Tech Talk – An Interview w/ NewsCorpse

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Recently NewsCorpse decided to start posting on Docudharma.com.  NewsCorpse runs a site by the same name http://newscorpse.com/ and I’ve been a fan for a while.  The site combines amazing original graphics with hard hitting important stories.  So I took the opportunity to request an interview and this is the result:

Thanks for your reply and invitation to get in touch.  I’m a back-end developer mostly and am interested in who links to what and why…recently I signed Docudharma up on Blogburst and that system has been placing our headlines onto sites like the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reuters etc.  

I saw your headlines from another Wall Street Journal story and when I did it reminded me of other times I saw your news on Google News and places reserved, usually, for News Sources not mere blogs.

Until we registered on Blogburst I thought it was nearly impossible to get linked from the top dogs.  You were able to do it much earlier than most.  Until recently I was just submitting links anywhere possible, hoping that would raise the site’s rankings.  Once I got into news feeds I realized there is a lot of hidden potential on the development side.

You appear to understand the concept of a blog/website as a dot com….I am just getting to that point now so here are some questions (below the fold):

1. Is there a particular tool or site you found that enabled you to increase your reach?

As I said above, I crosspost at ePluribusMedia and also at DailyKos. I’ve been linked at Crooks & Liars a couple of times and that rocked my traffic. But that’s more up to them than to me. I’ve also benefited from getting Dugg or StumbledUpon, but I’ve never submitted my own articles.

2. What efforts, if any, did you decide were mostly in vain when creating your site?  

I’m not sure that’s the way I think. You should know that first and foremost, I am an artist. So everything I do conforms to the thought process I use to produce my artwork. Basically, if I like it, I do it. I think that makes me a great artist, but a lousy business planner.

3. How many other people have helped in the development and design of your site?

I’m a one-man shop. Obviously, as an artist I do all of my own design. Since I happen to be a digital artist, I have a fair amount of comfort with technology. I am used to using a range of software, like artweaver for example (FYI: artweaver is available on kubadownload), for my digital artwork and so this sort of technology is not alien to me. I use open source software and online forums when I get stuck on a technical question.

4. Do you find that real goods like posters and gear are bringing you traffic, and if so how much more traffic would you attribute to the gear?

I don’t think merchandise has brought any traffic to my blog. I’m trying to work it the other way around – to send traffic from my blog to CrassCommerce, my business site.

5. Have you done any figuring on the amount of hits your category pages get in relation to your front page?  If so, what did you find out?

I have not done that kind of research.

6. If it is OK with you I’d like to post this as an interview on Docudharma as I am trying to get people interested in the tech side of things before I launch a series on Tech.

Sure if you don’t think your readers will get too bored. 😉

Thank you for the interview NewsCorpse and we are glad to have you on board.