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Written on 14th December 2008
47 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
It’s funny and sad. The tech scene is an industry where people travel the whole world for conferences and meet-ups, so you’d expect most to be global citizens. McLuhan’s global village and all that. Yet right after Europe’s largest web conference, almost everybody who has the guts to speak up is ranting about each other’s countries.
A-listers start a discussion – Michael Arrington criticizes Europe’s work ethic, Loren Feldman “bans” France, Loic Le Meur finds himself defending Europe all the time -, and a large group of followers starts to bash anyone whose not from their country.
In the TechCrunch discussion, it took about twenty comments when Godwin’s law was once again proved. At Loren Feldman’s, some people used vivid and hostile examples to fight prejudice: I’m French and you’re right, I shower only once a week. Right after I bang your wife. Plus, in the heat of the discussion, Loic le Meur and Michael Arrington just broke up.
Screw all that.
I’m lucky to work for this blog. The Next Web team send me all over the world. Everywhere I came, from London, San Francisco, Geneva, Paris, Krakow, Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai, and even crazy Kathmandu – I found people to level with. Guys and girls who are working to make their dreams come true.
Maybe they’re taking a two hour lunch – but they might as well skip some sleep to work.
Maybe their English is terrible, but they’re helping out millions of people world-wide who speak the same language.
Maybe they don’t have a passport, but thanks to the web they appear more like global citizens to me than most tech people.
Written on 27th October 2008
11 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Last Friday, Amsterdam was the scene of Holland’s first international blog conference BLOG08. Pete Cashmore (Mashable), Loren Feldman (1938media.com), Hugh MacLeod (Gapingvoid), and Scott Rafer (Lookery) all crossed the ocean to tell the European crowd how they could turn their blog in a successful one. Two of them, namely Cashmore and Rafer, focused on monetizing blogs.
Nobody wants money?
When the Mashable founder asked the crowd about monetizing, something noteworthy occurred. Anne Helmond reports:
When asked, hardly anyone in the room actually wants to monetize its blog. Pete is kind of surprised, especially if he asks the same question in the US where everyone raises their hands.
Language barriers
At first, I wasn’t really surprised. After all, most BLOG08 attendees report for a rather small group compared to bloggers who write in English. A Dutch blogger for example, only has an audience of 17 million people. Americans have a crowd of at least 300 million readers at their disposal.
What did struck me as odd was the reluctant attitude of most visitors towards money. Like it’s some kind of crime.
More revenue means more time for blogging
I’ve been blogging for a year before I made some money out of it. And ever since I started doing that, my blogging skills improved. More revenue means more time for blogging. I was able to quit my sorry day job and spend more time on reporting about tech.
A precondition on making some money with blogging is writing in English. Simply because you can reach a larger crowd. That’s not something I came up with. No, one of Holland’s most remarkable journalists, Nico Haasbroek, once told me that.
Write your articles in English, German, or French, so you can sell them to any magazine or newspaper.
Content producers should not be involved with advertising
Sure, my English isn’t perfect yet. But thanks to the euros earned, I can soon start following some English lessons. While I’m doing that, I keep another rather important lesson in mind. As read in Michael A. Banks’ Blogging Heroes, stated by Ken Fisher from Ars Technica:
Content producers should not be involved with advertising, to avoid even the appearance of advertised-influenced content.
So, work your ass off, create great content, and find an advertising partner like Federated Media as soon as you can make money out of your blog.
[Photo credit: Floris Dekker]
Written on 14th October 2008
23 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
If you’re doing something with technology and you’re not leaving comments on Techcrunch, using Seesmic, you’re an idiot. An idiot!
Gary Vaynerchuk is a vlogger with a good story. He transformed an ordinary New Jersey-based wine store into a world famous online media company (that still sells wines). As you can imagine, Vaynerchuk is recognized as an expert on personal branding. Hence the invites for conferences like Web 2.0 Expo New York and Blogworld Expo. During the latter he said the words I started this post with.
So I’m an idiot. I guess he’s right. The Seesmic comments on TechCrunch really stand out. Everybody can put a name to the face and after a while, people probably start recognizing these video commenters at conferences.
It worked for Loren Feldman, the infamous vlogger from 1938media.com who made fun of tons of A-listers with an army of puppets. I’ve the pleasure of welcoming him at BLOG08 in Amsterdam next week. When I tell people about his BLOG08 keynote, most of them say: “I know him! He’s the cursing guy from the Techcrunch comments” (yes he curses and swears a lot to make his points).
Will I stop being a non-vlogging idiot? And will you?
Since I know Vaynerchuk is right, I’ll have to get started with vlogging. I got the i-sight thing going on, a Seesmic account, and.., tons of excuses not to start. I’m in an office full of people, where do I record the videos? I don’t have time for it. It’s just plain scary. I could go on for a while.
Obviously I’m not the only idiot. You probably are as well. Why aren’t you vlogging? Why aren’t you leaving comments on Seesmic? And is it really the future of blogging?
I hope these questions will be answered during BLOG08, where not only Feldman will speak, but also vlogger and Mobuzz host GabeMac will make an appearance. But I also hope we can start a discussion here. Do you agree with Seesmic founder Loic le Meur, who told me during an interview that my blog conference should be about vlogging, as that’s the future? Let’s figure that out together.
Europe, Loic Le Meur, Loren Feldman, Marshall McLuhan, Michael Arrington, prejudice, TechCrunch, United States
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
