Blogging, Panelists, Opinons and After The Jump at The Mohawk

After The Jump tonight at The Mohawk is the event I have been looking forward to ever since I heard about it via email. According to the advertising for the event, this is where we get to learn "what's new and next in blogs". The popular bloggers or blogs listed in the event flier posted here are going to share how they pick what to blog about and why they always look to Austin blogs. Technically I'm an Austin blog with thousands of unique visitors a month, so that alone stirs my curiosity.

Now blogging is just a serious hobby for me; something I enjoy as an outlet to share music I enjoy (or don't) with folks. Besides being fun, blogging was just a way to see what I could do with it and what bigger things it could lead to. It eventually lead me to start "blogging" for cdFuse a little over a year ago. As you should should know by now, cdFuse became Double Stereo and has improved by leaps and bounds. It lead me to start interviewing, reviewing albums and posting information relevant to a national audience.

The Double Stereo blogging experience also led to my eventually taking over Austin Vida from both the editor's desk and ownership table. There wasn't any good Latin music websites here in Austin that were kept up with, broad in focus or that provided a young voice to the scene that so needed Austin Vida. Since my Austin Vida crew and I are writers with blogs, I'm anxious to hear what the bigger publications like Spin and Billboard have to say.

Now perhaps your reasons for attending After The Jump are completely different than mine, and that's fine. I was talking with good friend and Austin Vida Managing Editor, Ajay Miranda, the other day and we were both of the same mindset about blogs. Blogs should be what launch a writer or lead to something bigger. It should not be the main product or where one stops. I am hoping these panelists tomorrow aren't looking to all these popular shitty blogs that are just cluster fucks of random content as examples of what to do. I understand why these kind of blogs get hits. It has to do with quantity of posts, not quality, tags, link backs and other important SEO components. Still, I want the panelists to address that as well as good sites for easy do-it-yourself templates. See you at After The Jump folks. If not, see you at Fun Fun Fun Fest, my favorite Austin music festival not named Pachanga Fest.

For more details on After The Jump, check out the post on Do512.