Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Bethany Keeley-"Unnecessary Quotes"

Bethany Keeley, a PhD student at The University of Georgia by day and a blogger at night started blogging in 2004 on her own personal blog. Keeley received little attention from other internet users on this personal site. Little did she know she would soon become a big player in the blogger world. “If someone asked me, ‘Hey Bethany what do you think you are going to become famous for’? I definitely would not have guessed punctuation” Keeley explained early Wednesday morning.

As the booming “blogging” media developed, Keeley became fascinated in using the media as a way to obtain information. She does not report on a blog, but rather obtains reports from main stream media. “I see blogging as a reactive medium” she explained.

Keeley started her own blog in 2005 tracking the usage of “unnecessary” quotes. Fellow bloggers would take pictures of quotation marks used unnecessarily and send them to Keeley. The blog allows other users to post comments. Keeley did not obtain a URL until January 2009, now the blog can be found on the website unnecessaryquotes. The website gets around 3,000 to 4,000 hits during the week and around 2,000 on the weekend. The website has become so popular that Keeley received $500 in ad revenue from a company called blocher. Bethany does not do any advertising for the website, “I have no idea how the website started getting popular”.

Online blogging has become a major influencer in the way people attain their news. Twitter and Facebook have made the linking of information on the internet easier than in the past.
Currently, Bethany is a student and considers blogging a hobby. “I usually spend up to two hours a day blogging, but I do it in my breaks so it doesn’t really feel like work for me”. Bethany also writes for ThinkChristian.net where in her latest story she has related buying locally to her Christianity. Click on the links above to visit her blogs. You can get a good laugh on punctuation and information on buying locally.

1 comment:

Grady Journalist said...

Tanya,

I like your writing style, particularly the conversational quotes you captured from Bethany.
There are a number of AP style errors (it's Web site, for example) and punctuation issues, however, and your html links did not work.
Also, the site that handles advertising is BlogHer, not blocher. Double check so not to introduce fact errors into your stories, even if they are blog posts.
Good read, but pay attention to the little details, which matter.