Headrush, a blog about “creating passionate users”, had a post last week entitled The real secret to a successful blog/ book/ business… The two hand-drawn Venn Diagrams reveal the secret.

Headrush, if you’re not familiar with it, is in Technorati’s Top 100 blogs list. But unlike some of the politblogs in the A-list, it doesn’t breed any controversy. It’s success, or so Kathy Sierra says in her post – and illustrates in diagrams – is due to concentrating mostly on content that is both good for users and for the business.

The site is aimed at people who have the role of creating passionate users in a particular tool (as well as the users themselves). In her case, she’s the author/ co-author of a series of computer programming books from O’Reilly called Head First. There’s no other advertising on the site (that I’ve seen) except for the books.

So here, what’s good for the “business” is to get people to read more of the Head First books, presumably by blogging about similar and related topics – not the books themselves.

It’s kind of an a-ha moment. You already sort of know that her “secret” really is straightforward. But are you doing that yourself? What about the blogs you read that are associated with a business? Are they talking about themselves/ their products/ their services, or are they getting you to use their products and services by giving you valuable content?

It’s an educated guess that weblogs will become even hotter properties in the next few years than they have been in 2006 and 2007. (At least, before any tech bubble burst that may or may not happen in 2010, like it has at the beginning of every new decade since 1970). But if you’re in the blog speculation game, ask yourself which type of blogs are going to be hot?

I don’t mean, for example, how real estate blogs are hot, but niche matters, too. What I mean is the style of blog:

• Does the blog build a conversation with readers, including commenters and other bloggers?
• Does it build additional dialogue by linking to and discussing relevant posts elsewhere?
• Does it answer more questions than it asks?
• Does the content advance the business? I.e., does it satisfy Kathy Sierra’s “secret” of being good for both reader and business?
• Is the readership reacting? Are you gaining subscribers, even if they don’t all leave comments?

Those are the types of blogs that will likely be hot. And yes, is it in either a profitable niche or add value to a particular market/ industry? A blog does not have to earn advertising dollars to have value to the blogger/ business, as Headrush and, for example, Seth Godin, shows.

We might even start to see a new breed of talent scouts and blog brokers (if they’re not out there already) whose sole role is to scour the blogosphere looking for bloggers and blogs, and then broker deals with buyers, possibly in niche industries.

I’m sort of skirting around that role myself, having brokered a few blog sales. It’s a good role for the right person, and as the blogosphere matures, we’ll see more big deals like ESPN’s purchase of NBA blog TrueHoop. And this could all be part of a new American dream for those fed up with the rat race and commuting to work everyday.

Originally posted on February 19, 2007 @ 9:55 am

[With apologies to The Ramones.] The story Human Immortality: A Scientific Reality? was on digg today and got me thinking. Sure, you can make a lot of jokes, but consider it seriously for a moment because you’ll likely be there someday too. It’s not just that longer lifespans are being achieved, more people are accomplishing it. The average lifespan for men and women 20 years ago was about 72 and 76, respectively – give or take a year or two.

So what exactly are our seniors going to do after normal retirement years? No one is going to survive on Social Security until 120-150 years of age, which is the possible lifespan range for Baby Boomers. That means people of Generation X, Y, Whynot, and Next are going to live even longer. They’re not going to be slinging burgers at that age, and many companies won’t even hire new employees over forty, without putting them in the proverbial mail room. If today’s citizen is expected to change careers 3-4 times in their life, what happens to someone who’ll live to 120?

If you’re less than thirty today, that could very well be you. Even people over thirty could reach an age of, say, ninety. Do you really want to be going through the interview process at that age? Probably not. What’s left for you? Blogging. Documenting your life experience in a usable fashion.

Why not? The 80s were called by some as the beginning of the information age, but as far as I’m concerned, the information revolution started when blogging started. Not the diary blogs, though they have their places, but the informational blogs that educate, that document life.

Potential niches for grandpa and grandma bloggers? Education and tutoring, Get Things Done, Productivity, Relationships, Personal Finance, Health. Do I need to go on? Good blogs can and do make money. And with municipal wireless networks sprouting up all over, grandbloggers can do it while they vacation.

Originally posted on February 16, 2007 @ 7:38 am

I had a great discussion with Jim Turner today in Denver, and we talked a lot about blogging and new media. He’s got some great opinions, and was a delight to bounce some ideas off of. One thing that I thought of after lunch was the future of the blogopshere.

Interestingly enough I found a great article today when I fired up my feedreader. This quote from the American is what really got me thinking:

The “blogosphere” is like a little experimental universe validating consumer choice vs. regulation—and consumer choice has won a colossal victory. Trial and error may not help find the right surgeon, but it seems to be a great way to find your right media diet. By and large, blog consumers have shown an incredible sense for quality and reliability.

Blogging’s greatest “weakness” is thus its greatest strength: Web authors and their sites come with no expectations, claims, or certifications of quality or reliability. Precisely because there is no authority filtering our blogged content, because of this healthy lack of “if it is printed, it must be true”, the reader can and must judge for himself. Instead of floundering helplessly in a sea of (mis-) information (the self-serving admonition from media traditionalists), the internet news-and-entertainment hungry reader develops a knack for picking the cherries out of the innumerable offerings. The blogosphere has something for everyone. Viewpoints are chosen, not dictated, and niches of interest explored, not marginalized.

The blogosphere is so, so new. Imagine where we will be in 10 years. Today’s aging giants may be old news or maybe not. I think we have lots of change to look forward to. And by the way if you haven’t done so already, it’s time to start a blog.

Originally posted on February 17, 2007 @ 7:26 am