New grant will support up-and-coming female streamers on Twitch via Polygon

A charity organization is partnering with Twitch to promote promising female streamers on the platform, offering them a series of financial grants to help sustain their channels.

The 1,000 Dreams Fund launched in late 2015, and defines itself as a non-profit organization that supports the “dreams of talented young women in need by providing access to critical funding, resources and meaningful mentor relationships. Now, it’s teamed up with Twitch for the 1,000 Dreams Fund Twitch BroadcastHER Grant.

The organizations will award the grant to at least two high school or college students every semester, with funds ranging from $500 to $2,000. The grants are supposed to be used for conference travel, equipment upgrades, workshops and other tools that align with the 1,000 Dreams Fund’s mission, Twitch said in a press release.

The goal is to help illustrate the gender gap women often face in specific fields, including streaming, which is still predominantly male. A 2016 study reported that women make up 35 percent of Twitch’s streaming landscape, and there aren’t any female streamers in the current top 10 list.

Noted: @Unsplash Provide Thousands of @CreativeCommons Images for Free

This is quite an amazing resource. It is so large it is almost difficult to contemplate how to make the best use of it. A search for coffee turns up 407 amazing photos on all aspects of coffee. Yikes! You could lose a lot of time in this collection, but also create some interesting stuff for your own web sites and projects — Douglas
Piotr miazga 119426Sylwia bartyzel 87907Thought catalog 188056
 

New Media isn’t Just for the Big Guys from New Media Interchange 20

New Media isn’t Just for the Big Guys from New Media Interchange 20

by Douglas E. Welch

Nmi big guys

It is too easy these days to focus on the big entertainment news coming out of New Media and ignore all the things that New Media can do for everyone else from individuals to freelancers to small companies and beyond. Sure, it’s great to see new shows with big name starts being picked up by Netflix and exciting to hear about one company buying another, but for me, this isn’t the heart of what New Media is about.

Eleven years ago, when I started podcasting, I saw it is an opportunity for letting the world hear the underheard and see the underseen. It was about giving distribution and exposure to millions of people who never would have made it through the gatekeepers of mainstream media. Mainstream media, by the very nature of its technology had extremely limited time available for shows, so the competition was fierce. This often drove content to the lowest common denominator, designed to please the widest range of viewers possible — and deliver the largest number of eyes and ears to advertisers — rather than produce great content.

New Media had no such constraints. You could do a show about woodworking, or knitting, or gaming, or butterflies and easily make it available to those who wanted to see or hear it. You didn’t have to garner 3 million viewers to stay on the air. You only had to create a show that served an interested and devote niche base of fans. We have lost of a bit of this idealism, though, as money and the influence it buys started to make its way into New Media. It took a long time — and much outright denial — for mainstream media folks — actors, directors, producers — to understand New Media, but now they are taking over.

Read the entire article on New Media Interchange


NMI Logo 3PM brand 2000x2000

 

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Noted: Beyond Blogging: Why Content Creators Are Making Mugs, Sweaters, And Moisturizer via Fast Company

Beyond Blogging: Why Content Creators Are Making Mugs, Sweaters, And Moisturizer via Fast Company

 Beyond Blogging: Why Content Creators Are Making Mugs, Sweaters, And Moisturizer via Fast Company

Sweaters, mugs, and wall hooks. These are not products one typically associates with bloggers. In fact, blogging and hawking wares does not seem like a natural fit, exactly.

But bloggers often feel the desire to move beyond the two-dimensional landscape of their websites and create physical products. Take John and Sherry Petersik of Young House Love who designed quirky wall hooks sold by Target, Kendi Skeen of Kendi Everyday, who set up her own brick and mortar boutique or lifestyle blog The Everygirl, which creates tumblers and mugs emblazoned with inspirational quotes. (Oh, and let’s not forget Gwyneth Paltrow’s foray into selling overpriced sweaters on her blog, Goop.) It seems easy enough to jump from editorial to creating real life products, but is it?

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Noted: Rise of the museum Twitter bots via Kottke

Rise of the museum Twitter bots via Kottke

Rise of the museum Twitter bots via Kottke

John Emerson has compiled a list of Twitter accounts that periodically tweet out images from the online collections of some of the world’s best museums, including the Met, the Tate, the Rijksmuseum, and MoMA.

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Noted: Study: In social advertising, YouTube converts more customers than anyone else via Venture Beat

Study: In social advertising, YouTube converts more customers than anyone else via Venture Beat

Study: In social advertising, YouTube converts more customers than anyone else via Venture Beat

When it comes to paid advertising on social platforms, YouTube is the clear winner in introducing new products and helping consumers make their purchasing decisions, according to a new study Aol Platforms released today.

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Real World Example: Share your businesses’ “House Music” with Your Patrons via Social Media

Real World Example: Share your businesses’ “House Music” with Your Patrons via Social Media

Businesses using streaming radio services like Pandora and iTunes Radio have one more great item to share with their patrons, customers, and community through social media

I have had several new, artisanal food businesses open in my neighborhood over the course of the last year. I love to support local, non-chain, businesses whenever I can, so I often spend a lot of time visiting, shopping, eating and sharing the business with as many people as I can.

One thing all business owners try to establish right away is the mood, setting or feeling of their new business. Music is often used to establish this mood — from the raucous beats of pop and rock for a teen clothing store, to the more eclectic sounds of hot jazz or bossa nova for a hip and cool coffee shop.

Real World Example: Share your “House Music” with Your Patrons via Social Media

In the past, most business owners would have simply chosen a local radio station to play and left it at that. The advent of Internet radio services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes Radio has given business owners an entirely new way to establish music and mood in their businesses while keeping the advertising at bay or removing it completely. Even better, Internet radio stations can be fine tuned by selecting particular artists, particular tracks and particular styles. Using these tools each business owner can create their own unique house sound which grows and changes over time.

Sure, you could buy each piece of music you would like to use and create your own local music “mix”, but playlists with less than 100 or so tracks can quickly grow repetitive for your regular customers (and certainly for your staff). Such a playlist also stagnates quickly without the constant influx of new material — something that Internet radio stations can provide automatically as new, appropriate tracks are added to the overall service. You can also develop different stations for different times of day and easily switch between them to set the mood for the morning rush, the lunchtime crowd or the late nighters.

Real World Example: Share your “House Music” with Your Patrons via Social Media

Finally, one great advantage to using an Internet Radio service is that it is one more item, one more unique part of your business, to share with your patrons. You can share Pandora and iTunes Radio stations via Facebook, Twitter, your company web site, or by using the direct link, anywhere and any anyplace you wish.

For example, you could have a flyer in your business that says,

“Enjoy our music mix in your car or home! Check out the MacLeod Ale Brewing Co station on Pandora – http://url/macleod”

You can, and also should, share this same information via all your social media accounts. You can even share each time you “Like” a new song or a new station and add it to your playlist or when you create an entirely new station to meet each particular mood or time of day.

All businesses are looking for unique things to share on their social media accounts and your Internet Radio stations are just one more piece of your unique brand and personality to add to the mix. Let your customers take a little piece of your business home with them and subtly remind them that they want to return again and again.


Noted: Keeping Readers Interested: 17 Things to Write About on Your Company Blog via Search Engine Journal

Keeping Readers Interested: 17 Things to Write About on Your Company Blog via Search Engine Journal

Keeping Readers Interested: 17 Things to Write About on Your Company Blog via Search Engine Journal

A company blog is a great way to engage your customers, showcase your company and demonstrate your industry expertise to prospects. However, you have to provide useful, engaging content for the platform to have real use.

Good blogs are a goldmine of value for both your readers and your company. To learn what successful online writers include on their company blog, we asked 17 startup founders and YEC members for suggestions.

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Noted: Now That I’ve Created Something, How Do I Spread It? via Fast Company

Now That I’ve Created Something, How Do I Spread It? via Fast Company

Noted: Now That I've Created Something, How Do I Spread It? via Fast Company

“I enjoy helping entrepreneurs figure out how to start and grow businesses. And I’ve had a chance to work with some new entrepreneurs at Starter School here in Chicago. At a recent talk I gave, one question stuck in my mind. The young entrepreneur asked, “Now that I’ve built a product, how do I get it to spread?” This entrepreneur recognizes that having a good idea and building a great product isn’t enough.”

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Noted: Follow What Interests You With New Pinterest Category Pages via Search Engine Journal

Follow What Interests You With New Pinterest Category Pages via Search Engine Journal

Follow What Interests You With New Pinterest Category Pages via Search Engine Journal

Today, Pinterest announced an update to its category pages. Each category page now has a whole new selection of related interests to browse through. You can also follow specific categories to get Pins from other like-minded users delivered to your home feed.

For example, if you go to Outdoors category you’ll now see related interests like Hiking, Camping and Running spread out across the top of the page.

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More book on Pinterest on Amazon.com


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Noted: Official Google Analytics App Released For iPhone via Search Engine Journal

Official Google Analytics App Released For iPhone via Search Engine Journal

Official Google Analytics App Released For iPhone via Search Engine Journal

Marketers and website owners rejoiced yesterday as an official Google Analytics app was finally released for the iPhone, two years after the app was released for Android. The iPhone app comes with everything you’d expect if you’ve ever used the Android version. Along with real-time and time-based reports, you can also use the app to view behaviors, conversions and more. An official app is a welcome alternative to the third-party apps that Google Analytics users have had to use up until this point. The official app takes full advantage of the sign-in features in Gmail, Google+ and the standard Google app for iOS. Not to mention the design matches the other Google apps for iOS.

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Find more books on Google Analytics on Amazon.com


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Noted: How to Reduce Your Site’s Bounce Rate via Search Engine Journal

How to Reduce Your Site’s Bounce Rate via Search Engine Journal

How to Reduce Your Site’s Bounce Rate via Search Engine Journal

The searcher lands on your website. Browses through your content and leaves. No clicks, no conversions. Either he didn’t find what he was looking for or your web page was too difficult for him to use.

A high bounce rate says your website attracts a large number of visitors who are not your potential customers or what you are selling is not relevant to them.

It is a signal that your website and your marketing strategy needs a serious redesigning.

Read More

Find New Media-related products in The WelchWrite Bookstore


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Hiding your light under a bushel – End of the Day for July 10, 2014

End of the day Logo

Originally published as part of the “End of the Day” series on My Word with Douglas E. Welch

i have been working on, what would be called by most people, market lately and it can be a tiring task. Most of us are so used to someone else handling this aspect of our projects and be forced to do it yourself has led to many failures over the years. We all know how important marketing is, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty we would rather crawl into a cave and ignore — myself included.

That said, I try to keep one important phrase in my mind when the going gets tough.

“Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

Zipper

We all need to “let our light shine before men” even if that sometimes mean we need to do a little extra work. Our good works deserve to be noticed, to be shared, to be spread so that we can reach those that might enjoy our music, read our books or on some way be helped by them.  Our work cannot have any effect on the work until it is known, until it is shared among people and spread throughout the world. We have only done half a job by creating a book or writing a song. It must be read, seen and heard reach fulfillment — and our own fulfillment with it.

I was recently reading a web site on ho to promote your books and they said something that I try to remember each day and also share with everyone who consults with me.

“Focus more on discoverability rather than selling. Your work is important, so help those who can benefit from it, find it.” — 71 Ways to Promote and Market Your Book

Most of us, as creators, have an almost biological aversion to “selling” in any form. Selling anything conjures up the worst traveling salesmen stereotypes you can imagine. We imagine hucksters and cons and all sort of unsavory types and promise that we will never, ever become someone like that. It’s true, of course. We will never become like that because these extreme stereotypes don’t really exist. Sure there are unscrupulous people out there, but they are far outweighed by good people doing a good job selling things to people who need them — or, at the very least, want them. You can be one of these people, too.

Concentrate first on getting your project discovered by as many people as possible. Help your project to sell itself. I often quote Seth Godin on this topic. He says, “Make something worth talking about.” When you do this, your project gathers its own energy and attention and practically — even actually — selfs itself. You are simply nudging the snowball downhill, giving it a kick when it gets s but stuck and then starting over at the beginning with your next snowball — er — project — and sending it downhill.

Don’t think of it as “selling”, if that words turns you off. Think if it as discovery, introduction, promotion, whatever term makes it the most palatable for you. Then, go out an do it. Your project deserves it. More importantly, you deserve it. Don’t hide your light under a bushel. Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine!

Previously on End of the Day:

Noted: YouTube is upgrading to 60fps, adding a tip jar for donations and much more via Engadget

YouTube is upgrading to 60fps, adding a tip jar for donations and much more via Engadget

 YouTube is upgrading to 60fps, adding a tip jar for donations and much more via Engadget

YouTube is about to get a whole lot better, with a slew of new features freshly announced at this year’s VidCon. Google’s video wing will soon get support for clips running at 48-and-60 frames-per-second, which should be perfect for video game footage that you’ve captured an uploaded from your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One in addition to those 1080p60 game trailers that are quickly becoming the norm. You’ll have to make sure 1080p resolution is selected to get the benefit of the higher frame-rate, naturally, and we’ve embedded a sample after the break. Customizable and, as the YouTube Creators blog post tells it, prettier-looking annotation cards as well as some new tools that your fans can use are en route, too. What are those? Well, viewers will soon be able to drop you a few bucks here and there so you don’t have to rely on ad revenue alone.

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Noted: This New Tool Will Make Your Articles Effortlessly Tweetable from The Buzz Bin

This New Tool Will Make Your Articles Effortlessly Tweetable from The Buzz Bin

Tracy interview

Whether you love it or love to hate it, the New York Times is the king of digital journalism for a simple reason: it’s always innovating. Beyond making “snowfall” a verb, the so-called Gray Lady has in recent months overhauled its website, introduced new revenue streams, produced a viral video based verbatim on a deposition, bought its own native ads, launched an explainer microsite, and built a suite of apps. And that’s all before last week’s release of the paper’s internal “innovation report,” which has been called “one of the key documents of this media age.”

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Noted: Patreon Offers Crowdfunding for Content Creators Like You from Small Biz Trends

Patreon Offers Crowdfunding for Content Creators Like You

Patreon

If you’re familiar with crowdfunding and sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, you know these are often intense projects that require a lot funding in a short amount of time. Traditional crowdfunding is a great avenue to quickly launch and market new products, but it might not be the best way to raise funds for people who create content on a regular basis: Like you, writers, bloggers, artists and musicians.

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Noted: YouTube announces proposed new crowdfunding program – fans to get the chance to chip in to their favorite channels from Red Ferret

YouTube announces proposed new crowdfunding program – fans to get the chance to chip in to their favorite channels from Red Ferret

Youtube crowd

The YouTube phenomenon continues on and on, with no signs of stopping, with around 1 billion viewers now visiting the site every single month. That’s a lot of eyeballs, and it’s clearly exercising the attention of Google a lot nowadays, judging by the number of new initiatives which are arriving on the scene for the video makers and their fans.

One such set of proposals has just been announced by Google, which has the capacity to add an interesting twist to the whole synergy between fans and video makers. The company has just announced that it’s working on ways to add some form of crowdfunding feature to the service, so fans can elect to give cash to their favorite channels to encourage more of their most popular content to be produced.

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New Media Prescription: Think small. Get started. Don’t be overwhelmed.

It seems that every time I am at an event these days — Garden shows, Literacy Events, Business meetings — I am quickly pulled into a discussion of New Media/Social Media and how it can and should be used. almost universally, though, everyone I speak with is adrift in any new media plans. They might have a Twitter accounts, Facebook page or Instagram photos, but thy don’t know how or why they should be using them.

See more New Media Prescriptions here

One simple tweet

It is easy to set up accounts, of course, so nearly everyone has done that. Then the accounts site there, empty, doing nothing for no one. They could, instead be spreading your message, talking to clients, selling your products 24/7, but leave them empty and they are worthless, if not outright damaging to you. If people find your accounts online, they expect to find something there and will be disappointed when there isn’t. Don’t disappoint your audience when it is so easy to feed them the information, the products, the content they desire.

In an effort to help you jumpstart your own usage of New Media, I present this selection of small, doable actions that you can take — every day — to start making New Media work for you. If you like these ideas, please consider scheduling a consult with me so that together we can craft a New Media plan that is customized to you and the needs of your life, business and products.

1. Start small

Select one online social media source and concentrate your actions there. Does your life lend itself to a more visual presentation, start with Instagram, Flickr or other photo sharing site. Set a goal to post 1 new item each day. It’s OK if you don’t make it every day, but try. In most cases, I think you will fin that you easily have at least 1 item to share per day, if not more. You just need to keep the thought in your mind throughout your day. If you do, you will be more inclined to capture those photos you may have simply walked by before.

2. Collect ideas

If you are like most people, you will easily have more than 1 item a day that you would like to share. If so, collect up these “extra” ideas in a list so that they are available when needed. Maybe you had a busy day and weren’t able to take that daily photo. No problem. Find one of your “extras” and post it today. Problem solved!

This same idea works with any sort of content. Write as many Twitter messages as you can. Take as many photographs as possible, Write articles for your blog when you are “in the zone.” Then you can easily have those off days without feeling like you have failed. You shouldn’t feel that way anyway when you miss a day, but I know from personal experience that those feelings can creep in sometimes and actually prevent you from posting in the future. Keep a ready supply of content at hand and you’ll never have to worry about content again.

Need examples of the type of info you can/should share? Need ideas of how you can use multiple sites. Check out my social media accounts below and use me as an example.

3. Expand to new services one by one

Once your feel you have your rhythm down with one service, consider adding another. In most cases, you will find this much easier than starting in the first place. If you are already taking photos for Instagram, those same photos can and should be easily be shared on Facebook, or as part of your blog or Google+ page. You have different audiences in each of those locations, so don’t worry about duplicating content. Sure, some folks may see the same post in 2 different locations, but many, many others will be seeing it for the first time.

As you add new services, you will start to develop a system for sharing your content. I have a list posted on my monitor to remind me of the places I need to share content so that I don’t forget. As it stands now, I have about 13 places I share each piece of content I create. These services ebb and flow as I discover which ones work best for me and I am constantly trying out new services as they are introduced. This might sound overwhelming, but on average it takes me maybe 5 mins to share new content to all of my other accounts now that I have my system in place. I don’t spend hours sharing on New Media and you don’t need to either.

For more on this idea, read my previous post, Benefiting from the “New Media Multiplier”

4. Produce your content and help your audience find you

I often hear from people that they can’t imagine who would be reading their content, listening to their podcast or looking at their photos. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but this isn’t your concern. Your audience will find you, no matter what, if you put your content out there. It is nearly impossible to know exactly who your audience is, but you must remember that everyone has an audience — they just need to find it.

Your job is to produce content and share it so that your audience can find you. Make it easy for them to stumble upon you through referrals from other web sites, search engines, friends, family and random synchronicity. This is the biggest reason why any of us share anything on our blogs or social media sites. It allows our audience to find us and share us with their audience — and so on, and so on, and so on!

Don’t worry about your audience. Worry about your work, your writing, your products, your promotion, your sharing. Do this and your audience will easily find you.

Getting started with New Media is equally the easiest and most difficult part of the process. It is easy to set up accounts, but it can be difficult to discover what you want and need to share there. This takes time and a bit of thought, but the advantages to be found in using New Media, whatever your goals far outweighs the difficulties. Get started today!

Great places to start your New Media journey. Pick one and get started! :

Need help jumpstarting your New Media usage? Ask your questions in the comments, email me at douglas@welchwrite.com or schedule a New Media Consult to help develop your own, unique New Media plans!

New Media 101: You are an expert! from “Blogging and Content Creation”

Part of the Blogging 101 series…

A quick tip from this 53 minute presentation — Blogging and Content Creation at the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group.

 
B101 expert
 

Transcript:

I often tell people that you are an expert if you have one more piece of information or one more experience than somebody else.  If you have that, someone else wants to know that. If you have experience putting a plugin the WordPress Plugin Directory — and dealing with that — there are other people that want to know that. Ok? Because they are trying to do it, too, and they want someone with experience to lead them through the process. So you have automatically something  that you can share that will find an audience because people will do those searches online — people will ask those questions elsewhere — and there will be someplace for them to go for that information.

 

Previously on New Media 101/Blogging 101:

More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:

New Media 101: A Reason for Podcasting from “New Media Question Time”

Part of the New Media 101 series…

A quick clip from this 30 minute presentation — New Media Question Time for UCLA Voiceover Class.

Nm101 podcasting thumb

Transcript:

There is a benefit of podcasting that works for us all — and that is that it gives us control over our product. It allows us to speak directly to our audience and so I believe anyone can benefit from that. Anybody — regardless of their career, their job, their art, whatever they are trying to do — can use podcasting to talk directly to their audience.

We all have an audience. It doesn’t matter what we do. We can be a plumber. We still have an audience. We still have customers we are trying to reach, people we are trying to effect, policies we are trying to change.

Anyone can and should start podcasting to benefit their career.

 

Previously on New Media 101/Blogging 101:

More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media: