,,Go kill more trees”, my friend Edial cheerfully replied when I told him about my upcoming blog book. ,,While you’re writing articles for the newspaper, don’t forget your personal blog”, Erwin Blom warned me on Twitter. Are you a journalist or a blogger, people ask me frequently. Hell, I don’t know guys. I just publish. And for every story, I pick the most suitable medium.

Continue reading Pick your medium. Every day

It’s the end of the year. The week everybody makes list. I figured it would be a good idea to make a list of my personal goals for 2010. So I can live up to them. So that I have to live up to them (since you’ve read them). My goals: a number one hit, more in-depth reporting, writing a book, Overheard in Amsterdam, and replacing all advertising on Times Square with art. Yeah, some of the ideas are ridiculous.

Continue reading My five goals for 2010

BKB, one of Holland’s most successful campaigning agencies, organizes a talent academy every year. It consists of two study trips and ten meetings with well-known politicians, campaigners, and journalists. I’m participating the 2009-2010 edition and have learned quite a lot already. Better yet, I’ve found a couple of new friends. One of them, Justus Bruns, told me a great plan a couple of weeks ago. We were having apple pie and beer when he said: ,,I want to replace all advertising on Times Square with art.” Well, I asked him, what’s stopping you?

Continue reading We’re Gonna Replace All Advertising on Times Square with Art. Here’s How

Journalists should think how a medium can help them getting the information across. And if they don’t know how to use the tools, young guns can help them. Cause in the end, every good journalist wants his story to be heard. And you know what? The sames goes for bloggers!

Continue reading Stop Wondering What Readers Want, It Leads to Mediocrity

Michał Walusza is a Polish student and is currently working on a Master thesis about opinion leaders in virtual communities. He emailed me with a question: ,,How to become an online opinion leader?” Here’s my two cents. The ‘real life’ celebrities have taken over. Web 2.0 used to be a democratic answer to traditional media. Yet now the inequality is back again.

Continue reading How Oprah and Britney Kicked Guy Kawasaki’s Ass

Newspapers are dying – you probably know that by now. Online news is their hope, but there’s no business model (yet). We can be sure of thing though: at some point, somebody has to pay for quality news. It doesn’t really matter those who are paying are readers or advertisers. What matters, is that quality newspapers can show their audience that their news is worth paying for.

Continue reading What Journalists Can Learn From Rock Stars

How do you write articles that people find interesting? The answer is actually quite simple: tell the stories you used to tell in bars while having drinks with friends. Those are your best ones. That’s exactly what my buddy Renato Valdés Olmos did. He’s a designer from Amsterdam who has his own agency and a start-up with which he wants to kill business cards. Although he’s incredibly busy, Renato recently started a blog. I loved his first three stories.

Continue reading Blog Your Bar Stories to Get Comments

Blog design is addictive. You can tweak pages endlessly, striving for perfection – which you’ll never reach. Don’t worry, it’s a fun addiction. Better than heroin, so to speak. Therefore, I’ve made a list of elements that are essential for a personal blog. Let it be the next shot you’ve longed for and get inspired.

Continue reading Personal Blog Design: 10 Essential Elements

Yesterday I started a Facebook fanpage for my blog. For vanity minded reasons? Maybe. But I can give you tons of other good reasons to start one yourself as well. Let’s do it bullet point style. Here are five good reasons and, ok, two downsides. Best of all: it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Continue reading Give your blog some soul with a Facebook fanbox