Interesting feature in the New York Times on Macrumors.com founder and senior editor, Arnold Kim, and his decision to stop practicing medicine and pursue blogging full time. The kicker: his popular blog now nets him a hefty six figure income (the same amount he made as a doctor):
Stepping away from medicine felt somewhat strange, he admits. Dr. Kim was bringing home a six-figure income as a doctor, but he recognized that blogging was becoming more lucrative. He says the site also yields a six-figure income for him.
About three years ago, through a combination of Google text advertising, banner ads and commissions on product sales, MacRumors started turning a substantial profit. While Apple is obviously not an advertiser, other technology-oriented companies are, including Verizon, the online audio-book store Audible.com and the information technology products company CDW.
Still, he hesitated to make it a full-time job because he enjoyed medicine — and he had invested almost $200,000 in his education. But he finally concluded that “on paper, it was an easy decision.”
Just goes to show you that content (plus traffic) is king!
If Kanye really is doing all the blogging himself, then he should definitely be commended on his efforts. The guy is an international celebrity, with a demanding schedule, and somehow he still finds the time to deliver several blog updates a day–you gotta respect that. However, if it’s all the work of a ghost blogger within his camp (which he denies), then it’s all pretty pathetic. Not because it’s false advertisement, but because I’d expect higher posting quality from such a person. I mean, assuming that a ghost blogger’s schedule wouldn’t be nearly as demanding as Kanye’s, I’d like to think that he/she would have a little more time on his/her hands to compose a bit more than just the one sentence, picture heavy, “oh look cool” type posts that we often see on Kanye’s blog (again, if it’s Kanye himself, he gets a pass, considering his hectic, stadium status schedule and all).
One last thing, and this is something that I’d like to explore further in a future post, I can’t understand why celebrity hip-hop blogs & fan sites feel the need to follow in the footsteps of existing hip-hop news and gossip blogs. Instead of sticking to the exclusive, behind the scenes content that you’d expect from an artist’s blog, many dish out the same news and gossip that can be found on hundreds of other hip-hop sites around the web. So disappointing, so disconnected.
I didn’t get around to sharing this bit of news last week, but Gureala was recently added to the 2008 edition of A Blog List. The list, compiled by Stefano Ricci of the Italian cool hunting blog ELMANCO in conjunction with Fubiz (France), is a global directory of the best design, graphics, fashion, advertising and new technologies blogs on the web. Major shout out to Stefano and Fubiz for the recognition! Just when I’m thinking that no one’s out there paying attention to what’s going on here on the site, I receive news like this in my inbox!
Gureala’s amongst good company, with a few of my favorite blogs and giants of the tech/cool hunting game also making appearances on the list: Kanye, Engadget, Jean Snow and Hypebeast to name a few. There are tons of great blogs to be discovered on the list, so do yourself a favor and explore the thing in its entirety!
Well, maybe not HD exactly, but by adding &fmt=18 to the end of YouTube urls you’re directed to a version of the video with higher image and sound quality. It’s a slight increase, but it’s definitely noticeable in some cases. Try it out for yourself with the video below, and see what you get.
The magazine’s entire archives–complete with articles, covers, photos and video footage–will go live on the web later this week. And its all free!
On Thursday, the magazine will introduce the Vault, a free site within SI.com that contains all the words Sports Illustrated has ever published and many of the images, along with video and other material, in a searchable database.
The Vault’s search engine lets a reader search by athlete, coach, team, sport, decade and year. Want to see every Sports Illustrated cover with Magic Johnson, or all the articles that mentioned him in 1986? Easy.
The site also allows a reader to see high-resolution images of old issues of the magazine as it appeared in physical form, including ads, using a mouse to “turn” pages. Jeff Price, president of SI Digital, said, “We’re confident that there’s nothing else like this.”
This is a huge leap forward for SI, and a move that I certainly hope will inspire other mags and newspapers with an online presence (since most seem to be comfortable with their current lo-fi, text-only archives).
For the sake of wishful thinking, two publications that I’d love to see implement this sort of feature on their sites: Vibe and The Source. Imagine that!
In the meantime, have a look this massive archives of SI covers.
Given the fact that music and MySpace go hand-in-hand these days, it should come as no surprise that the insanely popular social networking site is now looking to launch its very own online music service. As part of a joint venture that would include the record industry’s ‘big four’ (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI Group, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment ), the music service, currently dubbed ‘MySpace Music’, would not only allow users to purchase music through the site, but also listen to copyrighted music for free (a featured which will be suppported by ad revenue). Peep: Read the rest of this entry »
With a bit of foresight and a decent amount of luck, a small-time internet investor can rake in an absurd amount of dough through ‘domain squatting’. It’s a pretty clever tactic—register a catchy, original domain name (one that’s based on a current event, pop culture icon, or spelled like a popular, existing site), then you wait and wait until offers start to come in from people/companies that absolutely insist on having your domain name as their own. Fairly Simple. Just don’t do what one California-based domain squatter did, and register a domain name based on the perfect season that your favorite team was supposed to have. FAIL! Read the rest of this entry »
Information Architects didn’t just create a simple list of the world’s best websites; they took things a bit further and translated the concept to map form. Their ‘2008 Web Trend Map’ plots 300 of the world’s most influential and successful websites across a map of the Tokyo subway system. You’re seriously losing if you don’t have at least 5 of these sites listed in your bookmarks. Nah, I’m kidding. But take a look at this clickable version of the map here.
Today, The Washington Post launched “The Rootâ€â€”an online magazine geared towards African American readers. Founded by writer and Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Post Co. Chairman Donald E. Graham, The Root looks to follow in the footsteps of Slate Magazine (an online magazine founded by Microsoft, and later bought by The Post in 2004), however, featuring news and commentary from a black perspective.
The Root is a daily online magazine that provides thought-provoking commentary on today’s news from a variety of black perspectives. The site also hosts an interactive genealogical section to trace one’s ancestry through AfricanDNA.com, a DNA testing site co-founded by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who is also The Root’s Editor-In-Chief. The Root aims to be an unprecedented departure from traditional American journalism, raising the profile of black voices in mainstream media and engaging anyone interested in black culture around the world.
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