"Ready, fire, aim" is a perfectly viable strategy for New Media startups.

Don't be afraid to do what you love first and worry about making a living at it later. Liam Sullivan struggled for years to land an acting gig in LA, then he gave up and started posting sketch videos online. He even admits to being "computer stupid" and that his fame is totally by accident. Now he makes a decent living selling merchandise related to his videos. He became a 'net star the smart way - built a user base first, then worked on capitalizing on that resource.

There are quite a few ways to build up your presence online safely, with proven baby steps. Start off with a great idea and build upon it by figuring out what's hot and adding it to your offerings. TiVo is doing just exactly that and making television into a online video, or "podcast," receiver.

However it may be more valuable to figure out what works and fine-tune the design of your portal to better suit your readership first. If your readership would prefer videos, or if your content would be more self-evident through video - then offer video.

The general idea here is to make your content more accessible and convenient to your readers, where ever they might be and how ever they prefer to receive your content. In some cases, that could mean teaming up with the big boys. For example, Idiomag hopes to break out of being a no-name on the 'net by integrating with Facebook.