Every logical decision points in the same direction. Its time to take that direction.

If you need to get in touch with me, LiveJournal, MySpace, and Facebook are not the places for it. I will not check those for at least a few weeks.

I'm disappearing off the face of your known planet, and if you know the planet I am going to, then you also know how and when to reach me - and why I'm going.

For those of you that know my tendencies, and the other methods of reaching me - I beg you, don't let me go too far, because I can... all too easily.

Lately I find myself writing here when I'm stuck.

Too much is on my plate. I'm at that crossroads again. The things that make the most money are also taking up the largest amount of my mind space... not clear enough to take on what will propel me into my future.

Too much is foggy now.

I know it will all make sense soon. I know it will all fall into place in a couple of weeks. That is my pattern... but is it a pattern I can break? I don't like this periodic limbo...

see more crazy cat pics

It's not even the end of April yet, and I've already more than tripled what I earned in March. Of course, half of April was basically wasted in terms of earnings, and totals half of what I earned in March - or, 16% of April's earnings.

That is thanks in large part to my virtual assistant (as I tweeted earlier, if you're curious about getting a virtual assistant, check out http://tinyurl.com/5bpf2m & http://tinyurl.com/5bhk8j)

I've been working on releasing several ebooks and courses - one at a time of course - but I've been doing a lot of reading in preparation. 6 ebooks this week already... and that's on top of earning about $800 this week... all thanks to the free time afforded by having a virtual assistant.

I just can't believe how much I've gotten done. It's insanely awesome!

The Bad(?) News: I'm not working full time at NowSourcing anymore - for reasons which I cannot state due to NDA, but we're still on great terms.

The Good News: That gives me time to pursue more clients... of which I already have a few regulars.

We shall see.

Either that, or I have one kick ass network.

I now have 4 clients + NowSourcing, and a probono pet project. I'm not doing any marketing to get these clients. I just fuck around on Twitter and Linkedin.

Recently, for the probono pet project, I reached out to my network to see if I could get a guru in the field for the next podcast. 20 minutes and 1 email later, I had my guru.

Things are good. Yes. Things are quite good ^.^

Writing for so many blogs has given me one definitive blessing - a lack of time.

In one of my previous posts, a commenter tried to start a flame war with me. In the past, a defamatory comment on my blog would get an instant half-assed response and rebuttal, and that flame would eventually turn into a 6,000 comment thread of cheap shots and bickering - no matter my attempts at being diplomatic.

But now that I didn't have the time to reply immediately, much less even read the comment when it cropped up, it has given me two weeks to think it over and come back with a very reasonable response - one which the commenter in question couldn't help but agree with.

Heh. I should have less time more often! ^.^

I just took a step back to look at everything I'm actually doing... and it's amazing how I'm even able to keep up.

• Writing regularly and professionally for FIVE blogs - ComHacker, NowSourcing, and 3 client blogs. (with the help of research from my assistant)
• Guest blogging (the newest one will be on Remarkablogger later today)
• Maintaining and promoting 5 Twitter accounts.
• Redesigning a website for, and collaborating with, one of my own clients.
• Making arrangements to attend my first conference in June.
• Managing 3 PPC campaigns. (with the help of research from my assistant)
  
• Consistently performing SEO related work for several of my own and NowSourcing's clients.
• Pitching new clients. (with the help of my assistant)
  
• Pitching magazines for submissions (which are constantly being researched by my assistant)
• Going to Toastmasters meetings.
• Getting an agent with Monitor Talent. (it's a very interesting, but long, evaluation process)
• And of course, the Wordpress weekly podcasts. (although there wasn't one this week since Jeff was at PodCamp)

Believe it or not, all of that is toward the same end - and I'm NOT overwhelmed! I pick and choose when I work - that, in and of itself, solves the majority of any problems that could arise.

I (very) temporarily took a pay cut leaving MasterNewMedia, because all the free time I have now lets me do everything I've always wanted - but on my terms.

It's astounding what you can do when your time is your own.

I was officially announced on the NowSourcing blog yesterday. Since then it's gotten 45 Sphinns (which means it front-paged), 35 Mixxes (also front-page material), and people were re-tweeting it left and right. Who knew a post about me would be so valuable to internet marketers?


Maybe Fate does exist, and maybe our Fate is written in stone - but our Free Will is to either use thy Fate, or strive against it...

In other news, I just bought a 1GB RAM stick, and it's headed my way. Looks like it will be here Friday according to UPS ^.^ I've also picked out my second monitor. Looking forward to buying that when the first check from my freelance gig comes in =D

I'm pretty seriously considering getting a modem tho. The one Charter gave me keeps crapping out. I changed the wires though, and that seems to have fixed the issue. We'll see.

This Friday we're going to Beaufort to see some family, so I'm doing that week-before-3-day-vacation crunch with work. Of course, it's great that I CAN take some time away from all gadgets and not be tied to them, like I was at MNM. Yay for no time-dependent requirements ^.^

Catch ya'll later. Hopefully I'll get a chance to read my friends page in the next few days =P

"The blogosphere ooo'd and aaah'd as one new media giant stole a valuable player from another."

I wish.

Ok, "valuable player" might well be true. =P "New media giants" certainly is. But did the blogosphere notice? Nah. *shrugs* Doesn't matter - I'm a Social Media Strategist for NowSourcing.com now ^.^

I even have my own @nowsourcing.com email! =D

I did some keyword research today. That was fun. It's the kind of brain-stretching work I've been begging for =) Tomorrow, I write for blogs ^.^ And Saturday... Saturday is a guaranteed day off - w00t! I get one of those now - days off. Yeah. Didn't think that would ever happen.

And my job is really fun - like seriously. We played around on Facebook - I bought Brian (my boss), and now he says he doesn't have to pay me anymore =P BUT, he has to listen to what I say... lol

I also signed a non-disclosure agreement today. So, sorry - no specifics. Lovin' the gig though =D

Robin Good is looking for a few excellent aspiring editors to join the team at MasterNewMedia.org. For me, his lessons have been invaluable, and you should know by now I don't recommend anything I wouldn't bet my reputation on.

In his words, he's looking for:

"...someone who is very reliable, has true desire to learn and has solid time available..."

This is a full time gig and nothing to be taken lightly, and it's no chump change either. Think of it as working for the NY Times of the web, and treat it as such.

You'll start out as an unpaid intern, but the faster you pass assignment modules, the faster you get paid. And he does pay reliably - net 30 via PayPal or bank transfer (but only for "large amounts," i.e. over $500, which is really easy to earn once you are more trained).

However, just like I'll only recommend to you things I'll bet my reputation on, I'm only going to recommend to him the same way. Get in touch with me, and I'll give you a quick quiz to see if you can make it through the "Robin Good Boot Camp For Editors."

I used to Tweet every now and then because I didn't see any real value to using it. Then I added a couple A-listers, and those A-listers eventually posted something that piqued my interest. And I followed. I read. I commented. And felt like I did something, like I'm somehow now "in the know" and not so left behind.

Then again, working for MasterNewMedia.org has certainly helped in the "with it" department - but now, after following 100+ A-listers in the stuff I'm really interested in, I feel like I just might be able to keep pace and stay above information overload.

That's the value in Twitter for me - and I found that through using it. You can't know what value something will bring to you unless you bring value to it first.

For those of you that might be interested - my Twitter.

You've seen Daft Hands, now there's Daft Bodies!



...because hands just slow you down.

"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.

(yes, I did all of this, and more at MasterNewMedia.org)

Open Sourced Teams Brew Closed Minds

There are a few arguments against open sourced teams, also known as "crowdsourcing." For one, the anonymity of it all tends to allow for irrational and sometimes rude behavior. Secondly, there is a growing debate as to whether open sourcing hinders rather than helps radical innovation. Ryan Paul has made swift work of that argument, stating quite simply that open source obviously allows for radical innovation since developers do not have to build from scratch.

However, the infrastructure of the Internet today is by and large run by open sourced teams. For instance, Flemming Funch notes that Usenet groups and even server blacklisting is managed by open sourced teams. These groups can be very mobster-like and difficult to deal with, not to mention there is no recourse, no higher entity one can appeal to if the problem is not solved there. Wikipedia is also quickly following suit and becoming a mob-like open source team.

So how do you get your way?

Since the structure of these teams is fundamentally different, dealing with crowd sourced teams is also quite different from dealing with collaborative teams. If you want to win over a collaborative team, you go to the leader and state your argument. However, to change the mind of the leaderless open sourced team, you need to either join them, bring in your friends to back you up, or sway public opinion in your favor, as recommended by Flemming Funch.



RGTV Video News:
http://www.RobinGood.tv/rgtvnews

Iraq: Just when they thought it was safe soldiers attacked in Baghdad
Israel: Gaza still in chaos
Kenya: Aid finally begins to reach those in need
"No Comment" Kenya Protesters blocked
Afghanistan: Country-wide food shortage
UK: Prime Minister Brown says UK will be OK despite global economic outlook
Japan: "The Pulse" on Asian Encephalitis plague with Chinese cure
Philippines: Music is their escape from the hard life
Interview with Bill Gates on the future of computing...

and more coming up...

This is RGTV News - Robin Good's daily hand-picked selection of international news and stories you may not be able to catch on your mainstream TV network channels.