Saturday, March 14th at 03:30 PM
Presenters:
John Gruber – Daring Fireball
Merlin Mann – You Look Nice Today
If you’ve ever heard either Merlin Mann or John Gruber speak before (or listened to a podcast where they’re featured), you know they’re presentation (is hilarious!) but hard to take notes on.
There are no economic indicators for this ultimately.
- not what you should make
- or how to make it
- or what goals should be
Assume all of you "make" things, and care about certain topics (obsession). It matters to you to have credibility and respect of people you admire. You would NOT mind making a bit of money – going beyond self-improvement aspects.
Walt Disney: "We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies."
You shouldn’t care what people think – it’s about what you want to say, and how you want to say it, to who you want to say it to.
Topic x Voice or Obsessions x Voice
Best non-fiction comes from someone who couldn’t stop obsessing/thinking about a certain topic.
How do you become the go-to person for whatever topic you want.
Try to be better at YOUR topic than more than 80% of the world.
You want to write topics about things you’re obsessed with like they’re going to be in the New Yorker. They write in a way that details the little things so well. Have a goal out there that is outside your reach to shoot for.
Don’t think about "this will get me some sort of link" vs. is this good? Will so-and-so think this is great? Figure out who the faces behind your computer that you write for are.
On Writing by Steven King – Term: ideal reader. Who is your ideal reader? Make your stuff for that person.
Daringfireball was just an idea to do something this "thing." Started in 2002, and still thinking now how this needs to be done. Gruber wishes there was another site by the alternate him out there. That is who he writes for. There are no comments on daringfireball because Gruber wants to own the entire site, and not being taken over by a funny comment or someone else.
Don’t emulate the success of other people. Those people already exist. They are in their position because what they put together worked at that point in time. You want to find an audience. Our instincts tell us that we should make something that we already know works. You cannot recreate the context/timing of a moment when everything happened. You cannot recreate other people’s successes.
When you try to re-purpose something, are you copying the right thing? The right part? The thing that’s worth copying is the attitude they had when they created it.
It is NOT easy to make money on the Internet with this. The long term gains are not pageviews and money, but the value of loving what you do and being THAT person is much higher. Human attention is valuable and limited. Many things are better than getting money.
"Don’t have blog about Star Wars, but a blog about Jawas, or that one single Jawa in one scene." Your voice is much louder and you become the go-to guy for that one thing.
Don’t be scared to give stuff away, and let people figure out why you’re awesome. Don’t be worried about running out of that stuff. Do not try to control the way people see your content.
Don’t become too obsessed with the thing you’re determined to make money on.
Don’t do stuff that seems profitable but potentially messes up the stuff you give away for free.
Always come out just trying to work really hard and connect with the people you really admire and respect.