It’s probably the best thing to happen to America since the TV was introduced. In case you did not notice, TV sucks. It’s not just the writer’s fault.
BUT, striking is retarded on top of bad.
Did the travel agents strike as the internet obliterated their business?
Did stockbrokers strike after commissions went from $500 a trade to $1 overnight?
Will anybody complain when real estate agents go out of work in the next cycle?
If you are not on the money list in Golf, you toil in complete obscurity travelling from city to city. Life sucks.
It’s the profession you chose and you knew it when you made it. The good ones can negotiate their contracts. They should. You hire CAA to do it and you get what you deserve. The rest of the fish should not rely on a union dude with his own self-serving interests to negotiate for them.
There is no easy fix a completely broken system other than to start all-over. That means bust the freaking union and let the talent rise to the top. Like the internet. Guess what, that sucks too. You can help everybody though by not making it worse.
Here than are two EASY LESSONS FOR THE TALENT AS THEY HEAD TO THE INTERNET to try and start all over:
1. Tell CAA to stick it up their ass or any agent that approaches you
You don’t need or want either. Take some control of your own talent and some responsibility. Oh…and be prepared to multitask. It’s freaking hard.
Usually EVERYONE loses on a walkout or strike. At least with this strike, Americans as a whole win with no prime-time television. There is no excuse not to go outside or talk with your kids.
Woops…the Internet!
Posted on December 21st, 2007 | Category: Blogging | Comments Off
I just passed two years of blogging and have never felt more rejuvenated. YET, there seems to be a thread going around that blogging is dead. Ya right.
Facebook is getting all the attention these days mostly deserved. For me, Facebook has become more of a grind. Maybe it’s due to all the busy work I have made for myself, accounting at year end and stock market but I have no time for Facebook. I just got three friend Facebook requests and if one had not been from my sweet niece in Toronto, I would never have headed over to Facebook this weekend at all.
Me? I prefer my brand to be a “global microbrand”. It’s easy and it’s flexible. It’s not tied down to one geographical locale, which I’ve always found to be financially unreliable. So business is a bit slow around here in England. No matter. I’ll head over to Redmond, Washington, and do a gig for Microsoft if I have to. New York? Sure. Houston? If they pay me enough.
So that’s why I have a blog, I suppose. I like the control. I write something, I post it, it gets read, hopefully good things happen as a result, somewhere on this small blue planet of ours. Unlike a book or a movie or a TV commercial, there’s no waiting around for somebody else to greenlight it. The only light is the greenlight.
Sure, I hear you saying, “But the scale is so small.” I don’t know about that. At last count [and this was a couple of years ago] the “How To Be Creative” page had been downloaded a quarter of a million times. And Lord knows how many copies of the “ChangeThis” PDF version were printed out and circulated. Most hardbacks are lucky if they sell three thousand copies. Granted, movies get seen by a lot of people, but only for a week or two.Then they leave the cinema and are mostly consigned to a lonely life on the DVD rack. And they’re expensive and take years to make. They have a lot, I mean A LOT of downtime. Whereas a blog is constantly working, constantly growing. I like that.
I guess my point is, if you’re one of these people considering giving up on blogging in exchange for paying more attention to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace, or whatever they throw at us mere mortals, bear in mind you are giving up on something rather unique and wonderful. But I would say that.
Pretty awesome and sums up why I do what I do here every day and over at Wallstrip. Blogging has made me smarter, increased my social leverage a bazillion fold and been a rather humbling experience at times. Oh and I feel like I have earned it all . I don’t get that feeling on Facebook.
So here is the letter I get from Reuters asking me to SEND MY TRAFFIC to them for the luxury of having my posts on Reuters:
What do you think? I hope you know. Sounds like the Glam of finance is in the works.
Dear Howard Lindzon,
http://howardlindzon.com/
I would like to invite you to become part of the new Reuters Affiliate Network. We would like to make your content available through www.reuters.com.
At Reuters we understand that blogs are a very important part of today’s news coverage. In response, we are creating the ‘Reuters Affiliate Network’. This Network will feature prestigious blogs covering the following categories: Personal Finance, Investing, Business, World Events and Lifestyle.
What are the benefits of being part of Reuters Network?
· Recognition: By becoming part of Reuters Blog network you will join one of the largest and most trusted news sources of the world and one of the fastest growing news sites ( www.reuters.com)
· Promotion: Participating blogs will be linked from Reuters.com.
· Content: you will receive free access to selected Reuters Headlines (RSS or Headline Wizard) and Reuters Video Player to publish Reuters News on your site.
· Revenue Potential: Reuters will share 30% of the net revenue derived from your Blog by implementing mutually agreed advertising components to your site.
· Independence: Reuters will not interfere with your editorial process.
How does this work?
You sign the Letters of Agreement from ComScore and Nielsen (these are attached as Exhibits A and B). All traffic to your blog will then be assigned as Reuters traffic. You then become part of the Reuters blog network and your blog will be accessible from www.reuters.com.
You or Reuters can cancel this agreement at any time at either party’s discretion
Next Steps: If you agree with the proposed above, please let me know and I will follow up with the appropriate next steps
I am looking forward to hearing from you. Should you have any questions or ideas, please email or call me directly.
Sincerely,
Nice of them to reach out, but basically a cold e-mail. If I am a handful of people and everybody else knows how to reach me, why the form letter. Furthermore, I write about stocks, I can’t imagine anyone giving me full editorial control, especially a network as ‘trusted’ as Reuters. Not a good deal for anybody who already has a bit of a voice. If you think I am wrong…let me know why. Thanks
Lot’s of people, too many, give up blogging for all it’s overwhelming features and pure heaviness. That’s one of the reasons that Twitter makes so much sense. Bit, Twitter is too light a tool. Tumblr.com may be just right for most, especially for us financial bloggers.
It’s obvious I think it’s a pretty much useless affair, but than again, I am small and I don’t trust anyone on the street. You should not either. You should enjoy reading the people on my blogroll, but do your own work and thinking.
If you need Mary to analyze Google for you in any way shape or form, you are royally f@!#cked. Google could give a rat’s ass what she thinks and never will. Google is still way in open field with YouTube and all the rest of their developments and product lines. They had to buy YouTube – if only to prevent it falling in other’s hands. It was worth more at $0 in revenue to them than in someone ele’s hand. Now they will monetize the crap out of it. If they don’t, we are all screwed. Further, if they don’t who really cares. The stock will drop to $380, where it was the moment they bought YouTube.
Monetize the crap out of it is all Mary had to say. The numbers she and her seven assistants performed and got wrong just justify her existence and she should do charity work instead.
I will be upgrading my blogroll in depth quite shortly. It’s long overdue for at least my short-list.
Seriously, we are just tapping the surface. With my old friend/troublemaker and loose cannon Chartreuse back blogging, I am more confident in the future of the biz, despite his ripping on us at Wallstrip .
Off the top of my head, I still say we are in the first inning of web content and new media. Nobody has ‘THE’ answer…AND THATS GOOD! Obviously I am happy that CBS thinks we do .
Elsewhere, Henry Blodget has recreated himself as a web/tech/east coast TechCrunch meets Valleywag , but better website and real experience along with his co-founders of Doubleclick fame. I like it. Personally, I want my info from that team, not just the West coast. Check it out. I am reading it daily now along with Dealbreaker.
Tons of ways that people are changing the way I read and consume and how we share information. Quit bitching and join in the revolution with something other than nasty comments.
WOOPS – One last point. I think it really makes sense for great businesses that already have a community to add a daily or weekly interactive video component. It is much safer and smarter than doing what we did at Wallstrip if you want to start from scratch. Cheaper and deeper and better than PR firm if done well. At GolfNow.tv, the trivia show is loved by it’s sponsors and golf community and that helps. Today they are celebrating their 150th show which may mean nothing to the web in general, but much to the community of GolfNow. Zillow, Expedia, Yelp – are you listening?
. Lucky bastards get to do it from a real studio.
