Entrepreneurial Geekiness

We have a new release of ShowMeDo on-line! We’re receiving some amazing feedback on our market-test with offers of new videos ranging from language tuition through knitting and on to car servicing. We’d love for these new videos to compliment our current 10 videos.

Our 10 videos are free to access (and always will be), we’ll be adding more of our own over the coming weeks. Our first video had Kyran filming me making a perfect cup of coffee, shortly I’ll be filming Kyran make Excellent Tea. These go alongside our other short tuition pieces on the Python programming language, IPython, ScummVM (with Flight of the Amazon Queen) and one on using HyperCam to make your own videos.

Kyran and I would love to receive your feedback, would you take a look and get in contact?

I’m seeing an increase in on-line services that let users earn money from their efforts. Many people like the idea of supplementing their incomes by doing something that they enjoy. Some examples:

• eBay – become a retailer selling whatever you choose
• Professional blogging – e.g. ProBlogger, write about what you enjoy and earn money through sponsorship, Google Adsense and affiliate programmes (e.g. Amazon’s)
• iStockPhoto – submit your own photos and take a cut of sales of your images
• eLance – offer yourself as a freelancer, from software development to brochure design

Umair Haque links to a good example – a woman’s new career as The Virtual Rockefeller (via this), buying and developing real-estate inside the Second Life game (reportedly for a very nice salary).

Kyran and I are aiming to give our users the option of earning money from their knowledge inside ShowMeDo. More on that in the future.

Two good entrepreneurial articles, first Paul Graham’s How To Make Wealth, previously only available in Hackers and Painters is now on-line.

If you wanted to get rich, how would you do it? I think your best bet would be to start or join a startup. That’s been a reliable way to get rich for hundreds of years. The word “startup” dates from the 1960s, but what happens in one is very similar to the venture-backed trading voyages of the Middle Ages.

Up second, Ian Landsman writes an interesting piece on 4 Rules for the Practical Entrepreneur. I’m not sure I agree with all of Ian’s points, perhaps I’m not the practical entrepreneur that he discusses, but the advice is good. Preferring B2B over B2C sounds rather like a personal preference (and has its own challenges, as mentioned in the comments), but each to his own.