So some thought that have resulted from this thought…

1. If I was writing about everything going on in my life, that’s a lot of writing and I would become a better write.
2. Man, that’s a lot of writing, do I really want to make all that time and effort? And for what?
3. Well for one thing, these would be niche sites, so they just be grow up to be profitable.
4. I do love to write and the idea of blogging, so making some dough would be perfect.
5. But what if they don’t get an audience? How long to I keep going with this?
6. How many do I update a day?
7. Wordpress MU seems like the best scenario to accomplish this talk, but you can’t do EVERYTHING on mu, there are some limitations. Not many, but a few.
8. But then, having a stand-alone blog for each item is pretty daunting
9. Do I get a URL for each blog, or just run some as a subdomain (3rd level domain I think technically) to jeremyvaught.com?
10. It’s too bad nobody will invest money in me to make a go of this, no holds barred. :)
11. How minute do I go?

Ok, that’s all I have off the top of my head…

My friends Mark Forman and Clintus McGintus both have the Sanyo Xacti waterproof edition and rave about it.

Here is the quick rundown from Sanyo:

• Waterproof Digital Camcorder
• 8 Megapixel Still Photos
• 5x Optical Zoom
• 2.5-Inch LCD Display
• Photo Face Detection
• Video Face Chaser
• Shake Control Mechanism

Did I say I want to make videos?  So now I’m saving up.

My plans as they stand now are to create videos as a creative outlet.  I also have some plans to do talking head type vidoes to post on my blog.  I also want to record what’s happening in life with my kids and girlfriend and trips and such.  Speaking of trips, I attend a lot of conferences, and I want to document these with video much more effectivly.  In fact, I have talked to Loic (my CEO at Seesmic) and he wants to see video wrap ups of the conference.  I tried it with @suzannev’s camera, but it records everything to DVD and the video editor at Seesmic, Whit Scott, was not able to access it to edit them together. :(

Did I mention I want a Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2?  I do.

There are many times I want to contact a blogger, and their contact information is non-existant.  It’s like they were hatched in a blogging lab, and exist there without phone, email, or any other form of communication us traditional humans that were raised in society use to communicate.  They only want to push their information to us, through their blog, twitter and maybe a newsletter.

I say STOP IT!  You have an about page.  Don’t merely tell us more about yourself, tell us about how to find you.  If you are not interested in conversations, than you should just write a magazine article.  This is the new world.  It’s about conversations and interaction.  Stop hiding.  Robert Scoble, one of the most popular bloggers on the planet has had his phone number on his front page since as long as I’ve been looking at his blog.  Are you bigger than Scoble?  I’m not sayin you need your phone number on your blog.  I don’t, but I used to, and I should probably do it again.  Chris Brogan has his email address on his front page, are you bigger than Chris Brogan?  Even Jason Calacanis, who probably doesn’t want to hear from you unless you are an A list blogger, at least puts his assistant’s email address and does put his phone numbers on his blog.

Point is.  You are creating conversations, or at least you should be wanting to.  Then converse.  At least give up your email address.

“I requested the super special permission to have the honor of being allowed to witness the awesomeness that are <protected tweeter>’s tweets. So awesome are they in fact, that the general internet would likely burn their retinas upon viewing said tweets, and thus must be protected, like unknowing children or small puppies, because we, the small but steady few, must protect that much awesomeness from such unworthy viewing.”

Well, I thought it was funny. :)

I had a lot of feedback said to me in person, but this is what I saw on Twitter when I was checking it out throughout the rest of the day:

phoenixcomputer Does anyone know Jeremy Vaught.. He’s awesome. Check out my blog to read more. Twitter link

Photo by Steve Belt

RoseannHiggins @jeremyvaught pointed out folks making $ w social media: Ron Ploof-Griddle Cakes Radio. Put good content out, the $ will FIND u. #podcampaz Twitter link

leahsfeed http://twitpic.com/jevv - @jeremyvaught speaking @ Room 206 #podcampaz Twitter link

kissmecait Omg didn’t realize how hungry i was till we started talking about bacontoday.com during Jeremy Vaught’s session. HUNGRY! #podcampaz Twitter link (ok, not really a compliment, but makes me laugh)

jaybaer Lots of really cool personal testimonials about the ability to make a living at social media in this @jeremyvaught session #podcampaz Twitter link

brianshaler “In the niche is where the passion lies” @JeremyVaught Twitter link

Photo by dojogrl

brianshaler @JeremyVaught is really killing it in his session right now. Great examples/stories. I think people will be walking away inspired #podcampaz Twitter link

hackerhaus If you want to do something, just start doing it. — Jeremy Vaught #podcampaz Twitter link

chadarizona @jeremyvaught Key to successful podcast+money=work in a niche and speak with passion #podcampaz - http://bkite.com/028pG Twitter link

jaybaer @jeremyvaught says to go niche with your social media content. avoid the big players #podcampaz His first podcast was all about 2nd LIfe Twitter link

tdhurst Watching @jeremyvaught teach me how to make money in social media. No powerpoint! Thank god. #podcampaz Twitter link

brianshaler No seats left in @JeremyVaught’s session. I think people will be posting pics of my creative solution. I’ve got the most comfy chair here! Twitter link (Brian did have a comfy chair, and in the front row no less.  But that’s what thinking outside of the box will gain you)

dpatricklewis http://twitpic.com/jf1p - Packed house listening to @jeremyvaught, this guy is good! Twitter link

ccl1111 OH @jeremyvaught: so many ideas you have, you just never do anything about. #podcampaz got to get moving… Twitter link

dpatricklewis It’s all about the niche! #podcampaz Twitter link

Thanks again everyone!  You humble me with your kindness.

First off, Ron has often been my goto guy when it comes to bouncing ideas off of in the world of New Media.  He’s a smart guy, and has been in this world for quite some time.  On top of that, he’s just a great human being.

So when Ron was in town, we talked about a lot of things, but one in particular: niche.  I first recall niche being presented when I was getting into podcasting in 2005.  “What do I do a podcast about?” I would hear everyone asking.  “Something niche that you are passionate about.” would be the responce.  I’m sure that was good advice before podcasting, and it is surely good advice still today.

My problem though, is I keep wanting to go anti-niche, or mainstream.  But as I was talking to Ron, he gently kept guiding me back to thinking niche.  The example he heralded is BaconToday.com, a site started by Corey Scribner, a friend of mine & Ron’s from the Orange County Podcasters. BaconToday is just that, a daily site about bacon.  “All things bacon?!” yup.  It’s niche, and it has been wildly successful in just a few months.

So I say all that to say that thanks to Ron, and the countless others who have been preaching niche to me for the last three years, I am feeling a bity nichy…  again… finally…  I have a slew of ideas I’ve been playing with.  I’m also thinking of the best way to present these ideas and to grow a community around them.

I’m not announcing anything here, just throwing down my thoughts.  Your thoughts?

Similar to the price of gas, it’s a little ray of hope in this economic darkness.

Image via Wikipedia

I was just scanning the news and found this article on CNN by Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Medical Correspondent, about a useful Social Media.  I say useful Social Media, because obviously so much of what we do is not that useful on the outset, but I believe we play the game to find the usefulness in the technology.

Thus, this article.  It describes a woman named Susannah Reid who learned she had a rare, aggressive cancer, and her insurance wouldn’t pay for the treatment.  With respect to Susannah, this to me is where two very interesting things come in to play.  1.  Our horrible health care system. (and don’t say Government run health care, please, I’m trying to be reasonable here)  2.  Social Media for good.

So we have these two things, a huge waste of a system we call health care, and Social Media which basically means that little guys have a voice.  What is the result?  Well the article says that Dr. Doreen Kossove from ACOR.org helped Susannah through the process of dealing with the insurance company, and was able to get them to pay for the treatment so she can live to see her 8 year old grow up and continue to help care for her disabled husband.

There are stories a plenty about why Social Media is growing in importance, and this story just happened to save a life.

So here is the video about Twitter in plain English. Which I found at smcphoenix.com when making sure that tonights meeting is still in the same location.

The interview is largely about how I got hired by Seesmic, and Loic (the Seesmic CEO) commented to me and in Twitter it was a great interview, and a good example of how to get hired.  So thank you Loic, and thank you Sean.

One more note about Sean.  I first met him when he was working at Jason Calacanis‘ Mahalo.com.  He was creating a page on Mahalo about Seesmic, and I had just created the Wikipedia entry about Seesmic, which Sean emailed to thank me so it could be included.  Sean is also a friend of Eric Rice, and Eric speaks highly of him, so it just shiny happy people all around.