Please, if you’re coming to Las Vegas for CES, make SURE you check out Social Media Jungle with Jeff Pulver and friends. It’s going to be a great event.

Photo credit Doug Haslam

These are questions that we all have opinions about. People and companies have been vilified for their choices. The righteous burn their effigies on the front lawn of any blog that mixes free content with advertising. The very notion that commerce and information exchange be permitted to mix seems incongruous. Never mind the fact that media works that way. Never mind the fact that CHURCH works that way. There has to be a strong distance between the exchanges, or else it seems evil. You’re charging your community, etc.

I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time. Partly because it’s my job to understand how to mix information and money-making. The other part of it is because I like to help people figure out how to do business in the Internet age. I experiment, share the results, and experiment some more.

I also run conferences, both professionally, and for passion. Between media making, conferences, and the other ways that I work in the information-for-money business, I’ve got some ideas, and I’m going to share my perspective. I predict this post will be one of the more polarizing of my last several months. You’ll either get it and agree, or you’ll tell me why the world must all function on what’s free. I can argue both sides of the coin.

The Triangle

In the fall of 2006, I quit my day job and joined the circus. Jeff Pulver, legendary VoIP pioneer and long-time producer of the VON conference series hired me. In the waning months of 2007, I parted ways and joined Stephen Saber’s CrossTech Media. During this same time frame, I also worked with Christopher S. Penn and Whitney Hoffman on PodCamps.

In events, there’s a triangle. I learned this mostly from Jeff. If you can, the best of all worlds goes like this:

* Attract the brilliant people and make them the community.
* Charge the businesses who support this community for the event.
* Make it worth it for those businesses, so that they want to keep supporting the event.

So, if you want your “friends” to come to a conference, make the event such that it will help them do their job better. Then, don’t ask your friends for money. Ask their employers for money (ticket cost). Then, ask exhibitors and sponsors who want the friends as customers for money. Then, you have enough money to run a conference, and make a living trying to build information.

For the content, focus super hard on the people/friends. Don’t look to what the sponsors/exhibitors think the story is. They know more about the today than they do the tomorrow. Unless you make friends with tomorrow-focused companies (my favorite plan).

That’s kind of traditional conferences in a nutshell. It’s WAY not easy. But that’s the rough premise.

Unconferences, like PodCamp and BarCamp and the like, do it differently. The premise is like this: we can all get together for a minimal cost and run something that’s useful, without making it a business unto itself. We can subsist, and everyone will leave better educated.

With PodCamps, we’ve built and built on the experience, such that the ones we run in Boston cost more than a typical *.Camp, but the payload is (hopefully) much more focused. We’ve asked for more money from the community, but we’ve turned that back around into a quality event. We find sponsors who want access to our community, and then we try to matchmake that relationship a little, so that everyone understand’s each other’s potential value. BUT we do it without a lot of heavy-handedness at PodCamps. It’s more organic. That’s the whole unconference thing.

YOU can start an unconference. You don’t need anyone’s permission.

So there are two models.

Content on Websites

The web has crushed a lot of former money makers. Look at newspapers. Look at magazines. We are VERY used to getting our content for free. We love it free. And we are finding more and more ways to get top shelf, quality content for free. It’s a great and wonderful thing. How many of us would pay a few bucks for a blog? Not very many. (Well wait, aren’t Kindle users doing just that?)

So there are all kinds of people churning out quality content, and the basic premise is that they’ll get their money elsewhere. I sure do. Lots of people do. But let’s go deeper for a second.

You learn actionable things from ProBlogger, from CopyBlogger, from Seth Godin, from me, and from others. All that content is free. It’s out there for you to learn from, profit from, build business with, and hopefully succeed. Heck, if we’re not helping you succeed, then why are we doing this daily?

Often discounted in these conversations are blogs about making money online. Those fall into another whole category of the web. And yet, some of those folks, like Ted Murphy are out there just trying to come up with new ways to build better relationships between people who have something to sell and people who want to facilitate that sale. There’s a whole culture out there figuring this stuff out, and I’m getting to know more and more of them. As I do, my mindset on how blogs interact with advertising and marketing has changed a great deal.

My Current Thinking Boiled Down

• Making money isn’t evil. HOW you make money can be. Keeping the whole picture in place helps. (For instance, in my case, I sell certain services and information – like the New Marketing Summit, but then I give others away free/cheap – my blog and PodCamp).
• Disclosure is key. If you’re going to sell something on your site, disclose that you’ve got a relationship with that company/product. ( I show my disclosures on my About page).
• Maintain the triangle. I don’t want YOU to pay for my content. I want people who need my help professionally to pay for my distilled thinking.
• Keep context. My site is about educating you. If it becomes about products to market, that’s a context swap. If I decide to build a site about selling you things, I’ll make that another URL, and you can opt to visit or not.
• Someone has to pay for the picnic. There are some really great bloggers out there who are blogging a bit less lately. I won’t name them. They have jobs that require them to focus down hard on revenues right now. I try my hardest to have the things I’m paid for (like conferences) keep me out here on the blanket giving away delicious snacks. But someone always has to pay for the picnic.

Your Take

It’s your turn to weigh in. Why should everything be free? Why are ads evil? Where do you think this money should be made? If you were running the business, [chrisbrogan.com], or Scobleizer.com , or Annhandley.com , or whoever, what would you do differently? How would YOU make your money?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Photo credit, Timothy Lloyd

That’s the basic story of Wally Amos and Famous Amos cookies, but it might also be the story of corporate trust agents. We build relationships with these people who are representative of a company’s brand in our eyes. We’re in line for their cookies, but suddenly, they’ve got to start again with a new cookie company. Let’s talk about how that cookie might possible crumble.

Recent Moves

Charlene Li rose to prominence while working at Forrester. Her blog was there. Her presence on the web was there. When she left to go solo, this required a bit of brand extraction, or divorce, where she had to rebuild her own presence on the web to redirect interested parties to her new little plot of web real estate.

The same happened with Gia Lyons, former cool hunter from IBM, who ran off to join the Jive circus. Her presence was entangled with her corporate brand, and this meant that she had to do a little shuffling to put it all together again outside of the entity. I believe this will be more of a point to consider in coming years.

Closer to Home

My own blog has been mine since day one. When I worked with Jeff Pulver, it was still my blog. With CrossTech Media, this is my blog. They might ask me to be mindful of our company and occasionally post information germane to my business, but that’s expected. I’m their guy. Why wouldn’t they want that of me? And I love writing about the work we’re doing, like the New Marketing Summit (plug plug).

But the blog is mine. It’s my shingle. It’s where I conduct my business. Most of this business is on behalf of my organization. I’m grateful to have a company to work with, and both CrossTech Media now and Pulvermedia before supported this stance.

Best in Show

Some trust agents are already doing this well. Robert Scoble has moved his blog along from Microsoft to PodTech to FastCompany with limited scarring. Of these, FastCompany did a lot of makeover work for Robert, but hey, it’s still his site and I’m sure it’s all still his decision at the end of the day.

Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester maintains his own blog presence, though he writes pretty frequently along Forrester lines. Louis Gray is his own man on the web. Superstar Steve Rubel keeps his brand though we all know he’s Edelman’s engine. It’s a balance where, in all cases, they are mindful of their position in the communities they serve, but also respectful of their employers.

That last point bears repeating. They are respectful of their employers. This includes making sure we do our work, that we deliver value while sharing a brand, and that we keep our motives in perspective. The business we do on behalf of our company must be the driver so long as it’s our primary salary source. Anything else is not fair, not responsible, and not sustainable in the longer term.

The Risk

But now, let’s shift back to the risk. If you are the company’s cool hunter, if you are the social media rockstar, if you are the person touching the community the most, remember that jobs are not and never will be jobs for life any more. As much as people tell me this (and you and I talked about it at Blog World Expo, mister), it’s just not the kind of business environment where anyone’s getting a company tattoo these days.

To that end, consider how your world will change when you shift roles. What happens if you go solo? How do you go from being Frank Eliason from Comcast to being Frank from Best Buy? (Because if I were a major company in the US or elsewhere, I’d be doing my damnedest to hire Frank away.) How might you stake out your own little place on the web where you can be you with or without your company badge?

And business leaders, how can you protect from the other direction in this world of the half-owned brand? Are you in the business of developing a deep bench of talent? Have you thought about succession plans for your “faces and voices” people? What happens when your community manager, someone like current superstar Connie Bensen gets a better offer, and you’ve lost one of your competitive advantages?

In my company, the answer was to start a process to reach out to some of the other social media up and comers in the space. I’ve been working on that for a little while now, and I love the idea. It means that, as a strategist, I’ve started to protect my company from a risk. But have you thought that through for YOUR company?

How is this working for your situation?

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Photo credit, scubadive67

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I found some posts from myself and others that will help you prepare for conferences. But before I go into that, I wanted to share a little about how I came by some of this advice. Not only do I attend many conferences in a year, I’ve been working in the space for over 2 years already, myself.

My Background in Events

I’ve worked with some truly legendary conference people. Jeff Pulver knew the magic formula for a powerful community event that worked on several levels. I learned tons from him and Jason Chudnofsky while running the Video on the Net event.

I also work with Christopher S. Penn and the astounding Whitney Hoffman on the PodCamp events that we co-founded. We learn something new from every camp, even when we’re not organizing them. (By “we,” I mostly mean Chris and Whit.)

My current business partners, Stephen Saber, Nick Saber, and the rest of the folks at CrossTech Media have given me even more perspective, different models, and a whole new view on how things are evolving. Things like “big is out; small and meaningful is in.” We have an amazing show with David Meerman Scott, Paul Gillin and some incredible speakers and exhibitors at the New Marketing Summit this October, and I’m really proud of that event.

Observations About Attendees at Events

This year, at the amazing SNCR event in the Sonoma Valley, David Alston from Radian6 pointed something out. There were two conference experiences happening in the same room. Even though the event organizers made every effort to have attendees feel connected and included, half the room (maybe less) were active on Twitter, and having an entirely larger conversation, while the other half wasn’t even aware of all the activity.

It seems to me that most events now almost need to anticipate having a hash tag (something like #nms for New Marketing Summit), and an active Twitter back channel.

Another observation: the people who prepare to attend an event come away with a much different experience than those who just show up. This becomes very important, because it turns out that you, as a prospective attendee at an event, might find a completely different end result, with only a little bit of consideration and just a hair of pre-planning.

On the eve of going out to MANY events over the next 40 days or so, I wanted to compile some of the best advice I’ve received or written about with regards to how YOU can get more out of conferences.

Advice for People Attending Conferences

Things I do BEFORE a VON Conference – Jeff Pulver.

Getting More out of Your Speaking Opportunities – Jeff Pulver

Preparing for PodCamp DC with the Jeff Pulver Method – Christopher S. Penn

Be Sexier in Person – Me.

10 Ways to Make Your Next Conference Better – Me.

Using Social Media to Meet People – Me. ( Picture look familiar?)

What’s Your Advice?

What would you add to the list? How else can we prepare? What is your pre-event and post-event ritual?

I’ve learned lots from Jeff, and continue to appreciate his perspective on life. Between his inspirational blog posts and just following his jetsetting on Twitter, he’s definitely a great guy to know, and someone who’s contributed a great deal to the betterment of aspiring young futurists everywhere.

Mazel Tov, Jeff.

Thanks, Guy.

Who else is like that? I know a bunch. Busy entrepreneurs who write great blogs. Who are some more that you love?

Have you read Jeff Pulver lately? His posts about education and the like have been on fire, too, and Jeff’s as busy as they come.

Who else?

Photo Credit, Laughing Squid, a superstar himself

Serial entrepreneur, visionary, friend, and previous boss of mine, Jeff Pulver formally launched his new venture, PrimeTimeRewind.tv, from the floor of VON.x, his IP communications conference. The goal of the new site is to make it easier to find the Internet equivalent of the major TV shows right on the web. There’s already a pretty decent bunch of content up on the site, and I find spinning that cube (pictured above) to be a very interesting interface.

Jeff and I worked in and around the Internet TV space over the later part of 2006 and all through 2007, and I’m really excited that this project has launched. It’s in Alpha, but I think it has the potential to appeal to people seeking mainstream TV content. It will be interesting to see where the site goes next, but I’m excited to see it launched and off the ground. Amit Shafrir, former president of premium services from AOL, is serving as CEO. I wish the whole team well.

PrimeTimeRewind.tv <- go spin the cube yourself.