“People will realize the most important voice on the web is their own, not the people they are following”
from Mr. Loren Feldman, of course.
December, 2008
31
Dec 08
quote of the year
23
Dec 08
About the embargo and the news
There are 2 major problems with what Mr. Arrington is saying here.
It sucks when the news gets out at the same time. 20 major blogs, the same news, nothing news. I like techcrunch for the news they bring, the news nobody else has. I don’t like the papers that are reporting the same news, without a personal or a documented angle. It’s just empty news.
PR companies need to take responsibility. And give the news to the guys who matter the most. That is why ZF (leading Romanian financial newspaper) gets all the big news, because people know and admit the power of that paper.
After all, how hard can it be to find 20 sites that are the top players on your niche and build a relationship with their editors? That is how it used to be done. Now, in the age of email, nobody cares.
I am a blogger with a journalism background. I get press from companies i never reported on. They know who i am and i know who they are. And i never wrote about them. But maybe sometimes…
It’s not hard to build a business relationship these days. Send an email, invite the editor out to a drink, get to know some basic things about him and that is it. I have 5 different gifts on my desk from PR people i worked. Out of obligation? Out of false pretend? I don’t know. All i know is that they cared enough to send me a gift, even if a i am a blogger.
And in Romania that is a lot.
16
Dec 08
Preparing for the worst
With the economic chaos waiting to hit Romania, I have made some plans.
First is not to keep all my eggs in one basket. Not one source of income.
Second is preparing to have my income drop by 50%. Sounds reasonable, I think. And I hope it will not go beyond 50%. After I’ve done the math, I can still go by, hopefully.
I pity the folks who don’t spend an hour to look at the numbers, do the math and spend lavishly now.
7
Dec 08
Problem with the .ro blogosphere
I’ve been blogging since 2005, when the blogs were few and people were eager to read something outsite the crappy journalist/pr press. The door was open so me and a few others just walked in.
Now that blogs are mainstream, I see a lot of the new bloggers that step up and want to be like me (getting cars for test drive, being invited to conferences and television, getting exclusive news and previews). The problem is that they do not have what it takes to be good bloggers (I am speaking about the ones who want to be probloggers, of course, not the guys who write personal blogs). Most of them do not know how to write proper in romanian, most of them do not know how to report news or events. Those who don’t have such problems, have bigger ones. Like not being able to produce opinions. They translate the idea, add a few more details and that is a blog post. No valid opinion, no added value.
But they want to be important.
7
Dec 08
I am amazed
That people still live in a walled garden. That they are not informed. That they jump head-first in areas they do not know anything about.
For example, everybody knows we are facing a crisis, right? Almost! Because if you ask Romanians on the street, chances are that half of them do not know about a crisis and the other half think the crisis will not affect Romania.
The weird part is that all of them watch TV and read the newspapers. So…they should be informed. Should be. Is is my responsibility to stay informed? Yea, I think that if I have savings in a bank and I work for a company I should stay informed regarding what my money are doing and what the papers are saying about my company.
I have a friend that bought on lease a very expensive car. He didn’t have any worries about paying 600€ monthly, he had a good hob. Had. A few weeks ago the company made some changes and he was fired. Now he is looking for someone to take on the lease of the car. Needless to say that car does not deserve a 600€ a month payment.
My father had some money in RON (Romanian currency) in a bank. I told him to put the money in euro in various banks. Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. But why? Don’t you read the news? I do. So? Well, pay attention to what they are saying. If you look carefully, the news say in 2009 Romania will face a crisis and the RON will drop to 4.3-4.5 to an Euro (even more, some say). So, keep your money in a currency that is safer.
I am amazed that people think it is not going to happen to them. Yea, I know, but it’s not going to happen to me. Until it does.