2chicksblogging.com – Blogging for Change Training since 2008

Breaking News! Writing for the Web will be held at DePaul Center at 1 E. Jackson, Blvd. See below for a full description of the event. We hope you can attend!

Writing for the Web, with Keidra Chaney

You just set up a brand new blog, or maybe you have an opportunity to write for a website on your favorite topic. Are you ready to wow the world with your compelling content?

If you’re new to writing for the web, your content may not hit the right marks to attract regular readers. This workshop will give you an overview of the guidelines you need to follow to engage website visitors and increase your readership.

Learn:

• How web visitors read; no, they’re not just like a print audience
• How to learn who your audience is and write for them
• How to write content that gets the search engine traffic you want
• How to promote your site, and your writing, to get attention and win fans

This workshop is for: Writers, marketers, and communications professionals who are transitioning from print to web

When: Sunday, May 31, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Chicago Loop. More details to come.

How much: FREE for AWJ members, $25 for nonmembers

More information: Location and registration information is coming soon. Check www.awj-chicago.org for the latest.

Who is Keidra?

Keidra Chaney is Emerging Media Specialist at DePaul University. She has spent her career straddling the divide between print and online media. She was an editor at award-winning Clamor, which ceased publication in 2006, and is a former columnist and editor at Chicago-based progressive publication Third Coast Press, which was reborn as the website www.chicago6corners.com. Her music, film, and book reviews frequently appear in ALARM Magazine and Bitch, among other publications. She has spoken about issues of blogging, social networking, user-generated content, and fan culture at MIT and University of Michigan and for Publicity Club of Chicago, Girl Scouts of Chicago, and other organizations. www.thelearnedfangirl.com is but one of her online homes.

Holy parody Batman I just saw over at the Fake Chuck Westfall blog read fake Chuck Westfall blog folks, sorta like that fake Steve Jobs blog from a while back that Canon Inc. and some lawyerish type named Douglas E. Mirell from Loeb & Loeb are trying to shut poor fake Chuck down.

via Canon Has No Sense of Humor, Tries to Shut Down Fake Chuck Westfall Blog — Update: And Fails | Thomas Hawk Digital Connection.

What Do You Spend Most Time Doing on Your Blog? asks ProBlogger, who then lists these as blogging-related activities:

• Blog Design
• Search Engine Optimization
• Guest Posting on Other Blogs
• Editing Guest Posts on Your Own Blogs
• Moderating Comments and Interacting with Readers
• Networking and Promotion to Other Bloggers
• Social Media Marketing
• Monetization
• Reading Other Blogs in your Niche
• Reading about Blogging
• Watching Statistics/Metrics

2chicksblogging.com spends time with all of these, to varying degrees. We can help you or your organization with any of these, with learning what these mean, and in getting your blogging skills up to the task you want to complete.

We at 2chicksblogging.com are *NOT* tax experts, however, we think this issue is overblown and sensationalist. The IRS defines a gift as ““You make a gift if you give property (including money), or the use of or income from property, without expecting to receive something of at least equal value in return.”

We stress that for our blogging clients and bloggers we talk to, that you are not giving anything away. Our whole point is that audience attention, time, and “eyeballs” are all forms of currency, though not not money. When you contribute content as a serious, professional blogger, you are expecting a return of equal or more value than what you contributed. You expect to get a reputation boost, more eyeballs, and subsequent business because of your initial action (creating content for exchange.)

The bottom line: StinkyJournalism.org has uncovered a real hornet’s nest for both for-profit media companies’ business models and citizen journalists who must now examine how much work they have “donated” to any one media outlet over the past year.

via The Unspoken Peril for “Citizen Journalists” Surprise! You Owe the IRS Some Gift Tax!.