by cameron | Jan 15, 2008 | Podcast
Late last week, Paul Montgomery (CEO) and Tai Tran (CTO) invited themselves over to Casa del Reilly to give me the rundown on Tinfinger. It’s kind of like the new Who’s Who. But online. And open. Less stuffy than Wikipedia. And they will pay you to write profiles on the site. Pay you, that is, in ADSENSE IMPRESSIONS. Interesting business model.
Tinfinger reminds me of a site I started up a year or so ago with a similar idea. I walked away from the business when I was less-than-impressed with my business partner’s attitude and ethics. But that’s a story for another time.
To give you an idea, check out my Tinfinger profile here.
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by cameron | Jan 15, 2008 | TPN
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age re-ran Andrew Bock’s article on podcasting which first appeared on December 20, 2007 only this time they used a photo of me they took in February 2005 (!). This is the same article I complained about here because I felt it was, deliberately or not, unbalanced. Still – I won’t deny it’s always strangely exciting to see a photo of yourself in the mainstream press. It’s happened to me a lot over the last few years but I still get a thrill out of it, even though logically I’m aware that it means little. TPN’s traffic won’t significantly increase. No worthy investors will ring me up. Old colleagues and bosses who used to give me a hard time probably won’t see it and squirm. I did like Mick Liubinskas’ analysis of the photo though:
Analyse the Pic;
- He’s wearing glasses – He’s hip!
- He’s wearing a suit – He’s professional.
- He’s surrounded by books – He’s smart.
- He’s leaning on a laptop – He knows tech, but he runs it, it doesn’t run him.
Very insightful, Mick. I pointed out to him that Fairfax took this photo back in Feb 05 when we were just getting started. I remember the sunnies were sitting on a coffee table and the photographer said “Are those yours? Put them on.” Greatest piece of advice I ever got from a photographer. 🙂
by cameron | Jan 15, 2008 | Melbourne, Podcast, TPN
2007 was a big year for TPN in lots of ways. We grew; we stumbled; we struggled; we survived. Bootstrapping a start-up isn’t glamorous. Trying to keep a fast-growing business alive when revenues are still small and you are funding it organically can be frustrating. Every day brings new challenges. Things you survive by telling yourself “one day it won’t be like this”.
We started off the year with a re-design of the homepage and lots of fast growth. Around the middle of year our server admin quit and I had to put a stop to adding new shows. Then a couple of months later our webdev quit. For the last couple of months we’ve been getting by with favours from friends whenever we need IT support. So it’s been frustrating on lots of levels. In March I thought we would finish the year with a million listeners a month. We missed that goal. Since March we’ve been hovering between 450,000 – 500,000 listeners a month. Now – when I compare that to some of the radio stations in Melbourne or Sydney, I feel pretty good. TPN, currently, one full-time employee. Me. No funding. No sales team. No IT team. Just me and a team of excellent, dedicated and PATIENT podcast producers who have tolerated our bumps over the last couple of years. I want to thank them all for their sense of humour when things go awry (like they did again over the last couple of days when out FTP server flaked on us) and their continued support for the TPN vision.
However, despite the struggles, it was a pretty good year. As you can see from the numbers below, we served nearly 5.5 million listeners during the year (okay, that number is slightly bullshit – it’s our monthly unique visitor numbers added together – but it sounds good so I’m sticking with it), who listened to nearly 7 million TPN podcasts (that number is legit). That’s a HUGE number, especially when you consider that since we launched in early 2005 we’ve only delivered a little over 11 million podcasts. Thinking about that 7 million number for a second – if we assume that each podcast is an average of 30 minutes long, that means you listened to us for 3.5 million hours (145, 833 days or 400 years non-stop) in 2007. No wonder your brain is hurting.
Of course I also want to thank our listeners and supporters. Those of you who listen to our shows, interact with us on the blogs, in Facebook, at MODM, Twitter, Second Life, etc. Without you we really would be what the cynics in the mainstream media think we are – people sitting in our undies, talking to ourselves.
by cameron | Jan 14, 2008 | Podcast
As you many have noticed, I recently launched a new religion which I’m calling “LOTU”, the Laws Of The Universe. If you missed that news, read this. On January 11, 2007, I held the very first church meeting of LOTU. As befits a 21st century religion, I held it in Second Life at TPN HQ. It wasn’t a huge turnout – about 6 people joined me for the session you hear recorded on this podcast and then another 6 or 7 people turned up later on, and we discussed LOTU into the evening.
To join the LOTU Facebook group (where you’ll be notified of upcoming meetings, etc), go here.
To join the LOTU discussion group, go here.
Stick Figures
“Stretch The Truth” (mp3)
from “Future Classic Exclusives Vol 1”
(Future Classic)
Buy at Inertia Distribution (Australia)
Buy at Amazon
More On This Album
Become part of the G’Day World conversation.
TPN now has a HQ in Second Life! Add “Cameron Switchblade” to your friends (that’s me). I’d be happy to show you around and help you find your SL legs.
If you’re a member of Facebook, you can ADD ME AS A FRIEND and then ADD YOURSELF TO THE G’DAY WORLD GROUP.
You can show your love by buying me stuff from my Amazon wish list.
You might DIGG the show.
Get the TPN version of Particls.
Don’t forget to make use of my new comments line – +613 9016 9699.
You can now buy transcripts of this podcast from Pods In Print.
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed and leave us a voice comment!
by cameron | Jan 14, 2008 | Melbourne, yarraville
A couple of blocks up from my house in Yarraville is our local dvd joint, Video Flash. The boss, Mike, has a large wall running down the adjoining street. He said that for years it was covered in just awful graffiti and he spent a lot of time out there with a brush and bucket trying to keep it looking clean. Then a couple of years ago, a couple of young street artists asked his permission to produce some art on his wall. He said it was okay as long as the work wasn’t offensive. Since then, he said he hasn’t had to clean the wall once. Graffiti artists don’t sabotage street art. Then, a week ago, the same guys came back and refreshed the wall with a new work. I watched them work for a while and then went out today to capture the finished work.
I think it looks terrific, adds a lot of character to the store, and I’d love to see more store owners inviting street artists to liven up their places.
