Freelance UK - News Sponsorship
	Freelance UK Money Club  Mortgages - Income Protection - Retirement Planning - Life Cover  No consultation fees, no pressure, just free, impartial advice from  specialist IFA FreelancerMoney.

Bloggers sign up to the mainstream

Bloggers are signing up to see their online rant take centre stage on established media portals, so individual writers can gain unprecedented exposure, readers and internet traffic.

A host of American mainstream publishers including The Washington Post, Houston Chronicle and San Francisco Chronicle have agreed to showcase the racy and eclectic views of the blogoshpere.

These traditional publishers have typically been excluded from the new media revolution, but now they can provide cutting-edge blogging content specific to their needs.

At the same time, bloggers who struggle to get coverage - whether they write about mainstream or niche subjects - can tap into a large existing readership.

Applicants whose blogs are articulate, pertinent to current affairs and display no trace of immaturity or copyrighted content stand the best chance of selection.

“About six months ago, it became clear…there was a tremendous opportunity to help bring traditional media together with new media in a broad way,” explained Eric Newman of Pluck, the company behind the new service, BlogBurst.

“BlogBurst was born out of the idea that we can help bridge these two worlds, enriching both and driving their success at the same time.”

Speaking to Freelance UK, Pluck revealed all English-speaking bloggers are invited to sign up to the free network, thereby ‘readying it for discovery by mainstream publishers.’

“Publishers can discover and select blogs to populate ‘channels’ on their sites, usually oriented around topics,” a spokesman added.

“An example might be a channel embedded in the newspaper's Arts & Entertainment section, displaying blogs focused on movie or book reviews.”

After a number of editorial checks, including whether the blog has a full RSS feed, newspaper site readers will see a hosted version of the blog below or next to the daily headlines.

The truncated version of the blog will typically feature a small photo or logo of the blogger, full attribution and links back to the blogger’s site, in a bid to drive traffic and exposure.

Pluck said that today’s bloggers “want to build exposure for themselves and reach a wider audience, but they have limited means to grow their readership without spending more time and money than they can afford.”

The company added that the BlogBurst network will not accept non-English language blogs or, “blogs that will simply not apply to US audiences.”

“However, over time we plan to be in a position to work with the global blogging community, so please stay tuned to our progress even if your blog is not accepted in the short term,” a spokesman said.

“In the mean time, the exposure opportunity for bloggers ‘picked up’ on publisher sites is very high.”

To stand a chance of your blog reaching a mass audience simply visit www.blogburst.com and request an invitation to join the network.

At the time of writing, over 600 bloggers had already submitted their online diaries, including views on entertainment, travel, women’s issues, technology, politics, food and local stories.

The news comes as one technology researcher this week revealed that internet diarists are exerting a “disproportionately large influence” on society, The Guardian reported.

Julian Smith, of Jupiter Research, said, “The strongest part of their influence is on the media: if something online suddenly becomes a story in the local press, then it matters.”

Apr 21, 2006
Email this article
Printer friendly page

Previous Page