Bob’s Blogger Summit Notes
Successful ideas to build blog traffic:
– Weekly news roundup distributed by email, include lots of names of reporters etc.
– Monthly newsletter can also be useful.
– Tag stories, “Campaign 08” so they are picked up by search engines, Technorati, Google.
– Use Feedburner or Feedblitz automated pulls to generate email summaries/headline feeds.
– Follow people around in costumes (see picture of the RI “lame duck”)
– Sandwich boards.
– Op-Ed piece
– Mention names of journalists and politicians in your pieces.
– Sign up for a Google Alert about your blog
– BlogTalkRadio for radio shows.
– BlogAds Survey Tool is useful.
– Form a PAC to raise money for state house races.
– Paypal subscription: use Soapblox feature to manually allow subscribers to see or not see content/ads
– Incorporate Digg and Reddit links
– Drupal is an alternative to SoapBlox
– Google Forms can be used to build opt-in email lists.
– Google Calendar is better than the SoapBlox Calendar.
– Google custom search is better than the SoapBlox search and can be integrated into SoapBlox.
– Sources of advertisements and other revenue opportunities:
Resources for research
– White House archive of Bush’s speeches.
– Statistical information via White House site.
– Department of labor statistics: Wage and price information.
– Sunlight Foundation.
[edit] How to look good on TV
– Put your hands on the table.
– Sit on your jacket if you are wearing one.
– Talk only to the camera.
– Your heart should be aligned with your to head: your whole body must be aligned.
– Look authentic: that’s the key.
– Lean forward with your whole body to make a point. Do not lead with your head. When your whole body leans forward your head will get bigger by about 5% and the camera person will not adjust the shot.
– You must feel the “passion of your loins:” don’t talk only with the head.
– Record yourself and then listen to yourself: do you talk too fast? do you say “um” or “like?” Replace that with silence.
– Waiting, silence, can be useful.
Health Care
Resources recommended by Ezra Klein about health care:
– “One Nation Uninsured”
– “Sick” by John Cohn
– The Health Care Blog by Matthew Holt
– Ezra Klein’s blog
– Money Driven Medicine
Notes from Ezra Klein’s talk:
– John McCain couldn’t get health care under his own plan.
– Whyden plan is best plan currently in Congress.
– Single payer? There is NO CHANCE for single payer healthcare at the moment. People who argue for it are engaging in wishful thinking. It is more more likely that we will invade France and take their health care system than enact single payer. The idea was annihilated in OR and WA when placed on the ballot there. In general, no one will “jump” (take a leap of faith) on the subject of health care: the population on this issue is very risk averse.
Environment
Suggested talking points for discussions about green initiatives:
– Will save money.
– Will create jobs.
– Contrast “efficiency” (good) from “conservation” (annoying).
– Fight nukes on opportunity cost and waste disposal issues.
Recommended resources:
– Union of Concerned Scientists Report about economic benefits of renewables.
– NRDC report on economic costs of inaction
– Stern report in UK on economic costs of inaction worldwide.
Interacting with Capitol Hill staff
– Use the telephone. Journalists use the telephone. Email is too traceable: oral communications is better for many issues i.e. the staff will be more forthcoming.
– Thomas legislative computer system has introduced a fixed URL for a bill.
– Check out Pelosi’s blog The Gavel: speaker.gov/blog.
During the final session yesterday, as we were hearing about the glory of Media Matters, I mentioned a tool that empowers all of us to help hold media accountable and generally spice up our blogs with video.
www.redlasso.com
This tool is like a ginormous Tivo. You can pull specific video clips (up to 10 minutes each) from the past two weeks from over 125 media outlets. All the major national cable news networks are represented plus BBC and major broadcast channels in the top 15 US markets.
You can find these clips by time, network AND TEXT. you can search for mentions of certain words, and Redlasso uses closed captioning transcripts plus their own speech-to-text to find it for you.
Then you can make custom clips, setting the in and out points on the video, and embed them into your blogs.
This is revolutionary.
It’s better than YouTube in some ways. You don’t have to wait for someone to upload a video and hope you find it. The video stream is available MUCH faster.
It’s more controllable than media matters, who can’t catch everything. You’re in charge.
Here are some examples from Jack & Jill Politics
Stephanie Tubbs Jones is a frequent target on our blog, and we can’t understand why Clinton’s campaign keeps using her. Here’s a clip
http://jackandjillpolitics.blo…
I had the honor / incredibly odd opportunity to be on CNN with Jesse Jackson the day after the Iowa Caucus. CNN was not responsive to my request for video, and I’d forgotten to set my Tivo to record it. Redlasso let me grab it fast, and I posted my response on YouTube
http://jackandjillpolitics.blo…
and here’s how I have solicited input from our readers to alert us to clipworthy TV moments
http://jackandjillpolitics.blo…
How you can get a redlasso account
If you like what you see, check out www.redlasso.com
The company is in private beta, so you’ll need to sign up to request an account
If you want one NOW, please email gil@redlasso.com, subject line: Baratunde Sent Me
he’ll hook you up as fast as we can
full disclosure: i have no interest, personal nor professional, in redlasso. I met one of the founders at a tech/culture conference this summer but didn’t try using it until that CNN moment. Since then, I’ve been a huge fan. I see this tool as another in our blogospheric truth-seeking arsenal. Go in peace with it to make war on behalf of the good guys
