In the course of my life I have met many talented people who have built an audience but had no clue on how to monetize it. Everyone from Perez Hilton (back when he was just “Mario”), to the founders of icanhascheezburger, to some bigger celebrities like MC-Hammer, and former UFC Heavyweight champion Randy “the natural” Couture (and many other UFC Fighters). The list goes on and on.
About 4 years ago my friend Patrick Gavin introduced me to Loren Feldman. Loren was a very unique talent on the web and I saw no more then 2 of his videos before emailing him and telling him I enjoyed his no bullshit style youtube clips. Over the next couple months we became friends and started running into each other at events. Loren had developed quite a following on the internet but he was an artist… not a geek and never really motivated by money. I had talked with him about making money online and he was pretty interested in how it all worked.
At an event a couple years ago I introduced him to Neil Patel, Unique Blog Designs, and legendary internet marketer John Reese. All of whom were big fans of Loren’s video work. They all instantly volunteered to help him with whatever he needed on the technical side.
I remember Loren asked me later that night like “what the hell is going on dude?” he was really blown away that these guys just wanted to help him. He was very cautious and was waiting for the shoe to drop or something (no pun intended).
Since then, Loren has gone on to do some really big things. He has been able to successfully monetize his own site very well with direct sponsorships and even land some HUGE content deals with some of the biggest brands in the world.
I had a serious talk with him about 6 months ago and we reminisced about what an amazing run its been for him coming from where he started to where he is now and everything he has learned. He talked about how he wanted to connect all of his art & celebrity world friends who had an audience but no technical ability to all of his geek friends who have all the technical and money making ability in the world but no real sense of how to build an audience.
Sounds pretty cool right?
Well he is doing it!
Its called the Audience Conference and its taking place November 5th and 6th at the Hudson Theatre in NYC. I know a lot of ShoeMoney readers will be in NYC that week because of ad:tech so you should check it out.
In true Loren Feldman fashion he describes it as this:
Its a conference but its not a conference.
The audience conference was born out of the need for bringing my artsy friends who actually know an audience with my geek friends who want to know an audience.
No panels
No talk of twitter in fact there will be no talk of twitter its not a twitter conference
No social idiots allowed
No social media kit.
No name tags.
Its going to be sick. Its going to be several smart guys talking and connecting with you… the audience.
Or you can hear it directly from Loren:
The list of speakers Loren has assembled is really impressive.
- Mike Arrington – founder of the largest blog in the world (techcrunch) with over 3 million RSS readers.
- Dan Farber – CBS News
- Ethan Kaplan – VP Warner Brothers Records
- Jason Calacanis – This guy not only built a giant audience… but sold it to AOL for mega millions. Now currently running Mahalo
- Jeremy Schoemaker – HEY THATS ME!
- and others!
I really like the setting Loren has built at this event. Its in a theater so there is no tables and no panels. Just a open stage. I have never spoken in a setting like this so I am REALLY excited about it.
I will be speaking on how to monetize your audience (and still build your brand).
I checked with Loren this morning and there are a few tickets still available if you are interested in attending use code shoemoney and get $50 off.
Sign up here Its going to be epic.
October 22, 2009 at 8:19 am
Will be in New York for different reasons already.
October 22, 2009 at 8:41 am
Well if top guy like you, Neil and John is going to teach someone than you can expect what will be the results.
This is not at all wonder. Let me see some videos of Loren as well.
October 22, 2009 at 10:33 am
Il see ya there Jeremy- We are one of the sponsors
October 22, 2009 at 11:50 am
Doh! So Audience is an event all about online activities yet it is not webcast or otherwise available to online audiences ?!
October 22, 2009 at 11:54 am
Jeremy, do you and Loren also share experiences about haircut accessories? You seem to have hairstyle in common! And for that matter also your ears seem to be VERY similar too! Just compare the photos and see for yourself!
October 22, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I wish I could take the time off to attend this. It’s probably going to be the most entertaining conference in the history of this industry.
October 22, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
October 22, 2009 at 8:59 pm
what a great experience isn’t?
. May luck be with you Bos.thanks.
October 22, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I suppose that’s what we call meeting the right people in the right time, in the right place. Most of us just need a little bit of help or push to get over the hill.
October 23, 2009 at 1:40 am
All of a sudden there are so many conferences happening.
October 23, 2009 at 7:06 am
I think I will be there..
October 23, 2009 at 9:53 am
I was thinking about doing a Conference Conference called just, ‘Conference’ that would show people how to put on a conference. I have never done one, but who cares, most online marketing ‘gurus’ haven’t had any personal success.
What would make the Audience conference awesome is if all of the speakers had their own custom puppets in their own likeness and put on a big puppet show. Now that would be cool!
October 23, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I like this guys style!
October 23, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Congrats on being a speaker man. Good stuff!
October 31, 2009 at 8:05 am
I really like this idea. Hope it is a success for him, best of luck
November 10, 2009 at 9:37 am
The Audience Conference was one of my favorite shows by far. I hope Loren plans on scheduling a few a year, I absolutely loved it. Good seeing you in NY, too- sorry about bailing early, but I had to get some rest if I was going to make it to the show on time.
January 7, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Just by watching this video, I know it was an awesome show!