The problem with respect is that 90% of them got where they are by just having a blog, without having something to say.

So, my question is simple: respect for what? What have you done? Do you have something important/relevant to say?

The reason we continue to run campaigns is the idea we were honest to each other and were open about the fees each blogger was getting. As I was saying on my Romanian blog, rather than be jealous on each other making money, we should try to make money together. And we ran campaigns with other bloggers and promoted other bloggers that are not part of Blog20.

Making money always attracts enemies, in our case, many enemies. And they attack me and my online friends, because we keep them down and scare visitors from their blogs (don’t ask how i do it, it’s a mystery to me, too). Yes. Bad bad Zoso.

What they didn’t get yet and probably will not realize in the near future is that Blog20 does not exist (link1, link2). It’s just an inside joke, there is no headmaster, there is no strategy, there is no team. Each “member” does what he wants, but he will call upon his friends when he needs to run a campaign, because there is nobody else! If there is, he will not hesitate to include other people in the project and nobody cares if they get people outside “the group”!

To sum things up, their attacks are not working because they attack something that does not exist. And Blog20 will continue to make money despite their hate and attacks.

Since I left Bucharest (I’ve moved to Berlin, Oradea and now Brasov)  I’ve developed a personal brand strategy. I show up for a few conferences and gigs and people tend to cherish that. I don’t bore people with my presence every time there is an event remotely connected to online, even thought I get invited to most of them (and probably can get in the ones i am not on the list).

It’s understandable to enjoy events, but people will get bored of your presence, especially if you don’t have anything interesting to say.

Most of it is PR bullshit.

And the people who do stuff do not brag about it too much. Just a few lines in a blog post. Or a short minute at a beer. I don’t like to step into the light and talk too much about how i did this and that. I like to do. Those who want to know, they know. Those who care about the Romanian blogosphere know who i am and what i (can) do. The rest are just bystanders.

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.