Laker Liker

Laker Liker, originally uploaded by foxsports.

ERIC GARCIA- INFO@LAKERLIKER.COM

Mr. Sharp,

Thank you for your email. Per you I have answered your questions (answers in red) and attached our digital picture of LakerLiker (Site Banner).

1) Talk about your blog, how it started, what was your inspiration to blog?
We started LakerLiker.com purely for self enjoyment and needless to say our love for the champs. The blogsite is fairly young (2 years young) and was started by a small group of fans who needed an outlet to exude our content and frustration. Blogging was THE only way to go. This blog started off as just as casual blog but now has transformed into an upcoming Laker blog among its Laker blogging community.

2) Why do you need to keep identity intact? ( You can make up a story or tell the truth)
I apologize as I'm not quite if I understand this question correctly. Do you mean self identity or blogger identity?

3) Talk about the misconceptions people have about blogs/bloggers
The one misconception people have of blogs and/or bloggers that I've come across is that bloggers are just amateur writers that have no credibility. I 100% disagree. Most Lakers Bloggers I am personally a fan of have plenty of Laker expertise and the years of being hardcore Laker fans reflects on their posted articles. Think about the demographic here? Only hardcore Laker fans would be crazy enough to put forth the effort (a lot of effort by the way) to create a Lakers blog to begin with. With this passion comes passionate writing that is derived from years of being Laker fans. Besides legitimate Sports Writers who get paid to write editorials, Laker Bloggers would be next to kin. It takes a lot of disciplined man hours to maintain your blogsite if you don't have a strong support team. Bloggers have their daily jobs and come rushing home to blog about anything Lakers, as least this routine applies to me.

Regnard Raquedan

Regnard Raquedan, originally uploaded by foxsports.

REGNARD RAQUEDAN- REGNARD@RAQUEDAN.COM

Hello Jim!

My answers below:
1) Talk about your blog, how it started, what was your inspiration to blog?
Big Lakers Fan really started out as a fan blog where I wanted to rant and rave about the Lakers during the 2007 playoffs. (The Lakers were eliminated that year.) I've already been blogging prior to creating Big Lakers Fan, but I realized that writing about the Lakers was so easy.

I've been a Lakers fan since 1988 and I've always liked those sports arguments/debates like "Magic or Bird?" or "Jordan or Kobe?" growing up and I guess the blog is a way for me to share my thoughts on those matters.

2) Talk about the misconceptions people have about blogs/bloggers
People think bloggers are fickle-minded folks who won't hesitate to wreck someone's reputation on a whim.

3) what are the stereotypes about blogs/bloggers that you dislike the most?
Similar to #2, people seem to forget that bloggers are passionate about something, and are not just doing it for the money.

Lakers Nation

Lakers Nation, originally uploaded by foxsports.

GARY@LAKERSNATION.COM

Hi Jim,

Here are the answers to your questions along with an attached image. Thanks again for the opportunity!

Gary

1. LakersNation.com started off as a Twitter account, @LakersNation back in September 2008. The world was going crazy over Twitter and I initially used it to learn more about Twitter and share my thoughts and some news articles I would discover my daily surfing on the internet. Being relatively competitive compared to most people, naturally I wanted to be the best Lakers Twitter account, but I needed to find an angle at which I could separate myself from the pack.

Chick Hearn has always been a great inspiration of mine, and I've always missed his play-by-play of Lakers games. So, I decided to channel my inner Chick (along with watching a lot of YouTube clips) and take Chick's famous "Words Eye View" into Web 2.0 by doing a play-by-play Twittercast.

This is when the Twitter account really took off, going from two thousand followers to ten thousand by the time we were partying at the Coliseum! With over 75% of my users following the Twittercasts on their mobile devices, I had accomplished my goal of turning mobile devices into Chick's version of the AM radio. People were following the ebb and flow of the game during awkward dates, graduations, and unavoidable family dinners and joining this virtual sports bar of chatter. It was also a way for people from around the world, from the Philippines and South Africa to the UK, Hong Kong, and Australia, to tune in to our Twittercasts.

I realized I had to finally make a blog, so in June of 2009 I tried to create a social networking site called mylakersnation.com, which didn't do too well. I decided to then launch LakersNation.com along with our Facebook Fan Page in August of 2009.

Our goal with the site was to write original content based on the pulse of Lakers Nation. Having the Twitter account and ever growing Facebook account allowed us to know what Lakers fans wanted to know more about. If there was ever any breaking news, we would post it on our Facebook and Twitter so that we could bring it to them, instead of asking them to come to us. This proved to be a successful strategy as we have been growing ever since, going from zero to eighteen thousand Facebook fans in less than six months. Our Twitter account also exploded, swelling to almost seventeen thousand followers. With the combination of our impressive Facebook and Twitter following we can proudly claim that we are the largest Lakers Fan Site in social media!

Eric Sornoso-Former Trojans Blog USC

TIPS@FORMERTROJANS.COM
Jim,

Here are some of my replies. I'll take pictures of my room which I asked
for question 5. What other type of pictures do you want?
Eric Sornoso
1) Talk about your blog, how it started, what was your inspiration to
blog?
I started my blog in July 2008 after realizing that the majority of USC’s
blogs were simply journalistic in their approach and their wasn’t a blog or
site addressing past and current USC Trojan athletes. I wanted to create a
blog that any USC Trojan fan can visit and find out the latest about any
Former Trojan athlete wherever he maybe in the NFL, NBA, playing basketball
in Europe, etc. I’m also very creative and thought of doing different ideas
for articles that haven’t been addressed by the major Sport’s sites.
2) Talk about the misconceptions people have about blogs/bloggers
People think bloggers are individuals who do take their work serious, but
I beg to differ. Most bloggers are blogging out of pure passion, don’t make
a single dime, and spend countless hours working on a single article.
3) What are the stereotypes about blogs/bloggers that you dislike the
most?
I think the biggest stereotype I dislike about blog and bloggers are
readers who don’t give them a chance. If you find a new blog, read it for a
week before deciding if it’s something that interests you. If you merely
check out the site and leave after ten seconds, is that a creditable

Adam Brady Ducks Blog www.anaheimducks.com

ADAM BRADY@ANAHEIMDUCKS.COM

Jim – Thanks for the opportunity and I'm happy to take part:

1) Talk about your blog, how it started, what was your inspiration to blog?
Ducks Blog appears on the Anaheim Ducks' official website (anaheimducks.com) and focuses on the latest with the Ducks and the game of hockey overall (with some occasional pop culture thrown in). It's written from the unique perspective of a fan who is also a team staffer, with kind of an entertaining and (hopefully) humorous tilt to it.

It actually started around the spring of 2007 when I started traveling with the team during the Stanley Cup Playoffs in my role as website guy for the Ducks. I wanted something that would legitimize my traveling with the team, so I started writing about what was going on with the team on the road, took pictures on the plane, in airports, in hotels, etc. Anyway, that went on for awhile since the Ducks won the Cup that year, and the blog caught on with the fans. I was asked when the season ended, and 2 1/2 years later, it still is.

2) Talk about the misconceptions people have about blogs/bloggers
There is a misconception with bloggers that they don't usually let the facts get in the way of a good story, that they're not reliable sources of news, that they don't necessarily cover their subjects face to face can get in the way of responsible journalism. And in many ways, and with many bloggers, that is true. At the same time, there are thousands that are just as responsible and reliable as any other forms of journalism (web or otherwise) out there. I think bloggers are slowly gaining more and more respect, but it will take awhile.

3) what are the stereotypes about blogs/bloggers that you dislike the most?
Again, that they're not responsible journalists, that they're not real writers.

DUCKSANDPUCKS

DUCKSANDPUCKS, originally uploaded by foxsports.

Dear Jim,

I can't thank you enough for this opportunity. I apologize for the tardiness of this response. Pasted below is my response to your questions and attached you will find a photo for my blog logo at DUCKSandPUCKS.com.
Let me know if there is anything else that you need, and I hope this works well for you!
Thank you again!
SK

1) Talk about your blog, how it started, what was your inspiration to blog?
A few years ago, when I feel deeply in love with hockey, I discovered there was no one to talk about it with in Anaheim. We're not exactly talking about a hot hockey market here. My best friends are hockey fans and they are the reason that I discovered the game in the first place, but they didn't want to hear me talk about it for hours on end, or at least I assumed. With no one to talk hockey with, there was only one place to turn…the Internet. I began blogging with another hockey fan, and before I knew it I was in love with blogging about hockey too.
2) Why do you need to keep identity intact? (You can make up a story or tell the truth)
The identity of the blog, the person, the work, is all in the weight of the words. It's important not only to make the words flow, but to make the message flow. If you don't know what you're talking about and you can't stand behind your words - it's impossible to have anyone care or embrace what you have to say. The important thing to remember is that what you put on the Internet is out there...forever. So stand behind your words and chose them wisely. Realize that if you're going to talk about what you think the players were doing at the club last weekend, then people are going to equate that with your work in the future. For me, I live by the motto, if it happens on the ice, its fair game. I'm here to talk about the game and the team, not their personal lives. Hockey tends to have a very devout following of fans and another group called "puck bunnies". In addition to fan blogs, there are a lot of puck bunny blogs. For me, to keep that identity, that I'm a FAN of the sport, is very important

Aaron Waymire

Aaron Waymire, originally uploaded by foxsports.

AARON WAYMIRE

Jim, here are my responses. The pic is a little cheesy but it's the best I can do!

Thanks,
Aaron Waymire

1) Talk about your blog, how it started, what was your inspiration to blog?

I’ve been a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers since I was in elementary school. I can clearly remember taping games in the 1988 playoffs and watching them the next day after school. Those were the days!

I started my blog in December of 2007. At the time, blogging was starting to take off, so I figured I would give it a shot. My first post makes me laugh, but at the time it was big news: Andruw Jones signing with the Dodgers! I went on and on about how big of a difference he would make. Well, he did make a difference: he was so bad, he got run out of town.

When I first started my site, I asked myself one simple question: What would I like to see as a fan reading the site? Hence, I try to pack as much information as possible into my site. In looking at the front page, readers can see many tidbits of information, such as when the next game is, what the NL West standings are, and who’s on the 25-man roster.

My inspiration is to keep getting better each time I write, and to give Dodger fans a reason to keep coming back.

2) Why do you need to keep identity intact? ( You can make up a story or tell the truth)

I don’t hide my identity, so it’s hard for me to say. I would guess that some bloggers like to remain anonymous so they can write what they want, how they want, and not be called out for it.

3) Talk about the misconceptions people have about blogs/bloggers

The main misconception is that all bloggers are just clueless people behind a keyboard. That might be true for some people who write nonsense and post it for the rest of world, but there’s plenty of good, hardworking writers out there.