Indyish Writers Guide- Blog for Indyish

Blog for Indyish

There is pretty unlimited potential for those who are interested to be blogging arts events for Indyish. We would love to have more perspectives, and more independent arts scene coverage from Montreal and around the world on the site. Your posts can be submitted to us via email- send to team @ indyish.com- or if you are an indyish artist, you can post anything you want directly onto the site. Indyish artists in particular are very much encouraged to offer up the occasional blog post. We want to hear from you guys!

We can’t pay you, but if you are interested in writing about a show or event, in many cases you will be able to get press presses or to get on guest lists to blog for Indyish.

To get press passes- you usually just have to email the right person and ask. Prepare a press application and get the info on who you’ll need to request accreditation from. Send the application to us for a once over and then you’re good to go. If you get in to a show for free because you say you’ll write about it for indyish, then you really must do so for everyone’s sake, but that’s pretty obvious, eh?

Here’s a sample press application- This the one that was sent in for POP Montreal, put together and successfully submitted by Tessa Smith and Jonathan Stewart: Pop Press Pass Application

If you are thinking of writing something for us, please take note of the following tips.

Steps to follow when writing blog posts for Indyish.
note: not all the steps apply to you if you submit posts by email, but the ones at the beginning and the very end do, so make sure to peruse ‘em.

1. We do not steal other people’s words. You must always cite your sources - either link to them directly or include their name and the title of their site/book/article/etc.
2. Focus on providing useful info first, and opinion after. This makes for blog posts more people want to read. Remember that the majority of your readers on the web will be from abroad and will not know much about the site they’re on, or the event you are covering, so just take a second to frame it for them.
3. Make links within your post, if possible (using the handy ‘link’ button). We’re about creating community! Links are part of that, but again, they need to be relevant somehow or they’ll just distract from the content of your post.
4. Try to include an image (here’s the how to on Images) in your post – it’s a quick way for people to ascertain what the post is about, and it looks pro too.
5. Drop your post into a program with spell check before you publish.
6. Double check the spelling on all names, and use full names, because people do google themselves.
7. Titles are the most important part of your post because they become links. They should absolutely contain the most important names and keywords. For example, if you write a post about Sloan, the title should have the name Sloan in it.
8. Keywords are the second most important part of your post for searches. Keyword carefully, take a look at previously used tags on Indyish, and on Technorati, to pick your wording and note that the ones with medium traffic can often be the best bc you’ll get views but they won’t scroll away too fast. (how to do tags)
9. The time you post at can be important. Don’t post 4 pieces at 4 o’clock in the morning. By the time your readers are up and at work procrastinating by reading blogs, your posts will have scrolled away bc of all the other morning bloggers. Most people read our site between 4 and 8pm.
10. Space your posts out a little bit- like one an hour- so as to not overwhelm readers.
11. Take the time to love language and enjoy words. We indyish enjoy a well turned phrase.
12. Take the time to tell stories.
13. Note!: not all posts have to be event reviews, we’d love to see more interviews; book, magazine, cd reviews; notes on projects in development, and more. check out these guys for a few other ideas on cool things to do:

    tell us about something happening: Parnell En Hell
    tell us about something interesting: Exactly, I’m Unique, You’re Unique by Robyn Fadden.
    tell us about something useful: Something for Nothing: free/cheap online patterns by Dayna Gedney.
    tell us about something using pictures and sarcasm: Puces POP - Fashion Show by Tessa Smith.

    if you have an idea for an Indyish article that you’d like to talk to us about first, please send it along to tessa @ indyish .com.