Splashpress Media Launches Community Blogs
This post has been three months in the making, since it was since last April that we started putting together a fledgling community of bloggers to form what is now a sub-network of Splashpress Media. Blog Network Watch (also owned by SPM) earlier wrote about it, and let me quote a bit from the BNW post.
- Gadzooki is a blog where geekery and gadgetry hold sway, dealing with everything from cellphones to iPods, from software to Web issues, from video gaming to cars.
- Blog Tutorials is a resource blog with a wealth of info for both the veterans and newbies; Blog Tutorials is the perfect complement to Performancing, another Splashpress outfit that deals with the more advanced and ‘professional’ aspects of blogging.
- Froodee is geared to be a well-rounded blog on lifestyle and living, touching upon entertainment, business, family, and basically anything under the sun.
- Travelogger is a travel blog that provides its readers travel tips, the best destinations, and personal travel experiences.
In conceptualizing these blogs (re-conceptualizing, actually, as three out of the four were already existing blogs), we thought of going beyond simply being a “team blog.” The point behind community blogging is to highlight interactivity, both with the readers and also among the writers ourselves. All contributors are part of the conversation, so it’s not just a two-way flow of ideas between the bloggers and the audience. And to make sure each blog gets to put forth a well-rounded image, each contributor has his/her own area of interest, and these are reflected in the articles that each member contributes.
Being community blogs, none of the four blogs were set up to be too niche-oriented. Rather, the focus was to build up not just the content, but also the people. Instead of focusing on narrow topics, each blog revolves around a central theme, with related and relevant content written in support of this central idea.
We also adopted the Blog Herald’s design concept of having featured articles, but we also organized these into sections. This way, the contributors and the editors would be able to showcase select articles as sticky posts accessible from the front page and from any post.
As with any startup, we still feel quite new at this, even though most of us have been blogging both individually and as part of blog networks for several years already. Not everything is perfect, but we’re glad to say we’re improving as time goes by. Comments are welcome. And if you’d like to contribute to these sites in any way, do get in touch with us.
J. Angelo Racoma is a technology journalist for CMSWire and TFTS. A former editor at Splashpress Media, The Blog Herald and Performancing, he now does consultancy work through WorkSmartr.com. Follow him at racoma.net and on Twitter.
Woot! SplashPress rules, of course I have to re-double my efforts in fulfilling my job. ;)