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In 2006, Spencer Burke and Barry Taylor wrote a little tome that packed a big punch - A Heretic's Guide to Eternity. Its release incited lots of good discussion and debate, helped along by Ooze members who received a complimentary review copy and blogged about it. In fact, Ooze bloggers were so influential that lots of others got into the conversation too - at one point that summer, A Heretic's Guide was the most-blogged about book (period) on the web, for a week straight, according to Technorati. It was then that we confirmed what we always knew - Ooze bloggers are passionate, articulate, and well-read...and publishers should take heed. From there, the Ooze Viral Bloggers community was born.
This year - 2009 - marks the next big step in the Oozeolution of Viral Bloggers. I'd like to introduce you to ViralBloggers.com, and invite you to apply! What does this entail?
Free books to your door
Apply to be an Ooze blogger at ViralBloggers.com- it'll take three minutes. If you qualify - more on that in a moment - then you’ll get an email once per month that will invite you to log onto viralbloggers.com to look at that month’s offerings - there might be two books to choose from, or there might be ten! You choose a book, only if you want to review something that month. If you look over the books and decide none of them are your cup of tea, that’s fine too - we’re inviting a sizable and diverse group of bloggers along so that no one gets bored.
Whenever possible, TheOOZE also gets you unprecedented personal access to the authors and creators, so you can host a blog or podcast interview if you're inclined.
How Do I Qualify?
What we're looking for are bloggers who are engaged with the intersection of faith and culture. All kinds of bloggers - whether scholarly or pop, hopeful or cynical, missional or emergent or none of the above. We are mainly looking at posting frequency and consistency. Sizable traffic doesn't hurt either - but we'll be unfolding ways in the coming months for us to help each other out in that regard. When in doubt, apply! You're probably just who we're looking for.
What kind of books?
All kinds! Spirituality, justice, simple living, theology, practical ministry, science, philosophy, art, ecology, literature - over the next 12 months, we’re partnering with publishers to bring you a variety of engaging releases, hand-picked with discriminating emerging & missional church readers in mind. Think of it as an exclusive - and free! - book club for top-tier bloggers like yourself. Oh - and while we primarily offer books, we also bring quality music & innovative films to the table every once in awhile!
Our commitment to each other
Our commitment to you is to offer you great books for review each month, absolutely free, and give you access to their authors when possible. You only get books when you select one for review that month.* Your commitment to us is simple:
1. Open your monthly email from us when you get it. This’ll be important, as books will be on a first-come, first-served basis. We have 50 of each title available, and when they’re gone, they’re history. So try and log on to peruse the site within 24 hours of getting the email.
2. Select a book from your Ooze Select hub that month, if you're ready to review it. Remember: You can skip a month (or three) if you want. We just ask that you check & see if there’s anything there that interests you each month. (There is a limit of one offering per month)
3. If you select a book, blog about it within 30 days & let us know about your post. This is a must. Your post doesn’t have to be a New York Times Book Review or anything. In fact, your post can be as little as 50 words, or an applicable YouTube video or Amazon link. And you don’t have to like the book - we're looking for honest bloggers and want your unadulterated take.
4. Re-post your review on ViralBloggers.com. When you select a book, you’ll be given a full ‘Executive Summary’ with author contact info & more, as well as instructions on where to copy & paste your blog post into our ViralBloggers.com. These re-posts will help us keep track, & snippets will be available for our aggregate - letting more people know about your blog!
Most importantly, this is a real, two-way relationship. Either you or us can end this arrangement at any time for any reason.
*Note: You will occasionally - I'm envisioning once or twice a year, max - get a free surprise book to your door unbidden, and we'd love it if you could give us your honest take on that, too. We're not going to do this very much; our new & improved technology platform ensures 99% self-directed choice in what you get.
How often?
You can review a free book each month if you’d like - and we’d love you to. Alternately, you could select books much less often; whenever the Spirit moves you.
And this is free, right?
Yep. No charge to you - zero. We cover the shipping. We just ask that you honor your commitment to us.
Can I participate if I'm outside the US?
This one is such a tough call for us - many of our favorite bloggers are from Africa, Europe, and Asia. But at this time due to budgetary constraints we're simply unable to ship outside of North America. (We are accepting a select number of Canadian blogs) We're willing to hear exceptions, particularly if you're willing to help us out with the shipping via PayPal for your selections. Email me at zoecarnate [at] theooze [dot] com if you live outside North America and can pay shipping and would like to be considered for the Viral Blogger community.
Are you in?
If so, take a moment to apply here . All approvals will be made in 24 houirs. Once logged in, each title's page will have a "Special Viral Blogger Section" revealed and a button which will let you select a book for this month. Also: Feel free to re-post this article on your blog, Facebook, Twitter feed, mirco social network or wherever - your friends are candidates too!
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to those outside of North America - email him even if you can't pay your own shipping. I may be able to work something out to help with the cost ...
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to those outside of North America - email him even if you can't pay your own shipping. I may be able to work something out to help with the cost ... Posted by anonymous | Posted at 03/26/2009 3:07 PM