Mortaine’s Blog

Today is a little different! Today is INTERACTIVE!!!

Here it is:

First impressions are important. You get a lot of impressions of me on this vlog. Download this form, print it, fill it out, scan it in (or just draw your answers on-screen, but what’s the fun in that?) and email it back to me (same username at gmail). OR email a short video (

Click here for the form!

On videoblogging would-be businesses “how to piss me off:”

Send a press release to the 1,200+ member Yahoo! group.
Spam the Y! Group. With anything.
Send a press release or spam to me directly if we haven’t talked off-list and it isn’t directly related to my vlog.
Ignore the fact that most of us are on Macs and post about your software without mentioning what platform it’s for.
Ignore the fact that some of us are on Windows… and same.
Invite participation without compensation. I know you want money for this, but I also know you have money or you wouldn’t have a business model.
Spam my vlog comments. You want to comment, great, but don’t pimp your product in my comments. Include your link in the field on my comments form where it says “website” and that’s sufficient. If it’s a porn site, expect to be deleted.
Have ambiguous, misleading content licensing terms and then go to various vloggers demanding money and not offering a free “desist” option. I assure you, this will convince ME not to use your service.
Repost/redistribute content without permission.

How to make me wary, but not pissed:
Use anything but plain text when you post to Y! Group. That goes for non-businesses, too– just use plain text, so I can fucking READ it!
Geurilla-market to the Y! Group by saying “Oh, I’ve heard of this cool product XYZ” without disclosing that you work for XYZ.
Send a marketer to Y! Group instead of your chief technologist.
Don’t actually have a vlog, but want our business. We are not walking wallets.
Be cagey about what you do or plan to do. Confidentiality is fine, but don’t teaser us. If you have something you’re working on and can’t talk about it, then don’t even mention it. Fuck pre-buzz. When you have enough for a press release, then you can talk about it. Just don’t post the whole fucking release to the group!

You’ll notice that disagreeing with me isn’t in this list. That’s because, if you are willing to talk and disagree and discourse, then I consider you to be contributing to the community. Those who contribute to the community are more likely to receive my business.

Things you can do to make me think you are golden:
Hire me. (duh)
Provide free resources.
Come up with a business model that I can use to make money off of vlogging, even if it involves you making money, too– that would be THE BEST.