I’ve just learned that my good friend Gary Vaynerchuk is going to appear on the Conan O’Brien show tomorrow night. That’s huge! For those of you don’t know who Gary is, he was one of the sponsors of our past Tech Cocktail (which we will have news about the next one in the next day or so) and is the creator of Wine Library TV. If you haven’t seen his show, it is a must see. Gary brings his contagious personality and high energy to wine tasting. I have included a copy of yesterday’s episode below. Gary’s goal is to bring wine appreciation to the masses in the United States and it looks like he will have accomplished that with his appearance on Conan this Wednesday. Gary will officially have gone mainstream and if anyone deserves it, Gary does. He is always available for his readers and friends and is one of the most giving people I know. If you want to meet Gary, shoot him an email. I’m sure he’ll respond to you.

If you want to know what differentiates successful entrepreneurs from the rest, I can sum it up in four words: they bust their ass. Thomas Edison said that genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration and boy was he right. I have been experiencing this in a big way with my other blog. As you already have noticed (and as I keep saying), my posting frequency has taken a hit since I’ve started AllFacebook.com. My total net output though has increased 5- to 10-fold. I am churning out at least 4 articles a day and often times 6 or 7. I also have a full time job which cuts in to my blogging time. The new post frequency is a significant change from this blog. I’ve read elsewhere and now can speak from experience when I say that there is a direct correlation between posting frequency and amount of traffic. At a certain point this correlation becomes weaker but it definitely exists. Anyone that can be a successful blogger, can be a successful entrepreneur. The sheer number of unpaid hours that you will spend in the first 6 months of building a successful blog can be daunting but a clear vision and the belief that there is a reward in the end is all you have to keep you going.

I have yet to receive a significant payout from my new blog but I have entertained a number of offers. This is the only thing that makes me think that my new blog has a chance at greater success. Will it become the next TechCrunch or Mashable? Who knows. Do I care? Not really. I will keep staying up until 1 or 2 AM just so my readers have something to fill their time with the next day. I believe that this dedication will somehow reap rewards through building relationships, increasing client referrals and building name recognition, but I don’t know how quickly all this will happen. All I know it that it will. I read in Napoleon Hill’s think and Grow Rich that one of the key components of becoming successful is having an unwavering faith that you will succeed. He was right. So for all of you that have an idea that you want to have materialize, start working on it. All you need is the willingness to learn how to get where you are going and unwavering faith. That’s it. I know you can get there and I know you will. You might not get there on the first go around but if you keep that vision close I know you will get there. Best of luck! I will see you at the finish line!

This weekend news surfaced that Google has put aside a $4.6 billion war chest to try and obtain the 700 MHz spectrum. If Google succeeded they could provide unlimited wireless broadband internet to cell phones and computers. As Mike Arrington highlights, Google wants to have four “key platform rules” adopted:

1. Open applications
2. Open devices
3. Open services
4. Open networks

See anything consistent there? They want to open it all up. In return they will bid $4.6 billion. This would be massive and something that consumers would thoroughly support. The only problem? AT&T and Verizon. They are lobbying hard against having this approved. That’s completely understandable given that Google’s offering would deal a massive blow to the two companies. When it comes down to what is in the consumer’s best interest though, the FCC needs to look past the lobbyists just as Mike Arrington suggested. Unfortunately the FCC doesn’t have a clean slate having not acted in the consumer’s best interests many times before. Will they do it again? I sure hope not.

Definitely not but one thing is for sure, Google is going to have to become a little more tame. After snapping up over 13,000 employees and a large number of companies, Google has missed earnings. Many had been predicting that this was going to be the burst of the Web 2.0 bubble, myself included. Google’s miss was not horrendous considering that they still posted a relatively spectacular of 28 percent. Previous to this though Google had never improved less than 60 percent. The valley’s darling has made a misstep. Under hiring and over acquiring. It was bound to happen but the real question is whether or not there will be any significant fallout from this. One thing is for sure: the rapid Google buyout strategy that many startups had been hoping for the past couple of years will now become a less realistic option.

As I mention on my AllFacebook blog today, it looks like the tide is rapidly shifting in Silicon Valley. Facebook seems to be rapidly acquiring many of the Google developers that are looking for more pre-IPO options. Not a bad choice for a talented developer. So will it all come crashing down? Probably not but this is probably a serious reality check for a lot of people in the technology industry.

I was trying to come up with a great post last night and this morning for my blog but everywhere I looked, the discussion was about Facebook. Take a look at Techmeme this morning and you will see 5 separate articles about Facebook. I have to wonder how long this can last. Facebook is the current obsession of Silicon Valley and the rest of the blogosphere. I myself have taken part and contributed to the buzz with my AllFacebook blog. I haven’t seen so much buzz surrounding one single product in a long time. The iPhone is the only thing to coming close to rivaling the Facebook buzz. Robert Scoble commented on this yesterday. Apparently people have been complaining that all he talks about anymore is Facebook and iPhone. That’s because both are insanely popular topics right now. I as well wish I could have given you an insightful post today but unfortunately there is just too much buzz surrounding Facebook. Do you think the buzz is going to slow down soon?

Last night I was pacing back and forth contemplating my plan for world domination. While I have yet to figure out how I’m going to do it, I will surely let you know when I figure it out. One thing that I figured out during my nightly pacing was how to expand my global media empire (that is said with a sarcastic tone). While as of now I am limited to two mediocre blogs, I am looking to expand into new forms of media. What’s next you ask? Video. I think it is time to start doing coverage of events, interviews and more. Although I haven’t planned my execution strategy, it is sure to come. Why do I have such renewed vigor for blogging and alternative media? One reason is this Forbes article from yesterday which describes the imploding media industry. Red Herring, Business 2.0 and PC Magazine are only a few of the magazines that are taking a beating.

The source of the pain for larger publications is citizen journalism. While some of these journalists may be more dedicated than others, they are truly a serious thorn in old media’s side. Sites like Techcrunch, PaidContent.org, Read/Write/Web and others are all major competition to large publications and are taking away readers. Not only are readers leaving but advertisers are running out the door as well. As the Forbes article highlights, Business 2.0 ad pages dropped 21.8% in March over the same period from a year ago and PC Magazine experienced a 38.8% drop in the same period. So just because Mike Arrington, Rafit Ali, Richard MacManus, Om Malik and others can do it, can someone else come along and do the same thing? Hell yes! That’s not to say that the majority of bloggers don’t experience a low volume of traffic, but if you pick the right niche you are sure to experience a boom in traffic. That’s when the fun starts. Late nights, non-stop networking, rinse and repeat. Becoming successful isn’t easy but who said starting your own business ever was. This is true guerrilla warfare at its best and there is still plenty of niche markets to capture.

So I have decided to enter the competitive landscape and will be releasing a few more media properties in the coming months. As you can tell from reading my blog I have ten thousand ideas but many of them I don’t have time to follow. New media though is probably the most exciting thing that I have been involved in and as such I’m going to dive in completely. There is some exciting new media ventures right around the corner. Also, I know I have been promising some exciting news. It is soon to come! How are you taking part of the new media revolution?

I’ve been reading a lot about iPhone applications and development and I have been trying to figure out what is so special about programming for the iPhone. There has been an insane amount of hype surrounding iPhone applications but ultimately an iPhone application is just a website. There are entire meetups being dedicated to iPhone development. While there are also meetups for web developers, is there really any difference? Not really.

When initially announced, one would have imagined that iPhone applications were literally widget-like applications that reside on the phone. Unfortunately those were only dreams. Apple is hoping to suddenly inspire the rest of the web world to adopt new practices that include mobile standards. While I think they may have just inspired a few thousand developers into building “applications” for the phone, I don’t see this as a lasting solution.

Ultimately, the iPhone is a small step forward in the future of mobile development. Rather than opening up their platform they are simply requiring developers to work within the defined constraints of the iPhone. Additionally, developers can only build Safari compatible websites rather than actual applications. Unless Microsoft, Palm, Blackberry, Apple or another mobile OS company opens up their platform for developers, a new competitor will enter the marketplace and rapidly gain marketshare. This new competitor would be the equivalent of what Linux is to Microsoft.

I look forward to the day in which any developer will be able to easily create robust mobile solutions. Currently, the odds of one of the existing mobile providers opening up their existing platform is extremely thin. As I said, the only way this will happen is if a new competitor enters the market. Who will that competitor be? My best guess is Google. Any thoughts?

For those of you that were at the first DC Tech Cocktail, you may not have known that it was started in Chicago. Eric Olson and Frank Gruber started it last year and are now holding the 5th one today. There will be more to come in the next couple months including one next month in D.C. (details coming soon) and one in September in Boston (also have details coming soon). Unfortunately, if you are not already on the list to the Chicago one, you probably won’t be able to attend since the event is already sold out. Over 700 people will be in attendance so it is sure to be a great time. I will let you know about any interesting things that take place at the event. If you want to learn more about Tech Cocktail go check out the Tech Cocktail blog.

Back in February there was a lot of discussion as to whether or not blogging has peaked. Much of the discussion revolved around the daily posting volume in the blogosphere. At the beginning of April Steve Rubel was asking the same question. While there hasn’t been another “state of the blogosphere” report released recently, I am willing to bet that blogging has in no way slowed down. I am watching one friend after the other take up blogging and start posting on a daily basis. Even Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape, didn’t start blogging until 5 weeks ago. While the growth gained from the typical blogger will not mimic Marc Anreesen’s growth, I think the satisfaction gained from self-expression is powerful enough to keep one blogging. This is especially the case for younger people that are used to not having their voice taken as seriously in a professional environment. If you want to have a louder voice, start blogging. It’s as simple as that. Eventually people will be forced to listen to you as your influence grows. Conversely, in order for your influence to grow in your career, you need to discuss career oriented topics.

So why am I going off on this whole discussion about blogging? Well, I was inspired when I heard Marc Andreesen talking about the power of blogging. He gives a great overview of basic lessons that he has learned from blogging in the first five weeks. It was also great timing because I had planned on posting a complete tutorial on starting up your own blog. While many of my readers are already bloggers, many are not. I am hoping that by providing a little advice they can experience the same wonderful things that I have experienced as a result of blogging. I want to make that tutorial as complete as possible so look for it to come out in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you aren’t blogging, try it out! If you are blogging, keep at it!

Last night I has some kind of epiphany while driving home. I was trying to think more about the big picture of social networks, Facebook, and start pages. Where is this really going and where do companies need to be? Since Facebook opened up their platform any successful social network will have to follow. Just because you have 150 million users today, doesn’t mean they won’t go jump on the next big thing. Any social network that plans on being a serious player in the future is going to have to open up at some point. The tides are changing and I think we are rapidly headed toward Web 3.0, a widgetized world in which all the information I need comes directly to me. Once platforms become open though, and all the feature sets become similar, what is each networks competitive advantage? The only competitive advantage each network has is their user base. Facebook targeted college students, MySpace high schoolers and middle schoolers, and LinkedIn targeted professionals.

If you plan on launching a social network, you must figure out your niche and then open up your platform once you have created a user base. As if there weren’t enough signs pointing to the widgetization of the web, two big news events happened today. Marc Andreessen’s Ning, the open source social network received a new round of financing totalling $44 million. Additionally, Bay Partners launched a Facebook-Apps venture fund. Ultimately there will be two major components moving forward:

1. Social Networks - Social networks will be focused on specific niches. We already saw a huge boom in these during the Web 2.0 phase. While these will still sporadically pop-up, many of the niches have already been fulfilled.
2. Widgets - All organizations are going to need to start launching widgets. These widgets will be able to plug directly in to their social network of choice. In this new phase there will be a huge boom in companies that build widget portfolios, create widgets for other companies, and expand their existing offerings via widgets. Bottom line is widgets are officially going mainstream.

While this isn’t exactly new news, I think the widgification of the web has just gained significant traction with the opening of the Facebook platform. With today’s news of a new venture company and Ning’s funding, it helps support the argument that widgification has gone mainstream.

Inspired by Amit Gupta, I am seriously considering bringing House 2.0 to D.C. What is House 2.0? It is simply a place to live if you want to get a taste of D.C. or are looking to start up your own thing in D.C. and want a great environment to live. The place will be fully furnished, utilities included, have wireless internet and of course its own blog to document the experience and contribute to the residents’ shameless self-promotion. If you would be interested in taking part, shoot me an email or leave a comment. I am working on locking down a house currently, but I am shooting for Arlington, VA (Clarendon/Ballston area) within blocks to the metro. If you have any ideas how to make this environment a better place, please let me know. Additionally for those that move in and are involved in the tech and entrepreneurial world, we will help you get active in the community. I’m aiming to have the place purchased and ready to go by the fall. So let me know if you are interested!  Also, if you have any advice, let me know!

As you may have noticed, my postings have become less frequent and my life has become more hectic.  It’s officially time to get away.  I’m off to the beach!  Maybe I’ll have a random posting up sometime this weekend, but get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather!  Have a great weekend!