Google has added a "Call phone" function to Gmail that will put Google in closer competition with Internet phone service Skype.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Google announced Wednesday that it will allow users to make phone calls over the Internet through its Gmail service, encroaching on territory that has thus far been dominated by Skype.

The service will appear in Gmail users’ chat windows with a “Call phone” button. When clicked, a telephone dialer will pop up on the screen, and users can place calls using an internal microphone or connected headset.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) said calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of 2010. The company said it will roll out the service to its U.S. users over the next several days.

Calls to other countries from the U.S. will be billed at Skype-like rates: Calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan, for instance, will be offered for 2 cents per minute.

Google also said it plans on making the service available for international users to initiate calls, but it didn’t offer a timeline for when the service would be introduced abroad.

The company said the feature will be useful to make quick calls when a user is on a computer, or for placing calls in areas with poor reception.

“Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?’” Robin Schriebman, Google software engineer wrote in a company blog post.

Customers who use Google Voice, Google’s free telephone service, will be able to make calls in Gmail using their Google Voice numbers. They will also be able to receive calls made to their Google voice numbers inside Gmail if they choose.

The move positions the company in a battle with Skype. It won’t be easy to overtake Skype, however: In its recent government filing for an initial public offering, Skype said it has 560 million registered users. That compares to nearly 200 million Gmail users, according to Google.

Still, Gmail is becoming a communications hub for its users. Prior to the phone service, Gmail already allowed users to e-mail, instant message and video chat on PCs. Users can also use Gmail to post to social networks through the service’s Google Buzz feature.

Some analysts say the convenience factor could drive some would-be Skype users to Gmail’s new phone service.

“Google Voice in Gmail will gain some traction, simply because it’s there — some people live in Gmail,” said Vanessa Alvarez, analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “It will steal some share from Skype, but Skype has been in this space for a while, so it will be a long time before Google’s share becomes significant.”

As always, the question with any new Google product is how the company will make money on it. Like Skype, Google has an opportunity to sell its service to corporations. Google said a paid version for business customers will be coming out soon.

But Google hasn’t had much success with business customers so far. Its Apps services are slow to be adopted by corporate customers, and the company recently killed its Wave collaborative tool for businesses.

With Voice in Gmail, some experts believe business adoption and revenue from the service will be equally poor.

“Google is taking the easy road of arming their army of fans and users with something just good enough to use — but not necessarily good enough to meet enterprise requirements — and standing back and watching to see how they can shape the market,” said Tom Austin, Google applications analyst at Gartner.

As a result, Austin said he believes Google’s paid revenue stream for the service will be quite small: just $20.3 million per quarter, or 0.3% of Google’s second quarter revenue.

“How important can it be if it’s so insignificant?” Austin asked.

Yes, OKCupid’s data confirms our suspicions, iPhone users do “do it” more, at a rate of about 2x that of Android users. Perhaps this is because the Android has an easily accessible porn app store?

Presumably iPhone users are better at getting their kicks in real life. But the chart still leaves the greatest question of our time unanswered, “Do attractive people buy more iPhones, or does the iPhone somehow make you more attractive?” In any case, maybe it’s time some of us reconsidered our gadget predilections.

Get more “facts” about the iPhone as aphrodisiac here.

Charts: OKCupid

These new smart parking meters about to be tested in San Francisco automatically adjust the price you’re going to pay for your space depending on how many spots are already filled. Thanks to supply and demand you will pay anywhere from .25 cents to $6 an hour to park – expect to multiply that by 2 if these come to New York.

via: PC World
Google CEO Eric Schmidt had some scary things to say about privacy yesterday. In a nutshell, he said there’s an almost incomprehensible amount of data out there about all of us — much of which we’ve generated ourselves via social networks, blogs, and so on — and we are totally unprepared to deal with the implications of that fact.

Schmidt was speaking at the Techonomy confab, currently underway at California’s Lake Tahoe, where large-brained people gather to talk about how technology and the economy intersect.

[ See also: Whom do you fear: Apple, Google, Microsoft, or God? ]

Marshall Kirkpatrick of Read Write Web distilled the highlights:

“There was 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003,” Schmidt said, “but that much information is now created every 2 days, and the pace is increasing…People aren’t ready for the technology revolution that’s going to happen to them….”

“If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use Artificial Intelligence,” Schmidt said, “we can predict where you are going to go.”

“Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are. You think you don’t have 14 photos of yourself on the internet? You’ve got Facebook photos! People will find it’s very useful to have devices that remember what you want to do, because you forgot…But society isn’t ready for questions that will be raised as result of user-generated content.”

Are visions of 2001′s HAL 9000 or maybe The Terminator’s SkyNet dancing in your head yet? How about Minority Report or Enemy of the State?

In those movies, it was malevolent machines or government agencies that played the boogieman. In Schmidt’s scenario, the source of evil is a lot murkier.

Schmidt wasn’t really trying to draw disaster scenarios. He noted that a lot of positive benefits can come from the information explosion, and he’s right. Personally, if not for the Internet, I might be in another line of work. I’d almost certainly live in another city. Being able to access vast amounts of data without lifting my butt from this ergonomic chair has transformed my life in dozens of ways, as I’m sure it has tranformed others’.

Of course, Google is in the business of monetizing that data, for which it seems to possess an insatiable appetite. And sometimes it screws up big time. Schmidt didn’t really talk about that.

The good side of all this data: instant information about virtually anything. The dark side? Vast potential for personal profiling by your employer, your insurer, and The Man.

The fact is, your participation in a political forum might cause someone to not hire you. Your comments to a blog post about a particular medical condition may inspire an insurer to decline coverage. The Web sites you visit, the books you download and the movies you stream could get you on a watchlist — or worse.

Sound like a paranoid fantasy? It’s happened before, in different places and times, in different ways. From now on, though, it will happen via the Net. The stunning profusion of data out there — and Google’s very efficient methods for collecting and organizing that data — make it all possible.

Schmidt seems like a decent enough guy (though the resemblance to Howdy Doody is a bit unnerving). I don’t think he or his company are evil; but I do believe that like most corporations — and people, for that matter — Google has its own best interests at heart. Those interests lie in keeping Schmidt’s search engine stoked with more and more data.

He’s right, though. We’re unprepared. And when the data tsunami hits, all of us will get soaked. Hope you brought your all-weather gear.

When not abusing weather metaphors, ITworld TY4NS blogger Dan Tynan keeps the snark engine stoked at eSarcasm (Geek Humor Gone Wild). Follow him on Twitter:@tynan_on_tech.

For years, Internet advocates have warned of the doomsday scenario that will play out on Monday: Google and Verizon will announce a deal that the New York Times reports “could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.”

The deal marks the beginning of the end of the Internet as you know it. Since its beginnings, the Net was a level playing field that allowed all content to move at the same speed, whether it’s ABC News or your uncle’s video blog. That’s all about to change, and the result couldn’t be more bleak for the future of the Internet, for television, radio and independent voices.

How did this happen? We have a Federal Communications Commission that has been denied authority by the courts to police the activities of Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast. All because of a bad decision by the Bush-era FCC. We have a pro-industry FCC Chairman who is terrified of making a decision, conducting back room dealmaking, and willing to sit on his hands rather than reassert his agency’s authority. We have a president who promised to “take a back seat to no one on Net Neutrality” yet remains silent. We have a congress that is nearly completely captured by industry. Yes, more than half of the US congress will do pretty much whatever the phone and cable companies ask them to. Add the clout of Google, and you have near-complete control of Capitol Hill.

A non-neutral Internet means that companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google can turn the Net into cable TV and pick winners and losers online. A problem just for Internet geeks? You wish. All video, radio, phone and other services will soon be delivered through an Internet connection. Ending Net Neutrality would end the revolutionary potential that any website can act as a television or radio network. It would spell the end of our opportunity to wrest access and distribution of media content away from the handful of massive media corporations that currently control the television and radio dial.

So the Google-Verizon deal can be summed up as this: “FCC, you have no authority over us and you’re not going to do anything about it. Congress, we own you, and we’ll get whatever legislation we want. And American people, you can’t stop us.

This Google-Verizon deal, this industry-captured FCC, and the way this is playing out is akin to the largest banks and the largest hedge funds writing the regulatory policy on derivative trading without any oversight or input from the public, and having it rubber stamped by the SEC. It’s like BP and Halliburton ironing out the rules for offshore oil drilling with no public input, and having MMS sign off.

Fortunately, while they are outnumbered, there are several powerful Net Neutrality champions on Capitol Hill, like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, Jay Rockefeller, Ed Markey, Jay Inslee and many others. But they will not be able to turn this tide unless they have massive, visible support from every American who uses the Internet — whether it’s for news, email, shopping, Facebook, Twitter — whatever. So stop what you’re doing and tell them you’re not letting the Internet go the way of Big Oil and Big Banks. The future of the Internet, and your access to information depends on it.

Author’s note: Notice how a company can change their tune in the name of profitmaking. From Google in 2006: “Today the Internet is an information highway where anybody – no matter how large or small, how traditional or unconventional – has equal access. But the phone and cable monopolies, who control almost all Internet access, want the power to choose who gets access to high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can’t pay.”

RIM and AT&T today announced the BlackBerry Torch 9800, the first BlackBerry to combine a physical keyboard and touch screen, and the first smartphone running the new BlackBerry 6 OS.

“Today AT&T and RIM are introducing the best BlackBerry device ever,” AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said.

The Torch is a sliding-keyboard smartphone with a 3.2-inch touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard that slides out below the screen. It packs a 5-megpaixel camera, 3G networking on AT&T’s and foreign networks, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. AT&T has full tech details for the Torch on itsWeb page.

Top features in the new BlackBerry 6 OS include universal search, a universal inbox, and of course the new Web browser, which should be more faithful to desktop Web pages and faster than previous BlackBerry browsers.

New media features include better use of album art in the media players and Wi-Fi syncing of music, wirelessly, with PCs. According to AT&T, the Torch can sync with both Windows Media Player and iTunes.

RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis said that the device is called the Torch because it uses a WebKit-based Web browser written by Torch Mobile, a company RIM acquired last year.

A feature called “auto wrap text zoom” in the browser lets you easily zoom in on and read columns of text on the Web, Lazaridis said.

“We spent a lot of time on the details – how the applications interact, how the features interact,” Lazaridis said.

Lazaridis and de la Vega didn’t specifically call out any of their competitors, but Lazaridis made sure to note that the Torch has strong radio performance on 3G networks.

“We make sure that everything works just right. You know, we build and write our own 3G stack … we make sure that our battery life works really well, and gets you through the whole day stress free,” Lazaridis said.

The BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard is also a major differentiator, Lazaridis said.

“You’ve got that signature BlackBerry keyboard that’s so rewarding to use,” Lazaridis said.

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 will be available on August 12 for $199.99 with a new two-year contract. It will work with AT&T’s standard $15/mo, 200 MB or $25/mo, 2 GB data plans. RIM executives noted that because BlackBerry phones compress data in transit, you may be able to download more Web pages on the same data plan than you can on competing smartphones.

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.

The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn’t public. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, and Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, declined to comment.

The iPhone, which has been the sole domain of rival AT&T in the U.S. since June 2007, will give Verizon a boost in its competition for smartphone customers, UBS AG analyst John Hodulik said in an interview. Verizon customers, who numbered 92.8 million at the end of the first quarter, may buy 3 million iPhones a quarter, he estimates.

“Apple is going to dramatically increase the number of devices it sells in the U.S. when exclusivity at AT&T ends,” said Hodulik, who is based in New York and rates Verizon shares “neutral.” “It’s hard to ignore the quality issues that AT&T has faced.”

Verizon Wireless, which is building a high-speed fourth- generation network, plans to unveil several devices that will run on the new technology in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam has said.

IPhone Gains

Verizon Communications Inc., which co-owns the wireless company with Vodafone Group Plc, slid 9 cents to $28.62 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4 p.m. AT&T fell 49 cents to $24.46. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, dropped $12.13 to $256.17 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Peter Thonis, a spokesman for Verizon Communications, andMark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, declined to comment. Tenille Kennedy, a spokeswoman for Research in Motion Ltd., didn’t return a call seeking comment.

The iPhone has helped AT&T add subscribers even as the U.S. mobile-phone market nears saturation. There are enough wireless devices for more than nine out of 10 people, according to the CTIA wireless industry association.

In the first three months of this year, about a third of AT&T’s iPhone activations came from customers who were new to the carrier. Without those 900,000 new subscribers, the company may have posted a loss in contract customers that quarter, analysts said.

Still, Dallas-based AT&T has battled customer complaints about its wireless service, especially in New York and San Francisco, and dedicated an extra $2 billion to upgrading its network this year.

BlackBerry, Android

For Apple, a partnership with Basking Ridge, New Jersey- based Verizon Wireless is a victory over rivals such as RIM and Motorola Inc., whose smartphones are currently promoted by the carrier.

“For Apple it means a larger addressable market,” said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon. “It’s also good news for Apple in that it will spread the load on the wireless data networks, which will be good for their customers.”

Motorola, which makes Droid phones that use Google Inc.’s Android operating system, fell 27 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $6.80 on the New York Stock Exchange. Google dropped $17.82, or 3.8 percent, to $454.26 on the Nasdaq. RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, declined $3.22, or 6.1 percent, to $49.75.

Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since the phone’s introduction in 2007. The latest version, iPhone 4, sold more than 1.7 million units in the first three days after its June 24 debut, a record for the product. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said the company didn’t have enough supply to meet demand. Many stores, including retailer Best Buy Co., sold out.

A release at Verizon in the first quarter will help Apple’s sales in the U.S. grow to at least 15 million units next year from 11 million in 2010, Barclays Capital analysts said in a note today. The company’s suppliers have been ramping up production of components for a phone on Verizon’s CDMA network, according to the research report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Thomson in New York at athomson6@bloomberg.net

You can’t spell “sensual” without “SMS.”

A dutch site by the name of PS3 Clan has just revealed the newest rumor about the PlayStation 4, and the raw power it will have under its hood. Below is a statement the site received from IMGTEC quoted.

“The PlayStation 4 shall use a high end variant of the 6 Series line. Performance, specifications and features are unknown at this time. The Series 6 shall receive an official announcement from IMGTEC sometime in 2010, with initial models targeting the smartphone and netbook sectors.”

According to this, the PS4 will use the PowerVR Series 6 graphics card by Imagination Technologies. This graphics card is suppose to be 3 to 5 times better than a competitive level nVidia/ATI graphics card. The PowerVR card is also the same size and price as a nVidia card. Hopefully, gamers won’t have to wait long to find out if this rumor is true.

Some people dream of being famous from the time they’re quite young. They crave the spotlight, and will do anything to be the center of attention.

They want nothing more than to become a celebrity, to have legions of adoring fans, and to have their name recognized the world over.

For others, fame is a means to an end. They want to be famous so people will buy their product, hire them to do something they love, or to influence others to support a cause they really care about.

They see promoting themselves and becoming a celebrity as a way to further their career, business, or other efforts, and nothing more. In many cases, these people would prefer not to be famous if they could be as effective in other ways.

Whichever category you fall into, if you’re reading this article you’re probably interested in becoming an Internet celebrity. Read on to find out more.

Why You’d Want to Be Internet Famous

As mentioned above, some people want to be famous as a means to an end while others just want to be famous. But why would you want to be Internet famous instead of old-fashioned, mainstream-media famous?

Well, to some extent the question answers itself. Becoming famous in a traditional sense is hard.

It takes a lot of time and a lot of money in most cases.

In all likelihood, becoming traditional-famous will require you to move somewhere celebrities live (like Los Angeles or New York), spend all your time trying to gain media attention, and then it’s hit-or-miss at best.

Unless you’ve got a family fortune, are incredibly gorgeous, and/or are incredibly talented and driven (and have a whole lot of luck on your side), you could spend years trying to get attention with no results.

But Internet fame is different. Virtually anyone can do it.

It doesn’t cost a lot (most of the technologies you’ll need to use are completely free, and those that aren’t you likely already have access to). And it doesn’t have to become a full time job.

Another great thing about Internet fame is that it’s fairly easy to get your followers and fans to actually do something you ask them to do.

When you ask someone to buy your product or donate to your cause in a newspaper article, they’re not in a position to do so immediately. They’ll have to put the newspaper down, and either go to the store or go online and purchase or donate. In all likelihood, they’ll put it on their mental to-do list and then forget all about it half an hour later.

But with Internet fame, if you ask someone in a blog post or a tweet or a Facebook update to click on a link to buy something (or donate, or read something, or share something), it’s very easy for them to follow through. All they have to do is click. It makes immediate action that much more likely.

Some Initial Preparations

Taking a week or two to make some initial preparations before you start your quest to become Internet famous can save you a lot of headaches and hassles down the road. There are a few things you’ll need to do to optimize your chances of success.

Choose a Niche

First of all, you’ll need to have a niche. It’s pretty tough to become Internet famous these days if you’re trying to appeal to everyone.

If you have a product or cause you’re trying to promote, this makes choosing a niche easier (you want to appeal to those people who would be your customers or donors). But if you just want to be famous to be famous, you’ll need to give it more thought.

Pick something you’re interested in or knowledgeable about. Whatever you do, make sure the niche you choose is something you’re passionate about. That passion will shine through in your online activities and help get your followers excited.

Also, try to adapt your personality to appeal to your potential fans. This doesn’t mean you need to change who you are, but simply to emphasize one or another aspect of your personality over the others.

Take a Good Profile Photo

A good profile picture or avatar is really important. You should take a photo that shows you in the light you want to portray yourself in.

If you’re trying to come across as professional, make sure your avatar pic is professional. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a photo that’s stuffy, but it should reflect a professional attitude (see the photo below for a good example).

If you’re trying to become famous in order to help stop global warming, make sure your profile picture doesn’t show you sitting in an SUV (even if it is a hybrid). If your online persona is supposed to be wacky or crazy, make your profile pic reflect that.

Social Media Technologies to Use

So you’ve decided to become an online celebrity. That’s great. But you’re probably wondering how, exactly, you’re supposed to do that.

Below is a great list of the social media technologies out there and how you can take advantage of each. This is an abbreviated list and doesn’t include everything to know about each, but it’s a good starting point and will get you going in the right direction.

• Blogs
  If you’re considering becoming an online celeb, you really need to have a blog. Whether you choose to go with a free, hosted blog (like WordPress.com or Tumblr) or host your own, a blog is an important part of your online presence. Use it to let your fans know about all the things you’re doing online and off.
• Microblogging
  Twitter or similar services are another important place to share information about your activities with your fans. Twitter is the most popular, so an account there is probably your best bet.
• Multimedia
  Branching out into multimedia content can go a long way toward getting people excited about what you have to say. Consider video (including video blogging, aka vlogging), podcasts, or even photo sharing to become even more known.
• Social Networks
  You’ll want to join at least one social network, and depending on your niche, you may want to join more than one. There are two basic kinds of social network: general networks that attract a wide range of people, and specialized networks that focus on a particular subject area or niche. Join a general one (Facebook is a good all-around option; MySpace is good if you’re somehow related to the music industry; LinkedIn is best for professionals and corporate types), and any specialized networks that are active in your niche.
• Social Bookmarking and News
  Using social bookmarking and news sites can be a great way to get your content out to potential fans and followers. If you build a reputation for disseminating high-quality content, other users will be more likely to vote up or share the content you submit.

So now that you know which platforms you should check out, how do you make the most of them?

Well, the short answer is to consistenly create high-quality content. Think of what your fans potential fans are interested in. What kinds of content do they like? What kinds of things are they looking for online? What are they not getting anywhere else?

Answer those and you’ll have a good idea of what you need to do to keep your fans happy and gain new fans.

Creating Your Social Media Strategy

Creating a strategy for your social media efforts can really pay off. Rather than taking a hap-hazzard, shotgun-style approach, come up with a plan for how to best-focus your online efforts. By doing this, you’ll waste less time and likely see better results.

Start out by deciding which technologies you want to use. Blogs are a must, as are social networks. Microblogging is another one you should seriously consider. But what you do beyond that is entirely a matter of personal choice. Think about it and decide what you’re most comfortable with. Not everyone likes doing video or audio. Not everyone is a great photographer. That’s fine. You don’t have to be to be Internet famous.

Once you’ve decided which platforms you want to use, and have signed up for accounts on each, you’ll want to decide how much time you can devote to your efforts each day.

Keeping a blog updated on a regular basis, participating in social networks, and microblogging can all be done in an hour a day or less (though you should probably break that down in two 30-minute sessions or four 15-minute sessions for better results and to give the impression you’re active a lot more than you really are).

If you want to do podcasts or videos, you might want to devote another couple of hours each week to their production.

Let’s say you’re going to spend an hour each day, in four 15-minute chunks. Your social media strategy might look something like this:

• Morning 15 minutes: Check Twitter and blog comments. Send out a tweet or two. Respond to comments.
• Lunchtime 15 minutes: Write a blog post. Send out another tweet (announcing the post preferably). Update status on social networks.
• Afternoon 15 minutes: Update status and tweet. Check for more blog comments and respond.
• Evening 15 minutes: Update status and tweet.

It’s a pretty simple strategy that aims to keep you in front of your fans throughout the day.

There are various tools that can help you do these things faster (like TweetDeck or Ping.fm, which let you update your social networks and Twitter at the same time).

There are also services where you can pre-schedule updates, spreading them out over the whole day even if you’re not online. Take advantage to the technology you have available to you to simplify and automate your social media efforts as much as is practically possible.

You might not have dedicated times to update your online activities. If you use a cell phone to update your status or to tweet, you’ll likely be able to post updates throughout the day. Or you might dedicate a couple hours each weekend to writing blog posts for the week.

This can make it quite a bit easier to stay updated without having to dedicate blocks of time to these activities. Just make sure you’re consistent, and that you post updates on a daily basis (keeping a daily checklist of sites to update can be helpful).

Keys to Internet Fame

So, you’ve got a Facebook account, a Twitter feed, and a blog, and you update them all regularly. Is that really all there is to it?

Well, yes and no. Becoming Internet Famous requires a bit more than just regular updates. There’s no tried-and-true formula that will work every time.

It’s going to depend on the platforms you use, how much time you can devote to your efforts, and a bit of luck. But here are some key things you can do to improve your odds.

• Let your personality shine through
  Everyone has a personality, and one key to setting yourself apart is to let yours show. Don’t be afraid to let your followers and fans see the real you. When someone feels like they’re dealing with a real person, rather than someone who’s faking it for attention, they’re more likely to become a true fan, someone who will become an advocate for you and your content and push it out to their own friends and followers (thereby creating an even bigger fanbase for you).
• Engage your followers
  When you start getting some Twitter followers or Facebook friends or blog commenters, make sure you engage with them. Have conversations. Ask for their input. Respond to what they’re saying. This makes people remember who you are more easily, and makes it more likely they’ll turn to you when they need advice in your area of expertise.
• Be passionate
  If you’re passionate about what you’re doing and what you’re talking about, that will be evident in the content you produce. Fans and followers like someone who is passionate about what they do; in fact, it can be contagious. If they see that you’re really into something, they’re more likely to want to find out why you love it so much and to become interested in it themselves.
• Make your fans care
  This is really an extension of the previous two, but give your fans a reason to care about what you’re doing. This is done through being authentic and building trust among your fans (so they know what you’re saying is real), being passionate about what you say and do, and asking for their input, advice, and take on what you’re doing. If you involve your followers in your online life, rather than simply using social media as a soapbox, you’ll quickly turn casual followers into fans.
• It’s a process
  You’re probably not going to gain Internet fame overnight. While there are some who have done it, many of them have gone on to become one-hit wonders, better known for some extreme antics, embarrassment, or humiliation than for anything worthwhile. Instead, look at the long view when it comes to building up a fan-base and really cultivating a following that will not only know who you are, but will care what you have to say.
• Know when to call it quits
  Not every effort you make online is going to be successful. Maybe you’ll find after doing a few podcasts that it’s just not your thing. Or maybe you’ll find that even though you’re enjoying something, it’s just not providing any results (make sure you give these things a few months though, as some take a bit longer to catch on). Maybe you’ll even decide that there just aren’t enough potential followers out there for your chosen niche (or that they’re all too preoccupied with someone else in your niche that you just can’t seem to outdo). In any case, know when it’s time to move on to something else. This doesn’t mean you need to give up your dream of being Internet famous, only that you need to re-evaluate how you’re going about it and adjust your strategy.