You may have noticed me capturing geeks, technophiles in a significant %age against other niche. But before you apply your judgment, let me tell you it’s not purposeful. The presence of elitebloggers here is governed by their hard-earned popularity of blogs, technorati ranking and above all the choice of elitebloggers themselves. And today we have with us William Barnes, founder, GearCrave who is geared up to carve a new level of success for his blog along with its editor Mike Payne. Lately, I happened to reach William and got the chance to scan the success secrets and future plans about his Mens Buying and Lifestyle Guide.
Here you go:
William, introduce yourself to my readers and take us through your daily flow at work.
My name is William Barnes; I am 28 years old and was born in London. I read Mechanical Engineering at University and now live in Santa Monica Los Angeles. My daily work flow normally involves trying to balance the overload of emails I get and getting to the tasks I have in TO-DO-LIST.
GearCrave doesn’t have any tagline. If asked to produce one, what would that be?
The Mens Buying and Lifestyle Guide.
Time Magazine handpicked iPhone as the invention of the year 2007. What according to you are the prospective candidates for 2008 award in the same category?
Hopefully something like the Tesla the more exposure that gets the better.
With the evolution of green houses and hybrid cars, do you think is technology really becoming green or is it a steep PR exercise?
Some are some aren’t, as with all innovation the price premium it carries is eroded over time. Hopefully mainstream acceptance is possible; VC money certainly seems to think so.
Tell us about WPBGroup. Are you the editor for all the four-sites falling under this group?
Not at all, I have trouble writing the address on a letter, Mike Payne edits GearCrave, Myke Armstrong runs Nerdyshirts and Mali Elfman is the editor for LA.CityZine. There are all-great at what they do and I am very lucky to work with them.
Japan seems to breed robots in huge numbers. Can you imagine a day when robots are efficient enough to substitute humans for all major tasks? Would you depute one to blog for you?
I can imagine a day when robots dream of electric sheep.
What do you count as one factor that attracts readers to your blog besides gamut of gadget-related blogs?
GearCrave; Mike strikes a great balance between finding really cool products every day with, insane editorials, like the GearCrave guide to buying your own missile silo, you combine that with the amazing competitions we run and I am not surprised people come back.
Nerdyshirts: Myke is always releasing sweet t-shirts, they always seem to be conversation pieces. My favorite shirt is “Too Many muth’ uckers” I am a big Flight of the Conchords fan and every bar I go to people talk to me about the shirt.
LA.CityZine: Mali and her enormous team of writers are constantly finding the cool and quirky of LA, the amount of music and movie coverage on that site is amazing.
What are your other interests besides your work?
Football as in with your feet.
Tell us about your ‘must-read’ or favorites blogs?
Calacanis, Techcrunch, NerdyShirts, Afrojacks, HolyTaco, FluidApp, Twit.tv, Thebachelorguy, todolist.
Provide us with your five favorite posts you have written to date.
How to buy your own missile silo
Family tree T-Shirt
How to buy your own private island
Flight of the conchords T-Shirts
You’re marooned on a desert island: What gadget you wish to have?
A teleporter?
How would you like to be known as?
Entrepreneur
Quick bites:
Hours you invest digging net: Too many
Biggest blogging mistake you did: I don’t blog
One hidden truth: Not telling
Advice you would have given yourself five years ago? Here is the internet, get on with it.
If not a blogger, then Someone like J.Calacanis or Mark Cuban
Life without Internet: Probably work either in a IT start up in London or in the movie business in LA.
First gadget you kept your fingers upon: Tabletop Donkey Kong
One thing you hate about GearCrave: I don’t hate anything about it, I have ambitions for it that are not fulfilled and we are working towards making them happen.
If asked for giving three tips to a greenhorn blogger, what would that be?
Don’t ask me, email Peter Rojas, Ryan Block or Brian Lam, those guys seem to have it down.
What new features can your savvy readers expect in coming months from GearCrave?
Big changes, by Xmas GearCrave won’t be alone, it would have changed significantly.
Besides content generation, networking comes as a part and parcel of a blogging. What are you doing at this front to maintain the popularity of your blog?
Not as much as I should, two years ago I knew nothing about the commercial side of the internet, much less about web publishing, it has been a great learning curve. The downside though of not having worked in the industry and I am very short on contacts so over the next 12 months I am going to make a concerted effort to attend more conferences and events like the techcrunch meet ups etc.
Beyond the human side GearCrave has a lot of the social networking options covered: we have a page summarizing all the ways you can follow gearcrave at.
Do you think blogs are or can be as popular as NYTimes, Time, NewsWeek are?
They already are and in some cases more so.
Where do you see the future of Blogosphere?
Consolidation of commercial blogs and the development of tools to process the second tier of sites.
Whom would you recommend as my next EliteBlogger and Why?
Definitely Cory Jones at HolyTaco, Mike at AfroJacks, or Eric at TheBachelorguy. I don’t know if they have the time, but I always love reading what they write.
Give us your views on EliteChoice.
I like the redesign, I am not sure the interview with bloggers necessarily matches the consumer female demographic that your ads are aimed at, but then I am guessing they are good for link building.
You can ask me one question.
Why do cats hate me?
Possibly, you may have lately developed a soft corner for dogs as well-:)
Here i thank William for giving us an insight about his blog and wish him luck for its upcoming features.
