PostRanger.com

Share your favorite PostRanger.com news on Newsvine

There’s a great way to share your favorite news posts from PostRanger.com’s emerging local news content sites with a broader community.

Newsvine.com is a community providing the opportunity to post and link to your favorite news articles from across the Net and signup takes just minutes.

According to it’s website, Newsvine is:

…the fastest place to read and discuss news stories from every news source in the world.

…the news adjusts based on what users find important.

Newsvine allows you to:

Create a trail of interesting news stories you read on the web and publish them to Newsvine instantly

Set up your column in seconds and begin writing articles for friends or the world to discuss.

Let PostRanger.com’s emerging number of local news products including Allentown News, Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metro and News of the Poconos be your guides to finding local news links and find great business posts on PostRanger.com’s latest affiliated site BootStrapMe.com.

Start your own Newsvine column for your community today!

BootStrapMe now part of PostRanger.com network

BootStrapMe.com, a blog on starting a business with little or no outside investment, is now the premier link for PostRanger.com’s new and soon to be expanding “business” section offering readers of our growing media network a source for independent business information.

The new arrangement will offer regular PostRanger.com readers:

·        Access to BootStrapMe.com’s original business content through the main PostRanger.com blog and our growing selection of regional news blogs including Allentown News, Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metro and News of the Poconos

·        Access, by extension, to the larger family of specialty blogs from the Creative Weblogging network of which BootStrapMe.com is currently a part

·        Access for PostRanger.com readers to BootStrapMe.com’s growing Yahoo!, MySpace and MyBlogLog communities for startup entrepreneurs.

·        A possible feed of original BootStrapMe.com content on PostRanger.com affiliated sites.

More to come…

News now regularly available at PostRanger.com

Well, it's taken some time, but news is now available fairly regularly at PostRanger.com's three main news sites Allentown News, Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metro and News of the Poconos. Check back regularly for updates and if you've got a news tip or story send it to no.1newshound@yahoo.com.

Happy Easter

Have a blessed Easter from the staff of PostRanger.com!

Photo Credit: jeltovski, MorgueFile

Citizen journalists wanted

PostRanger.com is looking for citizen journalists interested in sending photos, video, other guest posting materials for our growing family of blogs.

For now follow these guidelines:

·       Send your submitted stuff to no.1newshound@yahoo.com. (For video please send embedding code like that provided on YouTube or other video hosting sites.)

·        Please do not send us any material to which you do not posses the intellectual rights. We take copyright infringement seriously, will remove any infringing stuff upon notice from copyright owner and will ban you from further submissions if you violate our trust on this!

·        We reserve the right to edit or refuse to post submissions. We will not publish potentially libelous or obviously offensive (at our sole discretion) material

·        Submissions from organizations or other groups are welcome. If you are a PR person wishing to share information, photos or video from events occurring in our current coverage area (right now Allentown, the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metro area and the Poconos) may certainly send us your information.

If you’ve got a question on all of this, feel free to e-mail it to the above e-mail and we’ll try to help you out.

Impressions of the Allentown lifestyle

One of the new PostRanger.com network’s first coverage areas includes the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metro area with news at both Allentown News and Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metro. Contributing editor Shawn Hessinger gives his impressions as a newcomer to the region…(More)

Why Isn't the Publishing Industry Giving 100%, 100% of the Time?

This op-ed from green publishers Josh P. McClary and Jessica Sanchez is just another reason I'm happy to be in the non-paper publishing industry, at least for now...

For many Americans, the journey toward environmentally conscious living begins with recycling, a lifestyle change that is surprisinglysimple to implement, yet amazingly effective in its positive impact on the environment.  But as consumers embrace the need for immediate action, the U.S. publishing industry is making an alarmingly slow transition towards printing books on paper manufactured from 100% post-consumer waste pulp (PCW).

As evidence mounts over the need for immediate action, the Green Press Initiative, a non-profit group responsible for much of the progress already achieved in the paper industry, released an email on January 9, 2008, announcing that their Leadership Council had made the decision to lower their standards for signing their "Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper."  Instead of pledging to print books on paper made from  a minimum of 30% recycled, 30% PCW paper, publishers now only need to promise that that the 30% recycled portion would consist of a  "majority" post-consumer waste fiber.  They also extended the time frame for reaching the goal from 2010 to 2012. A policy shift meant, according to the email sent out to their mailing list, to "make its goals more attainable."  We find it troubling that an organization with the goal of promoting positive change in the industry would lower their already minimal standards at a time when more action is needed.

The typical argument that most large publishers have against using 100% recycled, 100% PCW paper is that the cost would be higher than the cost of printed on non-recycled paper.  To be absolutely sure this was the case we asked a major printer to quote 100,000 copies of a typical book.  A much larger print run than a small publisher would use, but by no means a large print run for a large publishing house.

We asked for a quote for both traditional, non-recycled paper and 100% recycled, 100% PCW paper.

We expected the recycled content book to be slightly more expensive which would support the argument regularly used by the large publishers.  The quote said something very different: printing 100,000 copies of this particular 232-page book on traditional paper with no recycled content would cost slightly more.  Clearly in this situation, environmental harmony was not only attainable, it was financially preferred.

This was not a scientific experiment meant to show that publishers can now run out and print all their titles on 100% recycled, 100% PCW paper at no extra cost.  There are many factors that go into the cost of a print run, and paper prices fluctuate often.  But it does cast serious doubt on the "attainability" argument.  Clearly it is possible for publishers of large print runs to do the right thing without paying a dollar more-possibly even spending less- if they are willing to ask the questions and do a little research.

So why aren't we seeing a majority of U.S. publishers acting more responsibly?  Besides just good old-fashioned indifference, apparently in their notion of attainability, many publishers haven't factored in the costs of their actions on the future of our world.  If they wanted to get serious about responsible paper use-about the future, they need to take a very serious look at their business practices.  Why are so many books printed in China when there are a plethora of printers and recycled paper manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada?  Isn't it important to these companies to support the economies of North America?  Manufacturing has been outsourced for far too long, it's time we start spending our dollars closer to home. The most influential aspect in this process is the consumer-the reader.  Readers need to start demanding books printed on recycled (or even non-paper) material.  When you buy their books you are investing  in their product and company, if you don't like what they are doing with your money then tell them!

Small strides in the right direction are only a start.  This industry has the ability, the money, and the resources to make the right environmental choices, and still makes only slight improvements if any.  At Kedzie Press, we only print on 100% recycled, 100% PCW paper, and even that is not enough.  In February 2008, we launched our "Kedzie Million Tree-a-Thon."  In collaboration with Eco-Libris, we will plant one tree for each book we sell with the goal of planting one million trees by December 2009.  We invite other publishers to follow our example, stop making excuses, and be part of the solution.

Josh P. McClary and Jessica Sanchez are cofounders of Kedzie Press,  and independent "green" book publishing company based in Seattle. Visit them online at http://www.kedziepress.com

Photo Credit: Darren Hester, MorgueFile

PostRanger is back!

PostRanger.com is back up and running and with a whole new mission---to build a new model and brand of media business using cutting edge technologies at every turn to accomplish our task.

Here are some thoughts from fellow blogger Ben Yoskovitz with a few of my own comments thrown in from two previous post on BootStrapMe.com about how to go about building a media company in the new tech biz ecosystem:

·        Build up a popular blog on a specific niche. Whether it's collecting science fiction action figures or writing about Libertarian politics, I should ad that it doesn't hurt to find a topic for which there is already some passion out there, even if it's among a very small group. Marketer Seth Godin calls this finding an Otaku.

·        Develop a strong brand. This, of course, has something to do with your niche but also with the personality and style you give your blog, the way you set the tone for the conversation that will occur. There are many ways to write about a passion for medieval armor so be sure to give yours some pizzazz.

·        Make lots of friends. On line media is about many things but one of them is certainly community. If you're a bootstrapper consider joining these communities affiliated with BootStrapMe.com or guest posting here by following these instructions.

·        Master monetization. This is the hardest part of bootstrapping an on line media property, whether blog, on line magazine or social network. Ben suggests affiliates, sponsorships, text link ads, sponsored reviews. Here are some additional resources.

·        Learn more about marketing. In particular, Ben suggests brushing up on e-mail marketing and autoresponder.

·        Find opportunities offline. It can sometimes be a real chore to make all the different aspects of your life align so that you can do a bunch of things that are all related and still make a living while building your brand. The thing to remember is to try to tailor what you do to your niche and promote those efforts through your blog at every opportunity.

·        Get help. You probably should have done this when you started with this crazy bootstrapping thing in the first place. Seriously though, you'll need others to help you as you expand your efforts which leads us to the next of Ben's points...

·        Be a teacher. You'll want to invite others to guest post on your blog as suggested above, but you'll also want to give others guidance. A suggestion: Just because someone has a different approach to something does not make it wrong. Focus on inspiring instead of lecturing.

·        Realize it's a business. For more on this read discussions on bootstrapping by both Greg Gianforte and Guy Kawasaki to keep from deceiving yourself about the difference between a hobby, an idea and an actual business model.

·        Expand slowly but promote like crazy. Even if some of your efforts and experiments go badly. I've lived by this one and sometimes frankly cringe when looking back at places where maybe I zigged when I should have zagged. Truth be told, however, I generally feel worse about the risks I didn't take and every step in the expansion process teaches great lessons.

For more, keep reading…

Converse with your customers

When marketing your product or service don’t forget to converse with your customers.

Good marketing should be a conversation because it gives you valuable feedback on what you’re doing well and what you could be doing better. (More)

Great sci-fi anthology revisited

One of the seminal collections of science fiction’s golden age may be out of print but can still be located with ease in used hardcover editions on line.

Famous Science Fiction Stories-Adventures in Time and Space edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas contains 35 stories by some of the most legendary names in science fiction literature. (more)