9/11 was a sad state of affairs, definitely something we’ll never forget around the world, especially here in the United States. Let it not go down as the start of the worst decade ever, let it go down as an eye opening “we are not the most powerful thing on earth” epiphany. There are many lessons to be learned in the 9/11 attack and it should go down as one of the biggest lessons and teachings in the history of the United States since the Civil War. Turn the bad into the good and walk away smarter, more aware and more responsive.

The economic issue is bad, lots of people are out of work and lots of great businesses have gone away. Is this the worst thing ever? No, every country (including our own) goes through economic turmoil and this downfall brings some of the best business births in history. Name a huge company full of success and you’ll probably see that it was born out of economic crisis and turmoil. Microsoft is a great example as is Amazon and so many others. Just like a wildfire, sometimes great things grow from the burned charred remains of what was left to die.

The economy is great for new start ups to grow and find awesome talent in industries with many intelligent folks out of a job. Smart people will always be needed and many will plant seeds of new industrial growth in the years to come. What will be the next big business boom to come out of this economic crisis? Perhaps those little “twitter” guys? Facebook? NewEgg? Battery powered cars? Fuel cells? Cure for cancer? So many small companies growing in the economic downturn, I can’t wait to see what phoenix rises from the ashes.

For myself, this is the perfect time to start a little video network business. I’ve got plenty of time to grow my audience while the rest of the world goes “oh my gosh, what are we going to do!?” While those big businesses struggle to keep their investors happy, I’ll be growing my smaller business so that when money floods back into the economy, I’ll have companies with “new money” asking to advertise on the shows.

To Time Magazine, I say turn that frown upside down. Make lemonade out of those lemons, things can be a lot worse and I think we’ve done very good in terms of suffering through some of the issues we face. A country that goes through such struggles grows stronger and more wiser in the end. Many countries could have crumbled under the stress, governments could have been overthrown during the chaos, but we stood strong and our people continue to spark life into the economy with good ideas, creative innovations and a can-do attitude.

Keep your can-do attitude and pay less attention to the dramatic news headlines.

Gary is having a child soon and this is a life changing event; beautiful and fun but changing all the same. Add to that the popularity of his show, speaking gigs and all the work that goes into the day-to-day life of retail, there are only so many hours in the day — there is only one Gary. Gary preaches both “love your family” along with “love your job” and most of all “hustle” but too much of any one thing and something has to give.

The big “Gary V” has been a role model for the little guy growing a brand and becoming a “web celebrity” (but not an A list celebrity mind you!) I’ll admit it, I learned a lot from watching Wine Library TV and used the format to launch EverydayDrinkers.tv which is much like a WLTV for cocktails. Many of my viewers have said “so, you’re an @GaryVee fan aren’t you?” However, I’ve learned a lot from Rhed Pixel as well, in relation to lighting, video formats and how to launch a show but people only see the signature “Gary V” in the content. This is because Gary’s shares many of the same qualities that I’ve lived with for years: passion, intensity and the need to meet your own standards and goals.

He says “hustle,” but I believe the next few months we’ll see less e-mail responses from him along with a slight slow down in his social media presence. I believe this is why he’s using user comments on his latest episodes, to redirect some of the more difficult responsiblities of responding to every person by allowing a few key viewers their 5-seconds of fame on his show. This will allow people to “forget” the lack of e-mail responses by trying to get their commet listed on the show. It also helps inprove the quality of comments because “you rock” isn’t a worthy show shout out.

I think he’ll begin answering the most meaningful of e-mails while simply reading the others (without responses) or farming out an in-house e-mail reader to help him out with day-to-date e-mail. Perhaps he’ll focus more on mass mailing community news letters to keep in touch with people through news letters, thus avoiding the single-instance replies. He’s already mentioned the difficulty he’s had keeping up with e-mails on twitter.

As his fame grows he’ll hit the same brick wall Leo Laporte hit. Niche markets can still have thousands upon thousands of viewers and subscribers – one man cannot carry the world upon his own shoulders. When you breech 100,000 viewers and your inbox is constantly full of 1000 new e-mails, what can you do? You need to take a realistic view and realize you can’t please everyone all of the time.

I’ve read some of the comments, had a presence in some of the UStream live broadcasts and I see a pattern: a large portion of his fans do nothing more than scream “you rock” or become the first to post about how right he is or that he’s “the man.” That’s wonderful, fans are great for your show and your ego but you really don’t have to respond to them all, do you?

We’ve seen this happen with small music bands as well (anyone remember when Dave Mathews used to let you plug into his sound board for personal recordings?). Like a brand, Gary and his products will grow and he’ll find it harder and harder to touch every single soul along the way. Having a child arriving and “loving his family,” Gary is going to have to make some hard decisions in life, do you respond to another 1000 emails and “hustle” or do you rock your baby to bed instead?

Success is a bitch. But I’m happy for him just the same.

I’ve received a few e-mails lately asking about how I handle some of my shows release schedules. In short, how often should a podcaster or video podcaster create a new episode? Every situation may be different but there are some obvious trends I’ve seen over the last few years.

Although a release schedule really depends on your shows content and purpose, the best possible scenario would be short episodes on a daily basis. This turns out to be a lot of work if you’re working alone or in a small group. This is most challenging if your content is time sensitive, such as daily news, industry news or the like. Large firms have benefited from daily shows like CNET Buzz Out Loud. Others, such as Wine Library TV grew from a retail store into a daily show by pushing out great content for 18+ months before making it big.

A daily show between five and ten minutes seems to be the sweet spot for video shows (and 20-minutes or so for audio shows.) Viewers will be able to watch your show during lunch, breakfast or sneak one in during work hours when the boss is not looking. You’ll find it’s fast to edit and produce a show that’s small and tight because there are few chances for major errors or interruptions and the post production is quick with very little render time required. Audio episodes requires less attentiveness so longer shows will be more acceptable.

A short video show will lend itself well in terms of disk storage, quick downloads and easy to post content on sites like Blip.tv. The downfall? You’ll have limited time to squeeze in all your content per episode. If your information isn’t time sensitive you can sit down and record five episodes in under 30 minutes of real time! You can edit each show individually (which could take an hour or so depending on how much post production you’re doing) and launch each one at the start of your day.

You may opt for a weekly show because it fits your schedule better while still working in about 20-30 minutes of great content. Nothing says you have to meet a 20-minute marker, a 10-minute weekly show is fine too. The downfall to a short weekly show comes down to keeping your audience attentive over the long term. A short show might leave less of an impression and they could forget to visit your site each week. If you provide great syndication methods, such as iTunes, you can help remind your audience to tune in each week.

There may be opportunity for a video show that runs only once or twice a month if you’re looking to test the waters, have a rough schedule or your show guests are hard to coordinate. The major downfall being the slow growth of your audience because there is less content to consume. You’re statistics will increase greatly as you have more shows for people to go back and watch after they’ve discovered your content. We’ve got plenty of people new to our shows that go back and re-discover old episodes and that greatly pushes up our download count.

Look at the release schedule over a single year. If you run a show once a month you’re going to end up with 12-episodes at the end of the year. If you run a show twice a week you’ll have 104 episodes after the year is through and, of course, a daily show will have upwards of 250 episodes (if you take weekends off). More shows means more statistics and a better chance to grab new listeners because you’ve always got something new to promote.

Now, let’s talk about statistics. Granted, many video podcast producers will tell you “it’s not about the numbers, its about the content” but we’re human and we love to categorize, organize and know what the heck is going on. What we’ve noticed, with trends in Common Man Cocktails, is that each episodes viewership peaks the first two days after its launch. Then, viewership declines as everyone has seen the latest show while a few new viewers are slowly keeping your numbers going throughout the dead-space between launches.

When we launched the show once a week on Wednesday we’d have big numbers from Thursday to Saturday and then they would fade nearly to nothing by the following Tuesday night. Then, we started pushing out an episode on Wednesday and Saturday, our numbers would pop from Sunday through Tuesday night, just as we prepared to launch the next show. This allows our viewership to maintain a constant rise throughout the week as we gain more momentum and new viewers.

The end result, each new episode peaks the day of launch by another twenty views or so, incremental growth each episode shows progress and interest in the brand. So, wouldn’t it be in our best interest to do a new show everyday? Sure! Except for the small issue with having a few other jobs to do and producing video podcasts as a hobby as this is not quite the best time to bring a brand to investors.

If you’ve got time and dedication to cut a new show every day, the other technique I’ve seen used quite a bit is to run four short episodes a week and one medium length show during the middle of the week. The small shorts can be used to keep your audience attentive, progress your shows content throughout the week and give them a large dose mid-week as something to look forward to viewing.

While a few techniques may work for you, knowing the different possiblities to work towards gives you a nice goal to achieve. Many people are looking to get into video podcasting and hopefully this gives them something to think about in their preparation.

Just remember, the most important part of creating your podcast is the content. You can produce a show nobody wants to watch each day if you want, but that’s not really worth your time.

Let’s flash back in history a few years, to 1980 when we saw Hulk Hogan appear on the TV in the WWF (now WWE). He was a nobody in the world of wrestling but he became one of the biggest brands in the business, his name alone sold out stadiums from the United States to Japan.

How did it happen?

Hulk Hogan started like everyone else, at the bottom of the hill and had to climb his way to the top. He was not the first in the industry, he wasn’t the last in the industry and he definitely wasn’t the best wrestler in the industry. Hogan’s ring “content” left something to be desired but people loved him because of his personality, charisma and electricity while in the spotlight.

You can learn a lot by going back to the tapes and watching his rise to fame. Watch his in-ring battles and you’ll see there is very little to his technique but he plays it with passion and full energy. A great video podcaster is not too unlike Hulk Hogan, bringing the energy and the charisma to make what should be a common everyday experience an entertaining adventure.

As Hogans career launched forward, the WWE put all their money behind him, marketed toys and accessories and built the brand that we know as Hulk Hogan. In many ways, they used him to make money and he used them to launch his career onward, even showing himself in TV shows, interviews and movies.

Not everyone can be Hulk Hogan, many folks who began video podcasting years ago have built a crowd over time but they’re no Hulk Hogan. A few of them are starting to rest on their laurals and produce shoddy shows or only posting one quality show a month or quarter. When the industry was tiny it’s not hard to become known because the competition was so low. Sure, they’re entertaining to watch every now and again but you know you can do better. That’s the right attitude, if you know you can outshine some of the slower paced shows that have audiences waning because nothing else was around… it’s time to get into the game.

Today, the competition in video podcasting is heating up, 2009 is supposed to be the year video podcasts really take off. This is the time to show off your charisma and technique, to entertain and delight your audience and keep them coming back for more episodes.

You’re not going to be the first video podcaster, you won’t be the last video podcaster either. But, you can be the best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be. You can choose to toss something out there and see if anyone likes it or you can play the game with passion and charisma.

Do you have what it takes to be the next Hulk Hogan?

We have to develop personal relationships to gain momentum. If you’re name is Tom Hanks you can find instant “friends” by walking out of your house, but are they really friends? No, they’re fans of your work and they’ll follow you, quite blindly, anywhere you want them to go. If you’re Joe Generic, you’ve probably developed some friendships but, let’s face it, you’re no Tom Hanks. While your friends are more dedicated and understand you better than a “fan,” they’re also in limited numbers and won’t make you an instant hit superstar on the Internet.

You’re going to need to expand your friendships using social media outlets and get to know people at a more personal level. You’ll need to understand their needs, their likes and their desires on, perhaps, a first-name basis and develop a connection with them. Once you’ve established this connection you’ll be able to share thoughts and ideas which, oddly enough, includes showing off your podcast and seeing what they think. You may meet them on a social media site but you can continue your conversation through e-mail, direct messaging and other means.

If you want them to respect your efforts you must first respect theirs. I’d like to call this, developing a personal relationship. We all do it in “real life” but when it comes to Internet marketing and promotion people seem to think we can just spam forums and blogs hoping someone will click over to our domain name and become a fan of our brand. This method of promotion annoys people and doesn’t create a dedicated listener. If you want that, buy ad space and go watch some TV; for everyone else, we want to work a bit harder and more cost effectively.

Unfortunately, developing personal relationships takes time and you want your numbers to grow quickly. If you’re a podcaster with no patients than you’re in the wrong business. First, you’ll want some creativity, quality and passion for your brand, than you’ll want to develop some personal relationships and see if those people agree with your passion and love your quality and respect your creativity.

Establishing yourself with people on a one-on-one basis is the cement that binds your foundation. Eventually, you’ll build momentum, and fans, through your effort. However, you’re going to first need to surround yourself with a large group of personal relationships outside of your close family and friends. Meeting people on Twitter, Facebook and through blogs and other social media is a great way to get started.

Don’t start a twitter account to simply blast your URL’s blindingly, that’s annoying. Use twitter to meet people with common interests in what you’re trying to build. If you’re podcasting about chicken than I suggest following people on twitter that have great chicken recipes, a love for chicken or a chicken-related blog. You can use search.twitter.com to search for the keywords “chicken” to find them. If they’ve got a blog, read it and comment about your thoughts on chicken. Read their “about” page to see why they love chicken and how they got into the chicken-loving business because you can use this to relate to them when they tweet on twitter or write editorials on the topic. You’ll be able to talk to them and ask them questions about what they like.

It’s not all about you. Other people on twitter are building their brands too, it’s a two way road and sometimes you’re going to have to share it. Pushing yourself on other people is annoying, would you do that in real life? If so, you’re probably the type of person I’m not hanging around with; you’re “that guy” or “that girl” people tend to avoid. Show people you’re a human by showing them they’re human and build a bond before you build a brand.

Along the way you’ll meet others building brands that may wish to work with you for advertising opportunities, cross promotions or simply “name dropping.” You won’t know who you’ll meet, where you’re going to meet or what you’re going to learn if you don’t start walking the road.

Podcasters track their downloads, watch for trends and do all they can to promote their show. That might be using SEO style techniques to get brand awareness in google to social networking with friends and strangers. If you google the keywords: gaming podcast you’ll notice my property: gamingpodcast.net arrives near first if not right at the top (depends on the day). Was that a coincidence? No, not really. Now google drinking podcast and you’ll have similar results: my properties arrive first.

That was key number one: free advertising via google for people looking for podcasts related to gaming and drinking (not always going hand-in-hand of course). Two years went by with almost no user feedback in my gaming podcast, but each episode was going from ten downloads a week to twenty, and thirty and fifty then one hundred and so one… but who was listening? Silence.

I was #1 on my google search terms which brought an expanding audience but still very little in terms of feedback. The first major barrier is finding a topic that elicits a lot of feedback. The drinking podcast receives very little feedback and I’m not expecting it to grow too much in the next year. The show is more for entertainment value and learning but doesn’t ask a lot of questions. In 20+ episodes we received, probably, three e-mails about the show. Not a stunning reception.

But, the audience continues to grow, the RSS feed statistics rise and we get more downloads minutes after posting than ever before. For this podcast I have relied on my instincts as to which direction to take each episode – a drinking podcast doesn’t bring a lot of feedback but if the audience rises instead of falls I know I’m doing it right. If you’re driving in the dark and never hit a tree than you know you’re doing some pretty awesome driving.

The gaming podcast was a personal challenge, how do I grow an audience of interactive gamers. A few guidelines that have worked well for me:

Build a Blog

If you don’t have a website as a landing page for your podcast audience than you need to get one yesterday! WordPress is a great launching point because you can get a blog up and running in under an hour with a comment system and spam protection. This will be where you’ll post your show notes with open community comments.

Initially, you’ll want to post content on your blog to build up content on the site and get google to start chewing on it. If your podcast is about cats, you’ll want to blog about cats, post silly cat images, link to cat related websites and click the links to hit their site and bump their referral logs (so the author sees you). “Work the room” with people and their cat interests and let them know you’ve got a website and audio/video podcast. Post on your blog three times a day for at least three weeks to build up a bankroll of content.

I used this post method on everydaydrinkers.com and started receiving alcohol from PR people to review along with accessories. Heck, I even got a portable beer pong table because, with all my editorials, I became an expert in the drinking industry. Not too shabby as a method to start a landing site for my audio show, eh?

Setup Forums

Setup some forums, if you’re using wordpress I suggest Simple:Press from YellowFish. They will link to the user accounting system within WordPress so commentors that sign up on your blog can post forum topics immediately. Post forum topics, get your friends to post some topics and populate the forums. Don’t expect to build a 1,000 user audience overnight or even in the first few years. But, if you make it available someone may use it and you can use that as feedback for your show.

Contact Us and E-Mail

Don’t post your e-mail address on your blog if you don’t want a lot of spam – but you can setup a contact us form using WordPress and the Secure and Accessible Contact Form module. This will give your audience another way to contact you. If you’re creating a podcast you can use your e-mail in the audio since spammers aren’t that smart.

Promote Your Podcast

You can promote your podcast in a number of easy and affordable ways. After you’ve got three episodes you can submit it to iTunes. You can google “podcast directories” and create an account on all the directories then submit your RSS feed. I suggest tying your RSS feed to Feedburner so you can track statistics in one of the more industry standard methods. Each directory that accepts your podcast will also automatically link back to your website because it’s part of the standard iTunes complaint RSS feed (which Feedburner will standardize for you). That increases the chances google will rank you well.

You can also use a very low cost advertising method as I have done for my shows at ProjectWonderful. For a few cents a day you can splash your podcast banners on all types of sites that focus on the demographic you want to capture. That might be personal blogs, business, food and drinks, lifestyle, home gardening and many others. Don’t expect people to find you, find them first and do it on the cheap.

Ask Questions

There are a few ways to get your listeners to submit feedback. You can ask questions in the podcast that you think people may have an opinion on or you can discuss things that people just cannot afford to let pass, usually dealing with politics, international affairs or anything you’ve had past heated discussions about on a personal level. Some folks will go out of their way to demand feedback by just being over the top controversial, you’ll get hate mail but it is, in fact, feedback.

Do It

Do setup a website, do keep the content fresh, do post consistent episodes on a regular schedule and give your audience many outlets to respond to your podcast you’ll get some traction. We received roughly four comments on our Gaming Podcast until we setup gamingpodcast.net and built out a forum. and comment system

Many people are shy and don’t want to compose an e-mail to a stranger. Others are paranoid and don’t want their email being spread around. Some folks post on forums on a daily bases and find that the natural way to comment while others will blindly and anonymously post in response to a blog entry. Feedback comes in many forms and everyone seems to use their own technique. This is why we choose to include forum posts, blog responses and e-mails in our “feedback” section of our gaming podcast. Some users may not have submitted it thinking it would make the show, but we pick and choose to make sure gamers realize they too can talk back.

At first, you may have your own friends write in or simply make up questions from people that don’t even exist. Perhaps that “imaginary” writer has something controversial to say and it could elicit more feedback from real users. Once you start a trend others will feed into it and chat on a normal bases.

Lastly, you may notice that every podcast has its own set of responders. From Buzz Out Loud form CNET to The Daily Giz Wiz by Leo Laporte to GameSpots podcasts and language learning podcasts, there is a set of “regulars” that write in constantly and keep the show interesting. Everybody needs a few regulars, just like a bar or a restaurant — you’ll know them by name and they’ll add a new dynamic personality to the show.

Once you’ve got a few regulars consider your job done. Most of your audience is listening to an audio podcast because its a nice passive way to get through their day. They don’t need to write in to show their support because their downloads and impressions are left on the show through the shows yearly growth.

Have you ever called into an FM radio show? Probably not.

Twitter is like a home to many individuals in the Internet. Folks visit to socialize, some visit to market themselves and their brands while yet others come to find people with like interests. I have nothing wrong with people pimping their websites, dropping in a link on their 140-character post or otherwise conversing with the work that is social media. Hell, I do it all the time.

But, please, at least try to be somewhat human when socializing on Twitter. Some key turn-offs for me, things that usually get me to NOT follow you on Twitter is filling in the Real Name field with your domain name. You know what? If I want to know your domain I’ll ask. Or, better yet, be subtle and hand me your domain equipped with useful information, pictures or a funny video once you get to know me a bit. I enjoy a direct message saying “hi” and explaining why you started following me so that we can open a dialog and talk.

I socialize on Twitter as I would as an individual at the worlds biggest Internet conference. There are thousands of potential friends, leads, colleagues and associates – how would you handle yourself at a conference? Would you lead off by saying “Hi, I’m Derrick Schommer from EverydayDrinkers.TV, I have a great website that can help you out!” and run off to yet another person and repeat the same promotion?

No. You’d introduce yourself, you’d open a dialog and a line of questioning and, eventually, you may drop your website and a bit about your job. You may even lead off with a business card and then sit down and socialize to see what you and the recipient(s) have in common. You may find you have a lot in common and could work with each other to some common goal. Observe how you handled yourself, you were personal and friendly all while treating the other person as an individual sentient being.

For instance, I’ve followed and “friended” many folks that run drinking websites, reviews and wine blogs. Why? I love wine, I like to read, I like to drink and I’ve got something in common with them. If I’m nice enough they may even tolerate when I tweet my latest video podcast episodes on a weekly basis because they know I’m a human with a life, problems and have gotten to know me over a few “tweets.”

If you simply want to follow me in hopes I’ll follow you back so you can spam me with diet pills, SEO benefits, lines of haircare products and everything else under the sun you’ll probably notice you’ve got very few followers. Nine times out of ten, if a twitter user is following 5,000 people and only 25 have followed them back there is a reason.

Some helpful tips I’ve learned from observing and growing my own small social network of friends:

• Be friendly and helpful. If a follower asks you to check something out, give them a few minutes and do it then send them back your thoughts.
• Be a good Internet citizen and be approachable and friendly as you would in real life. Twitter can be a tool but so can you.
• Post daily updates that can be useful or silly. Ponder a thought and send out a tweet with no other agenda.
• Post links to other people’s sites, perhaps those that are following you to share the love. It’s a back and forth relationship – it’s not all about you.
• Follow people you find have interesting things to say, don’t follow every single person just because the Twitter allows it.
• Pimp your site on occasion but be modest, ask for comments/suggestions on how you could make it better.
• Don’t be annoying, if you post every five minutes all day you’re going to lose followers (or at least me). Just because you don’t have anything to do doesn’t mean I don’t.
• Use your real name or at least something that people think is your real name. We want to interact with people, not domains. Put your domain in the “more info URL” because, if I want more info I’ll go there, don’t force it on me.
• PR people can be cool too. Lot’s of great PR folks are using twitter as a useful resource, such as Flying Dog Brewery, Comcast and Popcap Games. Many of them understand how to use the product the right way. Sometimes you can get to exclusive or less well known social events, parties and, if you’re lucky, free beer.

And, remember, you don’t have to have 20,000 followers to be a nice person. You probably have more useful information than some of the top-tier internet personalities anyway. Telling 20,000 people you had a steak and cheese for lunch is just darn silly.

Lastly, it wouldn’t be a good post if I didn’t ask for you to follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/everydaydrinker

That’s my shameless plug, but at least I gave you about 830 words before I pimped myself.

But, how do you get noticed with your own art?

Unless you’ve been on a TV show or have a bundle of money to start your brand in overdrive, you’re going to end up like the other 90% of us: wishing we were popular. We can’t buy friends like some bloggers and podcasters, we don’t work for a huge media site and we’ve not been in the spotlight before. All we have to market ourself is a good personality, patience and a will to be the best. I’m not sure about you, but personality doesn’t make you a star overnight.

I’ve often laughed when I looked back at some of my old friends and said “you probably didn’t like me at first, but then you got to know me.” As a kid, I probably made some really bad first impressions but my personality was tolerable and grew on you. I’m sure not much has really changed, but I’ve learned a few concepts from watching others socialize in awkward environments.

First, being a friendly approachable person makes you a person worth meeting. Hold yourself with confidence (even if you have very little at the moment) and strike up casual conversations. Avoid being annoying and pushing your personality to the extreme. In moments of fear some folks start to chat a little too much or just go way overboard and you can tell, this isn’t how they act when in one-on-one situations. You can smell the fear and awkwardness and just want to get away from them. Don’t be “that guy.”

I’ve found the best remedy for situations where I’m nervous is to ask the people around me questions about what they do for a living, hobbies and anything else to get them talking. Once they start talking my nerves calm and I can derive new lines of questions to help get to know them. They’ll like feeling special with the inquires and perhaps open their own line of questioning to you.

If you’re trying to social network with people in a higher tier of fame than yourself, don’t fawn and giggle. The person you’re talking to is actually human. However, you can learn a lot from an Internet personality in how they handle themselves in public, how they pay attention and compliment their fan base even if they would rather be at home with their own kids. You can learn a lot from how they deal with situations.

Although you don’t have to act like a school girl meeting New Kids on The Block for the first time, you can indulge their personality a little. Famous Internet personalities, in general, like to have their ego stroked and to be told how awesome they are. It’s not really because they’re conceited (in all cases) but they’re used to little kids sitting in IRC chat rooms talking about how much they adore all the things the person does. Let’s face it, wouldn’t you like to be told repeatively how awesome you are? You’re saying “no” but you’re thinking “yes.”

Unfortunately, you’ll sometimes find it’s not what you do but who you know. For most, you want to know a few people with a large base of fans but also do good work yourself. Even a big Internet personality can tell awesome work from a half-assed attempt to be in the same league.

What I’ve noticed, from listening to some high profile podcasts, is that those that get the most mention are those that do things for the Internet personality in question. You pat their back, they’ll tell you how awesome they are by pimping your website, tool or gimic you made for them. That could be your spring board to success, or at least give you 15-minutes of fame. But, nothing is more annoying than spamming your blogs URL over and over in a chat window, comment field or voice-call-in on a show.

If you are friendly and approachable you’ll realize others will be drawn to listening to you and answering your questions. If you are simply annoying they’ll be nice to you but forget you existed after you leave their sight. It’s probably best to leave a good impression than leave nothing at all.

There are opportunities on the Internet which would utilize our own creative thinking. Everyone can build their own niche of the web to call their own. Then, after you think about it, you need to do it. I’ve met many individuals that want to do great things but so few are ready to put in the commitment. Worse, I think, deep down inside, they’re afraid to fail.

When you want to put yourself on the Internet you’re putting yourself in a situation to be laughed at, flamed and be tormented by unfortunate souls that don’t have any “do” power of their own. You could indeed fail, there are a lot of ideas that won’t work out for you. I’ve failed with many ideas that I thought were great but because I didn’t put in the proper research to validate my idea is as good as I thought it was. I learned.

Being afraid to fail is being afraid to learn.

Each project I start that doesn’t make it to a successful conclusion gives me more insight on the workings of a success. Not every internet superstar, CEO or industry mover and shaker had their first success with their initial try. The key is to try.

This means dedicating time to focusing on what motivates you — what you would love to do as a “real job.” For me, it’s podcasting and video shows. Not everyone has the courage to sit in front of a camera lens and be a dork for five to ten minutes. But, everyone has their own motivations and it requires you to put down the video games, drama series and focus on what you’d really love to do with your life.

If it turns out you can’t find a way to make money with your efforts now, turn it into a hobby and see where it takes you, you’ll never know if you don’t try. Develop a thick skin to those that want to criticize you and tell you why you’ll fail. Those same people that want you to fail are the same that have been failures their entire life and simply do not want to be alone wallowing in their own self doubt.

Be afraid. Then do it anyway.

Today, what I can tell you is that I work as a Corporate Systems Engineer for F5 Networks, assist in running an online video game store called TechDiversions with my wife Jennifer and manage a few blogs and public relations for such blogs. I try to help out with Casual Gamer Chick with my wife, the casual gamer chick herself and post-produce the TD Gaming Podcast.

I also run and maintain a Drinking Blog and drinking podcast at everydaydrinkers.com. When I’m not doing that I also help out a friend running 2old2play.com for gamers over the age of 25 as their Editor in Chief as well as GameStooge.com. As a gamer, I go by the name codemonkey or codemonkey420 when the original tag isn’t available.

In my spare time I do contract PHP development for MediaCrumb, LLC. for Drupal, WordPress and other website content management systems and try to maintain a development blog there when at all possible. Before moving into pre-sales I was strictly a developer working on storage solutions at Acopia Networks before it was bought by F5. Before that, I worked for Cisco which also bought my prior company, Arrowpoint.

That’s about the last eight years of my life! Since I’m a heavy blogger I tend to show up a lot on google for random articles, on digg.com, I’ve been flamed many times on slashdot.org for articles I’ve written (that’s what you’re supposed to do on /. right?)

My blog, in the future, will cover experiences I’ve learned as a developer, in sales, as a blogger and other random stuff I’ve found on the net. Sorta like a chronicle of my life to help me keep track of what’s going on around me; this is the point of a blog anyway right?

Anyway, if you find it a worthwhile read, have at it! Or, you can alternatively (or simultaneously) watch the rest of my blogs as well