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- The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Competition Means CollaborationYesterday
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By DB Ferguson of the No Fact ZoneThe first and most important step before even starting a fan blog is to find out the dynamics of your fandom as it currently exists online. Is there an official site? Are there message boards out there dedicated to your subject? Are there already other fan sites? You may already be participating in these boards and on already established blogs, but if you’re not, you need to start building those relationships now.
Most fandoms have a variety of dynamics between the different sites and fandoms. It’s wise to know their stories before building a site of your own. Often, there are politics within the fandom that have “split” one section of the fandom off into another blog, or another message board. Learn what you can about what makes each site unique so that you can better understand what need your site can fill within the fandom while sti
- The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Cultivate Your PassionNovember 18
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By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone
If you’re going to build a fan site, it’s assumed that you have a passion for the subject of the blog. You don’t have to know everything about the subject of your site, but you do have to really be passionate about this journey you are about to take. If you don’t have the motivation, your site will reflect it. It’s as simple as that. But if you’re considering building a site to help have a venue for your fandom, you’re probably already where you need to be in the passion energy department to get your site going.
With passion as your driving force, you need to seriously sit down and figure out your motivations for wanting to build a fandom site.
Are your intentions pure? Or do you have ulterior motives? Everyone does everything that they do for a reason. You need to think long and hard about what it is that is driving you t
- The Art of the Fan-Based BlogNovember 17
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By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone
DB Ferguson is the webmaster of No Fact Zone, a Stephen Colbert-centric news blog and fan site. DB and her husband live in a tragically hip loft in downtown Dallas, Texas, with their 2 cats and 11 tarantulas. By day, DB works as a purchasing agent in disguise for the second largest large format copy company in the country and holds a completely useless (but impressively framed) Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Texas A&M Commerce.
You’re the #1 fan of your favorite musician/TV show/movie star and you want to start a blog about it. Doesn’t everyone? There is nothing more fun than sharing your passion for a celebrity with others, and making some money along the way. But what’s the best way to build the best fan site for your object of adoration?
As the webmaster of a Stephen Colbert/Colbert Report fan site called No Fact Zone, my site started simply like most fan sites do.
In the Summer of 2006 I started to watch “
- Introducing the Art of the Fan-Based Blog Article SeriesNovember 17
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I’m a Trekkie. For the uninformed, this means I’m nuts about Star Trek. To misquote Eddie Izzard (I’m a fan of his, too), I’m not a wacko, obsessed Trekkie. I’m an executive Trekkie. The high class, normal type of fan.
This means that while I love reading Star Trek related blogs, websites and fan forums, I won’t start one. But those who do start fan blogs are my heroes. They get to spend their whole day writing about the shows, movies, and celebrities I love. They get to talk to other people about their fan adoration (called “fandom“) all the time. Occasionally, they get to met the celebs that I wish I could meet. They make time to track all the minutia news of their fandom, and I get the benefits of their hard work.
Creating a fan blog is easy. Sustaining it is hard work. When I met DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone, the popular Stephen Colbert news and fan blog, in Dallas, Texas, last year at WordCamp Dallas, I interrogated her about how she runs her fan blog and what keeps her going day after day in honor of her favorite star.
I’m not going to tell you what she said, I’m going to let her in her own art
- Duke DesRochers: Future Social Media Renaissance ManNovember 14
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In this modern world where entertainment has many fronts, movies, network television, cable television, and the web,
The Food Network is among many entertainment companies trying to notch it up and take advantage of online social media to find The Next Food Network Star. My cousin, Duke DesRochers, has entered the contest, and as far as I am concerned, is really pushing the plate forward in American Male Food Entertainment. He isn’t singing or dancing, though he will if encouraged. He is putting on his apron - and shop goggles - and taking the kitchen into the man’s world of the tool shop. Or the reverse.
His innovative video submission called Renaissance Man (YouTube Version), turns shop tools into kitchen tools in less than three minutes
