Posts Tagged "Bloggers"

1
Sep 10

We’re Sponsoring the ‘HubPages Marks the Spot’ Contest

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

Attention bloggers: this is just a quick post to let you know that we’re  sponsoring HubPages’ HubPages Marks the Spot contest, which begins today and runs through the 29th of the month.

HubPages focuses on evergreen content– i.e., content that will be valuable for months and years to come– and we find that a lot of evergreen content can be hyperlocal in nature as well. For instance, when a blogger writes about a local restaurant he or she visited, that post is going to be valuable for some time, not just for a fleeting moment or two. That’s why we’re happy to sponsor this contest for HubPages.

A few things to consider: if you enter, you may win sweet prizes, including cold, hard cash (and ongoing royalties, too). To enter, you have to publish topical articles (what they call “Hubs”) on your favorite sandwich joints, art museums, bowling alleys, tattoo parlors, and all other sorts of local attractions; each week has a different category.

Here’s an example: Best Brunch Spots in Oakland, California

Over $4,000 in cash prizes are up for grabs, given out throughout the month, so you can potentially win no matter when you start publishing (and you’ll continue to earn via ad revenue on your Hubs for years to come). Plus, HubPages tells us there are lots of people earning some pretty decent money on the Hubs they’ve published.

Ready to start? Jump to the contest page and read the rules (important!) on the travel and places page.

16
Jun 10

Bloggers We Love: Adelle McElveen

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

BLOGGER: Adelle McElveen

FEATURED BLOG(S): Fashionista Lab

TWITTER: @FashionistaLab

FACEBOOK: Fashionista Lab

Full disclosure: I’ve known Adelle McElveen, the woman behind the San Francisco-based blog ‘Fashionista Lab,’ for well over a decade now. In fact, it was actually Adelle who suggested I apply for the open Community Manager position at Outside.in, a job I am now lucky enough to call my own (good call, Adelle!).

Still, those are not the only reasons Adelle is a ‘Blogger We Love.’ What I find most inspiring about Adelle and her blog (besides the drool-worthy fashion photos she posts, obviously!) is that her blog exemplifies the idea that a local blog can take many different forms. By spotlighting her, I hope to diversify our ideas about what a local blog could or should be – and just maybe inspire a person or two out there to join the conversation by launching a ‘local’ blog of their own.

So, without further ado, I give you…

The Top 10 Things I Learned from Fashionista Lab

1. Trust Your Instincts

“I had a personal blog for years – and basically it functioned as a travel blog. Then one day I blogged about tank tops and how much I loved them – and I thought to myself: maybe it’s time I just blogged about fashion, because I realized I had a lot more to to say about fashion. I knew I wanted a different audience, so I started the fashion blog.”

2. Give in to Your Creative Impulse

“One of the biggest benefits of blogging is just starting the blog and acknowledging that creative desire and giving in to it — and then, once you give in to it, it just opens you up to so many other things.”

3. Don’t Sweat the Blog Stuff (‘Cause It’s All Small Stuff)

“There’s always this tension [between work and blogging], because I [blog] for fun, but it’s really what I love — and I’ve networked with a number of other fashion bloggers who do it and do it well and have big audiences… and I want that, too. But then it’s like, OK, they’re students, and they have all this free time – or they work in the fashion industry and it’s part of their job. My job takes up most of my time — but sometimes I feel myself naturally competing and trying to achieve what they’re achieving, and sometimes it gets stressful and I have to realize: OK, this isn’t my job. My job is my job. This is my hobby – I should do it and do it well, but at the same time, I can’t let myself get stressed out about it.”

4. You Don’t Have to Be an SEO Guru to Get Started

“Oh, um… I don’t know how to optimize.”

5. Blog What You Know

“The original Fashionista Lab [was a blog] run by a friend of mine and I when I lived in Tokyo. It was called Fashionista Lab because it was for ideas. We decided: we don’t want to tell you what’s ‘HOT’ or what’s ‘NEW,’ or to compete with that area because it’s already saturated. [Instead, we're] going to tell you our unique perspective on Tokyo fashion: this is what we see, living in Tokyo. I just kept the name because [the blog's purpose is the same] in San Francisco. It’s a lab – it’s for ideas.”

6. You Can Start with a Simple Blog Design or Platform

“I use WordPress.com. I’m slowly building it. Like: I have my own domain now. Eventually, I want to have my own custom WordPress.org blog so I can change themes and add widgets and stuff – those are all things I want to do. I have so many aspirations for the blog – but my time-line is just a lot slower.”

7. You Have to Be Your Own Biggest Fan

“I was featured a month and a half ago on this site called Independent Fashion Bloggers. It’s a really great fashion blogger resource – they did a conference during Fashion Week in New York, for example – and every week they have something called ‘Links à la Mode,’ which is like 10-15 of the best fashion blog posts from the world’s fashion blogger community that past week. I look at their links every week, and I’ve submitted blog posts for consideration like three times, and finally, the fourth time, they chose one of my posts – and that was really exciting.”

8. Shorter = Better

“I volunteered at a benefit fashion show in San Francisco recently – part of it was this silent auction and live auction. The live auction was really exhilarating and really crazy, and I wrote this really long post and I thought it was really engaging, and then one of my friends read it and talked to me about it, and I realized she hadn’t finished it. It was just too long. Short things are better. That was a post I could have easily broken down into two parts.”

9. To Be a Good Blogger, You Have to Be a Good Reader

“Once I started the blog and realized how much I had to say, I really started to pay more attention to other people who were saying things, and seeing what they were doing and where they were going and where they were getting their information – and that was just the beginning [of the evolution of my blog and blogger network].”

10. San Francisco is Home to Unique, Edgy Fashion

“It is really creative. As I was telling a friend in New York: New York women are really chic, especially in Manhattan, but I’ve noticed that San Francisco is a little bit rougher, you know? It’s not as put-together, per se – but there’s just lots of creativity and lots of different outfits that you see. It’s not just ‘hipsters,’ either. It’s temperate all year round, so you can play more with jackets and layering tops and leggings. I never understood the appeal of those open-toe booties, but then I got a pedicure in January and I was like: this is perfect! I can cover my foot and have my toes showing!”

There you have it: you don’t have to only write ‘hard news’ to be a ‘local’ blogger, nor do you have to make your blog into your life’s work (though both of those things are totally awesome things to do!). As it turns out, a local blog can also be comprised of fashion-related musings (some of them locally-oriented, some of them not).

So, would-be ‘local bloggers,’ please know: as far as we’re concerned, blogging more casually doesn’t make the contributions you do make to the local content pool any less valuable than the contributions of a more ‘professional,’ blogger. It’s OK to blog without an agenda.

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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1
Dec 09

Grants Spur More New Media Ventures… Will They Survive?

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

moniesIt feels like almost every week I read about a new media venture sprouting up thanks to grant money from xyz foundation or donors. NPR recently received a $3MM grant from the Corporation for Publication Broadcasting and the Knight Foundation to fund bloggers and curators in 12 cities. There is a long list of recipients that are embarking on online local news ventures, including:

The most recent news comes out of Chicago where a dozen groups have received a total of $500,000 in grant from the Community News Matters program. The list of recipients struck me, not because of WHO they are, but HOW they are planning on using the funds. Many organizations will use the tens of thousands of dollars to cover news in specific neighborhoods and hire/engage bloggers and citizen journalists.

A boost of cash is great but what happens after it’s all spent? Apply for more grant money or is there a viable business model to keep it running? How that initial source of start-up funding will be spent is key. It’d be a shame to hire a bunch of bloggers and curators and then lose them when the money runs out. It’d be disappointing to see the launch of a hyperlocal news site with great community information that can’t update the data on a regular basis when the funds run dry.

I am all for financial support, especially for these types of new media ventures, but the opportunities that the grants provide for need to be seized in a right way that is strategic and sustainable. With the generosity and good will of many of these foundation and donors, combined with the passion and entrepreneurship of these upstarts, we at Outside.in see this as a great opportunity to work with the ventures to help build and execute on an efficient and viable business model. Assuming that these grant recipients are in it for the long haul, we have ideas, products, and tools to help them meet their short-term and long-term goals.

13
Nov 09

More on the #NewBiz Conference at CUNY

Posted by camilla in Events / Industry Notes & Commentary / Outside.in for Publishers — View Comments

picture-12My colleague Jared provided a great commentary on this blog after the recent New Business Models for News Conference and HyperCamp at CUNY. Thought I’d add a few more thoughts from the revenue angle.

As Sean Blanda points out in his recap, and repeatedly expressed by the confab attendees, a major unmet need in the hyperlocal space is around selling. In other words, what I heard loud and clear is: “I need revenue!” As this conference re-affirmed, there are plenty of journalists, bloggers, publishers (large and small) who are producing and featuring hyperlocal content, the challenge is how does one monetize this content.

Not surprising… after all, who doesn’t want to make some money? But here is why this is interesting:

  • No real mention of the usual self-service online sales route, such as Google or other ad networks). You can read into what is NOT being spoken aloud here… Google AdSense is not enough. Generating pennies off of clicks may work for the behemoth that is Google, but not for the independent local news site. Folks are well aware of how big the local ad market is ($100B+) and appear hungry to go after some of this big pie.
  • I sensed a DIY attitude when it came to ad sales. Individual publishers want to know how to sell. Journalists may not “do spreadsheets” but maybe some will do sales? I’m usually a fan of the DIY mentality and entrepreneurial spirit, but to make local ad sales work, DIY will not cut it. Local networks need to form to provide scale and efficiency. Rather than you sell what’s yours and I sell what’s mine, how about the best person sell on behalf of everyone in the market?
  • Not every hyperlocal site or news org should have to sell. The staff of the new news organization should focus on what they are good at, and in most cases, that will not be sales. The ability to sell is not something you teach and voila: You’re now making money. I wish it were that simple. Not only does it require recruiting the right people and training them properly, but you also need to equip them with the right tools and products to sell with, and most importantly, incentivize and motivate them to sell something that is not theirs. But local sales teams that have the skills and relationships already exist. The key is how to connect them with the relevant inventory that best services the advertisers… Sounds very similar to the challenge of connecting the big media folks to the local network of bloggers.

So, what does all this portend? Well, the future is still being shaped (by some of the folks there at the conference and other thought leaders and innovators), but a few things are clear on the ad sales front: Training will not be the answer and generating meaningful local dollars will require more cooperation and collaboration amongst the relevant parties. Yes, more group hugs are in order, as Jeff Jarvis insisted. And local networks being sold by the right sales teams will be the key in this new ecosystem.

20
Oct 09

Blogger Community for All

Posted by chrysanthe in Announcements — View Comments

Hello bloggers! We’ve consolidated our individual blogger HQs into one destination site since we see a connection between all hyperlocal bloggers, regardless of the town, city, or places you write about. You may want to read our introductory post and watch the fun video we made to illustrate the blogger-publisher connection we’re facilitating as part of the new news ecosystem. Both should explain a bit about why we’ve created a destination site for you, the local bloggers that make up the backbone of the geoweb.

We’ll be laying out tips and tricks of hyperlocal blogging, and we’ll also be interviewing writers who have great local blogs (this means you! If you’re interested in being featured here, send us a note). We hope to be the common thread to link you together and connect you with ideas and other bloggers to help inspire you in your craft of writing about place.

Jump into the conversation in the comments on the new site and feel free to suggest your blog or other greats in your area–and make sure that your blog is included in our system to grow your audience and take advantage of our blogger tools!

Check it out! –> http://oibloggerHQ.outside.in

19
Oct 09

Hyperlocal Blogger Happy Hour in Chicago This Friday

Posted by chrysanthe in Announcements / Events — View Comments

Come on down to the Clark Street Ale House this Friday, October 23, at 6pm for drinks with your fellow local bloggers. Outside.in’s Director of Partner Relations Jared Ranere will be your host, so you can pick his brain on everything hyperlocal and ask questions about outside.in and Geotoolkit—and the first round is on us! Feel free to blog about this or share the invite with any hyperlocal bloggers you know in the Chicago area.

Please RSVP. We’ll randomly select a blogger from the RSVP list to win a fun outside.in prize. Hope to see you there!

23
Sep 09

Solution for “Newsfail” Situations

Posted by camilla in General / Industry Notes & Commentary / Tips & Tricks — View Comments

Have you heard of the recent “newsfail” in Atlanta? According to the Center for Future Civic Media, there was a significant lack of coverage on the terrible massive flooding in the Atlanta area and local TV stations were scrambling to cover the story. Such big, important news and no one seemed to have been on top of it in a timely manner. What gives?

atlfloodpeachtreeparkpicture-5
Photo courtesy of the City of Atlanta, via Creative Loafing

Coincidentally, a few of us at outside.in were preparing for a business trip to Atlanta in the midst of all this flooding and disaster. I only heard of the news through an IM from a friend who asked why I was about to fly out to an area where offices and schools were shutting down and the airports were backed up like crazy. Had it not been for this message, I doubt I would have been in the know, since I don’t really follow Atlanta news and didn’t see it mentioned in my national news feeds. I would have probably shown up at the airport only to realize flights to Atlanta had been canceled or severely delayed.

You would assume that major news like this would be covered by pretty much all national news outlets. But that did not happen. I’m sure all publishers may have their own set of circumstances but one major cause that likely led to the “newsfail” is the fact that many news publishers no longer have the resources to stay on top of all the news breaking in a timely manner (especially when weather makes it even tougher to travel to the right locations). And consequently, the consumers are left to rely less and less on traditional media sources. We now rely heavily on word of mouth via Facebook, Twitter, or IM.

So, the solution? Smart aggregation. Publishers and consumers would be best served through the power of aggregation and distribution. Publishers do not need to cover every major news breaking in their metro. If there are other content producers and local bloggers that are already reporting the story as it breaks, publishers can take advantage of the content by aggregating from these complementary news sources and link out from your site. Your audience do not need to search the web to find the news. You should provide this information, even if it means the content is from an aggregated set of a variety of sources, which can provide for a more comprehensive perspective and coverage.

For local bloggers, such “newsfail” provides a great opportunity. My colleague has already written about the power and benefits of local blogs in this type of a situation on our blogger HQ site. In Atlanta, there were several blogs providing the latest updates, including rounding up tweets, on the flooding early on when only a few major news sources were covering it. Decatur Metro started blogging about this as early as 9/17. We here at outside.in think this is what the new news ecosystem is all about–major publishers tapping into the aggregated set of content and helping to drive traffic to the network local bloggers and the smaller publishers.

Whether it’s a devastating flood in Atlanta, a recent manhunt in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago (covered on the Arlington Heights Neighborhood News Page on our partner site, ChicagoBreakingNews), we believe “newsfail” should and could be avoided.

picture-22

21
Sep 09

Announcing o.i Blogger HQs + Blogger Tip #1

Posted by chrysanthe in General / Outside.in for Publishers — View Comments

Just as we’re doing in Roanoke, we’re building communities of hyperlocal bloggers in Tacoma, St. Louis, and Jackson. These sites, which we’re affectionately calling “o.i Blogger HQs” are a resource to local bloggers in those cities: to find out tips and information and connect with each other. Check out what we’re posting and join the conversation in the comments. If you’re a local blogger in any of those cities, check us out and submit your blog, and then drop us a line if you’d like to be on our blogroll.

We have a list of new cities that we’ll be rolling out, but if you want to pump your city up in the queue, write to us and let us know about the hyperlocal efforts in your city!

o.i Blogger HQ Tip #1: Go Where Traditional Media Doesn’t

As always, feel free to send us ideas, questions, or comments on local blogging!

26
Aug 09

Seattle Times Partners With Local News Sites – Is It Enough?

Posted by camilla in General / Industry Notes & Commentary / News / Outside.in for Publishers — View Comments

Today the Seattle Times announced an editorial partnership with four local news publishers. Obviously, this caught our attention. A major news publisher working with and driving traffic to hyperlocal sites is part of how we envision the new news ecosystem. Thus, we do commend the Seattle Times for taking this encouraging first step and embracing the notion of aggregation, connecting with their community, and taking note of the wealth of great local content being produced in their backyard. But how will this really work? Is this the beginning of a new news model or an interesting experiment? Well, there are some issues that should be addressed.

  • Limited Content: Why isolate this to just four content publishers? Why not 20? Why not 100? If you were the publisher, wouldn’t you want access to ALL the great content producers in your market? Seattle is a blog-rich metro with hundreds of local bloggers (we capture over 300 sources in this market). The barriers to entry to becoming a content producer are extremely low. New content producers are popping up everyday that the Seattle Times won’t have direct access to. My Ballard may have the best coverage on a specific event one day but the next day it might come from an unknown new blogger. If I were the editor, I’d want access to it all rather than limiting myself to an exclusive set of a few local publishers and possibly alienating everyone else out there.
  • Lack of Scale and Automation: Without these two elements, this initiative will likely prove to be challenging to manage on a day-to-day basis. For publishers in other cities that may want to adopt a similar strategy, no doubt the concerns will be around resources. Who will pick and choose what articles to link to and communicate with the bloggers? With so many news publishers strapped for resources, is this a realistic initiative to pull off successfully?
  • Sustainability: This is a one-year ‘project’ funded by the Knight Foundation. A grant from the Knight Foundation via American University will fund a liaison at Seattle Times and provide a stipend to the participating local bloggers. What happens after one year? Who will continue to fund this ‘liaison’ and the bloggers? What seems to be missing is a sustainable model that builds a relationship with the local bloggers and encourages a constant exchange of content, inventory, and revenue–a model that can be replicated at other cities all over the country.

The solution to the above issues and many of the questions is pretty simple–organized aggregation. This is why we built Outside.in for Publishers–a product to automate and ease the efforts of collecting local content.  We give you the ‘fire hose’ of all aggregated content organized by neighborhoods and places, along with simple tools to manage and curate all of this. As news constantly changes, we believe local publishers need this level of flexibility and control.

We will be watching to see how this Seattle partnership works out. As of now, it sounds like a great concept but in practice, I question whether this is a sustainable or an efficient strategy. We are excited to see more publishers like Seattle Times embracing the notion of working with smaller local content producers in their market to give bloggers the much-desired and deserved eyeballs and distribution. But publishers can do a lot more and faster. The tools are there… we invite you to see just how easy it is and take advantage of the opportunities.

6
Aug 09

StoryMap Introduction Video

Posted by chrysanthe in General — View Comments

Check out this awesome illustration of what outside.in does for bloggers. Our three summer interns (Libby Brittain, Cody Brown, and Phoebe Pundyk) made this great video, and we think it does an excellent job of articulating how our site and tools can help bloggers promote their local content. We’ll let this fun but informative video speak for itself. Enjoy and click here to get a map for your blog!

StoryMap Introduction from outside.in on Vimeo.

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