2010 July | outside.in blog

Posts FromJuly, 2010

28
Jul 10

Cleveland Calling (aka Bloggers We Love: Michelle Venorsky of Cleveland Foodie)

Posted by Esther Brown in Bloggers We Love / General — View Comments

BLOGGER: Michelle Venorsky

FEATURED BLOG(S): Cleveland Foodie

TWITTER: @MichelleV

FACEBOOK: Michelle Venorsky

Cleveland Foodie Michelle Venorsky. Photo courtesy ClevelandFoodie.com. Keith Berr Photography.

I love to travel, however I’ve yet to visit Cleveland, Ohio. So, when I started scouting out Cleveland bloggers for our Bloggers We Love series, I really only knew 3 things about Cleveland: 1) it’s home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2) the poet George Bilgere teaches there, and 3) it once boasted the highest concentration of Hungarians in the world outside of Budapest (those last two may seem random, I know, but I’m Hungarian and a poet).

After getting to know Michelle Venorsky of Cleveland Foodie, that’s changed. Michelle taught me a lot about Cleveland’s vibrant food culture. From farm-to-table to family-friendly to fine dining, Cleveland is full of great restaurants— and, according to Michelle, new quality restaurants continue to open: “Even in this down economy,” she says, “people are still eating out constantly, and our food scene continues to shine.”

I was impressed and inspired to find out more, and what I learned was really interesting: for one thing, Cleveland, which was once manufacturing hub, is reshaping itself into a service-based economy. Another thing I found intriguing is that, in response to the foreclosure crisis, the city of Cleveland invested millions of dollars in its Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The program (which some consider controversial) works to clear land occupied by foreclosed homes that have fallen into disrepair. In doing so, they’re creating thousands of acres of vacant land in Cleveland, which the city hopes to revitalize by embracing urban gardening, community gardens and urban farming. They’re even allowing urban beekeeping in Cleveland.

Knowing a bit more about Cleveland helped me put Michelle’s story in context: she’s not just a foodie, she’s Cleveland foodie, which means she’s a foodie living in a locavore’s paradise. I’m happy share part of our conversation (and her story), with you: it’s all about food, blogging, entrepreneurship and of course, Cleveland – a city I just can’t wait to visit.

What prompted you to start Cleveland Foodie, Michelle?

I started Cleveland Foodie about four years ago, really as a means of education. In my day job, I work at an integrated marketing communications agency. About five years ago I started to become really interested in social media, so I went to the partners and said that social media was really going to turn our industry upside down. They [encouraged me to educate myself about social media], so I did that. Almost a year later, I decided I wanted to write a blog, because I really wanted to understand this blogging thing. I knew you had to blog about something you’re passionate about, and I’ve always had a strong interest in food, because I grew up in a big Italian family and cooking was a big part of my upbringing. I absolutely love my city, too, so writing a blog about food in Cleveland was a no-brainer.

How has your blog evolved over the past four years?

When I first started, I didn’t think anyone would read it, except for maybe friends and family – but at the time I started, our daily newspaper was starting to shrink, and one of our alt weeklies went under. So, it was almost pure luck: I came up when all of these other things were going under, so people were looking for local food and dining coverage, and they found my blog.

What new opportunities have presented themselves to you since you’ve started blogging?

As my traffic grew, Cleveland Magazine and Metromix Cleveland took notice and saw that people were turning to my blog for information about local food. So, they [each] reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to freelance. It was a no-brainer. I don’t write for Cleveland Magazine anymore, but I still do 2-3 articles a month for Metromix Cleveland. And, of course, I’ve gotten to know all of the [local] chefs and farmers: I’ve really been able to build relationships with them, since I interview them on a regular basis. I reach out and say: ‘I’d really love to give readers an insight into your life.’ The blog has really allowed me to get to know people and build community in general.

What else has blogging done for you professionally? Are there lessons you’ve learned that can help other marketers?

Blogging has just made me a better marketer. It helps me understand pitching bloggers – I see the do’s and don’ts every day when other marketers try to pitch me. So, I can contribute to that conversation at work and add value ideation in this space because I understand it: [when I pitch bloggers], I treat them the same way as I would treat any journalist. [To my fellow marketers, I'd say that] you can read about the social space all day long, but you need to DO IT [in order to really understand it]. You don’t have to become an addict and do it every day, but you need to do it in order to understand why people are using these tools, too. There will be new tools all the time, and you should at least take the time to play around with them. It’s one thing to read about it, it’s another thing to do it.

What’s the local blogging scene like in Cleveland? How do you see the blogosphere evolving – in Cleveland and in general?

The blogging community here is great. There are hundreds of bloggers, and we’re so supportive of one another. Cleveland bloggers write about food, lifestyle, fashion, entertainment – they’re delivering such great content to Clevelanders. [As far as how I see the space evolving] – somebody just asked me that yesterday! I think [the blogosphere] is going to get bigger. I think that as traditional media continues to shrink, traditional journalists are going to have to find homes within the blogosphere. And, as [the blogosphere] grows, I think people are going to start holding bloggers more accountable, and we’re going to see more FTC-type guidelines being put on bloggers.

What’s one of your biggest challenges as a hyperlocal food blogger?

Food is so subjective. I could go out to dinner to any number of restaurants in Cleveland and have the most amazing dining experience, the most amazing meal– and then someone will comment or send me an angry email to tell me that their experience was terrible. People can be so rude. But I always tell people: I’m not a professional! I have a degree in journalism but that doesn’t make me a professional. You have to learn not to respond to everybody, and my general response has always been: ‘you don’t have to agree with me, and you don’t have to read my blog.’ I’ve never understood the need to be rude to people online. People often feel like they can hide behide their keyboards– animosity and anonymity go hand in hand. I’d hope people wouldn’t act like that in real life. But, the nice thing is that everybody else comes to your defense.

How do you see your blog evolving? Do you have any hopes and dreams for your blog?

I’d love to take a sabbatical from my job for a month and work in a restaurant kitchen – or go work on a farm, that’d be great. Haha, yeah, the chefs would be like, ‘who let this YAHOO come in and cook in my kitchen?!’ But I’d love to do it.

So, I’m going to ask the obvious. Why Cleveland, as a foodie?

I love this city. I absolutely love this city. [In my line of work,] I’ve had the opportunity to leave many times, and for my job I travel a lot to places like New York City and LA and Chicago. Those cities are great, but I’m always happy to come home. I choose to call Cleveland home. Any one of our restaurants could open in New York City tomorrow and kick ass. It’s interesting, I interviewed Kate Krader from Food & Wine magazine recently and we discussed the same thing. Part of it is because it’s so expensive to open up a restaurant in the bigger markets like New York. The chefs will leave home and go get trained in the big city, and then they come back home [to Cleveland]. That’s one reason why Cleveland has such great restaurants, like The Greenhouse Tavern. We’ve also got great local farmers and people who are doing really great farm-to-table food. In this down economy, we continue to open up really great restaurants. People are still eating out constantly, and our food scene continues to shine.

… Now I’m hungry, and I really want to come to Cleveland!

You should come to Cleveland! I will buy you a drink and take you to dinner. Cleveland is just a kick-ass city. Great culture, great people and really, really great food. You should come here and eat, come visit our museums, come explore our city.

P.S. Local bloggers, don’t forget to register your blog here. It’s quick, simple, and will help drive traffic to your blog.
P.P.S.: If you’d like to be featured in our ‘Bloggers We Love’ series (or you’d like to nominate your favorite local blogger(s) for inclusion), we’d love to hear from you! Simply send an email to esther@outside.in

27
Jul 10

Outside.in Adds Russell Fradin to Board of Directors

It’s rare to find people with both great entrepreneurial experience and a passion for sharing their knowledge.

When I met Russ Fradin, CEO of Adify Corporation, a few years ago, I was immediately impressed with his intelligence, energy and successful track record. Russ has been in the online media space for years at game-changing companies like Flycast and Comscore. He’s an expert at building valuable businesses.

When we at Outside.in find extraordinary talent, we do everything we can to get them on board to help build our business.

So I’m thrilled to share that Russ has agreed to join our Board as an Independent Director. In the short time that we’ve been working together, Russ has already proven to be invaluable with his insight, experience and no-nonsense style.

Other current Board members include Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, early investors Andrew Karsch and Mark Bailey, founder Steven Johnson, and me.

We’re excited to have Russ on the Board and are looking forward to introducing more exciting additions to our management team in the coming weeks.

23
Jul 10

Spartanburg Loses a Blogger We Love: Can You Help?

Posted by Esther Brown in Bloggers We Love / General — View Comments

We were deeply saddened this week when we heard that Spartanburg Spark publisher Steve Shanafelt (a Blogger We Love and, most recently, Outside.in guest blogger) is leaving Spartanburg, SC in the fall to pursue another hyperlocal adventure in another town (we’ll let him tell you about that exciting project himself).

While we’re incredibly excited for Steve and his new endeavor, we’re also worried about what will happen to the Spark after his departure from Spartanburg, an issue he addressed in his ‘Big Idea’ post this week:

Here’s the deal: I’m in town until October, although I’ll increasingly be focusing on non-Spark projects as I get closer to that deadline. While I would love — absolutely love — to hand the project off to the right person or group of people, and to watch it grow, I’d rather end the project completely than hand it off to the wrong group of people. To put it another way, I’d much rather have this be a two-year experiment I can look back and be proud of than to let it become a mockery of itself in the hands of others who don’t understand the mission of the project. Call me the Diogenes of Spartanburg, but I’d rather snuff this lantern’s spark out while it burns true than give it to someone who won’t use the light it gives to illuminate the community. I should also note that money isn’t a factor in this decision, and the Spark isn’t for sale.

Which is where you come in. I’ve had a number of discussions with a variety of people about what should happen to the Spark, and some of those are very much on the table. But none of them are concrete, and most are just as dependent on finding the right person or people to take over the project. But you’re a savvy group of folks, and you know the town. Some of you might be in a place in your lives where you might even be able to take on a project like the Spark, or perhaps you know someone else who is. Maybe you’ve even fantasized about how you’d run the site if you were in charge.

Here is the place to brainstorm about what you’d like to see the Spark become. It’s a non-binding brainstorming session, and while it may influence my decision-making process about the future of the site, ultimately the decision is still mine to make.

The post-Shanafelt future of the Spark certainly is a big idea — and we definitely hope Steve finds someone as awesome as he is to take it over (a tall order, for sure, as Steve is really, truly awesome). Still, knowing how many incredible bloggers there are out there, we know it can be done. We figured the least we could do would be to share this news with you: perhaps you know someone in Spartanburg (or, someone who’d want to move to Spartanburg) who might be interested in helping to shape the future of a vibrant hyperlocal community site?

Please take a few moments to read Steve’s full post, aptly-titled “Big Idea: The Post-Shanafelt Future of the Spartanburg Spark,” and to congratulate Steve and his crew on the Spark’s two-year anniversary, an accomplishment to be celebrated, for sure, regardless of what the future holds.

22
Jul 10

WordPress 3 + WordPress MU + BuddyPress = a Game Changer for Hyperlocal Blogs, says Spartanburg Spark

Posted by Esther Brown in Bloggers We Love / General / Guest Posts / Tips & Tricks — View Comments

(In an expansion of our Bloggers We Love series, the Outside.in blog will now feature occasional guest posts authored by Bloggers We Love. Why? It’s simple, really: these hyperlocal bloggers have knowledge and experience to share, and we’re thrilled to be able to bring more of their insights to our readership. This inaugural guest post comes from Steve Shanafelt, a Blogger We Love and the publisher of the Spartanburg Spark, a hyperlocal community site based in Spartanburg, SC. Steve can be reached at publisher@SpartanburgSpark.com or via Twitter: @TheSpark.)

One of the trickier things about building a community of readers on your blog or website is giving them some reason to stick around after they’ve read your most recent content, listened to your video or watched your latest vlog. For the vast majority of us, the best kind of reader interaction we have to look forward to on our own sites are comments, which are a mixed bag depending on how much of a troll-magnet your website’s niche tends to be.

What most of us don’t have the ability to create is something truly interactive, and something that can build a genuine user community where people actually invest their time, thought and personality into creating content — even personal content — on your site. In fact, if you use social networks to market your site or blog, you’ve probably noticed that your readers are just as likely to talk about your recent posts on Twitter or Facebook status updates than they are your actual site. When you’re trying to build a community — not to mention traffic — that can be infuriating.

But who can blame them? People like being able to express their individuality and connect to other people who share interests, and most blogs and websites simply don’t offer that kind of deep interconnection. After all, Facebook has spent untold tens of millions building their social networking system, and the coding skills needed to create even simple social networking is far beyond the abilities of most bloggers.

Or it was until last month.

That’s when the folks over at Automattic released the latest version of their ever-impressive WordPress blogging software. It’s the third version — WordPress 3, that is, nicknamed “Thelonious” — and it’s by far the smoothest, easiest-to-use version released thus far. The range of features and options is astonishing, even for WordPress, and it might just be the best standalone, open-source blogging platform ever built.

It might also be the start of a complete revolution social networking.

Why? Because of the easy, novice-friendly integration of two WordPress-related projects, WordPress MU and BuddyPress. Respectively, these allow a standard WordPress blog to act like a blog network, and that same blog network to act like a social network. While this integration is far from new — BuddyPress has been around since 2008 — what is new is the lack of technical expertise needed to bring all three elements together.

With a few clicks and some very basic file editing, practically anyone can create their own social network within moments on their own website or blog. Visitors to your site can start their own sub-blogs, create their own user profiles, private message each other, form their own social groups with their own forums and connect with each other in ways that were previously limited to dedicated social networking sites.

You may be saying: “So what? Why is this relevant when there already is a Facebook, a Ning, a MySpace? My little blog will never have that kind of user base, and my users will never create that depth of content.”

Maybe not, and if you run a personal blog where you are the star and there’s little motivation for other people to participate, you’re probably right. But for a project like the one I run, a hyperlocal community site at SpartanburgSpark.com, it’s a complete game changer. We’ve gone from a glorified blog — the lowest level of the media totem pole — to a proper DIY media outlet and local social networking site, all from a simple software upgrade.

And now that the users can talk to each other, they’re actually able to have discussions on our site that would have previously happened on Facebook. Our users can organize — or self-organize, really — in ways that were previously impossible when we were a standard blog. They can talk to each other about things that interest them without having to wait for us to post a relevant blog post about it. They can start their own groups and forums, directly message each other, create elaborate user profiles and do all manner of new and interesting things with each other, all while staying on our site.

We’ve only scratched the surface of what the software is capable of, and our page views and time-on-site stats are steadily rising, with almost no extra effort on our part.

What’s interesting isn’t our specific use of this software — we’re a very small fish in this whopping great internet ocean, and we’re using this technology in a completely off-the-shelf way — it’s that everyone now has the ability to start their media projects on this level. In fact, this will soon become the standard, in the same way that things like user commenting — a cutting-edge technology only a few years ago — is now so much a part of the culture that it seems weird when a blog or website doesn’t provide it.

Thanks to WordPress 3, fully enabled social networking will soon be the new starting point for every blogger, every website and every online media project. And as social networks in general start to become more interconnected thanks to better APIs, the ability to bring new members into our own website network is growing daily. To put it another way, WordPress 3 has started a trend where Facebook isn’t siphoning off your users and pageviews, but rather where your network can be a vital part of your users’ online social experience.

When everyone can — just by deciding to click a few options — start out with their own micro version of Facebook stitched into their website or blog, it fundamentally changes what it means to be a website or a blog. It’s a sea change for internet culture, and it’s definitely something to be aware of, to plan for, and to incorporate into your online strategy.

21
Jul 10

10 Qualities Great Hyperlocal Bloggers Have in Common

Posted by Esther Brown in Bloggers We Love / Guest Posts / Industry Notes & Commentary — View Comments

When Matt suggested I write a guest post about “What Great Hyperlocal Bloggers Have in Common,” I was psyched: it’s always a pleasure to introduce a new audience to the amazing hyperlocal bloggers I get to interview each week for Outside.in’s ‘Bloggers We Love,’ series.

I was also stumped: I’ve interviewed bloggers from big cities and smaller towns and everywhere in between. They blog about everything from fashion to photography to politics, and each of them has a singular personality that shines through their online presence. To me, every single one of the ‘Bloggers We Love’ is unique: what could they have in common (beyond the obvious: they’re bloggers who’d love to have more hours in the day)?…

(… This is a guest post I wrote for Matt McGee’s blog, HyperlocalBlogger. Read the full post at HyperlocalBlogger.com)

16
Jul 10

Information Shortfall? Not So Fast, says Outside.in

Posted by camilla in Bloggers We Love / General / Industry Notes & Commentary — View Comments

A recent research report from Missouri University compared mainstream news sites (“MNS”) with 100+ citizen news sites/blogs. The conclusions reached are perplexing. In short, they claim that citizen journalists/ bloggers are failing to fill the “information shortfall” and are not suitable substitutes for MNS. The only bit of silver lining is that citizen journalism is complementary to legacy news sites due to citizen journalists’ contributions on the opinion and hyperlocal front. The report conveys a sense of failure on citizen journalism and concern that citizen journalists will never fill the gap as traditional media companies continue to struggle.

Let’s take a step back here. Is this a fair apples-to-apples comparison?

On one hand, you have a big established company and brand with a newsroom staff (albeit a shrinking one) and technological resources at their disposal, as well as a sales team and usually a print circulation business (albeit a declining one) bringing in revenue. On the other hand, most citizen journalists and bloggers are operating out of their own house, taking advantage of free online resources for publishing needs. They probably have no sales team in charge of revenue, and they’ll usually cover and write about what they’re passionate about.

In short, it’s not a fair nor useful comparison.

Rather, what the research report tries to do is like comparing a supermarket to a specialty food shop. The big supermarket is clean, well lit, organized and offers an overwhelming variety of products: a one-stop shop. However, I might have a taste for a particular brand of coffee that’s not available at the supermarket. And I sometimes would prefer to get my produce from the farmers’ market and may go out of my way for fresh bread at a local bakery. Any one of these specialty shops could never fully replace the supermarket experience— however, if I hit up enough of them, I may not need to go to the supermarket at all.

In other words, citizen news sites/blogs could potentially serve as a replacement for MNS – if their content were organized in useful, coherent ways, enabling consumers to find it quickly and easily. The fairer comparison here would be to take a look at the MNS versus the collected, organized set of citizen news sites/blogs in a given market.

If we took all of the relevant content from citizen journalists and bloggers who are covering town hall meetings, local sports teams, restaurant openings and reviews – as well as a few feature pieces and investigative reports – the ‘little guys,’ might have a shot at going head-to-head with a MNS. One or two blogs would not suffice, obviously, since most of these sites are narrowly focused by design and simply do not have the resources (or desire) to provide round-the-clock coverage. However, when the sites are aggregated, the results are pretty solid; for example, searching for local news in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago on Outside.in shows me a weekend guide from Daily Candy, some information on the weekend’s Pitchfork Music Festival, restaurant news from Chowhound, a couple of crime stories from the Chicago Tribune, and a post on fund-raising efforts for a local theatre. The results are fairly comprehensive and improving each day, as new sources of content become available for aggregation.

According to Missouri School of Journalism associate professor Margaret Duffy, “While many of the blogs and citizen journalism sites have done very interesting and positive things, they are not even close to providing the level of coverage that even financially stressed news organizations do today.”

At Outside.in, we definitely agree with the first part of this statement: we’re aggregating over 45,000 feeds and we see interesting and positive content being produce by blogs and citizen journalists on a daily basis (case in point: the blogs highlighted in our Bloggers We Love series). That said, we’d have to take issue with Ms. Duffy’s contention that citizen journalists and hyperlocal bloggers are “not even close,” to rivaling MNS. It’s simply the wrong comparison: of course the little guy, individually, will never be able to rival the big guy, at least not as far as news coverage is concerned. Instead of pitting individual citizen journalists and local bloggers against MNS, we should take a step back and look at the collective whole of the content created by citizen journalists and local bloggers in a given news market. With this wider view, we’re not seeing much of an “information shortfall,” at all. On the contrary, it looks like ‘Team Little Guy,’ may be on the rise.

15
Jul 10

Caroline’s Secrets of the Blogging Lifestyle (aka Bloggers We Love: Caroline on Crack)

Posted by Esther Brown in Bloggers We Love / Tips & Tricks — View Comments

BLOGGER: Caroline

FEATURED BLOG(S): Caroline on Crack

TWITTER: @CarolineOnCrack

FACEBOOK: Caroline on Crackheads

FLICKR: Caroline on Crack

YOUTUBE: Caroline on Crack

SERIOUS EATS: Caroline on Crack

FOOD BUZZ: Caroline on Crack

This week our ‘Bloggers We Love,’ series took us (via telephone) to fabulous, sunny Los Angeles, CA, where we spoke to the energetic and LA-savvy blogger Caroline of CarolineOnCrack.com.

A northern California transplant, Caroline is a lifestyle blogger who writes about food, cocktails and fun in and around LA. Having read her blog with some regularity, I was already impressed with her style, but after speaking with her, I was especially taken with her easy-going energy and affable nature. Her personality and blog embody what I imagine Californians to be: relaxed yet energetic, casual yet on-trend.

My conversation with Caroline got me thinking not only about lifestyle blogging but also the blogging lifestyle: is there something unique about lifestyle blogging that enables a blogger to keep it up over the long-term? Or, is there something special about Caroline’s lifestyle that that gives her staying power? What does it mean to really live the ‘blogging lifestyle’ day in and day out? Put simply: what is it that has enabled Caroline to blog nearly every day for five years and counting?

I’ve decided to investigate that question and answer it with some of the secrets of the blogging lifestyle that I learned from Caroline…

CAROLINE SAYS: SEEK THE BLOG/LIFE BALANCE

While Caroline writes about her daily adventures, she’s careful to maintain some modicum of privacy for herself. As a reader, you appreciate this: you feel like you know Caroline, but she doesn’t cross over into TMI territory like some bloggers. She certainly doesn’t make you feel like a voyeur.

“When I first started, I didn’t want everyone to know who I was: I have a day job, and I wanted to keep the blog separate,” Caroline says. “So, I would purposefully leave myself out of my posts. But then [I wrote a few posts of a more personal nature] and I let a little of myself in – and it seemed like people really responded to that.”

It’s a difficult balance to strike – being completely authentic and personable without being overly intimate – and Caroline nails it with remarkable skill and aplomb.

Striking such a balance could be useful for a blogger who’s in it for the long haul. It allows the blogger to focus on their subject matter, without allowing their personality and personal life to overpower the piece. The post’s tone becomes relatable to a wider variety of readers, potentially garnering a larger audience for the blog.

Moreover, when a blogger keeps aspects of her identity somewhat cloaked, she can be candid about other aspects of her life. For instance, Caroline publishes her calendar of public social events (though personal evenings are marked on the calendar as “busy”). This doesn’t cause the uncomfortable, invasive encounters that one would predict. In fact, when she participates in these events, readers actually prefer to respect her privacy. She once judged a mixology contest and brought a friend along. Fans recognized the friend from photos on Caroline’s blog and asked her to tell Caroline that they’re huge fans but then shied away from meeting Caroline themselves. It’s almost as if fans don’t want to actually know who’s behind the voice they know and love.

CAROLINE SAYS: ‘RELAX’

“Try to write every day – just don’t pressure yourself,” Caroline advises. “I’m able to enjoy [blogging because I don’t pressure myself too much]. I used to actually write every day, but then I decided to take the weekends off.”

Caroline says she still feels strangely guilty if she misses a weekday post – “It’s like I didn’t shower, or like I’m letting somebody down,” – but she doesn’t ruminate on that feeling:

“I try not to think about [my plans for the blog], because if I do I’ll psych myself out. I think that’s why I’ve been able to keep myself going [because I try not to take everything so seriously].”

“Sometimes I do keep an editorial calendar—especially if I get press release sent to me about an event that’s well into the future,” Caroline says. “I also have a to-do list of posts I want to write, like events that I went to and still need to blog about.”

So, it’s not all laissez-faire. It is useful to maintain some degree of regularity in your blogging. Living the blogging lifestyle means exactly that: integrating blogging into your lifestyle.

CAROLINE SAYS: HAVE A COCKTAIL!

'Birds & Bees,' with cherries, courtesy of Caroline on Crack

'Birds & Bees,' with cherries, photo courtesy of Caroline on Crack

The final secret to living the blogging lifestyle a la Caroline on Crack? Cocktails!

Caroline on Crack has come to be known as a go-to source for information about cocktails and mixology, even though Caroline wasn’t a passionate cocktail lover when she started the blog. It’s a love that’s evolved organically.

“I’m not a cocktail or spirit expert, I just enjoy it. I’ve learned a lot and I’d totally love to go to bartending school,” Caroline says.

The lesson? Be open to the ways your own interests may evolve and what that might mean for the evolution of your blog. And don’t forget to take the time to kick back and enjoy yourself with a well-deserved beverage of your choice. Try a Pegu Club with Bols Genever instead of gin – one of Caroline’s favorites.

P.S. Local bloggers, don’t forget to register your blog here. It’s quick, simple, and will help drive traffic to your blog.
P.P.S.: If you’d like to be featured in our ‘Bloggers We Love’ series (or you’d like to nominate your favorite local blogger(s) for inclusion), we’d love to hear from you! Simply send an email to esther@outside.in

12
Jul 10

6 Best Practices for Multi-Author Hyperlocal Blogs (aka Bloggers We Love: Tom Bridge of WeLoveDC.com)

Posted by Esther Brown in Bloggers We Love / General / Tips & Tricks — View Comments

BLOGGER: Tom Bridge (& others)

FEATURED BLOG(S): We Love DC

TWITTER: @WeLoveDC

FACEBOOK: We Love DC

FLICKR: We Love DC

Since July is when we commemorate our nation’s independence, it seemed fitting to profile Tom Bridge, one of the founders of We Love DC, which covers life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in our nation’s capital. A multi-author blog founded on July 4, 2008 by a group of disgruntled Metbloggers, We Love DC was purposefully launched on that auspicious date. Bridge and his partners specifically chose Independence Day to turn in their resignations to Metblogs — declaring their own independence, as it were — and strike out on their own.

After about an hour-long phone call with Tom, I came away from our conversation feeling impressed and inspired by the professionalism and dedication of the entire We Love DC team. They have a clear creative vision and they’ve been giving life to that vision day in and day out for the past two years (… except for the weekends, when they take a break!). So, what’s that vision, exactly? While Tom never came out with an official mission statement, I think We Love DC celebrates not only the District of Columbia and its residents, but also the uniqueness and sovereignty of its individual contributors within a collaborative group project (much like the United States, perhaps?).

Having said that, I got to thinking about the challenges and opportunities presented by running a multi-author local blog, and I realized that Tom and his team at We Love DC have a lot to teach us about how to do it well.

1. Build an A+ Team of Rockstar Individuals

We Love DC currently has 24 contributors, each of them selected because they have their own unique editorial point of view and area of expertise. “We want people who are really passionate,” Tom explains. “Foodies, Nats fans, Caps fans – [as a writer], your voice and your obsession put together make an audience. [We Love DC] is home to many voices and many different obsessions, and together they cover all the things we love about this region.”

Not only will your blog benefit from this approach, but your contributors will love you for it and repay you with loyalty and quality content. Big things happen for We Love DC‘s awesome contributors: take their music writer, Michael Darpino, for instance – he got to cover the 9:30 Club’s 30th anniversary concert and received a personal thank-you email from Henry Rollins as a result. Or Jen Larson, who writes the ‘We Love Drinks’ column: she’s started judging serious mixology contests alongside high-level local celebrities and cocktail experts.

2. Keep an Editorial Calendar

I know, I know. Previously I’ve said that keeping and editorial calendar isn’t necessary in order to run a kick-ass hyperlocal blog. I still stand by that statement: you may not need an editorial calendar if you’re blogging solo (or if your partner is your roommate, as is the case with Christy and Morgan, the gals behind Nashvillest). Still, I’ll add a caveat for multi-author blogs with teams numbering in the double digits. In cases like this, organization becomes paramount, and an editorial calendar is a great way to stay on track and preserve your leadership team’s peace of mind. Tom says his team runs their editorial calendar through Basecamp. They also maintain an email list that they use to brainstorm re: story ideas, some of which eventually make it onto the editorial calendar (it also serves as a way for contributors to stay connected to one another, since they’ve all got day jobs).

3. If You Like It, Put a Ring On It

Wait, what was that, Beyonce? OK, I’m not saying you should marry your blog or its contributors, but if you’re serious about making it work, you should definitely consider making it official and seeking incorporation of some form. We Love DC is a Virginia-based LLC because they found that to be the simplest process in terms of the options in their area. I’ll leave the pre-nup discussion for another post (sorry, Kanye).

4. $hare the Wealth

It’s a great idea to offer a profit-sharing plan to your contributors (BTW: I’m no lawyer (sorry, Dad!), but if you plan do to this, it seems smart to make sure you’ve covered #3 first). We Love DC takes profit-sharing to the next level by offering contributors not only a portion of the blog’s proceeds, but also a path to ownership: 7 of the blog’s 24 contributors own a stake in the company. “You should have a path to ownership when you’re part of the staff — we’ve extended ownership to 2 authors [who have been with us for a long time],” Tom says, adding that “you shouldn’t have to work your ass off just to pay somebody else’s bills.”

5. Be Open & Honest with Contributors

From the very beginning, Tom and his co-founders wanted to make sure they were treating their contributors with respect. “We strive to be open and honest with our authorship: bills, traffic, revenue — [all of the data is available] to our writers,” Tom says. “It was absolutely imperative to us [to do this, because] when communication broke down between DC and LA [with Metblogs], that’s when everything really fell apart.”

6. Focus on Friendraising

Forging partnerships with area businesses can be useful for all local bloggers, but this becomes especially useful and important for multi-author blogs with large audiences: for one thing, large-scale events are always better (and easier to pull off) with a little help from your friends. We Love DC thinks big when it comes to partnering with local businesses. “We’ve done huge things with the Kimpton hotel group,” Tom explained. “For instance, we did a survey last year just looking at the demographics of our readership [and those that completed the survey had a chance to win a free dinner and hotel stay from Kimpton]. We’re getting ready to plan our second birthday party, and we hope to partner with them again. Another great partnership we’ve started has been with the 9:30 Club. We do concert ticket giveaways each week– it’s fantastic.”

There are many more nuggets of wisdom I took away from my conversation with Tom, and I’m sure I’ll share those with you in a future post. In the meantime, do you have other tips for people who run multi-author hyperlocal blogs (or those who are interested in starting one)? Please share your wisdom!

P.S. Local bloggers, don’t forget to register your blog here. It’s quick, simple, and will help drive traffic to your blog.
P.P.S.: If you’d like to be featured in our ‘Bloggers We Love’ series (or you’d like to nominate your favorite local blogger(s) for inclusion), we’d love to hear from you! Simply send an email to esther@outside.in

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Jul 10

Bloggers We Love: Your Stories Are LIVE on CNN.com!

Posted by Esther Brown in Bloggers We Love / CNN / Development & Features / General / News / Tips & Tricks — View Comments

As you may know, on April 20th, Outside.in shipped the first phase of our collaboration with CNN and began providing the local headlines on CNN.com. Then, on June 24, we started powering a local news module on CNN’s U.S. News page, and the results have been solid from there as well. In the first few weeks of looking at our implementations across CNN’s website, I’ve noticed some great visibility of ‘Bloggers We Love’ – blog stories are showing up on CNN.com (and CNN.com/US) from cities and towns all over the country, and it’s pretty awesome.

If you’ve registered with Outside.in and you haven’t yet seen your stories appearing on CNN.com (or Outside.in, for that matter), there are a couple things you can do to help your posts appear (but keep in mind CNN always has the last word on which headlines show up on their site):

FULL TEXT RSS: Be sure you are publishing a full-text RSS feed.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: Be sure to mention plenty of geo information in your posts.

FRESH IS BEST: Post often, because the stories on CNN are the most recent stories in our ecosystem, and bloggers share that ecosystem with mainstream media sources, who tend to publish quite often. To make sure your content shows up, you’ve got to make sure it’s current.

We’re happy to see so many bloggers getting the spotlight they deserve. Here are a few examples I spotted on CNN.com on a recent morning:

Here’s an example from CNN’s U.S. News page as well:

Posts FromJuly, 2010

Outside.in Adds Russell Fradin to Board of Directors

Spartanburg Loses a Blogger We Love: Can You Help?

WordPress 3 + WordPress MU + BuddyPress = a Game Changer for Hyperlocal Blogs, says Spartanburg Spark

10 Qualities Great Hyperlocal Bloggers Have in Common

Information Shortfall? Not So Fast, says Outside.in

Caroline’s Secrets of the Blogging Lifestyle (aka Bloggers We Love: Caroline on Crack)

6 Best Practices for Multi-Author Hyperlocal Blogs (aka Bloggers We Love: Tom Bridge of WeLoveDC.com)