I am proud to announce you that Splashpress Media has added another blog to its Mr. Bloggy network.

In the last hours of 2006 Paul Scrivens and Splashpress Media agreed the sale of Wisdump for an undisclosed amount.
The Wisdump blog will be moved to our servers in the next days and be eratizined as soon as possible, just like the other Mr. Bloggy blogs.

No details are known yet about Scrivs’ future plans, but it is rumored he will hold a sabbatical year and prepare a music vlog network together with Prince Campell, from former Chartreuse fame.
No one less than Cowboy David Krug brokered the sale.

Wisdump is expected to stay member of the 9rules network because of its quality and unique content.

More details to come.

Our latest purchase, under the Bloggy Network group of blogs and sites, has been Gadzooki.com. It was a private sale for an undiscosed sum. Gadzooki is perhaps most famous for it’s unforgettable tagline “I want one!”. It’s a truly excellent site that shines out in the extremely competitive area of gadget-related blogs. This is largely due to the insightful, cutting-edge content of its writers: “Quimby”, “Mr Butterscotch” and “Jackoozi”- all of whom have agreed to stay on.

Gadzooki was formerly in the portfolio of Blog Media, and one of the sites that David Krug, former owner of this blog, took away with him when he parted company with BM. It was sold privately via a sitepoint auction for an undiscosed sum last May. Despite slipping to a PR5 since then (expect that to go back up pronto!)- it only had about 80 visitors per day in those days. Now it has over 500 per day, on average, and it’s starting to generate significant search results.

This purchase comes hot on the heels of our acquisition of Biziki, as reported in a previous post. Given our intended design plans to use Chris Pearson’s eratizine theme as the design “makeover” for all our blogs- we really had no choice but to buy Gadzooki! As mentioned before, the only other blogs in blogosphere that currently have this erazatine theme by Chris are yours truly (JOAB), Biziki and Gadzooki. We happen to think that Chris is the best WP theme designer out there and that erazatine is one of his most memorable and unique designs, although he has done excellent ones since. We are thrilled (with a caveat) to have exclusively captured the erazatine theme- especially as we feel that it will stand the test of time.

The caveat is, that although we have assurances from the previous blog owners of Gadzooki, etc- we’re pretty sure that, as with all “artistic” creations, the ultimate copyright reverts to the creator. As respect to Chris, we will be putting at the footer of all blogs: “A uniquely designed theme by Chris Pearson“. And we are encouraged (although saddened by the context of the thread: that someone had stolen Chris’ design; see Blog Herald’s take on it) by Chris’ (in not mentioning erazitine) comments when he says in his post:

“There are only three “living” projects in which I retain ownership — Pearsonified, Tubetorial, and Cutline.”

In his post “How Much Should A Design Cost?”- Chris says (dated last June)-:

At this time, blog designs start at $1500. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design. In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s totally conceivable that a pimped out blog could run as much as $3000. Rest assured, though, that it would be totally badass, and the recipient of the design would receive mad props for having such a killer online abode.

When I emailed Chris, I told him that we weren’t put off by his prices and wanted to be “pimped out”! Anyway, it didn’t end up happening as I explained in my previous post.

So what an expensive way for us to have gone about this plan! Even after spending the dosh on Biziki and Gadzooki, we still need to convert and customize all our other blogs. Currently we have 26 blogs in our network (which we own 100%) and a further 14 related Bloggy “service sites”.

I think all of this is a result of the fact that I am, on a personal level, completely obsessive-compulsive. If I want something, I have to get it- no matter the cost. I totally understood why Chris couldn’t help us out, so no hard feelings there. But I then had to find another way, by hook or crook.

Anyway, Gadzooki is a great site, as I said. So no regrets there….!!

[tags]gadgets blog, gadzooki,chris pearson,cutline,tubetorial,biziki,erazatine,blog design,blog skins,WP themes[/tags]

Matt Craven announced at the Blog Herald yesterday that Blog Media Inc. is rebranding itself into Problogging Inc. He goes into more detail about the whys and wherefores at the Problogging site itself. It does go a long way as to explaining why Blog Media (or now Problogging) have been so aggressive recently in selling up their blogs. To name just a few-: Biziki (which we bought), Gadget Bloggers, Mobility Watch and now Sporty Blog is on sale at sitepoint. To quote Matt-:

This is part of a deliberate strategy to move beyond the “wide & deep” network strategy that we have employed in the past in order to refocus our efforts on our consulting business and expand more into services for professional bloggers, including directly consulting in that arena.

An interesting comment was left by John Evans from Syntagma Media and then a futher observation in a post-:

As I’ve written here many times, I believe the blog network concept was over-egged because Weblogs Inc was seen as a network rather than two superstar tech websites. The charge out of this space is becoming more like a stampede. As I write, Steve Rubel is asking whether Weblogs Inc itself will survive within AOL now that Jason Calacanis has left.

I am not going to argue the semantics here of this specific scenario, but I would like to pick up on the general gist of it- as there’s been a lot written about the “rise and fall of blog networks” recently.

I’m sure that Blog Media/Pro Blogging know what they are doing and have good strategies in place.

And I’m sure that Syntagma are sure that they are going down the right path as well. Anyway, it’s not really any of my business and I loathe the childish bickering that one often finds in blogosphere. Each to his or her own. And looking over one’s shoulder is a waste of time. As is egoism. Where I come from, humility is a quality, not a defect.

But what I would say is that we are perhaps seeing an evolution of the “creators” of blogosphere moving out, and the offline, “commercial players” (who can ride out long-term ROIs and gain lateral, rather than direct, benefits)- moving in.

Unlike John Evans, I believe very much that blog networks will be extremely healthy long-term investments. Far from being a “bubble”, I don’t think we have even seen the tip of the iceberg yet. Right now the US almost completely dominates the space.

This, in percentage terms, will change over time- a great deal. Blogging will increasingly become more “mainstream” and less “tekkie”. So that people who don’t even know what RSS is- will soon be signing up on their TV screens. Who do I want reading my blogs long-term? People who don’t even know what “blog” means yet. So if this takes us 5 or 10 years, so be it.

I used to work in the stockmarket and we, on a daily basis, were so obsessed with the “technicals” and trading “the margins”, that we never saw the real profits from the bull market, always too eager to buy and sell, and failing to see the overall picture.

The senior expert on a 15th Century Flemish artist, Jan Van Eyck (most famous for his “Arnolfini Marriage” portrait)- was called Erwin Panofsky. He wrote volumes about the symbolism of Van Eyck’s paintings. My point? He yearned to own a Van Eyck and was often consulted for authentication purposes. After he died and his estate was being evaluated- to everyone’s utter amazement, a small (previously unknown and attributed to “school of Master of Flemalle”) iconographic painting by Van Eyck was hanging beside his desk! In other words, while writing books and books on his favorite artist, Panofsky had missed the fact that he owned an original Van Eyck himself all along!

This was my experience playing the stocks. I was “too close to it” and too quick to predict the peaks and troughs. And this I fear is the same thing happening with false predictions now of the demise of blog networks- from the very people who have helped build them up. They are too close to the action and unable to see that the movement is only just getting started!

I hate to repeat a cliché from a previous post, but here it is again-:

“Fools build houses for wise men to live in“.

[tags]blog media,problogging,matt craven,blog herald,blog networks,john evans,syntagma,van eyck,stampede[/tags]

As it’s the holidays (well, in the US, anyway)- I’ll keep this one short. It wasn’t on my intended list of three samples! And it’s mainly for the benefit and ongoing discourse with Matt Mickiewicz of Sitepoint and anyone else out there who is reading this, and likes to trade on sitepoint. Last week there was a site for sale here. It was EFXscripts.com. We wanted it because we like the scripts that it sells and wanted to merge it with a site of our own which has some great, unique scripts, but hasn’t been performing well-: GorillaScripts.com. Plus it was a PR6 with seemingly natural backlinks, so cheap at the price.

Now for one reason or other, we were late to the bidding and somebody else bid at the BIN price. That was $750. Rather annoyed with myself, I messaged the seller and told him that I was sorry to have missed the bidding and that if for any reason the other bid fell through, I was willing to pay $1,000. So $250 over the BIN price. The seller responds to my message and says that I’m not too late as he hasn’t accepted the BIN from the other bidder. So the site was mine if I wanted it.

To my mind, this was unethical behavior on behalf of the seller. I was really in two minds as to how to proceed. The other bidder had won fair and square. My message was in the spirit of “if the other bidder doesn’t pay up…” In this case, I was saved as I got a secondary message from the seller saying that the original BIN bidder had upped his bid to $1,050 – outbidding me. So I was able to gracefully exit.

This example, Matt, is intended to show you how your policies, in bending over backwards for the seller- have created a “black market” of behind-the-scenes bidding. It was the seller’s choice to create a BIN price- he/she didn’t need to. And if it was too low, tough luck. Plus this sort of sale will make future “valuations” practically impossible for buyers, as unlike in the past- one can’t really gauge the “going rate” for a particular type of site.

I do have some suggestions. Here’s the first-: sellers should be forced to sell to the buyer who does a BIN on their auction- if the buyer meets certain criteria (prompt payment, etc).

[tags]sitepoint,scripts,BIN,PR6,blog sales,ethics[/tags]

In my last post, I explained why I feel that buying off sitepoint has become so deadly dull these days. So here is the first example of a recent blog buying experience we have had-:

Widgetoko.com

Okay, we really, really wanted this one. It was listed at sitepoint here with a fairly low starting bid. While it was listed as PR0, it had some fabulous backlinks- including from Digg’s frontpage, Scobleizer, Lifehacker, Wired and other mayor websites. Just a backlinks and a future pagerank check showed us that Bob’s your uncle!! A nicely customized design and short, slick, unique widgets. A perfect match for our own more content-heavy Bloggy Widgets.

So we waited and waited….two minutes to go. The current high bid was $1,001. So we put in the suggested bid of $1,050 (that’s us- “saloschin”). What happens? The auction extends for 4 more hours, automatically. We monitor it. Phew! We still won the bidding- got the email from sitepoint and take the “seller has not yet chosen to accept your bid” as just the usual red tape stuff. Hang on. We don’t hear from the seller- so we message them. And then we get the reply saying “sorry…site already sold to the previous bidder..”.

Now this was all wrong! Firstly, the previous bidder was “private” but had his username revealed to us in the message from the seller. A certain “Problogging”. Damn! We know that one. No less than the former owner of this blog, David Krug. Of all people to be pipped at the post by!! And beaten by a bid of $1,001- lower than ours? Weird!

Did we get a fair shot at winning the site? No. The seller should have indicated that a higher bid had been offered prior, giving us the chance to again increase our bid. How much did the seller actually get? Supposedly $1,001. That’s what it says. How much were we prepared to pay? Approx. $3,500. The seller sure didn’t get that.

In conclusion, neither the seller nor the buyer’s best interests were served by this auction. We didn’t get a fair chance to obtain the site and the seller didn’t get the opportunity to get the highest price that he could. And the whole thing was a rather annoying, frustrating “cloak and dagger” experience that left a bad taste in the mouth. Sitepoint’s policies, while clearly well-intentioned, are actually creating a fundamental lack of transparency- which cannot be good for trade.

Plus, where was the fun? If we’d known that “Problogging” was bidding against us- hell, we’d have paid double just for the fun of it!

And as a follow-up, I’m wondering if the blog sale even went through? Checking the “who is” on the domain now and it seems to still be with the old seller. I don’t know why this is, but what I do know is that such an experience will not serve sitepoint well, long-term- with the potential to lose both buyers and sellers. The current sales lack so much of the articulation and banter of the olden days- and I’m wondering if this will also give sitepoint less “search phrases” to be linked with- enquiries from the SEs in mind, and thus bring down their performance- at least in the marketplace. Time will tell!

[tags]sitepoint, widgetoko, lifehacker, wired, bloggy widgets, widgets, online auctions, david krug, problogging, digg, scobleizer[/tags]

Buying websites off sitepoint used to be a lot of fun. Rather like with eBay, it was the closest thing- adrenalin-wise, to gambling- that I know. As a former art dealer, one of the favorite part of my jobs was bidding at auctions. Swooping in at the last-minute for a piece of art that you desperately wanted, meanwhile poker-faced as if to say “ah well, I’m don’t really care about this one- it’s just an impulsive whim…“And while that sort of inter-personal energy isn’t the same online, it’s still a lot of fun bidding at online auctions- especially if it’s for something you desperately want. This is of course is the cornerstone of eBay’s success, and the element that cleverly backs this up is the feedback system for buyers and sellers.

While sitepoint has never had such a feedback system, it has always been a great place to buy and sell sites because of its inherent prestige and clout, i.e: if someone plays crooked, there will be consequences and the moderators are very professional. Also, every member was always “open” in that you could see his/her profile, how many posts they have made (& then read them)- and make contact at will.

These were the good old days! Auctions were completely free to list. The seller determined things like the BIN price, the length of sale and bidding format and, on the whole, everything was open and transparent. Private deals were possible, but everything was pretty much ‘out there’. In other words, the “spirit” of a true auction process was retained. If a seller declared the end time for an auction to be 17.00 EST on a specific date, then even if a higher bid came in at 17.01- the seller was ethically bound to sell to the bidder that was in time. So much ‘swooping’ last minute was possible! It was also possible to have open, honest discussions about the merits of that particular auction, with other members weighing in on the pros and cons and giving their advice- without being moderated out. And asking the hard, probing questions.

These days, all that has changed on sitepoint. I can see why the management at sitepoint wanted to shake things up from the rather chaotic, amateur process that was in place before. But in doing so, they have also managed to kill much of the charm and fun of bidding, as well as make it much harder to get a bargain. They have also made it harder to be 100% sure that you have won a site or to gain the useful advice and sometimes OTT battering of other members.

The first change that took some of the fun out was the over-zealous moderating. That members can only ask pertinent questions in regards to the sale if they are genuine buyers. They have drawn the line of “sabotage” too far- so that even fair, reasonable questions get moderated out. Rather like referees over-protecting goalies in footy!! The seller should be allowed to answer the difficult questions, while now, under current rules- they just whinge and duck them.

The second policy that has spoilt the fun is the separation of “established sites for sale” and “turnkeys”. Why? Because of the lack of definition in terms and the misunderstanding that most sellers and buyers have for what a turnkey actually is. So many buyers who would usually consider a “turnkey” won’t even visit that markeplace- thinking “I only want something established” and ditto sellers not listing there. While it makes sense in concept, in reality it has made for less excitement and fun.

The third policy that has really affected the process of buying & selling on sitepoint negatively- are the fees. From being free, they went to $4.95, then $9.95, then $14,95, then $19.95 and now just $20 (for “established sites”). What this means is that a lot of sellers who own, technically speaking, “established sites”, will be completely put off listing their $100 sites up for sale, as they’re losing 20% before starting! So for those who are looking for real “bargains” at that sort of level- hoping they can get such a site to be worth $1,000 with a bit of work- are denied the opportunity and their hearts just sink as they go through the many sites for sale for the $000s. And then with the ones who are still up at that price range- you nearly always find that they’re really not worth anything at all- which is why they don’t mind paing the fee and taking their shot.

And the fourth and last reason why sitepoint’s new rules have diminished the experience is the actual bidding/selling process. Firstly, some of the auctions can go on forever. When you see “time to go…27 days…”, you lose interest pretty quickly! Then, if you do wait until the last moment to bid- in the hope that you can get the site at the best possible price, and get the better of your bidding rivals (!), suddenly- if within 24 hours, the auction’s time period is extended for 4 hours more! What is more, because of the new “privacy” option- which nearly everyone seems to be using, one can’t see who one is bidding against- and therefore judge their patterns and see who are the cheapos and who are the real players. And you can only clock up “credits” (via posts) with “PM stats please…“

After all this is said and done, you have bid and won the auction. Or so you think…another irritating last hurdle to jump through. “A winning bid has been made (or BIN)...but the seller has not yet accepted or declined the offer…so you can make an offer…”.

Aargh So after all that, I don’t even know if I won the site or not??

Seemingly, these latter policies are in line to help the seller achieve the best price possible. The question is if it does, in reality, achieve that. In my next post, I’ll be giving three recent examples of our own experiences on sitepoint- as evidence that not only has sitepoint become a boring place to buy sites from, but that it also doesn’t work in practice as it should.

You can see sitepoint’s new “auction guidelines” here.

[tags]sitepoint,buying sites,auction, online auctions,turnkeys,privacy,blog sales[/tags]

We’ve been busy again!! Our lastest acquistion is Biziki.com, bought from Blog Media via a recent sitepoint auction. It’s a blog we’ve had our eye on for a while- not least because it shares the superb, and exclusive eratizine WP theme design by Chris Pearson. We contacted Chris earlier this year to try and get him to do a design overhaul of our whole network and it was tentatively set for this November. Unfortunately, Chris wrote to us to say that tubetorial was just taking up too much of his time and he couldn’t do it. I recall rather a witty comment about fortunes not being made by “icasso” unless there was a “p” in front of it, to which I recommended a more Warholesque approach! So…failing that, we decided to stay with the eratizine theme, which Biziki, Gadzooki and this blog- JOAB- uses. Our thanks to Matt Craven of Blog Media for handling the transaction/transfer in a polite, efficient and professional manner. However, we would like to mention something in regards to this purchase in the spirit of clearing some seeming bad blood (that we were previously unaware of). The previous main blogger of Biziki, Brian Yalung, aka “bryboy”, has posted several things around the net, including at the Blog Herald and on personal blogs- indicating that there was a “misunderstanding” with ourselves (partner site: Word Content) and that somehow the parting of the ways was not good, insinuating in some way that we were at fault. To quote Brian-:

I think I will not be considered by these people since I have some issues with them in the past. I have worked for them in the past and our parting was not so good. While they gave me a good break in the past, I wouldnt be surprised if I will run into trouble with them. This is precisely why I looked to freelance to avoid them.

Ahem...to say nothing of another classic piece of Brian waffle…I don’t want to get into mud-slinging here (actually, maybe I do?), but Brian knows the truth of the matter very well- that he acted unethically and dishonestly. We gave Brian every opportunity in many areas- writing for Word Content, linkbuilding for Link Lander and submitting articles for ArticleSubmission.net. What happened was that Brian was found to be using our software and concepts to promote his own personal agendas. Having confronted Brian with this- it was just a matter of a “ticking off” and he was not fired. He chose to diappear on us instead (probably in shame!) and turned up as the blogger on Biziki. He was fully paid for all his work for us and was at no time mistreated in any way and we take issue with his subsequent insinuations against us. Online reputations are fragile and this is why we write this now. All that is said here is fact and can be backed up by a variety of independent sources. Having said all this, from our end, water under the bridge.

Anyway, we are very pleased to have acquired this blog. A PR6 with some good earnings from Adsense and TLA made financial sense in its own right. But it also fits into our portfolio- with our plan to turn it into a Political Blog. While this may seem a drastic change, politics is a business and a rather dirty one at that. We have already initiated a Business Blog of our own: BizCrunch.net and with the Senate and Congress elections now over in the US, it’s all going to be fun and games with the fight for the White House!

On a personal level, even though I am from the UK, I love US politics. As partisan and media-driven as it may be, it is far more engaging and combative than the rather sedate, irrelevant discussions we have in the UK, or obscene, open corruption in Asia.

What happens in the US matters to all of us and impacts our lives in a very real, tangible way. That makes it exciting.

[tags] biziki,gadzooki,bloggy network,sitepoint,matt craven, chris pearson,brian yalung, political blog [/tags]

The Bloggy Network picked up an interesting blog last weekend at sitepoint. Quoting from the auction:

Buzzword Hell was a blog I started whose mission was to condemn all the buzzwords that floated around our industry. It’s a blog with a very unique system in that it “condemns” buzzwords to the circles of hell from Dante’s Inferno. Each buzzword is condemned based on the number of comments it has gotten.

It certainly is a very clever and original idea! And also some interesting backlinks; for instance from wikipedia’s page on buzzwords and an interview by Ben Bleikamp on his old College Start-Up blog.

Current “buzzwords condemned to hell” include-:

* Ajax

• Bandwidth
  
• Beta
  
• Blogosphere
  
• Folksonomy
  
• GYM Free
  
• Information Superhighway
  
• Live Search
  
• Meme
  
• Pagerank
  
• Paradigm Shift
  
• Progressive Enhancement
  
• Realign
  
• SEO
  
• Social Networking
  
• Spear Phishing
  
• Synergy
  
• Thought Leader
  
• Web 2.0
  
  

  BuzzwordHell.com is the creation of Bryan Veloso, known by his followers in blogosphere as “rock star”. Bryan is a member of the 9 rules network through his personal website: AvalonStar.com. He has worked for Facebook and Automattic, while achieving genuine “celebrity blogger” status through such landmark posts as his “Saying Hello to Aries” and the launch of his own WordPress theme: “Chaotic Soul“.

  
  

  Bryan has some good tips in his 9 rules interview for any wannabe “celebrity bloggers” out there. Amongst them, some modest advice-:

  
  

  I’m proud to say that I feel I have one of the most dedicated reader bases out there. For what reason? Why do they keep coming back? I really couldn’t tell you. I could assume, but then I could be making an ass of myself. Hmm… I try to talk to people like they’re right next to me, I try to be conversational. I don’t think there is any other way blogging should be. Blogging is a conversation between multiple parties. I’m a huge believer in transparency, which means that I never hide anything from my readers.

  
  

  [tags]bryan veloso,buzzwords,star bloggers, rock star,live search, web 2.0,9 rules,facebook,sitepoint,wikipedia[/tags]
  

As of this week, the One Big Network, brainchild of celebrity cowboy- David Krug, and former owner of Jack Of All Blogs, has officially launched.

Here is the press release going out:

One Big Opportunity

Do you have expert knowledge, but often find yourself struggling to create new quality content for the web? If yes, then you’re not alone.

There’s gotta be another way, right? Well, we think so.

The web is full of content. Lots of it is really bad information. Being an expert doesn’t necessarily require that you create new content. What we need now more than ever are experts who can pick out the best content on the web.

That’s where you come in.

The process is simple. Begin by choosing a topic of interest. Then, go out and find the best, most authoritive sites on your topic (start by finding 9-12 sites). Each authority site should have a feed for its latest content. Your site will simply feature the latest headlines from each site that you deem an “authority.” In other words, you’ll be making a portal or hub of expert information about your topic. Constantly updated…automatically. And you can make money from it too!

Sound too good to be true?

The OneBig Network is enabling just this kind of site…with the added benefit of network leverage. Our method gives you an easy way to make money without the daily grind. All the work is upfront, and then you just sit back. Our system constantly updates the latest headlines from each authority site, making your OneBig site an authoritive, relevant, up to the minute snapshot of the best the web has to offer on your particular topic.

So if you’re struggling to generate new content for your blogs or content sties, why not try building expert sites that highlight the best feeds on your favorite topics. Not only will you be providing a valuable service to those who share your interests, but you’ll also be creating a unique opportunity for the best kind of income…the sit back and relax kind!

For only $250 you can join the OneBig network which includes a fully functional site template, a custom designed header graphic, and total participation in the OneBig Network. Lots of benefits. Zero risk. Why wait?

If anyone is interested in joining the One Big Network, please fill out the contact form: here.

The Bloggy Network has bought four sites, which you can view as samples of “niche areas” covered.

One Big Daddy

One Big Hacker

One Big Sport

One Big Japan

Sheriff’s post yesterday about the dot-com bubble started me thinking on other schemes that broke the investing bank. The oldest one I could remember was the Dutch tulip craze, when Dutch collectors were paying the equivalent of a half-million dollars for a single rare bulb – this in the early 1600s. The craze reached its peak in 1636, when flower prices crashed and speculators panicked, selling at a loss or reneging on contracts.

It’s possible that the tulip craze was not as far-reaching or catastrophic as later historians made it out to be. (Also, I never heard of a pirate raiding a ship for a bunch of flowers – not very piratey. Or smart. Gold keeps better, and wisely invested money grows pretty well.) But the Dutch also invented the stock market as it exists today; while the French traded government bonds, the Dutch started openly selling stocks and company shares in the Dutch East India Company right around the year 1600.

So not long after the first speculations from the first real bourgeois-heavy culture, you see the first stock market crash. Interesting.

And look throughout history – people overreach, get greedy, get too speculative, and boom! The market crashes. Today it may be the housing market, starting in the U.S. and spreading throughout the world. Yesterday it was the dot-com. Before that, oil. Before that, the worldwide crash of the 1920s followed by a worldwide depression.

Need I continue? I can, if you wish. Stock market crashes are as old as stock markets. People should realize that speculating on the stock market is gambling. It is dangerous. And you can lose your shirt.

Now what’s going on today is speculation on the very dubious value of domain names. A few people made a killing selling great web names they were smart enough to seize early. There’s been a terrible battle over the ownership of Sex.com. And a lot of Johnny-come-latelies think they might be able to duplicate the success through other slick Internet schemes.

Guess what? Won’t work. The first pirate to get to the galleon, gets the gold. The next ones usually get caught by the British navy – a fate not to be wished on a barnacle, mate.

Be smart. Work hard. Don’t buy into the get-rich-quick garbage, and don’t ever think you’re smarter than the next guy. You’re not. Neither am I.