Managing A Large Group of Blog Contributors

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By Geoff Kleinman Geoff_at_kleinman.com _at_GeoffK
http//www.onpdx.com
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It Can Be Done!
DVDTalk.com 60 Writers
NeighborhoodNotes.com 40 Writers
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Your Job as Editor

• Establish and maintain Editorial Voice
• Assemble The Team
• Communicate
• Cheerlead
• Give Good Feedback
• Keep Team Focused
• Resolve Conflicts

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Secrets to Being A GREAT Editor

• Be Benevolent
• Work for the success of your staff
• Kill Your Ego
• Being Right isn't Being Successful
• Never Cherry Pick
• Give your top writers top opportunities
• Create VALUE for your writers
• Go out there and get review copies, interviews,
  etc on behalf of your team

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Editorial Voice

• Many people can speak as one voice
• Decided what that voice is
• Break out by Topic/Category/Subject
• Can be Genre, Locale or even tone
• Bring on people to fill specific areas
• Don't have too much overlap
• Keep people focused on their topic

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Create A Writer's Guidebook

• Define Editorial Tone
• Set expectations
• How many posts per week?
• Give examples of what you want to see
• Provide publishing promotion how to
• Encourage Communication
• Define the rules of your site

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Your Blog Team
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Communication is Key!

• One to One Communication Email, IM, Telephone
• One to Many Communication Forum Email
• Important to keep in regular communication with
  your staff
• Success includes getting your staff to
  communicate with eachother.

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Tools For Communication
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Give Your Writers Feedback

• Writers NEED feedback
• No News is Not Good News
• Email them kudos when they do well tips when
  they are stumbling
• When a story gets a lot off traffic, dont keep
  that to yourself TELL THEM

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The Best Tool To Resolve Issues

• Dont air issues with writers online or in
  comments
• Never criticize a writers work in public
• Editor/Publishers cant take off that hat and be
  regular commenters
• Dont have it out via email
• Pick up the damn phone

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Keys to Happy Contributors

• Give contributors ownership of their work (pride
  of ownership)
• Dont be possessive of your writers or their work
• Let writers make mistakes. Mistakes are where the
  learning comes in
• Show Your Appreciation
• Reward Hard work
• Empower them to become leaders

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Q A
My Contact Info Geoff Kleinman Geoff_at_kleinman.com
_at_GeoffK
http//www.onpdx.com