A friend and fellow sports journalist who’s trying to carve out his own way on the Web explains why he passed up the chance to tell others how to raise money on the Internet. By eschewing the trend of “extending my brand” he prefers instead to draw from the examples of small ventures that abound in his Rhode Island town:

“Just beyond the first couple rows of houses is a cluster of small Pawtucket businesses, many of which are over a generation old. There’s a high-volume laundromat, a barber shop, a credit union for city and state employees, a golf supply store, and an auto maintenance shop that specializes in Saabs. They’re all doing well, despite the economic downturn, even despite the fact that I don’t do any business with most of them. And they don’t care, and they don’t unnecessarily chase my business. They keep doing what they do, catering to their niche markets, making their modest profits. Once the web catches on to that dynamic, things will be just fine.”