BloggersBase continues to explore the possible cooperation modes with media companies and as a result has changed the partnership with the Jerusalem Post.
The new method allows any piece of content to be submitted to contend for publication in the Jerusalem Post, no matter in which blog it is published. As you've probably noticed, at the very last tab of the publishing wizard you can mark a check box indicating your wish to contend for publication in the Jerusalem Post.
The posts that have been published in the previous Jerusalem Post Submission Contest have been moved into an upcoming blog called "Middle East". Anyone who chooses to submit posts in the Middle East blog is automatically considered for publication in the Jerusalem Post (unless they choose not to by checking off the relevant option in the last tab). When submitting posts to any other blog, the check box will be unchecked by default, but any user can choose to enable it.
Each week the top posts that have contended for publication in the Jerusalem Post are forwarded to its editors for consideration. Posts that will be found fitting will be approached by the JPost and go through a short editorial review before being published.
David 2000 has recently been published and featured on the front page of Jerusalem Post. See the post published on the Jerusalem Post’s site and the screenshot of the front page below.
 One of our two users of the month joined BloggersBase through the Jerusalem Post Submission Contest. Omri Ceren won the very first round of the submission contest and was even published in the Jerusalem Post’s print edition. Here is a short interview with Omri:
| Q: | You have been discovered on BloggersBase and published in the online and print editions of the Jerusalem Post - can you elaborate a bit on this experience? | | A: | It was extremely satisfying, obviously. People blog for a host of reasons, from keeping friends updated to expressing themselves in a disciplined and consistent way. Bloggers who deal with news and events, though, are mostly trying to reach other people. BloggersBase has put together a way to leapfrog the multi-year process of building an audience for your blog - and it really does take years, which is why so many bloggers get disappointed and burned out early - while still reaching thousands of people. I got to reach people who don't normally read Mere Rhetoric on a theme that I wanted people to read about - again, very satisfying. | | Q: | What does a quality post consists of, in your eyes? How do you approach the process of creating one? | | A: | It's a little trite, but a good post should have news value while also speaking to a broader dynamic. The topic should be representative of some larger controversy. So it shouldn't just be "here's a news item that I'm quoting" - there's no value added to that above the original news or wire report. And it shouldn't just be "here's my opinion about something that's pissing me off" - everyone's got an opinion so it's hard to know why yours should matter more than anyone else's, no matter how angry you are. A good post - and again this is borderline trite - combines tenable coverage of an event with analysis about what it demonstrates in a border context. Of course the fun part is that it differs from a news writeup - after you pass a threshold of credibility, you do also get to inject your opinion. | | Q: | How do you approach the process of creating a post? Do you do any research, and if so, where? How do you choose your subject? | | A: | I look for a news item that speaks to one of those larger controversies that I spoke about earlier, albeit one that's specific to the themes that the Mere Rhetoric audience is interested in. But the actual process of creating a post is pretty dull: find a news item in a mainstream media source, do a couple searches to get context for it, paste everything into a post, comment, publish. | | Q: | What is the feature or aspect that you like the most about BloggersBase? | | A: | BloggersBase tries to leverage its social media aspects - ratings, comments, friend groups - and those things are certainly important. Undoubtedly the BloggersBase system for discovery and promotion - main blogs, the gold mine, etc - is an interesting experiment in community buildings and networking. For my part, though, I'm more interested in the tangible journalistic upshots that the site provides: the ability to get published by larger organizations like the Jerusalem Post. There are dozens of social bookmarking and social blogging sites out there but few if any have tried to connect mainstream journalism with the blogging world as explicitly as BloggersBase has. |
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| Featured User of the Month | Read the interview with Omri Ceren in the main section explaining about the new cooperation mode with the Jerusalem Post to learn about one of our users of the month.  We are now proud to present Jim Malmberg, one of our very first bloggers on BloggersBase and the overall leader in our Politics blog. Being such a veteran we have asked Jim a few questions which we hope you’ll find interesting and useful: | Q: | How do you approach the process of creating a post? Do you do any research, and if so, where? How do you choose your subject? | | A: | I’m a conservative blogger who writes about politics. The two biggest issues that I face when writing are boring down on a single topic – something which I’m not always successful at doing – and finding the time to write. Since blogging is not my primary business, I don’t get the amount of time that I would really like to write.
Once I find a topic that I’m interested in, I try to research it and get an understanding the differing points of view that people hold on the topic. For my research I usually use a variety of news sources, reference materials and often I will pick up the phone and try to talk to people who are involved with whatever I am writing about. | | Q: | What is the feature or aspect that you like the most about BloggersBase? | | A: | I’ve been blogging for a long time, mostly on my non-profit website located at www.GuardMyCreditFile.org. I started using BloggersBase because I wanted to refine my writing style. The user feedback that you get on the BloggersBase site has allowed me to do that. BloggersBase has also given me the opportunity to write about topics that I’m passionate about but which don’t really fit into the theme of my own site. | | Q: | What influenced you to start blogging? And do you incorporate it in your personal and professional life? | | A: | I started blogging because I was sick of being part of the “silent majority”. Now I can’t keep my mouth shut.
Blogging doesn’t really fit into my professional life, but the topics that I write about are also the same things that I tend to talk about with my friends and family. | | Q: | What feature do you feel that is missing from BloggersBase? | | A: | I’d like the ability to be able to embed video from more sources. I’d also like the ability to use java script in some of my posts. It would also be nice to opportunity to see your post on your personal blog before it was published to one of the top level blogs. I’ve had a couple of instances when everything looked fine while I was writing a post but the formatting was off, or a video didn’t show up in the published version. Fortunately, BloggersBase support staff is great and you’ve been able to correct those issues for me very quickly. | | Q: | As an experienced blogger - what advice would you give to new bloggers? | | A: | Read what you write before you publish it. There are a lot of blog posts on a lot of sites that use poor grammar and punctuation. That drives me right up a wall. At the very least, use a spell-checker before you publish. We all make mistakes, but minimizing those mistakes will make your posts a lot more enjoyable to the reader.
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| Invite Your Friends! | Help us spread the word about BloggersBase and you could win monetary prizes! Simply invite your friends or refer other bloggers by placing a link to BloggersBase on your own site. To do this, choose one of the banners offered in the 'My Account' tab of your profile page and place it on your web page. Each time a blogger who registers by following your link wins the competition in one of the surface blogs a cash bonus will be added to your balance. You can track the number of referred users and your bonuses in the 'My Account' tab of your profile.
You can also invite friends to join by clicking "Invite" on your profile widget to the same effect! Regarding any questions about BloggersBase or suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact us here
If you wish to unsubscribe from our newsletter please update the ‘receive newsletter’ preference under the preferences tab in your profile. |
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