What is amazing though is the marketing - which is what this post is all about. I'm sure that at least one third of the people on this site could create the same content if they put their mind to it. What almost nobody can do though is market it like 37signals.

I'll give you that your one third could produce the ideas, but how many could also produce the straightforward, simple, clear writing? It's harder than it looks.

They are a good example of what you could do in your niche industry.

It's interesting that for years 'industry magazines' have produced glossy dungheaps to sell ads on. They can do this because advertisers want to believe that there is a publication that reaches 70% of all HR people in the tech industry or 45% of all OH&S people in the mining industry. In some cases there is such a paper. In many there just isn't. In the latter, the ads are carried by these idiot mags.

Now there's a way. Create your own. If you can.

The conferences are probably second exposures for most people, but that's probably ok because the medium is so different -- people will get different things out of an interactive forum than a (relatively) static set of blog posts.