DISQUS

Hi Tim,

This is a great idea! It would be even better if your comments field allowed inline videos -- they can communicate so much more than simple text.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

-Erica

Robert writes: "Several well known bloggers told me recently they are unsubscribing from people they don’t agree with."

That's interesting. But you didn't mention it in your post! Your post came across as "If you don't have this or this, you're not listening" instead of what may be the more interesting point: "Why are big bloggers unsubscribing from those they don't agree with?"

A more interesting post might have been to talk to those bloggers and find out more -- even if they wished to remain anonymous.

Also, @David K: Don't give up on blogging just because of something someone else says about it. There is always room for another thoughtful writer in this world.

-Erica

Hi Robert,

You are taking an arbitrary standard and saying that if bloggers don't do that, they are not listening. I could not disagree more.

I could just as easily take an arbitrary standard and say you're not listening to your readers. Here's one: You don't have the CommentLuv plugin installed on your blog. (CommentLuv puts a link to the commenter's latest blog post underneath their comment.) Therefore, it's obvious that you don't care about what your readers have to say.

Except that you and I both know that whether or not you have a plugin installed doesn't mean anything about whether or not you listen to your readers.

So why do you assume that if a blogger doesn't have a Google Reader shared items feed or a FriendFeed "likes" feed, that that blogger is not listening?

If you insist on going down this path, why not use more commonly-accepted methods like commenting on other blogs, linking out to other bloggers in your posts, and participating in relevant forums as measures of whether bloggers are listening?

This post comes off as "Most bloggers don't do exactly what I do; therefore, they aren't listening." This is a bizarre assumption.

-Erica

Hi Robert,

By your own admission, you're unqualified for your own job. Can you spot the typo?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/ofc/864699400.html

By the way, $12-15 is pretty low for SF. I'm paying $16 for a PT personal assistant here in San Jose. Most good assistants in SF will want at least $20. $30 is probably more reasonable to get someone reliable. Even paying $16 here in San Jose, I've experienced a lot of flakiness on the assistants' parts.

90 resumes sounds about on par. 80% of them crap sounds about on par. Neither number is indicative of the economy. I have posted many similar postings for entry-level jobs in the 2005-2007 timeframe and we typically got just over 100 resumes for each.

-Erica

Hi Tim,

I have been following your blog with interest and describing my own thoughts about having a personal assistant, etc. on my blog.

I know you mentioned you are moving...where are you headed? I live in San Jose, too, but I'm pretty sure I'll be moving to San Diego early next year.

-Erica

Hi Robert,

Great post. This is well known in the Internet marketing field, but not so much outside of it.

Check out the free Wordtracker as well: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ It does the same thing as Google, but IMHO it's easier to use.

-Erica

Most of these same features can be found on IE7 with IE7Pro: www.ie7pro.com

Hi Tim,

Regarding your media opportunity:

A few years ago, I was running my own business...but really, it was running me! I was in debt and didn't make very much money to pay myself with. Last year, I read your book, and with its help and help from my friends I was able to turn the business around and sell it.

After I sold the business, I "temporarily retired" and took several months off. Now I am starting a new business with the goal being to make $10,000 a month by the end of the year while only working two hours a day. I'm blogging my progress at erica.bi -- a recent post is titled "Changing Your Perspective About Work: The 2-Hour Work Day." http://www.erica.biz/2008/changing-your-perspec...

I'm interested in this media opportunity as an example of someone who "retired" at a young age (I'm 26). I'm determined to be in control of my own destiny and never again have a "job" disguised as a small business!

I'm single -- my boyfriend and I live together in San Jose, CA.

You can contact me through my email address or website.

Thank you for your consideration!

-Erica Douglass
Sold business and "temporarily retired" at age 26

Robert, I think this is one of your best posts to date.

Why? It has interesting and engaging information, that's original, and something that most people probably wouldn't think to ask about (the small businesses that make up the heart of towns and cities.)

It reminds us that there are thousands of folks out there making money doing what they love. That business doesn't always have to be cutthroat and filled with venture capital and crappy negative articles like Valleywag.

Well done.

-Erica

Robert, I greatly appreciate the fact that you are no longer doing constant tweets from Qik and Seesmic. As one of the ones who complained, I feel it's important to say "thank you" for respecting our wishes.

So...thank you!

-Erica

The housing crash is hitting the Bay Area too -- even Half Moon Bay, though the wave has just started there. Here's proof:

http://www.erica.biz/2008/real-estate-bubble-th...

We are not in a recession yet. I think we won't be until closer to the end of this year. Harry S. Dent is predicting that the stock market just hit its low. He thinks NASDAQ will likely go up 30-36% this year from the low it hit last week. Should prove to be an interesting year!

Robert, why would you buy an Air? If you're doing video, you want a hard drive that's as fast as possible. My Thinkpad X61 Tablet has an option for a 7200RPM drive in 60 or 80GB sizes. It's also 3 pounds and has 5 hours of battery life, and I've owned this one since May 2007.

4200RPM... that's old-school tech. And guess what... Lenovo also figured out how to squeeze an Ethernet port in there... which is still useful in many hotels! :P

Hi Robert,

No, I didn't buy a fancy new Shuttle. Although they're cool, they're too pricey for me. I have a SB95P V2 (Pentium 4) sitting behind the TV. You can see a picture of its form factor here:

http://techreport.com/r.x/shuttle-sb95p/money.jpg

It's not as small as a Mac Mini, but it's cheaper and just as powerful. Plus, it sits behind my TV (a Panasonic 50" plasma), so you can't see it anyway. You can build one for about $400 right now. And it runs emulators better. :D

Forgot to mention I also use the iTunes sharing feature from my desktop PC upstairs (which is also a Shuttle.) My BF has a Mac Mini in the other room and he shares iTunes to the Shuttle as well. Very cool stuff. We are into small computers with big screens at this house. ;)

It seemed to start for me on Bloglines at the same time that you added (or Wordpress added) the dynamic comment thing into your RSS feed. Although I don't see that any more in your feed, and it's still doing it. Yeah, it's annoying. :s

Hi Robert,

I put a Shuttle PC on my HDTV about a year ago. I love it -- I installed Nintendo emulators, hooked up the original controllers via USB, and have a blast playing old games. Plus, the web browser is a cool feature, and often we watch clips or shows on it. I use it a lot more than I thought I would.

I bought a Shuttle P4 PC (square, small) with a 250GB hard drive and Windows Media Center Edition for $525. So I guess I came out a bit ahead, and the emulators are much nicer for Windows. ;)