Blogging Opportunity from Fox 6

Fox 6 News is launching a new community news feature on their website, myfoxal.com. If you go to their site, you will see a red box to the right that says “Your Neighborhood”. You can change the location so that you can see the news that is directly related to your immediate area or neighborhood!

They are looking for Community Content Providers (CCP’s) for each area, and knew that the blogosphere is a great place to look! They would love to have people write for them that are plugged in and interested in their neighborhood.

And, of course, they'd be glad to have a link to your blog in the post so that you could benefit from extra traffic from their site!

If you’re interested in writing for their site, please contact them at web@wbrc.com.

Needed: Guest Hosts and Guest Posts

For those of you who came out to either of the meet-ups we’ve had in the past couple weeks, you already know that I am quite great with child, and only getting greater.

I have 8 weeks, at the most, until I have my second child, so I could really use some more help around here, if anyone is interested.

First of all, I am planning on making it to the November meet-up, but after that, I would love to have guest meet-up hosts for the next 3-4 months.

Guest hosting isn’t a big deal – it just means that you’ll commit to being at the meet-up and saving a table for the number of people RSVP’ed to come.

And, if it makes it easier, you can pick the day, time, and place if you’d like, and I’ll publicize the meet-up here and on Twitter.

Although I’ve focused almost entirely on lunch meet-ups due to my schedule, there have been several people that have requested night meet-ups or meet-ups in other cities. If you would like to host a meet-up at another time or place, that is totally great with me.

Also, I love to have guest posters. I’ve always wanted this blog to be a concerted effort of all Alabama Bloggers and REALLY appreciate my current and past contributors. If you would like to write a standalone post or recurring posts, please let me know!! The topics can be anything that relates to the state or to blogging – I’m open to a very broad array!

If you’re interested in guest hosting or guest posting, please let me know! Comment here or email me at rachel@alabamabloggers.com.

Thanks!!

We Need New Contributors!

So I'm sure you've noticed that this site hasn't been as full of posts as it usually is. That's due to some combination of me being pregnant (and so sick that I hardly moved off the couch for about 12 weeks), and that I haven't asked for any new contributors and guest posters in a while.

I love having other writers. This site certainly cannot be "Alabama Bloggers" if it is written by ONE Alabama Blogger. BUT, I don't ever want any of my contributing writers to feel like they have to contribute forever - I fully expect for there to be a "season" of contributing that fits within your life schedule and writing inspiration.

That season of contributing has come to a close for many of my writers, as they've had new babies or picked up new projects. So it's time to search for new writers!

The topics that can be written about here are very broad: anything Alabama related (food, places to visit, authors, sports, politics - anything), social media, blogging tips, features of Alabama Blogs, anything.

Also, the posts do not have to be exclusive - if they've been published before on your blog, that is perfectly fine with me.

So, if you'd like to be a contributor and get your blogging in front of a different audience, let me know! I'd love to have you. If you have a recurring column you would like to do, that would be great - you can pick the recurrence level. Or, if you just have one post that you would like to share, I would love that too.

You can comment on this post, or email me directly at rachel@alabamabloggers.com.

Thanks!! I can't wait to hear from you!

I Would Like to Hear Your Feedback!!

Hello, all!

I wanted to check in and see how we're doing. Please feel free to answer any or all of the following questions that I've been pondering lately:

Is Alabama Bloggers working?

Are you connecting? Are you meeting people? Are you getting more traffic to your blog from being listed/participating here?

Do you have any ideas on how to improve the site? What would you find a valuable service/column?

Would you like to contribute on a one time or recurring basis?

One column that I would like to add is an "Upcoming Alabama Events" column - please let me know if you'd be interested in writing it!

Also - the meet-ups we've been having in Birmingham have been a huge success, a lot of fun, and people have been eager to meet up again. I would really like to expand this so that we have meet-ups in other areas of the state. I've been thinking that what might help that process and help new members to get connected is to have Area Ambassadors.

An Area Ambassador would organize periodic meet-ups (which simply just means picking a place and time and committing to being there, and I will publicize/blog/tweet about it), and also would visit new Alabama Blogger members' blogs in their area to welcome them and help them get connected.

Does that sound like a decent idea? Would any of you be interested in being an Alabama Blogger Ambassador for your area? I would be sure to list your name and blog on the sidebar.

So - give me some feedback!! Let me know what you like, what you don't like, and your suggestions for making this site better! Also let me know if there are any ways that you would like to get more involved here at Alabama Bloggers!

How YOU Can Contribute To Alabama Bloggers!

So obviously, I do not want to be writing every post for this blog.

Frankly, that would be silly.

The point of this blog is to be a conglomerate of all Alabama Bloggers.

One of the things that I want to accomplish with Alabama Bloggers is to introduce us all to each other. I want us to get to know each other, find like-minded bloggers that we can bond with, and be entertained by each other.

So I want to spend a couple of posts per week allowing you to introduce yourself to the rest of Alabama's Bloggers. What I have in mind right now is doing three types of posts: Profile Posts, Spotlight Posts, and regular contributors.

A profile post is your opportunity to introduce yourself on a deeper level to us. Answer any or all of the following questions, or make up your own!

Who are you?
Where do you live and what are you involved in?
Where are your favorite places in Alabama?
Why do you blog?
How long have you been blogging / how many times a week do you blog?
What do you think your style of blogging is?
Who are your favorite bloggers?
What kind of blogs do you like reading?
What are some links to your best posts?

The best way to get people to read your blog is to be interesting (duh!), so tell us all the interesting, quirky, silly dirt on yourself!!

But don't get craaaaaazy - (i.e. - keep it G-Rated, people!!!)

A spotlight post will have a short (2-3 sentence) introduction of you, and then the rest of the post will be a normal blog post of your choice. It can be previously published on your blog or it can be original - just give us your best!!

If you're interested in being featured, please email me! Feel free to submit either type of the above posts or both! Or you can submit multiple links to posts on your blog as possible spotlight posts.

Also, I definitely need some regular contributors. If you're interested in contributing once a week, every two weeks, once a month, or more or less (I'm really flexible, can you tell??), please email me or comment on this post and let me know.

If you have a specific topic you'd like to do a regular column about, that would be great. Or if you just know that you'd like to write and have different things you'd like to write about, that would be great also. Just let me know your ideas and let's see if we can work something out!

But have mercy on me - I'm juggling a lot, so I might need a little bit of time to get back to your emails.

And, comment on this post what YOU'D like to know about other bloggers. What are some great questions that they could answer?

And especially, what other kinds of guest posts/recurring columns would you be interested in reading?

The bottom line is, I need all of you to contribute to make this blog work!

Thanks in advance!