Blogging Networks

I would join a blogging network because of all the new opportunities and people I would meet. Being part of a community that helps one another grow is the best way for a startup blogger to gain exposure and knowledge, whereas if you are riding solo, you would have to experience everything the hard way: learning by trial and error. Trial and error can be time and finically consuming.

I will say however that blogging networks are only as good as the people you have in it. I say this because a blogging network is a community  and if the community is made up of negative, trollish individuals that is the culture you will be joining.

The type of blogging network I see myself joining is a network of vloggers. A place where individuals mesh blogging and vlogging into one. Where not only can you read about what is going on but also watch what is going on. We would collaborate with one another to share new viewers and help each other gain exposure. Furthermore we would give one another tips on how to edit, or what was not appropriate before the content is sent out, sort of a rough draft phase.

Monetizing My Blog

Displaying ads on blogs is always a difficult task because as a content creator you do not want to lose followers, but at the same time it is how some bloggers make a living. In my opinion the ads that are most effective are ones that do not distract or interrupt a readers attention. Thus i believe affiliate and donation ads are he best way to go. Affiliate ads will  help promote a product or idea a blogger has that a reader can support or try out. At the same time the blogger can benefit a small percentage from the purchases. Also donations are a very easy way for bloggers to make income, twitch tv is a prime example of how much income a user can generate. In addition donations are based on how much the readers enjoy your work and it shows how loyal your readers are because they are willing to take the extra step in supporting. Another form of income can be ebooks, this form can be attractive because of the exclusivity. A blogger can release work to his or her readers that can only be purchase through ebooks. While this form can generate income for bloggers it is heavily based on your readers and how much they like your work.

Monetizing My Blog

I looked into monetizing blogs a while back when we started class. I had seen the use of E-Book downloads on many other blogs with similar intent and content. I knew that eventually I’d love to be able to do something like that so I started breaking my posts into specific parts. I have three different topics that are ongoing series of posts, which I will eventually combine and try to sell for a low price. Something around the .50 cent range. Seeing as the content has already been generated, it will take little time to compose the final product.

I’ve already begun building an online presence for myself as a blogger. Through Facebook and Twitter and various other platforms I’ve started commenting and sharing my information in hopes of being remembered. This will directly correlate into spikes in readership. I have already seen an ever increasing volume of page views since pushing myself out there. After this has grown a little further, and I have a few more posts under my belt, I am planning to approach Scrivener, the company which designs the program I use when I write, to see if we can work out some sort of sponsorship or partnership. I want to work on a series of how to guides for using the program that take a slightly different approach than many others are using. While there are a lot of tutorials out there, I think I might have a fighting chance of a deal. THere are a few other programs which I use slightly less than Scrivener, but which I could do a fantastic series on. They have smaller followings which translates to less income, but ate more likely to strike a deal with me as an upcoming blogger and writer who faithfully uses their programs.

I don’t think that pay-per-click or impression models of advertising would be good for my blog. While I’m sure I could make a few dollars on them, I don’t like the idea of not knowing what is being promoted on my page. I am also not a fan of advertisements at all, so if I can avoid forcing my readers to see them, I will. Don’t want to be scaring anyone away.

The idea of sponsored tweets is interesting, but I think it comes with a certain stigma that can be damaging to the way your audience views you. Given the unpredicatbility of any group of internet consumers, it doesn’t seem wise to push myself out there in that manner.

In the end, I think the hardest part will just be getting to the point where the influx of viewers is substantial on a daily basis to where any of these advertisements might generate an income that is worth the effort.

Monetizing My Blog

Personally I think that if I were going to monetize my blog at this point and time, I would probably try corporate sponsorships and partnerships. I think that would probably the only way that I would see any revenue at all.  Donations, affiliate adds, and selling products and e-books have more focused niches for much more experienced bloggers; I don’t have a product I’m selling, I’m just trying to help out the food allergy community with some new recipes. 

For food, I think that corporate sponsorship and partnerships is probably the best considering I’m creating new recipes with various ingredients. I use allergy-friendly products like Daiya, Seeds of Change, and Rudi’s Gluten Free Bread which are all trying to spread into larger food chains and reach a larger demographic. Even now I embed links to their websites to view their various products right now; I think it would actually be a great partnership! I think later down the line guest blogging and selling e-cook books might be effective, but as of right now I want my readers to be able to use these specialty food products because they allowed me to eat normally again. I’d like for them to be able to do that as well

Reading an Anonymous Blog

From a reader’s perspective, I take every anonymous blog/twitter account/anything on social media platforms with a grain of salt. I think it’s easier for people to post things online under the guise of anonymity and allows the user to speak more freely which can be a good thing or a REALLY bad thing.  I think being able to post on websites and contribute to the online community is wonderful and allows for a flourishing community, but in my experiences most of the anonymous users I’ve come across are either trolls or actively seeking to be an aggressive presence online.  That being said, I when I see that something is anonymous I usually tend to regard it as a joke. The best example for this would be twitter. There are TONS of anonymous twitter accounts but none of them really say anything substantial. It’s mostly accounts like “joke apple” that tweet corny dad jokes. There is the other side of that though. One young anonymous twitter user recently, “as a joke,” tweeted at American Airlines claiming she was a terrorist and that she was going to bomb a specific flight.  As expected, this user got into a lot of trouble, but her account blew up with notifications.  I’m sure if the user wasn’t anonymous she would never have tweeted such a statement, because after her identity came out she had a lot of issues with press.

I know that a lot of people find anonymous users funny and witty but I don’t really pay them any mind. I guess this could be hypocritical on my end because I did change my Facebook name during my job search. (It’s not back to my real name). I just feel that being anonymous facilitates negative commenting.

Live Blogging and How I Consume Media.

I have quite a few passions, but  one of the only ones that seems to be subject to the ferocious smack of the live blogging machine, is my love for television. I’ve always waited until shows had reached their end before I started to watch them. I wanted to forget about the years of spoilers I’d come across and let all that information I’d heard, just kind of float away, before I started watching something.

However, with the introduction of live blogging, more specifically, the in-depth level that it was taken to in the show Breaking Bad, was actually integral in changing the way that I consume much of my newer television experiences. After hearing so much about the incredible live blogging that they do for the show, I decided I needed to start trying to watch each episode as they rolled out every week.

Not only was there a Twitter account that tweeted everything as it happened, but they also had Breaking Bad Story Sync which was an interactive webpage that was consistently updated with information about what was going in the episodes. You might find out what was going on the set when it was shot, or some tidbit of lore that you hadn’t known. This version of live blogging added a whole different element to how anyone can ingest their digital television. Not only can you listen to what anyone has to say about the show, as its happening through Twitter hash tags, but you can actually learn something that the average joe just watching it on tv, won’t ever know.

In most cases, I still prefer to just sit down and consume an entire series from beginning to end, over the course of a few weeks. I think the live blogging method is a fantastic idea, but I don’t believe it’s meant for every show. Only the shows that show true promise and depth that could benefit from the extra exposure and expansion of their ideas, should be the ones that are live blogged to such a degree as AMC has done with their recent hits. One of the biggest downfalls of live blogging is quite obviously the spoiler. In my personal opinion, I think we need to find a universal way to warn of spoilers. Unless of course we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by thoughtful folks who care about how what they post might actually ruin somebodies good mood, if even for a moment. The likelihood of that is slim, but I am a dreamer. Until the day that happens, I will likely avoid places like Twitter and Facebook until I’ve consumed an episode of anything that anyone I know might enjoy. In a way, I think this might actually be bad for the companies that are producing the content that gets live blogged. While it attracts many people, it may also force people away from a show as they desperately attempt to hide from the spoilers.

 

Hyperlocal Blog

Brick Town New Jersey is a small town in Ocean County, and as of 2010 it has a population of 75,000+ people.  Directly next to Point Pleasant and Toms River, right near the Atlantic Ocean.  A 10 minute bike ride from the ocean and the boardwalk.  With a range of ages and different types of ethnicities, Brick Town is one of the more diverse towns in the state.  The town is split up because of the high schools.  “Old Brick” is South Brick and “Memorial” is North Brick or “new brick”.  Old Brick has a reputation of being…old.  Things look like they need to be updated around there from the high school itself to the roadways and buildings in there area.

The hyperblog of Brick that we created is the Brick Town Local.  At the top of our blog we would have tabs for the following:

• Food
• Night Life
• Recreation
• Local News
• Sports Teams
• Events
• Religious Organizations

The food tab would focus on local restaurants and places in the town. There are plenty of pizza places in Brick. I know on Herbertsville road there are at least 4 pizza places just on that road alone.  There are also plenty of Italian places to eat in Brick town.  We would talk about the local deals and places, perhaps high light a different place each week.

The night life tab would be filled with places that you could go in the surrounding areas.  Although Brick is not the main point of the shore there is obviously many places right near in Asbury and Seaside and Point Pleasant where people go all the time when they go out.  The infamous “Jersey Shore” show on MTV highlighted a couple of these places and have since become huge tourists attractions.

The recreation tab would be filled with the local parks and pictures and events.  There are plenty of park in Brick where you can play all kinds of sports.  Tennis, Soccer fields, Basketball, you name it and there is a field for it.  There are also a few skate parks in the area where kids go all the time.

The local news tab would update things that re going around in the town, some road work sites so you can avoid, how the high schools or sports teams are doing, just a lot of general information and current events in the town.

Sports Teams would talk about the High School sports clubs as much as the local clubs.  Our pop warner football, little league baseball and wrestling programs are very imbedded into the town.  I know kids that have started wrestling at local clubs when they were little kids and then these clubs will travel and face other clubs.  There are many soccer clubs as well so we would be able to highlight any success that these clubs have.

Events would be the local events that are going on in the Brick at the time. For example in the summer time every Tuesday there was “Summer Fest” at Windward beach.  There we would talk about the acts or what time the fireworks are going to go off and the schedule of events, get people out there.

There are plenty of churches in the town so we would be able to update the local church events and the CCD programs that are available.

There is a lot going on in Brick Town and because of the Brick Town Local hyperblog you will be able to know everything that is going on from Sport to Pizza!

 

Community Blog Shadman, Jay, Mike

Town: Nudist Colony, “A Naked Person is a Happy Person”

Who lives there?: 

-Mostly men…probably 60:40 Male to Female ratio

-Mostly 50+

-Race: diverse batch of folks

How many people live there?:

1,000

What is the community like?:

Friendly, their naked, nonjudgmental, open

 

BLOG LAYOUT:

Town name and Header: SUNNYVALLE

On the front page:

-Mostly headlines with as events. Sporting events, holidays, etc.

-Sidebar with applications, links and such, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

-Current news and occurrences in the community

Advertisements:

-Sun tan lotion

-Lotion

-Soap

-Sunglasses

-Razors

-Beds

-Basically everything except clothes

-Air conditioning

Section for Nudist Friendly stores and restaurants: Categorized as “Friendlys”

Section for Sporting Events:

-NO contact sports

-Volleyball

-Frisbee

-Ping Pong

Section for how to register

Qualities look for:

-Must be unprejudiced, can’t make fun of others, can’t discriminate

-No touching, or squeezing

-No sexual harassment

-No verbal abuse

-Report to the Naked police if offended

-Age limit: 18+

 

 

Blogging Network

If I were to join a blogging network, I would join the Food Bloggers Network which consists of various health and wellness blogs that deal with specialty diets and for travel. I really like the layout  The layout isn’t all that great, but there are some really wonderful blogs on this network that deal from everything regarding from limiting your GMO intake to how to eat in Sao Paulo when on vacation. It’s really a wide variety of people and bloggers and what’s really lovely is that they’re all different.  

After reading the articles we discussed in class, I think I would like to join a blogging network if I continued with this blog.  When you’re working in the kitchen, there is definitely room for experimentation, but you have to start from somewhere. People go back and forth with different recipes which I think is a great. 

Blogging Network

I think if I wanted to make a career out of TVB and movie reviews I would but it’s more of a hobby. If I wasn’t in college and I watched more television/movies, I would definitely join a network but as my blog is right now, I wouldn’t. I think a network focusing on entertainment can be tricky however. Most people, if they have their own blogs, are going to be writing about multiple shows so it would be hard showcasing any one blog. I think a blogging network for entertainment would have to be extensive; it would have to be broken up between genres and it would have to highlight at least three posts/bloggers within each genre. They would need to have a “hot topics” section and a “popular” section, the former for trending topics (ex. post about the teen wolf finale) and the latter for top shows (ex. general game of thrones post)

Because there are so many aspects of TV- writing, directing, filming, effects, characters, romantic relationships, platonic relationships, plot, etc- it would be hard choosing who could and couldn’t be featured on the network. Especially since they would most likely be competition. there would most likely be arguments instead of help. On Popsugar for example, those are mothers or people  networking and getting tips from each other. That’s the kind of website that promotes help. A network about opinions would not be the same because you don’t need anyone else’s opinion. You already have yours and it would definitely be a source of conflict. Of course, this could work to your advantage if a fellow blogger doesn’t mind having friendly competition with your differing opinions, sort of like an established rivalry; you could drive traffic to each other’s blogs.

I think a network could work but it would definitely have to be well thought out. There are so many television shows and so many differing opinions- and opinions within opinions- that it would be hard to categorize. I think it would have to be very basic where the network “hired” writers to write their articles/reviews and the bloggers would just have a link back to their original website/blog.