Headup

Manny Brown - co-founder of 7outof10, and a very lucky man

Those of you who follow my weekly ramblings will have noticed that last week I failed to post a blogger interview.

Truth be told I was holed up at home for most of the week with a nasty case of the flu. Besides making my near and dear ones miserable I wasn’t really up to much of anything.

In the time that passed however our last guest, David Sztypuljak the editor and founder of the HeyUGuys film blog, made good on his promise and referred me to his friend gaming blogger Manny Brown.

Given the circumstances it’s only fitting that Manny is the star of this week’s blogger interview.

Manny Brown is still in his 20’s (at least for a few more weeks until he turns 30).

He lives in Cheltenham with his girlfriend and started 7outof10 together with game designer James Thomas and close friend Phil Davies. Although the site is still in its infancy Manny is happy with the way traffic is improving from month to month and was kind enough to speak to me on very short notice (some people forgot they had a blogger interview to publish this week, but I’m not saying who…)

Mike:

Hi Manny, thanks for agreeing to speak to me on such short notice.

Manny:

It’s a huge sacrifice but you caught me in a giving mood today.

Mike:

Lucky me.

Manny:

Indeed fortune has smiled upon you today.

Mike:

Seriously Manny, you’ve only just started 7outof10.
Can you tell me how you get into the whole blogging scene?

Manny:

I have a background in freelance videogame journalism and a 6-month stint as an editor at a now-defunct startup. I think these experiences, together with some IT background and a false career start or two, all came together and led to the creation of the blog in the middle of last year. James and myself decided to amalgamate our personal sites, and 7outof10 was born as a direct result. We’re still in our infancy, the site needs tidying up a bit, but traffic is improving rapidly every month.

Mike:

I wish my false career starts would have translated into a cool gaming blog.
And there I was thinking I was the lucky one.
I’m curious as to your blog’s name. What does 7outof10 actually mean?

Manny:

The name comes from a long-standing joke in the videogame reviewing world that 7 is deemed as an ‘average’ score for many publications, since nobody seems to want to use the full reviewing scale. That and fine UK podcast One Life Left were the main sources of inspiration.

Mike:

Reminds me of my ill spent youth and the report cards I used to get from school.
One important difference – no one ever objected to using the full reviewing scale on those…

Tell me, besides yourself and James, who else writes for the blog?

Manny:

James is a prolific poster, as is our fellow shipmate Phil. The three of us basically sit and moan to each other via email all day like old women. Our larger family includes many others such as William, Mike, Stevie et al, all good friends and all passionate about making this thing a success.

Mike:

“Moan to each other all day like old women” – now there’s an image for you.
I assume this reflects on your editorial process?

Manny:

Editorial process? What’s that?
To be honest we’re probably a bit too lapse with the editorial side of things. We have a forum in which people bandy about ideas, then everybody gets on with their own thing.

When it’s time for submission, James and myself will give things the once-over and fix any glaring problems before putting them live.

We’re gradually tightening the style as we go, but I think it’s important for sites such as ours to be staffed by people with their own voice.

Mike:

I’m actually certain that especially when you’re writing about games that’s pretty much a must. I mean having fun is what it’s all about! (I hope…).

Truth be told from what I’ve learned on your blog’s about page all the authors have professional experience in the gaming industry so you can’t be too far off with your content.

Manny:

Thanks. We do try

Mike:

I’m curious about that line in the “about” page – how did you all get involved in the field originally?

Manny:

Well, James is easily the most qualified among us, being a developer for a prominent company here in the UK.
Phil has worked in games retail for many years.
My own attraction simply stems from a passion for writing about the games I love. My aspirations started many moons ago writing lengthy posts and reader reviews on the Eurogamer forums, which then blossomed into curiosity and eventually a career in Freelance and as a full-time editor in 2008.

We all spend far too much time reading/playing and discussing videogames, so it just feels like a natural extension.

Mike:

I sooooo envy you guys.
What’s your most notable blog related experience?

Manny:

On a purely personal level, I’d have to say it was getting a chunk of my text published on renowned videogame blog Kotaku a few months back. I have a huge respect for those guys, so for them to highlight a paragraph of my Modern Warfare 2 review was fantastic.

In terms of more silly stuff, the one event that springs to mind was a ‘field trip’ organised by the PR company Koch media last year. Myself and nine other journalists were bundled into a van, taken to the Isle of Wight by ferry, put up in a hotel and treated to a beach party with stupendous amounts of alcohol, a massive fire and all sorts of food. The catch was, there was absolutely nothing to promote. Nothing to see. No game to play. I still have no idea what that was actually about.

Mike:

A certain scene from Monthy Python’s Life of Brian comes to mind…

Right, now that we’ve established you’re living a dream, what are your plans for 7outof10 for 2010?

Manny:

Grow, grow, grow! At the moment, we need as much content as possible, so I’m scouring the internet to find people that would like to become a part of the family as we take off from ground level, so to speak. We’re improving our traffic by at least 1-200% a month (sometimes a lot more), so I’m aiming to continue that trend and lift us higher as the year progresses.

Mike:

How do you monetize the blog if at all?

Manny:

We’re just experimenting with advertising at the moment and finding what suits us. It’s difficult, though. I don’t think we’ll be in the position to pay for anybody going full-time for at least another year or so, but I’m positive we can make it work. Alternative methods of funding are also being researched.

Mike:

I’m not sure there’s much of a market for gamer organs but I might know a guy who knows a guy. I’d be happy to hook you up.
Now tat I think about it I guess your beach party story made me bitter after all ; )

Back on track thought – What’s your prime motivation for using Headup widgets?

Manny:

My good friend Dave at heyuguys.co.uk introduced us to the concept, and it just sounds like a fantastic idea to lower our bounce rate and get people clicking around contributing. From the feedback thus far, everybody loves it.

Mike:

What features do you feel are missing from the widget?

Manny:

Not a great deal to be honest. The personalisation options are fairly extensive, so I think if you take the time to tailor it to your site, it’ll work well. I’m intrigued to see what you guys come up with though!

Mike:

I doubt we can beat a boozy beach party but I’m sure it’ll be loads of fun seeing our development team try!

Thanks very much for speaking to me Manny and lot’s of luck with the blog. I can honestly say it’s been a blast speaking to you!

Manny:

Cheers!

This week’s guest blogger is a child of the 80’s, self proclaimed geek, and avid Goonies fan. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Dave Sztypuljak – founder and editor extraordinaire of HeyUGuys.co.uk – England’s most popular independent resource for all things film

Mike:

Hi Dave – it’s marvelous speaking to you.

Dave:

Hi Mike!

Mike:

Dave who are the guys at HeyUGuys?

Dave:

The blog was founded by Jon Lyus and myself in November 2008 and is now entering its 2nd year. The name is a reference to “The Goonies” because we both love the film and originally thought we’d be posting only about 80’s movies. About two days after we started I think we realized the scope was too narrow and we wanted to write about film in general. BTW we nearly called the blog 88MPH – probably a less esoteric reference…

Mike:

I’ll admit the “Hey you guys!” eluded me but I’d have caught on to the 88MPH. How did Jon and you connect?

Dave:

Mike:

You know Dave, in preparation for this interview I spent a fair amount of time researching film blogs.
It seems to me as if there are very few serious film blogs outside the US. Am I wrong?

Dave:

Actually, Mike you’re absolutely right. We’re pretty unique insofar as we’re a non-American, English language, film blog. Honestly I think it’s given us an advantage in terms of exclusive content and audience.

Mike:

Do you feel cutoff?

Dave:

On the contrary! I feel unique…
Seriously though, being situated in England as we are, has provided us with some amazing opportunities that were very important for building HeyUGuys as a brand.

Mike:

Do tell…

Dave:

About seven months ago we realized Ridley Scott was filming the new Robin Hood movie, with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, in a wood near Farnham in Surrey. Farnham is only about 20 minutes drive from where I live, so one day we headed down there to visit and film the set. We didn’t quite realize it at the time but we’d created an amazing asset for ourselves – original and exclusive content that none of the “big” channels had. The post achieved popularity quickly and was linked to from everywhere.

The Tron poster we posted before anyone else is another example of a scoop that got us a fair deal of attention:

Dave Sztypuljak posted this Tron poster originally on December 9, 2009

Mike:

How has the success of HeyUguys affected your lives?

Dave:

Its funny really. The first time we received validation we were being picked up by the mainstream media it was such a surprise I thought it was a hoax!

We got invited to the Star Trek premier by Sky News. One day I opened my inbox and the invitation was just waiting there for me. We got full VIP treatment. Throughout the premier I was waiting for someone to grab me, tell me the whole thing was a mistake, and kick me out the door.

Mike:

From my experience as long as you keep a smooth face and act as if you belong these things go smoothly. Seems you can even gate crash the Whitehouse nowadays as long as you keep your cool.

Dave:

Believe me, when the second premier invitation came in both Jon and I were already far more suave about the whole thing, although we still get very excited!

Mike:

So now that you’re all cool with being a film blogger what are the plans for the future?

Dave:

I’ve recently quit my “day job” to work for HeyUguys full time. The plan for 2010 is to make the blog profitable enough to sustain itself and us. I’d be happy to live my life watching films, mingling with celebrities and writing about it.

Mike:

Sounds like a plan to me. Good luck Dave and thanks for talking to me and for supporting Headup!

Dave:

It’s my pleasure. I actually like what Headup is doing quite a bit, so much so that I’ve been chatting to some blogger friends getting them to try it out.

A chat with Dennis Amith - The J-ent blogger who's career precedes the web

With all the excitement involved in ensuring our new platform support was working ok, I hardly noticed how quickly this week went by.

Anyway…

It’s Thursday again and I’m still committed to my New Year’s resolution to interview one cool blogger using our widget every week.

This week’s guest is one of the greatest experts on Japanese and Asian entertainment online today and his involvement with the web dates back to 1993 and the pioneering days of BBS.

It is my great pleasure to have as our guest on the Headup blog today Mr. Dennis Amith – founder and Editor-in-Chief of
J-Entonline.com

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Mike:
Hi Dennis, it’s an honor having you as our guest.

Dennis:
It’s my pleasure.

Mike:
While preparing for this interview I learned that J-Ent refers to:

“…popular forms of Japanese entertainment but more specifically a shortened term to encompass popular Japanese television dramas, variety shows and music shows from Japan”

Wikipedia

I’m curious as to your initial attraction to the field and how you got involved in it.

Dennis:
As I was finishing my high school education in the early 90’s, I was really into videogames and comics.
A friend introduced me to Anime (Japanese animation) and from there on I was hooked.

I first became proactive when I created the nt2099 BBS back in 1993, which was basically dedicated to featuring the things I was interested in at the time. It was mainly about Japanese animation, entertainment, pop culture and Euro Demos. Because there were so few of us at the time, it was amazing to see the demand for our content.

In 1996, J!-ENT went online. Since then we’ve been focused on covering entertainment and pop culture worldwide.

Mike:
I was wondering about that. I know the NT2099 comes from “Neo-Tokyo” but I have no clue as to what the name refers to.

Dennis:
“Neo-Tokyo” is a reference to the classic Japanese animation film “Akira”. I added the “2099” because I wanted the name of my BBS to pop out from the crowd of sci-fi and tech BBSs that existed at the time.
I guess it just stuck and eventually it became the name of my business.

Mike:
You’ve been at the online content game pretty much from the very beginning. What got you started way back then?

Dennis:
For me it was the need to find and spread information.
Back in the BBS years, getting information wasn’t easy, especially on a 2400-baud modem. When I think back at how we did things then, it’s hard to believe that obtaining information was so difficult. Especially when I think how easy it’s all become now.
I remember scanning magazine pages from Japan, waiting forever for files to upload and delete. My phone was constantly busy with people looking for data. I imagine the phone bills for those people who were calling me long distance were probably sky high.

Obtaining information today is much easier in comparison. All the exclusive content we were busy chasing back then is easily accessible from YouTube, Wikipedia and other sites and applications as well.

It’s an exciting time as more and more people are exposed to entertainment and pop culture from countries outside their own.

Mike:
How did you get into publishing and blogging?

Dennis:
I think it all began with my college experience as editor-in-chief for the Asian newspaper. That position was my first serious experience at managing a publication. It helped me focus and hone my professional skills and turned out to be a great opportunity for expanding my network.

I figured, since I already had entertainment contacts on the Asian side, that by focusing on developing my US contacts I’d be in a position to make connections between both communities. That’s how I began interviewing celebrities.

Over the years I gradually became known in this respect and started getting requests from individuals and media companies all over the world. Gradually the range of topics I was covering expanded from my original Asian niche into global entertainment and pop culture.

As far as the blogging itself is concerned my motivation was efficiency driven. You simply can’t meet peoples’ expectations any other way in terms of the content they’re looking for. The restrictions we had on how much content we could provide via print no longer apply to our online articles. The evolution of SEO and RSS subscriptions have had a crucial impact as well.

Mike:
Do you feel you’ve contributed to the growing awareness of Japanese and Asian entertainment?

Dennis:
Absolutely, but it’s not just me. It’s a global collaboration of a community of people that brought it about. Personally, it’s gratifying to see how our work on J!-ENT has been acknowledged at music conferences, as well as in books and publications.

Today Anime, Manga and other forms of Japanese entertainment are considered a part of mainstream culture all over the world. Our focus has shifted to showcasing entertainment and pop culture from other countries.

Mike:
As a veteran you have a truly unique perspective. What insight can you share with novice bloggers?

Dennis:
If there’s one tip I can give it’s that if you’re passionate about something…do it. It’s all about being proactive and persistent.

Mike:
You’ve been doing this for a long time. Do you know if you’ll keep it up?

Dennis:
Tomorrow never knows. We’ll see (laughing).

Mike:
I’m curious as to how you found us

Dennis:
I saw your website while looking for ways to further syndicate the public information featured on J-entonline. Since your widget compliments what we have on J!-ENT, I decided it would make a nice addition.

Mike:
What’s your prime motivation for using Headup widgets?

Dennis:
I like your widgets because they enable my readers to familiarize themselves with the entertainers I write about and their work. People might not know who a specific talent is but thanks to Headup they can read the information, catch a video, hear a song and tweet about it all at once without ever leaving my site.

Mike:
What features do you feel are missing from the widget?

Dennis:
I guess I’d like to have control over the color of the markings. Access to stats would be nice too.

Mike:
I think you’ll be pleased to hear that both your requests are scheduled for release in the next few weeks.

Dennis:
Cool!

Mike:
Thanks for everything Dennis.
It’s been a pleasure speaking to you. For what it’s worth, insofar as promoting awareness to global entertainment is one of your goals, I’m glad to confess I definitely feel I’ve been enlightened.