The reason for which I started MasterNewMedia was to help others take greater control of their lives. I wanted to be meaningful to others by helping them discover how to effectively leverage the uniquely powerful communication opportunities offered by the Internet.

In full honesty, I really love to share what I discover and learn on a daily basis. It is not a marketing tagline: If I can help someone else achieve its communication goals by sharing what I have learned on my own, I am the happiest person on earth. Ask around (type Robin Good or MasterNewMedia in there and see). And this, at its core is what I have been doing here at MasterNewMedia, for nearly ten years (October 7th is MasterNewMedia 10th birthday!) now by sharing free in-depth content and making it also sustainable thanks to an extremely successful partnership with Google AdSense and its contextual advertising program.

And just about a year ago, I wrote here on MasterNewMedia what I wanted to be the new editorial strategy and direction to take:

“From a media and technology news and reviews daily web magazine to a reference, learning resource with a specific focus on media literacy, communication skills and professional web publishing. This is the new editorial strategy focus for Master New Media… This is where I am going next.“

Over the course of these last 12 months most such changes have become reality: I don’t cover anymore the latest news as a priority, I have increased the focus on the topics that are most relevant to those who want to communicate effectively by using the Internet, I have expanded my how-to / guide approach leaving behind more impromptu, spontaneous and personal coverage, and more. Just look at my plan of last year and see for yourself.

Today, I am finally adding another key component to this new strategy, on which I have worked for over a year and a half. It is item 7) of my last year plan and it is my most ambitious communication project so far.

Here all the details:

POP – What Is It?

POP is my first online learning program for professional web publishers, and by this I mean those who have a serious need, desire or plan, to make their online communication efforts more effective.

POP is not a course about learning how to make money online, nor about how to create a fast-success, big traffic blog site. I am uninterested in those goals per se and I have learned the hard way that it takes serious effort and true, genuine dedication to get anywhere memorable.

POP is more like a VIP club than a training school. The curriculum is dynamic and learners get to change and modify it. New information and know-how is served in many cool different formats and it is accessible 24 hours a day. I, the club founder, spend dedicated time with each one of my guests inside their VIP suites. I listen to their stories and I do my best to understand where they want to get, and then I help them identify possible critical points, as well as the alternative roads available to them. I don’t teach. I work with them to find a custom strategy that works for their specific needs.

Who Is It For

I have not designed POP for those who want to learn how to get 10,000 visitors a day or who badly need to make some extra money in the quickest and easiest way possible. POP is not a shortcut to get somewhere faster and with less effort. POP is for those who have a real strong reason for wanting to become effective online entrepreneurs, publishers, change agents and who want to invest all of their best energies and resources to get there.

These are the people who have already been publishing online or caressing the idea of doing it, but have never gotten to achieve enough skill, clout or following to really make a deep, lasting change. These are the people who have started already a few times but who have never made enough of their journey to really see what was awaiting them on the other end. These are those who while having a great idea, failed to understand the strategy and best approach to make into a reality, often using the methods of the pasts to build something for the future.

These are the people I have designed POP for.

If I look at the demographics I have collected over time, they are also intellectually active, ambitious, strong individuals. Most are aged between 25 and 55, have a graduate degree, do not work for a large organization and, and many of them are trying to achieve something unique and very challenging in their life. Something that by itself means for them realizing a long-standing dream and not just a need to have a work or find money.

I guess I could say that in one way or another, all these people HAVE A MISSION. A mission to realize something, which requires communicating effectively to others, and being able to get others to see and act on that information.

Why Do I Do It?

That’s the million dollar question: why do I do it?

There are a few reasons why I decided to create this online learning program. The the top ones are:

1) If you know me a bit more than having read some of my articles, you know that, at the essence, I am and I always wanted to be an agent of change. I like to change the world around me and others, to see greater beauty, love, harmony grow and prosper around me. I like to help those, especially the ones who are not gifted by fortune, money or great resources to achieve what to others would seem outright impossible. I like to help the small guy, the passionate seeker who is after something special to achieve it, by empowering him or her to communicate more effectively and to leverage to the max the opportunities and reach provided by these new media, online communication technologies.

2) I want to help. I am very frustrated by seeing so many talented and capable individuals, many of whom are my friends or people I know really well, miss their most important goal and slowly give up on it. This drives me mad. I know that if I could help them see HOW they can change in simple ways their course of action, their ability to achieve what they were after would increase tenfold. Unfortunately, many of them fall into their own traps and never recover from it: Sometimes is just laziness, sometimes it is being too closed on one’s own ideas, sometimes it is wanting to get there too fast. No matter what is the reason, sometimes we all need a listening partner with lots of experience to really re-gain some vision and perspective.

3) I like to be independent. That is I do not like to “depend” on others to decide, influence or change my own course of action. I don’t like to depend on someone or something that sets the rules of when or how I must express my talent (work) nor on someone who tries to squeeze me as a lemon without treating me as a fair mate. I don’t like to depend on one great client, on one supplier, or on one great business partner. I like to be able to realize my goals with or without them.

4) I have understood that the future is not just about information, content and ability to publish and exchange, but it is very, very much about learning. If you can’t learn new things, then having all this information at your disposal is not only useless, but often counterproductive and detrimental. Knowing how to manage and extract from this ocean of information what is really uniquely valuable to you, is priceless. Knowing how to organize your know how and skills so that they do not get wasted, or understanding how these new tools and technologies function and how to extract the best from them is invaluable.

5) Learning is an enjoyable, enriching activity that is very different from the experience most of us have been exposed to in school. Education, including schools and universities are going to some deep transformations, and the value they are able to provide, outside of very specialist, closed systemic areas (medicine, law, engineering, education, etc.) is rapidly decreasing. People are starting to realize that great learning takes place not in a gray classroom, not by listening and memorizing information and not certainly by passing official tests and exams. This has nothing to do with learning. true learning has to do with being with others who have a love for your same interests, in being part of a group where there are people with more experience and people with less, in experimenting, trying and making mistakes while confronting new stuff in a playful, open-minded fashion.

6) Communication is the most powerful skill one can have today. It is worth more than money or estate and its effects reach far more distantly and deeply than weapons or laws. Look at the religious movements. Not that I am very fond of them, but, through communication, they have achieved some pretty amazing goals. Look at some of the leading countries of the world. They have perpetrated some of the most horrendous and nefarious actions while making it appear as they were crusading to save someone home and kids from the devil: all communication strategy masterpieces. And now that communication and publishing tools are within the reach of almost anyone, the key difference is not anymore in the tools, but in the strategy and tactics being used.

What’s So Unique About POP?

The key unique thing about POP is that I want to help DIRECTLY a few, very serious and dedicated individuals. Yes, I am not just taking anyone in. I am accepting only a small number of people because my key goal is to help these individuals on a one-on-one basis. Yes, I want to be able to help directly a few individual / projects to achieve their own goals and I know that by just posting my best know-how, tools and resources this would not be possible. Each one has a different story, assets, background, skills and goals and you can’t apply the same strategy, tools and sequence to everyone. So, I am going to have just enough participants that I can actually devote multiple one-on-one session with each one of them.

The other unique thing about POP, is that it is not the typical online course made up of PowerPoints and written guides that you access on an online web site. It is rather a social dancing club where passionate ballroom dancers get together to learn and share their skills with everyone. Besides great video lessons, audio stories, written guides and my very own publishing and communication toolkit, these individuals get to meet with me inside live events and workshops online, can attend open-clinics to review their progress, have access to an exclusive forum where they can ask questions and have access to every single resource and contact I use for my own work.

What Is Inside the POP Learning Curriculum?

The POP topics range from my very own communication strategy and approach to the specifics of content production, writing, content distribution and marketing, information architecture and design, SEO, advertising and monetization. I don’t focus on one area. I cover them all. From thinking and designing a strategy before you start, to refining and improving your existing publishing, distribution and social media approach. The end goal is to put these people in control of their ability to create an enthusiastic following, a community of passionate, an audience of raving fans. And to get there, there is no easy, automated, one-click solution. The secret is simply thinking more ahead of doing, in asking and questioning more your assumptions, and in trying and experimenting more, while in company of bright, trusted, generous friends.

How Much Does It Cost? – How Long Does It Last?

POP is just about to open. Pricing information and access to enrollments will be visible to everyone in a few hours. If you want to be there when this happens, simply go to http://pop.robingood.com and drop your name in the dedicated input box. I will notify you personally via email as soon as the POP doors are open and a few hours before I make my public announcement inside my newsletter and through my other public communication channels (Twitter, facebook, etc.).

During the POP experience, I unroll the whole POP learning program over the arc of five months, before adding new modules and update some of the existing information. In theory one can come in just for those five months or stay for as long as sHe wants. Once you are in, you can stay forever. POP is a lifelong learning experience, and just like at the dancing club, even after you have taken all courses you can still learn a great deal simply by attending, practicing and exchanging with the talented people who are there.

To Find Out More About POP

To learn more about POP I have published a few resources to give you a better idea of what is in store.

1) Think Strategy, before Technology – VIDEO + PDF
On the POP home page I have just published a very short video and a PDF entitled: Think Strategy, before Technology. With it I try to analyze why so many promising web publishers fail to achieve great, memorable results, or lose enthusiasm and confidence in reaching their goals via the Web, and I propose some basic, down-to-the-ground corrective actions. You will not duplicate your traffic omn your site nor you will make 10,000 dollars after reading and watching that, but it may be that you will look at how to get where you want to be with a different pair of glasses.

2) POP Sneak Preview
This is a 15-minute video presentation of the POP learning platform I made a few weeks ago. It showcases what POP looks like once you are inside. You can get a good idea of the variety of contents, the organization of modules and the overall ease of use and look and feel of the learning platform.

3) POP FAQ
I have received many email questions in the last few weeks asking me all kinds of things about POP. You have some doubts about POP issue and you want me to clarify it for you. Done. I have answered all of the most common questions you have sent me so far through a series of short videos I have published on this POP FAQ page. I have also added a box on that same page for you to submit new ones.

Originally written by Robin Good for MasterNewMedia and first published on August 26th 2009 as “The Professional Web Publisher SuperGuide: POP Becomes An Online Learning Program”