Toronto Blog Stars (Or Kids Today and Their Pangs for Fame)

Published March 11, 2010 @ 21:45 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

TicketstubsA few Toronto bloggers are hosting an event they're calling The Guide to Social Media Success: The Ultimate How-To with the Toronto Blog Stars. As you'll see in the promo YouTube video below, it's featuring "the top three bloggers" in this city.

I must admit, I hadn't heard heard of Sean Ward before I saw that clip, and I only first heard of Casie Stewart earlier this year when I caught a Raymi tweet about her. Raymi I've known for years, having interviewed her not once, but twice. In 10 seconds, this Sean Ward guy comes across as such a pretentious douche bag I just broke my laptop screen trying to punch him in the face, but I digress...

What do you get from these Toronto Blog Stars for your $20? According to the Toronto Blog Stars registration page, you will learn everything you need to know about living the Blog Star lifestyle using blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and social networking, including:

  • how to get - and keep - the attention of movers and shakers in your industry
  • how to turn your everyday life into compelling content
  • how to brand yourself online
  • what programs and applications to use to host your site, keep track of your statistics, and promote yourself & your blog

Full props to these three Toronto bloggers for trying to make a little coin from kids today, desperately panging for some semblance of celebrity. If they can get a bunch of local blogger star wannabes to cough up $20 a pop for this content, good on 'em.

I invented compelling content. I have the attention of movers and shakers. I've branded myself online. If you want to learn all these things and more, I'll sing like a canary for $15, and I promise you'll never feel compelled to kick my ass.

16 Responses to "Toronto Blog Stars (Or Kids Today and Their Pangs for Fame)"

Aimz
March 11, 2010 / 22:45

Hysterical. I've never heard of any of these people! Funny how Frank the Chromewaves music blogger isn't invited. He's only one of the top music bloggers in the WORLD! He's forgotten more about social media than this joker Sean has ever learned.

elvis
March 11, 2010 / 22:48

I'd rather have a threesome with Irvine and Argie than go to this "event"

Sarah
March 11, 2010 / 23:00

Wow. I haven't heard of any of these people. Something tells me that the top three bloggers in Toronto would know enough to shoot their video a) in better quality, b) not in a bar; and c) with some bells and whistles.
But yes, I want you to teach me how to use the interwebs because your video shot at a bar is so compelling? Are you sure you only want $20 from me? I would rather hand over my life savings for all your "tips."

Chris
March 12, 2010 / 00:20

This reeks of desperation.

I'm not saying Sean Ward is a douche, but he isn't making a compelling case for me to think otherwise.

Every moment of the video is annoying. Who's their target audience? The kids who stand outside MuchMusic when Justin Bieber comes to town? Yikes.

Laura
March 12, 2010 / 02:40

I can't imagine things going well if they see this. It reads a bit like a personal attack because you "haven't heard of them".

Stu
March 12, 2010 / 07:40

"I just broke my laptop screen trying to punch him in the face"

LMAO!! Me TOO!!

brad
March 12, 2010 / 08:02

me three!

and it's not actually a personal attack - just what the kids are looking for - web-based snarky analysis of a 10 second video clip

Steve
March 12, 2010 / 09:02

You don't suppose I could get somebody to pay me $20 for having wasted my time watching that, do you?

I must say though, that might be one of the most convincing arguments for not spending money and staying clear of a several mile radius of something I've seen in a while, so in that sense the ad was a success.

CQ
March 12, 2010 / 09:24

I miss the "real bloggers" of the 2003-2007 era.

Remember the gtabloggers listing site? I even featured local aggregate pages from Stockholm to Dallas at the very top of my main page. And every 5 or 6 weeks I'd publish a Sunday morning entry listing a few current & enjoyable blog entries out of any one city.
Biggest downfall was that nearly every aggregate operator failed to maintain their lists between active and non-active sites. That, and then the increased personal locality sub-specifying; Gtabloggers never broke down between regions like Etobicoke, Central, or Oshawa, but it also didn't nitty grit either.

Mike from Lowville
March 12, 2010 / 11:11

Now thats funny elvis!

Stephanie Wilkinson
March 12, 2010 / 11:22

I don't typically use the phrase "douche bag" to describe someone, but I have to say, that's the only thing that comes to mind with that Sean guy... I can think of probably a thousand things in the next five minutes I would rather do with the $20 that would give me greater happiness than to give it to those egotistical kids.

Toronto Mike
March 12, 2010 / 12:46

@CQ

I remember those days. gtabloggers.com was a great idea - I was sad to discover recently that the domain is parked, waiting to be sold.

Adil
March 12, 2010 / 13:30

Wow, tough crowd. I give them points for trying. That's more than most can say.

Sara
March 12, 2010 / 14:25

"If envy were a fever, all the world would be ill."

This post seems a bit unlike you, from what I've learned of you through your blog.

Donna Vitan
March 26, 2010 / 10:48

Mike you're hilarious and made me giggle. Like you, I haven't really known of Sean Ward until recently so I hesitate to like or dislike him but I did attend this event because I'm a fan of Raymi for a very long time, and have started to follow Casie.

Reading your article, it seems like it's based on you not liking Sean Ward rather than the merit of finding value it what they have to say for people getting into blogging and finding fame in their own way - projecting whatever persona they want to build themselves.

In my profession, it's been beneficial to attend events like this, meetups and podcamps to see what people are doing, what technology is being used and social trends.

So you may not like the personality but they're doing something to build readership and that's a benefit that anyone can cash in on.

Granted you might think you have more compelling content but you also have different audience than Raymi, Casie and Sean.

My two cents bubba!

Toronto Mike
March 26, 2010 / 11:55

Dear Donna,

I am hilarious, thank you. It's not that I dislike Sean Ward, I don't know him or his blog, it's that he comes across in that youtube clip like Russell "Cashman" Oliver. I really did want to smack him.

I just miss the days when content was king.

p.s. Torontoist just wrote about this: http://torontoist.com/2010/03/culture_club_the_ego_and_the_ip.php

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