The Great b5media Blog Off
One thing I’m a bit impressed by is the central pushing from b5media. Other networks might not bother so much with what the sites in the network do, but b5media profiles and makes pushes and events in different ways.
The last event is more of a PR stunt, with charity benefits. There’s 24-hour-blog-a-thon to be held, with Accion International (small loans to small business etc.) as the benefiter from the Business Channel, and The Actor’s Fund gets the support of the Entertainment Channel.
The whole stunt is described like this:
The Great b5media Blog Off will begin on June 20th at 12:01am (in each writer’s respective time zone), to celebrate the summer solstice, which hasn’t occurred on any date other than June 21st since 1975 – this year it lands on June 20th. Writers from the b5media Business and Entertainment channels will be posting fresh news at least once per hour for a full 24 hours.
See also, the press release.
You might note that there’s not a word on money here. Sure, there’s a small $30 contest for participating readers (i.e you can chip in), and you’re urged to donate to these organizations, but that’s it. The exposure is a good thing, however I do think that this is an editorial event before a charity one.
Hey Thord,
Can we count on you as a guest blogger, then? ;-)
We’re pretty lucky at b5 since there’s a steady flow of communication between bloggers, channels and the entire network. The biggest motivator for the Great Blog Off event is to give our bloggers something to work toward, especially as summer heats up and slows most other things down.
Just seems fair that with this goal in mind we also give something back. :-)
Just as a note, this was dreamed up entirely by our bloggers and CEs, and wasn’t something b5 pushed (not sure it would have worked if we had!). So this is something they’re exccited about, both the event and supporting the charities.
Personally I think it’s amazing that they organized this almost entirely on their own, but also that so many blogs are participating (since blogging hourly for an entire day is NOT easy, from experience!).
So my hats (I’m wearing 3 right now) go off to our bloggers.
And, in case it wasn’t obvious, given that it’s our bloggers that generated this, it’s not a publicity stunt. It’s just an excitement thing :)