News following the freedom movement

Discussion in 'Survival Reading Room' started by enloopious, May 24, 2016.


  1. enloopious

    enloopious Rocket Surgeon

    Hi guys and gals,
    Uncle Loopster here for another exciting crowd participation thread. The recent events and stories and posts etc that have been making their rounds are good but it seems that news, real news, is getting hard to get ahold of and people in this revolution that seems to be sprouting need information. Real and accurate information about what is going on today.

    I was thinking a newspaper was a good idea but I don't know about daily publication and costs and all that so then I started thinking a magazine was a good idea. But once a month seems like its too slow to get real info out. Then I started thinking about crowd funding and the likes so I thought I'd throw this out there and get your opinions.

    I want to know what you all think is best strategy to cover this impending revolution. Newspaper, leaflets, magazines, ezines, an app, crowd funding to pay for it all, a benefactor, angel investor... maybe all of it. Lets get some community input.
     
    Motomom34 likes this.
  2. Salted Weapon

    Salted Weapon Monkey+++

    One thing when I owned and operated a Oregon lobby website that is since closed we always felt that local was the way to go. I spoke with a marketing guy who had huge success and they did it in a keep it simple stupid way when it came to grass roots. Stickers with a website addy and got local stores and shops to get the leaflets and then have it in there another idea is to get phone apps made where updates can be sent to phones, and tablets and emails. There are many companies now making apps for small companies.
    A great thin to is to hit up shows at the fairgrounds etc that are like the topic you want discussed, I been to school for business law not marketing and sadly we used the idea to late and exhausted funds. So if I would say one thing keep it simple and do not over reach that was the unraveling is we went to far to fast and lost funding and could not sustain the level needed. Be careful too on getting commitments, every one want to volunteer and help etc, until they get busy bored or irritated with how you are running things and is why I digress simple do not over reach until ready and use simple marketing tools and free ones like local mom and pops. It seem mass media wise you would be best to in the electronic world as every day paper and delivery is getting price e-commerce and basic user friendly resources as the way to go and start in my opinion.
     
  3. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Quick and dirty answer: Blog.
     
    VisuTrac, Salted Weapon and RightHand like this.
  4. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I agree with ghrit - blog then get as many followers as you can. Tie your blog site to your social media presence. Soon, not only your friends and acquaintances but the web spiders will start picking you up. You'll be off and running.

    A blog with a point of view is great but I'm a proponent of offering an array of information/opinion that will draw diverse followers.
     
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  5. Salted Weapon

    Salted Weapon Monkey+++

    ^^^^^^^^
    Blogs are free and even with a cheap domain name would help get noticed dirt cheap. I also think Blogger allows you to submit to the google search engine, not sure about wordpress and others.
     
  6. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Interesting idea Uncle Loopster. I think maybe those people above maybe correct. A blog is a trendy thing and you can have guest posters. I am sure there are some monkeys that would love to write a clear take on the news. Actually, do we have a blog area here on the monkey?
     
  7. Tevin

    Tevin Monkey+++

    As someone with experience in traditional and digital media, I think I can offer a unique, real-world perspective on this.

    For starters, if you are looking to start a news outlet with actual news, you will need a regular flow of stories written by professional journalists. This is not the same as someone spouting personal opinions & anecdotes on a blog or social media. While you may be great at telling your own story, you may not be so great at telling someone else's. Good writing is a very difficult skill to learn.

    Second, forget about print or traditional media. No one cares about newspapers anymore. And even broadcast radio/TV is on the decline. If you must go with traditional media, your best bet is buying time on a brokered radio station. How it works is you pay per hour for air time and can do whatever you want with it. You can sell & produce advertising yourself to cover the bill, or just pay out of pocket. Rates can run from $25/hour or so on small stations up to many hundreds of dollars on a large market, big signal station. Many stations sell brokered time to fill in weekends and overnights. And of course, you'll have to produce (or buy) the programming.

    I have a buddy who hosts a radio show on a brokered basis. It's very well produced and popular, but he has been doing it for years and has never made a dime. He says it's "the world's most popular failing radio program".

    As @ghrit and others have suggested, starting a blog is easy and inexpensive. You can head over to Wordpress right now and go live with your own domain in literally minutes. The problem with blogs is that there are so many of them and it's hard to get attention in a crowded field. Some poorly done blogs take off on their own while others just languish even though they have really good content.

    I run two blogs and have had experiences both ways: In less than six months one became wildly popular without really trying; while the other is over two years old, has been heavily promoted and even got some high-profile endorsements, but is still lightly travelled. Forget any ideas of "build it and they will come".

    I suggest you start by committing to write one article per week for six weeks to see if you really have what it takes to produce solid material and post regularly. It takes me about 10-15 hours to research, write, edit, format, add links and photos, and upload one 600-800 word op-ed article. Technical topics on my second blog require as many as 30 hours for a 1100-1900 word article. It is real work. If after a few weeks you feel like you can't keep up, then you should reconsider if this is something you really want to do.
     
  8. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    If you can offer a blog with push technology .. send email updates to subscribers (don't forget to give them a good way to unsubscribe or suspend updates), that way if they forget to hit your blog .. they still got notified and may read it in their inbox.
     
    Cruisin Sloth likes this.
  9. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    @Tevin is correct its hit or miss no matter what kind of promotion you do. Paid ads, email lists etc its all about how you tap Google's algorithms. and no one really knows the secret formula.

    I run a couple of sites for very good bloggers and one, took off by magic, the otherone I have struggled for 2 years and finally got it to the top of its key words. You never know what or why something will get hit.

    I have both blogs tied to twitter, facebook, google plus, tumbler etc, I have links out, links in and I still don't know what the secret formula is.... the one that is floundering even got picked up by a popular government site.... did not make any difference.
     
    chelloveck and Tevin like this.
  10. Tevin

    Tevin Monkey+++

    I use Wordpress for both my sites (as a software suite, not for hosting). They have an SEO plug in that does a very good job of telling you what you need to do to gain the attention of search engines. The plug in is free but you do have to activate it.

    Having Facebook, Twitter, RSS, push notifications, etc., is nice, but in my experience these things do not result in many page views. I estimate that 90% of my hits come from search engines or what I assume to be people randomly happening by. My "followers" list is very tiny compared to total site traffic.

    The idea that you can throw together a blog and effortlessly become an internet celebrity is a myth believed only by people who have never seriously operated a blog.

    Some of them do catch fire for no clear reason, but a blog is like a high maintenance girlfriend: You have to keep supplying fresh material or it will fizzle out. A Blogger may become famous by accident, but they stay famous because of hard work and dedication. It's not uncommon for a blog to make a big but brief splash because of one single posting, and then just as quickly drop back into obscurity.
     
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  11. enloopious

    enloopious Rocket Surgeon

    The problem with Blogs are that the power some times goes out. If the internet kill switch should ever be activated then we want a continuity system to keep things going. I would say that a blog is ok but there should be more to it than just that. There should be hard copy especially if things get crazy.

    I'm thinking open sourced, grass roots is the way to go as well. Perhaps let the writers get paid by their own success. Add videos and mix the old school with the new. Make it in the content producers best interest to have interesting and compelling stories. Then the producers with the best stuff get to be in the print mag. Follow the examples of the successful people and build on that.
     
  12. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    costs for printing and distribution are going to be killer unless it's subsidized by advertising.
    Looking at The Backwoodsman magazine right now.
    single issue price 5.50
    annual subscription is 25.00 for 6 issues
    half page ad is 750.00
    of the 90 pages 15 ( 1/6th of the pages) are advertisements.
    distribution is 250K copies

    There are print houses that can print off a magazine for you but w/o advertizers the cost to the subscriber is probably out of their price range. You won't get the cost per unit down until you probably about 10k subscribers per issue. Deep pockets are going to be required to get it off the ground.

    Other hard copy alternative is to buy a laser jet printer and send stapled like a school news letter.

    Here is another issue you might want to think about. OPSEC.
    I'd rather give you an email address than my mailing address.
    Very few here have my actual physical address.

    I'm not saying you shouldn't persue the idea of creating a publication. If it's your dream then do it.
    but you might want to do some 'Focus group sessions' to see how people want their information delivered to them.

    I'll defer to others but in my opinion digital distribution is the way going forward. And probably on the small screen (tablet, phone).
    Just grab a scrap of paper and tick off how many people you see reading a book, magazine, newspaper vs a digital device.
     
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  13. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    Do some research on how to advertise in local newspaper ads for free. Hit up local classifieds state-by-state and continue this every month. Have all your ads direct the reader to Survival Monkey Forums

    And start a thread and get writing. ;)
     
    enloopious likes this.
  14. oldawg

    oldawg Monkey+++

    With out a doubt, "Tell-A-Woman" is the FASTEST way to spread information. [gone] [peep]
     
    enloopious likes this.
  15. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    @oldawg you do read this site right? There are more gossipy old men on here that women....... just saying [LMAO][reddevil][finger]
     
    enloopious, oldawg and Dont like this.
  16. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Might be because there are more chatty old men than yakky women. But he's right -- {chortle}

    Now,. back to Loop's news --
     
    Dont likes this.
  17. enloopious

    enloopious Rocket Surgeon

    I am a firm believer that you figure out WHAT you want and then MAKE it happen no matter how hard or impossible it seems. You must know about prohibitive costs to either conquer them or go around them and I believe that there is a solution to everything. With the print I am not sure if I want to go magazine or newspaper style or both or if there's a third option... Third options are always the best in my opinion. What about a magazine/newspaper that adapts and changes depending on the amount and quality of the news...

    With digital I definitely think that is something we need. I know a few people who run online and print and it is some work but they make it happen and get the ad space sold. I think crowd funding is a good way to get started. No matter what we definitely want to cover all revenue sources. What ever it takes to make it work right?

    The news should permeate all aspects of media so you can read it like a paper, magazine, cell or tablet article, or even print and redistribute it. So many people are worried about copyright and that crap that they miss the bigger picture. If you have constant content coming out, let people share it. There is enough good news and stories out there that they would have a hard time keeping up, and besides, this is information people need to be free. Why shouldn't they have it. Since traditional media has all but been abandoned maybe we can pick up their scraps and get strong from them.

    The key is that I want this to be able to survive no matter if the internet goes down or even if the country goes full police state... especially if it goes Nazi police state. Imagine trying to get a paper out against Hitler in Nazi Germany. We have the Free Press clause but do we have the smarts and tech to keep it going if things go sideways?

    Maybe call it "The First" or "The Cornerstone" or "3%" or "Free American"...
     
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