In late August 2011, I taped some audio from a great live event we did at the Media Education Foundation in Northampton about artists navigating the digital economy – both the struggles and the success stories. The event was hosted by me and co-presenter Noel Ramos of the Independent Music Conference. We actually broadcasted much of the three hour live event via Google Hangouts and it was pretty neat to be fielding questions from folks across the world.

Amazingly, the technology held up pretty well over the three hours, but for this podcast I pared down the audio to one hour of the best discussions. Joining our talk locally was Lisa Hoag of Lisa Hoag Designs. We kick off the audio via some discussion of what “freemium” means to artists, and then Noel presents on crowdfunding and how musicians have used these tactics. Some of the topics we dig into include:

- whether “free” has helped or hurt artists

- why it makes sense to build a brand before crowdfunding

- why the “Free” digital economy has helped content aggregators (Google) more than artists

- the pros and cons of giving away creative content to build a brand/business

- are we entering a new age of “artistic patronage”?

- why Chris Anderson’s “Free” poses dangers for artists

- targeting narrow audiences versus building a broader platform

- the role of social media in tapping into new audiences

- how “the gift economy” is different than “free”

- the extent of the “content piracy” threat

So check out the podcast and let us know if you have any feedback:

We’re likely to do another installment on this event in the future, looking more closely at the social platform aspects. I may also be presenting a version of this “artists in the free and social era” for the Los Angeles 2011 Independent Music Conference, which is coming up about a week from now.

In October of 2010, Neal Hutto, fellow member of the Booker T. Washington High School class of 1986 and an integral part of the remarkable whatever that holds our class together, died. I wasn’t able to attend his memorial service in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but I did write a tribute for Neal that Will Katz read that weekend, and I’m told that he did it in a memorable fashion. In fact when I wrote the piece, I had an image of Will reading it and conjuring Neal’s inimitable spirit with his words.

Neal Hutto was a brilliant musician who wrote the soundtrack to his life. Perhaps in a way he was haunted by the urgency of his own songs. He didn’t record much of his work – those who were lucky enough to experience one of his extended jam sessions form the bulk of his legacy. But Neal did record a tape called “Riverside Drive” which I was able to get my hands on, thanks to Will and Mike Hurewitz. It took me a while to get the songs in the format I needed them, but I always had in mind to try to record the piece I wrote for Neal over his own music.

This weekend, I was able to pull that together, so now you can hear me read my piece, simply entitled “For Neal,” with Neal’s song “Descent” in the background. With my admittedly limited sound editing skills, I reworked the song by ear to match the rhythm of what I intended to read. I didn’t know what it would sound like over my own voice, but as it turns out, one take was all it took. The equipment I used for this experiment was bootstrapped, but I think Neal would have appreciated both the cobbled together approach and the pretty decent sound I was able to get regardless.

When you create things, you get used to all the times when you are grinding it out on your own, and those rare, magical times when you are not. I won’t get mystical on you here, but when you listen to the recording, I think you’ll understand. There’s so much I want to say about Neal, about the tragic perfection of our reckless youth, about how my own adversities brought me closer to him and the existential struggles he faced, but I don’t know if I can do it.

But last fall, I found the words, and now I’m able to pay a proper tribute to Neal Hutto, artist, adventurer par excellence, shaman of laughter, and friend for all time.

Additional notes: I taped another short recording (right-click to download) over a different song of Neal’s (“Pound for Pound”), describing a bit more about what I did to tape the piece and how shocked I was that the rhythm of the music perfectly matched the recording the very first time I read it. Oh, and I recommend listening to the tribute piece with a good headset, that will give you some additional depth to the sounds on the recording. There’s another tribute to Neal from his friend Dave here. Will Katz has a YouTube music channel of his own work, as well as his terrifically creative bluegrass covers. If you want to know more about Neal, I recommend Will’s extraordinary eulogy that he delivered at the memorial service. Finally, my high school class is having not one, but two reunions this summer. Looks like I’m not going to make it this time, so I hope you all will take this piece as yet more proof that I’m still, as always, yours. Next time…

In October of 2010, Neal Hutto, fellow member of the Booker T. Washington High School class of 1986 and an integral part of the remarkable whatever that holds our class together, died. I wasn’t able to attend his memorial service in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but I did write a tribute for Neal that Will Katz read that weekend, and I’m told that he did it in a memorable fashion. In fact when I wrote the piece, I had an image of Will reading it and conjuring Neal’s inimitable spirit with his words.

Neal Hutto was a brilliant musician who wrote the soundtrack to his life. Perhaps in a way he was haunted by the urgency of his own songs. He didn’t record much of his work – those who were lucky enough to experience one of his extended jam sessions form the bulk of his legacy. But Neal did record a tape called “Riverside Drive” which I was able to get my hands on, thanks to Will and Mike Hurewitz. It took me a while to get the songs in the format I needed them, but I always had in mind to try to record the piece I wrote for Neal over his own music.

This weekend, I was able to pull that together, so now you can hear me read my piece, simply entitled “For Neal,” with Neal’s song “Descent” in the background. With my admittedly limited sound editing skills, I reworked the song by ear to match the rhythm of what I intended to read. I didn’t know what it would sound like over my own voice, but as it turns out, one take was all it took. The equipment I used for this experiment was bootstrapped, but I think Neal would have appreciated both the cobbled together approach and the pretty decent sound I was able to get regardless.

When you create things, you get used to all the times when you are grinding it out on your own, and those rare, magical times when you are not. I won’t get mystical on you here, but when you listen to the recording, I think you’ll understand. There’s so much I want to say about Neal, about the tragic perfection of our reckless youth, about how my own adversities brought me closer to him and the existential struggles he faced, but I don’t know if I can do it.

But last fall, I found the words, and now I’m able to pay a proper tribute to Neal Hutto, artist, adventurer par excellence, shaman of laughter, and friend for all time.

Additional notes: I taped another short recording (right-click to download) over a different song of Neal’s (“Pound for Pound”), describing a bit more about what I did to tape the piece and how shocked I was that the rhythm of the music perfectly matched the recording the very first time I read it. Oh, and I recommend listening to the tribute piece with a good headset, that will give you some additional depth to the sounds on the recording. There’s another tribute to Neal from his friend Dave here. Will Katz has a YouTube music channel of his own work, as well as his terrifically creative bluegrass covers. If you want to know more about Neal, I recommend Will’s extraordinary eulogy that he delivered at the memorial service. Finally, my high school class is having not one, but two reunions this summer. Looks like I’m not going to make it this time, so I hope you all will take this piece as yet more proof that I’m still, as always, yours. Next time…

In his return to the Free From Corporate America podcast series, Morris Rosenthal of FonerBooks.com talks with Jon Reed about the business of eBooks and how self-publishers can add an eBooks revenue stream by selling eBooks from their own marketing platform. Morris, the author of Print on Demand Book Publishing, also has a YouTube video channel for self-publishers that is referenced in this podcast.

During this forty minute, unscripted conversation, Jon asks Morris about how he found success with eBook sales, whether eBook sales impacts his traditional book sales, and why he decided to publish eBooks without DRM. Morris also talks about the limitations of trendy digital reading gadgets like Kindle for self-publishers from a revenue standpoint.

Other topics covered in this podcast include:

- Why Morris embeds live URL links in his eBooks.

‘- Which eBook topics are “sellable” for self-publishers and which topics (e.g. fiction) should be avoided.

- How eBooks extend Morris’ books sales internationally.

- Different eBook business models, from the unethical to the naive to the most effective.

- How much content within the eBook Morris gives away and how to make judgements about “free content for traffic” versus giving your books away.

- The distinction between hard-selling tactics and building “virtual trust” with potential readers.

——

Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews.

You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.

——

In the series reboot of the FFCA Podcast Series, Jon Reed welcomes Morris Rosenthal of FonerBooks.com and the author of Print On Demand Book Publishing for a totally unscripted conversation on web business and self-publishing. Listen in as Jon and Morris debunk popular myths about blog traffic, Google Page Rank, and how to succeed as an Internet-based self-publisher (Morris) rather than an overworked blogging and consulting diva (Jon).

After we taped this podcast, both of us felt that we can improve upon this one, so we look forward to your comments. But, there’s enough on here worth sharing, including:

- Why blog “traffic” is deceptive and why web sites structured like books tend to get much better Google “love.”

- Morris explains why his blog traffic is significantly lower than his “static” pages, and why “blogging is a curse.”

- The dangers of publishers skipping the text-based content lessons of “Web 1.0″ and heading directly to the sexy social media era of Web 2.0.

- The continued victory of content over aesthetics when it comes to web business, especially for content producers.

- A juxtaposition of lifestyles between the high traffic self-publisher and the overworked blogger/consultant, as well as unfair dismissals and mockery of “cool bloggers.”

- How Free From Corporate America’s concepts on building income-generating assets mix well with Morris’ views on lifestyle profitability and the value of having a income profit margin versus overworking yourself for top line revenue.

- Morris’s 100,000 plus YouTube visitors and why they have had no positive bottom line impact on his business due to their lack of text-based traffic generation. (as well as the inherent difficulties of making multi-media searchable).

- The value of “contextual links” and why Morris would much rather have a high quality contextual link from an obscure site in his industry than a non-contextual link from a hot blogger.

- The limitations of getting home page links from blogs versus more desirable “deep links” to reference pages on your site from well-regarded sites in your industry.

- A brief review of hot social media sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook) and an insufficient discussion of their pros and cons (a topic to be returned to in future postings and podcasts)

- Victory for Jon’s Zoom H-2 Recorder over Morris’ weak Walmart recorder that crapped out 10 minutes into the podcast.

- Traffic stats are cited, as well as how Morris tracks the traffic of his site compares to others using free tools (Alexa, Google Trends, and Quantcast).

FACT CHECK: As stated in the podcast, Morris’ web site traffic does currently exceed (or equal, depending on the tool) the traffic on Amazon’s Mobi site.

SHOUTOUT: To the Enterprise Geeks and Bill Simmons of ESPN for providing further validation of the longer, unscripted podcast format.

——

Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews.

You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.

——

This page contains the complete podcast archive of all the “Uncensored Week in Sports” podcasts.

Since Jon doesn’t currently have podcast archiving on jonreed.net, we’re archiving the show’s podcasts here.

While the show is focused on sports, it is also Jon’s chance to elaborate on how his philosophies of life and business have been impacted by sports, and to go off on rants about the increasing commercializion of sports. This is also a chance to interact with Jon live about whatever issues are on your mind. Underneath the podcast listings on this page, you will see more details about the show, as well as the “chattier” podcasts that are not as concise to listen to after the fact. Currently, Jon is not doing the show every week, but when/if he goes back on a regular schedule, he will post a link to the broadcast schedule here so you can join him live.

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Post Super Bowl, 2008

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (1.4 megs, 8 minutes)

“Jon returns after some time on the road, just in time to reflect on the Pats agonizing Super Bowl loss. In this short and personal podcast, Jon reads the piece on the Pats he posted on his blog and sent to Bill Simmons, a.ka. “The Sports Guy,” who can surely understand why Jon is reeling tonight.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of January 6, 2008

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (4.4 megs, 25 minutes)

“Jon gets a little geeky about the Patriots perfect season, but then goes against the grain of everyone who says they have to win the Super Bowl for it to mean something. A look at how Tom Brady ranks in the all-time greats is included. Jon also has an issue with those who claim that the Pats aren’t playing well enough to win it all. A few harsh words for Roger Clemens closes out this week’s edition.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of December 30, 2007

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (3.0 megs, 17 minutes)

“Jon gets a little geeky about the Patriots perfect season, but then goes against the grain of everyone who says they have to win the Super Bowl for it to mean something. A look at how Tom Brady ranks in the all-time greats is included. Jon also has an issue with those who claim that the Pats aren’t playing well enough to win it all. A few harsh words for Roger Clemens closes out this week’s edition.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of December 23, 2007

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (4.1 megs, 24 minutes)

“It’s Christmas week, but Jon is in a bit of a chippy mood. He goes off on fantasy sports geeks and fans who post dumb opinions online without thinking first. Jon also does his quick analysis of the problems in the NBA and the problems with the NBA playoffs (including a Celtics team review), and Jon also does an initial handicap of the NFL playoff picture and how he rates the Pats against the Colts, Jags, and eventual NFC champion.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of December 9, 2007

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (3.0 megs, 17 minutes)

“Jon comments briefly on the Pats victory over the Steelers, goes on a rant about sports “shills” and why he evaluates announcers based on their integrity to form their own positions, even when it means offending their sponsors and employers. After Jon accidentally blows off a live visitor in his chat room, he then reads a blog entry about his idea for ESPN to hire a free form jazz band to play live while they do highlights on SportsCenter.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of December 2, 2007

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (4.3 megs, 24 minutes)

“Jon’s take on the Pats-Ravens controversy, especially how the Ravens have combined a successful philosophy (live with attitude and passion) with a self-defeating one (it’s us against the system), a[...]

This page contains the complete podcast archive of all the “Uncensored Week in Sports” podcasts.

Since Jon doesn’t currently have podcast archiving on jonreed.net, we’re archiving the show’s podcasts here.

While the show is focused on sports, it is also Jon’s chance to elaborate on how his philosophies of life and business have been impacted by sports, and to go off on rants about the increasing commercializion of sports. This is also a chance to interact with Jon live about whatever issues are on your mind. Underneath the podcast listings on this page, you will see more details about the show, as well as the “chattier” podcasts that are not as concise to listen to after the fact. Currently, Jon is not doing the show every week, but when/if he goes back on a regular schedule, he will post a link to the broadcast schedule here so you can join him live.

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Post Super Bowl, 2008

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (1.4 megs, 8 minutes)

“Jon returns after some time on the road, just in time to reflect on the Pats agonizing Super Bowl loss. In this short and personal podcast, Jon reads the piece on the Pats he posted on his blog and sent to Bill Simmons, a.ka. “The Sports Guy,” who can surely understand why Jon is reeling tonight.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of January 6, 2008

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (4.4 megs, 25 minutes)

“Jon gets a little geeky about the Patriots perfect season, but then goes against the grain of everyone who says they have to win the Super Bowl for it to mean something. A look at how Tom Brady ranks in the all-time greats is included. Jon also has an issue with those who claim that the Pats aren’t playing well enough to win it all. A few harsh words for Roger Clemens closes out this week’s edition.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of December 30, 2007

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (3.0 megs, 17 minutes)

“Jon gets a little geeky about the Patriots perfect season, but then goes against the grain of everyone who says they have to win the Super Bowl for it to mean something. A look at how Tom Brady ranks in the all-time greats is included. Jon also has an issue with those who claim that the Pats aren’t playing well enough to win it all. A few harsh words for Roger Clemens closes out this week’s edition.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of December 23, 2007

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (4.1 megs, 24 minutes)

“It’s Christmas week, but Jon is in a bit of a chippy mood. He goes off on fantasy sports geeks and fans who post dumb opinions online without thinking first. Jon also does his quick analysis of the problems in the NBA and the problems with the NBA playoffs (including a Celtics team review), and Jon also does an initial handicap of the NFL playoff picture and how he rates the Pats against the Colts, Jags, and eventual NFC champion.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of December 9, 2007

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (3.0 megs, 17 minutes)

“Jon comments briefly on the Pats victory over the Steelers, goes on a rant about sports “shills” and why he evaluates announcers based on their integrity to form their own positions, even when it means offending their sponsors and employers. After Jon accidentally blows off a live visitor in his chat room, he then reads a blog entry about his idea for ESPN to hire a free form jazz band to play live while they do highlights on SportsCenter.”

The Uncensored Week in Sports – Week of December 2, 2007

Click to Play or Right-Click to Download (4.3 megs, 24 minutes)

“Jon’s take on the Pats-Ravens controversy, especially how the Ravens have combined a successful philosophy (live with attitude and passion) with a self-defeating one (it’s us against the system), a[...]

In February of 2007, I did my first-ever radio interview for Free From Corporate America. It took me a few months to pull the audio together for irritating reasons that aren’t worth dwelling on here.

But it’s now ready to play or download:

It’s a pretty large file (10 megs, 45 minute interview), so if you do the “play” option by clicking on the previous link, make sure you have some time and also a broadband connection. Dial-up folks should probably download the file first and then listen to it (right click on the link above and do “save target as” to save on most computers, or save in similar fashion).

The interview was broadcast by Valley Free Radio, based out of Northampton, Massachusetts. The host was Shel Horowitz, and I appeared as part of his weekly “Principled Profits” radio program on ethical business.

In this 45 minute interview, Shel and I touch on a number of topics that are central to the themes of the book, including:

- the origins of the book and the hard business lessons that went into it.

- why the era of white collar outsourcing (and how to respond to it) is integral to this book’s themes.

- the dream of getting beyond the corporate grind and what it takes to break away.

- the formation of my own company and how that changed my economic terms of engagement.

- the key tactics outlined in the book:

1. the importance of taking a chance on your passions but also finding a market for the work you love most.

2. distinguishing between “true assets” and “false assets”.

3. transitioning the “employee’s mindset” to the “owner’s mindset.”

4. why you don’t have to start your own business to change your economic fortunes, and the importance of branding yourself and not your employer.

- how the outsourcing of the information worker is changing the workforce and the nature of the corporate contract.

- how to respond to the loss of a job or to an employment shifts in your industry, and the importance of making pro-active skills changes.

- whether it’s possible to be ethical in business and also achieve financial success.

- why small companies may be more ethical than large ones.

- how the Internet can make it easier to market-test business ideas and accelerate the feedback loop.

I’d like to thank Shel for having me as a guest and I hope folks enjoy the interview!

Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews.

You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.

December 30, 2007: Jon had some recent debates about topics in this chapter, including an MLM guy hot on his heels, which inspired this new Free From Corporate America podcast.

Readers have been after me. Through the course of writing this book, I’ve been asked about classic entrepreneurial topics like business plans, venture capital, and multi-level marketing. I briefly mocked business plans in an earlier chapter, but that raised more questions than answers. So let’s go through each of these topics, as well as the tactic of franchising, in the context of this book’s themes.

I have no real beef with business plans. I criticized them earlier because business is more about execution than salivating over the “next big idea.” I’ve read lots of business plans over the years; they all gushed with confidence. And yet, none of those companies exist today. Oh well, at least they looked sexy on paper. When I recall the stupid excitement former (annoying) employers felt about their fantastic “plans,” I feel sick. Some of these plans sounded so good they should have been mounted and framed. But now they line gerbil cages.

Sure, writing a business plan can be a great education. As you master the components of the plan, such as marketing and financials, you learn how to tie these concepts into your business model. As a way to learn more about business, writing a business plan is a useful exercise. But the time you spend writing and researching can take you too far into theory. Some would call that an “opportunity cost.” The real learning happens when you take those neato ideas and try to get customers to actually buy them.

A particularly treacherous area is the financials section. Most business plans crunch numbers until they come out right. You have to hold your nose from the stench of these over-inflated fantasy numbers. Fact: there’s no way to pinpoint what the exact costs and revenues of a business are going to be. Contingencies are called contingencies for a reason. Divorcing ideas that aren’t financially viable takes ruthless honesty. Most people rework the numbers until their ideas look good, rather than trashing their ideas. The point of the exercise, of course, is to walk away from ideas that aren’t financially viable. I have yet to see someone who takes their own medicine though.

Jon Reed notes, December 2009: While I’m not a fan of conventional business plans – as in formal, overly polished paperwork – I am a fan of planning in general. Which is why I can strongly recommend Morris Rosenthal of FonerBooks.com and his new “Starting a New Business Plan and Making a Living” flow chart. The opposite of a formal plan, this chart, with jumps to text explanations of each section you might need help with, is exactly the kind of real world thinking that will give you a leg up on your ventures and minimize risk.

Business plans do tie into the world of venture capital, however. You can’t get financed without a business plan, so in that case, a business plan is a mandatory part of the process. I haven’t spent much time on venture capital in this book because I’ve been writing about “freeing yourself from corporate America.” In the first chapter, I contrasted the difference between “lifestyle entrepreneurs” and “Bill Gates entrepreneurs,” noting that this book is focused on the former. There’s nothing wrong with launching the next great American company, but you’re not going to free yourself from corporate America by following that model.

Becoming the founder and CEO of a major American company is beyond the scope of this book. Those kinds of startups typically require large-scale venture capital at some early phase. This book works better for “build as you go” businesses that are not intended to go through the process of becoming a publicly-traded compan[...]

December 23, 2007:  In his most personal podcast on this site, Jon uses the hard-won examples of his own web sites to talk about how the Internet can be used as a “feedback loop” to affordably market test new ideas. Jon explains why “do what you love, the money will follow” doesn’t work and how the Internet can help us to make our passions marketable.

Remember all the idiots who said that the Internet was going to change everything? I was one of them. Yep, I was a card-carrying member of the mid-90s gold rush. The money felt queasy easy, but I still wanted a piece. The Internet’s value to businesses has swung back and forth ever since. Where we’re at now: a pretty good market for smaller players with attitude like you and me.

True, giants like eBay are now entrenched, but the Internet still provides an avenue for those who want to test new businesses without risking shirts. And it’s a great place to experiment with the feedback loop – you can get instant response on new products. And you can get a great handle on the popularity of your pages by crunching traffic stats until your eyes dry.

Ever since the mid-90s, companies have been trying to figure out how to (wank word warning) “monetize” their web sites. The obstacles have changed, but the challenge continues. As of this writing, youtube.com is getting a lot of business press for how much money it is losing despite the site’s huge popularity.

There was a point in the late ’90s where advertising was supposed to save struggling web site sites and solve their revenue problems. But the first wave of Internet advertising collapsed. Banner ad rates came down to earth as companies wised up to the fact that intrusive, “one size fits all” advertising has severe limitations.

In the last couple years, Internet advertising has seen a huge comeback. Traditional advertising has been complimented by the Google “contextual” ad phenomenon. Google Adwords is now just one form of embedded advertising that is driven by keywords. You can see these ads on the right side of Google’s search listings. But more importantly, you now see Google-type ads on all kinds of web sites. Any web site with a decent amount of traffic can now use this type of advertising as a revenue stream. Enterprising folks such as www.askdave.com can make a very good living solely through hosting these ads on their sites. “AskDave” goes extreme, forcing you to smack into those Google ads early and often, but you can opt for a subtler approach than “AskDave” and still make money.

Contextual ads make a big difference in the Internet economy: you don’t have to be ESPN.com to attract an advertiser’s attention. The days of “if you build it, they will come” have returned – though without the evangelical zeal this time around. You can see this even in the case of youtube.com, which built a hugely popular site without a business model and then sold it to Google before I could finish this chapter. Build a site, get traffic, put ads on site, make money. Advertising revenues are crucial because consumers won’t pay for much content besides porn. There are exceptions: ESPN has found a way to charge users a modest amount per year to access their Insider program, but even CNN.com, which tried charging for its video content, had to revert back to offering video for free, using an advertising-based model instead.

Knowing that “if you build it, they will come” sets us free: we can now build sites that cater to our interests. Keep in mind: not all consumer groups are created equal in the eyes of advertisers, but just about any site that has significant traffic can convert some of that traffic into ad revenue. Of course, the most effective sites have multiple revenue streams, combining advertising with paid premium services and mail order products. A small publis[...]