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Both my Mum, whom I love dearly despite her recent behaviour, and Gill told me that Citizen Journalism would amount to nothing more than a waste of time.
WRONG!!!
Not only have I made some very intereting discoveries and not only have I made some excellent acquaintanses (my good friend Mess tracked me down on Facebook!! SO he joins Jennifer Shannon Walker as a Facebook and blogspot friend - Mess is also following me on Twitter, which makes him, quite possibly, my number one fan...!).
Still, both Mum and Gill might well point to these benefits as merely ornamental. Like the people who invented Twitter, I have yet to find a way of 'monetising' Barry Newsdesk. Monetise is an ugly word readers, but it's just the sort of word that Web 2.0 gurus bandy about in board rooms up and down the country. It means, to make money from.
But that was then, and this is now. Barry Newsdesk is now so popular that it has attracted the attention of a potential advertiser. That's right, someone wants to place their brand name on my site in return for hard cash.
It's a time honoured business model. ITV has been doing it for years.
I received this email just three days ago:
alyssa@wutravel.com to me show details Apr 17 (3 days ago) Hi, We are interested to place our ads on your site. If interested, please email me. We, WuTravel.com, are a start up travel site in Singapore. Best Regards, Alyssa
This presents me with a dilemma readers. Part of my conscience says I should remain pure to my Citizen Journalism, like the BBC, and refuse to take sponsorship. While another part of my conscience, the part that pays the utilitiy bills and the part that wants to be able to afford a BMW and take Amber on exotic holidays, says I should bite the bullet and accept and sell out!!!
I figured I'd better ask Alyssa for more information regarding the potential sponsorship deal....
Here's what I said:
Dear Alyssa
Thank you for your email showing an interest in the Barry Newsdesk brand. I would love to find out more about the sort of sponsorship deal you had in mind. How much are you willing to give me, and what would you expect in return.
Yours fairthfully Barry
That's great news, and yes, I'm for sure your number one fan, love reading what people have in mind ! As I'm here, on Twitter and Facebook, my question is, "Do you have MySpace?" lol
ReplyDeleteYou did right writing back to Alyssa, I visited their site, they seem legit, but you never know so U need to have all the keys before "biting the bullet", hehe.
It would be great to gain some success and more followers, I could for sure leave your URL on my pages, I'm sure you would gain anonymous followers at least ! (which would increase your hits and lead to 2K soon ! ^^ )
Oh and by the way, if you need an assistant someday, I'm beginning communication classes in media sales in september, and I need internship, hehe...
Have a nice evening ! (12.36am here so it's more like goodnight, I'm off to watch Footballers' Wives, lol)