451 Press will be attending SXSW again this year. If you want to meet up just send an email to steve@451press.com. We will be attending the network bar camp hosted by B5 Media and also joining Darren from ProBlogger.net on the beer bus. So reach out and say hello if you’re attending. C-ya there.
Starting October 1, 2007, 451 Press will be using a new pay model.
0 - 2 Month Bloggers
$0.50 Per Post & $1.50 CPM
3 - 5 Month Bloggers
$1.00 Per Post & $1.50 CPM
6 - 11 Month Bloggers
$1.50 Per Post & $1.50 CPM
12 - 17 Month Bloggers
$2.00 Per Post & $1.50 CPM
Network Aggregates More than 300 Daily Blogs into Premier Entertainment Network
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 31 — 451 Press is now the largest Blog Network with more than 300 daily blogs published on a variety of entertainment and “edutainment” related topics. Unlike social networking or blogging sites, 451 Press provides real-time, on-demand content, written by a team of award-winning professional bloggers.
In order to give visitors a better sense of what blogs are being written and what topics they’re touching on, 451 has added a blog aggregator to their home page. Visitors can now see content as its published without having to check individual blogs for new content.
Steve Shickles, president of 451 Press, commented, “We’re excited to see the network grow and expand so quickly. Our sites are doing great, and we owe that in large part to the great team of bloggers who’ve made the network what it is. Our new aggregator lets anyone stopping by 451 Press read snippets of blogs as they’re published. We’re hoping that they’ll see something that interests them, and bookmark that particular blog.”
451Press.com launched in September of 2006 with 10 blogs. The company now boasts 329 unique sites and is adding more weekly.
The company is constantly recruiting professional bloggers for their many sites. Writers should visit 451 Press for information on publishing opportunities.
With more than 300 blogs and 10 million visitors a month, 451 Press is the world’s largest blog network. 451 Press offers entertaining content on advertising supported websites written by professional bloggers.
We are happy to announce the beta version of our network aggregator is now live. You can now visit 451Press.com daily to get the latest news from ALL of our sites. This is the beta version and we do have more features coming soon.
Our writers here at 451 Press love holding contests for their readers and we decided it would be a great idea to spotlight those contests this week. So, without further ado, here are the contests going on around the network this week. Take the time to find one that you can enter!
We keep adding new writers as the weeks go by - giving us even more great entries to spotlight here on our front page. Here are a couple from this week around the network.
Summer TV pickings might be slim, but Big Brother Craze is already trying to prepare you for Summer’s biggest reality TV show:
The premiere date hasn’t been officially announced, but it’s assumed that July 5th is the big day. Julie Chen will return as host. Arnold Shapiro is no longer the Executive Producer - he is now an Executive Consultant. Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan are now the Executive Producers. Hopefully this means a bit of a shakeup is coming to the format of the show. This is where the stuff we know for sure ends, and the speculation and rumours begin.
The news today is filled with news of drought in parts of the US. Urban Ecoist writes about ways to save/reuse what little rain you see:
One of the most common ways people capture rain water is in rain barrels. There are numerous brands and types of barrels out there. Typically they come in 60 gallon to 80 gallon models. Say you have a 2,000 sf home, and decided on the 80 gallon barrels. If it rained only 1 inch, you’d need at least 15 barrels. Unfortunately, at $80 to $150 a piece (IMHO) they are still a bit too expensive for the average homeowner.
Our writer for the Milwaukee, WI City Blog compared Milwaukee, WI to Madison, WI this week and concludes:
…Milwaukee always has something to offer, regardless of your location or budget. I only lived in Madison for two years, versus seven in Milwaukee, so I can admit that I might be a tad biased. Remember, this is just one man’s opinion.
Finally, Nursing Your Kids discusses toys to use while nursing:
Several commenters also added the great suggestion that reading books to my son while nursing is another great idea. And I agree! I LOVE that idea because it includes him.
Take some time to look at these or any other of our sites around the network and let the new writers know what you think!
We’ve added dozens of new writers the last few weeks and we wanted to take a few moments to spotlight some of the interesting articles we’ve seen from them this week.
One of our new city blogs San Diego, CA wrote a great entry discussing one of the city’s most romantic spots - Balboa Park:
Balboa Park is one of the top places that everyone should visit at some point out here in San Diego. Specifically though I wanted to talk about the most romantic spots in Balboa Park. Everyone knows it is a great place for families. And of course there are tons of people using Balboa Park as a great place to take wedding pictures. That alone should tell you how truly beautiful and romantic it can be.
The Discussing Autism site discussed some of the recent research about early detection:
Others say that if a child can not respond to his/her name by their first birthday then more detailed tests are needed. In fact, at least two-thirds of children who failed the test had developmental delays by their second birthday.
We’re shifting focus in the entertainment channel to our summer shows and Watching 4400 begins by revealing some of the ways the network is getting the viewers involved in the season this summer:
It’s time to fight FOR or battle AGAINST Promicin. Get your character into the 4400 Universe. Get on the PromicinInfo.com Forum and mix it up! We start reaching outside the 4400 fan base next week so let’s make sure people see a compelling, exciting world when they stop by.
And finally, one of our newer crafting sites, Wax and Bubbles writes about a creative wax project:
You take a teddy bear or other stuffed animal and dip it in melted, scented wax to create a sort of air freshener. This is a neat idea!
This past Thursday was Take your Daughters and Sons to Work day for many people across the nation. Several of our writers participated by letting their children, or children close to them write for their sites. Please take a moment to visit these children on our network.
Knitting Passion
Foster Parents Online
Reality on Bravo
Find Religion
WWE Daily
Tot TV Watch
Kids Dish
* Entry #1
* Entry #2
Tiny Treasury
* Entry #1
* Entry #2
Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund
April 16, 2007, will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the Virginia Tech community and the world beyond.
To remember and honor the victims of those tragic events, the university has established the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to aid in the healing process and generate financial support.
The fund will be used to cover expenses including but not limited to:
If you plan to give, please click the link below:
Steve Shickles
451 Press, LLC
Two 451 Press articles were featured Netscape this week. The first was a recap of this week’s episode of The Simpsons at Watching Simpsons and the second was an article recapping this week’s interesting episode of 24 at Watching 24.
Other articles of note around the network are:
Digital Shutters discusses holiday photo shooting:
During that Easter egg hunt don’t miss the cute shots by constantly checking the picture you just took and erasing the bad ones. Bring along extra disks and only edit or erase when the action has slowed or you start to run out of disk space.
Tiny Treasury discusses the newest Disney Princess:
The character, Maddy, lives in the French Quarter in New Orleans and is the star of the new film “The Frog Princess” set for release in 2009.
YouTube Digger found a video online of an interesting paint technique:
While I think the end result isn’t the best portrait I’ve seen of the great man and master martial artist, it’s done in such a unique and clever way, with the guy using a series of chops and karate moves to create the work of art, it’s well worth drawing attention to and posting on YouTube Digger.
Elementary Chef gives the At-Home Recipe from a popular chain restaraunt:
If the recipe looks slightly too daunting, Olive Garden will be hosting a web cooking class to teach you the techniques. (How cool is that?) The cooking demonstrations will become available on April 9 at www.olivegarden.com/recipes.
Discussing Breast Cancer opens up conversation about discussing cancer with children:
My sound advice is to urge people to resist the temptation to ask them to take care of mommy because what they really need to know is who is going to take care of them.
Family Trip Deals writes about Montana Ghost Towns:
Many years since I’ve live in Montana (I moved back here in 1998), my parents have taken the kids to Bannack Days to enjoy a festival type atmosphere in Bannack Ghost Town. They can send and receive telegrams, eat ice cream, play in the river, ride horses, and many other fun activities.
This week a PR company sent samples of Jolt Energy Gum to 451 HQ. The gum is loaded with caffeine and will give you quite a “jolt”, but we are buzzing because they told us our Watching 24 site is one of the top 10 24 sites on the web! Way to go Aaron, keep up the great work. And don’t eat too much of that gum at once, you’ll get a serious headache! That stuff packs a punch.
This week was also “451 Press owns Netscape.com” week, with 3 stories hitting the front page. For 3-4 days there we had at least 2 stories on the front page at the same time. Our bloggers rock!
Anna, From Watching The Office started off the Netscape trend this week with her post Tuesday’s The Office Guest Star: Sanjaya Malakar.
JM, from Fiction Scribe, had Thoughts on Paid Blogging hit the front page, which is a great topic and one I talk about pretty often.
Tracey, from Hot or Not Beauty, posted Halle Gets Banged! which was on Netscape, but those punks pulled it! Why Netscape, why do you hurt our feelings this way?
Steve also put together a report on growth over the last 3 months, and our top 10 most improved blogs in terms of growth are:
Watching Survivor (277%)
Dating Outlook (196%)
Tom Cruise Watch (185%)
MS Talk Online (162%)
Scrapropos (118%)
Hot or Not Beauty (110%)
Watching The View (110%)
Bargin Styling (108%)
Xbox 360 Rally (106%)
My Friendly Pets (104%)
This was a long week for us here in the office with lots of catching up to do and planning going forward as well as an amazing week for our bloggers, who always do a great job and we are glad to see them get the notice they deserve.
Someone recently asked what I thought our biggest strength was as a company and I always have to say our writers. We really are fortunate to have some of the best writers. Here are some high lights from the last week of what they’ve been up to:
Congrats to Kelly from Tiny Treasury who was approached by Disney to blog for their new Family.com site. Kelly will be covering family, finance and tax over at Waiting Upon Fortune (But never sure of dinner) so check it out and support her new writing gig!
JM over at Fiction Scribe has an interview up with one of our own 451 Press writers, Bobbi Chukran from Earthly Garden. The focus is on writing, something I think our bloggers are very qualified to talk about and this interview well worth checking out, so head over to Historical Mystery Maven for a good time, er, read. Bobbi has had a great run lately, she was just recently featured on the Google News site which lead to lots of links!
Erinn from Parenting Our Children was also interviewed by StorkCalling so be sure to check that out.
Winnie is having a Watching The View Comment Contest, the winner will receive the new spring version of The View mug. Winnie’s blog is so good that several people have mistaken it for the official web site of the view!
Our poster boy for great TV Show writing, Aaron from Watching 24 was mentioned in a recent blog post over at USA Today!
And our bad boy of gaming, BB from 1P Start landed on the front page of digg with his post New Screens - Brunswick Bowling for Wii.
451 Press just returned from Austin spending a week participating in SxSWi. We attended a lot of fantastic panels and met a lot of great people and businesses that grace the internet today. We hope to use a lot of what we’ve learned to better the network as the months go by.
And here is an exciting note for you Guitar Hero fans: 1P Start is having a contest where they are giving away a brand new copy of Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360. Essentially, the more you comment on 1P Start, the more chances you have to win! So, hop on over there and participate in the discussions going on so that you can increase your chances of winning.
451 Press would like to spotlight some of the notable articles and entries around the network recently.
All Paper Arts did a great piece about the growing popularity of ATCs - Artist Trading Cards:
Another, great thing I love about ATC’s is you can make a small and quick sample of your work. These are great for using not only for the purpose of trading but also for slipping a little something to a friend or anyone that you run into who you think might enjoy them.
Toybender wrote a piece about aquiring one of the toys from his childhood:
This guy seems to be pretty hard to find, which makes sense considering he’s one of the most popular G1 Transformers and awesome to the max. The packaging here is simply fantastic. While the new found joy of opening toys wants me to bust Soundwave loose, I may just leave him in the box for awhile before making such a rash decision.
Wedding Tactics discusses the latest trends in games for bridal showers:
Toilet paper wedding dress. The crowd is broken into teams and they choose one lady who models a wedding dress made out of toilet paper that her teammates create. A winner is choosen and little token gifts are given out.
Shoeboxers gives us a rundown of the latest trends for footwear this spring:
So who has time to be concerned about spring shoes when it’s time for non-skid weather friendly boots? I do! Every self absorbed shoe loving girl has to be on top of her fashion game, and getting prepared for the next season is just one step in process.
Finally, Get Incensed wrote a thought provoking article about censorship and blogging in Egypt:
Abdel Kareem Suleiman, a blogger from Egypt, was given hard jail time (4 years worth) for his blogging habits. No, he didn’t declare himself to be some international safety threat. All he did was bad-mouth Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and verbally slam Islam. Yep! That’s it!
There are plenty of other articles worth reading around the network - these are just the notable pieces we wanted to spotlight this week. Enjoy!
451 Press is happy to announce a new division of the writing network. For any applicant who wants to write about a topic we don’t need a writer for, we can now give them the chance to write on our new Channel Blogs. They have access to all of the channels and all topics. There are no limits on the channel blogs, they can post as often or as rarely as they want. Feel free to check them out!
* Blogging
* Business
* Celebrities
* Channels
* Cooking
* Entertainment
* Gaming
* Health
* Hobbies
* Outdoors
* Parenting
* Pets
* Politics
* Relationships
* Sports
* Technology
* Travel
* TV
* Writing
In the meantime, 451 Press is still accepting applications for writers so feel free to send in yours.
