[Sosfbay-discuss] Lessons learned blogging

[Wes Rolley]

As you all know, I have a blog devoted to tracking my favorite
congressman, Richard Pombo. You can all access it at
http://www.refpub.com/PomboWatch/ The latest takes apart a House
Resources Committee partisan publication, digging into where it spins,
obfuscates and outright lies. I call it spinning cow pies.

The reason that I mention this is that I am beginning to see the signs
of what an organized campaign can do, with a little thought.

Over the last 3 months, I have been agressive about posting my comments
to other blogs and getting LTEs into such disparate papers as the Tracy
Press and the Modesto Bee, always with a link to PomboWatch. As a
result, the number of viewers is slowly climbing. From aound 20 per day
in September, to over 30 per day in Octber to over 40 per day this
month. That number represents an average of unique, different internet
addresses that visited the site after throwing out all the search engine
indexing stuff.

That suggest to me that it would be possible to utilize the same
techniques, focused on other local elections tied to specific issues. An
analysis of the statistics tells me what links brought the most traffic.
It shows me when journalists are using the site, and that is a bigger
advantage than having my letter published.

The really dirtly little secret of journalism is that reporters are so
pressed for time, and need that for writing, that whenever I can provide
them with an analysis that they can use, it will show up eventually.
This is a realtionship that needs to be nurtured with care and
understanding what each of us gets out of it. My feeling that this is,
in the long run, much more effective than just sending out press
releases that may never be read. All of my time goes into research and
writing...and building those relationships.

Within the last 2 days, I have had 2 columnists write to me about the
columns that they were working on, one of them from the Stockton Record,
the biggest paper in Pombo's District. Next I think that I will see what
I can do about my supervisor, Don Gage, who never saw a development plan
he didn't think great.


-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
http://www.refpub.com/