Fresh MN
February 23, 2010 by Sara · 6 Comments
The Twin Cities blog fresh.mn was founded by local blogger extraordinaire, Erica Mauter, after several years of writing for the Minneapolis Metblog. Erica is a native of Detroit who actually grew up on 8 Mile. She moved here after she finished college and has lived in the Twin Cities since 1999. She currently lives in Eden Prairie and works at a pharmaceutical company. In her spare time, she likes to attend cultural events, sing with the Twin Cities Women’s Choir, follow Minnesota Lynx basketball, further her plans to move back to Minneapolis, and write the fresh.mn blog. That’s pronounced “fresh-minn” and it’s all about living in her adopted home, the Twin Cities.
There are as many reasons to blog as there are bloggers. What inspired you to create the first post for FreshMN?
There are two answers to that. I was lured to cityblogging because I was getting out and about more and discovering new and different things and people which I was terribly excited about but most readers of my personal blog, swirlspice.com, were not from the Twin Cities. I joined up with the Minneapolis Metblog to have a local audience with which to share those experiences. After 3+ years at Metblog, I decided I wanted to strike out on my own but also continue to keep my cityblogging content separate, and thus FreshMN was born.
Lack of time, lack of ideas, writer’s block: Blogging isn’t always easy. What’s your biggest blogging challenge? How do you choose to tackle it?
What I used to really struggle with was my perception of my audience’s expectations of what I produce. And then I finally realized the world wouldn’t end if I didn’t post for a week. I’ve learned to only post longer form stuff when I actually have something that I feel like talking about. I’ve also learned to both accept and refine a style for sharing shorter form stuff. In other words, I’ve developed a way of brain-dumping that works for me.
What other blogs do you enjoy reading and why? Who are your favorite local bloggers?
Twin Cities Daily Planet – Okay, it’s not a blog, but it is THE best local aggregator of community and ethnic media, and they do incorporate a number of blogs (including mine).
3-Minute Egg – Longtime Twin Cities arts journalist Matt Peiken’s daily video blog.
City of Lakes Urbanism, twin city sidewalks, and Uptown Urbanist – All focusing on urban planning and livability issues.
Eden Prairie City Hall Blog – City manager Scott Neal provides a fascinating take on common city issues from the city’s point of view which is probably representative of many suburbs.
Heavy Table and Simple, Good, and Tasty – I’m totally not a foodie but I love what these folks are doing around food system issues and awareness.
TheColu.mn – A new web magazine covering LGBT issues. I’ve enjoyed the work of Andy Birkey and James Sanna in other publications and I’m happy to see them bring it together here.
mediation – Just for the wide variety of random stuff Taylor Carik posts.
The Deets – Ed Kohler is really good at data analysis and he turns it towards interesting civic issues.
At the end of the day, what is it you hope your readers take away from FreshMN?
I hope my readers discover one new thing about the Twin Cities that they didn’t know about.
Sports teams, a great art scene, entertainment options galore, new transportation options: The Twin Cities are a great place to live. If you were to narrow it down to one answer, what’s your favorite reason to live here?
Accessibility. The Twin Cities area has all of the great things about living in a big metropolis, but on a scale that’s much more manageable to consume.
What is the best advice you can offer a beginner blogger just entering the blogosphere?
Just do what feels right for you and keep doing it until it’s not fun anymore.
The Future Buzz
Adam Singer is responsible for all of the content found on The Future Buzz, a blog about web marketing, PR strategies, and spreading buzz in the blogosphere. He is extremely passionate about computers, technology, and anything new that allows people to connect and communicate better in this globalized society. In fact, he has been a heavy contributor to the internet for more than 12 years and was around to see the very start of the social web. By day he works as an account manager at TopRank Online Marketing, company based in Minneapolis, providing social media, SEO and digital marketing strategy for clients. By night he composes electronic music and maintains The Future Buzz, sharing all he knows about building a social media and online marketing empire. Between work and play, Adam lives and breathes the internet. Bloggers, marketers, freelance writers, entrepreneurs, artists, and many other professionals could all benefit from the expert content he provides.
Your goal with The Future Buzz is to inspire readers and help them become successful in spreading buzz on the web, whatever they’re hyping. With all the forms of digital media available, why did you choose blogging as the way to spread your message?
Blogging is easy, it’s fast and it’s effective. You can be successful with just your ideas and a few free moments each day. It’s essentially a blank slate to share your thoughts in a way that scales to grow as big as you want. With that said, it’s more than a megaphone: blogs are social by nature, and my blog has let me organically form a group of creative people who are open to discussing just about anything – related to marketing, PR, media or even just inspirational thoughts.
Your readership is pretty high, 10,000 to 60,000 people per month with 5,000 subscribers. What would be the best advice you would offer to a new blogger to set them on the road to that sort of viewership? What’s your favorite method to bring readers to your blog?
My best advice would be to stick with it, be consistent and put your passion and yourself into it. Don’t try to be anything you’re not and you’ll naturally form a community that resonates with your content. Personal blogs are not at all about promotion and are all about ideas. Also don’t get hung up on numbers and create the same quality whether you have 5 or 500 readers.
If I had a favorite promotion method for someone it would be this: form close relationships with 5-10 people who are already established. Do this by guest posting for them frequently, promoting them consistently or just reaching out. A lot of people make the mistake in community building to spread their efforts too thin and flirt with lots of different groups. Instead, focus your efforts on getting the right people to put your content in front of their audience consistently over longer periods. Rinse, repeat and you’ll grow.
For more ideas, visit the blogging section of The Future Buzz.
Blogging isn’t always easy, but with the readership you have, the pressure is on to create a steady stream of unique, new content. What is your trick to consistently creating new posts?
If you write about something you’re passionate about – like your industry – it shouldn’t be hard. If it’s that difficult, you picked the wrong subject. If the industry you’re in isn’t your passion, it’s time to find a new job.
I happen to think if you’re truly passionate about your work, you’ll have enough ideas about how to make things better, enough creative promotions you don’t have the type of projects or clients to work on, and enough random thoughts that your blog can be the “catch all” of your mental surplus.
Also don’t think of blogging as a “chore” or something you “have to do.” Rather, consider yourself lucky to live in a world you can have a voice.
What other blogs do you enjoy reading and why? Who are your favorite local Twin Cities bloggers?
Some of my favorite blogs:
Techdirt
Shooting At Bubbles
Louis Gray
Dosh Dosh
Flowing Data
Marketing.FM
ViperChill
Minneapolis bloggers:
Lee Odden
Arik Hanson
Rick Mahn
According to your bio, you’ve only lived in Minneapolis since the Summer of 2009, and before that, you lived in Florida. With 3-feet of snow on the ground, you and many other Minnesotans are probably pining for Fort Lauderdale right now. Despite the weather, what do you love about living in the Twin Cities so far?
Actually, after living in Florida for 26 years the snow is a nice change of pace. I’ve never experienced a real winter so it’s interesting to me. I’d say the best part about living here is the people, they are – for the most part – quite a bit nicer than Floridians (we’re a bit rough around the edges). Although as someone who spends most of their time blogging and writing music (check out my music site if you’re into electronic music) I could live just about anywhere that has electricity and be happy.
What is your biggest non-blog related goal for 2010?
To speak at 5 marketing, PR or technology conferences/events this year.
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Just Judy Judy Judy
The writer behind Just Judy Judy Judy has had an interesting life and it seeps through into her blogging. Born in Canada to British parents, Judy Grundstrom has traveled all over the world, eventually deciding to call the Diamond Lake neighborhood of Minneapolis home. She has an accomplished career as an architect, interior designer, and marketing principal, achieving over time a portfolio of awards and award winning projects with organizations ranging from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum to General Mills. She also contributes weekly to a local radio program and makes television appearances. This vivacious, trendsetting, techno-savvy geek girl truly has her finger on the pulse of new and old media, sharing what she learns along the way. As a result, the Just Judy Judy Judy blog has amassed a huge following on the web and has quickly become the Twin Cities source for crazy things.
Bloggers write for a variety of reasons. Why did you decide to start Just Judy Judy Judy?
There were a few reasons. I noticed that blogging seems to be a “boys club” and I wanted to have a female voice on the scene. I also wanted to encourage other women to start blogging through my blogging, which has happened a few times already. Another reason is that it compliments some other things I do in the traditional media including my weekly appearance on Jason & Alexis on FM107.1 and The Weekend Buzz on Fox 9.
It can be tough for a blogger to maintain a steady stream of ideas and posts. What is the biggest blogging challenge you face?
Having ideas to blog about is not the toughest challenge I face. I have tons of ideas for blogs and posts. My biggest challenge is time to blog. I am an architect and have two children so the blogging is just a side thing. The blog is called, “Just JudyJudyJudy” and it really is just me. I do everything for the blog myself. I would love to be able to do three blog posts a day, but really that just isn’t possible.
What’s the best thing a blogger can give to his or her readers?
A true voice and an honest opinion. I also think it is nice to let your readers into your life a little bit now and then. I don’t think that blogs that are just about what a person does all day are particularly interesting (read: I ate CoCo Puffs for breakfast, then took a shower, then it was off to Starbucks!) For that reason I mainly keep my personal life private and just give little details about myself now and then. I will however, from time to time, do an entire blog post on something about my family or an event that I went to, and I think that keeps it interesting. Also, the blogs are always written in my voice so readers get to know my point of view.
Bloggers often draw inspiration from each other. What blogs do you enjoy reading and how do they inspire you? Who are your favorite Twin Cities bloggers?
I really love “The Bloggess” – she is one of the reasons that I wanted to start blogging. She always writes about herself but it is so funny, true comedy writing. My favorite blogs in the Twin Cities are l’etoile Magazine’s LOL/OMG, Secrets of the City, and The Geek Girls Guide.
What do you love about the Twin Cities / Minnesota?
I love the Twin Cities because it is such a great place for the arts & design. I believe there are more designers per capita here than any other city in the United States. That makes for a great scene with awesome art, music, fashion, and design related events. I really do like to get out on the town and go to things, see people and be seen, and I think the Twin Cities is a great place for that. Some of this ends up on my blog, some of it you can follow on my Twitter and Facebook.
What is the best advice you can offer to someone who wants to break into the blogging world?
Blog about something that you are really interested in. My blog is open with a number of topics so I can talk about all kinds of things I find interesting such as politics, fashion, technology, science, design, and local Twin Cities happenings. I like that because I can just find something that is happening and filter it through my perspective and put it up on my blog. I would also suggest to someone starting out blogging to do a lot of postings. I think it is better in blogging, and in anything creative really, to go for quantity over quality. If you are trying to always create the “perfect blog post” you can get frozen with fear. Better to just not over think it and create many blog posts. Over time you will find your voice as a blogger and the post will get better and better. Somewhere in the mix that perfect blog post is bound to come out.
