A decision I can’t make without asking you guys

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

• Roland Tanglao

  No. Your brand is worth more than their brand IMHO.

  Only do it if they allow you to continue to do RingNokia as an independent website.

  Go Stefan go!

  BTW I am willing to buy T shirts, swag, etc if you go the kottke or daringfireball route!

• shello

  There are times of comming and times of going. Sometimes people need to change or do some other things where they’re interested in.
  I hope you still love nokia!

  I’ve bookmarked intomobile so in stead of ringnokia I will visit intomobile daily.

  Good luck!

  A belgian fan.

• greenteeth

  I think it’s a no brainer. If people are willing to pay you for the things you love to do then go for it. If you pass on it you may regret it. Parlay this into something bigger and more lucrative. Congrats nonetheless and good luck with your decision.

• Alessandro

  Ciao Stefan,

  I agree with Roland. You created the brand RingNokia so I would suggest you to put ads or something since your stats are really good and make some money like that. But your blog is a great resource for many people and people read your opinions. That’s what makes your blog great.

  Alessandro

• Beat

  Congrats, bro!

  Do what you think would make you the happiest.

  I don’t think that taking the job will make you a “sellout.” I will say be careful of taking the first job that pops up, however. I agree with Roland. Your brand is worth more than their brand (imo). You’re very passionate about what you do and it shows. It’s quite impressive, considering how long (short) you’ve been at it. You have become my favorite s60 blogger, mainly due to your honest, no BS approach. Your personality shines through in your blogging (in a good way). Keep at it. I’m sure your stock will continue to rise. This won’t be the only job offer you receive, I’m sure of it.

  Keep up the good work!

• Roland Tanglao

  oh and whatever decision you make I support you Stefan. No matter what happens with intomobile, your voice is unique and worthwhile listening to. please make sure that if you decide to go with intomobile that there is a separate RSS feed for your stuff so I can just follow your stuff should I choose not to read the rest of the intomobile stuff.

• sithius

  I hope you still love NOKIA!

  Bulgaria reading…

• Bernardo

  NO! How many page views do they have? Keep the day job, keep working on RingNokia part time and ask Intomobile to become prime-platinum-diamond-whatever sponsors of Ring Nokia for half the price. You would own the RingNokia brand and creative control. You would give them a big banner, great real state on your blog, you can even be part of the “Intomobile network” and have a bar on top that would say that.

  DO NOT GIVE UP CREATIVE CONTROL NEVER EVER. You got a good thing going. In the model above, shit hits the fan you still got RingNokia. If you redirect your traffic to intomobile, you will lose everything. Partner with them and it will be good deal for everybody!

• Matt

  Stefan — having intomobile in my RSS, I’m constantly displeased by the inaccurate information they provide… I’m sorry, but you are better continuing here.

  One thing to keep in mind: when you blog for someone else, you are at the will of their dollar bills… you have creative freedom here which is a lot more important.

  -olly

• david

  I’d say NO.

  Just checked their site (didn’t knew about it until you mentioned it in this post).
  Seems like they wanna buy some visitors to their site …bet there’s more activity in the middle of the Sahara desert than in their comments to their posts.

  I could live with some ads on ringnokia.com.

• cybette

  I would miss RingNokia, and I hope you’d still blog mostly about Nokia. And Roland’s suggestion of an RSS feed with just your posts is great.

• tom

  Unless you’re getting more than just a monthly paycheck, I would say no. Blogging for them for a monthly paycheck is totally acceptable, but transferring all your blog posts and domain is giving away a lot of value esentially for free. Hiring you as a writer and buying your blog are two entirely different things and should be compensated separately.

  I just went over to their site and my visit didn’t last two minutes, I can tell you that. I left rather unimpressed. Why don’t you try monetizing your website yourself. I don’t see any text link ads on your site and I’m sure the parallel unlocked phone importers in the US would be interesting in sponsoring a site that advocates them the way you do. These visitor stats you have aren’t too bad either!

  just my 2cents

• Harry

  i would not recommend u to go because Ringnokia is authentic. it is ur personal blog. but it is ur choice. if u go b shur to still love NOKIA :]

• p@sco

  what i think about it?
  just one thing: go straight on your road here on ringnokia…
  i think it’s better to be poor but free than rich and chained…

  surely, you have to decide yourself, but you’re readers (i’m just one of yours) are here for ringnokia and stefan…

  anyway, good luck

• PhoneAddict

  Hi Stefan,

  I think that you should make sure that you.
  1) Complete your Helio internship and do not burn bridges on the way out
  2) Entertain the offer but make sure that they pay you a one time aquisition fee (in addition to your new blogging salary)if you are basically going to port all of RingNokia to their site. You should come up w/ an eyeball valuation model and charge them something for what you have built here pouring in over a year of sweat.
  3) Let others know that Ring Nokia is “in play” and evaluate competitive offers
  4) Consider going it alone and figuring out how to monetize the traffic, you have single handedly built an amazing traffic engine fed by amazing content and commentary that exceeds most of what else is out there (in my opinion)– someone suggested t-shirts and stuff, maybe you can get some ads going, or even start selling stuff like the treonauts site. Everyone knows you need to make a living, and we all also know you won’t slant your content to make a buck.

• Hakeem

  Wow! Congrats. Your the best mobile blogger, bcause your words isn’t that difficult to understand.haha. Suitable for all ages.

• raghu

  dude, we come to ringnokia for our nokian needs & to hear ur thoughts coz tht is wht we want…. no BS….. u know ur situation best so do wht u have to…. just remember…. we’r not going anywhere……. except with u of course…. best of luck…..

• geekonimus

  Until you reach a point in life where what you do is exactly what you want to do as a passion and make money from it (i.e. you reach that level of attainment, self-actualization, what have you…), you do not have the luxury to compromise on at the very least what is right now only your passion. Especially if they are only offering what you are already making at Helio.

  Make sense?

  Stick to RingNokia. If you went with IntoMobile, it wouldnt be selling out at all, but it would be giving up a part of you which I believe can develop tremendously and still has a while to get there.

  Patience.

  All good things to those who wait.

• ozair

  well i would say no since i like your sytle and site, put ads here if u need money, and also discuss some other technology if u want but compare it to nokia instead so it says with the blog, wil miss ring nokia if u left. also its upto u , we wil well switch ther then if u movin let us know!

• Caspar

  Sorry… am a bit sleepy this morning… you must have Analytics in order to know all those stats… D’oh!

• Steve Robbo

  I’ll miss you on Ring Nokia. I’m not surprised you’ve been head-hunted, and as you’ve said you’ll retain all editorial control.

  Just keep me posted, and I’ll follow you wherever.

• Jonathan Greene

  Tread lightly …

  You own this. Regardless of the legal letter you received, you can always tweak your domain name, but you own this outright. Giving your content to someone is not a good idea. Getting paid to write is one thing — and a good one. But they should not be buying you out for what you are earning… I’ve got a good guess of your income (given you age, experience and current position).

  You could definitely do better on your own, but you need to plan that on this site. You could easily take advertisers — well beyond Google Adsense. That’s not selling out, that’s making a living and doing it how you want.

• Jeb

  Stefan,
  Good luck in whatever you decide. Just so you know I would have absolutely no problem with a few adds on RingNokia.com. Try to get something like Ewan at SMSTextNews has with a great phone program to sponsor the site. I just checked out the intomobile website and it’s nothing compared to yours. In my opinion which is what you asked for I say put up a few ads and sell some tshirts. I think a bunch of people here would spend $10-$15 bucks on a shirt to help support the website. I also think that the RingNokia.com URL is worth a great deal of money and that you are getting the short end of the stick if you just transfer everything you have worked on for so long to them. You may also not get the great invites to Nokia and S60 events that we are all so envious of.
  Just my 2cents but I’m an entrepreneur myself.
  All the best,
  Jeb

• Dimilaz

  Stefan,
  I am your fan since your first posts. You have the best style and you are my favourite NOKIA blog. I agree with others, you can make money with your blog as well. Put adds, sell shirts and etc. We don’t mind. I know it sounds very commercial to you and you’ve been rejecting it all the time. But trading your website for intomobile is even more commercial. I would accept their offer and keep this blog. They can’t take it from you. This is your personal baby! I’d rather read RingNokia than IntoMobile. Always do what makes YOU happy, do it with LOVE and you will SUCSEED!

• photonpoet

  Do as your heart tells you.

  From my perspective, there’s a lot more value for me as a reader here than at intomobile. There are already bigger better blogs doing a much better job of covering the entire mobile phone sector. On the other hand no-one is doing what you do better than you do it. And that is worth more than intomobile seem to realise.

  Like others have said, if you take this offer, you are giving them your blog, your brand and your audience for nothing. They are giving you a paycheck until, god forbid, they stop giving you a paycheck and they get to keep your blog, your brand and your audience. Hopefully they’re waaay more ethical than this, how would I know? Do you know?

  The appeal of being paid for what you love is obvious and enormous. If you can find a way to spin some money yourself from ringnokia (there are good suggestions above), go for it.

  If you choose to go intomobile I will wish you every success and happiness, but I’ll miss you.

  Remember, this is a beautiful dilemma most of us would love to have

• Sheng

  someone stated up there talking bout partnership…instead of transfering everything to intomobile…i think a partnership can done right?….and as for the ads…i dun think u need to go that extend to make a few buck…if it compromises ur prinsips…dun do it…but…its juz what i think….do what your heart calls u to…

  but ….i would really rather read RingNokia than IntoMobile….

  peace out=)!

• photonpoet

  Also, Intomobile have those awful ContentLink popup ads in their text.

• 7amo0o00oo0o0o0od

  Hey Stefan,

  It’s a great oppertunity but i think you should stay, you have built ringnokia from scratch ringnokia who you are, i beleive you should stay you can add some AD’s here and there and your gonna make good money…………And dont forget how stressfull it will be blogging not only about one manufacturer but several, but in the end do what you feel is right backing u with any choice you make!!!!!

  …………………………………RING NOKIA KICKS ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!……………………………..

• Wozik

  don’t really like Intomobile, agree that ringnokia worth more than intmobile.
  try to find another sponsors, I think you worth it!

• gg

  ”From my perspective, there’s a lot more value for me as a reader here than at intomobile. There are already bigger better blogs doing a much better job of covering the entire mobile phone sector. On the other hand no-one is doing what you do better than you do it. And that is worth more than intomobile seem to realise.”

  Very much true, but what ever you will do I would still read it!

• James Whatley

  Go with your heart bro..

• Rajat

  Hey mate; I come to ur site every single day and some time 3 – 4 times a day. I am a fan of nokia from ages and that’s why I started visiting this site often and now I started reading all ur topics now coz they seems so interesting to me, I got to say u r best at this. But some how I feel better when I open this site coz it give me lots of information and even all my friends like this site better then other’s. The popularity of this site is a lot coz this site is exclusive for nokia only which gives out lots of useful context. Well what I really wanted to say is that u should stick with this ringnokia site only coz this is from where everybody knows u and respect u , u might not get the same popularity over there coz that site is similar to may other sites and u will definitely will not able to post like u do here. Like u share everything with us, as u ask us wht do we think about it like u did for this topic, I no ur father, his home and every trip of urs , it all happen coz of this site which makes a homely environment. U will not get to do all this in intomobile.com. But in the end all ur fans(including me) want whts best for u, so if u think going there is a better choice then don’t miss it coz u may regret it later.

  Rajat Gulati
  Ludhiana, Punjab
  India.

• PlayerKill

  I don’t like how the company will acquire your blogposts and this site will be gone. Sure, they wouldn’t be editting the old blogs, but still… I’d fully support if they still allow you to independently run this blog for nokia only contents and so on, but I’d say nah if this site will be gone.

• TheFinn

  Absolutely no go! You will get much better offers from Nokia. Just trust me.

• lutzs

  Is the job at intomobile really save? if they close the site in 2 years, you will have lost everything: your job AND your community

• Alex

  I have to say I really dislike their request to host your ringnokia blog posts.
  IMHO what the others big players are doing it’s really not interesting…from many points of view.
  Maybe the one “player” that’s interesting is apple because of it’s creativity…but that’s all.
  So…from your “3 changes” IMHO only one good remains…being able to work with a team…
  Being a “work” lone wolf myself I can perfectly understand the need of not being alone in your work…
  But again…you are not alone…there’s darla, tommy, rafe etc….
  There’s to many engadgets already…this is something else…in a lack of words(or maybe this is the perfect word) this is HUMAN…this is a human blog that we love…not only because of the phones, the content etc…but because of you’re style, of what you represent and more because of who you are…
  Giving the care i just expressed my only advice is to think well and do what makes YOU happy…
  You are an example for many…

• Lewis McCullen

  I have to concur with the others, dude. Something just doesn’t sound right with it. Also, I sense some hesitation with your post as well. What it all comes down to is this….. there is a time to sell out and a time not to. You probably already know what time it is.

• Romain

  Remember your first love. Think about why you started this!

• berto

  DO IT!
  THATS ALL IM GOING TO SAY
  WHY: EDITORIALS (TEST PHONES OUT)
  SAME PAY, AT LEAST U CAN TALK ABOUT NOKIA THERE SINCE HELIO IS JUST A ONE-BRAND COMPANY.
  YOU’LL BE GETTING PAID FOR BLOGGING.

• asdf

  Though I like the “Ring Nokia” name, if you change that it’s not a big deal.

  Oh the other hand, if you change your focus from “Nokia” to “any mobile device”, I’ll probably stop reading. I read RingNokia because of my interest in Nokia. If I wanted general mobile phone news, there are a thousand blogs out there..

• Ricky Cadden

  Just wanted to echo the above, having been in a similar situation recently. You’ve created your brand and there’s alot to be said about Brand Equity. I read IntoMobile and they’re a decent site, but I don’t agree with totally eliminating the RingNokia brand as it seems.

  I know how you feel about it, but tasteful, targeted, and minimal ads are not intrusive to 80% of people on the internet. I would do some shopping for ad services first. You won’t get nearly as much from ads, but at least, as has been stated, you’ll have creative freedom and your own personal brand.

  Think ahead to say, CES 2008. You meet someone influential, and have two options:

  1. Hi, I’m Stefan, Editor of RingNokia.com.
  2. Hi, I’m Stefan, I’m part of the IntoMobile.com team.

• Ravi Kapoor

  Hi There!

  This is Ravi from India and I’m a big fan of your content buddy )

  Its a good offer and ofcourse now you would get paid (we all love to) for something you love to do..Blogging!!

  However..please make sure that your individuality is not gone with the wind (sorry for the movie dialogue but cant help it as me a movie buff!)

  Your fans had always loved your style of writing Stefan and I’m sure they would always do in future also )

  All the best pal !!

  Cheers!

  Ravi

• Lewis McCullen

  One more thing… how do you know they aren’t just getting rid of the competition? What guarantees do you have that after a year or so they won’t sh!tcan you. Then they have all your posts, the RingNokia name, all your credibility. I don’t know dude… the more I think about it, the more I feel bad about it for you. Oh well…. glad it’s not my decision to make. All the great bloggers out there aren’t known for going with other outfits, they make it on their own. Stay true, young man.

• Jon

  Ok well congratulations on the offer…. a few things said above certainly make sense and just wanted to add my
  thoughts on your offer as a long time reader.

  As others have said you have a strong ‘Brand’ and a very strong domain name. Personally I would not give that up for any amount of cash. You would be loosing a strong base to take your site where you want to with having complete editorial control (dispite the fact you say you would retain creative control I doubt very much you would have the free reign you have here). It takes years to create a brand and you so far have created something strong in a short space of time which can only grow. It may well be that you want to diversify away from just Nokia but it could be that the success you have on here is partly to do with the focus you bring with your blog, in otherwords its not diluted.

  IntoMobile (I had never heard of them but with this post you have just written you can bet their subscribers/reader stats have just taken a massive jump) have a great site design (the one criticism I have of Ring Nokia is the design) but content wise they are lacking. Just look at how much later they have picked up on some news compared to you.

  If it was me then I would seriously consider some other options… maybe working ‘with’ intomobile or putting together a co-op strategy. If you want some totally impartial advice on this then drop me an email and I will outline the idea for you!!! It would retain the integrity of your brand but build it!

  Good luck which ever way you go but drop me a line ok?

• EJ25RS

  I think you shoud keep RingNokia you’ve built it from the ground on up plus Nokia has your URL posted on their site which I think is a big achievement.

• cybette

  If I remember correctly, Stefan mentioned he is returning to school next semester. Imagine trying to hold down a full-time job, blog for RingNokia, AND take college classes? Most people would be hard-pressed to handle two of the three well.

  Let’s say he gives up his job at Helio and tries to make money from ads and sponsorship on RingNokia. We readers have no problems with it, and that’s great. But it is extra work for Stefan (sponsorship don’t just magically happen), possibly on a continual basis, with no guarantee on how much he can make month-to-month. Anyone willing to buy one RingNokia T-shirt every month? If yes, who’s going to design new T-shirts and swags every month? Besides maintaining a blog, Stefan now has to maintain an ecommerce site?

  The fact is Stefan and Intomobile both have something to offer each other. We as fans and supporters don’t want to see him get the short end of the stick. But if the details of the offer are reasonable, I don’t see why it has to be a bad thing. As a subscriber of this site I would hate to see RingNokia go. And my initial reaction echoes all of yours. However, as a friend, I can only encourage him to make this decision based on *his* needs and desires rather than my opinions and wants.

• Victor

  this is the 1st time i visit your blog..and it is amazing and impressive…i support whatever decision made…..just be yourself…keep your good job man!

• Michael Hell

  well there’s a lot of pro’s and con’s and i’m sure everyone of the more or less famous guys above me has mentioned it ..

  after all i think you should keep on working on ringnokia .. you did this from zero – from the beginning, i think sooner or later you’ll miss it .. being part of a team could be good, you won’t be the lonesome wolve anymore, but after all i’m pretty sure you have to follow some guidelines, which you don’t have to on ringnokia .. and like ricky said above, you’re then “just” part of a team and now your own boss anymore ..

  my personal opinion: keep ringnokia going!

  .. i hope you know that i fully support every decision and continue reading all the stuff you do!

  Take a weekend off, free your mind, format your in-built head HD with some beers and then decide ..
  keep us updated!

  All the Best
  Michael aka BeerBong
  (one of the guys who wouldn’t be who he is, if you didn’t cover him! – THANK you so much!)

• Vaibhav Sharma

  I only about a month or two ago came across ur wonderful site! Since then i’m refreshing the ring nokia feed in my phone every 2 hrs to sap up any new post u make! Its a really awesome thing u got going here mate!
  My personal opinion is, if they’r offering u good money take it! What would b best would b if in adiition to the creative control you could get your own RSS feed on their site! That way we readers will continue to be with you and say 2 years even if the site folds up u’ll not have lost u’r audience!
  Its a win win situation mate! However do keep the domain, even if u dont blog professionally for the time being you are working for them u could always make this into a semi personal blog!\

  N hey~! IntoMobile will have got more hits in this one day v/s all the while they’ve been running!!! Thats the power of ur blog mate!

• Darla

  Stefan,

  Even though you got off to a great blogging start with an immediate following should tell you something about yourself. YOU are worth listening to and reading. In a short time you have built a name and a reputation that no amount of money should compromise. Things will be fine in the beginning because you would be increasing their readerships. But then soon you would have to change your tone or whatever. I say that to say this… stay where you are loved and appreciated. If its offers you are looking for be patient and something better will come along. If you choose to take this offer, make sure its on YOUR TERMS and not theirs.

  Whatever your decision, you know you are backed by the Mobile Diva!

• Jeb

  Just a side note. Will intomobile send you to CES and all the other great events you have had the oppourtunity to attend? Will they foot the bill? Will you still be invited if you are working for them and have all these fantastic oppoutunities to meet so many people in the business? Just some food for thought.
  One other thing to consider, what do you want your business card to look like at the next big industry event you attend?

• Henrikki

  Cybette (and others) had this good point: The devil is in the details. Make sure you know in what kind of deal you would be entering to. If it feels right, good. If it doesn’t, negotiate different kind of contract and terms of a partnership.

  And finally..never accept the first offer..:)

• cooli

  I really like your blog and style.
  As someone put it, doing what you love and be paid for that is a true blessing.
  However please be careful to still own and remain true to your passion and its online expression. For that I am not sure a move to intomobile is the best, as better offers (Nokia, are you watching?) may come if you’re a bit more patient and, more important, there is a clear risk to dilute your current blogging/online Karma (with nokia and your readers) by moving into the blogger team of intomobile.
  If you still decide to move on, I’ll be following you (but only if there is a RSS for your intomobile posts). I don’t need another mobile engadget…

• Viipottaja

  Others have probably said this already, but I am not sure if you want to jump to a company that has been around for two months (and in a very competitive area on top). I would stick with Helio – I think they probably can give you much wider experience, one that also looks better in your CV than “blogger aka pseudo-internet-journalist for a site that went under” and keep blogging independently and with passion.

• Ricky Cadden

  For the information of most commenters, IntoMobile has been around for a while. Prior to earlier this year they were SymbianWatch, and changed to IntoMobile to adopt a more broad overview, as opposed to directly Symbian.

• Thomas

  I am someone who is subscribed to dozens of mobile and nokia related blogs, but I had never heard of intomobile before you mentioned them here.
  Do you realize what a publicity job you are doing for them by asking this question?

  As someone else said here, your brand is probably worth more than theirs.
  If I were you and if I were thinking of a way to use what you’ve got to make money, I wouldn’t do a sellout. I would try to leverage this website instead.

• ravi

  which to buy nokia 5800 tube or black berry storm