Ice cream makers: January 2011

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

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Monday, January 24, 2011

Im Making Money

Deadline confirms the deal with Universal but isn’t able to say whether Julian Assange will participate in the film. Regardless, the movie could be a firebrand that surpasses the interest generated by Mr. Gibney’s last few films.

Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks and therefore responsible for the release of thousands of confidential government documents, is a figure that people tend to either love or hate. To some he’s a hero and a champion of free speech and democracy; others see him as an enemy and someone who endangers our freedom by compromising the inner workings of government. (And there are probably many who see him as a troublesome, egocentric kid.)

All that being the case I’d say that Alex Gibney is the perfect man for this job, and I’m eagerly awaiting the results of his work.

In addition, producers at Josephson Entertainment and Michelle Krumm Prods have optioned Andrew Fowler‘s forthoming biography of Mr. Assange, called The Most Dangerous Man in the World. They plan a ‘suspenceful drama thriller’ based on the bio. The book follows the WikiLeaks founder from childhood to the present day. Producers compare the story they want to tell to All the President’s Men.

No word on a screenwriter, director or cast for the biopic at this point. Too bad Steven Soderbergh likely won’t have any interest in this; he’d be great for it. [Variety]

The alliance between big government and big business should raise the hackles on the necks of ordinary citizens. In the cases of GM and Chrysler, we have seen a variety of wrongs committed with government power and taxpayer money. Harnessed to the power of government, big business can really get cracking.

It can sell products to big government. It can bulk up on direct and indirect subsidies derived from the labor of ordinary citizens. It can take pressure off pricing by creating barriers to entry for potential competitors. It can mitigate the difficulty of persuading ordinary citizens to buy what they are selling at a price that reflects market value.

Before the GM and Chrysler bailouts, GE chief executive officer Jeffrey Immelt saw the money to be minted in environmentalism. GE would hold itself out as an environmental leader under the rubric of Ecoimagination. Then it would join up with big government, promote the global warming hoax and cash in on it through the regulatory regime of cap-and-tax. Ecoimagination is the public relations campaign that in part represents GE's strategic partnership with big government. See, for example, the friendly 2005 Forbes article "GE turns green."

GE got a taste of the good life when it got in on the bank bailout. As the Washington Post reported in a major article in mid-2009, GE had quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key bank bailout programs. At the same time GE also avoided many of the restrictions faced by the big banks

The Post noted that GE did not initially qualify for the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, under which the government guaranteed debt sold by banks: "But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE."

GE thus joined the big banks collectively saving billions of dollars by raising money for their operations at lower interest rates. The Post reported that GE Capital had issued nearly a quarter of the $340 billion in debt backed by the TLGP. The government's actions have been "powerful and helpful" to the company, Immelt acknowledged in December 2008. More recently, Matt Kibbe showed just how helpful in "GE: Imaginative rent-seeking at work."

The cap-and-tax regime promoted by the Obama administration would pay off handsomely for GE. Immelt made his pitch to a Dartmouth crowd in August 2008. "The Wall Street Journal hates all this stuff," Immelt helpfully explained. "They claim global warming's a hoax...I have to deal with this regulation at work every day. You can't afford to be ideological." Hey, I know know what you mean.

It helps to have friends in high places. Immelt has supported and befriended Obama. That cap-and-tax thing must have formed a part of Obama's appeal to Immelt. When it comes to making money, you can't afford to be ideological.

Yesterday President Obama named Immelt to head his new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness panel. Immelt took to the pages of the Washington Post to explain: "The president and I are committed to a candid and full dialogue among business, labor and government to help ensure that the United States has the most competitive and innovative economy in the world." Fred Barnes briefly explicated the appointment more straightforwardly in "Jeffrey Immelt, Obama's pet CEO."

UPDATE: Via Drudge, I see that Chris Stirewalt reviews Immelt's support for picking the taxpayers' pockets via GE's strategic partnership with big government.

And Joseph Lawler includes another good quote in "What's good for Jeffrey Immelt is what's good for America": "The fact that I'd like GE to work in concert with where government policy is in the U.S. doesn't mean that I'm a traitor or a bad guy, I think it's just being practical that that's gotta happen." Jeff, you're coming through loud and clear!

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Lawsuit FAIL.

Transfer news: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war ...

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Making Money Online Forum

Every startup needs to understand that the customer paradigm has dramatically shifted over the past two years with pervasive social networks and smartphones. The customer base is no longer a mass audience that can be driven by mass media, but a dynamic network of individual customers who interact with each other, and expect to interact with you as a business.

If your business doesn’t connect with your customers, individually and as a community, demanding customers will not only ignore you, but will actively keep other customers away. According to the 2009 Tribalization of Business Study by Deloitte Development, one third of all online communities now launched by businesses fail to engage even a hundred participants.

A new book by David L. Rogers, titled The Network is Your Customer, elaborates on this paradigm shift, and outlines the following five key strategies to thrive in this digital age, prioritized from the most basic to the most complex in value to the customer:

Access to your business from the relevant network of customers. Every organization today faces the expectations of an always-on world. To compete, startups must find ways to provide customers an easier, faster, more pervasive connection to digital networks, via mobile as well as the Internet.
Engage customers with relevant and valuable content. In an environment of media overload and rampant ad-skipping, startups that want to engage customer networks need to create content that customers actually want to consume. Funny videos and worthless give-aways won’t make your website go “viral” these days.
Customize your interactions to meet unique customer needs. You need to give customers the tools to customize products, services, and content to suit their needs and interests, to engage them more deeply, add value, and differentiate your offering from competitors.
Connect to the customer in your communication. Join in conversations with customers who are already shaping brand perception and sharing their ideas and opinions on the Web. Conversations may be on existing social media, or on your own brand forum established specifically for this purpose.
Collaborate with customers on shared goals. One of the most powerful ways to engage customer networks is to invite them to collaborate with your startup on shared goals and projects. This requires the right balance of motivators (love, glory, and money), and the right balance of bottoms-up versus top-down control.

Many businesses that seem to understand the new paradigm still fall for some common mistakes, like the following, that can blunt the effectiveness of their efforts:

Infatuation with technology. Founders too often see a list of the latest hot tools, and go after them, without first making the proper analysis and connect to relevant customers. The best tools, if not relevant or used incorrectly, can’t save you.
Lack of customer insight. Startups launch plans without taking the time to understand the networked behavior of their customers, or the drivers for that behavior.
Lack of clear objectives. Without a clear scope and vision, efforts become unfocused, lack impact, and are impossible to measure. Everyone on the team has to be involved and on board, or the efforts will be fragmented.

This book outlines a good process for planning and implementing a customer network strategy to match your customers, your business, and your objectives – whether you need to drive sales, reduce costs, gain customer insight, or build breakthrough products and services.

The bottom line is that today, whatever your goals and whatever your business, the network is your customer. Connect to it and win customers.

Marty Zwilling

Access to your business from the relevant network of customers. Every organization today faces the expectations of an always-on world. To compete, startups must find ways to provide customers an easier, faster, more pervasive connection to digital networks, via mobile as well as the Internet.
Engage customers with relevant and valuable content. In an environment of media overload and rampant ad-skipping, startups that want to engage customer networks need to create content that customers actually want to consume. Funny videos and worthless give-aways won’t make your website go “viral” these days.
Customize your interactions to meet unique customer needs. You need to give customers the tools to customize products, services, and content to suit their needs and interests, to engage them more deeply, add value, and differentiate your offering from competitors.
Connect to the customer in your communication. Join in conversations with customers who are already shaping brand perception and sharing their ideas and opinions on the Web. Conversations may be on existing social media, or on your own brand forum established specifically for this purpose.
Collaborate with customers on shared goals. One of the most powerful ways to engage customer networks is to invite them to collaborate with your startup on shared goals and projects. This requires the right balance of motivators (love, glory, and money), and the right balance of bottoms-up versus top-down control.

Many businesses that seem to understand the new paradigm still fall for some common mistakes, like the following, that can blunt the effectiveness of their efforts:

Infatuation with technology. Founders too often see a list of the latest hot tools, and go after them, without first making the proper analysis and connect to relevant customers. The best tools, if not relevant or used incorrectly, can’t save you.
Lack of customer insight. Startups launch plans without taking the time to understand the networked behavior of their customers, or the drivers for that behavior.
Lack of clear objectives. Without a clear scope and vision, efforts become unfocused, lack impact, and are impossible to measure. Everyone on the team has to be involved and on board, or the efforts will be fragmented.

The bottom line is that today, whatever your goals and whatever your business, the network is your customer. Connect to it and win customers.

Marty Zwilling

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

Probably Bad News: Feline Jury Duty - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Feline Jury Duty.

Schneier on Security: More Stuxnet News

January 17, 2011. More Stuxnet News. This long New York Times article includes some interesting revelations. The article claims that Stuxnet was a joint Israeli-American project, and that its effectiveness was tested on live equipment: ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » Mammoths news ...

“Japanese scientists attempt to resurrect Mammoth” shouted the news agency AFP (source: The online version of the Japanese newspaper “Yomiuri Shimbun”: Daily Yomiuri Online). The article lacks any hints about the major hurdles of such ...

Friday, January 14, 2011

Free rental agreement forms now online

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Hybrid Streetlights: Good Or Bad News For Utilities?

Urban Green Energy — a New York City startup that designs and manufactures small wind turbines — has released and installed the first of its new,

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

Did you watch the memorial service in Tucson last night? It sure seemed to me to be a cavalcade of statemanship -- presidents of nations and universities and student bodies, governors new and old, political figures on the left and right ...

Homefront news - Xbox Live's Major Nelson

Today in New York at the Homefront media event, we announced that some good news for Xbox 360 owners: ALL future Homefront downloadable content will come FIRST to Xbox 360 and our Xbox LIVE community. When Homefront hits shelves in ...

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Secrets to Making Money

"The best part of blogging is the people you will meet"- Hugh MacLeod repeating wisdom from Loic Lemeur to me at the Big Pink at 2 am in South Beach after the Future of Web Apps 2008.

If you asked me to tell you a list of three of the best decisions in my life, I can certainly tell you that regularly writing is one of them. It's the reason I'm an author here at OnStartups, made many new friends, had interesting opportunities cross my radar, and most importantly had the chance to share knowledge that has helped other entrepreneurs.

Why You Should Write

You Will Meet Other Smart People

Writing has allowed me to meet a slew of smart people. Some of these people are now virtual acquaintances and some are very close friends on a personal and professional level. Each article that you publish is a synthesized thought process that may click with other entrepreneurs instantly. Have you ever had a feeling when reading an article that "Wow, they are thinking exactly what I'm thinking"?

By writing, you are likely to encounter a handful of people that experience the same thing. Occasionally one of those people will reach out to you via email or bump into you at an event. You might make a new acquaintance, a new co-founder for the future, potential investor, hire,etc. At the end of the day, being an entrepreneur is about finding other smart (hopefully smarter) people to collaborate with and writing frequently helps make this happen.

Example: I ended up becoming a writer here at OnStartups due to my own writing. A year ago, I put out an article called "Disruption and My Next Startup". This is how I first met David Skok from Matrix Partners. David later introduced me to Dharmesh, who has become a good friend since moving to Boston. After talking about all things entrepreneurial, we realized we both had the same altruistic goals with writing: to meet other smart people and help share the lessons we've learned. Small piece of trivia: OnStartups was started in 2005 on Dharmesh's birthday. I joined OnStartups on my birthday this year (September 8th).

Your Experiences Will Provide Insightful Knowledge To Other Entrepreneurs

Every entrepreneur has been through many of the same yet different experiences. We find co-founders, we all work at building a product/service, we all try to get customers, etc. Even though we're doing the same thing at a high-level, we all have different experiences. We may have found great co-founders, built a great product, but fail to acquire customers. Each entrepreneur+startup mix is a unique permutation that varies from the rest of the world, hence providing a snowflake of experience. Through writing you can not only help share your successes, but also the pitfalls that lead to your failures. There's no magic bullet to entrepreneurship, but the wealth of writing from experienced entrepreneurs out there such as Paul Graham, Dharmesh here at OnStartups, Jason Fried and Joel Spolsky have prevented young entrepreneurs from making mistakes that they might have made otherwise. Open source technology has helped entrepreneurs get started immediately with no capital while significantly reducing risk (you would have to raise a large amount of capital to launch anything with lines of code behind it a decade ago). I believe open source knowledge on entrepreneurship can help do the same when it comes to the business side of things. Getting as many entrepreneurs writing + sharing their insight is the very first start of this.

You Will Establish Domain Expertise

Every person is an expert in their own right at something. It might be user interface design, coding, leadership, raising money, investing, etc. By writing you get a chance to establish that domain expertise by sharing it with the world. Don't worry about people stealing your secret sauce either. Famous chefs share their secrets and hints all the time without fear that it will cause their demise.

It Helps Build Dedication

Writing on a regular schedule takes a lot of discipline, just like going to the gym or practicing a new martial art. Nothing happens overnight, including building an audience and becoming a good writer. Like most things in life, writing takes time and strong dedication. Unwavering dedication is a valuable skill in startups that many seem to forget. If you keep yourself dedicated to writing on a consistent schedule, those important values will carry over to other facets of life including startups.

Your Communication Skills Will Get Exponentially Better

It takes a lot of work to become a great communicator as an entrepreneur. You have to break down complex problems, very technical solutions, and intricate details into soundbites that flow logically. By writing, you develop the ability to communicate more clearly to an audience of many, by providing a logical argument with a unique angle to your position. In some ways, you've been learning this skill your entire life through schooling, but writing as an entrepreneur in a public medium is something completely different. Through schooling you write for an audience of 1-2 people. Those people will usually judge you based not upon the content, but whether you agreed with their point of view. Writing as an entrepreneur in a public medium puts you in the spotlight of tens of thousands to millions of unique readers. If your writing isn't cohesive, there are many that can call you out. I had some rough professors throughout my undergrad years, but no one will call you out like internet commenters, many of which may be trolls. By the third article, you start to subconsciously think "Is this cohesive/does it make sense?" as a gut reaction when writing in order to avoid negative feedback.

You Will Build An Audience That Will Give You Candid Feedback

If you're really lucky, you will start to build an audience that isn't full of trolls, but that consists of those that are genuine and honest. They may give you negative feedback, but it will be candid+honest. Don't just look at the number of re-tweets on an article, look at the articles that get the audience to participate. You will eventually find a groove of what your audience enjoys and what they consider good writing. Try to reply to every comment as well, even if it is a simple "Thank you."

It Is A Rapid Accelerator Of Serendipity

Startups are certainly impacted by luck, but I believe they are impacted just as much by serendipity. You never know who knows who or who you may run into at an event. By putting yourself out there and making yourself open to meeting as many people as possible, serendipity is much more likely to happen. Once you have even a minor audience, you are now likely to experience the effects of serendipity. One article might reach 500 or 50,000 people in a short span of time. Remember that we live in a world where content/information travels faster than ever before. Out of those 50,000 people, you never know who might be reading, who might reach out to you, or who might leave a comment. I can tell you this: The majority of good things that have happened to me in business can be traced back to my writing.

9 Tips How To Get Started

Many think that writing is as simple as registering for a Wordpress/Tumblr/Posterous account and all of a sudden they're the next Seth Godin. Just like anything in life, it takes time, practice, and finding the formula that works well for you. I started writing almost 2 years ago, but didn't get into it seriously until approximately 3-4 months ago. Here's a list of some of the things that I've learned along the way that will hopefully be useful food for thought.

1. Keep It Simple And Worry About The Aesthetics Later On

Sign-up for Posterous, Tumblr, or Wordpress. If you really want to customize things later on, host your own Wordpress install. Find a good, simple/basic theme, set up some basic settings + SEO, and get to the races with writing. Try to use your own name as the domain name. If you have a popular first+last name combo and can't own your exact name, try to get something similar. Last, but not least, try to have a picture of yourself somewhere on the site. It's good to put a face to your writing and this will help people identify with you when meeting up in person. Besides the simple stuff above, just start writing. Insightful content is king and that's where you should be focusing your efforts.

2. Define A Specific Audience To Write To

As you'll see in this link, which is also listed below, John Gruber writes for a specific audience- himself. You can further narrow down John Gruber as an apple fanboy who is geeky and educated. When writing I try to do the same thing. I write every article as if I owned a time machine and could mail myself letters five years ago when I was first getting started. To be honest, I still don't really know anything, but back then I knew absolutely nothing at all. Everytime I'm in the midst of an article, before completing it, I ask myself: "Would this have been useful to me five years ago?" If I say "No", then I stop writing, and possibly come back to it later to re-evaluate things if a new approach to the article comes up. Find your audience, that one exact ideal person, and write to them every time.

3. Set a regular routine

I get one article out every week and try to stay to that schedule regardless of what else is going on. I put it in line with working out everyday. It either gets done or not done. Sure the world won't end, if you miss a week, but that's not the point. It's about building dedication and putting something fresh out. I do all my writing on Sundays, edit throughout the week, and then release the articles when I have time to deal with comments/promote the article. The downside to this is writer's block or feeling like you have to write for the sake of just writing. I stray away from this by breaking things up into chunks and sections.

4. Don't Force It

Whatever you do: Do Not Force An Article. Set your schedule loose enough that you can get something out the door on time, but don't wait until the last second. Spend a lot of time thinking about your articles before hand. Most of my articles are formed before I write a single word in textmate. While I run, spend time on the T, and shower I usually think through the logic of articles. By doing this, you're not looking at writing an article like it's a high-school essay. It will flow naturally and won't be forced.

5. Initially Share With Close Entrepreneurial Friends

In the beginning there is a good chance you won't have a large readership, but that's okay. Send the article to close friends in the entrepreneurial community and just ask for some basic feedback. If they like it, ask them if they can share it with others. Also start sharing with other communities that you may be a part of, such as the one here at OnStartups or Hacker News.

6. Watch Your Analytics

Check to see where most of your traffic is coming from and double down on those avenues. Also pay attention to direct traffic sources. This means that people are either emailing your article around, sharing via instant messenger, or actually going to the URL directly. Also look at which articles ultimately become most popular with readers. Over time you will start to understand what your audience likes (ie- entrepreneurial advice, tech insights, interviews with other entrepreneurs, current event analysis, etc.)

7. Have a main topic + supporting points to avoid rambling

Each and every one of my articles has the same general format. Position/Argument usually found in the title, opening paragraph, supporting H2 tags, and then a closing paragraph. It might get repetitive over time, but it allows me to form arguments clearly + segment things out well enough into chunks.

8. No linkbait, just "thoughtbait"

I don't get into flamewars or write linkbait. It may work very well for some entrepreneurs to get recognition and increase pageviews, but it shouldn't be about that. It should be about sharing your knowledge and hopefully educating your reader. I like to write what I call "thoughtbait". A reader should come away with actionable knowledge that makes them think "I need to try this" or "I'm pumped up to get something done". Readers should also be sharing the link to help others gain the same knowledge as well.

9. Make Yourself Easy To Reach

Last , but not least, make yourself approachable and very easy to reach. Put your email addresss up, Twitter account up, and possibly your phone number. Robert Scoble still has the same phone number from when he first got started, and will still pick up/respond to texts. It may seem like a burden, but it's not. If you want to meet as many smart people as possible, you need to make yourself approachable and easy to be contacted. I get multiple emails a week from readers or people saying "thank you" re: my articles. This is one of the most rewarding things I've ever experienced. Great part is this: You can start experiencing it too. The goal of this article isn't just to inform and educate, but to hopefully start a movement to get as many entrepreneurs as possible to start writing. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned startup veteran, writing will not only benefit you, but it will benefit those who need your knowledge. If you start writing or already write insightful pieces about your experiences, please drop me an email: j@jasonlbaptiste.com . I'm certainly going to start compiling the list as it grows and will share it. One of my first additions was my buddy Wayne , who founded i2hub.

Here are some other useful resources on the topic:

Spencer Fry- http://spencerfry.com/on-writing

Marco Arment- http://www.marco.org/691438863

Interview With John Gruber On Writing- http://shawnblanc.net/2008/02/interview-john-gruber/

So, are you convinced you should be writing -- or writing more? If you're convinced, what will it take to get you to do it? If you've already been writing, have you found it to be useful? Would love to hear your stories and experiences.

This post originally appeared on OnStartups.com.

Image via Wikipedia | There’s a Wide Wide World Out There…Are You Going to Take It?

Intro

Every woman and man alive want’s success. Some fetishise it with cash. Some a fast car. Materialism on the Internet is ubiquitous, yet, are WE missing the point. Is true success; contentment at all levels of your life simply right before US? Yes. This quick guide, from the world’s luckiest man, tells you how to attain true perfection.

1. Stop Blaming the World

Envy is green. It’s greener than that grass you are gazing on right across your neighbour’s fence. Today, try just once to focus on yourself. Do you have something that no one else has? I do. I was born in the right place and at the right time in history. Come and join me and stop looking outside at others for solutions. What is your unique strength?

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Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

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News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

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Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Obama's Tucson Speech Fails To Accommodate Cable News's Attention ...

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Monday, January 10, 2011

Making Money Fast

We don't have enough public market acquirers to sustain the start-up ecosystem.
That was the real back story that explains why Google failed to close a deal to buy
Groupon. Groupon wanted to
sell to Google for $6 billion. Of course they did, that is a huge amount of money – real cold hard cash – for a 2 year old
venture. Do you really think they turned that down for the vague possibility of
making more from an IPO in the distant future? Yes we all hear the stories of
visionary entrepreneurs who are such bold risk-takers and some of that is true but
most entrepreneurs don’t love risk, they love eliminating risk on the way to
building a venture. The real story is that Groupon only backed off due to worries that the deal
would fall into AntiTrust
hurdles.

If we only have a handful of acquiring companies (basically today it is Google,
Amazon and Microsoft, now that eBay and Yahoo are wounded), the AntiTrust hurdle becomes more real. Even
if there is no AntiTrust
issue, Google, Amazon and Microsoft simply cannot buy all those venture-backed
companies.

So we need Groupon to go public and use their public
currency to buy other ventures working on local advertising/ecommerce. That will be
good news for lots of ventures. And a Groupon IPO success
will spur on other ventures that are getting ready for IPO.

I don’t know if Groupon really have the solid
financials to go public. We won’t know until they issue their prospectus to the
SEC. Until then we only have rumor and speculation. But if I were a betting man, I
would bet on Groupon being able to go public before
Twitter. And, this will be more controversial, before Facebook. But that as they say is another story. I am not trying here
to compile an actual list of ventures that could IPO in 2011. This is more about the
general environment for IPOs.

This has been what Steve Blank calls the “lost
decade” for tech IPOs. So why do I think that 2011 will be the year this
changes? There are 5 reasons:

Private
markets are under SEC scrutiny. This takes away the easy option of getting
liquidity without either selling or going public. If you have more than 500
shareholders you have to make your financials public, it is the law.

There is a
backlog of great companies that have the financial strength to IPO. The IPO market
has been pretty well closed for a couple of years (some notable exceptions prove the
rule). So the companies that have the potential to IPO have had more time to grow and
get their act together.

Investors
are hungry for growth outside emerging markets. GDP in America and Europe seems to
have a ceiling at 3% and the Chindia and BRIC stories of
emerging markets growing at 8-10% has created too much capital flowing to those
markets (generating fears of a bubble). So investors want companies in the developed
markets that can grow at really fast pace (at least 30%, ideally 60% plus) from a
base of at least $100m revenue for a long time to come. That has to come primarily
from tech/media ventures.

The
macroeconomic picture is improving. Yes, there are always worries and another
crash is always possible, but "markets always climb a wall of worry" and the general
trends seem positive. But cycles don't last forever, so the people making these
decisions (Boards and their Investment Bankers) will look at 2011 as a good window of
opportunity.

The bean
counters have figured out how to live with Sarbox. For a long time, Sarbanes Oxley ("Sarbox") regulatory overhead has been seen as a reason why you cannot
run a public company. Baloney, as they say in Brooklyn. It is a simple bit of
operational overhead, a rounding error for a great company.

IPO is still the golden ticket. Real entrepreneurs want to IPO. Getting acquired
is a great way to build capital, but it is not the dream of the really driven,
talented entrepreneurs. There are logical reasons for this. The valuation at IPO is
usually (not always, plenty of exceptions to this rule) higher than you can get from
an M&A exit. And more importantly for the
entrepreneur, it is actually often easier to manage public market investors than a
bunch of VC with different agendas. But logical reasons be damned, an IPO is simply
the big badge of honor for the entrepreneur and the investors who back him/her.

It is not clear what we will call the decade that starts in a few days time
– the “teens” maybe – but it will possibly be one where we
get a sustainable IPO market for tech ventures. By “sustainable” I mean
that it cannot be a return to the Dot Com bubble years. Only great companies with
really solid financials will get through the IPO gate. And the valuations will have
to remain grounded in reality (short sellers will ensure that is the case).

Here’s hoping. Happy New Year folks.

Jesus’s birthday is coming up. And you know what he wants for his birthday? Nothing more than for you lose weight and become more attractive. As C.S. Lovett helpfully explains in his 1979 book, Help Lord … The Devil Wants Me Fat!, there’s a simple way to not be so fat: stop eating. Just completely stop. See, it’s not hunger that causes you to eat delicious holiday treats, it’s Satan.

Maybe that seems extreme to you. What about clean, natural, whole foods in their purest forms? you might ask. I eat a raw, macrobiotic, vegan diet, and I feel fantastic, you say. Yap, yap, yap. All I hear is Satan telling filthy lies.

Not convinced? People who own the book and have followed the instructed fast simply rave about it!

This book has to be one of the greatest books written concerning weight loss and how to tear down strongholds that the enemy has built in one's mind by causing one to overeat. By putting thoughts in one's mind to eat when one is not really hungry, the devil deceives unsuspecting Christians by the bondage caused by overeating and not being able to serve the Lord, as one would if he was in better shape. (I didn't word that right but you will understand what I mean if you will buy the book.) … [A]fter reading the book I fasted for 11 complete days and there was nothing to it.

—Ndubusi, on Amazon

Some readers feel so passionately about how this book has changed their lives that they even blog about it on SparkPeople.

Most do not think of overeating as a sin but it's the devil's way of getting control of otherwise good Christians who would never think of sinning in other ways, to destroy themselves, bite by bite. It really doesn't matter whether we are bound by drugs, sex or money, the chains still chain us. In reality it wouldn't matter if we were bound by rope, iron or real chains, if we're bound, we're bound…When you look at it as a battle with Satan, it perks up your soul and helps you to determine not to let him win anymore.

Lovett and his wife, Linda, who did the book’s illustrations, encourage you to win your battle with the devil by thinking of your brain (soul?) as a computer that you can program with visualization. Like this:

Like any war with dark forces, this one will require constant vigilance. Much like Santa Claus, Lucifer sees you and what you eat not just when you are awake, but even when you are sleeping.

So now our plan is in place. Let’s make Jesus happy and stick to our inevitable New Year’s resolutions. Just remember, if you break this diet, there's more at stake than skinny jeans and self esteem. There is your immortal soul.

Merry Christmas!

Previously: Looking Pretty for the Holidays.

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