I was the first person to reply to this article, and I have been a longtime supporter of Tim Ferris.

However, I think both Gary and Tim are right in their own way – and for *bloggers* I think that Gary is right on the money. I cannot build a community without being involved in the community. My blog and it’s readership are shaped by my blog and voice.

Now, I have been experimenting with outsourcing some more mundane blogging tasks – trackback/comment moderation, post formatting, post promotion, finding appropriate images, proofreading, etc.

But I was wrong when I said I was on Tim’s side. I do agree with Tim that I should only do what I’m best at: being me, writing, interacting with readers. But I was wrong about being so hands off. I do reply to just about every email and every comment, and I do go out there and comment on related blogs and interact with other bloggers via email, facebook, twitter, IM, etc.

Personality takes time. I doubt Gary does everything himself, I know for example he outsources development to folks for ruby on rails stuff (the recent Corkd issue), but all of the Gary Vaynerchuck brand is built by Gary, and all the Tim Ferris brand is built by Tim.

Tim may not check his email often or take phone calls, but he’s everywhere – on panels, doing presentations, writing on his blog, on twitter, on Facebook. The difference I think is that Tim doesn’t refer to the time he spends “being” Tim as work, but that’s what it is. Gary on the other hand, does see being Gary Vaynerchuck as a full time job.

Being Sid Savara, too, is a full time job. It has taken me months to realize it.

Thanks Darren.

What I like about Tim’s approach is to get rid of the customers that suck you dry and dont give you any or no financial benefit, because unfortunately you do get those kinds of people. High maintenance customers according to TIm Ferris.

I do think though that since you are always dependant on your customers for making your money, that they should be treated with a lot of respect. This means that when they email you, that you respond to their request without fail. What Tim suggests is that you get someone else to do all the work. That means he still gives his customers the needed respect but is free to do anything he wants as he has the time set free due to others doing the work for him.

I prefer to give my customers and people that email my time. Not excessive but enough to fulfill their requests when they desire it. It most certainly works for me. Get rid of those that dont pay you for your time as it most certainly could become a bad habit on their part. However in the same sentence I would like to say that I prefer to build relationships with my customers first before I make money with them or even from them. The reason being that those customers are with you for life. Not a once of money making binge. Trust me when I tell you I make more money out of that strategy than any of the others. I read a lot and this book of Timothy Ferris, the 4 hour workweek is most certainly my most favourite. I respect him for what he does and kudos to him for achieving what he has. Excellent stuff.

Read my thoughts on my blog regarding various subjects if you are interested

Communication is a different story though. When somebody writes me, I make sure and respond. I feel like that’s giving respect. Of course, I don’t have thousands of followers like Tim does. I admire the way he sets boundaries to keep things manageable … that’s what he’s all about, right? (Well, a big piece of what he’s all about ;)

Whereas Gary (@garyvee) engages in the conversation and actually has fun with it, Tim (@tferriss) follows no-one and seems too in love with what he himself is doing.

Kudos to Gary for joining the conversation – minus points for ego-stroking to Tim for simply broadcasting. Why go on Twitter at all?

Live Your Dreams,

Jill

Again, I love both of these guys…

Chris Dunn

I will occasionally unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed if I notice that only 1 in 20 of the posts is worth reading.

I have never unsubscribed from a blog because I felt they weren’t posting frequently enough. That doesn’t inconvenience me in the slightest.

Once you’ve got my attention, keeping it is entirely about quality, not frequency. As for getting discovered in the first place . . . well, that’s usually about quality too, isn’t it?

Darren, thanks for the interesting post and I think it is a very interesting analogy which has led to such a great discussion.

I could not agree more with Gary that “being YOU” is the most important. But when we learn things you always look up to people like him and Tim. No matter what they say, one will be inclined to learn the best from both. For example, I just can’t help my amazement over Gary’s enthusiasm and passion for valuing the customer. I have a big respect for his genuine approach to things. In the meantime, Tim is the master of valuing his time (and so is Gary don’t get me wrong). But I do see more structured patterns in Tim’s approach.

I think the most challenging task is to find that “being YOU”. As time goes by, we want to learn from the best to become one.

As for how frequently to blog. I think it depends on your audience. Tim’s ‘fans’ are probably ok with less regular posts and email replies, while Gary gives/does great stuff when he feels like it (my best guess). At the end of the day, it is your audience, you define the rules. But I agree that some patterns as to how often things should go off are necessary.

Bottom line, learn from the best to become one. And Gary and Tim happen to be those we all want to learn from.

It’s great to want to respond to every email sent to your blog, and it has huge pay offs for someone building a fan base.

At a certain point the “tipping point” perhaps, it seems self evident that you will not be able to maintain that pace.

Blogging is a unique sphere where people contribute ideas, often with the premise that their thoughts are superior. Blogging has an elitist mentality buried deep withing it. (i guess by default i fit into this category since i’m responding)

subscribe to blogs that are interesting. If you want someone to read everything that you write start your own blog rather than expecting authors to read your thoughts.

That sounded way more hostile than I am, I think I’m just stirring up trouble.

Live words rather than reading them. If you’re stuck all day long reading email, what in reality are you accomplishing? Be yourself not a half A version of some internet hero. (although both dudes seem pretty cool on some level)

In my opinion, Gary is connecting with his audience by being “just one of the guys,” while Tim is more of a shameless self-promoter. There is nothing wrong with self-promotion, but it doesn’t develop a community.

Unless Tim releases another killer book, I think his popularity will wane, while Gary’s will continue to grow exponentially.

I had lunch w/gary mid summer and he really pumped me up w/regular blogging and hustling. I can respect big time how Tim is super disciplined, w/NOT 1 following on twitter!

I have a friend who doesn’t face book or twitter and blogs only 1x a week if that and kills it w/his simplicity.

Then again, on wine library gary gets sometimes 600 responses and tim gets on average 100 or so.

I am starting to ween away slightly from face book and twitter and will see how else Tim gets more traffic.

Who wants me to speak at their next web 2.0 engagement!?!?!?

Both guys rock, tough question!

–z–

How can I prove this?

Did you know who Tim Ferriss was before his book was published?

Gary’s plan is the slow but sure way that will work for everyone with persistence. You can only grow through networking online, and Tim’s approach is not conducive to that.

P.S. I loved the 4 Hour Work Week, even though it cannot be realistically applied to all professions. Believe me, I’ve tried.

http://www.GaryandNoah.com

He gave an amazing tip at minute 27 that really changed my thinking.

Gary taught me more while we were driving around Cleveland, Ohio than I have at marketing seminars where I dropped 10 grand.

Plus, he’s a really good guy.

Enjoy the interview.
~Noah St. John