By Deb Markham, The Virginian-Pilot Interactive Media

Who: Me. Deb Markham, online community producer, and 3,540 community bloggers who volunteer their services for little very little compensation. (That is, if you consider movie passes, DVDs and museum passes compensation.)

The bloggers include a Christian mother, a secular homeschooling mom, a political pagan, retired grandma, agnostic AfricanAmerican, "innercity" neighborhood observer, a Filipino community and cultural activist, a liberal Navy wife, a beer lover, a connoisseur of bar conversations and others. (I also consistently maintain two of the community blogs. I recently recruited two local music lovers to help contribute to one.)

What: My community of community bloggers.

When: It started in 2006 when I initially recruited 10 bloggers to provide content for our site. My boss, Fred Schecker, and I had discussed the idea of community blogs and bloggers since the day I was hired in Sept. 2005. It was my job to recruit bloggers, set them up, guide them and let them go. From the onset, Fred trusted me to pick the right bloggers for our sites and praised my efforts in growing existing bloggers by using a a variety of techniques to help my bloggers refine their contributions and increase their traffic.

Where: Virginian-Pilot Interactive Media's HamptonRoads.com, the entertainment and community portal for Southeastern Virginia. The blog page is hamptonroads.com/blogs.

Why: Voices from the newsroom columnists, editorial writers, etc. are easily heard and a no-brainer when it comes to looking for bloggers for your news site. We wanted to encourage voices from outside the newsroom, we wanted to hear voices from the community. We wanted to grow discussions around topics that might otherwise be overlooked. We also wanted to offer more diversity to the topics that were well covered in the paper.

The community blogs offer our readers a sense of control over the editorial content on our sites and that fosters trust in our products as a place for fair discussion in addition to credible reporting. This leads our bloggers and our readers, who comment on the blogs, to support our sites by contributing content and pushing page views. Growing audiences ... that's not bad for business.

How much? 

• I spent about an hour a day recruiting and managing our bloggers. However, I was always on the lookout for new ones.
• In return for the time spend on them, my bloggers contribute to an average of 150,000 page views to the site.
• Two to four of my bloggers would make it to the toptenbloggers list each month.

How?

YOUR Blogging Community
Your staffers only have so much time to blog. That's if they have any interest in blogging at all. Why not tap into a new resource for thoughtful, passionate bloggers, who will work for free -- pretty much? Make your local real-life community part of the blogging community.

Where to find them:

• Civic, community and arts organizations
• Local coffee houses or any place that offers free WiFi
• Gathering spots -- Churches and even bars
• In your story comments and online forums
• Through your paper and online networks

What to look for in a community blogger:

• Someone who likes to communicate
• Someone who likes to share information
• Someone who has a passion for a given subject
• Someone who is interesting or is about to do something interesting

How to officially recruit them:

• Ask them, encourage them, offer a trial run
• Writing samples are nice if you can get them
• Tell everyone upfront that you can't offer paid compensation

How to keep them happy, especially free bloggers:

• Be there to help them out -- Some will need step-by-step instructions
• Give them clear guidelines -- No cussing, no lying, no spamming
• Let them have a little control -- Allow them to approve & delete their comments
• Show some interest -- Comment on their blog entries when you can
• Give them feedback -- Sends a monthly e-mail, offer guidance, share stats
• Offer them free stuff -- Got movie passes, coupons, etc.?

How to let them go, graciously:

No longer blogging?

• Switch off the blog
• Call or send a note
• Ask for one e-mailed blog entry
• Give them another chance

Breaking the rules?

• Turn off the blog
• Call, send a note
• Listen, compromise
• "Sorry, but no." You have to let some go.