Site: “What Now, Atlanta?” which is located at www.What
NowAtlanta.com
Founder: Caleb J. Spivak
Site Personality: Breaking news on openings and closings in Atlanta restaurants and retail without the relentless cheerleading.
Since: 2010
Why did you choose this subject?
I saw the opportunity for reporting what was happening with Atlanta’s businesses, something the market craved but required resources that were dropped by traditional media. Our approach to the information is utter honesty. There is an overwhelming number of flowery, optimistic blog and review sites here in Atlanta and it’s naïve to think that all news is good news. There are many businesses and restaurants here in Atlanta that deserve our praise, but many that need to be called out in hopes of making them a better establishment for the consumer.
Is the site profitable?
It’s almost next to impossible to make money from blogging… With What Now Atlanta, our business model is a little different than traditional online advertising but I’m not at liberty to discuss what that is. Let’s just say, there are some big things in the works for 2011.
Can you give advice to new bloggers wishing to generate income from their blogs?
Check out www.AtlantaBloggingWorkshops.com. I took the class before I launched, and well, the numbers speak for themselves.
How do readers respond to you?
Many of our readers are Atlantan’s who want to be in-the-know and are extremely passionate about the information and news we break… Comments left have been so controversial they’ve even been published in various publications including Project Q.
How do you link to other bloggers and get the word out to others that you have a blog?
Luckily, the news I report is covered by all of the popular media outlets in Atlanta. Almost everyday, we get coverage in Creative Loafing, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Atlanta Magazine. But it didn’t just happen for us. We had to establish ourselves as a credible news source and keep the content coming on a regular basis.
What role do Twitter and Facebook play in the success of your blog?
Twitter and Facebook pay the bills. Seriously. What most people don’t realize is that building an online presence through Social Media requires a robust strategy and can have a huge effect on business. Consider this: Facebook and Twitter combined are the second largest traffic driver to What Now Atlanta. And that’s why Huffington Post blogger Mike Alvear and I teach Twitter for Small Business at Atlanta’s only Twitter Workshop (www.WhatNowAtlanta.com/Twitter).
Do you consider yourself a journalist?
What Now Atlanta isn’t your normal “blog.” Some refer to WNA as an “online publication.” It’s a news site so investigative journalism is necessary to get our information, but in the professional sense, I am not a journalist and I’ve never looked at myself as a writer. I am an entrepreneur who gets a kick out of writing.
