And to write better is to be a better blogger

by Lorelle VanFossen

Bloggers and would-be bloggers, allow me to cut to the chase and begin this article with two important questions:

1. Are you really a good writer? If you know you’re weak in this area then you need to get some help. Take a writing course at a community college, or at the very least have someone proofread your work before posting it. A poor writer can make the most interesting topic boring, while a great writer can turn the most mundane task into a true joy to read. (Example: Dr. Seuss on morning breakfast.)

2. Do you enjoy writing? Trying to be a blogger without a fundamental love of writing would be like trying to be a dentist who finds halitosis repugnant. These things just don’t go together, and eventually you are going to quit.

So says John Pozadzides in 16 Tips for Blog Idea Brainstorming, on the two most important tips to consider for successful blogging. Iagree. In order to blog well, you must know how to write well. In order to blog better, you must enjoy the process of writing, thus the blogging experience. (By the way, you’ll find links to all the sources quoted here in “Blogging Links and Leads.”)

While blogs are many things, includ­ing podcasts, videos, and galleries, a blog is about writing. Search engines collect words into their indexes. People search using words, even when searching for images, podcasts, and video. It’s all about the words. If you lack good writing skills, or if writing is a pain and a bore, then blogging is going to be painful.

As you consider your career or hobby in blogging, whatever the format, ask yourself if you are a really good writer and if you enjoy the writing process. If the answer to both questions is yes, then you’re on the right track.

The Art of the Written Word

Ask a published writer what it takes to be a successful writer and he or she will likely respond with the Carnegie Hall cliche: practice. Writing is a skill. It’s also an evolving and ever-changing art form.

In “The right word without pause,” Jaded Listener explains:

Each time Iread a British politi­cal biography Iam struck, as Iwas recently by William Hague’s life of William Pitt the Younger, by the importance of oratory in British politics. The ability to speak well on one’s feet is the most important prerequisite to exercising power in that country. In the House of Commons, where the only real power exists outside the judiciary, nobody achieves prominence who has no capacity to express himself — or herself — lucidly and extemporaneously.

Without the skill to express yourself well and lucidly, your blog may lack the energy and clarity needed to convey your message, as well as attract and keep readers. You must hone your blog writing skill to talk with, not just to, your readers.

When it comes to developing story ideas into published blog posts, it’s constantly a question of whether or not you write well and if you enjoy the writing process. The two questions at the beginning of this article are critical to the success of your blog. Let’s look at the second question first.

Do You Enjoy Writing?

Once you’ve gotten past the stumbling blocks, you will start to enjoy writing. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it will come with practice and determination. In Pozadzides’ article, he makes another important point:

I’m always blogging — even when I’m not at my computer. When I’m not connected, Imake notes. Lots of them. Reminders of URLs Iheard mentioned on TV or by someone in passing. News that Iheard on the radio while driving. Topics of interesting discussions Ihave with people which are intellectu­ally stimulating. There are note pads and pens in the arm rests of my cars, and Itry to keep a little pad of paper in my back pocket at all times. Iguess I’m just like a reporter in this sense.

If you enjoy writing, then story ideas come calling at your door. Anything is a potential blog post.

Or should Isay “everything” is a potential blog post.

No matter what you blog about, any­thing and everything can be turned into a blog post. You start with a concept, which turns into an idea that you can then turn to match your blog’s content.

Ideas for blog posts can come from reading your feeds, the news, comments on your blog, searching the Web, reading books and magazines, or even walk­ing down the street. Ideas can just pop into your head or be triggered by some incident or overheard conversation.

When your mind is open to the thought that anything and everything can be a potential blog post, writing becomes exciting.

I’ve read powerful posts written in response to a conversation heard during lunch at a nearby table. Or stories that had me laughing in tears over the act of bending over to pick up a penny, which was easier when you were 10 than it is now that you are 60. Or had me crying as the blogger shared feelings over the loss of a pet, something that all of us go through, but this story gave it new meaning — just in the telling.

I’m often asked how Ican write so much about blogging. Once you’ve covered the basics, what’s left? Because Ilove the concept and ability blogging offers any human being in the world to share thoughts and ideas, Inever run out of story ideas. There is so much to write about blogging — from every angle and perspective, some of them my own, and some of them found through the eyes of other bloggers — that Iwant to share with my readers.

When you’re passionate about your blogging topic, you’ll find that everything is a blog post, and there are stories everywhere you look and listen.

Engtech of Internet Duct Tape shares an important point for writing blog posts in 7 Ways to Find Your Muse:

You have a hidden weapon of mass communication in your blogging arsenal: no one else is living your life and the unique point of view that it gives you. Having multiple interests lets you see something common in an entirely different light.

If you enjoy what you write, then use your weapon well and share your unique perspective on the subject.

Each of us comes to a subject from our own point of view, with all of our experiences, life lessons, and knowledge that brought us here to the “now” in which we blog. We must honor those experiences as we write, sharing what we’ve learned as we develop our blog posts.

For those who really enjoy writ­ing, their passion for the written word inspires learning more about how the language works. About how to turn a phrase to make your point stronger. About choosing the “right word” in the right way, even pulling from foreign languages and current language fads to stay au courant. To paraphrase a famous quote by James D. Nicoll, “English doesn’t borrow from other languages. English follows other lan­guages down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.”

To write better, you have to dig through those pockets of learning to improve your blog writing skills.

Are You Really a Good Writer?

Anything that gets between you and your blog’s publish button can halt the idea on its way to being a published post. If you’re not a good writer, the process of writing the story can slow you down, and even stop you.

If you don’t have the writing skills to publish your thoughts, ideas, and knowledge, then the process of blog­ging isn’t fun as you struggle over words, spelling, sentence structure, and how to get your idea across. The more frustrated you get, the less enthusiasm you have for writing, thus, the faster you lose interest in blogging.

Good writing skills come with prac­tice. They also come through learning, educating yourself, or taking classes on how to write in your chosen language.

Here are some tips for improving your writing skills:

» Get a Word-a-Day Calendar: A simple thing like learning a new word every day, especially how that word is used in a sentence to convey an idea, and then using it yourself through the day, enriches your vocabulary. It also stimulates your brain with how words work.

» Take on a Carnival, Meme, or Blog Challenge: Many bloggers who blog about blogging and writing offer writing challenges to their readers. Most have a theme or a question to blog about. These help you practice your writing skills with directed top­ics. They also create invaluable link and personal relationships with the bloggers and fellow participants.

» Take Online Classes: There are tons of schools, classes, workshops, and even university-level classes you can take online to expand your writing skills. The more you learn about how writing works, and the more others evaluate and test your writing skills, the better you learn to write.

» Take Classes and Workshops on Writ­ing: Try human contact for a change and take classes and workshops on writing within your community or region. There are many writing work­shops at community centers, book­stores, and local schools. Or consider turning your vacation into a writing holiday at one of the many writing workshops, writers’ camps, and week­long seminars around the world.

» Read: Few things teach you more about writing than reading what others have written. Read books, magazines, newspapers, online publications, and other blogs. How do they develop their characters? How does the plot flow through the story? How are things described? What do you like about how they use words to convey thoughts, meanings, and descriptions? By reading books, especially books with subject matter similar to your blog’s content, you can study how others say the things you want to say.

» Read Books on Writing: I recommend two types of books on writing worth reading: books about the technical aspect of writing, and books about the enjoyment of writing. Stephen King’s book, On Writing, is a great look at his writing technique and how he writes. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, by Lynne Truss, is a funny look at the per­ils of punctuation, a cross between a technical guide and an enjoyable novel. Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is a must-have on your desk, as is the Reference Manual for Ste­nographers and Typists, The Chicago Manual of Style, The Associated Press Guide to Punctuation, Grammatically Correct: The Writer’s Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, Style, Usage, and Grammar, and other technical writing guides. Check out the many magazines on writing and poetry in your local bookstore or online. The tips and techniques they offer each month will help you learn how to write, and how to improve your writ­ing skills.

» Learn to Edit Yourself: Learn how to edit your own work by studying how others edit. The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself and The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Writing Fiction and Nonfiction are two of the many books that will help you learn how to edit your work, so that you say exactly what you want to say. Use them to help you sift through the words to clean up the ums and ahs of your written language, and refer to them as reference guides. If in doubt about a bit of grammar or punctua­tion, look it up.

» Subscribe to Writing Magazines: Subscribe to a writer’s magazine and each month tips and techniques arrive to help you improve your writ­ing skills. Such publications also list workshops and classes around the world and other educational pro­grams for writers.

» Join a Writer or Blogger Group: When you spend time with others who write, you learn more about writing. You can’t help it. You share ideas, you challenge each other, you ask questions, and you learn about how writing works. There are also writer’s critique and review groups within many metro communities, and online. These groups exchange written material in a variety of forms, providing an opportunity to review and critique, and possibly even edit, each other’s work. It will help you learn more and improve your writing by having others review your work, and you will improve your editing skills by edit­ing the work of others.

» Learn a Foreign Language: Few things teach you more about your own language and its structural elements than learning another language. Living or spending extensive time visiting an area where few speak your native language pushes you even fur­ther with your language skills as you struggle for each word to communi­cate. It teaches you how a language works, and how important words are to communication.

The more you learn about writing, the easier it becomes. It’s a never-end­ing process to improve your communi­cation skills, learning equally to write pithy blog posts and lengthy diatribes on your blog.

Lorelle VanFossen is a veteran blog­ger, host of one of the longest running blogs on the Web, Taking Your Camera on the Road (www.cameraontheroad.com), and the popular blog about blogging and WordPress, Lorelle on WordPress (lorelle.wordpress.com). She is a contributor to many blogs and magazines, and writes daily for the Blog Herald (www.blogherald.com).

Blogging Links and Leads

Here are the links to the blog posts quoted in this article.

John Pozadzides | onemansblog.com

16 Tips for Blog Idea Brainstorming | lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/08/22/16-tips-for-blog-idea-brainstorming

Jaded Listener’s The Right Word Without Pause | jadedlistener.wordpress.com/2006/01/02/pitt-the-younger-and-the-right-word-without-pause

Engtech of Internet Duct Tape’s 7 Ways to Find Your Muse | lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/7-ways-to-find-your-blogging-muse

Peter Rojas founded both of the Internet’s most successful gadget blogs.

By Michael A. Banks

The following is an excerpt from Blogging Heroes (Wiley, 2007).

The book features interviews with well-known bloggers.

As cofounder and editorial director of Engadget, Peter Rojas is respon­sible for keeping millions of blog readers up-to-date on the latest in consumer electronics, personal technology, and gadgets in general.

Rojas, who is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Sussex (UK), has an extensive background in print jour­nalism. He’s also the chief strategy officer for Weblogs, Inc. As a result of AOL buying Engadget and the rest of Weblogs in 2006, he’s also a programming director with AOL.

As a freelance writer in 2001, he started a personal blog, in part as a public notebook for article ideas. Two years later he founded Gizmodo (www.gizmodo.com), a weblog that focuses on the latest in technology. In 2004, Rojas created Engadget as a move toward his vision of what a dedicated team of bloggers can accomplish. In the interview that follows, he relates some of his personal experiences.

Michael Banks: What inspired you to start your first blog?

Peter Rojas: I started the blog just after I was laid off from my job at Red Herring maga­zine, where I was a technolo­gy journalist and editor. Forty other people lost their jobs the same day as I did. The technol­ogy industry had sort of melted down in California.

I had a good friend who was an editor at Wired. He was sort of playing around with blogs, and he sug­gested that I start a blog. “Here’s your chance to get your writing — and your voice — out there,” he said, “and at the very least, you’ll be writing and coming up with ideas for stories that you can pitch.”

And so that’s originally what my blog was — sort of a public notebook of ideas for stories that I wanted to pitch to magazines. I never was very good at the personal blog. I didn’t write for it very often. Because I was freelancing, I spent a lot of time writing pitches for magazines and newspapers, which cut into my blogging time.

MB: You weren’t in it to make money?

PR: When I started blogging with my personal blog, it was definitely not to make money. I got into it very early, when it wasn’t clear that there was any money in blogging. The idea that some­one would advertise on a blog seemed kind of absurd. It was just unknowable.

And the idea that advertisers would want to associate themselves with something so loose, free form, and chaotic — the consensus was, “People will never advertise on blogs, at least not on a large scale. You will never get big advertisers, because they won’t trust it, they won’t want to be associ­ated with that kind of stuff.” But people came around. When you have seven or eight million readers, it’s kind of hard to wonder where your audience is.

And blogging grew up a little bit. People started to trust it. They realized that just because it’s free form doesn’t mean that there aren’t sites that are more trustworthy, have better reputa­tions, and have better concepts than others. As the medium grew up, people started to see the nuances, and it became less black-and-white and more gray. And that’s when it really started to come into its own and became some­thing that one can do professionally.

When I started Gizmodo in 2002, it wasn’t something I thought would ever really make money. I thought it would take off, but I never thought it would become as big as it did. But I was better able to work at it professionally and focus on it very intently.

MB: When did blog advertising really get going?

PR: It really was 2004. Google AdSense had a lot to do with it. Around the tail end of 2004, we started to see serious advertisers.

MB: How did you go from Gizmodo to Engadget?

PR: Well, I wasn’t actually happy with the situation I had at Gizmodo. Nick’s [Nick Denton, founder and proprietor of Gawker Media, which owns Gizmodo] vision was for more of a casual site that would be done by one editor, part-time. At the time, this was the dominant mode of blogging.

I saw greater potential in blogging. I knew that if this was my full-time job, and I had other people working with me, I could do much more. I decided to take the chance and partner with Weblogs, Inc. We really took off from there.

MB: You have an extensive background in print media. Can you contrast blogging with editing or writing for a print magazine?

PR: Blogging is a very differently structured media, in the same way that episodic television is very different from a film. Blogging is something that you do in real time — it’s very fast, and it’s much more intimate and con­versational. A magazine has a slower editorial pace — a weekly is a little more hectic. And you can’t update things in real time.

With a magazine, each week you have a certain number of boxes you have to fill, depending on how many pages you have, depending on how much advertising you have. Stories have to fit certain formats and have certain links, and there has to be a distribution of certain kinds of stories.

At Engadget, we don’t have to worry about that. We do what needs to be done. We usually make between 30 and 50 posts a day, but if there really wasn’t anything to write about, we would do tech posts. I don’t really see that happening any time soon, given how intense the consumer electronics field is. I would love it if it slowed down to just 10 posts a day. But we do what makes sense.

We don’t have any sort of a target, and we don’t have quotas. For example, the weekend after the iPhone release, we went overboard with the iPhone coverage because we have unlimited space. We could be as com­prehensive as a 10,000-word review of the iPhone, and as casual as a photo of an iPhone with a Newton. Audiences really respond to that. And that’s what’s great about blogging and all niche media — you can really go in-depth. You go deep, not wide.

MB: Is there more room to be personal in blogging?

PR: Absolutely. When I started, Engadget wasn’t about me, but it was my sort of perspective as an enthusiast. We are the audience that we’re writing for. And I think that’s sort of the critical difference between magazines and blogs. I come from a journalism background, and when I was at Red Herring, we weren’t the audience. We were journalists who were never going to be venture capitalists.

So there was always this sort of idea that we were really different and set apart and that we were these arbiters. And with Engadget, it’s like we’re the audience, and our job is to be honest with the audience. Why would we lie to ourselves?

And this was a thing that I found very liberating about blogging. I am not an engineer, and I’m not a programmer. A lot of the technology sites before I started Gizmodo were very hard-core. On the other hand, you had these CNET [and] New York Times “circuit” sections that were very broad market, for people who were just looking for information about what to buy. They weren’t neces­sarily that interested in the market itself.

What I realized was that there was a market for people like me who are just really passionate about this stuff and want to be able to follow it. Engadget’s not a good place to just drop in on once every six months because you want to buy something. It’s a place to go because you’re interested in following the gadget world, just like some people follow the sports world.

MB: What do you do to bring in readers? Does Weblogs, Inc. or someone involved with Engad­get work on search engine optimization (SEO)?

PR: No. We don’t do any SEO. I don’t believe in SEO.

The blog world is very meritocratic. If you don’t have consistently good posts, your blog is not going to go very far. There are tricks you can do to get some traffic here and there, but by and large, the cream rises to the top. The most successful blogs are generally the ones with the best writing, run by people with the most hustle.

You can see someone come out of nowhere and become a huge force in the industry. I was nobody, right? And now I’m a big voice in this world. And Mike Arrington [of TechCrunch]? I never even heard of this guy when I worked for Red Herring and covered venture capital in Silicon Valley. And he’s been successful because his site is good. He works really hard.

You know, people talk about the A-list this, and the B-list that, and to be honest, it’s a very fluid world. The people that work really hard and produce good work are successful, by and large.

MB: You keep an eye on other blogs, then?

PR: At Engadget, we have a collaborative newsreader with about 700 sites. I per­sonally read about 200 a day. I add some sites, and I delete some, but I’m still satu­rated. It’s like having a second job, just keeping up with everything! It’s worse than email. People talk about email bank­ruptcy? I’m on top of my email. I don’t have a backlog of email to answer. It’s the RSS feeds that overwhelm me. There’s so much going on. It’s exciting.

When I decide I want to learn some­thing about a field or an area, Ijust sub­scribe to blogs in that area, sometimes at random. For example, about a year ago I decided to learn about widgets. I literally Googled “widgets blog” and found a bunch of blogs. As I read and linked to more blogs, it became obvious what the best blogs in that field were.

MB: Aside from time manage­ment, what is the most difficult part of blogging for you?

PR: You have to get used to the fact that people are going to be very, very critical. Grow a thick skin and be prepared to accept legitimate criticism. When you’re a very popular blogger, you have to be prepared to be treated as a public figure.

You also have to learn to chill out a little bit, and not take everything per­sonally. People are jerks, and people are going to shoot their mouths off and say awful things. I’ve gotten death threats. You just have to realize that it’s not the end of the world when someone emails you and says they’re going to chop your head off. You have to be prepared to deal with a lot of that stuff — blogging can be a contact sport.

Another thing about blogging is that it is very, very competitive, and you have to constantly raise your game. And I think at Engadget, we’ve done a really great job of constantly raising our game, of consciously pushing our­selves to do better. We’ve never gotten complacent. We’ve never sort of leaned back and said, “Well, you know what? We’re number one, and now we can sort of drift and hang out.” We owe it to ourselves and [our] readers to constant­ly be doing a better job.

MB: What do you find gratifying as a blogger?

PR: One of the things I really love about blogging is that I’ve always been able to write up for the audience. I made this decision that the audience was very smart and wanted a lot of very in-depth, very thorough coverage. They didn’t want just a cursory overview of things or watered-down coverage.

There are so many amazing things. Like the reader meetups we hosted, having 500 people show up for an event. Going outside and seeing the line stretched around the block. Hon­estly, that blew me away.

In some ways, blogging still feels like just this goofy thing that I do in my apartment. We don’t have an office, so it’s sometimes hard to get my head around the fact that this is something that millions of people read — millions of people love Engadget.

Things like interviewing Bill Gates are also good. But I think covering CES [the Consumer Electronics Show] in 2007 was one of my proudest moments, because I feel like I’ve really been able to transform the show.

When I started covering CES, it was a big show, but there was not a lot of awareness of it on the consumer level. But I think we’ve really helped turn CES into a really big event — some­ thing that not just the attendees care about, but something the rest of the world should pay attention to as well. I think we have, hands-down, the best coverage of CES that’s ever been done anywhere by anyone.

MB: As you read other blogs, do you get some feeling for the gestalt of the overall blogo­sphere?

PR: You know, there isn’t one. It’s so big, and so much stuff is going on now that I find it hard to make sense of anything but the little corner that I’m a part of. I know other tech bloggers — like Dave Winer, Robert Scoble, Kevin Rose, and Steve Rubel — and this is kind of my little corner of the business.

But there are other universes out there where those names mean nothing. And I think that’s actually good. I don’t really know any of the people in the political blogosphere, of which there are many smaller politi­cal blogospheres. There is a celebrity gossip blogosphere, and many others. I have my little perspective on things and where things are going in my sphere, and I focus on that.

MB: Any advice for somebody who’s starting a blog?

PR: My number-one piece of advice is [to] find something to be passionate about. I know that sounds really obvi­ous, but it is not obvious in some ways to a lot of people. And a lot of people think, “Oh well, I want to have a suc­cessful blog, so I should do a blog about something that’s already successful.” Like doing a blog about gossip because that seems to do really well.

But the thing about it is that what makes a blog really successful is the passion of the person or the people who are writing it. If you have that passion and you’re blogging about something, it will be very, very obvious. The readers will pick up on that, and you will have a successful blog.

Another piece of advice is don’t be afraid to start slowly. I wouldn’t neces­sarily try to attract too much atten­tion too quickly, because when you start blogging, you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to do something that someone is not happy with. You might not link to someone properly or whatever. There’s sort of a blog eti­quette that you have to figure out.

You want to sort of give yourself a chance to acclimate to the pace and the writing style, to find your voice. And that can take a little while. It took me about six months at Gizmodo to find my voice. And really enjoy that time, because once you have an audience you cannot ever go back to posting anonymously. So don’t necessarily feel pressured to have a successful blog right away. You’re going to be doing stuff that’s going to make your blog worse, like trying to write stories just to get on Digg or just to get a link from Engadget.

And that is really, ultimately what doesn’t make it. There are blogs with everything like top ten this or top five that, and those blogs get traffic just because people link to them from Digg, Technorati, or a similar site. But they’re not going to have an organic reader­ship. No one actually thinks, “Oh, I love this blog!” It’s more like this is a site that gets linked to on Digg every week.

That’s not the kind of site you want to have. You want to have the kind of site where people say, “I am a part of this community. I am a passionate reader of this site. This site gives me something that I love, and I have to read it every day.”

It’s all about finding a subject. When I started Gizmodo and Engadget, gad­gets seemed like such a narrow niche. I was thinking, “OK, I’m not going to do a technology blog. I’m going to do a something-of-value gadget blog. It’s going to be so narrow.”

But gadgets turned out to be this huge category. If I was going to start a blog now, I would go very, very, very niche — as niche as you can get.

The thing about it is, no matter how niche you go, there will always be too much to write about. But if you pick something specific and maybe that’s not so heavily covered yet, you have a chance to really establish yourself as a voice in that area.

Enthusiasm makes a huge, huge difference. And readers can tell. When I read a blog, I can tell when someone really cares about the subject matter. And if you think about it, when you really care, you actually start to ask the kinds of questions and do the kind of writing that creates something of value for the reader. There’s a difference between being an Apple fanboy and someone who really cares about the products they’re buying from Apple. For example, the Apple blogs that I read that have a lot of value — the people say, “I care so much about this stuff that I am not going to shy away from criticism, or shy away from saying what I really feel, or being honest when I think Apple screwed up.”

It’s the people who love Apple — who actually care enough about it to say what they really feel and to criticize — who are doing a great job. And that’s the thing about Engadget that people like — I am not afraid to call it as I see it, to really level with the audience.

Finally, remember that the blogging entry barrier is so low that your credibil­ity is the only thing you have to differen­tiate yourself from everyone else.

For example, I worked at Red Herring but wasn’t necessarily that interested in venture capital. I was just happy to have a job and work in a magazine and get paid. But I wasn’t really that inter­ested in the subject. And so I ended up trying to write stories that I was interested in. They were about technol­ogy, but they didn’t necessarily fit in with what Red Herring was about. They wouldn’t let me do a story about Nap­ster, and I told them, “This is going to be a huge thing!” But they said, “There is no business model.”

MICHAEL A. BANKS has written more than forty books, and chronicled online activities for a variety of magazines including PC World and PC Magazine. An enthusiastic blogger, Banks has participated in online communities for more than a quarter-century.

Can a podcast advertising network help you rake in the dough?

The following is an edited excerpt from Podcasting for Profit. This is our third and final excerpt from Leesa Barnes’ recent book.

By Leesa Barnes

Many podcasters choose to add their podcast to an advertising and sponsor­ship network instead of seeking these types of deals on their own. For sim­plicity, I will use the term podvertising network to refer to directories that buy and sell advertising or sponsorship deals on behalf of podcasters. Podvertising networks are powerful because they make many small squeaks sound like one booming voice. Individually, the numbers that each podcast carries may not make media buyers bat an eye. For example, my podcast audience for Podonomics stands at 5,000 and this may not be attractive to anyone except me. However, if there were a hundred technology podcasts, each with a podcast audience of 5,000, those numbers would cause media and ad buyers to clamor over each other for a piece of the pie.

Cali Lewis, coproducer and host of Geek Brief TV, and her husband who also coproduces the show, left their full-time jobs in January 2007 as a result of belonging to a podvertising network called Podshow. Lewis has no desire to seek advertising or sponsorship deals on her own:

One of the reasons is that it is a full-time job in itself. That takes contacts, the know-how, and experience that I don’t have. I didn’t go to school for that. That would take up so much of my time that I could use instead to work on the show. So, that’s one of the reasons I chose Podshow to handle that. I will handle my show and I will make it the best show I know how.

These podvertising networks represent a variety of themes, topics, and podcasters. Some will need you to sign a paper contract that’s faxed or emailed to you after your applica­tion is approved. Most have a much looser acceptance policy. All you need to do is fill out a form asking for your contact information, podcast details, and audience information and click on the button where you accept the terms and conditions. In all cases, once you’re in the network, you then wait for the opportunities to come your way. Payout is done either by check or via PayPal.

At this point, your only require­ment is to ensure that you update your podcast frequently. Most podvertising networks will not police you, nor send out emails reminding you to update your content. The onus is on you as the producer to ensure that you’re deliver­ing fresh content on a regular schedule. One of these networks, Blubrry, sends out an email to its network of podcast­ers whenever they receive short cam­paigns. Blubrry will request that only those who will have new content in the next three, five, or seven days take part in the campaign. Some podvertis­ing networks will remove you if you go 30, 60, or 90 days without any new content. It pays to update your content on a regular schedule so you don’t miss out on opportunities.

Curious to know which podvertising networks you should consider joining? Whether you plan to launch a video or audio podcast, here’s a sampling of podvertising networks that buy and sell advertising on behalf of the podcasts that are in their networks. Most of the networks listed here not only share advertising and sponsor­ship revenue but also offer tools to let podcasters publish, promote, and listen to podcasts.

PodShow

Founded in 2004 by Adam Curry and Ron Bloom, PodShow aims to:

Help people to podcast and publish their podcasts, and to help listen­ers to find podcasts that suit their interests. It also plans to use the marketing potential of podcasts by allowing advertisers to find the podcasts their target audiences will listen to and allow those podcasts to put commercials on their pod­casts and receive money for it.

PodShow features some of the oldest and most popular podcasts, such as The Daily Source Code with Adam Curry, The Dawn and Drew Show, Managing the Gray with C.C. Chapman, and Soccergirl. Although those signed under PodShow are sworn to secrecy and can’t reveal the details of their contracts, what is known is that some owe their financial success in podcasting to PodShow. Both Cali Lewis, host of Geek Brief TV, and Julien Smith, host of In Over Your Head, reported that they live off the income they receive through PodShow without having to rely on being employed full-time by someone else.

Podtrac

Podtrac offers podvertising services to both podcasters and companies that want to advertise in them. Podcast pro­ducers have to fill out a lengthy form that asks for the name of the podcast and how often it’s updated, among other questions. Podcast producers are encouraged to ask their audiences to fill out the Podcast Audience Survey, developed by Podtrac. The data col­lected through each individual podcast is used by Podtrac to tailor advertising that meets the needs of the advertiser and to help the advertiser reach the right audience. Podtrac doesn’t insert ads without the podcast producer’s knowledge. [The producer] can turn down any offer or ad for any reason. Podcast producers receive 35 percent commission through Podtrac.

Blubrry

Blubrry is a social podcasting commu­nity that connects podcast producers, advertisers, and anyone looking for great independently produced content. Podcast producers benefit from joining a network that negotiates advertis­ing deals on behalf of the collection of podcasts. Advertisers benefit from the wide variety of choice and new content. There are two features that set Blubrry apart. First, podcasters get 70 percent of the revenue from ads that appear in their podcasts. This is the highest among all podvertising networks [that we know about]. Second, if you intro­duce Blubrry to an advertiser that even­tually signs a deal with the network, you’ll receive a 10 percent finder’s fee.

Podango

With Podango, you can become a station director and manage a col­lection of podcasts that all have the same theme. Station directors earn 10 percent of all ad revenue generated by their stations, as well as a 50 percent commission on any podcasts they pro­duce. My own podcast, Podonomics, belongs to a station on Podango called Podcast Mastery that is managed by Jason Van Orden, author of Promot­ing Your Podcast. Podango also offers unlimited hosting, as well as podcast production services.

Blip.tv

Called by Fortune magazine “media on the cutting edge,” Blip.tv is a video podcasting service that offers free hosting for video podcasts. Founded by Dina Kaplan, Justin Day, and Mike Hudack, Blip.tv will meet with media buyers and negotiate sponsorship deals if you have a hit show. Revenue is split 50-50 between the content producer and Blip.tv.

Revver

Revver is a video-sharing platform on which video podcasters can upload their video for free and share it with others. As people share your video with each other, you make money based on how many people view your video. Ads are placed at the end of your video and the revenue is split 50-50 between the content producer and Revver. Those who share Revver videos can make some money as well. [If you share] someone else’s video, Revver will pay you 20 percent and split the rest with the person who created the video.

Talkshoe

Talkshoe allows podcasters to produce and share interactive podcasts. The host creates a show, invites people to listen and interact live via a chat tool or telephone, and the recording is pro­duced to be played back later. Talkshoe lists a schedule of upcoming live shows on its front page to drive more listeners to individual podcasts. Podcasters make money two ways with Talkshoe—by being hosts or by referring a host. As a host, every time someone listens to, downloads, or subscribes to your podcast via Talkshoe, you make money. When you refer a host, you get a 25 percent referral bonus.

This list is just a sample of the pod­vertising networks that exist. New ones are being added regularly to the Podcast­ing for Profit companion Web site, so check there regularly for updates.

Watch Out for the Fine Print

When signing up with a podcast network, it’s important to be aware of the fine print. While all podcast networks will support you and your podcast goals, you may be surprised at how much you’re giving away just for the privilege of using their service to distribute your content and make some money. I’m not a lawyer and if you have any concerns about the terms and con­ditions, run it by a lawyer first before signing up. In most cases, however, hiring a lawyer may be overkill, so here are some things to be aware of:

» Owning the content you create. Otherwise known as exclusive rights, whoever holds these rights owns the content. [If a podvertising network wants] exclusive rights to all content you upload to their service, go some­where else. This is similar to a courier service telling you that they now own the vase you’re sending to your great-aunt just because you’re using their distribution service. Make sure the podvertising network explicitly tells you in its terms of service that you own whatever you upload to its server. If it’s not spelled out, ask.

» Requiring you to use only their feed and podpage template. On the one hand, this is a good thing consider­ing that most podcasters want to get up and running quickly. Also, you won’t have to log in to several different areas to read your stats or upload your content. The drawback is that if you decide to go on your own, the podpage and feed created by the podvertising network will be deleted or put into an inactive state. That means you’ll need to create your own blog and feed, and then figure out a way to redirect your fans to your new spot so they continue to get your new episodes. What’s convenient in the short term may become messy in the long term, so just double-check that you can create your own feed and pod­page separate from the one created by the podvertising network.

» Insisting on any type of exclusivity. If the terms state that you can’t join another network or that you can’t negotiate other advertising deals on your own, think long and hard before joining. There are so many income possibilities in podcasting and you should have the freedom to explore other advertising deals, whether on your own or with another podvertis­ing network. Look for podvertising networks that allow you choices.

All the podcast networks Ilisted here and in the companion Web site will let you review their terms before you’re officially part of their network. The good news is that the people who run these networks are more than accommodating and will answer any questions you may have.

Advantages vs. Disadvantages

As we look back, there are many advan­tages and disadvantages to pursuing your own advertising deals or letting someone else do it for you. Whether you’re like Lewis, who chooses to let Podshow bring those deals to her, or if you’re like [Andy] Walker [cohost and coproducer of Lab Rats TV], who seeks them on his own, here’s a snapshot of the benefits and drawbacks to each approach. The table above illustrates that an advantage with one opportuni­ty is a disadvantage on the other side.

LEESABARNES is author of Podcasting for Profit. She helps individuals and businesses make money using pod­casts. Visit www.podcastingforprofitbook.com to download a free chapter. You can order the book online at New

MediaTycoon.com.

Rankling Catblogs, Momblogs, and Gadget Blogs

December is gift-giving time, so we’re highlighting blogs that will help with your shopping: gadgets! Shiny toys are always popular choices around the holidays, and our selection of blogs will be sure to give you ideas for that special someone on your list. We’re also zooming in on that most purrrfect segment of the blogosphere, catblogs, where you can find feline friends in all shapes and sizes. Last but not least, we honor those dedicated souls who aren’t simply mothers, but blog about it, with our featured momblogs.

Blog Ranking Methodology

Blog Scorecard uses the technology infrastructure developed for the Truth Laid Bear blog-tracking and -ranking portal. Category rankings are deter­mined using several objective metrics, including the number of links that each blog receives from other blogs — which indicates the relative popularity of a blog — and the number of posts a blog contains on a given category’s topic. This shows the relevance of the blog to that particular topic. Rankings are finalized using good old-fash­ioned human experience. The hu­man element provides a last sanity check on the category rankings, and ensures that the technical gimmicks and tricks that some bloggers inevi­tably use to raise their profiles do not distort the rankings.

Spotlight: Gadget Blogs

There’s no commandment against coveting thy neighbor’s gadgets, but in today’s blogosphere, there probably ought to be.

The granddaddy of all gadget blogs is Gizmodo, one of the anchor blogs of the Gawker Media network. With Giz­modo, you get your gadget fix served with a side of snark: pithy headlines are the rule; the more pith the better. (See, for example, “Wi-Fi Detector Shirt, Self-Detects Geeks” (gizmodo.com/gadgets/fashion/wi+fi-detector-shirt-self+detects-geeks-307516.php).

Engadget is yang to Gizmodo’s yin — or perhaps, just more yin. The lore of gadget blogs tells of a time in the dim past when Engadget’s original editor Peter Rojas (see “Gadget Gold,” page 28) was Gizmodo’s editor, before being recruited by competing blog network Weblogs, Inc. to found Engadget. Now, Engadget forms its own miniature empire within the Weblogs stable, with subblogs devoted to topics such as cell phones (Engadget Mobile: www.engadgetmobile.com) and HDTV (Engadget HD: www.engadgethd.com).

But above even these two stands Bo­ing Boing, which is a gadget blog with a focus that goes beyond the typical shiny consumer toys, declaring its mission as being “A directory of wonderful things.” Boing Boing ranges a bit further afield than what you’ll find in your local Best Buy. The site covers burning issues such as the opening of a new restaurant in China (“Chinese restaurant MFC is a mashup of Mc­Donald’s and KFC”; www.boingboing.net/2007/10/05/chinese-restaurant-m-1.html). A wonderful thing, indeed.

But shiny toys are most definitely not just for geeky boys. PopGadget (www.popgadget.net) focuses on “personal tech + innovative lifestyle for women”, while Techie Diva (www.techiediva.com) bills itself as a “technology blog with an undeniable feminine twist.” And as if to confirm that gadgets are no longer the sole province of socially maladjusted males, Geeks Are Sexy (www.geeksaresexy.net) provides a comforting dose of self-affirmation. (Recite while standing in front of your mirror: “I’m a geek, I love gadgets, and I’m sexy, darn it!” Repeat until convinced. We’ll wait.)

Even “traditional” media has got­ten into the gadget-blogging act. Venerable online fixture CNET has ventured into the gadget-blogging realm with Crave (crave.cnet.com), a “blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff,” and Wired magazine offers up its Gadget Lab (blog.wired.com/gadgets). Yes, Wired and CNET qualify as traditional media when viewed from the blogosphere. It’s a brave new world.

Rounding out our list of go-to gadget blogs are Shiny Shiny, which deserves a spot on the list if for no other reason than having an entire section devoted to Hello Kitty (www.shinyshiny.tv/hello_kitty), and Uber­gizmo, which brings the gadget news straight from Silicon Valley where its founders proudly declare “we blog from our kitchen.”

SPECIALTY GADGET BLOGS

Gadget blogs have grown so popular that now, specialty blogs are popping up that focus on particular subcategories within the general gadget realm.

GoodCleanTech (www.goodcleantech.com) is a technology blog focused on environmentally friendly, “clean” technologies. Topics range from a $200, low-power-consumption PC avail­able at Wal-Mart to ecologically friendly drywall.

In another niche entirely is medGadget (medgadget.com), which describes itself as an “Internet journal of emerging medical technologies.” Translation: it’s about cool medical gadgets, and you’ll find info on topics such as virus-killing lasers, electronic tweezers, and even the latest about the Robotic Articulating Endoscopic Linear Cutter. No, I have no idea what that is, either.

CATBLOGS

1 | Cat Blogosphere www.blog.catblogosphere.com

2 | Watermark www.sbpoet.com

3 | Skeezix’s Scratching Post skeezixthecat.com/scratchingpost

4 | Purrchance to Dream daphnex.blogspot.com

5 | Daisy the Curly Cat daisythecurlycat.blogspot.com

6 | The Scratching Post ktcatspost.blogspot.com

First, let’s get something out of the way: we will highlight dog­bloggers in a future issue. The last thing we need is a pack of dog-loving bloggers cancelling their B&P subscriptions in disgust, due to perceived feline favoritism.

To grasp the depth and breadth of the catblogging com­munity, the place to start is easy: the Cat Blogosphere. This site is the go-to spot for all things kitty in the blogosphere, featuring an aggregator that includes posts from many other catblogs. You can then continue on to Purrchance to Dream, home to not one but four blogging cats (Spooker, Chloe, Jazper, and Daphne).

Not enough? Drop by Watermark, Daisy the Curly Cat, and Skeezix’s Scratching Post, and your feline hosts will make you most welcome.

MOMBLOGS

1 | MotherBumper motherbumper.blogspot.com

2 | Her Bad Mother badladies.blogspot.com

3 | An Ordinary Mom anordinarymom.wordpress.com

4 | MotherGooseMouse www.mothergoosemouse.com

5 | Mommy off the Record mommyofftherecord.blogspot.com

Motherhood: what could be more noble? And it may not surprise you to find that many bloggers are moms — and vice versa.

This month we’re highlighting some of the shining stars in the momblogosphere. Start your journey at MotherBumper — the blog of “one tired mommy and one tireless baby” — where a Toronto mother describes the joys and trials of raising the aforemen­tioned “Bumper.” If you’re feeling slightly naughty, grab some motherly self-validation from Her Bad Mother, where “bad is the new good.” Or drop by An Ordinary Mom for tales of “an ordinary mom doing ordinary things but hopefully making an extraordinary difference in the lives of her children.”

Our last two recommended maternal bloggers clearly have something in common. MotherGooseMouse declares “we could all use a drink now and then,” while Mommy Off the Record leads with a cartoon of two stylish mommies sipping cocktails:

Mommy #1: “Here’s hoping my kids won’t need therapy.”

Mommy #2: “I’ll drink to that!”

As will we all!

GADGETS

1 | Boing Boing boingboing.net

2 | Engadget www.engadget.com

3 | Gizmodo www.gizmodo.com

4 | Shiny Shiny shinyshiny.tv

5 | Ubergizmo www.ubergizmo.com

6 | PopGadget www.popgadget.net

7 | Wired Gadget Lab blog.wired.com/gadgets

8 | Crave crave.cnet.com

9 | Geeks are Sexy www.geeksaresexy.net

10 | Techie Diva techiediva.com

ROB NEPPELL is a blog industry consultant, providing proprietary blog monitoring and new media strategies to businesses. He is the president of Kithbridge, Inc. (kithbridge.com) and the creator of the Truth Laid Bear (truthlaidbear.com) blog-tracking and -ranking portal. He can be reached at robn@bloggerandpodcaster.com.