According to Wired, two years ago Michael Arrington was a 35 year old former attorney and entrepreneur. In the eyes of the media and the world, he was a "nobody". According to the about page on his Tech Crunch Blog, Arrington created a blog that is "dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies."
According to the Wired story, Arrington earns an estimated $200K per month from his blog and has entertained an offer of $8.5 million for the resource.
The invention of TechCrunch happened pretty much by accident. Arrington started blogging as a way to get up to speed on new business models. When he realized that no one was writing about the explosion in new consumer Internet companies, he began working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, to build an audience.
Originally a solo operator, he now has a half dozen writers and researchers pumping out three to 10 posts a day in addition to maintaining an opinion blog called CrunchNotes, a gadget blog called CrunchGear, a classified-ad site called CrunchJobs, and a portable-computing blog called MobileCrunch.
He says he has looked at, however briefly, more than 7,000 startups in two years and has written about nearly 500 of them. "I saw a parade," he says, "and I got in front of it."
Jim Rohn says, "Every disciplined effort leads to multiple rewards." Michael Arrington is living proof.
To everyone who is afraid to start blogging, please remember that
- all big things were at one time very small
- the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Now, go find a parade and get in front of it!
