"Blogging as a business is business. It takes business training and skills to make money with your blog."
- Lorelle VanFossen, "Business School for Bloggers: How to Make Money With Your Blog", Blog Herald, April 7, 2008
MySiouxFalls.com is a new and local online news source for the city where I currently reside, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At first, I was not all that excited about the site and had not plan on mentioning the MySiouxFalls.com site in my writing. We've all seen these sites before, right? In fact, I would say that many of the visitors to this blog likely have designed or participated in building sites similar to MySiouxFalls.com. That's not to say that there are not some things from a content management perspective worth mentioning.
Recently, I read some good posts regarding content management systems (CMS) on a few blogs I visit almost daily. The posts have had me thinking and reflecting in general about CMS. However, I won't talk too much about them so you get a chance to go on and read the articles yourself. The first post comes from OpenSourceCommunity.org and the second post from Gadgetopia.
On Planet Drupal, there have been a number of posts lately about the difficulty project leaders and developers have in saying "no" while working on a project. As much as Project leaders want to please both their client and their team members, real leaders understand the responsibilities they have in saying "no". More specifically, I'm talking about Boris Mann's post, "Susan Mernit on the role of "no" in product development" as well as Laura Scott's own post You've got to know when to 'no' them.
I'm finally down to just the finishing touches on that osCommerce project I mentioned about last month. The site is Dakota Angler, a fishing bait and tackle store, that finally is ready to sell their goods online.
"There is no such thing as an ‘IT project.’ There are only business projects with an IT component."
- June Drewry, CIO of Chubb Corp as quoted in "20 Tips to Get Promoted in the Tech Industry", InfoWorld, October 16, 2006
Google Buys CMSReport.com. That's at least what I would have liked this week's headlines to read. Instead, everyone in the business world is still scratching their head and wondering what to make of the Google and YouTube deal. Are we about to enter real growth and value in tech or are we about to face a Dot-Net Bubble 2.0? I don't have all the answers, but it looks like everyone is watching. BusinessWeek has this to say in their article, Smart Move or Silly Money 2.0?
WHO'S NEXT? Now, the question is whether YouTube's valuation will extend to up-and-coming buyout contenders. So far, it looks like only a few sites have demonstrated growth and engagement with users that might command similar prices. Exhibit A: Facebook, whose value as determined by its venture investors has jumped from $100 million in its first round in September, 2005, to $500 million in a second round last April. And that's just the start. Sources say bidders such as Yahoo are willing to pay up to $1 billion today.
So was Google's buy of YouTube smart or silly? Just as the BusinessWeek article discusses in their own article, the answer to that question is anybody's guess. I think if Google bought YouTube only for its young fickle audience and the level of synergy currently present at the site...it was a silly move. However, Google may have also bought YouTube before anybody else could which is likely a very smart move.
"A huge part of the problem is that newspaper companies are still being run, mostly, by people from the print side -- and who, though they may attempt to understand interactive media and the needs and media habits of young people, aren't effective at moving their organizations in a radically different, and necessary, direction."
- Steve Outing, "Why Aren't Newspapers Breaking Out of the Box", Editor & Publisher, September 25, 2006