I participated in a panel discussion this evening hosted by Povo, the new wiki-meets-yelp site in town. I discovered Povo (Portuguese for people) when I was writing about the “Hello Greenway” event. Povo had a wiki on the Greenway.
Each of the panelists had different methods they’d used to increase revenue from their blogs, or try to. Each method had varying levels of success. Ultimately, the value of blogs seemed to be:
1. a place for us to hone our craft,
2. as a showcase for our work, and;
3. only sometimes, a source of revenue.
It seemed more common that panelists found indirect benefits of blogging, such as a way to sell freelance services, to get publishers’ review copies of books and product samples, and to use affiliate programs for some revenue stream.
Adam of Universal Hub lucked out with one of those serendipitous moments Rhea highlighted when something happens and you get a burst of traffic or a sponsor finds you.
I shared a couple of thoughts. Okay, more than a couple about the state of blogging:
– don’t do it for money, even a book deal will not make you rich, and blogging alone will make it hard to pay the bills;
– decide what your focus is, if you want to be a commercial site and drive traffic for ad clicks that’s a different animal than a creative outlet to showcase your unique voice to publishers and agents;
– there’s a vast area of opportunity no one has yet adequately captured. Many entities like Povo (in my observation) are trying to build enough traffic one way or another so that they have a marketable value. Syndicators and aggregators are trying to do the same thing. Big advertisers have not gotten nimble enough to drill down and tailor ads to relevant blogs and small local sponsors haven’t gotten savvy enough to learn how to take advantage of relevant blogs that would be good partners for them.
– That leaves us all wandering in the desert (Just Call me Moses) and cobbling together a bunch of different things to make a living at this thing we love called writing.
People also debated the micro-blogging platform such as Twitter.
Do we resist? Do we jump in and try it? Experiment? You will see that I have decided to try it. My assumption is that there is some overlap between people with the attention span of a gnat who only get their interaction and infotainment in 160 character bytes with those who read real books and appreciate a well crafted story. I probably have readers in both camps and I think we CAN all just get along. Anyway, it’s an experiment. I hope it brings my blog to the attention of a few Tweeters? (“Twits?” “Twitterers?”) who use it.
[Follow me on Twitter: LDGourmet!]
I look forward to what I’ll learn from them!
Sam Baltrusis – the Loaded Gun publisher (in black sweater/white collar) leads a panel discussion of Boston area bloggers: (L to R)
- Susan Johnston Urban Muse
- Scott Kearnan of Diva Divo Dance and Bay Windows
- Adam Gaffin of Universal Hub
- Rhea Becker of The Boomer Chronicles
- me – gesturing, of course
- Carol O’Connor of Table Critic
- Jim Sullivan of Jim Sullivan Ink
Making a point, hope it was a good one.
Special thanks to Lauren Clark DrinkBoston.com for the photos!
Hey Jacqueline!
You and I have similar gesturing techniques. I defiitely loved your diagram circle in the air (I have to copy that move).
Anyway, I’m glad we met in person. My day job is in your hood (I know, I know, we can’t divulge personal info) but I always love to explore restaurants with foodies.
We need to do this again. Maybe focus on more specific topics in the future.
Much support!
I am always happy to share my favorite spots. Please let me know anytime. Glad to meet you and happy to meet up again. You can probably tell, I’m not one of those introverted writer types!
The info you put forward for this post was intriguing to me. I could go for this discussion group atmosphere that you’re referencing. I’ll have to check my area for something similar. Cheers!
linda
It was great to meet you at the event last night, Jackie! A few people mentioned this in passing last night, but I think another major benefit to blogging is the feeling of being part of a community. Especially as writers, it’s nice to be able to connect with others and share ideas, since we don’t have coworkers to talk to during the day. Would love to do it again!
Absolutely true. My cat’s wonderful but he’s not much on conversation. He didn’t want to debate Twitter w/me at all!
Great posting and a great night! Much thanks for being a part of it and best of luck with the new Twittering!
Ah ha…we’ve got you now! Thanks for stopping by AND for dropping a comment. Last night was great and I’ve already begun building on the connections I made.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts last eve and for summarizing them here. I enjoyed hearing from everyone on the panel; it was a new perspective for me as my experience / obsession with the internet and sharing stuff online has no roots in journalism, formal writing, or income making activity, and it seemed many on the panel were journalists struggling with how to feel about the blogosphere and how to reconcile this “freeshare” medium with a career. Seems the effort of building readership, tracking stats and all of that is a large one. Not sure if I want to undertake it, haha.
I was in the audience last night and just wanted to say thanks for your time! The panel gave me good ideas to think about.
Jacqueline, It was nice to meet you and I thought you were the most professional of the bunch, selling yourself and selling the concept at the same time, making the most of the exposure. I respect that. Good show.
Best wishes,
WK
I was at the PoVo panel, and I really appreciated your insights into blogging. It was interesting to hear from someone who jumped into writing hard core after a successful career in another area. Also, I’m a fellow Examiner as well! Thanks for being willing to share your ideas and opinions with your fellow bloggers! I wish you all the best!
Justin – You know it is work but if you love what you do…I’m okay with it. I can recall all the times I did really onerous drudgery and I was working for someone else who was a worse boss than my current one. And usually a lot less witty and charming. ;-)
Melissa – Glad to give some food for thought. Thank you for coming and for taking the time to drop a comment!
Whalehead King – I was honored to be on the panel. I really respect how successful each of the panelists is in his or her own way. Now that I’ve been at this awhile, I really know how hard it is to have the kinds of success my co-presenters have enjoyed.
Kaherinehas – Examiner is fun isn’t it? Which column do you do – I think it’s sports? Is that you? Did you see my 16th Minute blog? It may be changing shape in my about-to-be-launched new website.
It was great to hear your thoughts on the panel!
Cheers,
Becky
Becky thanks for stopping by. I LOVE your blog. Do you know Girl’s Like Spaghetti? You must..
Jacqueline, nice work summing up the panel. It was good to be in a roomful of other bloggers who work 7 jobs and are remarkably positive given the difficulty of “monetizing” the hours spent working on a good blog. Good luck to everyone, and hope to see you at another event like this soon.