Over the past few weeks life has become insanely hectic for me. Most of this has been due to my new AllFacebook blog that I keep going on about. Why do I keep bringing it up? Well, I’m spending close to 3 hours a day (if not more) finding out what’s going on in the world of Facebook. Two weeks ago I found an unfulfilled niche and decided to start filling it. Is this how a true entrepreneur should act? Yes and no.

Given that I don’t have any other ventures actively going on (aside from my random ramblings in this blog which will definitely not bring me in much money), I decided to seize the moment. So yes, an entrepreneur that is finding their way should try to seize the moment and act on an opportunity that they find. Especially if that opportunity is within reach. Conversely, if the entrepreneur is wrapped up in their own business, running on to the next thing is an endless cycle that will destroy all possibilities of success.

With the new Facebook development platform, I am watching entrepreneurs cringe. They are trying to decipher what really lies behind the new platform and whether or not they should act on it. While there are those that will get rich off of the new platform, switching paths and moving all resources to the new Facebook platform will be a losing strategy for most people. For most businesses, the new platform will provide a new advertising vehicle and just that. For the select few that are quick to move (and are moving now), there will be lots of money to be made. For the remaining, seeing the new platform as anything more than an advertising vehicle will be disastrous.

The bottom line is know what your vision of your company is. If you don’t currently have an existing company that you are dedicated to, try to seize any opportunity that you see and are passionate about. Just be prepared to dedicate a hell of a lot of time. Without passion, you will soon meet defeat as eventually you will begin to question why you are spending so much time on your project. Just remember, do not completely stray from your vision when someone comes in and rattles up the marketplace. While change happens fast, revolutions take time.

I once read a post by Seth Godin that was titled “How to Get Paid $100,000 a Year Blogging.” The answer? Get a job that pays $100,000 a year and blog from work! While this is the attitude of many avid bloggers, I have also met those that make a living from blogging. In New York this past weekend I met one blogger that had just bought his own house from his network of blogs that he manages. While he was good at making money through blogs, I can’t say that he was truly passionate about blogging given that he didn’t write any of his blogs. It was all other people that blogged for him.

A New York Times article this past weekend asked the same question. Is it possible to make a job out of blogging? The conclusion was that it is possible but very difficult, with the rare full-time blogger making in the range of $40,000 to $60,000 a year. The real money in blogging comes from the connections made. From my two blogs, The Webpreneur (this blog), and my recently launched All Facebook, I have managed to build numerous business contacts. Some of these contacts have even led to potential business partners and start-up funding.

So can you make a living blogging? Yes, but the real value comes from building relationships. When you start a blog you need to be passionate and dedicated because chances are you are not going to see any money coming in the door for months to come. While I have already received cash offers for advertising space on my recently launched Facebook blog, the offers are nowhere near enough for me to live off. So if you have a blog idea, all I can suggest is to get out there and start blogging. There is so much more to be gained from writing down your thoughts and sharing them with the world than just monetary gain. If you choose not to share your thoughts with the world you are missing out on a world of opportunity.

In terms of revenue generation, this is an easy question to answer. Of course the iPhone will generate more revenue, but I’m wondering more about the impact on the web world and the world of development. Just as Facebook opened up their platform to developers, so has Apple opened up their iPhone to web developers. The industry has been waiting on an open source mobile platform just as they were waiting on an open source social networking platform. I was talking about this with a good friend of mine this weekend. There is an underlying story behind all of this that is even more important.

Both apple and Facebook have made strategic moves to position themselves as the next “open-source” platforms. The only problem is that they aren’t actually open-source. They have set up branded platforms that provide developers with the ability to develop applications on top of their existing platform within their defined constraints. This is a step above open-source platforms such as Linux that gave developers complete access to the operating system/platform. Rather than enabling developers to simply expand the operating system, they are enabling developers to expand their brand.

We have entered a new phase in the technology world. Brands (Facebook and Apple in particular) will provide the platform (for frameworks which previously didn’t have “open-source” environments) for any developer to rapidly develop applications that can be immediately released to millions of users. While this already existed with Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX, never before had it been so easy for a developer to release an application and have it rapidly adopted by millions of individuals. Facebook has already illustrated its viral potential, now can iPhone?

Last week, while attending the Future of Online Advertising Conference I had a chance to meet some amazing people in addition to see some great presenters. In contrast to most people (I would imagine), I spend my time focusing on how well a presenter presents rather than the content they are providing. Additionally, a great presenter is much more likely to grab my attention, forcing me to actually listen to what they have to say. After seeing some amazing presenters and one pretty bad presenter (who will remain unnamed), I decided to put together a short list of important presentation skills.

1. Don’t stay behind the podium – This one is key. When you go up on stage and have an entire stage to present, you should walk around and engage the audience. Standing in one place does not help at all. Look like you are having fun even if you aren’t. Moving around will also help to make you feel a little more comfortable up on stage.
2. Don’t read from notes – I thought everyone was taught this in college but apparently not. One of the speakers at the conference read directly from their own notes. If you are going to present come prepared. If you forget a part, just glance up at your presentation to remind yourself of where you are.
3. Start with a bang – If you walk up on stage and just start talking, your audience will fade fast. Walk up and try to connect. This one can be truly difficult and understandably so. If you at least make a solid effort, it shows that you are trying to connect. If you use a joke as an introduction and it fails, say so and poke fun at yourself. This is always a good technique to get the audience listening.
4. Use humor – Humor is the best way to captivate an audience. I saw someone present at a past presentation and he livened the audience. It had nothing to do with the content he was explaining, it had much more to do with his ability to entertain the audience. When you are making a presentation, you are a performer, so get up there and have fun.
5. Speak passionately – Some people aren’t interested in what they are talking about, and it shows. Don’t be one of those people. Be passionate when you are speaking. If you aren’t really passionate about it then it is time to act and pretend like you are!

While this is by no mean an exhaustive list, it is a few of the key characteristics that are exemplified by successful presenters. Bottom line, engage your audience and look like you are having fun. If you aren’t having fun on stage, your audience won’t have a fun time listening to you.

This past week was a whirlwind of events in New York. I had the opportunity to attend the Future of Online Advertising, the Paid Content mixer, and the Problogger meetup. I also got to meet some great people. I met Ethan Bodnar, a young high school student who is ready to conquer the digital world after attending his first conference. It is pretty inspiring to meet someone that is so young and passionate. I also had the opportunity to hang out with AJ Vaynerchuk who was present at our DC Tech Cocktail. AJ has a site called Wii Tube which covers everything related to the Nintendo Wii.

I also was fortunate enough to meet Darren Rowse who is truly a leader in blogging. Also from b5media was Shai Coggins and Chad Randall. I met a lot of other great people as well, too many to cover. But all in all it was a great week. Special thanks Ryan Carson and the Carson systems team for putting together a great conference. Also special thanks to Lara Kulpa for helping organize the ProBlogger event on Saturday. I look forward to getting back to my normal blog schedule!

Listpic, the site I covered back in January was banned yesterday from accessing Craigstlist feeds. Listpic enabled users to browse through Craigslist by pictures rather than text. It was highly popular and yesterday Craigslist pulled the plug. There is now a forum for users to complain about Craigslist’s decision. Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, said that the site was slowing down the site. I’m a bit skeptical of this but from a competitive standpoint, it makes sense that Listpic was banned. Conversely, Listpic helped increase the usefulness and visibility of Craigslist. Not sure if we’ll see the site come back up anytime soon, but this is a good example of the risk involved when basing your business on the backbone of another business. They can pull the plug at any moment!

This evening I am headed up to New York City to attend the Future of Online Advertising Conference. I will be covering any interesting topics that are discussed. I am bringing my laptop and if any news comes about I will be sure to post about it. Here is an overview of the event’s speakers and what they are presenting:

• Jed Nahum (Microsoft adCenter) – Using demographics to improve your online marketing
• Ron Belanger (Yahoo!) – The Future of Search Marketing
• Kim Malone (Google AdSense) – Adapting advertising models to an evolving web experience
• Joel Greenberg (Electric Sheep) – Advertising in the virtual world
• Heather Luttrell (Indieclick) – Deciphering online advertising trends
• Carla Hendra (Ogilvy) – The most effective online ads – Why some make it and others don’t
• Erick Schonfeld (Business 2.0) -What is the future of interactive advertising
• Henry Copeland (Blog Ads) – Cracking the blogosphere – the secret to successful blog advertising.
• Drew Schutte (Wired) – How will online and traditional advertising peacefully coexist?
• Darren Rowse (ProBlogger.net) – How to dramtically increase ad revenue from your site
• … and more!

There will be plenty of speakers and a bunch of industry experts at the event. If you are interested in attending the event, I believe there are still tickets available. You can check out more about the event at the Future of Online Advertising website. Additionally I will be attending the Paid Content event tomorrow night and the blogger meetup on Saturday. If you are going to be at any of the events, come say hello!

We hear it all the time: if you create a business, make sure you pick a good niche. While I typically heed such advice, I occasionally go astray. This blog is one example of going astray. While I may write interesting content, I hop from covering issues about blogging, to issues about social media, entrepreneurship, and technology news. Bottom line, I am covering a lot of bases. When I launched my new blog, AllFacebook last Friday I quickly realized the benefit of focusing on a niche. By Sunday, I was receiving over 450 unique visitors to the site. For this blog, getting that number of daily visitors took months, and frequently I don’t come close. I have started and been part of many start-up companies. Being part of these companies gave me the opportunity to see the result of picking good and picking bad niches. While focusing on a niche doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, it definitely helps. Once you find the right niche, you will quickly know because customers (or blog visitors) will start checking out your product immediately. Unfulfilled niches are a great market to serve, but also can be challenging to uncover.

One of my better investments that I made was in a site, WoodenModelShips.com. This site focuses strictly on selling wooden model ships. When you are talking about niche, this is the epitome of niche. There is also a fine balance of picking the right sized niche. If you get too niche (e.g. all the people living on your block), you are going to cut off much of your potential revenue. At some point you are going to have to either expand your niche or go create a new business to satisfy yet another target market.

So what are a few good ways of picking the proper niche? Well, start thinking about the groups that you are involved with on a daily basis. Are you part of a church or synagogue? Are you active in your neighborhood? Do you work out at a gym? What hobbies do you have? All these questions are a good place to start. One good example is local technology enthusiasts. I had the good fortune of catering to this group with the Tech Cocktail event that I co-hosted with Frank Gruber and Eric Olson. I’m interested in hearing about your niche experiences. How does your company find niches and what niches do they serve?

Last week Userplane announced a new revenue sharing program called “Userplane Money.” For those that are unaware, Userplane is “the premier provider of communication software for online communities.” I had the fortune to interview the CEO of Userplane, Michael Jones, and find out more about the new program and future plans for Userplane. Here are the questions I asked to Michael Jones and his responses:

1. Techcrunch posted an article yesterday about the new Userplane revenue sharing plan. How does this new plan benefit advertisers and web platform owners?
   

   This is the beginning of a larger scale platform for Userplane/AOL. With our ability now to revenue share with all our partners – we can now build and release additional user-engaging tools for publishers that will play an important factor in monetization of 3rd party traffic. We believe this is the next true iteration of online advertising – the distribution and collaborative-monetization of interactive applications across millions of websites.

2. From my personal experience with the Userplane application, it seems that Userplane is primarily focused on closed networks as a means for instant communication. Any chance of Userplane expanding outside of this realm?
   

   Yes- Userplane is currently working on AIM compatibility as well as further opening up our network. Most publishers using Userplane use the applications specifically for the closed nature of the application – these new open connections will be opt-in by the manager of the community.

3. Does Userplane have any plans to make a Meebo competitor?
   

   Not currently – AOL has both WebAIM API’s as well as a web version of AIM – Userplane is focused on enabling community and user interaction on other people’s websites, not driving traffic to Userplane destinations.

4. Any chance of a Userplane Facebook application being launched?
   

   We certainly have been playing with their API’s – if it is a good fit for our products we would release an app for Facebook – just as we support integration on other platforms such as Vbulletin, Drupal, PHPNuke, Mambo, etc.

Special thanks to Mike for taking the time to answer these questions!

According to a New York Times article today, it has become more challenging to make money in the porn industry. Why? Thanks to online sites such as PornoTube and YouPorn (not work safe sites), porn enthusiasts have begun filming their own movies at home and uploading them to free sites. This shift in porn consumption has caused a 15 percent decline in pornographic video sales and rentals. And you thought music companies had it tough!

Not only are users spending less on porn, but apparently their taste for large production pornography has reduced as well. According to the New York Times,

Unlike consumers looking for music and other media, viewers of pornography do not seem to mind giving up brand-name producers and performers for anonymous ones, or a well-lighted movie set for a ratty couch at an amateur videographer’s house.

Apparently, the production company Nectar Entertainment which has produced such infamous movies such as “Exxxtasy Island” (one of my personal favorites), spends between $50,000 and $80,000 to create a movie. Unfortunately, he can no longer compete with those that have virtually no cost since all they need is a camera and two people to have sex. Any you thought your job was tough? Think again!

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Today I launched a new blog at AllFacebook.com. It is the new unofficial Facebook blog. I will be covering the release of new applications as well as news related to Facebook and analysis. Also I will be featuring individual’s stories of their interaction with Facebook. If you would like to contribute to the blog please feel free to email me or emails our submission address allfacebook [at] gmail.com. I am currently looking for bloggers that would like to contribute to the blog so please get in touch if you would like to write for us.

Why did I launch the blog? Well if you have been reading this blog recently, I have written at least 5 things in the past week related to Facebook. Facebook has just transformed the business of web applications and online marketing and there is plenty to write about it. So head on over to the site to read more.

In addition to launching the blog I am offering new Facebook application development services through my company, Capital Interactive. If your company is in need of coming up with a strategy for launching a branding campaign through Facebook and social media channels in general then please get in touch with me at nick [at] thewebpreneur.com. We will be providing a complete service for helping you make a significant online presence.

When Facebook launched its new platform last week, a new era of interacting online was started. Suddenly companies can have immediate access to a network of over 25 million users which is growing at an insane rate. Within one day, new startups can gain traffic that was previously accessible to only those that had the money for major PR and marketing campaigns at launch time. With such benefits available to startups, there is no choice but to hop on the bandwagon and offer a Facebook application to their users. What is the end result of all these startups hopping on board? David Sacks points out:

The potential for Facebook to layer on any feature whose value increases with the participation of friends is an incredibly broad canvas for a portal. Moreover, as each new application gains acceptance, it enriches the overall value of the network and makes it incrementally more likely that the next application will be tried. Much of what we know as ‚ÄúWeb 2.0‚Ä? will eventually be rebuilt on top of Facebook.

So as companies build applications for Facebook, the question becomes, will users travel away from Facebook to view the sites of application creators? In my own opinion the answer for this depends on what type of application is being built. Many users will choose to stick to the confines of Facebook as it is a platform that they feel comfortable with. Others will venture out and sign up for new sites that will help enrich their experience. In either circumstance, the user will still come back to Facebook. As Fortune points out:

Today, social networking is fragmented. There are networks for dating, for philanthropy, for pet owners, for parents. But each has its own ways for members to register, describe themselves, communicate, and interact. Facebook aims to make much of that unnecessary. It will provide the underlying services – a platform – and offer access to its prerecruited pool of members. It will retain some online real estate and will still generate the lion’s share of its revenue from advertising.

Ultimately the goal is to make a start page for users that is so useful, they don’t need to go anywhere else. Why go to a news site when it comes to you? Why go to your bank’s site when you can view your balance right from your start page? If Facebook can bring everything directly to the user and force the other sites to be simply content providers, it becomes an easier interaction for the user and a better situation for Facebook. Facebook has gone an taken existing concepts (startpages, rss feeds, etc) and has now brought it to the masses. Internet users that once had no idea what all of these new technologies are about, will now experience the benefits of existing technologies even if they don’t understand how they work because all they need to do is click “Add Application”.

So back to the initial question. Is there any point in launching your own social application? In the long run, probably not. All sites will eventually become content providers that allow users to decide for themselves how they are going consume information. RSS feeds and OPML are only the beginning of such technologies. While this is going to take time to manifest, in the foreseeable future you are going to have access to all the information you want right at your fingertips, all from one page. While search will still be necessary to find new sources of content, users will be able to avoid navigation the web on a daily basis to consume all the information that they want. While its not going to happen immediately, Facebook has just taken a huge step in that direction.