“In the business of mining, don’t mine sell picks and shovels.”

Chris Brogan shared this at PodCamp3 and it was a theme touched on by several people at PodCamp.

Here’s what it breaks down to… In the ever-expanding internet world there is an over-abundance of UGC (User Generated Content). People are starting blogs, twittering, posting, commenting and generally just being über-content-producing machines. However…

The money to be made on the internet is NOT in joining this expanding group of people. Instead, it is serving them.

Unless you are a charismatic expert in something or are serving a niche, you are going to have a heck of a time trying to make a living on an ad-driven blog.

You can try and blog for money or be the next TechCrunch like 20,000 other  unimaginative bloggers. Or… You can find ways to serve them and help them in the content creation rat race.

Who are the people helping to make content generation easier?

WordPress, LiveWriter, Flickr, YouTube, sites that help us in content generation.

Who are the people helping make sense of content generation?

Technorati, MyBlogLog, Friendfeed, and anything that aggregates or ranks content

Who are the people helping disseminate content?

Twitter, Google Reader, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, and all other ways to share.

So tell me… How can we serve content generators better? Where is the pain? What makes content generator’s lives easier?

I’m not sure, I’m interested in what you think, let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading. Content Generation… Sell Picks and Shovels. is a post from Blake Imeson

Here are the PowerPoint slides from the presentation Tim Hindes and I did at PodCamp3 in Pittsburgh. If you were at the session I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn.

Download: LinkedIn 101: Get Started and Build Business (PPT)

Download: LinkedIn 101: Get Started and Build Business (PDF)

PodCamp3 was a lot of fun and if you get the chance to go, it is a great place to learn in a non- threatening environment.

If I get the chance to go next year I may do a session on WordPress or Firefox. We’ll see :)

Join the PodCamp PGH LinkedIn Group!

Thanks for reading. PodCamp3 LinkedIn Presentation is a post from Blake Imeson

I’ve got to let you know about this conference that I am going to on October 18 and 19, 2008.

PodCamp Pittsburgh is a free conference that covers blogging, social media and podcasting. There are lots of great sessions see the schedule.

I am co-presenting on LinkedIn with Tim Hindes. I met Tim this summer when I was doing work with the Pittsburgh Technology Council during my SEO internship with LunaMetrics. Tim is the director of marketing for the PTC and has done a great job with their social media efforts.

We are speaking on LinkedIn 101: Get Started and Build Business. If you are coming to the conference let me know, I’d love to see some people I know.

Day 2 (Oct. 19th)  10-10:45 am

ROOM B (435) — LinkedIn 101: Get Started and Build Business

Thanks for reading. PodCamp3 in Pittsburgh, be there! is a post from Blake Imeson