Write
Who are we looking for? A few good bloggers. Check out our guidelines below.
Contributors:
- Aaron Proctor
- Calwatch
- Sir Eric
- Tableau Vivante
- Zane
- 91024
Photo Editor:
- The Real Zajac
Guidelines
Who can contribute?
Anyone. You, or that one person you know would love the FC Blog but you’ve forgotten to tell them about us. Who you are and where you live (even if you live in India) doesn’t matter, either. Feel free to submit posts using your real name or anonymously. What matters is not who you are but what you submit.
What will get published?
We’ll be editing and approving everything, so you can’t just submit any old thing. The short answer is anything relating to the land, people, culture, and governments of Pasadena, Altadena (we’re going to add Altadena), Sierra Madre, Arcadia, Monrovia, Bradbury, Duarte, Azusa, Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Claremont, or Pomona.
You have the best chance of getting published if you send us something that
A) In some way makes up for the deficiencies in the local press. In other words, you scoop the local media on something or talk about something they don’t. Don’t just gripe about local media—this is your chance to help remake local media as you see fit. If you are referencing the local media in some way, be sure to justify your piece’s existence by giving something more or better than what is already out there.
B) Simply present facts about local events, people, politics, culture, etc. without a lot of commentary. You can send us whatever you want, of course, but it’ll be easiest to press the publish button when we get submissions that document facts and are light on the fatty opinion dressing. At least, keep long opinions on the side and present facts first, as this will make our editing a lot easier.
C) Provide unique information not available elsewhere. For instance, you can submit pictures, video, documents, websites and so forth that relate to an item in the local media but weren’t included by them. Or just send in original and relevant pictures, video, documents, websites and so forth that amuse you, or that relate to your own, original post.
Keep in mind that any references to national or state politics should be strictly non-partisan in nature. We couldn’t care less about what you think about those issues—all the FC Blog cares about is what relates directly to the FC.
How:
Email a sample post (links and all) to “Publius [at] thefcblog [dot] com” from 100-500 words (or a photo if you are visually inclined) that demonstrates your mad skilz. If you pass the test and complete the obstacle course in less than ninety seconds, we’ll let down the rope ladder, invite you into the treehouse and grant you contributor access to the blog. Then, we will continue to throw rotten apples at the kids who live on Mulberry Street.
Why bother?
First of all, it’s more eyeballs on your work. The FC Blog’s monthly page views have grown more than 25,000-fold since January. That means in the past seven months, we’re 25,000 times more popular. If we’re able to increase that much in popularity in the next seven months…um, well, we’d have more page views than any website in existence. It does help that we could count our readers on one hand back in January (*cough*).
But seriously, the blog has grown, a lot faster than we expected. Our most important asset, our readership, is involved and interested in all things local. So, if you want to make a difference or make a name, locally, this is an entertaining way to start. If you want to praise the sweet band that played at the 322 in Sierra Madre or report on the miserable experience of shopping in downtown Pomona or simply tell about a chance encounter with Bill Bogaard in an awesome outfit, here’s your chance.
Do we pay anything? Sadly, no. But as the blog continues to grow, we’d love to compensate the folks who pitch in, if we can drum up some advertising revenue. At the very least, when the masks come off, we’ll definitely treat you to a good soak at an FC watering hole.