Mario Olckers

Personal Publishing in a Web 2.0 world

September 8, 2007 – 18:10

Publishing has become a truly democratic pursuit. Anyone with basic computer proficiency and an internet connection are now a potential ‘publisher’. From the moment someone decides they have a message/product/mission/vision/brand to share with the world, we at Hogsback Media Networks are there to help you get the word out.

From registering and hosting a domain of your choice on secure CentOS Linux servers, unlimited e-mails, sub-domains and databases, the possibilities are really endless. With 3 Gigabytes of disk space and 12 Gigabyte monthly transfer, we are well-positioned to offer powerful publishing solutions to the serious professional or small business publisher.

Possible solutions include a youth magazine or community news and hobby network clustered around an agreed on domain. For example: a group of friends who are all young professionals in the publishing/magazine/marketing/PR industry decide to strike out on their own with their combined pool of experience and start up a publishing network in a magazine/blogging format with contributors and editors and each stake holder or department on their own sub domain of the parent domain. [ subdomains: publishing.myownmagazine.com, editor.myownmagazine.com,
tech.myownmagazine.com, business.myownmagazine.com, johndoe.myownmagazine.com]
[ e-mail: johndoe@myownmagazine.com etc]

We install and configure the Wordpress blogging platform on the client’s chosen domain. Themes of the client’s choice, chosen with their company’s brand, image, purpose of their site in mind are also installed. We have a portfolio of value-added services to create a powerful publishing and marketing platform. From RSS feeds ( building, maintaining and updating Feedburner accounts (RSS feeds by e-mail subscriptions) and mailing lists, social book-marking and social networking widgets
[ Facebook, mySpace, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, digg, slashdot etc ] to custom-designed banner ads from advertising partners, the possibilities are endless with our solution.

 

 

Depending on the level of technical proficiency of clients and their pool of skills, we also offer custom-made marketing/PR/network building services, after the initial setup. Building and maintaining and regularly updating profiles of a client brand on all the social networking and bookmarking sites, cross-linking and cross-feeding into one another and all of it aggregated into one central profile and linking back to the domain, thus creating tags and links and networks around a name domain or product or service for search engine optimization. Also posting and commenting on blogs within the related industry, building up networks and contacts centered around a certain activity, brand or service of the client.

Photoshop CS2 with ImageReady also enables us to design custom banner ads for placement on the blog, as well as hosting a set of revolving banner ads of advertising partners on the client’s domain and then creating links and widgets for easy link exchange and affiliate advertising and marketing purposes. Facebook, stumbleUpon, digg and del.icio.us, to name just a few of the “superstar” Web 2.0 social networking/bookmarking websites, now also has powerful networking and promotional features, empowering the small business or freelance professional with powerful tools to build their brand or company or product online and growing it for optimal revenue generation.

We set up and configure and customize each Wordpress blogging platform on our servers according to the client’s needs and vision as set out at the initial consultation. When we are finished, the client need only log in to the Meta section on his Wordpress blog and start posting his stories and pictures and videos. Those who choose, take charge of their own marketing/networking/PR campaign.

Those who decide to make use of our value-added services, will receive a custom-made solution based around their brand/product/mission/vision etc after a consultation to determine their needs. We then set out building profiles for individual clients on all the major social networking/bookmarking sites. We start building up a portfolio (blogroll) of established blogs and websites centered around related products/industries/networks in the client’s field.
Also posting comments and track backs on related blogs within related industries and building visibility in the blogosphere for the client’s brand/product/mission/vision/message. The “personal” custom-made solution eliminates “spamming” since posting and track backs are done only on related blogs in the industry with which a rapport over time have been built up. This all takes time, personal attention and a level of skill and understanding for the client’s needs and which blogs/social networking/boookmarking sites are targeted as candidates for inclusion in the portfolio of related blogs in the same industry or market segment.

We cross-link and cross-feed and cross-post all these different profiles into one another as well as those of advertising partners and blogging partners/friends (by providing them the piece of code for their widgets). In this way, we do search engine optimization as well as brand-building and exposure, viral marketing at it’s optimal without being intrusive or unwanted. Since it is targeted to a network who actually opted in because of shared industry/expertise/market segment gains from cross-feeding, cross-posting and cross-updating. With the client’s different profiles aggregating on a central profile (e.g Facebook), and linking back to the parent domain, this setup benefits all willing participants in these consumer-generated ecosystems.

In a new media world, where “eyeballs” has become the gold standard in an attention-span based [online advertising-model] economy, we are well placed to fill the gap between technical programming skills and media/marketing/PR related professionals’ needs. The rapid pace at which technology advances place powerful tools in our hands to enable anyone with a message/mission/vision/product to start sharing it with the world without having to jump through all the technical hoops to get it up and running in the first place.

Clients can just start blogging, we take care of the plumbing and heavy lifting in the background. Coupled with their own unique domain of choice, as well as a full portfolio of value-added services [custom-designed marketing, PR, design, social network building services] we are a powerful and essential “gap-filler” tech services company that can launch any entity, product, mission, vision or message of a client online.