I love stories like this. Young innovative entrepreneurs who aren’t afraid to get out and try something.

A few weeks ago while shopping and running a few other errands, my wife was approached by a salesman for the local newspaper. She decided to buy a weekend subscription, from the guy. My first guess was that this guy was an incredible salesman. From her description though, it sounded more like this guy was desperate to meet his quota. I think most print sales guys are feeling the pinch. They’re selling something fewer and fewer people want or need.

Whenever I’m traveling out of town, I still grab a USA Today out of habit from the hotel I’m staying at, but rarely do I get a chance to do more than scan the pages. I really think it’s the smell of newspaper print that lures me to grab a copy.

I’m a  grazer as this article suggests, and like most Generation Xers out there, I primarily get my news online. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of business and political blogs. There’s Podcasts and Ustream and Google News. There’s smartphones and cool new devices like the Kindle and the iPad that allow us to take news on the go; making paper news irrelevant. I realized this trend years ago when I bought my first 16MB pocket PC, the Dell Axim. It allowed me to download the latest local and national news each day when I synced it with my laptop. Now I use my Blackberry to scan the latest on Drudge.

Google news allows me to customize my news settings with whatever specific categories I want to read each day.  All I have to do is log on and click “Edit this page” and then start “adding new categories” that I’m interested in.

Print media had better start seeing the handwriting on the wall. Using desperate salesmen to push a stale product is not a strategy for long term survival.

I really like this quote from Seth Godin in his new book Linchpin:

“Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth”

Those great men and women who’ve turned conventional thinking on it’s head were passionate experts in their fields. They were dedicated to testing, practicing, questioning and then re-testing.

Think of the Wright brothers.

They spent an immeasurable amount of time  in their workshop calculating forces and experimenting with different wing shapes. Their knowledge and understanding of flight allowed them to change many preconceived notions about air travel. Whether you’re a programmer, architect, teacher or entrepreneur, when you immerse yourself into something that fires you up, you gain not only the insight but the confidence to shed the status quo.

Natasha Wescoat is one artist who knows the power of social media sites like UStream.TV.  Her live paintings have inspired a huge following and in the process increased buyers at her online auctions. Anyone looking to create an authentic voice within their niche can follow this example.

What kind of live streaming content could you offer? A live talk show? Or how about a “how to” channel for scrapbookers, organic gardeners, and do it yourself home improvement types?

UStream is a free service, so anyone with a webcam can start broadcasting in minutes.

I came across this live stream of these Shiba Inu pups while on Bill Myer’s site just the other day.  It has over 20 million views and around five thousand at any given time.

Live Videos by Ustream

For the few days I’ve been humming Dave Carroll’s song in my head – “Uniiited ….you broke my Taylor guitar”. If you haven’t seen the video, you need to take a look. Why I like the song so much is not so much for the tune alone, but the story behind it. You can see the video here.

You see, Dave had a little problem with United Airlines. Apparently his Taylor guitar (valued at about $3,500) was damaged during a flight due to negligent baggage handling. After nine months of getting  the runaround by United, Dave took matters into his own hands. He created a simple music video called “United Breaks Guitars”. At last check, it has over 7.6 million hits on YouTube. Dave brought Goliath to his knees, by doing a simple video with the help of some friends and a few cheap props. It’s turned out to be a pr nightmare for United.

As I described in my book, the Goliath’s of the world (big companies, traditional media) just don’t get it. Cheap technology like the Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera and the Internet allow the people like Dave to expose them in an instant, or however long it takes to upload the video to YouTube. Not only that, it’s helping the small guy like Dave Carrol to build his personal brand.

Gary Vaynerchuck did what most other wine retailers would have never thought of doing at the time. He exploded his brand by creating Wine Library TV.

Don’t like video? What about audio? Start your own online radio show. Jack Spirko created his incredibly popular theSurvivalPodcast.com site by simply recording his show on a digital recorder during his  daily 50 mile each way commute between Arlington and Frisco Texas.

There is plenty of opportunity for a maverick to build a name today. Get started.

Anyone can create a blog and start writing content, but to have a blog that gets 4.5 million viewers a day like the People of Walmart , you’ve got to have something that people like and want to share.

It needs to be the kind of content that makes readers forward and say “Hey, check this out!”

Whether it’s specialized knowledge or just funny pictures of Walmart regulars at 3am makes no difference.

I always enjoy reading about some of the unique marketing strategies job seekers are using to separate themselves from the herd of other applicants. Eric Romer landed a job at Headblade by putting up a website HireMeHeadBlade. Needless to say, he got the attention of company president Todd Greene who was looking for an innovative person to handle social media marketing for the company.

Can you guess how the other job applicants applied? I can. They followed instructions. They emailed a boring resume that detailed work experience. They colored in the lines. They’re still unemployed.

With double digit-unemployment right now, it pays to color outside the lines.  Color Purple Cows not brown ones.

It’s a simple fact that most people underrate their own skills and abilities when it comes to their related fields. Especially when it comes to marketing those skills online. I have a friend whose knowledge of trains, particular “F” scale model is amazing. Even more amazing is his knowledge and skills as a machinist. He intended to create a co-op course teaching students machining basics-CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), but these plans have been delayed for various reasons.

I don’t believe they should be. I think he should take his mastery to the online market. Bigger audience; bigger profits. He could start with a simple WordPress blog site. and begin writing and publishing videos. He has an impressive machine shop already in his garage. He could create a small studio set with simple lighting effects. He could learn how to set up up by just spending some time on Bill Myers site.

He could start by posting videos to YouTube and linking back to his blog site. As he builds more content, he could then begin creating DVD courses and selling them through Kunaki. I have mentioned this idea to him, but I don’t think he’ll pursue it.

He wants to teach a skill. I’d like to see him teach a skill and make a huge profit in the process. Blogging gives anyone with a particular skill a way to build their status as a recognized expert. Gary Vaynerchuck is the best example of this. He’s creating a name by posting his wine tasting videos on his site.

I don’t drink tequila very often but I like this commercial. It lays out the USP quickly. Shot glass built right in. Seth Godin explained this well a few years ago in his book Purple Cow

His premise – Transform Your Business by creating  remarkable products and services that make others say “wow!”. A tequila bottle like this is something you don’t see every day, and Christopher Moltisanti (the actor) really zeros in on that –   “What can your top do?……..Nothin.”

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had been reading ..actually listening to Chris Anderson’s new book Free: The Future of Radical Price.  Not long after I posted this, I read that Rupert Murdock announced Fox News would begin charging for their online news content. Mark Cuban had his own advice. He says go for it! Kill the aggregate leaches like Drudge:

This is where all the netizens jump in and tell me I’m crazy. That news sites won’t ever do this.  That’s not the internet way. Which of course is exactly how they respond to every business question involving the net. The major news sites are keeping the aggregators that don’t originate news content alive. From Drudge Report on down. You are crazy to do so.  Let the search engines send you traffic. Block the rest.  Your revenue impact will be minimal. The competitive impact significant.Maybe he he didn’t get a chance to read Anderson’s book; then again maybe he did. Maybe he knows something the rest of us don’t know. After all, Murdock is a billionaire and my guess is at his age, he knows the difference between a really bad business move and one that should work.

People pay for online content all the time. That’s nothing new. But I find it hard to believe Mr. Murdock will be able to pull this one off when hundreds of other news sites, and blogs offer news for free. I mean we’re talking general news! Nothing specialized. Am I missing something?