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How to make a new political blog a success
William H. Seward
By Art Gallagher
This post is being written for my friends in politics. Consider it a post in the nature of the early days of MoreMonmouthMusings.blogspot.com when I had only a few hundred readers per day, most of whom were the politicians I was writing about, their staff members and political junkies.
Many politicians can’t help but read about themselves. It’s an addiction stronger than cocaine, nicotine or heroin. The unfortunate thing, for the the politicians and their families, is the “bad stuff” sets them off and is a much stronger addiction than the good stuff. That is especially true about the “good” politicians.
We can all think of examples of politicians who started to believe their positive press and then turned into assholes. This post is not for them.
This post is for the “good” politicians who read blogs that nobody else reads (yet) that are writing “bad” stuff about them, either true or false…accuracy doesn’t matter in the short term for a new site to gain traction.
There probably would be no MoreMonmouthMusings if not for former Monmouth GOP Chairman Fred Niemann’s reaction to the site and others sites back in 2006.
Back in 2005 there was an anonymous Republican blogger who went by “Honest Abe.” Blogs were a new thing back then. There was no facebook. “Abe” was writing anonymously about the Monmouth GOP. A now defunct weekly newspaper, The Courier, wrote about it. I checked it out and became addicted. “Abe” was anonymous. His commenters were mostly anonymous using the names of historical figures….Teddy Roosevelt, Edward Stanton, Cicero and others. I started commenting on “Abe’s” site as “William H Seward.” After a while I felt I was writing too much on “Abe’s” site and started my own in January of 2006. The two sites were friendly and cooperated. After a while I created multiple anonymous personas that argued with each other as well as other commenters. When someone figured out that several of the characters were the same person, because of a technical gaffe, I embraced the error and dubbed by cast of characters “The Seward Authority.” It was great entertainment that often resulted in gut busting laughter…except for Fred Niemann and the other people “we” were writing critically about.
All in all, there were only about 100, if that, political insiders reading the Monmouth County political blogs…Honest Abe and MoreMonmouthMusings. But they were all talking to each other and Fred. There was a illusion that the whole world was watching because that is all the people who were reading were talking about and they were only talking to each other. The Internet was a new and mysterious thing back then. The people that “Abe” and I were writing about thought, or acted like they thought, that they were being exposed on the front page of The New York Times. They weren’t, but the perception was the reality.
Fred got up at an Affilated Republican Club Dinner at Doolan’s in March of 2006 and called “the bloggers” al Qaeda. He was hot angry about what we were writing. An Asbury Park Press reporter was in the room along with about 600 Monmouth County Republicans who had no idea what Fred was talking about. Fred’s comments made the front page of the local section (remember when the Asbury Park Press had a local section that covered county news?). All of a sudden, “Honest Abe” and “William H. Seward” had thousands of readers.
MoreMonmouthMusings is Fred Niemann’s legacy. He wanted to stomp out the blogs, but he made them because he couldn’t bring himself to ignore them. Now MMM has thousands of readers per day, covers more than politics and does not rely solely on political insiders and junkies for traffic.
Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal has started a new website. It was initially anonymous, but he outed himself with a technical gaffe. Yesterday Jon Salonis, a professional political operative and Larry Luttrell and Joe Grillo’s campaign manager last year has wrote that he owns the site. Solonis wrote that the pseudonym “John Heyer” that has been promoting the site on facebook is being used to protect the anonymity of some writers, i.e. Vin.
My friends in politics started asking me about the new site a couple of weeks ago and asking what they should do about it. I told them to ignore it. I told a few of them the story about how Fred Niemann made this site possible, despite himself. But they couldn’t ignore the site because they are addicted.
Vin has made it known that he needs a counter to MMM. At the League of Municipalities Convention in November he was bemoaning the influence that MMM had on the election. It is not surprising that he has started the new site.
Monmouth County Republican insiders can assure the success of Vin’s site the same way they assured the success of this site 9 years ago. Read it and react to it. Like it on facebook and share its content. Sharing on facebook has the potential to reach a wider audience that the old front page of the local section of the old Asbury Park Press. Make friends with “John Heyer.” Some of you won’t be able to help yourselves. Like addicts. Soon the site will have thousands of readers per day instead of a couple of hundred, if Vin and Jon can consistently produce readable and valuable content.
If Vin and Jon can consistently produce readable and valuable content , good for them! Then they will deserve a well read site. And they will appreciate the work that goes into making it happen.
Note to Vin and Jon: You should remove Judge Frank Larocca’s name from your party website as Corresponding Secretary before you get him in hot water.
Source: http://www.moremonmouthmusings.net/2015/01/14/how-to-make-a-new-political-blog-a-success/
