Of the many entrepreneurs I met at BlogWorld last year, one that definitely stood out was Chris Ducker. A genuinely funny dude in his own right, here’s an interview he did with me there for his Virtual Business Lifestyle blog. Among other things, we discuss the importance of social media in building a personal brand, why you must stand out from the crowd from the get-go, the difference of being part of a niche and “owning” it, and whether web video is the future of

Bloggers are inherently self-made entrepreneurs – rogue entities living the internet lifestyle on their own island. Loving the ability to succeed completely on our own, it’s important though to admit that help may be needed to reach our goals. If you’re willing to do this, maybe you’re the perfect candidate to build a powerful blogging alliance. At this point, you must think I’m crazy to suggest that you don’t know it all. You’ve been blogging for a whole 5 weeks, so you obviously have all the answers already. Why would you want to collaborate with competitors in your field? Of course you don’t. It would be silly to actually help your mortal foes. I’m not suggesting that whatsoever.

Hanging Out: to socialize with your friends, whether it is of your choosing or not; most of the time the term is used to refer to a type of fun. After the initial allure wears off, we all come to the realization that it is indeed hard work to succeed as a blogger. We start focusing more on serious business-building efforts, putting in long hours to create helpful content that inspires others to seek us out. Our to-do list keeps growing exponentially as more ideas pour out from our minds. We attack each task with a sharp knife, inching closer to what we perceive as the holy grail. Getting our hands dirty, we promote our work hardcore using tools to spread the word and position

I’m not really sure why, but I’m always wildly drawn into watching feuds ensue between two members of the same circle. Maybe it’s my unhealthy fascination with seeing someone beat down into submission… or maybe I just enjoy the role of being commentator and gossip-hound of the events. I can’t change who I am, so with that being said: I’ve witnessed two of these so-called “feuds” between bloggers in the past weeks – both of which were highly entertaining in their own right and drew some great comment discussion in the process. Extreme John vs. iWoodpecker The more recent proceeding occurred when Allan at iWoodpecker accused Extreme John, the extroverted and colorful personality at