Jeffrey Zeldman, for those who don’t know, is the poster boy of independent content development on the web. His site, Zeldman.com, is fine example of an intelligent person writing interesting things. It’s not a navel-gazing blog site (although there are some great ones out there).

Read this great account of a web awards gala where Zeldman’s site is recognized along with a load of dot-com companies (this was a few years back, dot-commies were like Jean Cabot, telling the king that the waters off Newfoundland have so much fish you can almost walk on the water).

The best part is a conversation Zeldman has with a woman:

“What is your company?” says the bolder of the two. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s a personal site,“ I say.

She brightens. “Oh, you mean like dating services?”

“No, I mean there’s no company, it’s just me. It’s entertainment for the Web.”

“Ah. Who supplies your entertainment content?”

“I do. I supply the entertainment content.”

She says, “What is your revenue model?”

I say, “I don’t have one.”

Where are they now? Zeldman is about to publish his book and his website is still a staple of independent content development.