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Web Exclusive: People around Austin read and contribute to blogs more often than in any other city, according to a recent report from the Nielsen Company. Those same bloggers seem to
enjoy putting their city on the map, too. We're introducing you to some of the ideas and people behind the computer.
Event flyers hang outside the Do512.com office on South Lamar.
How and when did you start your blog?: Do512.com started in 2007 with two guys, Scott Owens and Jimmy Stewart, “just sitting over some beers, thinking about how they really needed a website where you can find out about all the cheap drinks in Austin,” Do 512 General Manager Kristin Owen said. “It started there and evolved into something much bigger to encompass all kind of events in Austin. And now, here we are almost four years later… still kickin’ it.”
What challenges did you face in getting your message out?: "There are a lot of different resources in Austin to tell you about events," Owen said. "Breaking through all the other resources and showing how you are different, how you are unique and why you are a more valuable resource was tough at first. We want people to know we are the place to go for event listings."
What's the size of your audience?: "Back in the first month, it was like 100 visits, and THAT was exciting. Now it’s over 100,000 visits," Owen said.
What helped your blog take off?: "The first year and a half was a struggle. It was us knocking on people’s doors, trying to get them to use the site," Owen said. "We quickly got all the other bloggers in town on board, so they helped out a lot. They are really important to our community in general. These days it’s just steadily growing, and people now come to us to advertise their events and work with us. It’s a nice change."
What's your advice for people who want to begin blogging?:
"Figure out what’s important to you and what you’re passionate about and talk about that," Owen suggested. "Network with the right people. Get on Twitter, get on Facebook and just meet the other people who care about what you have to say. Just get out there and get involved."
Mozart's Coffee Roasters was the first place Kristy Owen blogged about for 365ThingsAustin.com. "It's so Austin, a lot of people like it, and it's on the water," she said.
How and when did you start your blog?: Kristy Owen started 365 Things to Do in Austin, Texas on Jan. 1, 2010. "I have a list of things I want to do before I die, and one of them is to do something different for a whole year," she said. "So I figured I'll blog on a different thing to do in Austin every day."
What challenges did you face in getting your message out?: "People were getting mad because I was blogging about them and then they got too much business," she said. "They wanted me to contact them beforehand. I didn't know that could happen! I now have a company that will help contact businesses."
What's the size of your audience?: In late January, a friend told her to put some of her blog entries on Facebook. As of early June, the Facebook page had more than 87,000 fans.
What helped your blog take off?: "Randomly, I put a few posts on Facebook one Friday night. By the next day, 100 people had already started following it," Owen said. "I've never invited my own friends. It just snowballed. My goal has never been to make it popular. I just wanted to blog for a year. So the following has been tremendous."
What's your advice for people who want to begin blogging?: "Definitely do something you're passionate about. Once I started the blog, even before it was popular, I was so excited about thinking of something new that I like to do and that I could write on. It just makes it so easy," she said.
Wednesday’s blog entry in progress: Indiana Adams' husband turned a closet into a cozy office where she now blogs from for AdoredAustin.com.
How and when did you start your blog?: "I was reading a lot of fashion blogs, and none of them were really funny, and none of them were in my price range! I'm a girl who goes to thrift stores, so I started a blog for Austin," Indiana Adams said. She created Adored Austin on July 31, 2009. "The concept is pretty simple: here's what I wore today, here's what I did today."
What's the size of your audience?: AdoredAustin.com receives more than 2,000 hits a day and is about to hit 100,000 visitors a month.
What helped your blog take off?: "Oddly enough, two weeks into it, a blog out of New York City called What I Wore linked to me. She linked to me when I was 2 weeks old, so right off the bat, 25 percent of my traffic was coming off of her site. Then, Tommy Hilfiger named me one of the top five digital fashionistas to watch for. That was a big break for me. It just took off."
What's your advice for people who want to begin blogging?: "Get involved locally and don't worry about readership or statistics. When I started this a year ago, I couldn't find anyone else who did what I did in Austin. Now, I think there's 15 of us, and we go to lunch every week and talk shop. Being true to myself - everything comes really naturally. It's so authentically me. It doesn't take a long time to crank out content. It's not work."
Brian Hamon sometimes blogs for EyeOnWilliamson.com from the Williamson County Democratic Party offices.
How and when did you start your blog?: Brian Hamon, editor and co-owner of EyeOnWilliamson.com, started his blog in 2005. "One of us knew how to use
Blogger, so it amounted to creating an account and starting a blog in in 15 minutes," he said.
What challenges did you face in getting your message out?: "You think no one's reading. You might invest money out of pocket to obtain records and sweat for months, and you write this thing, and you don't think anyone reads it," Hamon said. "And then you basically take some numbers off a public site, put it on a spreadsheet, and it gets a million hits. There seems to be no relationship between the amount of work you put into an article and how many hits it gets. You get a reputation for well-reasoned arguments and not taking cheap shots."
What's the size of your audience?: The site receives 300 visitors a day, and several hundred return at least once a week. "They tend to be people who care a lot about politics and local news and don't want to feel like they're the only Democrat on their block. We provide a way for them to feel connected to what's going on."
What's your advice for people who want to begin blogging?: "The main thing that you will have to do is dedicate a fixed number of hours daily. You need to post every day or every other day if you can. You have to be dedicated enough to put in two or three hours every day."
Click here to email us your suggestions on up and coming local bloggers.