We’ve recently made a few changes to the GWC website, including some tweaks to the blog to fit the new wider content base and to make that content easier to locate. But we have an even bigger plan in mind for the GWC Blog – we want your help blogging!
We’d really like the blog to be less a reflection of just whatever Sean, Audra, and I are thinking about at the moment and more of a reflection of the community as a whole – a source for entertainment news, community fun, and just plain good 'ole GWCness. To that end, we need some help.
Here’re the basics:
1. What happens if I become a GWC Community Blogger?
You’ll write posts which will appear on the front page of the GWC website and will remain available indefinitely via the archive. Even though the GWC site isn’t currently a high-traffic concern, your posts will still be seen by approximately 50,000 unique visitors monthly accounting for around half a million page views. In short: your voice will be heard!
2. What can I blog about?
Darn near anything, though we ask you to keep three things in mind: your audience, spoilers, and GWC’s no-hate policy.
Obviously any kind of news you come across would make an excellent post – new clips of a show or movie, speculative news about movie production, etc. Information about upcoming events would be awesome, as well as coverage of any events you attend.
3. What if I’m a lousy writer or don’t know how to blog?
We’re here to help! We have two experienced blog editors (myself and Audra) who will work through your post before it goes public to make sure there are no grammatical, spelling, or other issues. And we’re happy to help you through any issues with linking, how to approach a post, etc. as well. We also have a third editor coming on soon which will help us make sure that your posts go through edit and come out in a timely fashion – under 24 hours is our goal.
4. How does the process work?
It’s easy! If you’re interested, PM Sean. He’ll set you up a GWC Community Blog account and explain how to log in and get started. Once your first post is ready, you’ll mark it “pending review” and our editors will go through it, help you with any issues, and schedule it for publication. Your post then hits the main site for all to see.
5. What are my responsibilities? Do I get paid? Is there a catch?
While we imagine that this will eventually become a serious news source for the community (and even others), this is meant to be fun. There’s no minimum post requirement; feel free to post whenever you feel like it.
Though regular contributions from awesome GWCers – thankyouthankyouthankyou – now offset about half the monthly cost of operating GWC, we’re still out of pocket for the whole shebang. So sadly we can’t afford to pay anyone for blogging right now. Hopefully down the road the income from advertising, referrals, and contributions will allow us to not only pay for GWC but pour that money back in to help support the community’s initiatives and growth – and maybe even leave us extra to pay bloggers! In the meantime, it’s totally voluntary – just like our work.
There’s no catch here. We simply realized that it’s possible for us to offer you an opportunity to be read by a significant audience. We’re huge fans of the community, and we think anything that puts the community in front of the world is A Good Thing™.
6. Do I have to blog with my real name?
No. We do ask that you blog with either your real name or your forum name just to make things simple, but even this isn’t set in stone. Contact us if you have other ideas.
7. I want to blog! What do I do next?
PM Sean. He’ll set you up and he, Audra, and I will help you through the process. We’re working on a writer’s wiki which will ease the process a bit, and hope to have it ready in the next week or two. But we couldn’t wait to open the opportunity to everyone. We’re really excited about seeing your name in print!
