Over at Nova’s place, we’ve been chatting a bit about setting up a central blog to pull things together in one place. I think that’s the way to go for a number of reasons, and I’ll try to explain here what some of the advantages are.
1. More efficient browsing
In terms of exposure, this is probably the most important. There’s no doubt that several of us share a lot of subscribers, and it will be easier for our readers to browse one site than it is to hop from one domain to another. Additionally, those who might read us every once in a while but aren’t regulars will be more motivated to do so if it only takes one bookmark. Even devotees of jezebel and feministing, who probably browse our blogs from time to time, will likely find a central site much more convenient, and despite our differences we do want them reading us as well (they will link us and increase publicity).
2. Automatically enhanced SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is what pulls readers into a site through searches on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. SEO is not so much a fancy trick as it is a matter of lots of relevant text. With a number of contributing writers (and commenters), we wil have reams of text in fairly short order, and the blog will pop up in searches with increasing regularity. SEO helps establish authority online, and serves as a means to steadily consolidate a reader base.
3. Traffic
I suspect that if we put together all the readers and traffic in our men’s blogosphere, we’d already have enough for a pretty potent website. Therefore, if we can consolidate into one blog, we will be starting in a pretty good position. One of the main means of directing traffic to a website is through links, and I trust we’ll all link to any central blog. Increasing traffic is really our number one goal, because we want to increase exposure and influence. Furthermore, high traffic will allow the site to pay for itself in time, and then individual content contributors can use the site as a launching pad for their own published work (e.g. books, videos).
The above three reasons are the most important, but there are a number of other advantages: More writers and readers on the same blog will promote cooperation and activism; a larger, more popular site will allow more specific focuses to emerge, such as regional groups; more powerful people will actually start to notice us, and; it may even allow some people to make this into a profession rather than a hobby.
Of course, there are always a few disadvantages. Managing a group of people is never easy, and this is why I don’t think anyone should even try. All of the bloggers I’m addressing here have already proven themselves quite capable of writing and posting material on their own, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
It may take a bit of trial and error for some to use WordPress (the CMS I plan on using), but I don’t see us as a bunch of technophobes. Maintaining the site may be a bit of a pain, but I’ve got a few years of experience doing this, and with the WP Codex I should be able to handle any issues without having to resort to outside help.
As far as rules are concerned, I think only one needs to be spelled out and enforced:
No copyright infringement!
As the domain holder I’ll be held responsible for this, and I can’t afford a copyright lawyer at this time. I think I’ll put up a private page for the benefit of writers that spells out how to avoid this. Contributions from attorneys or others with info on staying on the safe side here would be most welcome.
As for other guidelines, just use your own judgment and keep in mind that we will have thousands of readers, and hopefully, in time, many more than that!
All in all it will take some doing and a couple weeks to get it up and running, but once I get a commitment from enough writers (a half-dozen should do the trick for starters), I’ll go fetch a domain and start building the site.
20 responses so far ↓
1 Ovid // Aug 22, 2009 at 11:36 am
Excellent idea.I’ve often thought about suggesting that myself.It may even lead to concerted action at some future point.
2 Ovid // Aug 22, 2009 at 11:46 am
I forgot to mention;there already exists something similar to your proposal welmer.Here it is:
http://www.misandryreview.com/
3 Grim // Aug 22, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Interesting idea. I have a suggestion: Make it more like the huffington post, but for guys topics.
Articles how how to game women, human nature, get together for guys just to hang out, learned to be strong men again, ect.
Something will bring a big group of guys together with common interest of just being men.
4 Welmer // Aug 22, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I’ve seen the misandry review, and think it’s a good resource.
What I’d like to set up is something that offers a bit wider appeal, and perhaps some entertainment thrown in as well — in short, an online men’s magazine with a political theme but also commentary on other issues.
Misandry review pretty much wraps up the activism angle, but there’s a lot more out there that guys want to read and write about. Some of the female-oriented sites like jezebel get a whole lot of traffic by writing about a wide range of women’s issues and interests.
There’s room for a couple big men’s sites out there, and I can set up a pretty good magazine-style site with a little work. In fact, I’d say I can set up a truly superior site, and I’d like to give it a shot.
5 Welmer // Aug 22, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Exactly, but as optimistic as I’d like to be, the Huffington Post is a pretty lofty target to shoot for. It’s like one of the gods of the blogosphere.
Whatever the case, we’ve got to give this a shot. There is this sort of nebulous cloud of consensus that is starting to form in the collective male consciousness. We are just entering a period of accretion, and so there is quite a bit of opportunity there.
6 Grim // Aug 22, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Well if you do decide to put something like the post together, hit me up if you need a bit of free programming. I’m not an expert on setting up online apps, but I know a bit of PhP, java and .net and work as a database programmer.
7 Welmer // Aug 22, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Will do, Grim. Shouldn’t need too much programming with a nice out-of-the box CMS, but I can imagine some PHP issues coming up from time to time. Although I can work with PHP, I am no expert. This means I have to consult reference materials all the time and it gets very tedious.
8 novaseeker // Aug 22, 2009 at 2:23 pm
A very good idea and I fully support it.
9 Justin // Aug 22, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Would it be crazy to include both sides, to link and aggregate feminst blogs too? Maybe even along the lines of creating a conversation. Full spectrum dominance, that’s what I’m talking about.
From my studies of religion, I can assure you, control of the metanarrative is the key to victory of your worldview.
10 Puma // Aug 22, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I will support it as a reader and will publicize it elsewhere as often as I can.
11 Welmer // Aug 22, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I was definitely thinking about that, Justin.
The thing about online media that makes what you propose easier is that you can immediately comment on other sites’ articles. I’ve written a few posts based on Jezebel material, and I know they’ve written some based on Roissy.
Because they still have the upper hand, I don’t think we can control the metanarrative (at least not yet), but we can build an independent voice, and converse more on our own terms.
BTW, one of the reasons I included the warning about copyright infringement is because a lot of those other sites, including hufpo, have been getting in some trouble over that lately. What we need is guys who can offer their own commentary on other articles on short notice.
Bob Franklin over at Glenn Sacks’ blog is very good at that.
12 Savvy // Aug 22, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I thought of misandry review right away. I drop by there often. It’s not a very pretty site, but it gets the job done.
Beware of legalities…Happy Bachelor shut down for that reason.
It needs a classic literature component, don’tcha think? I’ve always wanted to start a man friendly book club.
13 whiskey // Aug 22, 2009 at 11:20 pm
I’d be happy to contribute. FWIW, WordPress is pretty easy to configure for this purpose, and customization is pretty easy.
For hosting, I’ve found Bluehost.com to be quite reasonable and have all the bells and whistles you want, including configurable e-mail addresses that match domain names. Most of my clients are on Bluehost and love it. One VERY nice thing is that you can get your access logs, “raw” and then download them, run them on AWStats, on a dedicated machine, to see your traffic in detail. More drill-down than Google’s traffic analysis, and and of course you don’t share your confidential logs either. This can be particularly useful in nailing down navigation issues, if people suddenly jump off your site for some reason, you’ll see it, in the path analysis.
Let me know.
14 Ferdinand Bardamu // Aug 23, 2009 at 8:29 am
Welmer, are you looking to create something akin to “Men’s Rights Blogs,” (whose main site doesn’t appear to be working right now) which basically functions as a public RSS aggregator for MRA blogs, or something closer to Men’s News Daily? I’d be honored to contribute in either case.
15 Welmer // Aug 23, 2009 at 9:35 am
Whiskey, thanks for the advice. Your contributions are most welcome. An entertainment industry critic/columnist would be great.
Ferdinand, I was thinking more along the lines of MND than an aggregator. But even so, I’d like more of a focus on original content as well as a broader range of commentary on issues of interest to men (e.g. entertainment, sports, arts and travel/recreation in addition to political concerns). It doesn’t all have to be about politics — we are well-rounded people with diverse interests after all.
16 Eman // Aug 25, 2009 at 12:47 am
“This is not a trivial subject,” Duany added. “We worry about the thirteen per cent African-Americans and fifteen per cent Hispanics. Well, there’s fifty per cent males who are very ill served by our physical environment.” Those fifty per cent, it may be worth noting, include Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor, who was moved, long before he fled to his mistress in Argentina, to dig giant holes in his back yard. He needed a cave.
- http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/08/03/090803ta_talk_mcgrath
17 Eman // Aug 25, 2009 at 12:53 am
Check out JH Kunstler on the lack of male space in the USA – KunstlerCast#76: http://www.kunstlercast.com/
18 Beta Prime // Aug 25, 2009 at 5:27 am
Glad to see this idea being carried out! Are you brainstorming what to call the site? I could offer help with a logo…
19 Welmer // Aug 25, 2009 at 11:20 am
Yes, Beta, I am trying to figure out a name. I think I’ve got the right concept, but narrowing down to the correct phrase is a little more difficult than I thought it would be.
Logo design would be greatly appreciated. Do you have Adobe CS?
20 ganttsquarry // Aug 26, 2009 at 12:45 am
“I’d like more of a focus on original content as well as a broader range of commentary on issues of interest to men (e.g. entertainment, sports, arts and travel/recreation in addition to political concerns). It doesn’t all have to be about politics — we are well-rounded people with diverse interests after all.”
I think that is an excellent concept. I think it should have a “Renaissance Man” kind of feel to it.
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