By Geoff

It Can Be Done! DVDTalk.com ~60 Writers NeighborhoodNotes.com ~40 Writers

Your Job as Editor:  Establish and maintain Editorial Voice  Assemble The Team  Communicate  Cheerlead  Give Good Feedback  Keep Team Focused  Resolve Conflicts

Secrets to Being A GREAT Editor  Be Benevolent Work for the success of your staff  Kill Your Ego Being Right isn't Being Successful  Never Cherry Pick Give your top writers top opportunities  Create VALUE for your writers Go out there and get review copies, interviews, etc on behalf of your team

Editorial Voice  Many people can speak as one voice Decided what that voice is  Break out by Topic/Category/Subject Can be Genre, Locale or even tone  Bring on people to fill specific areas Don't have too much overlap Keep people focused on their topic

Create A Writer's Guidebook  Define Editorial Tone  Set expectations How many posts per week?  Give examples of what you want to see  Provide publishing & promotion how to  Encourage Communication  Define the rules of your site

Your Blog Team

Communication is Key!  One to One Communication – , IM, Telephone  One to Many Communication – Forum &  Important to keep in regular communication with your staff  Success includes getting your staff to communicate with eachother.

Tools For Communication

Give Your Writers Feedback  Writers NEED feedback  No News is Not Good News  them kudos when they do well & tips when they are stumbling  When a story gets a lot off traffic, don’t keep that to yourself TELL THEM

The Best Tool To Resolve Issues  Don’t air issues with writers online or in comments  Never criticize a writers work in public  Editor/Publishers can’t take off that hat and be ‘regular commenters”  Don’t have it out via  Pick up the damn phone

Keys to Happy Contributors  Give contributors ownership of their work (pride of ownership)  Don’t be possessive of your writers or their work  Let writers make mistakes. Mistakes are where the learning comes in  Show Your Appreciation  Reward Hard work  Empower them to become leaders

My Contact Info: Geoff Q & A