From: E. Ross (bentalaska@gmail.com)
I began my new blog, Bent Alaska, based partly on your suggestion and encouragement. When we met in that pub in Seattle last year, you mentioned that a good way to get into writing is to write online, because there aren’t as many gate-keepers. So I took the advice.
Well, in February I volunteered to take over Alaska‘s only statewide GLBT email newsletter, which has over 500 subscribers. I up-dated the design and developed contacts. When I asked readers what improvements they would like to see, the main responses were photos, online resources and news reports on local people and events. So far, most of my traffic comes from the newsletter and the local progressive blogs. Do you have any ideas?
I haven’t found any other openly LGBT blogs based in Alaska, and I haven’t had much luck connecting with LGBT bloggers outside of Alaska. That’s the next step. I’m trying to find contacts for an article on local gay/lesbian couples who want to get married in CA, so Bent can participate in Mombian’s “Blogging for LGBT Families” event and gain some exposure with a national LGBT audience. Also, I’m working on several posts involving local chapters of national or western states LGBT groups, and will send the links to the main groups as the pieces go up.
Otherwise, my main focus right now is writing content, developing contacts, reaching out to potential sponsors, recruiting other writers – and teaching an older, lower-tech audience about blogs and comments and RSS, which is a challenge that I didn’t expect. Any suggestions?
I don’t have sponsors for the blog yet, and I don’t see how I could pay several writers without sponsors, and asking for contributions with only a byline to offer hasn’t worked yet. Any suggestions on that point, too?
Are you commenting on others’ blogs so they know you exist? I’ve found that that’s a good way to start. And I’m not just talking about Alaska-based blogs, but anything lgbtqi-related, anything political, anything liberal. Post a couple of comments on articles on Huffington Post and see what happens :)
It looks as though you’re using a Blogger template. If so, what might be helpful for your more inexperienced readers is a link for them to click to subscribe to posts via email (you can download a widget from Feedburner). I’ve just set that up on both my blogs. This one uses a form (see sidebar, under ‘subscribe’), but Gemæcca uses a clickable link. (I suspect the unintimidating clickable link might be the way to go for your readers.)
Another way to improve traffic is to add a couple of people to your contributors list, so it’s a multi-person blog. You don’t need to pay them. You lure them in by promising them exposure e.g. up-and-coming writers or musicians or activists who need to get their names/URLs out there. Or just people who like to gossip. Have you tried searching through MySpace for lgbt writers/musicians/artists/booksellers and so on?
Meanwhile, good luck, and keep having fun (because if the writer isn’t having fun, nor is the reader).
Hi Nicola,>>My name is Tom aka Geeesh and I’m an Gay/Lesbian editor on Topix as well as 5 blogs.>>I repost many GLBT related articles, from around the world.>>Feel free to send me any articles you want me to repost for you. I’ll try to keep an eye out on your blog.>>All the best to you and yours.>>-tom
Gosh I should wake up before I post huh?>>I completely missed the “E. Ross notation” at the top of that post.
Tom, that’s very generous. I hope E. Ross will send you stuff.>>What kind of articles interest you?
Hi Nicola, >>I sent email to E. Ross with more information.>>As far as subject matter: anything GLBTQIA related.>>I consider myself a GLBTQIA news “filtering funnel”. I have MANY keyword alerts and browse many related websites, newspapers, newswire, etc to spread the word. >>By grabing the articles and re-posting them on the Newswire they gather a larger audience. Not to mention other news services often pick up the story and re-post it again.>>People need to know what’s going on and I do my best to help make that happen.>>I feel many have been complacent far to long. Maybe that’s because so much GLBTQIA news is repressed. >>I’m hoping the attempt to try and get the word out will open some eyes. Hopefully resulting in less complacency.
Very cool.>>Wow, GLBTQIA, that’s just one ‘u’ short of ‘quiltbag’ :) Anyone got any ideas for a queer-related ‘u’ word?
LOL.. and I thought I had a unique way of looking at things! >good one…>As far as a suggestion .. I’m sure the uncut guys would love their own designation. But then the cut guys would chime in and ruin the whole thing.>Ya just can’t win.
U? I’ll have to think about that . . . >>Thanks for the suggestions! I’m starting to comment on other blogs, and I enjoy the conversations as much as the traffic. I haven’t commented on HuffPo yet, but that’s a good idea – they cover both gay stuff and Alaskan politics. Can you suggest any lgbt blogs to comment on?>>I’m currently looking for contributors who will write about lgbt Alaska news and events. That is the focus of Bent Alaska. The writers can live anywhere, but it would help to be familiar with Alaska. (For example, no penguin stories!)>>Tom, thanks for the offer to post my work on your ‘funnel’ site. I’ve had similar offers, but I’m confused about how this benefits my blog.>>Thanks,>E.
How about Unidentified for the U? Or better yet, how about Un-labeled?
Best of luck to you E.
Unclassifiable?
Why not write it without the “u”? >>QILTBAG has a trendy-queer look, and people would know that you didn’t mean a fabric purse or container for your knitting projects!>>As for Tom’s offer, it turns out that he posts the first 2-3 paragraphs of the article under his own name. The author isn’t mentioned, and the link goes to his other filter sites.>>There must be some benefit for the authors who agree to this, I just can’t see what it is.>>Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions, and happy qiltbag-ing.
I like unclassifiable.
Hey bent,>>There a lot of sources for you to tap into about blogging and making money at it. Here are three that are free. Yaro Starak at http://www.becomeablogger.com is one. Daryl at http://www.problogger.net is another. And Trent at http://www.thesimpledollar.com has a whole series of posts he written to help out.>>N, I hope you don’t mind my putting these links on here. Please say so if it bothers you and feel free to delete if you think it is a problem.
@ E: The benefit is traffic.>>@ rhbee: No, absolutely no problem with the linkage. Have at it.
Nicola: Can’t get traffic without a byline or a link. He offers neither.>>On the positive side, it’s useful to know about his sites.>>rhbee: Thanks for the links. I’m familiar with problogger, and will look up the others. At this point, my ‘traffic’ is not about money, it’s about community. Bent is a queer blog and I’d like to reach more queer readers, along with the cool straight progressives who already read and comment.>>Know any good “how to build community on a blog” sites?
E. you are a bit confused.>>But I would like to thank you. Because you were the first and last person I will ever offer to help.
I don’t know how geek like you are but quite a few blogs have been successful by setting up a forum format as companion to their blog. Take a look at http://www.getrichslowly.org to see what I mean. The blog runs on posts and guest bloggers and uses the forum as a source of topics. But like I said I’m not that literate about the how of setting one up but I know that JD will answer your emailed question about doing so and probably walk you through it. He also might a great place to do a guest post. >>BTW, you might want to email tom and discuss what is going on. Sometimes in the limited space of these comments it is easy to get misunderstood and have your feelings hurt. Anyway, …
@ E: I’m confused. Tom’s site definitely links to original articles; that’s the whole point. I think he’s been helpful and generous. Please take another look at, for example, < HREF="http://www.gayblogheadlines.com/" REL="nofollow">Gay Blog Headlines<>.>>@ Tom: I hope one bad experience won’t put you off.
rhbee: yes, comment threads are not really the best place to sort out misunderstandings, and I believe that’s what we have here.
all – Sorry to clutter the comments with this misunderstanding. >>Yes, I was confused about Tom’s offer. On Topix, he takes out the author byline, and the direct link isn’t on the main page, so the offer didn’t make sense to me.>>My personal life interrupted my online activities this weekend, and I didn’t have time to explore his other sites until this morning.>>Turns out that the other sites do include the byline (except the headline site, of course.) Most of the posts on the other sites include a direct link to the original post. >>Sorry to be so slow to figure this out! I hope my confusion does not stop Tom from helping others.
rhbee – A forum to compliment the blog is a great idea. But I think the confusion over Tom’s offer shows that I need to get a better handle on the many aspects of blogging before I launch another big project! I’ll keep your suggestion in mind for future developments. Thanks.>>You know a lot about this – do you have a blog?
Yes, I do, several actually, but http://www.financeisfun.wordpress.com is my every day one for now.>>I guess blogger is blocking that from my comments because when I sign in here it asks me for my URL but since you asked I noticed you can’t click on my name and go there.
Let’s try this as a test.
Okay Bent,>>Here’s the real me almost. Just click on my name. And BTW I came across a really neat, I think, blog today on http://www.alternet.org. Here’s the link: http://blog.blowfish.com/ her post on bisexualism is a hoot.
Cool site, rhbee! And you also had a dance blog. Do you still swing dance?