I am honored and humbled — to a degree of which my typically expansive ego is unaccustomed — to have been asked by Small Business Trends to speak live on the global nerve-net as part of their speaker's series "SMB Trendwire" Thursday, December 16 at 4pm ET.
The conversation with Anita Campbell, Steve Rucinski and myself is entitled "How I Run a Publishing Business with 650 [now 717, to be precise] Authors from a Home Office" and will be webcast live at this address, as well as archived for streaming.
We will be talking about the unwieldy, uproarious monstrosity that we lovingly call Blogcritics.org and how it has become, against all laws of space, time and geometry, a functioning business from the old home office right next to the bathroom and coat closet.
If you register in advance, you can email in questions with which to perplex me for the event. You’ll also get access to the talking points we will put together after the Conversation.
It'll be cool - don't forget, this Thursday, December 16 at 4pm ET for some fine live Internet blabbing on running a media biz from home. Thanks again to Anita and Steve, and we will talk to you Thursday!








Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Anita Campbell
The rumor that Eric does voice-overs for Alvin and the Chipmunks simply is not true.
Come hear for yourself on Thursday.
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks for clearing that up Anita! I look forward to it
3 - Steve
Darn, I thought he was secretly Spongebob.
4 - Eric Olsen
I would be OPENLY SpongeBob, but alas he is another silly 40-something white male
5 - Eric Olsen
20 minutes until showtime, join us!
6 - Aaman
Does anyone have the link to the webcast handy?
7 - Eric Olsen
here
8 - Eric Olsen
I am talking and typing at the same time
9 - Aaman
Thanks Eric,
I had signed up, but never got an email link to login - there isn't one on the site - guess I'll just have to listen to the archived version.
Bully for you!
10 - Eric Olsen
in the future they will have a "listen live" link on the site without having to register in advance - I'll let you know as soon as the archive is up. Very sorry abou the misinformation
11 - Phillip Winn
Indeed, I signed up more than 30 minutes before the webcast, was told I would receive a link, and never did. :-(
12 - Anita Campbell
OK, all! We hear you!
We're a startup, and we're still working out the bugs -- as you can tell.
My apologies to all who did not get the link -- that told us a lot about what we need to do differently next time.
Meanwhile, we're getting the archived link out to everyone who registered but couldn't listen. It will also be posted on the site (it's probably already there).
Many thanks to everyone who submitted questions -- the Duke de Mondo and others from Blogcritics among them.
Many thanks to Eric, of course, who did an outstanding job -- what else would you expect, right? And you can tell he really loves all you blogcritics. He mentioned several of you, including big kudos for Phillip. (Aw shucks)
Best,
Anita
13 - Aaman
Nooo problem - kinks in the system are part of the game. - Just received the archive link and I'm about to listen in:)
14 - Eric Olsen
Yeay! the archived interview is here
Thanks again Anita and Steve - I had a great time and the questions were very intelligent and the show well run!
15 - Steve Rucinski
Let me add my apologies along with Anita's for those of you who registered and could not get in. If you registered you should have received an email this afternoon that would lead you to the archive page and the audiocast.
Eric was a tough (too much content) but great guest, blogcritics is quite the machine and there is a lot to be learned from its success.
Thanks again Eric and other Blogcritic guests!
16 - Mark Saleski
after listening to the show:
1. anybody who doubts eric's passion for this site is just plain deaf.
2. thank god mr. olsen doesn't drink coffee.
17 - Eric Olsen
I am always "energized" in performance mode, but I was also talking really fast to try to get as much in as possible
18 - Natalie Davis
I was thinking it was coffee. Great job, Eric!
19 - Eric Olsen
thanks Mark and Nat (I'm loud AND fast)
20 - Mark Saleski
interesting that moving the amazon link to the top of the post made such a big difference.
21 - Eric Olsen
It's logical if you think about it because about the same time we also finally realized that while, sure, we want peopole to be inspired to buy specific CDs, books, DVDs, games, etc we review, the way the affiliate program works is if a customer clicks through to Amazon from Blogcritics, we get credit for anything they buy from Amazon in the next 24 hours, as long as they don't go to another Amazon affiliate in the meantime.
So the most important thing of all is to get as many people to click over as possible, and THAT's what the pic/link on top helps, as well as the ads and links in the sidebars.
22 - Anita Campbell
Glad you could pack so much into the conversation, Eric!
Blogcritics is rising to new heights each month, and I can't wait to see what the new year holds in store.
Soldier on! (that's what Eric told the Duke)
23 - RJ
I just listened in through the archives. Great interview!
24 - Eric Olsen
thanks Anita and RJ, we shall soldier on inded and I am also very excited about the new year, which I believe will see some breakthroughs
25 - bhw
if a customer clicks through to Amazon from Blogcritics, we get credit for anything they buy from Amazon in the next 24 hours, as long as they don't go to another Amazon affiliate in the meantime.
Aha!