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August 27, 2007
Onion reports on "Web Crash 2007"
Posted by Alicia Dorset at 01:19 PM
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August 21, 2007
Table 4 Five: Year One
By Charlie Kondek
When we first met Elizabeth Edwards, the mother of three and the pen behind Table 4 Five , Mom Reviews and a few other side projects (not John Edwards' wife), she had just started out as a blogger. Elizabeth was eager, fascinated and perhaps a little intimidated by the world she had just joined, especially upon attending her first BlogHer conference. That was a little more than a year ago. Elizabeth just returned from her second BlogHer conference one year wiser. We got a chance to catch up with her and ask her what kind of perspective she had on blogging and the mom blogosphere now.
(Note that as you read the exchange, Elizabeth refers to bloggers being paid a stipend for time spent writing product reviews. That is not a practice we do at MS&L.)
Q: How did you get started blogging and why?
A: In the summer of 2005, I was pregnant with my daughter and was put on bedrest. My husband got me a laptop and wired it up so I could use it while reclining on the couch. I was on the Yahoo! home page one day, and I saw a link to the Best of Blogs Awards. I had heard of blogs, but I had never read one. I started clicking links on the B.O.B. site and was excited to find that there were blogs written by Moms! I also couldn't believe that there was a way to leave a comment on what I had read. But in order to leave a comment, I had to have a URL, which meant getting a blog. I logged in to Blogger, created Table for Five, and the rest is history!
Q: What are some of the challenges you've faced in keeping Table for Five going?
A: I haven't really had any problems keeping the blog going. I've been lucky that my family was supportive of my blogging right from the beginning. I've had to take a few short breaks from updating, to focus on family needs, but I haven't had technical problems or problems with readers at all.
Q: What blogs do you read?
A: I don't have a set daily list, although I used to start at the top of my RSS reader and work my way all the way down, every day. What I do now is, when someone leaves me a comment, I click through to see what they are posting about. The two blogs I read the most are Amalah.com, and Dooce.com, both popular mommy blogs, and rightfully so. Occasionally I pick a blog from my reader that I haven't visited in a while and catch up on their last few posts.
Q: What would you say to a new blogger?
A: Commit yourself to a regular posting schedule, and stick to it. It doesn't have to be every day, but it gets you in the habit of writing, and your readers will know when to expect a new post.
Second piece of advice: Visit other bloggers who write about the same topics as you, read their posts, and leave comments that contribute to the discussion. To really attract attention to your blog quickly, submit a post to a Blog Carnival or join a group like Thursday Thirteen. It's great to have readers, and commenters, but it's also great to be part of a community.
Third piece of advice: Use the spell-check on your posts. If English isn't your first language, check your grammar carefully. And for heaven's sakes, please do not write your blog posts as if they were a text message. No one wants to read all-caps, words like "ur", no punctuation, run-on posts. Take the writing seriously.
Fourth piece of advice: If you see something on another blog that you wish you could do with yours, leave a polite comment or send an email and ask the person if they would please tell you how they did whatever that thing is. I learned almost everything I know about blogging from asking other bloggers for help.
Fifth piece of advice: You CANNOT PLEASE EVERYONE. You will eventually get a comment that is snarky, or even mean. You might get nasty emails. Just keep your focus, and remember, it's YOUR blog, in YOUR space, with YOUR words. Unless someone else is paying you, the choice of what to put on your blog is yours.
Q: What would you say to someone new to BlogHer?
A: If you write a blog, and you are interested in meeting other women (and some men) who also blog, you might be interested in both reading the BlogHer web site and joining the BlogHer community, and you might also be interested in coming to an annual BlogHer conference. At a conference, you will be treated to two days of sessions and workshops devoted to all of the many aspects of blogging and of having a presence online. You will be dined, and wined, and given pounds of free goodies from sponsors. Companies will send representatives to the conferences just to meet bloggers like you! It's a great way to meet other bloggers, do some valuable networking, plus you get to take a little vacation at the same time. And it's not just for women, despite being called BlogHER, it is open to men too, if they are interested in working with women bloggers.
Q: What's the deal with bloggers who earn money with their blogs?
A: I could write you paragraphs about monetization. I have lost sleep over this topic since getting back from BlogHer, so this is what I want to say—
- Marketing companies, public relations companies, and advertising agencies need to understand this: A well-written, high-traffic blog with a good reputation can be a very valuable way to get the word out about your product. Use a blog advertising company like BlogAds, BlogHer Ad Network, Parent Bloggers Network, or PayPerPost Direct, and you will find the perfect site on which to place your campaign. You need to understand that there are bloggers out there who see their blogs as their business. They work very hard on them, spend long hours on content, design, and networking, and placing a campaign on a blog can reach thousands of people a week.
- The biggest problem that many bloggers have with monetization is that companies do not pay bloggers a "fair wage". What we are doing for you is essentially freelance writing, so pay us what you would pay for a freelance writing job. If it's a product review, send us the product but also a stipend for the time we spend writing.
- When thinking about which blogs to approach with your campaign, look for blogs written by people of color. I was SHOCKED during a session at BlogHer to find out that African-American, Latino, and Asian-American bloggers NEVER get sent emails about product reviews. Why not? They use the same products as everyone else!
- And for bloggers reading this, I want to say this— choose your ads carefully. Before accepting a text, image, or flash badge ad, make sure it is for a product that is a good fit for your blog, and is something that you yourself would use. A few well-chosen ads will be more valuable to you than a bunch of different ones that don't make sense on your site.
My last words of advice for bloggers? Be grateful. Appreciate your readers, appreciate the comments they leave, appreciate your advertisers. Say Thank You, a lot, and mean it. Kind words go a long way.
Posted by Alicia Dorset at 02:44 PM
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August 15, 2007
Change Minds in the Classroom
By Mike Schottelkotte
Guest Blogger
Just to begin I’ll introduce myself. My name is Mike Schottelkotte. I am a senior at Ohio University, studying Online Journalism. This summer I was the digital intern with MS&L.
If you ask a group of interns what they most got out of their experience I imagine you would hear, “I learned a lot about real life work.” or “I met a bunch of really great people who helped teach me, but also pushed me to work hard and succeed.” At least that’s something I think on a large scale level I would say about working for MS&L this summer.
However, I’d like to take that answer one step further. It’s not often you can come to such an innovative company that when you return to school you can begin to teach them how to do their job. Ohio University is one of the most highly regarded journalism schools in the country. Their Online Journalism sequence is highly regarded for its uniqueness and foresight to step in to an area that is taboo for many other schools. While I cherish the education I have been given, I feel at this point I can begin to start pushing the university as a whole in a 21st century direction.
When you mention the word "blog" in a journalism classroom there are a few typical responses.
- "Blogging is the downfall of journalism, it’s not professional and the writing skills are inadequate."
- "Blogs can not be trusted, it is unethical for a journalist to think about blogging, and it is unethical for others to trust blogs, anyone who blogs will lose credibility."
- "Blogs are OK, I read them sometimes, but unless it’s Steve Jobs, I don’t take it seriously."
Does that seem odd to anyone else? It’s obvious that J-schools are hesitant to peak outside the box for fear of losing credibility. But when companies come to PR, advertising and marketing firms looking for the most innovative ideas, it’s obvious that the digital world needs to be taught in a different way in classrooms across the country.
Without my experience at MS&L this summer I would never have the confidence or ideas to come back to my educators and insist that they consider revising curriculum to better suit these students when they enter the real world. So let me briefly mention some of the things I will be taking with me when I leave MS&L:
- The excitement of knowing that there is a company who has the foresight and capabilities to offer their clients the best
- The courage and the knowledge to change minds relating to digital components when I return to school
- The belief in myself that I am on a solid career path with the ability to be an innovator because it’s what companies such as MS&L look for
- A pen and a pad of paper
There comes a point in school when you are tired of getting posed questions and no one ever having the answers. If there’s anything additional I’ve learned it’s that there are companies and agencies out there that are starting to come up with the answers. I’ll give an example. In journalism, a major question is of course, “Print readership is down everywhere, what can we do about it?” Well if you said what I’m about to say, then you’ll be kicked out of school as quickly as you can say New York Times. What if you did nothing about it? What if instead you focused all your efforts in to attracting new, young, Gen X, Gen Y readers to come to your website? What if you had all of your staff, including senior executives, writing a blog on a daily basis? Of course there are gray areas here because you flirt with professional bias, but doesn’t statistics show that this generation yearns for transparency in all their online endeavors?
Overall I just want to say I am very happy with all the experience and with all the work I’ve provided for MS&L. I look forward to seeing what is in my future and the future of this company. There are so many talented people here that it makes you better, and for that I am forever grateful.
Ed note: Mike has taken up blogging over here, where you'll find an abridged version of this post.
Posted by staff at 12:06 PM
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August 13, 2007
Black is the new green
By Nichole Woodcock
There are a number of us who have clicked “make Google your homepage.” Google’s popular search engine is now helping users through a green-friendly search with a revamped homepage, Blackle.
Designed by Heap Media Australia in the hopes of helping users conduct an “Energy Saving Search,” Blackle transforms your white Google homepage into a black screen that features the same familiar one-bar search tool. Some call Blackle an inconvenient homepage, while others insist it is a small way to help save energy.
Why Blackle and not Polkadottle? Earlier this year, the EcoIron blog featured a post on how “Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a year.” This sparked enough debate to get people talking about actually creating an energy efficient search engine. Wikipedia has additional info on the emergence of Blackle.
Google does not own Blackle, meaning the bells and whistles Google users are accustomed to are not available. Blackle is operating solely on the homepage. Results appear in a light grey text, but once you click on a new URL you are thrown back into the colorful world of the internet. Blackle also provides an eco-friendly reminder at the bottom of the page showing the number of watt hours saved. This is a small reminder that you are making a difference.
There have been heated debates among online skeptics who question Blackle’s efficiency, especially when comparing a LCD monitor with a CRT. Some tests have even shown that there are no energy savings to be found using Blackle on a LCD monitor.
Whether or not this truly saves a great deal of energy, it is sparking healthy conversations about the everyday things people can start doing to help conserve energy. It is certainly a nice contrast to thinking green.
Posted by Alicia Dorset at 12:54 PM
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August 09, 2007
Ad Age names Power 150
In case you missed it, make sure to check out Ad Age's "Power 150" list of top media and marketing blogs.
Posted by Alicia Dorset at 01:11 PM
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August 07, 2007
Where do we go when we die?
By Melanie Seasons
We are now in an age where everyone has the potential not to be forgotten, even in death. And nowhere is this more evident than on social networking sites.
As the prime example, when someone on MySpace dies, his or her profile becomes a digital snapshot of his or her life. This is because a MySpace account owner is the only one who can disable his or her page. If no one has access to the account, it has the potential to be archived forever.
If you haven’t come across one of these profiles, they’re absolutely heartbreaking. They have become online tombs littered with messages and memories posted by friends and family members. Reading comments that go from the everyday mundane like, “See you next week” to “I've trying my best to ‘cope’ with all this but it's just so hard. Life is never going to be the same without you,” is enough to make a complete stranger get a little misty-eyed.
If you’re morbidly curious, but don’t know where to find a dead MySpacer, there’s a new resource: MyDeathSpace.com, a site that collects and archives submitted MySpace profiles and obituaries of the recently deceased.
Unsurprisingly, My Death Space has sparked controversy, launching sites like Action Against My Death Space. The site claims that owner of My Death Space exploits the tragedy of death by featuring a cartoon-like skull as its logo and not moderating comments in its forum.
For me, though, it’s seeing an obituary headline like this, that’s the real tragedy.
Posted by Alicia Dorset at 04:39 PM
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