Ever feel like you’re typing into space, like no one out there is actually reading your stuff? Or more importantly, ever wonder if a simple act like blogging could get you paid?

Enter Jim Gibbons, blog promoter extraordinaire. Jim works as associate editor of Wizard Magazine and keeps two blogs on the side: Nothing More American, a log of his summer camp memories, and Enemy of Peanuts, where he posts his own personal musings and fledgling Webcomic.

I asked Jim about writing, promoting and earning money on his blog. The full Q&A is after the jump, but here's a quick taste:

“First things first,” Jim says, “social networking sites and link posting sites are key.” Every time he posts to his blogs, Jim adds links to sites like Facebook, Digg and Stumbleupon — sites where readers go to get connected to things that interest them.

“If your blog is your own personal newspaper, that is like going door to door and chucking it through your neighbors windows,” he says.

Click (more) for the entire Q&A and find otu how Jim’s blog is bringing him a little revenue on the side. (And if you're a new blogger and you don't understand everything Jim is talking about, don't worry. I'll explain some of this stuff later. Or, ask! That's what comments are for!!)
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Two years ago, I started my first gig as a reporter for a newspaper — covering local government in a college town. That semester, a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University went on a killing rampage, shooting 32 students, wounding many others and eventually killing himself.

The morning after, our newsroom — about 35 college students — gathered in an auditorium to brainstorm ideas about how to cover this. After all, Virginia Tech and Missouri are both public land-grant universities with about 30,000 students. This was a story our audience cared about, and we wanted to tell it creatively. We spent more than an hour in that auditorium, throwing out ideas and hoping for the best.

We couldn’t think of anything. Our coverage over the following few weeks was typical: wire reports of what happened and the obligatory statement from someone — anyone — with a little authority who could tell us why Missouri was different.

I was starting to question whether there was a creative way to tell this story when I read a post my mother wrote for a blog. Mom linked three major news stories affecting college-aged women, stories that newsrooms around the world had failed to connect: Don Imus’ famous “nappy-headed hos” comment, the dropping of the Duke rape case charges and the shooting at Virginia Tech.

Read how my mom's blog post affected me by clicking "more."

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I woke up this morning to a N.Y. Times news alert that Swine Flu claimed its first American victim this morning.

Immediately, I opened a new window in my browser and typed in my new favorite news site for all things Swine Flu-related: Uncool Mom. I love that, through blogs, I can hear the nation’s hottest news from real people — people with stories and lives and opinions.

But maybe this is a good time for this conversation: how is blogging/citizen journalism/social media/whatever different than “journalism”? I mean, when I clicked on Uncoolmom.com this morning, I was looking for news, right? And the blog’s author is a freelance writer. So what’s the difference?

To read what I think the difference is, click the jump below.
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Ni hao! Remember me?

My name is Lindsay, but you might remember me as “Lindsay in Beijing.” Last summer, I worked at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China and blogged about my experiences.

Almost every time I go home to Dallas, I get to meet someone who read my blog. (Most common question? Did you really eat that scorpion! Answer? Yes.) Meeting readers is exciting because sometimes it’s really hard to believe there are people out there in cyberspace reading what you post. Plus, we get to relive some of our favorite moments together. Bizarre must awesome!

But here’s what I realized: While I was in Beijing, I had a chance to show NeighborsGo readers what I learned about China, but I never got to show what I learned about blogging! And let’s be serious, I love blogging.

So here we go. This post officially launches Bloggin’ with Lindsay, a blog for casual bloggers, for people thinking about blogging, or, better yet, for people who say they just don’t get blogging and think they never will. Stay tuned for insights, tips and tricks on how to tell your own stories through a blog.

I hope you’ll follow along! I promise not to be like this guy.


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