So what is the status of my business these days? My pool of clients is shrinking. I now have only two paying clients and one of them hasn’t been paying my invoices. I may need to concentrate more on my one remaining good client who has always been prompt with payment. I think he deserves more of my time and attention. This does give me more time for skill building and personal projects. I just closed a web site that was a side project for my good client. This leaves me with just two projects to work on and that is really enough for one person.
However, I am finally working on a high profile web site, Vloggerheads. Vloggerheads is a Ning site which has attracted the majority of the vloggersphere, if I may coin a phrase based on bloggersphere. There have already been two news stories done on Vloggerheads by minor online media sites.
As always, it is difficult to gauge the significance of what is going on in the vlogging community. Within the bubble of the vloggersphere everything seems really exciting and important. However, the outside world often shows complete indifference to the vlogging community and fails to take any notice. I would say that Vloggerheads is now a major web site in the Web 2.0 world but luckily for me not many people appreciate that fact so it was relatively easy for me to become involved in a major capacity. For example, most of the other developers that offered to work on the site have bailed leaving all the glory for me.
The site was founded by Paul Robinette and Tom Guarriello, two prominent YouTube vloggers. They are both highly successful businessmen with many connections. I think they know venture capitalists and other major players, although I’m not sure. Anyway, they have more business savvy than most of the small business entrepreneurs I’ve worked with. They appreciate the potential for vlogging to transform the way we communicate with each other and they are determined to shape the future. That shows a lot of vision.
I’ve been very busy trying to turn this Ning site into a clone of YouTube, something I would normally consider a horrible idea. The Ning platform is very poorly documented and working with it is a major challenge. However I have managed to implement some features that everyone really wanted and that has made me a hero. Some vloggers even built a shrine to me (there is an actual video of this) which is really hysterical.
Vloggerheads could turn into my big break. Doing a good job on this web site could give me a valuable reputation in the Web 2.0 world and become my calling card with venture capitalists and startups. Or it could be a big waste of my time because trying to clone YouTube on a social networking platform like Ning is a dumb idea. You’re not going to find Robert Scoble or Michael Arrington getting all excited about that sort of business plan. But business requires taking risks and showing some vision.
Even if Vloggerheads turns out to be a waste of time, I’m still learning PHP and picking up a lot of good technical knowledge. I always make sure I walk away with some new skills. If Vloggerheads fails and my client pool shrinks I may attempt a major break from programming into content creation.
