noodlepie

Journalists who make the most of blog power

One of the features I worked on recently appears this week in the Press Gazette - no byline, oddly paragraphed in my browser, some missing links and no permalinks... but let's not nitpick. (All fixed - thx martin ;) Download the pdf . I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I think if there's any one group of people who should be embracing blog technology it's journalists, especailly freelancers.

The final paragraph outlines three decent reasons why,

"I think we'll see more savvy freelances realising blogs offer a way to showcase their work and make them money — both through extra commissions via established routes and also through things like Google's Adsense advertising, and Blogads," says Neil McIntosh, assistant editor of Guardian Unlimited. "In the longer term [advertising] will offer a great chance for some specialist journalists to become one-person publishing houses."

Showcase - well certainly. If you have a portfolio website, ditch it, blog your portfolio (and more, much more) instead. My portfolio site is ancient, hasn't been updated for donkeys and won't be. I plan to incorporate bits of it into noodlepie. I don't use the portfolio site when contacting editors anymore. Makes much more sense to point them to noodlepie.

Extra commissions - True. I've had several and I know others who have too. OK - at my lowly blog level, it's not a river of work, but it is work.

Advertising - I run both BlogAds and Google Adsense. BlogAds come and go, but I think they're coming more than they're going. My rates are a bit higher than others in my BlogAd network, but then I think I'm underpricing myself and I think they're way underpricing themselves. As for Adsense. Some folks, like this guy for example, are raking in around $16,000 per month. Noodlepie... well... take a look at February 2006...

With an annual income of $1195.08, roughly the cost of a return air ticket to the UK, that harbour front apartment in Monaco will have to wait... However, many folk live on $100 a month or less in this city. If a Vietnamese blogger, blogging in Vietnamese got his or her act together out here I think they could well earn a tad more than I do with Adsense. I've applied to go to the We Media Global Forum to discuss ways of helping some folk out here get into blogging, disrupt media and maybe earn some cash, fingers crossed on that. There are a tonne of ways to optimize your earnings through Adsense, but I'm not techie and fiddling around with code and templates leaves me completely bamboozled. Although, I do realise it might be worth my while.

One person publishing house - In the Press Gazette article Kieren McCarthy says, "If you get a high enough profile it may be possible in future to syndicate blog entries to media outlets. But let's be honest, that's wishful thinking." Is it??? It is happening and it will happen more. I'm sure there are some folks somewhere working on this very idea right now.

Technorati Tags: journalism, blogs, citizen journalism, newspapers, freelance

Blogging journalists het roi

Just finished the feature on blogging freelance journalists. Took four hours to write and is in London as of ten minutes or so ago. Or is it? How fast does email travel? Just a thought... I'll link to the article when it goes online, but I won't blog the process like the Budget story. I'm finding the different ways in which journalists are using blogs to be a fascinating and recurring topic. These guys are the journalists I mention in the feature:

• Christopher Allbritton
• Sandeep Junnarkar
• Kieren McCarthy
• Ruud Elmendorp
• Neil Mcintosh

All doing very different things for very different reasons. I enjoy reading all of them, maybe you will too. They're in my RSS feed.

Post feature linkfest:

• Have a listen to Brett Martin's 22 minute piece on This American Life, episode 307 - In the shadow of the city - about a group of drunken ex-Eastern Bloc folk getting marooned off the coast of Manhattan. Brilliant. Nice work Brett. Very nice.
• New York Magazine sifts through the numbers behind the blogs in an article called Blogs to Riches. Long article. Very interesting.
• Pete Well's great pro-blog column in Food & Wine Magazine has sparked off all sortsa moronic tittle tattle in foodblogland, most noticeably at Food Blog S'Cool - although I see the moderator has now hidden all 100 or so moronic comments. BTW - I have a pdf of all the hidden comments. Drop me a line if you want to see them in all their spite... - Far more intelligent debate going on at Food Musings. I've had my say there and I won't repeat it here. But if you are one of the morons, do read Pete's column again. And then read it again. Make an effort to understand it. It's really not that hard. Pete Wells = pro-blog. That's about the size of it.

Technorati Tags: journalism, blogs, marketing

How journalists use blogs/How you might too

Done all the research and interviews. Write this up tomorrow (1200 words) for a publication in London. Some interesting journalists doing interesting things with blogs. However, I'll only be scratching the surface and offering a "How to..." with this piece. I have to assume the readers know sod all.

Technorati Tags: journalism, blogs, marketing, freelance

Blog based journalism

Following the podcast interview with Sandeep Junnarkar of Lives in Focus, and one pitch to a UK magazine, I have a commission to write a piece about blogs and journalists who blog. It's a topic I'm very much into. There'll also be a 'how to' element which may help those who're interested, but a wee bit clueless. I'll blog more on the interview/research process etc. as and when appropriate.

Technorati Tags: journalism, citizen journalism, blogs, podcast

Podcast: Lives in Focus

Hit the podcast link for a 37 minute interview with New York-based, freelance journalist, journalism professor and blogger, Sandeep Junnarkar. I asked Sandeep about Lives in Focus, his mulitimedia blog journalism project, which aims to give voice to "those who are rarely given space or time in traditional news media." The initial project looks at the impact of India's new patent law on the HIV+ population. I'm pitching a feature about blog-based journalism. I Skyped Sandeep to find out more. It's a 35MB download... Woah. Too big? Read about the project at Online Journalism Review. As soon as (and if) I land a commission I'll blog more.

UPDATE: I now have a commission from the UK press. Deadline mid-February.

Technorati Tags: journalism, citizen journalism, blogs, podcast

Lives in Focus interview

I'll be chatting over Skype with Sandeep Junnarkar this Friday morning to discuss donation driven blog journalism projects. Sandeep is the brains behind Lives in Focus. I'm researching a feature about journalists who report niche stories using a combination of blogs, reader donations and/or other indepenedent funding. I'm most interested in hearing Sandeep's thoughts on the experience of working this way and how he thinks his method could be adapted. It should be interesting. Do you know of any other donation driven blog journalism projects? There's Back to Iraq. I'm in the process of finding others. Any help much appreciated.

Technorati Tags: journalism, citizen journalism, blogs