danielhonigman

In addition to these sites, start volunteering for local/nearby charities. You'll find that it's a good way to build up your network (why do you think so many execs are on nonprofit boards?) and your credibility within the nonprofit space.

We blog for a number of reasons. Since we run a B2B business, we'll write about topics of interest (i.e. issues in the B2B or software space), our community/users and the company, as appropriate.

Check it out: http://about.g2crowd.com/blog Our site is also at http://g2crowd.com. (Might give you a better sense of what we're about.)

What happens then? Are they just there to take down your opinion?

Go to Google. Search for your favorite companies. See if they have Google Places pages, Facebook pages or websites. Chances are some of the smaller ones won't have the latter.

We have a few contributors for the G2 Crowd blog (http://about.g2crowd.com/blog), but it's a great place not only for sharing company news, POVs, media coverage and more, but to publish highlights from your user/customer base as well.

Apologies. Nothing came up when I searched for it!

...you overhear someone challenging someone else to a math-off.

This is critical. As a marketer, I've seen - far too often, mind you - a severe disconnect between the perception of one's customers, and the reality.

Not saying that you need to have full personas, in which you include ALL motivations, demographics, customer journeys - the works - but it helps to have something on paper that you can refer to.

The beauty of it is you can always change them!

Agreed!

Very robust answer. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Good point. They don't stay long, and they likely won't sign up for anything. If you get a big spike from SU visits, it could take down the site. And you'll have nothing to show for it.

Thought they'd be bad against Germany without Neymar. Didn't think they were THIS much of a one-man team.

Agreed. However, if you're working for someone else, in order to do that, you need to have shown value beyond the time you're taking off.

So if you take a year, it's making sure beforehand you've made your company the difference in your salary. (Assuming they're paying you.)

If they're not paying you, it's just a matter of how much money you've saved up.

I think that much of it comes down to community management. (e.g. preventing trolls from taking over, continuing discussion threads)

That's a great point. So many sites - including TC/VB - are the same folks all the time. And they might be keeping up with startup news, but they aren't potential end users.

For business-related products, it's also helpful to gain exposure in the industries you're in. For instance, if you're launching a product that might serve both the healthcare and legal sectors, any type of exposure there not only proves legitimacy for potential customers, but to investors as well.

Mechanical Turk: It's a hell of a drug.

I submit random articles, upvote, comment. I'm not a dev, but I try to participate how i can.

I'd still pay for Rdio before Spotify. Just my two cents.

Unless they can somehow seed it with a bunch of images, get some decent answers and go from there. (Which is what they're going for eventually, I think.)

Best analysis I've seen so far on the platform. I have to admit: I like the platform, but many questions that are asked there don't get the serious thought they deserve. (There are also a TON of dumb questions on the site.)

It was just on Techmeme today. Probably inspired the additional submission, as I just tried subbing it myself.

Done and done. Thanks for posting.

Good for you. Hope it works out again!

Good point

Will be interesting to see what happens in 2016, with Obama having reached his two-term limit. Plus, I also think Obama was focusing on more "mainstream" channels like FB, Twitter, etc.

Amen. If you're taking care of your dogs already, you don't need this, unless you want another status symbol to go with your hypo-allergenic mini-poodle. (Or schnoodle.)

This is just cruel. Just take your dog(s) for a run once or twice a day.

I'll play around with it, but needs a bit more functionality before I consider making it a regular part of my toolkit.