Sometimes the best things in life really are free and cultural blogs have been one of the more pleasant incarnations of that idiom in recent years. Compared to a few years ago, the quantity, diversity, and creativeness of cultural blogs has exploded but one aspect remains constant throughout most blogs: in order to create worthwhile content, it takes time. As such, I’m proclaiming that today marks the beginning of the Show Your Favorite Cultural Bloggers Some Love week. Fortunately, showing your love for blogs is pretty easy…
Here are a few suggestions:
- Just say “thank you” along with listing one specific element you like about a cultural blogger’s work; you can do this in a comment or via direct email.
- Most bloggers have some sort of Google, Amazon Affiliate, or similar referral ad displayed somewhere on their home page. Just click on one of the ads each day you visit the blog over the course of this week. After you’re done the pennies will be rolling in for your favorite blogger (really, no one’s getting rich here) and you might just find that one of the links takes you to somewhere you wouldn’t have otherwise ended up, but you wanted to be.
- If the blogger sells something (merchandise, self published books, etc.), purchase an item for yourself or as a gift.
- If the blogger provides an option to make a donation or has some sort of online “tip jar,” leave an amount you think is worth the respective author’s time and effort balanced with the amount of personal value you assign to the blog.
At the suggestion of a colleague, I put together a simple “Buy Drew A Coffee” tip link, located at the bottom of the left hand column. It was a surprisingly simple widget to assemble and it processes any contributions right from a credit/debit card or paypal account.
So if you enjoy the blog and feel moved to leave a donation, it’s sincerely appreciated. Plus you never know how good karma might come back. In the meantime, make sure you share your love with all the cultural blogs you visit on a regular basis.
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Thank you. We, at the Chicago Sinfonietta are dilligent readers of your blog.
And thank you for all the work the Sinfonietta does with chicagoclassicalmusic.org
An addition to your list: submitting the site to one of the many social bookmarking services. Or sending a link out on Facebook or Twitter. Assuming the person doing the submitting interacts with others of similar interests, a link sent out on Twitter or Facebook or a site submitted on Stumbleupon or Digg has the potential of reaching thousands of potential readers — people interested in what you do. I’d rather have a reader send a link out than click on an ad.
That’s a great point Christopher, I simply took the omnipresent social networking opportunities for granted – thanks for chipping in and making sure it is something readers think about.