I honestly didn’t wake up a week ago and decide to take shots at my former business partner Darren Rowse: we can/ do disagree on a range of things (in a good way..indeed I valued him as a business partner way back then, working through different ideas is the BEST way to get the BEST out of your business ) but I have to take umbrage with another of his posts.

No offense (I know that’s cliched) but honestly Darren, none meant.

This post: How Much Content Should I Have Ready to Go When I Launch a Blog? and it’s recommendations are…well, let’s just say I disagree

To tl;dr his post, Darren recommends that you have 3-5 posts published, 5-10 posts ready to publish and 20+ blog post ideas “brainstormed.”

Sorry, but seriously this is balls.

Here’s my comment on the post (with one typo fixed) and explanation to follow:

Those that have been reading this blog for a long time know that I speak with some level of experience: I founded the first blog about blogs early 03 (although I could argue 02…but lets be fair and not go there.)

I’m only bringing up the history because what I want to say is going to end in some level of argument. Darren Rowse, Jeremy Wright, Dave Winer and others can vouch for the fact that I was around in the old days, back when blogs couldn’t make money, and there was a massive outcry when some blogs did.

Enough of this though because I wanted to bring up a comment on Problogger I made where I disagreed with Darren Rowse.

Darren and I have disagreed about much more in our life, so I will make this clear that it’s not personal, I respect and love what Darren has done, and always appreciate the bloke.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t disagree on this post:

How Many Posts Should a Blogger Post? [Pros and Cons of Daily Posting]

Let me say that the title, and the premise is bullocks up front. I have no doubt that Darren can run a site and make a fortune every day. Hell, I’ve seen his stats back when.

The problem now is that’s not a reality for anyone trying to make money now.

Here’s my comment on the site, judge as you will:

His mother has been determined from our separation to make sure I never ever see him or have contact with him again.

Her main witness stated over and over again that she would never let me see Declan again publicly on Twitter and in court.

My ex wife’s lawyer (Elizabeth Gray of Gallbally OBryan) lodged documents that stated that I had starved my son including never feeding him properly, and never took him to after school activities, sporting events or even school.

The fact that I had Four Square checkins at each location I supposedly never took him to…hell, I was mayor at most of them..unless you can pay for defense…makes no difference when you can’t afford to fight back.

The truth though, as can be proved by Michelle Riley’s parents (Ian DeBoer and Kaye Minette) is that I did take him to school every day while we were married (me to and back) and cooked for him every day (she was always off working.) I loved my son and unless they lie Ian DeBoer and Kaye Minette will confirm that.

Declan James Riley.. my boy who I miss so much.

It’s been 12 months since I’ve allowed to be allowed to see my son.

I can apparently see him again, as long as I front up with $350 for 4 hours.

That’s a bit standard when you’re a child molester, parent who’d done bad etc etc..

This is the fun part: I’ve never been accused of anything. But my ex swore to my mother (and I paraphrase) that I will do everything to make sure I never had to talk to him again.

Guess what: I love my son, I drove him and picked him up from school every single day until my ex left me.

I argued over and over again that Declan should be taken out of Erasmus Hawthorn because it was bad for him when Michelle wouldn’t: he was under constant abuse by other children, and it ended in Declan being punched over and over again.. something my ex accepted. It took Declan having the shit beaten out of him at Erasmus for my ex to agree to take him out of the school.

But I digress: I was accused of everything under the sun by my ex wife, which is ultimately ironic given I was the stay at home parent.

So we get to today and I can’t afford the lawyers to even see my son.

Declan I miss you so much, but understand your mother and step-father (who know doubt you’re being pushed to call your father now) won’t let me see you.

Declan James Riley. Your dad loves you and will to the day you die. Every day hurts without being able to see you.

Dad/ Duncan.

That guy was Allen Stern.

I tried to log into iPhoto tonight to find a picture of him back in the days I’d first met him: I know I have pictures of him, but ironically iPhoto keeps crashing. I’m not superstitious, but maybe iPhoto knows, and it knows that Allen would always wanted to be remembered for the life, vitality and amazing person he was, vs some photo I’d taken back when I was at TechCrunch (sorry, I stole the above pic from someone… he would always tell me you’ve got to have a pic in a post after all. )

When I first met Allen I wasn’t sure. Michael Arrington had him marked as a potential competitor at CenterNetworks, but as long as he linked to the TechCrunch stories there we’d allow him to attend TC conferences.

After some initial trepidation I actually got talking to the man, and a man in the truest sense he was.

I reckon I met Allen maybe 4-5 times in person, but that was enough that in the last 7 years that I could honestly call him a friend and at times a confidant.

He was a guy who I could bounce ideas off, and he would bounce ideas off me. He bounced many of his latest sites of me, and asked for advice, which coming from him was always a compliment, but likewise he’d known that I’d gone away from serious tech and was trying to enjoy myself.

When he walked away from tech blogging he came to me about selling the site, and we also talked about pitching his new sites as well. We didn’t talk far enough (sometimes 10 times in a week, other times once a fortnight) but I do say that never expecting him to leave us. My only regret now he is gone that I didn’t speak to him regularly enough..we were like friends who spoke epically when we were doing something, and then only share the odd thing in between. He’d helped me as well on SEO and similar in the past.

In the end I knew Allen loved tech as I did, but likewise he hated all the drama and politics around it.

Some of the best (be it via email) conversations I’ve had in my life came from Allen. I could have made him an honorary Australian because he got sarcasm, he could take the piss out of others, and he was honest to a tee… and that included again his opinion. That may not have made him broadly popular (I always loved CenterNetworks, but it didn’t work in the US) but meant that every day he lived his life he was a far better person than so many other people I know in the United States in particular. I promise I’m not having a go at Americans but my experience in the tech blogging/ startup community was all PR and falseness (I’d hope that my calling some of that out is why I was popular at TechCrunch.) Allen didn’t give a shit, and that’s why I came to love him as a person and writer.

Allen will be sorely missed, and I know not just by me but his family, friends (including Louis Gray, who I shared a friendship with, often together) and others who came to appreciate a big guy with a huge heart who spoke as we all should: honestly and from the heart.

This was a guy full of life who recognized his mortality, and gave it a shot to fix things. That he didn’t make it…well, it’s a fear of not only me but I’d guess many people reading this.

Vale Allen Stern, you were and should be an example to many other bloggers to come. You were honest, friendly, and called it like it was.

I’m an atheist Allen Stern, but lets pretend for a second you are up there looking down: thanks for being mate. I will never forget you.

I’m the first to admit that I don’t have a lot of time for Dick Smith…I mean he’s not Gerrard Harvey (of Harvey Norman) bad but he tends on the xenophobic anti-internet side at times.

That said free speech should be extended to all, and despite only very tame innuendo’s in this video, it’s been banned…and it shouldn’t have.

I didn’t find it that bad…be it very kitsch.

I’m all for a more liberal version of copyright, but where a site steals every single post you write at 4aus.com, even when you work your arse off for it to find those offers…well, that’s a different kettle of fish.

Let me introduce to you “Thrifty Sue.”

And before you say “there is no proof” look at the picture above. The watermark was intentionally placed once I realized they were copying all of the free stuff from 4aus.com to try to catch them copying our text and pictures.

Suffice to say, they were caught in the act.

It gets worse: the site claims the following:

We are a family of 9, yes, you heard me right, and we actually have 7 children. I’m sure that you probably want to ask “How do you do it?” Well that’s what I’m here to talk about. With a large family such as ours, we realized early on that we needed to figure out a way to make sure we were still getting all the necessities and not breaking the bank in the process.

Balls.

I’ve done the research on the site, and every single free offer they’ve done for weeks copies 4aus.com. They even copy the language, but change it near the end.

You know the thing that disgusted me more is when I found that they are working affiliate pumping via CheckMyStats a company I work with.

So basically a company I work with is promoting a site that steals all my content with a few changes, but promotes others via an affilaite offer.

I guess there is no honour amongst thieves.

UPDATE

I’ve now sent a DMCA notice to their host.

I’m not fond of the DMCA in the US, but if you’re going to copy me, at least make an effort to not make it so blatent

me…in a horse mask

So long term readers of this site know that my life has been pretty topsy turvey for a long time. The irony that those words are both highlighted as spelling errors by Firefox sort of sums it up.

I’m not going to write an angsty post about the past, but share with you how Nichenet Pty Ltd is moving forward.

I’m happy to report that Nichenet Pty Ltd now has two active projects.

The first I’ve mentioned recently and that’s 4aus.com.

Oh, and it’s officially out of beta as of now

I started 4aus.com in August using one of my oldest owned domains (4aus.com) a domain I’d struggled for years (actually 12 years) to know what to do with.

From August I started posting free samples, competitions, and offers for Australian’s (with some international coverage.)

When I started it was hard to find a way to describe an offer…I cringe even now at some of my earlier posts. But the site has continued to grow, doing 50k + page views a month for the last few months and this month growing to potentially more again.

I’d note that linking to PR promos (freebies/ comps) is damn hard over the silly season as they dry up, but I still managed to find them.

I’m not yet rich off the site but it’s continuing to grow and I’m confident it will keep me in good stead going forward; it is covering its costs with a profit, but not enough yet for me to live off.

I’m also happy to announce that fortytwotimes.com is back (now 42x, but same domain.) I was running short of money last year, and I’d over time put most of the writers off.

I’m please to say that Steve Hodson of WinExtra (one of the original writers) is helping me out with a post a day, and I’m aiming for 2-3 posts myself. We’ve also engaged with a company that will contribute the odd guest post as well. The intent is eventually to get 8-10 posts up a day, but we’re back at 3-5.

It’s early days but the funny thing is that the site never really stopped getting traffic; sure, it dropped from its peak (no one writing does that ), but the content there still brings page views in. I’m the first to admit that it’s helped a lot by the fine folks at wahoha.com. That’s not an affiliate link BTW, they don’t do affiliates, it’s simply a recommendation to a service that delivers us 5 page views for every 1 we give them.\

Sorry, I can ramble on forever but the tl;dr is that in the last couple of months I’ve posted as much and even more than I did when I was still married.

I’m back, I’m going to kick ass, and I’m bringing some content to your screen sooner rather than later

If you’re an old TechCrunch fan, or an Australian who has met me or likes to follow a battler, please follow 4aus.com and fortytwotimes.com, the first will give you freebies and the chance to win stuff, the second will make you smarter.

It is beyond disgusting in this country that you can still get paid a “vaccination” bonus for your kids if you file a “conscientious objection” to your kids being vacinated.

Both political parties are responsible for this (it came in under Howard) and Julia Gillard is directly responsible now as long as she is PM.

Not vaccinating your children in not only child abuse, it’s potentially murderous.

Let alone your child could die from a contagious disease, what about children who are too young to have the shots that could save them that are exposed to the children of negligent parents who catch diseases and spread them, diseases that are entirely preventable.

I detest the nanny state on many levels, but on this the state needs to think of the greater good.

Great clip from Duke University explaining how market pricing mechanisms work for the greater good.

(via Catallaxyfiles)

There’s a Coles supermarket and small shopping centre being built not far from where I live. There has been absolutely no one onsite for the construction since before Christmas…its now January 11. I can’t help but think this.