Talkin’ Cloud: Seven Reasons We’ll Earn Your Trust

When Nine Lives Media Inc. decided to launch Talkin’ Cloud our team had one concern: We didn’t want this web site to be filled with empty hype. Instead, we wanted Talkin’ Cloud to be a community filled with healthy debate and informed guidance. So how will Talkin’ Cloud earn your trust? Here’s my seven-part answer.

1. Disclosures: In the online world, it’s increasingly difficult to determine independent content from sponsored content. Also, many media companies (including ours) now offer consulting services to advertisers and vendors. In short I think all media — including our own editorial team — has biases. But here’s the twist: You can visit our disclosures page to see who sponsors our efforts. If you think those sponsors and financial engagements unfairly influence our editorial coverage please contact us immediately. We take reader feedback and constructive criticism to heart. And you can reach me directly anytime (joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc [dot] com).

2. We’ve Done this Before: Nine Lives Media Inc. previously launched MSPmentor and The VAR Guy — the two top blogs serving managed services providers and VARs, respectively. We know how to engage readers and how to build community. But most importantly, we know how to listen… listen… and listen some more to our readers.

3. We’re Independent: Yes, this site is sponsored. But Nine Lives Media Inc. also is self-funded and debt free. We don’t grab every dollar that comes our way. Our most important customers are our readers and our sponsors… not our lenders (since we don’t have any outside funding). We believe serving our readers will help us to build an audience that’s highly valuable to sponsors. And we realize we’ll be out of business if we ever betray our readers.

4. We’re Informed Skeptics: If you’ve spent some time on The VAR Guy and MSPmentor you realize that we work hard to point out the bigger picture to readers. We expose vendors when they’re bluffing. We protect readers from endless hype. We’re not always correct. But you’ll always know where we stand. And our top goal is standing by our readers.

5. We’re Available: We live on our web sites because we love our readers. Sometimes we’re a bit slow to reply to email — because we’re flooded with inquiries — but we’ll always try our best to reply as soon as possible.

6. We’re Open Minded: Anybody is free to post a comment on Talkin’ Cloud. You don’t need to register to post the comment (though our Forums do require registration). You can post opinions and views that differ from our editorial views. That’s how we all learn together. We do, however, check all comments containing URLs before they go live on our web site. That way we can ensure porn links and other questionable materials don’t surface in our comment areas. And we push for readers to disclose their employer names and industry interests.

Still, a word of caution: Comments are forever. Generally speaking we never delete reader comments. So make sure you’re ready to share your view before you press submit.

7. We’re Flexible: We’ve got strong views and opinions but our views certainly evolve based on reader feedback and industry trends. At one point in the not-so-distant past, I was convinced that open source would rule the world. But I’ve gradually tempered my open source enthusiasm… Just take a look at Microsoft’s most recent quarterly results (they set records…) and you’ll understand why.

My point is this: To us technology is not a religion. It’s not a war of words. We don’t believe cloud computing will rule the world. But we do believe it will have a place in the IT channel.

We look forward to tracking, documenting and debating the trends with you. Thanks in advance for joining the conversation.

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