If you listen carefully, you can hear the cash register sound effects of Pink Floyd’s iconic song “Money.”

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay
And you’re okay

Though it’s not my favorite Floyd song (I prefer The Wall to Dark Side of the Moon), this month many of you are thinking about money.  After all, it is tax time.

It’s been a busy couple of months, and through some of my travels, this theme surrounding money has been omnipresent. In February, I attended Dscoop8 in Nashville. Here, keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuk made quite an impression – he basically said he could care less about all the internet has to offer, if it’s not making him money. Vaynerchuk revealed himself to be one of my contemporaries. (References to playing Madden on Sega Genesis in college during the 90s were dead giveaways.) Like him, I distinctly remember when the internet emerged. I recall seeing people stand in line to have an opportunity for a ten-minute session on one of two of the university’s internet-enabled computers in the campus library.

I wasn’t interested. Not that it wasn’t interesting, but at the time, I had more important things to do, like listen to Pink Floyd. Meanwhile, Vaynerchuk said all he saw was dollar signs. And he parlayed this thought, in conjunction with his father’s New Jersey liquor store, to launch winelibrary.com.

His story was impressive. While some may have questioned the value of learning about his online successes at a print conference, most of the people I spoke to came away with a renewed enthusiasm for leveraging the internet as a means to enhance and further their printing businesses.

Vaynerchuk revealed his passion for social media. “Information is a commodity,” he said, intimating there is valuable information about the products and services that people buy or would like to buy from potential customers. In other words, Twitter updates and Facebook status posts are more than just babble and banter. One label printer I spoke with at the show said he wasn’t sure how to quantify the business he generated from social media, but he knew he had to have a presence.

Apropos of this theme of money, the internet and information, this month we’re unveiling the 2013 L&NW Salary Survey. Through the survey, we are going to compile data obtained from you, the label and narrow web professional, about your employment, responsibilities, education, and yes, your salaries. We’ll then share with you what we’ve learned. The survey is online and can be accessed through our website, nitesh_lnw.rodpub.com. And all participants will be eligible to win an iPad.

Also online is an article by Linda Reed of Connext Financial. Congress has passed a bill to extend Section 179 and the Depreciation Bonus, allowing for significant deductions – valuable information.

In response to tax time, I’ll revert back to Pink Floyd: Money, it’s a crime, share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie…


Steve Katz, Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @LabelSteve