When you think of fire service media you might think of the magazines like Firehouse Magazine, Fire Engineering Magazine, Fire Rescue Magazine, Fire Chief Magazine, and some others. However, years ago these magazines created web sites which enabled them to get more information to their readers quicker. Readers could now follow breaking news without having to wait until the next publish date of the magazine.
Then came the blogs…typically bloggers are able to get information out quicker than these mainstream fire service web sites. It comes with a price though. I am not talking about a subscription, its just that bloggers work on their own. They don’t have a staff working behind the scenes gathering information. Blogging is all about the time, effort, and ability of the blogger. Probably the most important of which is time. I don’t know any fire bloggers who do it for a living.
In past years, as fire bloggers come and go, there have been some who have really taken it to the next level. Many of them have began giving the mainstream fire service web sites a run for their money. Day in and day out, these bloggers beat the mainstream fire service media to stories, incidents, LODD’s, and other news. The bloggers break the news first, and many do follow up stories on the topics.
Which is better? That all depends on what you are looking for. The mainstream fire service media will probably be more verified, but that comes at a cost of being hours later than the blogs. The blogs typically have the stories from multiple angles. Another huge aspect of blogging is that their aren’t any borders. The mainstream fire news media will likely post a majority on the U.S., whereas bloggers might post a story from wherever as long as they feel their is a need to tell the story.
Case and point:
Take a look at the coverage of a recent 5 Alarm fire in Philadelphia (yesterday).
Firehouse.com coverage included 1 video
Firehouse.com coverage included 1 video
Mainstream Fire Service Media Coverage
Firehouse.com’s coverage:
FH.com simply syndicated a story by the Philadelphia Inquirer which includes 1 video: Five-Alarmer Rips Through Philadelphia School.
FireEngineering.com’s coverage:
FireEngineering.com ran the story without any video/photo and followed it with a story on IAFF local 22′s thoughts on recent brownouts: Fire destroys West Philadelphia charter school and Letters: Another near fire catastrophe in South Philadelphia both of which were syndicated from The Philadelphia Daily News.
FireEngineering.com coverage didn't have any video or photos. They did cover IAFF Local 22's issues with brownouts in another story
None of the stories above give publishing times.
FirefighterNation.com:
FirefighterNation.com which is the web site for Fire Rescue Magazine is somewhat of a hybrid source. They post information and often link to bloggers articles on topics from FireEMSBlogs.com bloggers. They ran a story at 10:18am yesterday: 5-Alarm Fire Destroys Philadelphia Charter School.
Fire Bloggers Coverage
In order of publish times
Firegeezer was the first with coverage including a photo and video
Firegeezer.com:
FireGeezer.com actually posted a story: 5 Alarms in Philly on January 9th at 11:59 am including 1 photo and 1 video.
CommandSafety:
CommandSafety.com was also on top of the coverage on January 9th at 1:07pm with multiple photos and links to videos and more coverage: Five Alarm School Fire, Philadelphia
FireCritic.com:
FireCritic.com posted a story on two 5 Alarm fires in Philadelphia: Video: Philadelphia Firefighters Battle Two 5 Alarm Fires in Two Days at 7:03 pm Monday. The story included 1 photo, 1 video, and the live dispatch from the fire. It also included 1 photo, 3 videos, and plenty of links to IAFF Local 22′s issues with brownouts.
The Fire Critic had the story along with a photo and video and another 5 alarm fire in Philly and links to Local 22's issues with the brownouts.
STATter911.com:
STATter911.com did an article on the Philly fires as well: Raw video & fireground audio: Two 5-alarm fires in Philly in two days. This includes a video and the live dispatch of the school fire and more coverage on the other 5 alarm apartment fire.
Bloggers vs. Mainstream Fire Service Media
In the end, we don’t have all of the publish times of the stories. However, FE.com, FH.com, and FFNation.com don’t work on the weekend. In this case, we know that at least FireGeezer does!
What about the coverage… It is obvious that the bloggers do a little more research, pull from more sources, and offer more insight and angles to the story.
I don’t know about you, but if I didn’t have time to read 10 web sites I know the ones I would read over others!
Maybe these bloggers are quickly becoming the mainstream fire service media!
That is just one example. You wouldn’t believe some of the stories FireGeezer finds…nor would you believe the angles that Dave Statter finds. Plus the bloggers do a pretty darn good job of keeping their twitter and facebook readers in tune with updates on stories.
Top Ten Marketing Tools for Fire/EMS Blogs and Websites
6 commentsToday, I would like to delve into the top ten tools that webmasters and bloggers can do to market their blog or website. For obvious reasons, websites and blogs want readers. This Top Ten list assumes that you are writing stuff that your audience wants to read, if not try working on that first then revisit my list. Trust me, there are so many more things you can do, some simple and others more difficult to better market your site but these are my top ten. Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question or email me.
Fire Critic side note: this list was created for fire and EMS blogs, however it can be used by just about any webmaster or blogger.
10. A sig (Signature file). A sig file is added to the end of EVERY email you send. Don’t be shy, but be concise. Add your website name, url, and maybe even the banner, but not much more. I have seen signatures that trail on into infinity. I don’t want to see the abbreviation of every credential, certificate, and degree you have in your signature…Nobody cares. If you are important, let other people make that determination on their own. Various email clients offer different ways of adding this. I have yet to do it for my email I use for this site, but do as I say not as I do.
9. Name drop. Whenever possible, talk about other bloggers, blogs, websites, authors and be sure to hyperlink to their site or article you are referring to. You would be surprised at how many people search for certain peoples names. You can get traffic from people searching for those people and your site coming up on the search pages! Trust me. You would not believe how many people come to my site because I spoke about guys like Ray McCormack, Dave Iannone, and Bobby Halton (see I just did it again!). Of course adding in a name like Megan Fox, Pamela Anderson, or Michael Jackson doesn’t hurt either!
8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Make every attempt to get every hit you can out of everything you write. This includes the internal code. For example, go to the top line of the browser at firehouse.com (name drop) and look at all the shit they have on there. I guarantee that if you search for any of those terms, they will be in the top of searches. There is a lot more to SEO, but we will start out small.
7. Post on Forums. You can get a lot of traffic by posting on forums. Utilize a name that is very close if not the same to your website/blog. Be sure to offer your link in your profile AND your signature on the forums so people can click right over to your site. However, do not be an ass on the forums…keep that for the lonely guys who post like idiots on The Watchdesk (name drop).
6. Reciprocal Links. Offer and ask for reciprocal links. Whenever someone links to you, link back to them. Whenever you ask for someone to link to your site be sure you have already linked to them. Don’t be a link whore though. If someone wants you to link to their carpetmunching website don’t unless you are running another carpetmunching website.
5. Comment on other blogs. One huge benefit of running a blog is offering the ability for readers to comment. Those comment will create CON-VER-SA-TION and keep readers coming back to read and re-comment. When you read another blog, leave a comment! Trust me, this works. Readers see it and blog authors see it and will visit your site. ALWAYS give your name or PSEUDONYM (like Fire Critic) and a link to your url when prompted. Be sure to offer the ability for readers to be notified when someone leaves a comment after them (I recently added this ability to the Fire Critic Blog).
4. Network. Network using sites like Facebook, Twitter, Firefighter Nation, Jems Connect, LinkedIn, and even Myspace if you are still a teenager. Use these sites to their utmost. With the advent of Mafia Wars and other games like that people are spending more and more time on these sites. Be sure to include your RSS feed so that people can get to your content from these sites! Twitter has become a great tool in networking too! You can even use your twitter account to update your facebook updates now.
3. RSS Feed. You must have an RSS Feed available if you are blogging. More importantly, offer the ability for readers to receive your feed via email. Try Google Feedburner.
2. Create an Image. Create an image for your site. Be sure to have your site name and/or url in the image. The image should easily identify your site much like the scary (boo) skull and fire shroud I picked! Either create one, buy one, or have someone make you one. Be sure to make a banner for your site as well and offer it in various sizes. One more better step is offer the code so that other sites can post your banner without hosting the image themselves. You can view the Fire Critic’s logo and banners here.
1. Get your own domain. Do not settle for a domain that ends in .wordpress.com or .blogspot.com people will never remember your url and might give up thinking about it. Instead of having that trailing url, spend the $10 a year and get your own. You can create a forward to the .blogspot.com url easily. Ultimately, you should get your own domain url AND hosting. This opens so many more options to you as a blogger/webmaster.