Greetings and Words about Starting Your Own Blog: Update

[benny05]

Catchawave alerted me to this idea that some of the JRE supporters are considering starting their own site. Sorry I haven't been around for a day or two to comment, but now I will respond to this group. I am doing this as a new post because my post is a lengthy one, and I hope you will give some feedback. There are several options to know about before starting your own site and I wanted to alert you to those first; then I will lay out considerations when creating a blog, if you have not done one before, or have only a solo blog that you post on once in awhile.

Catchawave is correct that I have my own blog, Benny's World. It is a blog that is personal but based on the inspiration of JRE and his family. It's received some attention from other blogs, notably Taylor Marsh, and because of Yearly Kos, it has been flashed on the Today show Weekend and McLaughlin group (which used footage from the NBC nightly news that was taken at Yearly Kos) and from the BBC Radio's, World Have Your Say. It was exciting to participate in a global forum at the BBC.

I link to other JRE supporter blogs for the most part, and there are some that are more artistic in nature that I admire. It goes back to having a theme and what one wishes to do with the blog.

Options if you don't wish to start a new site:

First, the DU will continue to be welcoming for JRE supporters. This forum alone has been around since late 2004. The Kerrycrats heavily use their forum to post Kerry news because they don't have anywhere else to go to get together. They elected not to do their own site as it is easier to do it there.

Second, a reconstituted group of the Edwards Evening News Roundup (EENR) will be posting on Sunday nights at the Daily Kos. It is now called the EENR for Progress, and will bring out news items (what few there will be due to the lack of media interest). Downside is that Kos has turned into the Obama Nation, and it's gotten pathetic to be over there.

Third, and perhaps the the best option next to the DU as Catchawave mentioned, JREG--Justice--Respect--Equality--group exists and it s a good site. It was set up by a group of JRE supporters and has been around since March of 2004, I believe. The moderators are very nice, and it is just as friendly to use, if not more friendly than the DU. The topics are already organized well, and one is not limited to posting just Youtube videos for the video vault. The difference between it and here is that they don't allow riff-raff fights--civility is the number one rule--(a good thing) but there are no recommends, which is OK because the posts stand on their own. The other is that one should be aware is at least one Republican who regularly posts there, but she still likes Edwards and would vote for him. She never uses wingnut talking points. Her strength is posting about procedures for legislation, which is very helpful for those of us less versed in that area. Downside is that you only get one edit if you goof up your post.

Of course, you are welcome to drop by my blog and post comments, but prepared that I pick the topics, although if you suggest topics or post other news in the comments sections, I will try to pick those up and promote them in other ways.

Lastly, I am awaiting word of the fate of JRE's site. I did inquire, and I don't think the folks know just yet. It may change over to a non-Presidential site, like One America Committee was.

Considerations in starting your own site, which there are a ton of Edwards blogs out there already:

1) You are competing with the other blogs in general, and there are plenty of them
2) It takes awhile to set the blog up, anywhere from choosing templates to blogrolls
3) You have to decide who will have the keys to make the posts. I have the keys to one other blog called Idea Consultants, but I was asked to join the group and was given permission to get them
4) You have to decide how much time you will spend on it each day and to take turns--and who will do what.
5) You have to decide if you wish to accept ads for revenues and if you wish to include paypal as an option to accept donations for keeping it going. Who will keep track of the money? Benny's World takes no revenues because I purposely didn't want the pressure of having to post every day, which advertisers expect you to do.
6) You have to be prepared to deal with trolls. I have had very few, but I did get a few of them last year.
7) It's easy to be excited to start one, but keeping it going is harder than you think, especially as there will be less and less news about JRE until around convention time. If your site is about keeping his former competitors' feet to the fire, you are better off going to an established site such as JREG, the DU, or somewhere else. Just rememeber at JREG you cannot rant too much.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. To recap, I recommend staying here, going to JREG, or visiting other established sites before committing to starting a site yourself.

[Andrea]

1. Thanks, Benny05

I'm glad to hear your take, from experience. One thing that I would like our site to do (do others agree?) is serve as a kind of jumping off point, so that other sites and blogs would be linked and could post on our site and vice versa. I hope you'll be interested in doing that.

I want to check out your blog, because it sounds very interesting. Also, I used your link to click over to JREG and found that it was not the site I was thinking of, so thanks for bringing that to our attention, too!

[benny05]

2. Harder than one thinks to do

You would have to invest in software that is less limiting than blogger, wordpress, or livejournal, and that costs $$. I use Moveable Type at work, and while it is cheap, it is difficult to set up unless you know CSS, XML, and other programming skills. That's what I meant by the set up. I had an employee do all of the design because I had limited knowledge of XML. Blogger provides quite a bit, but it is so easy to screw up your website if you don't do your templates right, and you still have to know code.

Chris Bowers at Open Left said it took them 3 months to decide what they wanted, then another 4 to get the eyeball counts back up after leaving MyDD.

Doing the research too has to be factored in.

[Catchawave]

3. Hi benny and thank you !

I hope everyone will take the opportunity to visit your very nice blog ! I'm one of those who visits often to read, with hopes you'll post your updates here.

Of course, if anyone starts a new blog from here, I'll be happy to support that too :D I remember when JREG started out, very few of us left the campaign blog and participated actively, but it grew, as that's where the campaign to get JE on the ticket with Kerry started ? We lobbyed the DNC HARD ! Great fun, and a rebirth for the 2004 Team Edwards!!

As for the biggie blogs...dKos and DU..apples and oranges..but fabulous places to hang out, and they took years to become what they are today. Though Kos is more cerebral (not so much with the Obama Nation right now *Polls* *Celebrities* *Rallies*... ad nauseum), DU is the neighborhood bar. On both venues, Edwards supporters are the creme d'la creme that rises to the top. If you don't believe me, visit the DU candidate forums....:boring:

Oh, and CNN was running a Super-Tuesday-Eve segment today..."Who will Gore and Edwards Endorse?"

We have arrrived !