ONE of the first people I got up and running with a blog driven website was Phil Voice who started one for his holiday home in France, but has taken what he learnt from this to establish Landscape Juice.
Before crossing the Channel he ran a successful landscaping business in southern England and using his blog he's been able to establish his site as the "go to" blog style site for his industry.
His articles offer advice on all things landscaping, but also tips on running a landscape business and making a success of things during both the good and bad times.
It has developed into a personal business title, so much so that he has got on the telephone and started selling advertising spots to companies whose products are likely to appeal to his audience.
Phil puts the work in on his site and I'm sure he's wondered if it was worth the effort in the early days, but by "turning up" day in, day out his site has slowly built up page views and gained a tightly focussed audience who have a value.
And it is converting this value into pennies that will be featured in a talk later this month at the University of Central Lancashire, in Preston, when publishers will be discussing how to generate income from the web.
As part of the Digital Editors’ Network initiative Paul Bradshaw, author of the Online Journalism Blog, will report back on the recent Journalism Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Camp, which looked at different revenue models for online journalism.
Manchester Evening News digital and broadcast director, Ruth Spratt, will give an insight into how her company’s business model is adapting to the challenges and opportunities of digital publishing.
And Rick Waghorn, founder of My Football Writer, will discuss his views on how local journalism can be funded through different advertising options.
You can also keep up to date with Rick's thoughts and experience of running a small publishing venture through his Out With A Bang blog - it makes entertaining reading.
This free event will be held on Tuesday, April 29 from 1pm to 5pm with a buffet lunch. Those who wish to carry on the discussion can stay on for the Journalism Leaders Forum in the early evening which takes a broader look at these issues.
To book a place and further details please email Nick Turner on [email protected]
Update 25/04/08: Programme now also includes open Hitwise workshop
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