January 16, 2008
50 Bucks Says MyZip Can Beat Up Your Zip
The Craigslist ad reads:
Do you want to earn extra cash blogging about your community? MyZip.net is building the first nationwide network of neighborhood blogs. We will pay you $50 per month for writing about your neighborhood on your own ZIP code site (example http://www.98122.net).We're in favor of this because neighborhood microblogs support our top-secret strategy of using RSS feeds and Google alerts to bring you news as if it happened to us.
Also, MyZip.net is the bastard child (they have a real, legitimate one, so we want to distinguish) of the CHS blog. The MyZippers have a whole flotilla of Seattle neighborhood blogs by now, including someone who owns our zip code.
Obviously this raises the question of gang warfare (what doesn't) over zip codes. We think the MyZippers need some kind of "two bloggers enter, one blogger leaves" rule so that they take the responsibility of speaking for a whole zip code seriously.
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See. Where I live (98121)........ I just... Well, let me just say, this is the latest three posts:
"CRUNCYROLL.COM
if you didnt know you can see nearly all anime all the time!
uhm... and its FREE.
ahhhhh how i love the taste of that word on my lips!"
and
"THE BUS IN THE FREE RIDE ZONE!
...makes sense to me.
for those who are new to seattle (ie- ME) you will probably be amazed that this service is provided although its probably to make up for the rediculous parking (but lets not get into that)"
and
"Grandview dog park
Located in Kent, Wa!
Now im not entirely sure of the addy so you might have to do a little bit of research. but it is well worth yoiur time.
Friendly dogs, even friendlier handlers.. an all over good time and bonding experience for you and your pooch!"
I shit you not. But they only want one person per zipcode and I'm not supposed to move until September. I guess I'll just have to be patient.
Happy to help Seattlest come up with new things to write from all over the city (and the nation -- West Reno, anybody?)
Thanks for the plug. Agree with the ZIP Thunderdome comment and won't argue with Troy about the merits of what's currently appearing on 98121 -- I'll just say we're working on it. Many of our contributors are experienced writers and some are even experienced placebloggers. But some people are new to it all. We're working on building a system that helps them make it work. In the meantime, you can vote with your mouse by leaving comments or sending mail.
BTW, MvB, your link to CHS is busted but you'll probably discover soon enough as you read and re-read this post through the day. I know how it is.
Yeah, I was just conversing with a friend about 98121. I have no issue with folks getting their learn on. However, I am curious (asking in a public forum because I'm sure others have thought the same thing to themselves, many perhaps actually looked for the answer), is it possible to have multiple writers?
I know that only one paid person, but I'm sure a few other folks wouldn't mind contributing from time to time pro bono. I know I would.
A lot of us have our own blogs and blog about our neighborhoods in that, so it's just a "copy plus paste" for some folks.
Speaking of copying and pasting, I'm really beginning to hate the MS clipboard, which provides me endless opportunities to paste whatever-I-copied-before-the-last-copy into an html link. *sigh* Sorry, J, I'm fixin it.
We're so early that we're looking at lots of things including multiple contributors or tools to let readers rate the content experience and, thus, hold the contributor(s) to performance requirements. In an ideal world, we'd just have great sites like 98112.net without the extra goo but that ain't reality.
As for copy plus paste, MyZip's goal is to add local , neighborhood content to the Web. It's really important to us to create a service that is full of original stuff. We're not a simulcast or an aggregator. We're a network of neighborhood bloggers. Fun stuff.
(and, jeez, did I have to blow up the seattlest comments tool while on stage? groan. a bad tag and a double post? guess I'm nervous)
I wasn't wishing for it to be anything like an aggregator; I was thinking more along the lines of what Ronald does. He writes freelance and submits things here as well as the Belltown Messenger and probably a few others.
That's what I was eluding to. For instance, I write on my own blog and if it is something in the neighborhood (Hell, I rarely leave my zip so anything that happens tends to be in the 'hood) and posted it on my blog, I could just as legitimately put it in the 98121.net
In any case, I like where this thing is heading and have already RSS'd my zip.
And I found out, technically only the knife and wine shop are in 98121. 98101 gets the privilege of owning the Market.
Oh, and, btw, we need a new contributor in 98121 if somebody you know is interested. Our previous contributor did not respond well to the feedback. (No, I didn't kick her out -- in fact, I asked her to stay. She chose to take down her posts and leave.)