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And this is why walled gardens will never work!

Awesome stuff!

Well .. Not ‘everything’ but still, it makes a good title ..

I have been meaning to do this article for some time. It is in response to many people who asked me tips about blogging. I hope you find it useful. This article mainly draws on my personal experience in running the OpenGardens blog.

This will be a series of three articles:

First one (this one) on blogging, Second on publishing and finally a third article on my views on the future evolution of the OpenGardens blog

Lets start with my credentials. I have been blogging since May 26 2005 . My blog OpenGardens has an Alexa rating of around 100000 and a Google page rank of 6/10. More importantly the blog is followed by corporates – like Motorola CTO Padmasree Warrior , MEP Piia Noora Kauppi and also companies like Symbian, Nokia, IBM and many others.

These insights are based on my personal experience in developing the OpenGardens blog(and also some thoughts on it’s future development)

An outline of this article is as follows

1) Introduction

2) Where to blog

3) What makes a good blog

4) The consultant who blogs between assignments

5) Making money from blogging

6) Dominate – Go big or Go home

7) Insights and experiences in creating the OpenGardens blog
Who does your PR?

9) Competitive advantage from bloggging

Introduction

Most people start off with the two questions

a) Where do I start if I want to create a new blog?

b) How should I make money from blogging? Or What returns do I get from all this work I put in?

Two other questions which most people don’t ask(but should) are:

c) WHY are you blogging? and

d) What do you stand for?

In other words:

I believe that your goal should be to dominate a sector. By ‘dominate’, I mean – you should aim to be an important thought leader in a particular segment.

Lets face it, the Internet is huge .. and if you are not looking to be a serious player it may be a little like the expression p****ing in the wind .. pointless activity i.e. you will hardly make any impact.

Hence, the WHY is important(why are you blogging in the first place)

And by extension – WHO do you serve(your segment – people who gain from your insights)

I think you should start with the WHY ..

Your motivations(the WHY) may vary – and I will outline my own motivations below.

The last question – almost no one asks … What do you stand for?

And long term .. it may well be the most important question you have asked yourselves. I will come back to this later as well.

We will focus on these questions with insights based on my personal experiences. The mechanics of blogging are actually well known(such as add keywords to posts, ping technorati, feed reader basics etc etc). These, I will not cover here.

Where to blog

The traditional approach is to start off with the toolset(WordPress vs. Movable type) and so on ..

It does not really matter which blogging platform you use(wordpress and Movable type being the market leaders)

The first choice is

a) Do you want to create your blog and take all the effort OR

b) Do you want to only get exposure for your ideas

If you don’t want to build and maintain your own blog but are rather looking to mainly get exposure for your own ideas – then you should blog on another network – and choose the highest traffic/most reputed network you can find(and will accept you – the two may not be the same  )

If you are serious about blogging, I recommend that you should download and install a copy of the blogging software (ex wordpress) and run it on your servers under your domain name. This has BIG implications for SEO which we will discuss below

What makes a good blog?

Before we begin, let us rule out some categories who I think will never get beyond their starting line

a) People who use ghost bloggers

b) Anonymous bloggers

c) People who merely repost from other sources without providing any analysis

In all these cases, these people don’t stand for anything. They cant be trusted – and their motivations are unknown.

Take the anonymous blogger.

Is he sponsored by anyone? Without knowing his CV, how do we know what are the limitations in his knowledge? He may claim to be an ‘expert’ on everything .. but what exactly does he know? What has he got to hide? Etc etc ..

So, having ruled out these people : lets ask ourselves:

What makes a good blog?

Lets answer this question with another question ..

What blogs do you read?

If you are like me, you follow feeds from a range of sources .. and no matter what they are; these blogs are either

a) New/News

OR

b) Analysis

(This is a purist definition – there are blogs which do both – but the categorization helps to put our discussion in perspective)

Even a political blog, celebrity blog, gossip blog etc can all come under this classification i.e. they are primarily reporting the latest developments OR they are providing analysis for some key trends in a sector.

Do you want to report on the latest OR do you want to provide analysis

While most journalists will never become good bloggers, some of the best known bloggers have a journalism background – for instance: Robert Scoble, Richard Mc Manus and Om Malik.

A blogger can’t really be a journalist. Most bloggers don’t have the resources to look for a story and track the latest developments.

When I created the OpenGardens blog, I made a conscious decision to ignore the ‘story’ and instead focus on analysis only. In that sense, the blog is similar to Gartner or Ovum – as opposed to a more traditional news based publication like ZD net

Irrespective of what type of blog it is: from a blogger’s perspective – there are three main reasons to blog

a) Search engine optimization

b) Building your own reputation

c) Engaging the community (especially if you are a corporate blogger)

And a good blog is all about being insightful , independent, original and consistent (i.e. you must blog well and regularly).

The style does not matter as long as your readers like it. My writing style leans more towards longer articles(like this one) as opposed to shorter blog posts. If you really want to ‘microblog’ – then you should consider twitter – but I see twitter more as ‘presence’ than as a blog.

The other extreme is Video blogging or audio blogging(podcasting). Both have their place. However, nothing replaces the written word – with text you can quickly see the whole article and decide what you are interested in(you cant do the same with video or audio).

It is especially important to be consistent

Most people can do great one off posts – but cant be consistent.

The consultant who blogs ‘between assignments’

Why is it important to be consistent?

Take this example ..

There is a unique class of blogger called : ‘The consultant who ‘blogs’ between projects’

I know one such person. His blogs are great but very occasional and they get frequent when he has no work. When he is on an assignment, the blogs stop

Insightful they may be, but the Web is too big to take this type of person seriously and it is rather arrogant of them to think that the world will wait for them when they are ready

People will simply move on ..

But you mentioned something about making money .. What about making money?

Ahh .. money ..

As you would have gathered by now, I am not a fan of ‘pay per post’ – for the same reason that you lose your objectivity if you are paid(This is different from sponsors for your blog – which is fine as long as it is declared)

Having known some of the best bloggers – I can say that there is only one blogger I know Richard Mc Manus

Of readwriteweb who makes a living from blogging alone. And Richard is truly a one man media machine – the depth and the scope of his blog is awesome .. not something most people can replicate.

I am happy to hear about anyone else who does. (Note – Mike Arrington(techcrunch), Om Malik(Gigaom) , Robert Scoble(Podtech) and others have all got funding or corporate sponsors. I am referring to a blogger who earns money from the blogs alone(sponsorship/advertising)

The advertising model works – but you need to work hard for it.

There is however, a secondary model, which I think is also useful. It depends on your personal focus – and it is similar to the ideas I described in Salt, Pepper and Social networking . In essence, WiFi, Social networking(and also blogging) need to be ‘free’ – like condiments(salt and pepper). But – you must know in advance what the ‘coffee’ is i.e. what ‘else’ can you sell(or a secondary reason for getting returns – which may not be monetary)

In my case, it is clearly selling books – not just my own – but also books from other authors we publish. It is also all about thought leadership, getting live feedback by blogging about my books in advance and so on.

Dominate – Go big or go home!

I alluded before that – within the scope of the Web – there is little point in taking a half hearted approach i.e. Go big or Go home ..

The irony here is ‘Big’ is relative.

It does not need loads of money

It does not need to dominate ‘the whole web’

It needs you to dominate a segment ..

Therein lies the skill of understanding who do you serve .. Who is your audience and What benefits are they gaining from your blog?

Why would they bother to give you their time in the attention economy? When attention is indeed the scarcest resource? (Read the full paper by Michael Goldhaber in the link on attention economy – its long but its great!)

I believe that if you define your audience and provide something useful within a smaller segment, there is room for your new blog to be truly significant.

In other words, blogs like Boing boing may be for ‘everyone’ and much more difficult to build – but there may be plenty of is plenty of room within your own industry sector. Indeed I would argue that it is more valuable to build a blog with a smaller but more qualified traffic.

Another common mistake is to ‘attack’ something or someone constantly with the hope that you get some attention. This is a short term tactic – and it labels you directly as a follower and not a leader.

I believe that in the long run(and by that – I mean at least a year of dedicated blogging before you start to see any results), analysis and insights will prevail over short term tactics purely because – inspite of all the ‘noise’ out there – there are VERY FEW people on the web who can provide good, independent analysis. And thus an opportunity exists.

What are the characteristics of a good blogger?

What are the characteristics of a good blogger? Is there some quality that is nice to have?

I think there are three

a) An ability to assimilate vast amounts of information and create new insights from this information

b) A sense of humanity and individuality – being an individual – even if you work in a large company

c) An ability to outline your viewpoints in a format that your readers will find useful

Insights and experiences in creation of the OpenGardens blog

And finally, here are some of my own insights in creation of the OpenGardens blog

The OpenGardens blog was launched in May 2005. As the name suggests, it reflects my personal philosophy of Open systems, interoperability etc especially within the telecoms sector.. and it is also a reflection of my larger libertarian philosophy(which you can see through various links in this blog)

In other words, the blog stands for something! Something I truly believe in

It is only about analysis(no news).

In the first six months it was launched, it got almost no traffic and very little coverage – although that period accounted for one of my favourite posts The mobile Internet will do more for

Africa than live 8!

The blog aims to be factual and non controversial.

It is also a reflection of me as an individual(for instance various references to animation, the music of Pink Floyd etc)

The ‘coffee’ is selling books and SEO. See SEO: How to use blogs for Search engine optimization and to improve your Google ranking/Alexa rating

to understand how that works for me.

I also genuinely like to blog. It helps me to put out ideas relating to my new books and get direct feedback(engage with people)

Finally .. the blog was inspired by the simple observation that there are almost no blogs that span the Web and the Mobile Web. Hence, there was a need for a blog that focussed on the interplay between these two domains. As mobility becomes more important, this sector gains in importance.

Competitive advantage

Blogging is no different from the Internet. It’s a winner takes all game. If you truly take the efforts, you create an asset and hence a competitive advantage. When the dust of the Web 1.0 world settled, there were a handful of big names which had won (Google, Yahoo etc).

Thousands of smaller start-ups were wiped out.

The same with blogs ..

With 50 million blogs as of Oct 2006 and the blogosphere doubling in size every six months .. , very few will be survive

Those that do, will have an unassailable competitive advantage

There is one difference though .. Unlike web 1.0, we now have the Long tail effects ..

Hence, every sector will have winners ..

And that is cause for optimism especially if you can define your own niche!

Concluding thoughts – Who does your PR?

Someone from the PR industry asked me recently –

Who does your PR? How do they get you speaking slots at conferences like Java One, 3GSM, Web 2.0 expo and the Symbian smart show?

The answer, much to the disappointment of that person is, we have no one in that role(PR)

ALL the coverage is from the blog.

Blogging IS the new conversation(and I hesitate to call it PR!)

As usual, all comments welcome

Cartoon from: dorktower

The next article will discuss the publishing industry from the perspective of an author and a publisher

Have a look at this cool admob feature – and Russell Buckley’s blog which explains a bit more

Great stuff!

I have had a few emails about this from friends ..

Recently, Verizon put out this press release(pdf) talking of Mobile Web 2.0 and there is an SM(service mark) suffixed after the term Mobile Web 2.0

On reading further, it appears to be nothing more than their portal(walled garden at that!) .. Being called Mobile Web 2.0

Of course, as many of you know, Mobile Web 2.0 is also the title of our book Mobile Web 2.0

So,

a) What does this service mark mean? Does it matter?

b) What does Verizon’s ‘Mobile Web 2.0’ mean

Let’s answer the second question first ..

How can a walled garden portal be called ‘Web 2.0’?

OR

Is Verizon looking to change it’s stripes here?

While we(and especially I) have taken a lot of flak on the Web for my insistence on outlining the synergies between Web 2.0 and Mobility in a definition of Mobile Web 2.0; we at least made some efforts to align with the core ethos of Web 2.0 – for example user generated content, architecture of participation, harnessing collective intelligence etc.

Dressing up a traditional walled garden portal as ‘Mobile Web 2.0’ seems to me, to be capitalising on a buzzword.

On the other hand, I could be seen to be capitalizing on a buzzword myselves!

And that’s not a problem in itself ..

It’s just that – I would wish Verizon were a bit more in tune with the ethos of the Web/Web 2.0/Open standards etc

But in some ways .. This approach is to be expected from an Operator

I have always believed that Mobile Operators don’t ‘get’ Web 2.0 because it directly contradicts their principles of closed, non interoperable systems and this press release is a case in point.

For instance, there is talk of VCAST (music) but not much social networking, user generated content etc etc

And what about the service mark itself?

I don’t think it matters much ..

Neither Tony, nor I have tried to service mark, trademark or in any way control the name ‘Mobile Web 2.0’ – and furthur, We dont believe it can be done!

We have tried to intellectually define this term(drawing from Tim O Reilly’s principles i.e. we have defined a sub meme – rather than the meme itself) and also write a book about it.

The intellectual definition is dependent on its acceptance (or otherwise) within the industry.

Anyone could define their own Web 2.1, Web 2.5, Web 2.9, Web 4.0 and so on .. But the critical element here is the intellectual basis must exist. There in lies the significance of Tim O Reilly’s seven principles(and also our definition of Mobile Web 2.0 – which extends Web 2.0 to Mobility)

Many still don’t accept Tim O Reilly’s definition and his seven principle of Web 2.0 ..

So, at the end of the day, its all going to be about what we, as an industry, think about open standards, Web 2.0, user generated content vs. closed, proprietary, walled gardens, non interoperable standards etc ..

Hence, I wish that Verizon’s interpretation of Mobile Web 2.0 had an intellectual basis and at least some form of acknowledgement to the definition of Web 2.0 itself.

On a more positive note, I hope this may be the start of a more ‘open’ Verizon.Is that the signal being sent by Verizon? I am not sure. I wish it were i.e. Verizon would open up.

A service mark, however, could apply to someone creating a service called ‘Mobile Web 2.0’ and not to a book, a blog, a conference, a magazine etc etc ..

Anyone can write a book about any subject. In fact, I believe that more than one books(and films) of the same title can be created for the same subject

For instance: King Kong – was made in 1933, then again in 1976 and once again in 2005

Which means anyone could write a book on Web 2.0, on Mobile Web 2.0 etc

I think the service mark(for what it’s worth) may impact someone who wanted to create a service called ‘Mobile Web 2.0’

That’s a matter for the lawyers ..

It does not impact us since we have no intention of doing so ..

I hope all this buzz will help sell more books on Mobile Web 2.0 and in the next version of Mobile Web 2.0, I will definitely include the Verizon’s Mobile Web 2.0!

Any comments welcome!

Debi Jones also has a good summary in her blog about the attention economy ..

VZW is capitalizing on the existing high attention valuation for the phrase Mobile Web 2.0 and it’s forerunner Web 2.0 which has clearly reached mainstream awareness and has become part of the technology vernacular globally. Applying the concepts of Web 2.0 to mobile data applications began at least 2 years ago as evidenced by a book titled Mobile Web 2.0 published in 2006, 272 mil search results at Google, and 3,164 blog posts as indicated by Google Blogsearch.

Missed this one .. but better late than never.

The 87th Carnival of the mobilists is at Darla Mack’s blog. Great read as usual!

According to the FT/Register

T-Mobile, Orange and O2 are to sell the iPhone in Germany, France, and the UK respectively, according to the Financial Times. The paper also reports that the operators have agreed to give Apple 10 per cent of all revenue generated from iPhone users.

At the iPhone launch, I had asked – Is this the tail wagging the dog? (The iPhone is extraordinary not because of it’s UI but because it’s the tail wagging the dog )

And indeed at 10% revenue share .. it does appear to be ..

But .. once again .. the real beneficiaries will be existing device manufacturers – who will now be able to negotiate a higher revenue share. Interestingly enough, according to the Register, Apple does not want the Operators to subsidise the device ..

This means, the customers are now going to get used to non subsidised devices .. and this means a shift of power to the device .. a good thing as I say in the Chicken vs. Egg blog .. (The Chicken and the Egg: The device and the network – which came first)

Have a look at this very comprehensive article from Stephen Johnston on Enterprise 2.0: What does it mean for Mobile. He refers to some of my articles but goes into great depths in relation to Enterprise, Mobility and Web 2.0(A topic also of interest for me)

Dont miss this great interview with Jon Von Tetzchner of Opera.

I have followed Opera for a while now and am a fan .. and have known Jon for some time – last when we spoke at 3GSM

I found these two bits particularly interesting ..

Opera 9 and Opera Mobile 4.0 ..

What’s happening is there’s a new version in the works based on Opera 9. On Opera Mobile 4.0, we’re introducing desktop mode and zooming. The desktop mode is based on a new kernel. The Opera 8 browsers are based on what we call Core 1, while Opera 9 is based on Core 2. There are significant changes under the hood.

We see Mini and Mobile as complimentary products. Mini runs on Java, and there’s a Brew version in the works that I’m very enthusiastic about, it’s going to be great. We went away from doing just smartphones to BREW, P2K Motorola and many other phones.

Aren’t widgets are a security nightmare?

When you start to combine web code with the rest of the system you’re opening yourself up to issues – you have to watch what you’re doing there. It is difficult, but everyone wants to see power in these devices; you have to make some APIs available to access the underlying system. But we definitely don’t want to be doing something like ActiveX.

One has to be realistic, but there isn’t a single app that hasn’t had a security issue at one time or another; again, I do believe it’s the safest way to do things. There are so many things you’d like to do, and it’s better to do it web-based than natively. There’s going to be more and more service components in there; more and more applications are web-based. Whether you call it a service or not isn’t neccessary, but it’s combing communication to a server and there’s a clear trend to web-based solutions and it started with the web being made, and is being intensified with apps Google is making. ®

I am speaking at the Mobile Web expo (Mobile Web Americas) event in Orlando Oct 2 – 4 and it looks to be a great conference. I believe it’s the largest event on the Mobile Web held in America and with the launch of the iPhone and other devices featuring the Mobile Web, I believe it should be very interesting especially with presentations from Google, Microsoft , Adobe , Nokia, Opera , W3C and InfoSpace

You can also meet me at this event since I am in Orlando for almost all of that week. Please contact me if you are attending this conference and want to meet up(ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com)

This is a different interpretation of ‘Mobile crunch’ and I hope that the good folk over at the real Mobilecrunch don’t mind this little play on words ..

How often do you walk with your head down typing on your mobile phone – and you bump into something ..

Today, I was walking at our local Harrow on the hill shopping mall – minding my own business as I typed merrily on my blackberry when suddenly …

Crunnnnch ..

A toy bunny lay dead under my feet

You see .. we have these street vendors who sell wind up toys in the yard of the shopping centre ..

And I walked straight into one of those toy wound up bunnies ‘playing’ on the ground ..

Horrified children looked at the carnage .. And the vendor smiled on feigning sympathy as he sensed a sure sale ..

Anyway I am now a proud owner of a squashed bunny

What have you mobile ‘crunched’/bumped into as you type on your phone?