Bloggers Attract Audiences, Spread Information

Today two different bloggers gave their opinions on how to create a successful blog and how to carry journalism to the blogosphere.

Bethany Keeley is a graduate PhD student at the University of Georgia, and writes for ThinkChristian as well as authoring the popular Unnecessary Quotes blog. Unnecessary Quotes gets between three thousand to four thousand hits on an average weekday, and around two thousand hits on weekend days.

Keeley said: “I guess I’m sort of a professional blogger, but it’s a side job for me. I’m really a professional scholar.”

She added that Unnecessary Quotes has an audience because the topic matter of the blog is “absurdly specific.”

The Internet is a large place and users do not want to wander around in cyberspace frantically searching through a blogger’s archives for a post on a specific idea. A focused blog draws a bigger audience than a blog that spreads itself over many subject areas. The audience knows what to expect and can look in certain places to find concentrated information on a particular topic.

Also speaking was Morgan Josey Glover, who has journalistic experience, is now the content manager for the Web site GoGreenTriad. Part of her duties include maintaining a blog. She said that the purpose of a blog was to direct readers to information available on other Web sites.

Glover said, “I would just say that journalism today is a lot more entrepreneurial.” She urged students to know how to work many different kinds of technology and feel comfortable interviewing with several different methods.

Her advice points out the nature of journalism today and how multimedia is affecting reporting. Reporters and news outlets must pay attention to more than just their print editions, because audiences want news in different platforms. Web sites, Twitter accounts, and blogs can be used to disseminate information and point readers back to the newspaper or magazine’s own site.

As new technology continues to attract audiences, reporters in the future will need to develop skills and practices for utilizing the technology. Reporters must follow the readers and speak to them in the ways they are using to speak to others.

Bethany Keeley Talks About Writing for the Web.

Writing for a web-based audience is a major part of journalism today. Writing for the web requires an extra set of skills that are not necessary for the traditional newspaper and magazine writing approach.

Bethany Keeley, a PhD graduate student at the University of Georgia is a contributing writer for ThinkChristian and authors the popular "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. Keeley said that her approaches for post writing differ greatly between the two blogs.

With ThinkChristian, Keeley posts about a topic and how her Christian values relate to it or how she interprets the topic through the lens of her Christian values. However, on Unnecessary Quotes, Keeley's focus is on making snarky comments placed under picutres of signs with humorous punctuation errors.

Unnecessary Quotes appeals to a specifc audience because its content is "absurdly specific" said Keeley. On a regular weekday Unnecessary Quotes gets between 3000-4000 hits a day. The blog's popularity has lead to multiple interviews, including one with AP.

Keeley said she dislikes how the interviews and stories make her appear angry at the punctuation errors, which is not the case. "I don't want to be a grammar guru, I don't want to be a punctutation guru. I care about funny," said Keeley.

Keeley's advice to bloggers and web writers is to remember to keep it brief and concise because "people don't want to read something long." She also recommends blogging about something that interests or humors you, it will make it more fun for yourself and your readers.