Can you start blogging now and still become techy famous?

I started to concentrate on my blog in the last 3-4 months with the hopes of building a core readership that would possibly follow me into other online media formats. I hope to one day be a successful internet broadcaster helping people with technology questions and problems. I like the idea of making video and audio broadcasts from my home and I am inspired by two people, Chris Pirillo and Leo Laporte. The problem is that I am not sure if someone in my position can really reach the same amounts of people that Chris and Leo get today.

I honestly think that the internet is the future of media. An amazing amount of people in North America and Europe already get the majority of their news from the internet and I think that old media will eventually be assimilated into what we call the internet today, or will fall by the wayside. It is an exciting time because we are on the cusp of that change. We already see that old media is integrating itself with the internet starting with news papers a few years ago; who post a lot of content online, and now with TV. The main networks in the US are starting to post content online once it has aired on their network. If we look at radio, even in smaller markets we see that most FM and some AM stations in North America are broadcasting online to try and reach a wider audience.

How does that relate to the topic and how does that relate to people who are already into online broadcasting? Looking first at my aforementioned inspirational subjects Chris and Leo. They both have a successful day job running projects online broadcasting themselves helping people (that’s not to say that they don’t have other online projects that help pay the bills). They didn’t start there however. When I first logged onto Chris’ and Leo’s pages, it was not by mistake. I was actually looking to find content about them. The reason for that was my previously having watched them on TechTV when it was on the air. And for that I am curious to know how popular their current endeavors would be if they had not been in the public eye in the old media format. For some reason we see the TV as a type of validation for their knowledge and expertise. This is not to say that Chris nor Leo doesn’t have the knowledge that is required for what they are doing, but that it was the catalyst that helped them to where they are today.

Now if we look at the question “Can you start blogging now and still become techy famous?”, I think that answer is yes. However the changes are certainly very very slim that you will become as popular as Chris Pirillo or Leo Laporte. There are many other blogs that I read on a regular basis and these people do get quite a lot of readers to their sites. They are very popular in their own right however most have been working at it for 10 plus years, since blogging was first seen on the internet.

Now I think my decision needs to be how I will invest the next 10 years to gain readers or viewers. Is the blog the only answer? No. Is a podcast the answer? No. Is a video stream the answer? No. Is a mix of some or all three? I think it is