Much of the blogosphere decried Robert Scoble's departure from MSFT to PodTech a mistake. How would an "A" list blogger continue to keep his audience without the juicy critique of the mothership in Redmond? The answer (or at least perception, since I don't know what his traffic looks like) is that he couldn't. Scoble built an audience that wanted to read irreverent, prickly barbs hurled by an insider. Now his posts just read like they're plucked from the Battelle-wire.
It seems he did not understand the value of his own personal brand.
It also seems like the same thing is happening to Guy Kawasaki. I don't know Guy, but I sure feel like I do. Though I don't always agree with what he writes, he seems like a good person -- an upbeat, positive evangelist that learns through experience, and wants to share that advice with the world. Whether it's true or not is irrelevant: Guy has worked hard to build a persona that puts the "angel" back in angel investing. (ooof.)
That's his personal brand.
So I'm not sure what he was thinking when he launched Truemors. Not the site, per se. I think he's taken his fair share of criticism there. But what has he done to his personal brand?
First off, a rumors site? The Guy Kawasaki brand is about making the world a better place. In fact, he says as much in his interview with Red Herring while discussing his measures of success. Sure there are some really successful rumor sites out there, but they are run by unseemly characters like Pud and Perez.
Second, what's with this rally around the disclaimer of "only a 10% chance of success"? Yes, that may be absolutely true, but who the hell in the valley wants to get behind that? Remember, you're an optimist, Guy.
Third, nobody cares that it only cost $12,000 to do. He needs to save that figure for the day when the site has given him 10x or 20x the return in ad revenue. Trumpeting the cost now only sounds like another disclaimer that --when it fails -- he didn't lose all that much.
Because the truth is that he's invested significantly. That $12,000 is only the tip of the ice-berg if he's tarnished his brand.