Feb 132010
In the 1980′s,  I was involved in the Venture Capital industry; I actually earned a living for 6 1/2 years when there were no jobs by helping entrepreneurs raise money for start-up projects by way of private placements of common stock in non-public (private) companies.
I cannot imagine a harder thing to do, or a harder way to get paid, but I loved it.  I love working with passionate, creative people!
(More history and credentials here)

The Above video clip is just questions and answers about “Open Source Movies”  and movie-making and collaboration made possible by advances in technology, and it is pretty long, but worth watching.

But ‘back in the day’, I was a member of A. David Silver’s venture capital club in Santa Fe New Mexico: hundreds of us would pay $7.50 each (the price of a nice dinner in those days) to pack into an empty movie  theater, sign into a handwritten ledger, with no name tags at all, and listen to a few entrepreneurs who had spent $100 each for their 5 minutes on stage, where they would talk about their businesses.  All the important financial sources, pension fund managers and venture capitalists in the area an some form outside the area were in the room, anonymous, able to contact the entrepreneurs directly after the meeting.
The electricity in the room was amazing: there were no refreshments, but nobody ever wanted to miss those meetings.
Fast forward to now: there are over 60,000 Meetup.com groups: millions pf people from all over the world getting together for local meetings facilitated by an online community that manages email invitations and RSVP’s based on location and key words preferences of the free users.  There are many thousands of Group leaders, who pay $20 per month to start a group, and that company is extremely profitable with nothing but a website, and they are hiring local people all over the world to build a huge company.
In the Venture Capital industry, we talk about the big “P”, the big problem to solve; because in venture capital the potential return from one good investment must be sufficient to create an ROI for the group in spite of 9 bad ones: the ‘upside potential’  must be sufficient for this formula to work.
To say that I am proud to be involved in Solomon Rothman’s company (my son) Moviepals Entertainment, LLC would be an understatement: the idea of artists owning their work and producing ‘open-source’ films that they own, and get 75% of the revenue from those films, with no middleman, is huge: open-source films is huge, and the problem of so many creative people not having access to the market, and the solution made possible by technology and innovation, and the potential profits from such a venture definitely qualify by our 80′s standards, and we have  raised a modest amount  private capital, and we will raise more.
So here is the point of this article: what is the big ‘P” for you; what is the problem that you can solve with all the changes in technology, culture, and the world in general that are already underway?
If you look like a ‘dear in the headlights right now’, consider how much easier this is that it once was:
  • Anyone in the world can get in the game: if you have an internet connection or access to a library, you can start right now
  • You can go to http:// ideaplas.org right now (it is the same as Moviepals.org for now while we rebuild the video sharing platform underneath), and start a free group, and start building a team to bring your solution to your “BIG P” to fruition, one step at a time, from scratch, with no money.
  • Everything you do there is optimized perfectly and available by key word search on Google and others – ahhh access to the whole world population for free!

For the first time in the history of mankind since Jesus was born, content trumps distribution: it is no longer who you know, or what you have that limits what you can accomplish: the only thing that matters, is your talent, and the value of your contribution, and your hard work.

If that does not inspire you, keep your day job!

Feb 052010

It is an idea who’s time has come: SPAGG.com

With the revitalization of the inner cities and old buildings as ” industrial lofts”, the green movement, and the economy and the slow economic recovery of late, the timing for SPAGG.com is prefect:

Spagg.com Network – the first place where private owners can securely rent their cars to make extra money.  Owners and renters meet for pickup and drop off – it is perfect.  It cuts out the middlemen completely, and utilizing today’s social network technology and mobile access to the best advantage of car owners who need to offset costs, the environment we all live in, the reduction of congestion and parking issues, the reduction of dependence on foreign oil: everybody wins on this one!

Oct 092009

Come out on top!Go into any business online and compete!

I did that most recently in 2001 during the dot-com ‘crash’ right after September eleventh – a start-up web-based business.

It happens every day! .. see me with hair here!

We did it agin, and survived th recent recession!

When you have the ability get on top of the search engines for any words you like, you are on top of whatever world you covet access to!

There are a lot of opportunities: more than ever!

I am a sucker for a good opportunity; how about you?

Israel Rothman israel@rothmanmarketing.com 805-827-2450

Business Internet Advertising Consultant, Internet Advertising consultants, Internet advertising specialist, Internet Advertising Consultant, Internet Advertising consultants

Sep 302007

If you’re looking to pay per blog posts -  you don’t have to maintain a specific list for bloggers who will write about your company for money, I go online to reputation based SEO and business forums and see who’s available.  I can usually get more links and higher quality links while remaining completely “under the radar” for maximum SEO benefit.  If they HAVE to know the specific bloggers ahead of time the commercial services (reviewme.com)  and (payperpost.com) work pretty well – much cheaper and better at generating valuable links and traffic than traditional link buying. 

Sep 302007

Step 1 – Figure out what you want; this doesn’t have to be specific, but make sure you know at least some basic information and can give a detailed answer to the following pre-contact question: 

What do you want to accomplish with your website and what is your first priority? (top 4 answers: produce sales leads, sell products directly, promote a physical service or retail location, provide support/information for existing customers) 

Do you already have website copy or will it need to be written for/with you? 

Do you want e-commerce functionality and if so how many products/services do you want to sell (approximate number is great)? 

Do you have a plan in place for SEO and Internet Marketing? If you don’t, I would recommend a plan to allocate at least an equal budget for the web design and SEO/Marketing portions of your website.  What’s the point of having a website no one will see.