Soooo, apparently, some of you superfans saw my jibba jabba this morning. Sorry about that!

For those of you who didn’t recognize what it was, it’s an embed code for social networking site Empire Avenue, which I have finally signed up for.  Because I am always on the cutting edge. The cutting edge of people who pick up things like 4 years after everyone else.

Anyway, this was the embed code I had to include, in order to get credit for my contributions here at the edmontonian (because I’m really only in it for the glory).

If you’re not yet on EA, today is the day that they’ve finally opened their doors to everybody, so you no longer need an invite! Sign up and buy stock in me – SALLY – (I promise I’ll return the favour once I figure it all out.)

I mean, she can’t remember where she puts her keys but she has link after link of Magnum P.I. at the ready.

Good morning, Edmonton.

We all do.

It’s OK for you to admit it. This is a safe place.

Everyone likes nachos, because you can load them up with meat, veggies, cheese, soy-cheese, whatever. It’s a food that can bring together foodies of all walks. And don’t even get me started on the possibilities of sides and dips.

Thank goodness, Edmonton now has its own official nacho blog. Tell Katie what you think of nachos, how to make super-kick-ass nachos, where to go for nachos, what you think of what she thinks of nachos from around Edmonton, and other nacho-related information.

Katie, we are going to make you our Nacho Bureau Chief, once our Bureau Chief money comes in.

Well, sometimes it’s not much. But other times it could involve some valuable information.

Here's a shot of the screen used to demonstrate Empire Avenue.

And sometimes you’ve got a great Facebook profile or page, perhaps a sweet Flickr account, neat podcast, an amazing blog, and so on and so on in the social media world.

Now, Empire Avenue is trying to monetize your online value.

Hey, why not?

If the traditional media is suffering at all due to people turning to bloggers or other online sources of information, especially locally, then there has to be some value in what these online “influencers” are saying.

Certainly there are photographers who’ve landed jobs from Flickr postings, bloggers who have written for newspapers and magazines, as that online presence carries into traditional media realms. And if you notice a cute little dog to the upper right of these very words you can see there’s an advertising value in online media.

Empire Avenue wants to help you, yes you, squeeze some value out of your tweets, your Facebook, Flickr and YouTube accounts, your blog, by having other people investing in you, as if you were a stock on the open market.

Right now the people’s market is in beta, being tested by lucky nerds like me. Soon they’ll open things up to a larger audience. Then, they’ll open things up to the money.

Basically here’s what it could do, using this website as an example.

I’m on the market (JSAM on your stock ticker) and people are going to see my tweets and posts from this blog. I could connect my Flickr account, maybe the edmontonian‘s YouTube, potentially even my own Facebook account. Whatever I do, people on the market are judging my “influence.”

That is to say, they are buying stock in me if they think I’m authentic, think I do a good job with this website, think my tweets add anything to their life. I can do the same by buying into people I feel I connect with, or get something from in their online presence.

By buying my stock, my price rises, my “influence” grows and an advertiser may want to use me to get their product some notice. They could strike a deal with me to put an ad on this website, or maybe on my Facebook profile. I’m not sure I’d have sponsored tweets or Facebook statuses, but I suspect that wouldn’t be ruled out by others.

There. I tweeted, people liked it, a company saw that I had “influence” and asked me to slap up a link to their business. Not a whole lot different than a company seeing the Edmonton Journal as an influencer and buying ads in their paper.

Except that it’s really different.

The Empire Avenue team is also calling out Google, in their venture. They think those small Google Ads that you see on so many websites, that aren’t really targeted to the audience of the site, aren’t the best investment for a business.

They’d rather contact an Edmonton business that I’ve talked about on Twitter and ask me to accept their advertising. In terms of this website, it’s like Empire Avenue just became my sales team. And I didn’t have to hire a sales team. (By the way, this isn’t just an Edmonton thing, I just used that as an example of what I’d be after for this website.)

I am going to buy all of these people.

We were assured, at the launch Tuesday night, over at Transcend Coffee, that there are ways to ensure a tweet-bot doesn’t make all the money. Besides, who would be investing their stock dollars in such online “noise?”

If you’re a business you could see who’s talking about you or your industry, see who’s interested in your business (or even your actual brand), find the most followed and respected bloggers, and ask Empire Avenue to strike a deal with those so-called influencers.

So…is there value in your online influence? Could business (your business?) be interested in seeking out the local, regional, or topical influences for super-targeted advertising?

Is this just going to be a time-suck where I invest fake money in my friends?

Check it out and dig all that Edmonton in there.

Also, have a great weekend why don’t you.

The Joe's new album is Ut Oh.