Writing for New Media

The latest reminder that YOU are responsible for anything you post online, even on a professional news organization's site or someone else's blog:

A real estate agent in Houston who blogged about Anna Nicole Smith was jailed for contempt last week in a defamation case brought by the late Playboy model's mother.
Legal experts said bloggers are increasingly the targets of such litigation, which are testing the bounds of free speech.

Read the full story here.

Labels: blogs, legal issues, libel

In "Be More Than a Blip in the Blogosphere," Washington Post writer Dan Zak offers 10 tips for building an audience for your blog. All are good, and No. 1 might just sound familiar:

TELL STORIES RATHER THAN STICKING SOLELY TO LINKS OR PHOTOS. "Unless you're Perez Hilton or the peeps at TMZ or the Superficial, [links and photos] won't keep people coming back," says North Bethesda resident Melissa Jordan, 42, of Church of the Big Sky ( http://www.merujo.blogspot.com). Make stories compelling and, most of all, relatable.

So what are you waiting for? You're doing the work; you might as well get the readers.

Labels: audience, blogs