ScooptWords blog

Caught plagiarised

Jonathan at Plagiarism Today writes a long feature about ScooptWords. Good stuff and well worth a read. Unfortunately, like many Wordpress blogs of late, and for some reason I can't fathom when I post a comment to the site, it doesn't show up. So I'll post my comment here. I've also emailed it to Jonathan,

Excellent overview Jonathan, cheers. Just a few additions/clarifications.

The oft talked about blog button is already broaching sales, but it is actually a very, very small part of what we're about. It's the most passive sales method we currently have.

In the near future we will package the most commercial posts and present them in an easy to buy fashion. Editors will be able to sign up for a tailored email newsletter and/or RSS feed or visit an aggregated website. Buying content is as simple clicking a payment button in a feed, an email, on a website, or indeed the blog button on the originating blog.

How do we choose the 'most commercial posts'? Well, as you mention, we all have a journalistic background. We're not just some tech start up looking to make cash from bloggers. Some of us have written books, worked as editors or staff writers and freelances, so we have an idea of what sells and where it sells. I still work as a journalist myself. We're not saying we're experts, but we're not that clueless either :)

Also, we strongly believe that an editorial gatekeeper is key to the success of ScooptWords, or any blog based content selling service for that matter. We've had some great feedback from editors on our plans. From editors at publications with a 2 million circulation to wee specialist outfits with print runs in the thousands. Our job is to make the best, relevant, niche content available to these editors in an easily digestible form that's a snap for them to buy. As I mentioned, all of that's coming, just give us some time :)

You're bang on about rates, nothing is fixed in stone. We'll be reassessing every aspect of ScooptWords within 6 months. The blogger/ScooptWords cut is high on the list to chat about.

As for the copyright protection we offer. It's interesting that many bloggers signed up to BlogBurst, seemingly without realising the copyright grab that was going on and for no money. I believe BB have changed this slightly now. This made us very starkly aware that many bloggers didn't seem to have a clue about copyright. I mean I'm a blogger too and I'm very protective of my content - I've dealt head on with spambloggers and gotten results. Funnily enough, BlogBurst approached me to sign up for their service :)

However, there's no way I'm giving my content away, least of all to a company that's making cash out of it and offering zilch in return bar 'exposure'. Unfortunately, agreements like that are absolute nobrainers for newspapers. They get to choose whatever blog content they want and they get it for free and, worse, they plaster that content with advertising. Did you see how Scott Karp's post on SFGate appeared in a BlogBurst feed:

http://publishing2.com/2006/07/19/3-million-bloggers-looking-to-make-money/

Now tell me if that was your content and you saw no financial gain from that how would you feel? Be honest now.

Do it again

ProBlogger Darren Rowse's series 'What I'd do differently if I had to start my blog over again' has come to a close. He got 14 replies from his favourite bloggers. Now he's opening the question up to the oi polloi in a group writing project. If you're interested in taking part, this is the page for you. Here's what he's after,

Write a post on the topic of ‘what I’d do differently if I had to start my blog again’

• Be as creative as you’d like - take it in any direction you want from writing a long list of what you’d do differently to a single short point.
• You can write it in any form you like (last time we had poems, rants, humorous posts etc).
• Consider calling your post something a little different to ‘what I’d do differently if I…..’ as last time we had 80 submissions, most of which had similar titles. Your title is a key to making people come and read your post.
• Ideally it’d be great if you could write it on your actual blog but if it’s completely inappropriate to do so I’ll post them again on ProBlogger on a ‘page’ (not a post) with a link back to your blog.
• Feel free to write your post in your own first language - I’ve previously included a number of non-english posts and am excited by the prospect of making this a multi-lingual project.

Technorati Tags: blogging for beginners, problogging

Viva la 'J' list

The New York Times runs a short feature on journalists, namely Om Malik, Rafat Ali and Nina Munk, who've gone it alone, left the deadwood behind, received varying degrees of funding and made a success of it. The money quote comes from Ali,

“A lot of journalists are going to have to rethink what they are doing if they are going to survive,” said Mr. Ali. “If you stand back and do nothing, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? The newspaper you are working at could go away and then you won’t have a place to work.” via Cyberjournalist.

Gloom and doom in the press is one thing, but look beyond these 'A' listers who are scurrying their way out rather successfully and you'll discover a whole lot more bloggers earning $100 in Adsense here, $1000 there, a commission this month, a BlogAd next month, a new contact today, a regular client tomorrow. These bloggers who find their blog 'leads to something unexpected' far outweigh those like Malik, Ali and Munk who impress with headlines, but who represent the more freakish corner of blogdom.

Technorati Tags: benefits of blogging, blog marketing

The Long Tail speaks

This could be worth tuning into if you're a Skype user. Wired Magazine Editor and Long Tailologist, Chris Anderson, will be taking part in a Typepad Skypecast tonight, today, tomorrow depending on your time zone,

On Monday, July 24 at 1:30 PM PDT, we'll be hosting a moderated SkypeCast discussion with Anderson.  To participate, all you'll need is Skype and this link:  skypecasts.skype.com.  We couldn't be more excited about this event!

ScooptWords members are very much part of the Long Tail; selling niche products to niche markets. If this is the first time you've heard of the theory of the Long Tail, here's Anderson's original article that preceded the blog, that heralded the Wikipedia entry before the book was released this month.

Technorati Tags: long tail, skypecast

The deadline is dead

I've been corresponding with Linda Jones, the journalist and blogger behind an opinion column in this week's Press Gazette. Linda comments here now and then, Hi Linda :) I don't quite agree with her stance in the column. Actually, that's a lie - I don't agree with it at all. But, rather than go into the details of our amiable email chitter-chatter, I'll quote this single bit from me:

And as for "the deadline" Forget it, it's exactly what it says it is, dead. Instant publishing will crush the notion of the newspaper deadline within one year. And those newspapers that don't understand why that is so, will die a year after. But, that's a topic for another day...

Or, as it happens, not another day, but today. Blog uber-god Jeff Jarvis, a man I once interviewed over the net and met briefly on Regent Street a few months back, chimes in,

It’d [be] ironic, or possibly just odd, that one of the newest papers in Britain, The Independent, is the most stuck in the mud online. They put  up pay walls and the editor, Simon Kelner, just decreed that he’d never put stories on the web first, like his competitor, The Guardian, and that he wants to raise the price of the declining print product... Roy Greenslade sits Kelner down for a talkin’-to

Technorati Tags: deadline, newspapers, online first

Another day another survey

The latest in a recurring series of internet surveys is being dissected around the Net.

'Much of the public and press attention to bloggers has focused on the small number of high-traffic, A-list bloggers,' said Associate Director Susannah Fox. 'By asking a wide range of bloggers what they do and why they do it, we have found a different kind of story about the power of the Internet to encourage creativity and community among all kinds of Internet users.'

Cristiano Ventura, MSN Spaces marketing manager said: 'It remains to be seen whether blogging will take over traditional media, but growth in the next five years is going to be expediential.'

This is true. There's no indication that the growth is slowing. What does this mean? Well, too many things for me to go into here. However, for print and publishing outlets interested in harnessing and paying for blog content - and we now know there are plenty of those - it means there is an ever greater, more immediate need for the likes of ScooptWords to collate, filter and present the most commercial content for magazine and newspaper editors to select and purchase. So, nothing we didn't already know, just more impetus to do it.

Technorati Tags: Pew, survey

Cut the cliche

It's easy to slip in a cliche now and then. Come rain or shine, we all do it. When I'm writing for the press, I'm a rabid re-editor. However, I still manage to miss my own cliches, especially when I've really got my nose to the grindstone.

When you spot one, a cliche is like an elephant in the living room of your blog. A brutal reminder of how, even if you leave no stone unturned, cliches can easily creep in and destroy your well crafted prose. Upping the ante Loose Wire quotes a report by Factiva that states the single, most overused cliche is 'at the end of the day'

"The phrase was used more than 10,500 times in the U.S. media, more than double the next most used cliche (“in the black”)"

If you want to delve deeper into how your blog's scores on readability, you can burn the midnight oil with the Gunning-Fog test.

Technorati Tags: cliche, Factiva

Petite Blogger sacked

Tim highlights (another) case of a blogger, Petite Anglaise, who was sacked for blogging.

An English secretary is bringing a test case under French labour law after allegedly being sacked for bringing her employers into disrepute by writing a "Bridget Jones in Paris" blog describing her everyday life...

...She was told she was being suspended pending dismissal. "The phrase used, 'gross misconduct', usually means you've done something terrible like you embezzle money from your firm," said Catherine, 33, a French and German graduate who grew up in Yorkshire but has spent all her working life in Paris.  

"I was so shocked that I didn't stick up for myself, even to point out that the whole blog was written anonymously. I was given five minutes to gather my belongings and leave." From the Telegraph.

As Tim says,

Anyone in the publishing world looking for a decent book package (for the lady certainly knows how to write)?

We don't do books at ScooptWords - not yet anyhow - but he's got a point. She's sharp and witty with it. Bon chance Petite Anglaise. Meanwhile, is the boss reading your diary?

UPDATE: Petite Anglaise explains more at Comment is free.

Technorati Tags: blogger sacked, petite anglaise

Scoopt snapper wins journalism award

An eyewitness who took photographs of the aftermath of a bomb blast on a bus in Tavistock Square on July 7 and sent them to Scoopt has won the first Nokia Citizen Journalism Award.

The winning photographer, who asked to remain anonymous, and will be donating his prizes to charity, said: "If I tell you that I don't remember seeing the bus you won't believe me, but I didn't see it, such was the confusion in my head.

"I could have taken more pictures if I was a professional, but the reality was that I couldn't.

"The press interest in my photos was overwhelming.

"I asked [agency] Scoopt to look after the pictures for me so that I would not have to look at them any more, but of course the memories will never go away."

From the Press Gazette.

Technorati Tags: citizen journalism, July 7, Scoopt, Nokia Citizen Journalism Award

Partnership with Creative Commons announced

Creative Commons issue a press release announcing the partnership with ScooptWords,

“ScooptWords offers bloggers a great way to monetize their work, while still engaging in the participatory culture of the Web,” said Eric Steuer, creative director of Creative Commons. “Scoopt has come up with an innovative and workable way for bloggers to interact with print media, and be rewarded for it. We’re glad that Scoopt has chosen Creative Commons licensing to encourage bloggers to make their work part of a growing resource of shared and freely-available information.”

One correction though,

"The blogger receives 75% of the sales revenue (50% for the first transaction)."

Not anymore. ScooptWords take 25% on all transactions, first, second, third or...

Technorati Tags: Creative Commons, copyright