changes and this time I think the internet *will finally grow up*. To quote Eric Karjaluoto:

In the web world, we’re currently experiencing the fallout of the second of tidal waves. The next one, however, will be slower, more distributed, and come with far less of a schock.”

I agree and think, combined with the negative economic climate we are experiencing right now, the internet itself will become slower, more distributed and better leveraged. Many internet professional has crashed for at least the second time now. That experience will be vital and define the next, the *final* web, a scaled business, but just as controlled by multinational corporations as *real life* is. Just look at the huge amount of properties CBS controls. Amazon will continue to buy properties and so will Google. And then there will be the indies, who will fight more and more the corporate online structures. Kind of your indie coffeeshop vs. Starbucks, but online and no I do not mean Questionable Content.

Blogging is out, but at the same time blogging has a huge future. I entirely agree with Paul Boutin that platforms such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Tumblr and WordPress.com will continue to grow immensely, absorbing a huge majority of the online traffic. They offer the perfect structure for personal bloggers to publish their personal diary and also to generate some traffic and be read. The future of great _Web 2.0_ platforms lays in keeping the visitors on your site, often the only way to generate a long-term sustainable revenue.

Blogs as a magazine are the hype of the moment but a quickly dying one. More and more the indie blogger will have to fight against smaller, profitable networks who create awesome content at a high pace. As you said, most niches have been owned already. I predict that more and more bloggers will join forces and even merge their blogs in some years, creating a bigger, larger platform, a site much more interesting for referrer and organic traffic growth. First we will see mini networks popping up all over the place, driving traffic internally and later we will see a return to _Web 1.0_ platforms, *real* CMS structures. This evolution is already visible in the development of blog platforms. WordPress, Movable Type and Expression Engine become bigger and bigger with every release, offering more and more *bloat*. Buddypress being a perfect example of this. Soon one will think “Hey, didn’t Joomla 1.5 already offer all this in 2005 and Postnuke in 2003?”.
Blogs will have to make this change to keep up with their ever growing size of archives because to be honest, blogs suck when it comes to structural smart presentation of huge amounts of content.
Ad prices will continue to drop as the internet grows. More page views often results in a lower CPM, weird but fact just look at the problems Facebook, Digg and Myspace have in leveraging their CPM. Generating more pageviews with the integration of forums is an old concept and much used technique among indie ‘online magazine publications’. Expect even more forums to pop up, to generate pageviews and increase revenues. Once more BuddyPress is the best example of this return in focus to grow a large own platform.

To resume, blogging is alive and kicking for diaries and the existing platforms have become that important that there is NO place anymore for newcomers anymore. Facebook, Myspace, Youtube and WordPress.com are here to stay and will continue to grow, almost obtaining a stranglehold on the market by their sheer size and ability to quickly integrate more features. Twitter has become a daily part of life for many of us and has the same stranglehold on its API, maybe Tumblr can join the mix but everything will depend on the evolution and duration of the economic downturn as many platforms are in danger of being wiped out as soon as economic decisions could lead to restricted APIs.
Professionally maintained _blogs_ will continue to grow, but undergo changes and evolve in an ever more structurally organized presence. They will more and more become the online magazine you’d have bought from the kiosk 2 years ago, often even open their focus to even more topics. Example par excellence is the Techcrunch network.
Indie bloggers are in for a really tough time. They face a life in traffic quarantaine and will only in the smallest, most unknown niches continue to have a sustainable existence. 2009 is all about building your brand and becoming *huge*. Jump on the wagon NOW or face to be swallowed by the big guns.
I would not start a new blog anymore unless it were in an _exotic_ long tail niche or I were sure to have the support of other sites to push traffic to the new one.

Do you think blogs and blogging are having to redefine themselves, or is there some inherent core of what a blog is and should be? If so, what is that?

As I mentioned earlier I think that blogs will redefine themselves. Actually I think that people will finally start to define what blogging means to them. Right now I think for a majority of bloggers it’s just a personal diary and for the other part it’s a much hyped dream of becoming rich. Ever noticed that the podcast to the 4-hour working week 8 hours long is?
For me blogging is a personal experience and most popular _blogs_ are no blogs anymore. Luckily readers don’t really care about how you call it, but I noticed that people use the term blog less and less when it comes to sites like Gawker, TechCrunch and the whole slur of co-authored publications. Ironically, I experience most MSM journalist blogs much more as blogs, opinionated online columns, than most popular _blogs_ we know.

One of the things that set apart your blogging for me, when I first encountered your work, was this total fightclub disregard for kissing arse, going through the motions and formalities, or even following any kind of pattern other than one you set yourself. It reminded me of what blogs were before everyone got so full of themselves and started acting like stuffed-suit journalists. What’s the motivation or thinking behind that, and is that still the way you like to work?

I do not believe in hype and I think my background in bars is at the base of this attitude. More than once have I worked in, opened even, the newest bar, the hottest spot in town, the hippest in-scene location and enjoyed the popularity of the moment. Then suddenly, 2 doors further a new location opens and you are *out*, look old-fashioned and soon to be forgotten without having made errors. What easier way to open a hot-spot than decorate it Easter style during the end of year Holiday period can you think off? Go against conventions, fight against the hype of the moment and you’ll catch eyeballs.

The culture of A-Listers does not fit in this spirit and has no place in my beliefs. I believe in constantly working at yourself, reinventing yourself, looking forward, trying to spot the next big thing. When I managed bars I was known as a talent scout, coach for new mixologists and waiters and I will continue down that line. Finding unknown people, working hard together and growing, be good at what you do and work hard to become better. A-Listers tend to quickly be satisfied with their status and enjoy their fame. Fall in the trap of constantly repeating themselves, forgetting to look forward. I respect people who abandon this trail of ease and laziness, people who constantly think. I am sure it is a surprise that lately I am very impressed by Jason Calacanis’s email list and I hope to interview Jason some day.
Jason thinks, Jason is not afraid to try out new paths, fail, fall and stand up again. Become stronger, more motivated and driven to perform even better. Respect… for now, as soon as he rests on his laurels I will soon forget him too. But Calacanis is a born entrepreneur with an open mind for dialogue. So is Mark Cuban, who is so easy to hate, but even easier to admire when being objective and looking at his successes. Needless to say it is a dream to interview Mark.

When I started blogging to me it was all about having an online version of a snarky column. Already at school I was hated for my publications, hardblowing straight-forwardness, snark and sarcasm. As dry as I like my Martinis. I do not fit in _the box_ and never will. The art of Fight Club and stepping out of the line lays in how well you control your rebel level, an art I think I master better and better every day. Only time will tell and I hope the next gig at Forever Geek will show that I can combine both elements, professionalism and opinions. I guess it is clear that I admire Nick Denton too.
Blogging is about opinions and being honest to yourself. Don’t write for people who might discover your site, bring you your five minutes of fame, but publish *your* thoughts, be honest with yourself otherwise you’re writing for an online magazine and not blogging.
I think my answers in this interview for _BloggerTalks_ are the prove that I’ll continue to think *independently*. One could say that I suffer from Ataraxia and in the same spirit I will say that Lucky Number Slevin the most underrated movie of the five last years is. Tarantino at his best, but without Tarantino.

Your opinions on the whole media-rich blog thing seem pretty clear (videos and podcasts should keep the frack away from blogs/the interweb is for txt) – do you think the whole web media thing is a flash in the pan, or is it here to stay? And is that going to having any impact on what you do?

Indeed the internet is for text and vowels!

Weirdly enough I believe in media-rich content online, vod- and podcasts just aren’t my cup of espresso doppio. I am a movie freak and can not wait until genuine BD quality hits the streaming platforms.
Considered I suffer from a severe case of Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder (NADD) one would think that the whole media-rich culture exactly my thing is, but more and more I start to experience the restrictions of todays fast evolving hardware market. Portability and mobility are my biggest ennemies. I am an adept of the 3 Monitor Club, you never have enough of real screen estate baby, still the laptop has become my weapon of choice.
Take Lenovo’s W700ds, attach a third screen and give me all together at least 4000px horizontal space, make everything portable, not brick heavy, slap Mac OS X (or XI) on it and maybe then we’re in business for media-rich content. No, I do not demand much.

Then I’ll complain that it feels like TV, way too much of poor content!

One of the things that set apart your blogging for me, when I first encountered your work, was this total fightclub disregard for kissing arse, going through the motions and formalities, or even following any kind of pattern other than one you set yourself. It reminded me of what blogs were before everyone got so full of themselves and started acting like stuffed-suit journalists. What’s the motivation or thinking behind that, and is that still the way you like to work?

I do not believe in hype and I think my background in bars is at the base of this attitude. More than once have I worked in, opened even, the newest bar, the hottest spot in town, the hippest in-scene location and enjoyed the popularity of the moment. Then suddenly, 2 doors further a new location opens and you are *out*, look old-fashioned and soon to be forgotten without having made errors. What easier way to open a hot-spot than decorate it Easter style during the end of year Holiday period can you think off? Go against conventions, fight against the hype of the moment and you’ll catch eyeballs.

The culture of A-Listers does not fit in this spirit and has no place in my beliefs. I believe in constantly working at yourself, reinventing yourself, looking forward, trying to spot the next big thing. When I managed bars I was known as a talent scout, coach for new mixologists and waiters and I will continue down that line. Finding unknown people, working hard together and growing, be good at what you do and work hard to become better. A-Listers tend to quickly be satisfied with their status and enjoy their fame. Fall in the trap of constantly repeating themselves, forgetting to look forward. I respect people who abandon this trail of ease and laziness, people who constantly think. I am sure it is a surprise that lately I am very impressed by Jason Calacanis’s email list and I hope to interview Jason some day.
Jason thinks, Jason is not afraid to try out new paths, fail, fall and stand up again. Become stronger, more motivated and driven to perform even better. Respect… for now, as soon as he rests on his laurels I will soon forget him too. But Calacanis is a born entrepreneur with an open mind for dialogue. So is Mark Cuban, who is so easy to hate, but even easier to admire when being objective and looking at his successes. Needless to say it is a dream to interview Mark.

When I started blogging to me it was all about having an online version of a snarky column. Already at school I was hated for my publications, hardblowing straight-forwardness, snark and sarcasm. As dry as I like my Martinis. I do not fit in _the box_ and never will. The art of Fight Club and stepping out of the line lays in how well you control your rebel level, an art I think I master better and better every day. Only time will tell and I hope the next gig at Forever Geek will show that I can combine both elements, professionalism and opinions. I guess it is clear that I admire Nick Denton too.
Blogging is about opinions and being honest to yourself. Don’t write for people who might discover your site, bring you your five minutes of fame, but publish *your* thoughts, be honest with yourself otherwise you’re writing for an online magazine and not blogging.
I think my answers in this interview for _BloggerTalks_ are the prove that I’ll continue to think *independently*. One could say that I suffer from Ataraxia and in the same spirit I will say that Lucky Number Slevin the most underrated movie of the five last years is. Tarantino at his best, but without Tarantino.

I’ve spent many an early morning laughing at your almost sociopathic loathing of some of the “A-list” and bloggerati. Who’s on your hitlist these days?

Michael, you’re in for a shock here, but I have no hitlist and never had, just the inspiration of the moment. I think offensive snark is so 2006 and guess I’m getting older too.
I still am a straight-forward ‘blowhard’ and always will be, but together with the years comes more relativism and a certain attitude of laisser passer. I have no need anymore to publish my opinion on everyone and everything and have certainly changed my approach to the online life over the last 12 months and this is a return to blogging for me after almost a year of very sporadic updates.
I’ll admit that I miss the old style Jack of all Blogs, snark blog par excellence, and Nick&Nick Valleywag, but I’ll gladly let the fisking to others nowadays.
Also in real life I have become much more lassive. Don’t misunderstand me, I do not fear controversy and even if interviews on BloggerTalks might be _delicate_ at times, so be it.

The ink on your body reads something like the contents of Anton LaVey’s wet dream, by way of a yakuza mob boss. That kind of links back, for me, to the way you blog. Any comments you’d like to make about the connection between the two?

Haha, funny that you ask. Obviously I first have to return the question and ask you how you know Anton LaVey.
The ink kinda grew, it’s who I am. My snark, sarcasm in life and general ataraxia approach have lead to many people being offended and the nicer ones calling me ‘Devil’. The ink obviously could be interpreted negatively but that was the reason why I opted for Kanji and to be original obviously, who wants to be the next kid on the block with a pint of beer holding devil on their arm?
Although I have read interesting stuff about some of the darker beliefs in life, once more I must say that I do not believe in gurus, brainwasher or nay-sayers in general. I am no part of any cult and never will, even not the Cult of Mac. To me the tattoos are what tattoos should be, an expression of a part of my own personality. Best of all, unless when I am in Asia I can always make people believe they mean what I want them to mean at that particular moment, which I think just confirms their true meaning, and no one sees them unless I decide not to cover them. You’ld be surprised how popular and what a great topic starter ‘Two Lattes and a Cappucino’ as meaning for the tattoo is. Only imagination is the limit, even blunt, straight-forward pickup lines are very popular.
Yes, I still need an old-school style red dragon, but after that I’ll stear clear of every single Chinatown worldwide!

I had the occasion to work together with Michael on Tubetorial and since then a friendship has grown. In today’s first part of our exclusive BloggerTalks double header I interview Michael and tomorrow Michael has the exclusive of interviewing me for the first time ever after more than 10 years of online presence.

Michael, thanks for participating to BloggerTalks. Since we worked together at Tubetorial.com much has happened for you. Almost over night you became the latest blog rockstar. Not once but twice. How did things happen?

Blogrockstar? I don’t get out enough to rock at much, but thanks all the same.

In terms of the stuff I’ve been doing the last couple of years.. I started out putting together “online magazine” type content, before the whole “magazine” theme thing became standard. But for geeky, open source kind of stuff – I was into p2p, open source art, culture jamming, that kind of thing. I got chatting to Italian alphablogger Robin Good and he showed me the ropes, and in the space of a couple of months I was full-time blogging for him. That was pretty cool, and I got to live in a few different places without the hassle of being tied to anywhere – Tokyo, Berlin,  Malta(!) and the UK.

At that time I got into doing screencasting, starting out with reviews for Robin, and then branching into doing a few private jobs for start ups that had seen my stuff. At the time there weren’t that many people doing it, which helped I suppose.  Then I decided to see where that would go if I did it full-time. In the early days of going solo you and I hooked up and did the Tubetorial stuff together, which was cool, and I carried on doing promos and demos for start-ups.

I started building up clients and gradually expanding my range to add a bit of motion graphic flavor to things, and then got into the whole dataportability thing, which led to me putting a promo together for that. That got picked up by an insane amount of (tech) blogs, and I suddenly found myself with more work than I knew what to do with.

Fast forward to about 9 months (and not a lot of sleep) later and Raanan, the VP at Automattic, got in touch about us working on some WordPress screencasts for the NYT. That evolved, and I was invited to join the Automattic crew as the project came to a close. Since then, back in August last year, I’ve been working on promos, tutorials and dreaming up WordPress.tv full-time, which kind of rocks.

You seem to be an exception in the WordPress.com blogging stable since you’re not the most active blogger at all. But before screencasts and animation you were an active and well read blogger when you wrote for Robin, how did focus switch?

Short answer: I’m crap at multitasking.

I’ve always been divided between words and pictures – back in the day my first degree was in film and literature. These days I spend all day working on videos about blogging, and at the end of that I don’t have much left in me to verbalize. So I’ve found that the other side of my brain has started getting more attention. I do blog, but I blog videos, and pictures – at smashcut.tv, and joltplusplus.tv respectively (and in the strictest sense of the word, WordPress.tv is a blog, totally built on WordPress, so I’ve been building blog content for months). I also do the WordPress.tv blog, and my wordpress-based “professional” blog.

But my feedreader these days is a stream of images and short posts about images. Or moving images. And I spend my free time wrangling with After Effects, Cinema 4D, Modo, photoshop etc. The cycle will doubtless happen a lot of times again in the future.

You recently moved to Sapporo and the town seems to fit your creative trails. On a personal level do you think Michael will become ‘blogger’ again or are blogs the perfect platform for your creativity?

It’s been about  year and a half now, and I really like being here. Sapporo is a smaller city than Tokyo, but still about 2 or 3 million people. I miss some of the bustle of Tokyo, until I go there for a week, when I’m happy to come back. Honestly, I find it suits me creatively – when it snows for half the year you spend a lot more time in your own head than in the pub. Wouldn’t suit everyone, but I like it. Guess that’s why you see so much dreamy, leftfield art and music coming from Iceland and Scandinavia?

In terms of me and blogging – I can see myself using blogs more in the future, but most likely in a visual way. That might change, but these days I’m not interested in search engine traffic (no longer a freelancer), and my day-to-day life isn’t nearly interesting enough to type up, so the appeal is limited beyond the professional side of things. Maybe a webcomic blog. Or something handwritten and scanned. But most likely animated and utterly self indulgent.

Not that long ago Paul Boutin had a snarky article at Wired about the future of (personal) blogging. As someone who has written on some sites with very respectable traffic, do you think the one-(wo)man blog has a future?

I totally think that depends on what you’re setting out to do.

If it’s to make money, I think blogs can be an awesome way of building up reputation that can be monetized indirectly (speaking gigs, books, merch, job opportunities, courses, blah), and I also think that with the right, laser-focused niche there’s still ground to be covered. The days of whipping up a TechCrunch empire are probably passed, but blogs are being used more and more by huge companies and media concerns.

Anyone setting out to make a killing from adsense by selling “how to get rich on the internet” B$, writing a blog about Twitter, blogging, social media, tech or any of those heinous clichés had better wake up and smell the coffee if they aren’t bringing something *very* new to the equation. Those niches have been owned already.

Be a specialist in something, an obsessive, otaku, fixation level specialist. The world is full of generalists trying to sell magic beans or regurgitate the same echo chamber garbage. In short – if there’s plenty of information out there on how to get started at what you’re planning to do, you’re probably too late. The lazy way is to try and emulate – it feels low risk, but chase the stuff going on at the edges and I think the chances of making it big are much higher. The world needs more blogs about where to buy toenail clippings, obscure Japanese sound systems, and authentic victorian erotica. Not TechCrunch II.

And if money isn’t your primary goal – then, hell yes, the blog lives on and there a zillion things you can do to make an impact in the world through it.

Blogging and video content. Two totally different audiences. I must admit never to bother with video or podcasts as you know, which medium do you think will come out on top?

Neither. I mean the TV news and newspapers were always two different things – we’re talking two different media, with different consumption patterns. Text is scannable, concise and much more portable. Video is engaging and direct, but much more linear, far harder to produce well, harder to search for. The medium is a package – quality of content and understanding your audience are more important than either.

I get tired of seeing average bloggers jumping on video and becoming… sub-average video bloggers. I mean, making video you can’t hear, can barely see, and in need of an hour less of content. Don’t do video because it’s trending. Shit video is shit video, just as shit blogging is shit blogging. And people are far less willing to sit through bad video than they are to skim a semi-literate blog post. In both cases, there are resources out there – free ones – that make a whole lot of difference – but lazy video makers stick out even further than lazy bloggers.

Last but not least, Michael now you’re a blogrockstar, do you get laid more often?

I’m married, I leave the house once a month, and I shave less often than that. Does that answer your question?

It somehow does *grin*.
Thank you for your time, Michael and BloggerTalks wishes you even more success for the future than you already enjoyed in the last 18 months. It was awesome to see you evolve from beginning screencaster to where you are now. Well done and I look forward to answer your questions in the second part of our double header.

Cool – edit down if need be, being concise was never my strong point

Conorp – What’s your favourite feature in WordPress 2.7

Tough question. My favorite feature of WordPress 2.7 would have to be the entire redesign of the user interface. When going from WordPress 2.3 to 2.5, I was excited like many other people were. However, after using the new version for awhile, I started to become upset with the functionality that was stripped out of the backend in favor of a static way of doing things. This continued with WordPress 2.6 and it was driving so many people crazy that groups of users began creating plugins which added the drag and drop features back into the backend of WordPress such as the Write Panel. Thankfully, WordPress development for 2.7 took an entirely new look at how to do things and today, we are left with the greatest version of WordPress to date.

Kasper Sorensen – As a practitioner of both, could you talk a little bit about the similarities and differences between blogging and podcasting in terms of style, content, subjects etc.

Well, I’ve certainly learned a few lessons while producing Perfcast for Performancing.com. Initially, I thought the podcast would have a huge audience considering Performancing.com had a huge audience. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way as I learned that podcasting and blogging serves the needs of two completely different audiences. While the site reached thousands of people per day, the podcast reached a total download number of 100 on a good week. When I finally came to this realization, I changed the way in which I produced the show and now that I cater to each audience with only a few intertwining elements, things seem to be picking up. Podcasting is interesting in that, what could take 2-3 hours to write might only take 5-10 minutes to discuss. I will say that producing a semi-professional podcast takes much longer than writing a blog post but the beauty of live, interaction with your audience more than makes up for the effort involved.

Vix – What has been your most memorable experience since you started blogging?

This is an easy question! My most memorable moment has to be when I attended my first WordCamp event in Dallas, TX in 2008 where I got to feel like a rock star. While there, I met Trisha Miller, author of the blog Tech-Kittens. Unknowingly to me, Trisha had become a loyal reader to my personal blog and wanted to get a picture with me. I had the opportunity to talk to a loyal reader face to face about all sorts of things and through this experience, I truly felt like a rock star. It was awesome and I’ll never forget it!

Damn Hairy Human – Do you feel that blogging has helped in your usage of the english language?

Definitely. Thanks to the continous use of Spell check and constantly writing new content, I’ve learned how to properly spell a lot of words. I’ve also rediscovered the importance of Grammar and while I’m still not where I’d like to be, the Grammar police makes a great backup mechanism. But as I continue to write, my use of the English language continues to improve.

Austin – What do you see yourself doing in ten years?

Yet another tough question. I see myself continuing to evolve my online career in some form or fashion. I hope by that point, I’m financially comfortable. Also in ten years, I hope to have made significant progress with one of my life long goals of being considered successful.

Keith – What got you started in PodCasting? Are there any good podcast-startup resources you could recommend to others?

To keep it simple, podcasts got me started into Podcasting. In early 2007, I discovered a website known as Talkshoe.com Talkshoe is a service which takes all of the leg work out of producing and hosting a podcast. The way Talkshoe is setup provides many similarities with AM Talk radio where people can actually call in during a live recording to interact with the show host. After spending hours on the site listening to other podcasts, I began to wonder if I could do one of my own. After listening to the WordPress Podcast produced by Charles Stricklin which only came out once a month, my thirst for more WordPress content in an audio form grew to the point where it forced me to start my own. One that was produced and released each week just to satisfy my hunger. I did it on my own with the help of a few friends and I’m still doing it today (WordPress Weekly). With regards to podcasting startup advice. The most sound advice I could give is to either participate live or subscribe to the Podcaster Training show on Talkshoe hosted by Rob White. The show airs live every Friday evening at 8PM EST and discusses the ins and outs of podcasting. Everything from monetization, to soundboards, to microphones, Rob covers it all. The information that Rob provides could easily be considered premium content.

Lee Robertson – What do you think is the future of blogging?

How ironic is it that I get asked my signature question to everyone I interview. The future of blogging is bright. I believe there will always be a place for long form blogging as well as shortform. The greatest thing about blogs is that you can do so much with them just as long as you have an imagination. For instance, you can have a photoblog, audio blog, video blog, poetry blog, anything you want to publish blog, etc. Ultimately, I believe blogs will eventually be used as the hub for all aspects of a persons status online. Instead of using a third party service which aggregates third party services, thanks to the likes of RSS and other syndication methods, it’s entirely possible to skip the middle man and aggregate all of your online behaviour onto your blog. The blog should be and I believe will be the base of operations for people online.

My names Lachy, I’m a 14 year old web developer from Australia. I got started about 3 years ago just with HTML and then moved onto coding other peoples sites, and worked up from there to develop PSDtoWordPress.com. Now I’ve just launched www.Uncoverr.com, a book resource for designers and developers.

Speaking of Uncoverr, that’s the site we’ll talking about for the majority of this interview. How did you come up with the name and what is the sites purpose?

Well, I was buying Uncover.org and had everything developed but then the buyer decided to pull out and I couldn’t think of anything else, so Uncoverr it was. The site is basically just a resource for designers and developers to find books in a range of categories, along with author interviews and book reviews. I’m really hoping to get the users to contribute the reviews!

Book reviews. Care to share your monetization strategy with us?

My lack of, more like! It’s basically just Sitepoint and Amazon affiliate links. Had over 350 clicks, guess how many conversions? That’s right, none! It’s really frustrating. I’m going to start doing some A/B testing soon, but hopefully I can get my act together. Sitepoint sponsored me, but this month I opted in for books instead of money, I’m doing a massive contest next week.

So how did you plan the launch of Uncoverr? Have you seen the results you were expecting?

Well, I planned it pretty badly to tell you the truth. I just used my connections with a few blogs to get launch posts. I was expecting 5000+ visitors first day, but it was more like 1000. Next time I think I should get a lot more posts done and leverage social media first day.

How does Uncoverr become a better source for reviews than Amazon itself?

I find that a lot of Amazons reviews are short, 1 paragraph at most, you find the odd one that’s a lot bigger. We show very in depth reviews and usually have an author interview to go along with it. We have a nice easy way to find the books, a lot more thorough than Amazon. You don’t get results that aren’t web development related, because we have only added those types of books.

Books seem to have a culture of their own. For example, one person mentions a book he or she read and someone else chimes in with another. A good reason why book clubs are still popular. Have you been able to tap into that audience to get user participation on the site? Is that something you’re looking into down the road?

We don’t really have the regular audience to have that user participation yet, hopefully we will soon. Later down the road we actually do have plans to start a book club service. A very cheap price and you’ll get 2 books a month along with 1 ebook. We plan to first increase the user participation and get a nice subscriber count.

In the beginning of the interview, you mentioned you were only 14. Pretty young I’d say. Has your age been a restricting factor at all with regards to operating these websites/businesses?

Definitely. I’d love to say it hasn’t, but you get those people that reject you for your age, people that won’t work with you. I never really mention my age to my PSD to WordPress clients just in case! But I don’t think it should let it limit you, in anything other than client work I don’t think it’s much of a factor except for the initial starting money we have and the time we can spend. We have to balance school work, social life and work, gets a bit tough sometimes.

With a good amount of experience already under your belt, what advice can you give those young or old who are thinking about launching their own blog or web business?

Network. Network. Network. It’s not what you know – it’s who you know.

What do you think the future of blogging is?

I think blogging still is going to be the same concept for a long time, but the software involved will get a lot more complex to cater for sites like mine. I think it will be a lot more community oriented and commenting will advance. But apart from that – I’m clueless.