Online Media Cultist

As the blogosphere starts to mature in bits and spurts, earning a full-time living as a “professional” blogger is a notion and dream for thousands.

A New York Times piece from the weekend looks at the growth of jobs stemming from the blogosphere. Interestingly and perhaps not surprisingly, blogging gigs tend to be much more lucrative – at least from the start – for paid positions from corporations who need bloggers rather than the advertising income one could hope to gain from blogging on one’s own.

This really highlights the power of blogging as a marketing and promotional tool, and shows that some companies see the benefit of paying full time employees to enter the blogospheric conversation.

Robert Scoble is quoted in the NYT piece, noting that just being a “blogger” is not enough; you have to bring some other qualities or expertise to the table. While I’m not a professional nor full-time blogger, I can relate to this. It’s part of the reason why I shed writing about politics and television, subjects I’m passionate about but do not have the time to cover as authoritatively as I’d like.

Tony Hung of Deep Jive Interests brings this conversation to a whole new level in thinking about what it would (and likely will) mean when bloggers in the third world can make full time livings through writing online full-time.

Tony mentions Philipino bloggers who can write “pound for pound” with their North American counterparts. I immediately thought of the huge and bright English-speaking population in India and the chapters focused on India in Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat.

In essence, bloggers will face the same competition from the “flat world” as many other industries. Which is all to the good: more writers making more money in more parts of the world can only help to facilitate better communication, better ideas, more innovation, and more cooperation throughout the world.

One of the many reasons I’m proud to be involved with Blogcritics is that it truly is a global community of “superior writer/bloggers.” The company is run by three dudes from three different US time zones who have met in person exactly once, has editors around the globe who help bang out edited pieces around the clock, and receives on-the-ground unique coverage and perspective from places like Israel, Northern Ireland, India, Pakistan, Germany, and on and on.

And speaking of India and Pakistan, Desicritics is a BC Network site and web community that focuses exclusively on that part of the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of our best Desicritics (of which there are many!) are making a full time living through blogging before too long!

Jack Lail over at Random Mumblings was kind enough to nominate OMC for something called the Thinking Blogger Awards, which is sort of an ongoing meme where bloggy folk nominate five blogs they dig and that get their cranium cranking.

According to Jack – who is the managing editor/multimedia for The Knoxville News-Sentinel – the awards date back to February 11th of this year on The Thinking Blog, which kind of makes sense, I would say!

So, without further adieu, these people make me get my think on:

1) Tony Hung at Deep Jive Interests. Tony delivers provocative and original ideas with regularity, which is saying a lot given the noise and clutter and talent out there. He also tends to cover a lot of the topics that I’m most interested in!

2) Scott Karp at Publisher 2.0. As I’ve written before, Scott provides an intellectual and philosophical perspective on the massive changes going on in technology and media and the convergence of traditional and new media.

3) Mark Cuban at Blog Maverick. While many people know Cuban as a guy who made a lot of money in tech and then went on to buy a basketball team, he’s one of the most original and outspoken people in the blogging game today. This guy is several steps ahead of the curve, particularly in terms of where video and television and the distribution of content is headed.

4) Jason at Webomatica. Webomatica is a fun and interesting site that covers online media with a good healthy portion of pop culture for good measure. The good ideas are aplenty over there, which is why it’s essential reading for me.

5) Steven Cohen at Library Stuff. Full disclosure – Steven is an old friend of mine (he grew up on my block on Long Island!) that I bumped into at a conference a few years ago. He’s also way out on the bleeding edge of what’s new and hot in online media. You want new tools, apps, websites, and cool things you can do with the web, Library Stuff is all over it.

According to Jack, The Rules are as follows:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

How cool is it that right now I can look at Dumpster Bust’s MyBlogLog widget and see Mathew Ingram and Tony Hung – two esteemed members of my top ten favorite online media bloggers club – smiling back at me?

MyBlogLog is an outstanding and blessedly simple social networking tool to network with other bloggers, but most of all it’s super cool to be able to see who has been checking out your site from the MBL community.

Growing up on Long Island, it was my daily ritual to grab whatever part of Newsday I could get my hands on to read during breakfast. These days, I have my laptop and while I do a cursory scan of the news headlines (and typically get a shot of politics via ABC.com’s The Note), it’s the online media blogs that have emerged as the places I spend most of my reading time.

Compiling a Top 10 list was both easier and more difficult than I thought it was going to be. My favorite of favorites were quick plucks, but near the bottom of the list it got rough going as to who would make the final few slots.

This list of course reflects my own interests and passions, which include: online media and the web 2.0 world in general, blogging-as-profession, the blogosphere, social news, social networking, the MSM-blogospheric convergence, start-up culture, and online entrepreneurship.

I’ll try to update this list over time to see what additions and changes may be warranted.

#1 - mathewingram.com/work - Mathew Ingram
Ingram, a technology writer with The Globe and Mail in Toronto, combines the best elements of journalism with the best of the blogosphere, making for a smart, interesting, and opinionated take on news related to a wide range of online media- and tech-related issues. I find I most often agree with Mathew’s takes, which occasionally are controversial, so more than anything this is the case of an online publication that perfectly suits me, the reader. That more than anything is a wonderful endorsement of the blogosphere and online media as Long Island (and, now, Pasadena) is a long way away from Toronto!

#2 - The Jason Calacanis Weblog
Jason Calacanis is fun to follow. Former CEO of Weblogs Inc. and “relauncher” of Netscape as new styled social news engine, Jason is for the moment an “Entrepreneur in Action” for Sequoia Capital. He also can’t help but write brief, passionate, and decidedly outside-the-norm opinions on a wide array of subjects. From following his blog babies from Weblogs to strategizing the LA housing market (no easy feat!) to making an impassioned blogospheric plea regarding the Genarlow Wilson case, this is a must read blog for ambitious bloggers and online media cultists.

#3 - TechCrunch - Michael Arrington
TechCrunch has become something of the daily online newspaper for all things web 2.0. This is the preeminent place to find out what start ups are up to and what moves the big guys are making in the online space. Arrington is opinionated and occasionally self-inflated, but the information that he pumps out day-after-day makes TechCrunch an absolute must to stay afloat in the 2.0-ish rapid currents.

#4 - Mashable! - Pete Cashmore
Mashable! has evolved into a TechCrunch for those interested in social networking and the massive changes going on in that space. No one else keeps up with the dizzying myriad of social networking, widgeting, and third party add-ons like Cashmore and Mashable!

#5 - ProBlogger Blog Tips - Darren Rowse
Yet another must read for bloggers, this is Blogging 101 for bloggers who are serious about increasing readership and making money from self-publishing online content (extremely difficult feats, both). It helps greatly that Darren is relentlessly positive and upbeat and provides a steady stream of tips, updates, and strategies for the blogging life. He’s also deeply enmeshed in the community side of things, which is certainly leading by example!

#6 - BC Magazine – Sci/Tech - Phillip Winn, Daniel Woolstencroft, Steve Wild, Raoul Pop, Diane Kristine, Bruce Kratofil, John Vaccaro, and many others!
I can’t leave out my brethren and sistren over at BC Magazine’s Sci/Tech section. Each day you can find a great variety and diversity of news and opinions on the tech and online media worlds.

#7 - How to Change the World - Guy Kawasaki
On his about page, Guy boils down his entire mission statement to two words: empower entrepreneurs. And that’s what each post gives you: tightly focused advice on how to reach the next level, whatever that might be. Again, I must gravitate toward positive and forward-thinking personalities, and Guy is nothing else if this. Inspirational and practical stuff both.

#8 - Publishing 2.0 - Scott Karp
Scott is unmatched in shedding “web 2.0″ and the current state of online media in a philosophical and intellectual light.

#9 - Blog Maverick - Mark Cuban
Self-made millionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is delightfully blunt and compelling on a myriad of subjects, from the massive repercussions of the shift from TV to the Internet, to why men shouldn’t wear ties, to how NBA referees should do a better job, and that’s just for starters!

#10 - Deep Jive Interests - Tony Hung
I discovered Tony through a recent guest blogging stint on ProBlogger, and he’s quickly become one of my favorites. The good doctor goes deep on all aspects of blog-world, from the blogger v. journalism debate, to the use of widgets, to linkbaiting, and onward.

Honorable Mention
There are many, but I’ll hold to just two:

* Micro Persuasion – Steve Rubel
* Mapping the Web - Aidan Henry

Update: None other than Mathew Ingram was kind enough to point out to me that I mistakenly labeled the great Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 as Steve, not Scott. Sorry Scott!

Just as writers write for many different kinds of reasons, bloggers create blogs with all kinds of purposes and goals in mind: from taking the blogosphere by storm by reporting on the latest in Quantum Leap memorabilia shows to keeping Aunt Tilly and the kids up to date about barbeque shindigs up by the lake, from musing about personal crises and day-to-day events to raging against the political machine.

Guest blogger Tony Hung over at ProBlogger takes a look at five prerequisites to blogging success. Among them is the need to write and publish consistently and well, the need to publicize the blog far and wide, and to be interesting. The points that I found to be the most interesting had to do with knowing your audience and then creating a blog aimed at this group that is “focused like a laser.” Particularly striking is this line: “Blogs that are wishy-washy, who don’t know who they are, who change their kind of writing ‘voice’ repeatedly, who vascillate [sic] on their opinions, who introduce nonsensical and unrelated topics are blogs that will find it difficult to succeed.”

I suppose this hit home for me because focusing on one topic or even subject area is something that I’ve never had great success in doing. For some time I relegated myself to writing (mostly) about politics, television, and the doings of the Internet world. However, over time I realized that my time was too limited to hope to keep up with even these three subject areas in such a way that I could write about all of them consistently and with a level of expertise that allowed me to write something unique and compelling and valuable to readers.

I’ve probably also been influenced by reading some number of marketing-related blogs of late, many of which advise bloggers to come up with your “elevator pitch,” the quick answer to the question, “So what’s your blog-thing all about then?” Guy Kawasaki has a wonderful elevator (and life) pitch, by the way: empower entrepreneurs.

So there’s always an interesting convergence between artistic expression and commerce, creativity and marketing. The Internet is a wonderful place for many things, one of which being that it’s a space to ramble on into the electronic night if that’s what does you. When you start to try to figure out how to write about something you’re passionate about and that an audience will find interesting and follow is when the scenario gets far more interesting.

And intriguing. It’s a fascinating game, one that boils down to how to do something you love (writing and the online medium) while finding people that will come along for the ride. I’ve long thought that writing (and all forms of creative expression, really) is an ego-driven form: you must possess the firm belief that the words that you create and get (somehow) in front of another’s eyes will be something of value to that other person.

Whether I end up focusing mostly on Internet and “web 2.0″ doings or encounter some mini-revelation down the road (I simply must tell the world about the latest in circus sideshow technologies!)… which, whether I like it or not, seems to happen every so often, I’ll endeavor to keep some focus and do whatever it is I do consistently and well.