BlogHer - BlogHer '06 Session Discussion: So, You Have This Crazy Idea on Day One - Comments

More live blogging

spacejockeys — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 19:44:41 -0500

I have two live posts of notes from this session:

Three Common Architectures for Blog Community

Blog Communities: Evolved, or Intelligently Designed?

Christine Herron

notes from this session on my blog

Jen Zug — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 16:11:19 -0500

Session Notes

Jen Zug
The Pile I'm Standing In
www.thispile.com
One Woman, Many Piles, Much Grace.

I started Minti which has

rachelcook — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 12:14:11 -0500

I started Minti which has turned into a site that has become a gateway for parent bloggers to raise profile. I suggested participating in a community that gets world wide targeted traffice and that talks about the topic you write about. Share your expertise and thoughts in this community in a different way, like at minti, you author parenting advice, however your blog talks about funny things you experience as a mom etc. That way your strategy is to show another side of you, whilst gaining a status and reputation in the community. For example, some minti friends have around 1000 profile views just by focusing on participating and getting their ranking up. On their profile page they post and talk about their own blogs and visitors can check it out as well.

The same goes for a site like Newvines, if you are active on a particlur news topic and become notable you then naturally attract some fame to your site.

this happened to me, when my Talking Tech on Family 2.0 became a source for family 2.0 sites (including Minti) and on the front homepage of CNET News.com along side ebay and Microsofts Vista.

Another thing is to keep yourself authentic and real no matter how popular you become, even in the face of criticism (not that I have yet, maybe one comment). however, if you keep to the brand of your blog when you started you are less likely to implode with all the attention and personally grow with it, rather than become less socible (which is so not what a blogger is about). - not that this is me (fame), but i have witnessed this on other blog sites I track.

hope this helps...

Thanks for the advice, Melanie

Mary Tsao — Sat, 20 May 2006 13:06:35 -0500

I'm looking forward to the panel!

Mary
BlogHer Contributing Editor, Mommy & Family
Mom Writes

In My Humble Opinion

Melanie — Fri, 19 May 2006 00:32:26 -0500

Since my site is still very new (3-1/2 mos.) I'm still trying to work all that out. Although I've received some help from the people on my Contributors page, I post 99.9% of the entries myself. Truth is, I really didn't want to solicit too much help until I had a clear idea where I was going with the project. (Also, I don't want to be a bother to people.)

I'm at the point now where I'm going to have to make a move for more help since I just took on a full time job and won't have as much time to devote to the site. As it is, I haven't posted anything for awhile, and have a bit of catching up to do.

That being said, my humble advice to you, Mary, is to just do it. Plan your work and work your plan. However, once you do, be prepared to reach out for help at some point. You can only be a community of one for so long. :-)

I'm interested in community blogging

Mary Tsao — Thu, 18 May 2006 21:30:11 -0500

What I want to know is: How can you get others in your community (this would be local, physical vs. online) to participate in your blog once you've created it? Should you assess and make sure you have interest first, or build it and they will come?

I want to learn ways to make this a practical reality; i.e., one that facilitates communication but that doesn't take all of my non-existent spare time.

Mary
BlogHer Contributing Editor, Mommy & Family
Mom Writes

BlogHer '06 Session Discussion: So, You Have This Crazy Idea on Day One

Elisa Camahort — Thu, 18 May 2006 19:42:20 -0500

3rd in our series introducing you to each of our BlogHer Conference '06 sessions and their speakers, and finding out what you would like to get from each session. Today, I bring you:

Day One: So, you have this crazy idea...

You want to start a community-based blog site, but aren't sure where to start. Melanie Morgan, Nancy White, Susannah Gardner & Lauren Gelman are among those who will help you examine what's out there, define what you can do differently, and create a plan to develop content, promote your efforts and watch your back.

While Day One is focused on hands-on, instructional and (mostly) technology-focused sessions, we also wanted to deliver content for those who do want to learn how-to, but not just how-to do things on your computer.

This session is a how-to from a bigger-picture and more holistic perspective. How to tame a crazy idea, find out if it's worth pursuing, figure out how-to pursue it, and pursue it with confidence. We have lined up four women who are uniquely qualified to help you do just that.

[img_assist|fid=340|thumb=1|alt=Nancy White]Welcome to Nany White's world. As principal of Full Circle Assocaites Nancy is all about helping people launch those crazy ideas on the Internet. Nancy helps people, organizations and enterprises figure out what their online community strategy should be and to execute. She's an expert in facilitatation and collaboration...online and face-to-face.

[img_assist|fid=344|thumb=1|alt=Susie Gardner]Susannah Gardner is on hand to cover your technology bases. Check out this site Susie helped create: J-Learning. J-Learning is a one-stop shop for people planning to launch a community journalism site. They cover soup-to-nuts...Plan It, Build It, Present It, Promote It. Susie will help you understand whether your crazy idea requires things like databases, HTML and CSS.

[img_assist|fid=348|thumb=1|alt=Lauren Gelman]Why have a lawyer in this session? Because a crazy idea shouldn't land you in court or in jail! Yes, you need to think about fair use. Yes, you need to think about copyrights. Yes, you need to think about covering your back...whether you've started a site devoted to local politics or fundraising for a cause or creating an online business. Lauren has got you covered.

So, you've got a crazy idea? So did Melanie. Melanie wanted to create a site, no, really a community, for people of color using digital media. The New Media Collective was born a few short months ago, but it is already a tremendous resource...for the community it serves, and for people who want to find great content. We wanted someone on the panel who could represent those of you out there with the crazy ideas. (Not that all our panelists haven't had crazy ideas.)

So, that's what we are envisioning for the session. But what do you think. What do you want to learn? What do you want to hear? What do you never want to hear again? What would make you attend this session?