Skilluminati Research

LET ALTERATI EMPOWER YOU.

Posted Oct 03, 2007 2 comments

Alterati has been a rare animal: an extremely ambitious website startup that actually launched successfully and continues to thrive. By nescessity, their content covers a huge range of topics, but what I'd like to share with you today is their hidden gems: invaluable DIY tutorials that are all very clear, interesting and well written. Not coincidentally, a lot of these gems are from Wes Unruh, who is a damn good writer.

Here's a powerful tool right off: a lesson about How to Turn Teleconferences into Podcasts.

Not only can I host a teleconference with zero advanced notice, I can record them and, if I�m also at a computer with a web browser, I can even mute out callers on the line and unmute their lines individually, allowing for question and answer sessions. At my old job, this would be called a premium operator-assisted call, and would cost something like $2.50 a minute plus an additional 7 cents a minute for each line that was connected beyond some base figure. Those charges represent an insane financial hurdle for most private individuals who could otherwise fully exploit their telephones as note-taking devices, recording devices, and tools of mass communication.

Right now I do all of this for free, thanks to a company/website out there called TheBasementVentures and open-source software. Between this free conferencing service and the free audio editing software Audacity, there�s absolutely no reason why you couldn�t have your own podcast up and running in just a few hours.

My personal favorite out of this material is the series Wes did entitled "Behind the Scenes of a DIY Book Launch," which lays out his experience working with Ben Mack:

When a friend of mine went to publish his book, he was faced with two questions. How does one make money from a book? How does one create a market for a book? book_marketing_article_seri.jpg Actually, he approached the second question like so: How does one create a marketing campaign for little or no money up front and still reach enough of an audience to culminate in �Brand Awareness�?

Part One: The Attention Economy

Part Two: Tellman�s Infoproducts

Part Three: Affiliate Economics

Part Four: Attention in Action

For those of you interested in the flesh trade, I'd recommend the fresh air of "Amateur Porn Web Development". On a related note, for those of you interested in learning about porno affiliate programs, I highly recommend the Sensual Liberation Army Primer, hands-down the best and most valuable info and advice on the subject you can find.

To top it off, Wes has also given us a very meaty interview with Ken McCarthy about the new wave of net-based, DIY journalism and the challenges, changes, and hazards it entails: start chewing on Part One, and then graze on to Part Two.

Do You Write? Then Read This.

James Curcio, who's running bands, websites and cults these days, has created a superb series about DIY hustling for counterculture authors. It's very useful and tasty stuff, and it's titled No Write Way:

Part One Self-Publishing Rules of Thumb: Characters and Concepts.

Part Two Self-Publishing Rules of Thumb: The Story.

Part Three Editorial: Reality Sets In.

Part Four Layout on the not-so-cheap

That last part -- which is outstanding -- was written by Tovarich.

Don't Sleep

This is merely the tip of their iceberg. Explore the site, it's badass. I especially recommend their Altertube, feature, which is an open video archive full of hilarious, bizarre and rare materials.

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Filed in: Future Tech

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