Site: FanBolt (www.FanBolt.co
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Founder: Emma Loggins
Site Personality: Entertainment news, celebrity interviews and gossip, movie and TV reviews, contests and forums… awesome.
Since: 2002
Do you have more than one blog or website?
I do. I run and maintain a lot of sites. … On the entertainment side, I also run … blogs for Supernatural and Gossip Girl.
Why did you choose this subject?
I love entertainment — especially television. It’s something I’ve always been really interested in and passionate about.
Is your site profitable? If not, why do you blog? If so, can you give advice to up-and-coming bloggers on how they can generate income from their blogs?
I do make income off the ads on FanBolt, but that’s not why I blog. I do it because I have something to say, and I also want to create a place where fans could chat about their opinions as well.
Advice? I always tell people to start out with Google ads. It’s a great place to start, and they don’t require a minimum amount of monthly traffic.
How do readers respond to you? How many readers do you get to your blog per day?
FanBolt receives an average of 985,000 hits per month. Members chat mostly on the forums. They also comment … in the articles that I post on the blog.
How do you link to other bloggers and get the word out to others that you have a blog? Is connecting to other bloggers important?
I’ve bonded with a lot of bloggers and journalists at the different events I’ve done over the years. We definitely try to scratch each other’s backs when we can. We link to each other’s articles all the time. As far as getting the word out about the site, I’ve done a lot of search engine optimization on FanBolt. Google has been amazing for the site.
What role does Twitter play in your life? Facebook? LinkedIn?
Twitter and Facebook are the main ones I use to keep my members engaged and also reach a larger audience. It allows me to promote FanBolt’s content and also keep regular visitors informed of our contests and events we have going on with the site.
What other social media do you utilize?
I publish most … of our videos on YouTube, which has been great in driving traffic to our site.
Do you consider yourself a journalist?
No. Though I do interviews and a number of news-style articles on FanBolt, I’m not formally trained as a journalist. I’ve always been a blogger. I insert my thoughts and opinions into everything I write.
What do you do when you are not blogging?
I have my bachelor’s and master’s degree in Web Design and New Media. So in addition to running FanBolt, I also run a Web design and social media marketing firm called LNP Studios where I help others to set up, optimize and maintain their online presence.
Some of your favorite bloggers are …
I love E!’s Watch with Kristin.
Name a blogging tool that you can’t live without.
Since WordPress wasn’t around when FanBolt started, everything you see on FanBolt with the exception of the forums was hand-coded by [me, to provide] … the functionality that I wanted. … I don’t use any blogging tools other than what I created. As far as social media … [is concerned], I couldn’t live without TweetDeck.
