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bodeans mitch schwartz hourglass cabernet italian wine merchant dependable wine sutter home videos wine blogosphere ge smart grid augmented reality trefethen family vineyards california zinfandel wineshopper aspirational marketing clark smith wine book publishing russian river valley ani difranco peru wine trip barbaresco michael steinberger value wine jamie oliver paul blart: mall cop phillip armenier red bicyclette pinot noir australian wine vinexpo jay mcinerney the gaslight anthem the pioneer woman james laube sylvester pinot noir goodguide korbel wine blobbers oregon travel tokalon winery not-for-profit jess jackson massale selection wine & spirits magazines kenny shopsin next generation apple the psychology of wine the vintners art winery sponsorship champagne sales wine criticism cork'd 2008 vina mar reserva sauvignon blanc randy caparoso wine + music midwest wine culture chimney rock elevage cornell enology wine tycoon game stavin kelly fleming national wine & spirits kurt andersen " "new world wine" poseurs macari vineyards sette 7 swanson vineyards sunbox eleven wine generation y and wine 2009 auction napa valley sonoma county wine wipes san francisco wine competition clary ranch tim hanni hunningbird wine beaux freres jon bonne the wine case climber white agency nil charlie weis sugar free wine a very goode job 2007 sean minor four bears pinot noir trefethen carmenere wine heist purpose-idea rose wine sales vincellar dominic foppoli discoveries pathfinder wine bar bets the winemakers tv australia wine fantesca judgment of paris women in wine oregon pinot gris three-tier vegas wine qpr wines jimmy clausen winery hospitality 2007 forty-five north cabernet franc alpine for dummies 2008 honig sauvignon blanc 1% for the planet wine industry news negociant wine business monthly 2008 food & wine winemaker of the year eric asimov travel oregon jordan winery amy poehler wine micro sites umami chris phelps cheap wine wine bard weds wine dj journey three dollar 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December 19 2008
When Gary Vaynerchuk remarked at the recent Wine Blogger Conference in Sonoma, “There is no reason a wine blog cannot earn $100,000 a year in revenue,” a lot of people sat up in their chair.
It was that bromide that was the scuttle of the conference.
But, what happens when you look at blogging and our niche, wine blogging, against criteria, like, say, the time value of money and you compare that time spent against another time investment like earning your MBA?
Can somebody credibly make a case that engaging in blogging and social media is a better use of time than earning an advanced degree?
Practically speaking, if you hold down a full-time job, have a family, or at the very least a spouse, actively blog AND you want to get an MBA, something is going to have to give – and that something is likely going to be blogging.
This topic is top-of-mind because I very much would like to earn my MBA.
The reality is, though, as a 36-year old man who likes start-ups and early stage ventures, my ship has sailed in terms of climbing a Fortune 500 career ladder into the Captain of Industry chair.
More likely, an MBA allows me to do a couple of things – offset a resume deficiency for having earned a liberal arts degree, round out my business acumen into insights into operations, broaden my perspective from what has traditionally been a sales and marketing expertise and, the big thing, give me enough education so that I can teach at the university level.
But, again, therein lays the rub. There’s not a chance I could get an MBA and maintain a blog. Wouldn’t happen. It is very hard to do more than a few things at one time and do them all at a very high-level. I think most people would agree with this.
Given that, I guess you need to look at, well, MBA and Finance-like criteria to see, pragmatically, what the best way to spend your time might be: the “time value of money” and the “net present value.”
Clearly, I am a neophyte here, and the last math class I took was a 100-level Algebra class as a pre-req. for an Executive MBA program I was accepted to, but didn’t enroll in. Before that, I took “math for liberal arts” at 8:00 in the morning as a freshman in college, the only thing that motivated me to go to class was the fact that I could stare at a beautiful girl that didn’t know I existed.
I’m paraphrasing from a couple of places on the web, but a Net Present Value (NPV) is:
The present value of the future cash flows less the cost of the investment. The NPV is a direct measure of “cost versus benefit.” It represents the economic profit to be earned by making an investment.
This basically means what is the value of future cash flow versus present investment. If an MBA costs me $50K in tuition, but earns out over a lifetime in $350K in additional earning opportunities, then the NPV is very good.
The Time Value of Money is (again paraphrased):
The idea that a dollar now is worth more than a dollar in the future, even after adjusting for inflation, because a dollar now can earn interest or other appreciation until the time the dollar in the future would be received.
In action, the “Time Value of Money” basically says a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I translate this to a blog. Creating a blog that earns readers is surprisingly difficult to do, but if you can do it, then certainly that has value, even if it’s not monetary, yet who knows where the future will go because whatever value it has now will surely increase in time, specifically against scrapping it thinking you can start over in two years time.
Interesting questions to ponder …
Does one go with the sure thing in terms of return on investment and earn an MBA, or do you continue to invest your time and your passion into a blog that drives a ton of satisfaction with the uncertainty of not knowing how your blogging will yield any dividends in the future?
Throwing out MBA and finance criteria and analogizing to Vegas, which we can all relate to, may be simpler. Because I can always earn an MBA, now, or a decade from now, the SURE MONEY is on blogging.
Or, as Albert Einstein said, “I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.”
Though, I’m still not quite certain about that Vaynerchuk guy and his proclamations.
December 17 2008
This holiday season who needs wine-related books when you can have board games? Given our current state of economic and cultural affairs, it seems like there is a thematic board game for everybody in and around wine.
With that in mind, and a tongue in the cheek, I’ve listed out classic and contemporary board games and the appropriate audience for them in and around the wine industry.
Risk – Wineries and small distributors
Monopoly – A three-way tie between Constellation Brands, E&J Gallo and Diageo. The big get bigger, especially if they have a cash position and small and mid-size wineries get cash distressed (See also Hungry Hippo).
Ouija Board – Biodynamic practitioners and followers
Scrabble – New wine lovers trying to decode French imports
Jenga – small wineries that leveraged themselves with a bad debt to cash flow ratio
Operation – Most Wine 2.0 companies – what can you take out without dying?
Connect Four – People trying to decode the online wine scene
Battleship – Newer, boutique CA Pinot producers with alleged allocated offerings at $60 a bottle competing against each other
Candyland – Sub-$12 Aussie wine producers
The Game of Life – Wine importers who are building brands
The Game of Life, Twists and Turns edition – Graduating UC Davis enology students
Memory – Old guard wine writers getting into blogging and social media (see also Trivial Pursuit)
Clue – Glossy wine magazines not named Wine & Spirits magazine
Sorry! – Dissenting voices on the eBob board
Twister – Wine bloggers and the wineries that like them
Balderdash - Wine distributors who exclaim, “Our fine wine portfolio is up year over year.”
Pictionary – Stormhoek wine and Hugh from GapingVoid
Deal or No Deal – Those seeking investment money now and hoping for favorable terms
Any others I missed? Or, variations on the what I have?
December 15 2008
I read an op-ed piece in my Sunday fish wrap, the Indianapolis Star, an advertising vehicle masquerading as a daily newspaper that had me at once scratching my head and translating the frothiness that sometimes pervades wine blogging.
Ah, the precociousness of youth. In regards to blogging, I flog myself for occasionally needing a hoist onto my own petards, but I will get to that point in a second.
The reason for my head scratching is a precocious English major from Butler University that wrote an op-ed piece mildly defending national reports on collegiate binge drinking with the flimsy premise that hers is a generation that was weaned on indulgent expectations from MTV while simultaneously being pressured by external influences to succeed, strive, do more, be better.
Groan. Now, I do not blame the author, because, frankly, every generation has this view – they are special, they have pressures that those before them did not have. It is so hard. Perhaps this notion is never more important than now, when we look to history to help guide us in troubled times, and we realize the lessons not learned.
The op-ed’s money shot quote is:
There has never been more pressure to be the best, to know the most, be the most creative, and to make the most money.
Hmm … now I think I understand where the Gen. Y bad rap of being “entitled” comes from. After the rigorous schooling, they expect that their fight must be over.
I will not editorialize and discuss the unlikely probability that this author has had an actual summer job, but I will note that every single generation thinks their climb up the hill was the hardest and everything new that comes along that captures our zeitgeist is something new.
It is always disappointing to come home in 5th grade and learn from your Mom that the new game you made up at recess called, “Red Rover” is not actually new. Alas, I think playing “Marco Polo” whilst in the pool has been around for a while, as well.
Take blogging for example. Some of us might think that somehow, the sun suddenly rose on our era and our prose on whatever topic is somehow breaking some new insight that was never thought of before.
It is a slippery slope and that is where the sage wisdom of a Steve Heimoff or a Thomas Pellechia can be helpful as grounding against the social media lighting in bottle, these guys have been in and around wine (and the same topics of discussion) for 30 years. We didn’t start the fire, to quote Billy Joel …
Take this excerpt from a wine writer:
Wine may be the most difficult of all consumer products to buy. The vast array of labels, the hundreds of different varieties, the dozen of so vintages available at any given time, the different regions, the different grapes, all present a formidable and often defeating barrier to the enjoyment of the product.
What is worse, some of the labeling is not only confusing, but deceptive. The European wine-producing nations have been battling over dishonest and misleading wine labeling for centuries. The United States is relatively new to the world of fine wines, but the book in wine drinking in recent years has created the same problems the Europeans have been wrestling with.
The labeling of wine is controlled in this country by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. In recent years, prompted in part by the consumer advocates, there has been pressure on the bureau to tighten up rules and regulations that have existed virtually unchanged since the repeal of Prohibition in the 1930’s …
Last week, three days of hearings on wine regulation were held here, and if the bureau acts on some of the proposals put forth, sweeping changes in the way wine is labeled may be in store in the next few years.
The writer of this blog, er, column? Frank Prial. The New York Times. Dateline: Feburary 16, 1977. I was a wee lad of four going on five. But, that column excerpt could have run last week in the Press-Democrat, virtually unchanged.
My overall point is that while every new generation thinks they have found something unique and novel, wine, in particular, has a distinct whiff of sameness, particularly around prevailing hot button items.
Bloggers, instead of railing against, may do well to heed the wisdom of our wine elders.
December 14 2008
Despite the hard time that large wine companies with high production take from wine drinkers-cum-pundits in the wine blogosphere, it is nice to see the estate / fine wine division of Constellation making some meaningful wine with a level of progressiveness in their consumer engagement efforts.
Is it possible to be all things to all people? Can a winery balance the thin line between art / commerce successfully?
Kim Crawford will have you believing it is possible.
The 2008 Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is a fine example of national distribution, professional critical acclaim, and social media engagement, coupled with the most important thing – a darn tasty wine.
It is so tasty, in fact, I spent the better part of last Saturday afternoon driving around Indianapolis looking for it – most stores were out of stock after its second appearance in two years on the Wine Spectator Top 100 wines of the year, garnering 91 points and a #40 ranking on the Top 100.
Note to self. This is Indiana. Don’t check every wine shop in town first—go to your corner liquor store.
Despite the lack of quaintness in my purchase, it is not the Top 100 ranking that had originally interested me in Kim Crawford—it was the advertising.
I subscribe to a music magazine called Paste that seems like it is written for me – it focuses on accessible indie rock and arts culture. It is a national magazine and the November issue had a Kim Crawford ad.
It was noticeable because how often do you see wine advertising in a contemporary youth culture/music magazine that is not Yellowtail? Hardly ever.
The ad copy says:
At Kim Crawford, we believe in trailblazing. Whether it’s screw caps, Unoaked Chardonnay or up-and-coming artists, we support unconventional thinking and the courage to break new ground. We’ve put together the perfect party playlist with some of our favorite new sounds and songs. Why not download it now?
So, let me get this straight – a large wine company brand, with acclaimed wine from the wine industry critical press, that is advertising in a niche music/culture magazine with a specific web site that offers music downloads and content commissioned from a wine consultant and blogger, Courtney Cochran? What else can they possible be doing right? Social media. Yeah, check there, too. Kim Crawford has a Facebook page and they also Twitter.
Aside from the full-color, full page ad in the magazine, I hope other wines are taking note of this recipe for success as it should give smaller wineries some inspiration.
In the meantime, I am enjoying a glass of the Kim Crawford listening to Five Star Iris on the Experience Kim Crawford site.
You can see my tasting notes here.
December 11 2008
Some people want to know what time it is, and some people want to know how the watch is made.
My blessing and my curse is I don’t ever do anything half-ass. My other curse if I have a crippling fear of failure. I’m either in or I’m not in. And, if I’m in, I like to have studied up on the subject so I can go in source credible and do whatever I’m doing with a reasonable amount of competence.
I want to know how the watch is made. Context is everything. Life isn’t black and white, it’s gradations of gray.
And, so it is that I’m a relatively later adopter of Twitter. I didn’t want to do it in a half-baked way, babbling nonsense, and I wanted to understand it. I know, I know, it’s almost 2009. Am I that dense ...?
While I still don’t know if I completely understand Twitter, I do know that a lot of wine bloggers at the Wine Bloggers Conference were fast friends based on their Twitter relationships. And, I also know that doing right by wine blogging and the wine social media landscape is important to me. Now is the time to hitch a ride on this Twitter wagon. If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, please do so here.
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