Want to take your blog to the next level?

Find out first hand from successful Black Bloggers what you need to do to take your blog from a distracting hobby to a platform that delivers your message and builds your credibility.  If your content is unique and provides true value then you have the potential to generate revenue and qualified leads too!

Want to submit feedback about this panel?  Send an email to inter@sxsw.com

Thanks to Anjuan and Amani for the video recording and production help!

Panelists

Maurice Cherry @mauricecherry (SXSW Panel organizer)

J. Smith @jbrotherlove

Gina McAuley @BWBConference

Deanna “DeDe” Sutton @clutchmagazine

The discussion was about taking your blog to the next level.  From hobby to professional.  This included monetizing blogs, networking outside your blog topic, trying out new themes and functionality. It was great!

Gina Maculey of Blogging While Brown

Deanna illustrated how she tries out new things to see what works and what doesn’t.  She saw some blogs were using Seesmic which allowed you to leave video comments. She added this, excited to see what sort of movie comments her readers would leave. Turns out her readers weren’t that hot on the technology.

Gina talked a lot about the disenfranchisement of Blacks in blogging and how they need to realize the huge potential to earn money via content. She covered direct ads on the blog, funding for political blogs, funding for 501c3 and direct solicitation.  I hear Gina on this because after I heard Angel speak at last year’s Blogging While Brown, I stepped up and began testing out ways to monetize my blog.

Do Only Black Bloggers Care About Getting Paid?

I see a comment on my blog saying something to the effect “Are these Black blogging issues only?”

No they’re not.  Compensation for skill/time/value is a huge discussion in terms of content.  Especially content created on the web.  Women are also a group that isn’t compensated equally to what men make.  People are taking real life inequalities to the web.  This doesn’t have to be so.  The first step to equality is to discuss the imbalance.  The second step is to plan.  The third step is to act.

Summary

The panel was wonderful!  Full of detailed stories, passion and solid advice.  I was tweeting up a storm and will grab those tweets to insert here.

After the session, there was a big line at the microphone of people who had comments and questions. Baratunde was up first and thanked Maurice and the panel for the session. If you don’t know him, he’s a pretty big deal on the internet, on television and in real life work so I’m going to grab his bio from his site:

Baratunde exists at the intersection of comedy, politics and technology. His official duties include Web & Politics editor at The Onion, co-founder of Jack & Jill Politics and host of PopSci’s Future Of on Science Channel. Basically, he’s a smart, funny, extremely handsome dude.

I Belong Here

I saw a lot of people I had met at other conferences and that was really, really nice since I originally hated going to conferences.  Why did I hate them?  Because I went to conferences where everyone seemed to be socially awkward and not like me.  I felt unwelcome and out of my element.  This is a common feeling for women and Brown people in technology.

While googling, I couldn’t find any stories or posts on Black people or minorities feeling excluded or alienated from technology conferences.  I talked to two women last year who were in tech, active in social media, had serious technical skills and had attended conferences where they not only were in the minority but got that sort of “Why are you here?” type look.  It’s a hard look to face but talking with other women and Brown people has made it so much easier for me that now I simply look back and smile thinking, “I belong here.”

Adria Richards (me) and Corvida Raven

Faith Dow

Twanna Hines and Nichelle Stephens

Adria Richards (me), Twanna Hines, Anjuan Simmons, Liz Burr