Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for November 19th, 2008

The Writing on the Wall

Recently, I mentioned the Christian Science Monitor’s recent decision to end it’s daily print publication and transform into a fully digital publication. Today, I was reading the first part of a two-part interview with CSM’s editor-in-chief, John Yemma explaining the decision. According to Yemma, “. . . the writing [was] on the wall . . . , the Internet user patterns and reader preferences [are] changing the business model of print. Print [is] becoming increasingly untenable, especially for the Monitor, which has an international audience. We just don’t have enough reach with our print product, but we have great reach with our web product.”

Basically, he was saying what I’ve long said to writers who balked at seeing their work published online. Alhough a small press literary publication isn’t the same thing as the CSM in terms of genre or circulation, a print literary publication cannot compete with an ezine in terms of exposure. Aside from printing costs and other expenses related to print publishing, it’s a lot of work to distribute and sell a print literary periodical. The circulation is typically small and takes some time to sell-out an issue. Typically, much of what is circulated goes unsold and unread. The typical ezine has an international reach that is difficult, if not absolutely impossible for most print literary zines to manage. Whether you are a writer or a publisher, there are clear advantages to Internet publishing. The fact that a mainstream publishing organization is wising up to this should serve as a kind of epiphany for those in the print media who are holding-out for some kind of miracle that would preserve their world.

This post is sponsored by Leptovox.

New Money-Making Opportunity for Bloggers

If you are a blogger involved in the paid posting community or have been thinking about getting on the paid posting bandwagon (and in this economy, what blogger hasn’t considered ways to make some extra coin from his blog?), I just discovered a new blog marketing company offering to pay bloggers for in-post blog advertising. snapbomb.com will pay you to write about products, services and other websites. 

There are many companies like snapbomb out there nowadays and, to be fair, there are pros and cons for bloggers who sign-up to use their blogs to create buzz for other websites. Although, the paid posting community is growing, there remains a stigma attached among blogging purists who see paid posting as an ethically-challenged enterprise.  What I like about snapbomb is that they do not absolutely require that you write about whatever topic assigned to you in a positive way. You can express your own honest opinion and, thus, keep your ethical standards intact.  I also liked that the application process is quicker and more efficient than some other blog marketing companies (I recall one company made me wait a whole month and then rejected me without giving me a reason — but, hey, I’m a professional writer so I’m used to rejection).

Once your blog is approved, information is gathered via a tracking code you install on your blog. After 24 hours, your blog will then be assigned a dollar value and you will start to received posting assignments you are free to accept or reject at your leisure. If you accept an assignment you will have 24 hours to complete it.