We at BornRich are announcing a new series of Cool Geek of the week. Web 2.0 is the world of Nerds and Geeks. And believe me, being Nerd was never so sexy in any era like this one. So we will try to get a cool geek for you (our dear and wonderful audience), every week.



This week we present you a Cool Geek from Coolest-Gadgets, Al Carlton.







Al Carlton is the founder and CEO of Coolest-Gadgets, a tech site on latest gadgets, technology, product reviews, many interesting and crazy stuff. Lately Coolest-Gadgets have been in news for successfully completing one year and sponsoring gadget promo on their new forum at Coolest-gadgets.



Al is a wonderful guy, and I had lots of fun interviewing him. So without taking any more time, here’s Al Carlton for you guys:-



Nandini: Tell us about Coolest-Gadgets, and the team associated with it. How did you get here?



Al: I’ve always had a fascination with gadgets, the Internet and being my own boss. When my friend Dan told me about the LED keyboard I thought I should start a site and write about this stuff and so Coolest Gadgets began.



Being a bit of a geek (okay a lot) I tend to have geeky friends, one of whom is more gadget mad than I am, Marc. Marc agreed to partner with me on the site and he found some cracking gadgets to write about. Unfortunately, due to buying a house and a crazy work schedule Marc had to quit writing just before the site really started taking off, though I am taking him to CES in January as a big thanks for all the work he originally did.



I’ve been very lucky (touch wood so far) in finding writers, some of who even do it for free (thanks Alexia and Keith :)). I now try to keep at least 3 writers at all times so that we can cope with the odd bought of sickness or bloggers block (I remember when I only had one writer and she told me she was going on holiday for 2 weeks from tomorrow, after that I swore I’d never (literally) be that reliant again).



Sorry I’m waffling a bit, I’ll try to keep my other answers a bit shorter :)



Nandini: Would you provide some insight into how you go about spotting the latest gadgets and technology out there?



Al: I follow a lot of blogs (100+, RSS is a real time saver) and also monitor traditional media sources like TV and newspapers. I attend as many trade shows as holidays allow and get myself on mailing lists. As CG is pretty established I do get a lot of email with suggestions and by the looks of it the forums are going to be another great source of original content.



Nandini: Today Networking is one of the major aspect of blogging, and I can see coolest-gadgets mentioned at all the cool places. What do you do to develop your networking amongst other gadget bloggers?



Al: I ALWAYS credit my sources which I think every blogger shoudl. Once Jurgen over at Random Good Stuff sent me a thank you email for the linking to him which I thought was a really cool gesture and a great way to make contacts, so I do that too now. I know when people leave comments on CG I always check out their sites, so it makes sense that other blog owners probably do the same, so I leave a fair few comments around the sphere.



I did a thank you post a while ago which got a lot of positive feedback and contacts from other bloggers and funnily enough lots of other sites started crediting CG as the source after that.



As you can probably tell I link out a LOT when it’s relevant.



Nandini: If you are deserted on an lonely island, and ask to pick only three gadgets. What would they be?



Al: That’s a tricky one, there are so many but here goes:

1 - The best laptop that money can buy with unlimited range Wi-Fi so that I can continue blogging. The lid would also be a solar panel so no need to worry about power sources.

2 - Mobile phone with built in everything, I’m due an upgrade soon so I’m still choosing which model.

3 - I’ve seen some pretty cool boats on Born Rich so I reckon I’d have to go for one of those, crewed by scantily clad women ;)



Nandini: What was the idea behind the recently launched gadget forum. Also tell us about your $1000 gadget promo?



Al: I enjoy participating in forums and hadn’t found a gadget one that I really felt at home in, so I thought it would be a great way to mark our anniversary. I also have another big project planned for CG that I’m hoping forum members can help with and be rewarded from at the same time but that’s a bit hush hush at the moment.



The success of the gadget forums has really taken me by surprise, in the first 3 days we’ve had something like 200 new members and 2,000 odd posts, it’s been a crazy time. The $1,000 worth of prizes I’m sure helps, I think the prize pool is now up to something like $1,500. What I’d like to do is some sort of competition every month, I’m off to the Gizoo launch party this week ao I’ll have to see if the fancy donating a few bits for next months contest.



Nandini: What’s next for Coolest Gadgets? Do you have any future projects you can tell us about?



Al: I’ve got big plans for CG, the forums are just the start (well middle I suppose). Colleen of Kalina Web Designs did an excellent job on the forum skin so I’ll be asking her to do a similar theme for the main site. The next big CG project is top secret at the moment but it will be very cool and hopefully out before Christmas :)



I’ve also partnered with web entrepreneur Scott Jones who won the recent V7 SEO contest, elursrebmem. We are currently running these budgie forums together (a subject I know nothing about so just admin) and have plans for some much grander projects in the near future.



At the moment I am squeezing my web businesses around a fulltime job. Once I quit the 9 to 5 ball and chain (will be later this year if I can sell my house) then I’ll be in a much better position to launch more cool sites and services.



Nandini: How would you define your audience?



Al: After seeing a lot of them in the forums I’m getting a much better idea of what our primary readers are like. So far I’d say:

- Aged 10 to 80+

- Tech savvy

- They spot more errors and omissions than I do

- They spell better than I do.





Some of your favorite blogs? Why do you like those blogs?



I like a lot of blogs so apologies to those I miss. Some of my favorites are:

Gizmodo - One of the daddies of gadget blogs

Engadget - Another of the daddies of gadget blogs

Shiny Shiny - Star has a wicked sense of humor

SciFi Tech - Adam finds some very cool gear to cover and writes so much more in depth than I ever do

Born Rich - Of course :)

Pro Blogger - Not gadget related but a fantastic resource about blogging. Darren even wrote a piece on how to do interviews over there ;)



I’m sure I’ve missed at least one that I shouldn’t have done. If your blog is not in that list it’s because it’s the one I missed :)



Nandini: What do you think about Bornrich and Instablogs Network?



Al: I enjoy reading BornRich, you have some ridiculously expensive stuff on there. Though I’m not sure what type of person would buy a $17,500 Self-Playing Violin, crazy!! I find all the blogs on the Instablogs Network of high quality, I never realized there were some many until I just checked. I might have to interview you about that, for a future project I have planned :) You put my little blog network of
Coolest Gadgets, Game Addicts and SoftSift to shame,



Thanks for taking-out time to speak with Instablogs and Bornrich. In case anyone hasn’t yet seen the new cool forum at Coolest-gadgets, go take a look- there’s, tons of activity and a lot of exciting stuff.31580