Hey all! It has been a month since my last post and I’m finding that keeping up with this blog along with everything else I do continues to be difficult. I will struggle on and try to keep it alive and kicking. With that in mind, I wanted to share a bit of news . . .

Joshua Dorkin Makes the National News as Real Estate Commentator

Earlier today, I was interviewed about the US Housing Crisis by CBS radio, and the interview aired throughout the afternoon on KNX 1070 News Radio in Southern California, and across the Nation on all radio stations broadcasting CBS Network news. For more on the interview, visit the BiggerPockets Blog.

It was fun to do, and I have been happy with the feedback so far. I certainly hope to continue sharing my views with the media and the rest of the country.

If anyone else in the press is interested in speaking with me, I’d be more than happy to make myself available.

Thanks for everyone’s continued support!

Everyone these days has a webcam, and I’m pretty sure most people don’t really use it too much (outside those of you voyeurs & teenagers out there). I actually use mine almost daily making video phone calls through Skype. It’s great! I keep up with my family, friends, and business associates by making these video calls.

There are, however, other great uses of these cameras. I did some exploring yesterday and found a bunch of cool resources for doing online broadcasting via your webcam. These tools can be used to start your own live online TV show, to create a video blog, or to just make interesting web-videos. All are worth checking out!
Live Web Broadcasting Tools

• Operator11
• Stickam
• USStream.tv
• YouCams

Scheduled and On-Demand Web Broadcasting Tools

• Kyte
• SplashCast * My Favorite *

Thanks to Masternewmedia.com for putting out a great web broadcasting guide and list of web broadcasting tools!

I was reading a few posts over at Digitalpoint Webmaster forums and came across a post asking if a niche was necessary for a blog. The person asking this question had asked the same question only a few weeks ago, but seemed to be unconvinced.

If You’re Blogging for Money, You Must Have a Niche.

If You’re Blogging for Fun, Do What You Want!

I, like other serious bloggers, use feed readers to keep up with all of the blogs that I subscribe to and read. In order to speed my way through the list of around 100 blogs (reduced from several hundred – it was simply too much), I categorize them by topic. Some of the categories I use include: real estate investing, seo, blogging, technology, politics, and entrepreneurship.

I don’t have the time to play around on unprofessional, unfocused blogs. I want to find informative articles or newsworthy posts and I want to do so quickly and easily. If I go to Problogger or DoshDosh, I know I’m going to read about blogging; if I go to AsktheVC, I’ll read about venture capital; at the Instigator Blog, I’ll read about startup company advice. You want your blog to be predictable so people can come to rely on it as a source of information about whatever niche you cover.

But . . . TimeforBlogging isn’t Completely Focused

This site does cover a variety of topics, but I actually do it for fun, not for money. I am too busy with my other sites to truly focus on this one . . . it serves more as a diary of my experiences, infused wit some helpful tips for others. If I wanted to truly monetize this blog, I’d operate it in a completely different manner than I currently do. I would keep it focused to either blogging, entrepreneurship, my personal politics, or something else.

What do you think? Is it absolutely necessary for a blogger to focus on a niche to be successful?

This week, another SPLOG popped up that included stolen copyrighted content from one of my other blogs. This time, I was pretty annoyed. Normally, when I discover that a splog has stolen content from one of my sites, I’ll request they remove the content with a CC to their host. I don’t really go after them in the pocketbook because most of these sites are clearly from people who don’t know any better. Their contact info is easily accessable, revealing that they are not trying to hide from anyone.

This guy not only had Google AdSense ads all over the site, but also Kontera’s In-Text links.

You’d Think Both Google and Kontera Would Screen Their Publishers!

As the thief had clearly hidden their identity both on the site, and through their registrar, I decided this one was worth nailing; he was clearly hiding from people like me and he needs to be busted! In addition to contacting his host, DreamHost, to let them know, I also emailed both Google and Kontera to inform them of of the violations to their respective TOS and demonstrated how and where this guy was stealing my content. Some people create SPLOGS without knowing that they are doing wrong. This guy clearly knew it and took all the proper steps to make sure no one could find him . . .

Now, I’m waiting to see who takes care of this thief:

1. His host, DreamHost
2. Google (AdSense)
3. Kontera

Who do you think will nail this Jerk first?

• I’d like to thanks CNN for sharing with me the incredible AvoidDelays, which is brought to all of us from our nation’s air controllers. This site is chock full of awesome data about flying in the US, including airports to avoid, worst time to fly to certain cities, and much more. If you travel at all, this site is a must for your bookmarks!
• Thanks to ComputerWorld, I learned that Google recently launched Google Trends, an improved version of their previous Zeitgeist. Googe Trends has an awesome feature that allows you to search the 100 fastest rising search terms in the US, which should come in very handy for those bloggers and others who target popular keywords. You can also look at cool trend & historical charts of different terms, something that is pretty fun to fool around with.
• On the other hand, in a more ominous story, apparently, Google doesn’t think it has invaded our personal lives enough, and wants to delve deeper. In a story I learned about from Drudge, the Financial Times interviewed the Google guys and they revealed their EXTREMELY FRIGHTENING plan to take over the world:
  Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world’s information.

  Asked how Google might look in five years’ time, Mr Schmidt said: “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.

  “The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”

  I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I’m absolutely more afraid of Google then I am the US government under the Bush/Cheney regime. If the government knew as much about everyone as Google did, we’d all be up in arms! I already discussed how they use private data to get better results from Google Blogsearch in the past, and this is just another step towards a complete invasion of all of our privacy. Sadly, people are embracing their efforts instead of fighting them.

  Do you really want any one company to know that much about you? It is indeed a Brave New World and we don’t even realize it!

One thing every blogger, web-designer, and entrepreneur has in common is that we all have some kind of office that we work out of. For some of us, it is a lounge chair on the beach, for others, a cluttered mess.

What Does Your Office Look Like?

Here’s a look at mine. I call it “Organized Chaos!” As you can tell, there are papers on the floor (they don’t last there long . . . my dogs get to them and shred them eventually), the all-important trail mix, scattered electronics (digital camera & camcorder), notes everywhere, and the centerpiece, my iMac (if you haven’t tried switching to Mac, I would highly consider it!).

Group Photo Contest

Now that I’ve shared my home office with all of you, let’s see what your workspace looks like!

While I don’t have any prizes to give out, I thought it might be fun to see how chaotic or immaculate the offices of the rest of you are.

Here’s what I propose:

1. Take a photo of your workspace (without cleaning it up first – we want to see how it looks in reality).

2. Post it on your blog in a post about your workspace.
3. OPTIONAL, But it would be great if you did: Link to this post somehow (I deserve credit for the idea, don’t I?).
   
4. Contact me via my contact form and point me to your post . . . I’ll add a link to your post from this one.

5. Visit all the other interesting workspaces of your fellow bloggers. Feel free to comment on the photos.
6. Feel free to tag your fellow bloggers if you’d like!

If anyone has some sort of prize they want to give away, we can always transform this into a fun contest. Anyone?

If no one decides to participate in any way, at least you all now know what kind of environment I work in.

So . . . Share Your Office / Worspace With The Rest of Us!

Disclaimer: This was partially inspired by all the group writing contests out there.

Here are The Offices / Workspaces of Our Friends Out There

• David Pitlyuk’s Cool Multi-Screen Office
• Blog-Op’s Workspace Exposed
• Francesco Mapelli’s Bedroom Office
• Alison’s Workspace Revealed
• Melt du Plooy’s Workspace
• Claire’s Workspace Exposed
• The World Around Us’s Workspace
• Minddriven’s Workspace
• Workspace of the author of the Banalita Blog (italian)
• Brandon Hopkins’ Workspace Video Tour
• Andrew Flusche’s Workspace
• Mark Shead’s Sparkling Workspace
• Nirmal’s Cubicle Workspace

Here are some important news stories from the past day that are worth a look:

• Gonzales proposes new crime: ‘Attempted’ copyright infringement (CNet News.com)
  This could affect every blogger and person with a website. An important read.

• Russia accused of unleashing cyberwar to disable Estonia (The Guardian UK)
  Looks like we’re possibly seeing the first state sponsored cyber-war between nations. This is potentially a very scary situation!

• Details emerge on IRS plans to tax eBay auctions (ars technica)
  The big-dogs of Ebay may soon hate the IRS more than the rest of us!