Posted on 07/11/2003 6:55:08 PM PDT by Political Numbers Guy
Are Freepers still winning the online war?
I think we still are. But as conservatives, we need to ask what we can be doing better. One area in which we can and do must do more is blogs. What are blogs, you ask? Theyre personal web journals run by online pundits, and theyre achieving enormous popularity both online and in the media. Blogs like InstaPundit.com, the Volokh Conspiracy, and Right Wing News are daily must reads where some of the best minds opine on the really important stories of the day, and where upstart bloggers (folks not unlike you and me) can get noticed just for covering the news well. Great blogs are like mini-Free Republics, and theyre growing at mind-boggling warp speed.
Grassroots conservatives have yet to make their presence known in the blogging arena. Blogdex.net tracks the most popular stories in blogs, and the worst sorts of lies about our President and our mission of liberation in Iraq top the charts every day. Today, its CBS News big lie that Bush knew that the Nigerian intel was false something directly contradicted by its own story (first exposed by blogger Eugene Volokh). Despite a healthy supply of intelligent right-leaning bloggers, conservative stories always linger toward the bottom of the list.
As a longtime lurker and occasional poster, it surprises me that Freepers largely havent 1) picked up on the truly brilliant material that is produced by bloggers everyday the good ones are seriously 10 times better than anything youll read on any op-ed page, and 2) struck out into this new medium ourselves by starting blogs to expand Free Republics sphere of influence.
Free Republic is a great rallying point for conservatives but to truly defeat the Left, we need to be bigger than just one website. Bloggers have created value by building a network of thousands of smaller sites that are catching on like wildfire, and unfortunately the Left has taken advantage of it. Theres even talk of blogs becoming the liberal talk radio. Theres still time to stop this. By dominating Free Republic, talk radio, and blogs, there is no way Democrats and the Left can win at the grassroots.
There is something you can do right now. Start a blog. Go to http://www.blogspot.com and set up a free site for yourself. Start reading and linking to other conservative-minded blogs and your favorite Freeper threads. Youll notice your readership start growing right away. Post the best stuff you in the blogosphere on Free Republic. Just 50 or 100 successful new conservative blogs can tilt the balance in a profound way and draw even more attention to our efforts here on Free Republic.
The expansion of direct personal publishing by bloggers is something we have to pay attention to. Free Republic could benefit immensely by giving Freepers free and/or premium blog hosting attracting traffic and links from thousands of other blogs. The liberal rag Salon did this, and this is partly why the Left started gaining traction in blogging. AOL is now rolling out their own blogging product, and this blog piece talks about how it can and will be used to promote AOL content. Hosting blog sites on Free Republic makes plenty of sense from both an activism and a marketing perspective. Case in point: instead of just one fundraising thermometer on top of every FR page, thered be hundreds more on popular blogs hosted on FreeRepublic.com, each linked to by dozens of outside blogs.
What does everyone think of these ideas? Most importantly, how can we make this happen?
I think you raise some good points.
Blog, anyone ?? Bump this to others that might be interested too. Thanks.
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Thanks! I love this line from your link!:It still takes a village idiot
but to truly defeat the Left,
liberal talk radio.
there is no way Democrats and the Left can win
Your enthusiasm is to be admired yet I detect a bit of pulling the punches. You make a good case when rallying the troops but it is a case of preaching to the choir. If the message is to be delivered to the unwashed masses then PC must be cast aside. By that I mean if you are to make a lasting impression, you must challenge the mindset.
I have pasted snippets from your article and highlighted terms you use which only tell half the story. You along with everyone else use the terms, Left. liberal and Democrat to describe Socialists, Communists or others promoting their ism de jour. Why do you provide them with cover? Why not finally awaken the general public to the fact that these people believe in political concepts that are contrary to our representative republic form of government?
If Reagan could rally the nation to defeat the Evil Empire (Communist USSR) then why cant you rally the nation to defeat the home grown communists by first, calling them by their proper name and never letting up? I have just recently heard a talk show host or two nail some Democrat guest by calling them socialist. You should have heard the sputter, but no denial. You and others can blog all you want but if you want a quicker result, try a bit of disclosure or outing of the socialists and communists that hide behind such benign labels as Liberal or Democrat.
I'll agree with that! I'm personally finding that it's getting more acceptable in common conversation to point out that some people and their ideas are communist, and that they are actively pushing it in our own communities. A decade ago, people thought you were a nutcase for saying that, but the communists have become so transparent in their views that manymore people are recognizing it. That is helping the swing to conservatism, in my opinion.
WFTR
Bill
oohh oohh....questions please!!!
Does this blogging thing cost? And, well, does it take a lot of time to maintain once set up? I suppose it would be better than a personal web page because you can get more exposure.
I highly recommend the Google toolbar beta. It is stable- I have noticed no bugs. It is useful even if not using the blog integration. And if you want to set up a blog on Blogspot, it is indispensable.
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