Local NY Bloggers Speak: Why Write, When You Can Aggregate?

Local NY Bloggers Speak: Why Write, When You Can Aggregate?
By Drew Grant
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny
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"300 words, max...anything else, it's an essay." Those were the words of New York blogger Jake Dobkin at last night's panel for The Future of Local Media.

The topic this month was "Local Journalism: What's Cool In Your Hood?" But, the only thing the panelists could seem to agree upon was the more posts, the better -- even when it means the death of any original journalism.

"We write 20 to 24 pieces of content a day," said Jonathan Butler, founder of Brooklyn blog Brownstoner. "And only three of those pieces are original reporting...Picture posts are great."

Dobkin, who founded Gothamist in 2003, was definitely seeking to provoke his audience. When asked about the concept of pay walls for online publications, the young entrepreneur flippantly replied that this would be the best thing for his business. "Have them charge $20 for content! No one else will pay, but we will, and we will steal their stories," he said. "That's my two year plan."

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Julia Allison on Blogging and Personal Branding

Confessions of a Blog Addict

Confessions of a Blog Addict
By Michael P. Geffner

You know you’re addicted to your blog when...

1) You get terribly depressed when your monthly “unique visitors” is down by a smidgen of a percent.
2) You check Google Analytics every five minutes just to see if you’ve gotten more page hits.
3) You dream constantly of, if not obsess upon, the words “Digg” and “StumbleUpon” and “del.icio.us.”
4) You change the font 20 times in just a couple of hours and the color around 50, frantically going up or down, down and up a single shade.
5) You are utterly convinced that virtually everything you do in your life is worthy of a post. And if something you did wasn't, well, you vow never to do that thing ever again.
6) You think about your blog while eating out with friends, or even when you're in the bathroom.
7) You Google the name of your blog at least once a day simply to see who’s mentioning it.
8) You get goose bumps when you think you written a great post.
9) You thoroughly loathe people who don't visit your blog after you've invited them.
10) You pull up your blog five times a day just to stare at it lovingly.
11) You check your Adsense numbers more than your bank account.
12) You suffer withdrawal symptoms, like the shakes or a twitching eye, if you haven’t blogged in an hour.
13) You take three seconds or less from the time you finish your post to sharing it on Twitter.
14) You get incredibly sad that no one has commented on your last post.
15) You wake up from a deep sleep just to post something, then go right back to bed.
16) You sometimes whisper the letters RSS as if it were a mantra.
17) You look at your bio and it ALWAYS looks wrong.
18) You will do anything, even something a tad undignified, simply for a little link love.
19) You break into a feverish sweat while desperately searching for the “perfect” image to go along with your post.
20) You alternately think your blog is absolutely brilliant, or totally sucks.

Be Patient: Taking a Short Break from My Blog...

I need to focus on new priorities for the moment. I'll return on Friday.

Nominate Your Favorite Writing Blog

Place your vote at:

http://editorunleashed.com/2009/08/11/nominate-your-favorite-writing-blogs/#comments
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HubSpot - The Secret to Building Your Blog: Think of It Like a Job Search

From HubSpot:

So you started a blog, you've been writing good posts for a few months, and you still don't have the traction you want -- subscriptions, comments and inbound links are all below your targets.

What can you do to build your blog?

Follow conventional wisdom, and focus harder on writing great posts?

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Don't Let Your Blog Become Like My Sock Drawer

How To Make Money From Your Blog

5 Tips for Landing a Blogging Job

Is Blogging Real Journalism?

Mike Geffner's 20 Ways to Know You’re Addicted to Your Blog

20 Ways to Know You’re Addicted to Your Blog
By Michael P. Geffner

You know you’re addicted to your blog when...

1) You get terribly depressed when your monthly “unique visitors” is down by a smidgen of a percent.
2) You check Google Analytics every five minutes just to see if you’ve gotten more page hits.
3) You dream constantly of, if not obsess upon, the words “Digg” and “StumbleUpon” and “del.icio.us.”
4) You change the font 20 times in just a couple of hours and the color around 50, frantically going up or down, down and up a single shade.
5) You are utterly convinced that virtually everything you do in your life is worthy of a post. And if something you did wasn't, well, you vow never to do that thing ever again.
6) You think about your blog while eating out with friends, or even when you're in the bathroom.
7) You Google the name of your blog at least once a day simply to see who’s mentioning it.
8) You get goose bumps when you think you written a great post.
9) You thoroughly loathe people who don't visit your blog after you've invited them.
10) You pull up your blog five times a day just to stare at it lovingly.
11) You check your Adsense numbers more than your bank account.
12) You suffer withdrawal symptoms, like the shakes or a twitching eye, if you haven’t blogged in an hour.
13) You take three seconds or less from the time you finish your post to sharing it on Twitter.
14) You get incredibly sad that no one has commented on your last post.
15) You wake up from a deep sleep just to post something, then go right back to bed.
16) You sometimes whisper the letters RSS as if it were a mantra.
17) You look at your bio and it ALWAYS looks wrong.
18) You will do anything, even something a tad undignified, simply for a little link love.
19) You break into a feverish sweat while desperately searching for the “perfect” image to go along with your post.
20) You alternately think your blog is absolutely brilliant, or totally sucks.

How to Become a "Death of Newspapers" Blogger

How to Become a "Death of Newspapers" Blogger
By Paul Dailing
http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Times are tough, my freelance work is drying up and I've recently come to the realization that any job where you can accidentally dye your thumb blue is not exactly career path.

That's why I've decided to become a "Death of Newspapers" blogger. I'll join the ranks of Jeff Jarvis, Paul Gillin, Jay Rosen and Clay Shirky in competing to see who can use the most jargon to describe something everyone knows is happening.

Apparently, it's very simple. The more you self-reference, pick feuds and talk about the failure of TimesSelect, the better you're doing. If you make it sound like you're the one who figured out newspapers are dying, you win.

I mean, the point's not to fix anything. It's to describe the problem more dramatically than the next guy. If Steve Outing says newspapers have a "death spiral" and Clay Shirky predicts "a bloodbath," the point goes to Shirky.

Basically, imagine a group of people watching a building burn down and bickering amongst themselves about whether it's a conflagration or an inferno. It's like that, but with consulting fees.

Talk about how everything online is wonderful, everything paper is crap and then use the online to pimp your upcoming (paper) book. Bonus points for talking about how much you love the New York Times at least twice per blog post. It'll help your credibility. You love the Times, but ...

The ratio of book pimpage to analysis should be one reference to your book per post, one reference per sentence if you're Jeff Jarvis.


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