Liverpool-Kop.com is looking for writers to contribute opinion-based articles to the site. The aim of the site is to take a critical, analytical view of all matters relating to Liverpool FC and offer a different, unique perspective on the club.
Anyone who frequents Liverpool fan-sites can clearly see that 99% of them are all the same: Regurgitating the same old media headlines ad infinitum and offering stale, clichéd homogenized views.
The most pertinent example of this is news headlines. The minute a new story about Liverpool is released (via the official site for example) thousands of sites have taken the story, altered the headline a little and just posted the same thing again.
I personally don’t see the point of this, as it’s just mass plagiarism on a grand scale. And who wants to read the same story over and over again anyway?
Liverpool-Kop is different – the site only publishes original articles that take a very specific point of view. The site comes in for a lot of criticism from the blind-faith brigade and those that think that anyone with a critical approach cannot be a real fan, but this is only to be expected.
It’s important to offer people a different perspective to the same old stuff being spouted every day, which is why the site is also very popular.
With over 25,000 unique visitors in only four months of being live and hundreds of RSS/newsletter subscribers, the site will only increase in popularity over time.
What the site is NOT looking for:
1. Fawning articles that drool over players/management (i.e. ‘Fernando Torres is the greatest ever…’). The web is filled with ego-massaging articles deifying players. Such articles are a waste of time.
2. Match reports (Every site has them, so what’s the point?)
3. Articles that regurgitate widely available news stories. *Articles that comment critically on news stories are welcomed.*
What the site IS looking for:
1. Critical analysis of any aspect of the club
2. Critical analysis of players/tactics/formation
3. Analysis of why something failed/why something was a success
4. Articles exploring/analyzing Liverpool FC’s history.
This does not mean articles have to be negative. Far from it! Writers can be as positive as they like *as long as there is a critical basis for the positivity*.
For example, the site is not interested in ‘Steven Gerrard is world class and amazing!’ generalizations. If you hold such a view, then it must be backed up with analysis and reasons why you believe this to be the case.
Furthermore, writers do not have to agree with me! You can openly disagree, as long as your articles adhere to the guidelines I have outlined so far.
The ultimate goal of the site is to build up a community of writers who each hold their own specific views about LFC – views which are based on critical analysis instead of fawning blind-faith and following the crowd.
As I have discovered so far, it will be very hard to find writers like this. I’ve had lots of requests from people who want to write for the site, but unfortunately, none of them so far have displayed the attributes I’ve outlined above.
Writer profiles
1. Writers can be from anywhere in the world. I believe that Liverpool’s worldwide fanbase is the lifeblood of the club, so writers from outside the UK are especially welcome.
2. You may submit as many or as few articles as you wish. Quality over quantity preferred. No deadlines, no pressure. Just submit whenever you feel like it.
3. As long as it relates to Liverpool FC, you can write about anything you want.
4. Writers must have a good command of English.
5. Articles can be as long or as short as you want.
Full editorial guidelines available once writers have been confirmed.
Benefits
1. Have your work read by thousands of people every week
2. Have your work disseminated across the net via newsletters, press releases, RSS, newswires and aggregators
3. Name credit for everything you write. Writers can be credited by name or under an alias.
4. Your own personal profile and article archive on the site
After only 4 months, the site has a Google page-rank of 3, which is the same pagerank as many established Liverpool sites that have been online for YEARS. The site is only going to grow and grow.
So - if you want to be part of a unique, niche project and feel you have what it takes, then I would love to hear from you!
All the best,
Jaimie Kanwar
editor@liverpool-kop.com
Anyone who frequents Liverpool fan-sites can clearly see that 99% of them are all the same: Regurgitating the same old media headlines ad infinitum and offering stale, clichéd homogenized views.
The most pertinent example of this is news headlines. The minute a new story about Liverpool is released (via the official site for example) thousands of sites have taken the story, altered the headline a little and just posted the same thing again.
I personally don’t see the point of this, as it’s just mass plagiarism on a grand scale. And who wants to read the same story over and over again anyway?
Liverpool-Kop is different – the site only publishes original articles that take a very specific point of view. The site comes in for a lot of criticism from the blind-faith brigade and those that think that anyone with a critical approach cannot be a real fan, but this is only to be expected.
It’s important to offer people a different perspective to the same old stuff being spouted every day, which is why the site is also very popular.
With over 25,000 unique visitors in only four months of being live and hundreds of RSS/newsletter subscribers, the site will only increase in popularity over time.
What the site is NOT looking for:
1. Fawning articles that drool over players/management (i.e. ‘Fernando Torres is the greatest ever…’). The web is filled with ego-massaging articles deifying players. Such articles are a waste of time.
2. Match reports (Every site has them, so what’s the point?)
3. Articles that regurgitate widely available news stories. *Articles that comment critically on news stories are welcomed.*
What the site IS looking for:
1. Critical analysis of any aspect of the club
2. Critical analysis of players/tactics/formation
3. Analysis of why something failed/why something was a success
4. Articles exploring/analyzing Liverpool FC’s history.
This does not mean articles have to be negative. Far from it! Writers can be as positive as they like *as long as there is a critical basis for the positivity*.
For example, the site is not interested in ‘Steven Gerrard is world class and amazing!’ generalizations. If you hold such a view, then it must be backed up with analysis and reasons why you believe this to be the case.
Furthermore, writers do not have to agree with me! You can openly disagree, as long as your articles adhere to the guidelines I have outlined so far.
The ultimate goal of the site is to build up a community of writers who each hold their own specific views about LFC – views which are based on critical analysis instead of fawning blind-faith and following the crowd.
As I have discovered so far, it will be very hard to find writers like this. I’ve had lots of requests from people who want to write for the site, but unfortunately, none of them so far have displayed the attributes I’ve outlined above.
Writer profiles
1. Writers can be from anywhere in the world. I believe that Liverpool’s worldwide fanbase is the lifeblood of the club, so writers from outside the UK are especially welcome.
2. You may submit as many or as few articles as you wish. Quality over quantity preferred. No deadlines, no pressure. Just submit whenever you feel like it.
3. As long as it relates to Liverpool FC, you can write about anything you want.
4. Writers must have a good command of English.
5. Articles can be as long or as short as you want.
Full editorial guidelines available once writers have been confirmed.
Benefits
1. Have your work read by thousands of people every week
2. Have your work disseminated across the net via newsletters, press releases, RSS, newswires and aggregators
3. Name credit for everything you write. Writers can be credited by name or under an alias.
4. Your own personal profile and article archive on the site
After only 4 months, the site has a Google page-rank of 3, which is the same pagerank as many established Liverpool sites that have been online for YEARS. The site is only going to grow and grow.
So - if you want to be part of a unique, niche project and feel you have what it takes, then I would love to hear from you!
All the best,
Jaimie Kanwar
editor@liverpool-kop.com
No wonder you're having difficulty finding writers of the "caliber", you claim you seek. You're not looking for writers who can offer critical analysis of Liverpool; no, you're looking for perpetual Liverpool FC bashers much like yourself, who never ever ever see any positives out of any Liverpool performance, or Liverpool players, regardless of how much its merited, simply because you're afraid of being viewed as fawning over them. I have yet to read one single article on this site that rightly or purely praises, or congratulates a deserved Liverpool performance, or player for that matter, without a dash of pointless negativity or plain bashing thrown in. You often sound more like a Manure fan more than a Liverpool FC fan. In fact even they are more willing to give credit where credit is due and more often, than you ever seem willing to. Sad really.
ReplyDeleteActually, I'm not having difficulty at all finding writers. And if you bothered to read the post you would see that I state the following quite clearly:
ReplyDelete'This does not mean articles have to be negative. Far from it! Writers can be as positive as they like, as long as there is a critical basis for the positivity'
I'm not looking for liverpool 'bashers' as you put it, and I am not a basher myself. Every view I have has merit from a critical standpoint. it doesn't mean I'm right all the time, and I do not profess to be, but there has to be room for all kinds of view - postitive and critical. if you can't hack that then I would suggest the problem lies with you, not me.
My detractors really need to change the record! Come up with some new material because we're entering the realms of pasrody now.
Every person who slags me off infers that I'm a manc - how original!
There are plenty of positive articles on this site, but you already know that, but to acknowledge that fact would be to defeat your own tenuous argument.
This is my first visit to your site and find the contributors' comments interesting from a number of perspectives. Although some articles offer valid points of view on 21st century football culture as it applies to LFC, on first reading it appears that most writers are justifiably venting their frustrations at our inability to lift the championship trophy after 18 years and are clutching at any available straws to find a scapegoat for their distress. I also find the comments about Stevie G to be risible and ill considered but I'll get to that shortly.
ReplyDeleteWhat galls LFC fans more than any other fact is that the Stretford Scum have lifted their championship tally from 7 to 17 during the EPL era. The new setup hit LFC like an artic on the M6 and we still haven't been able to reconcile our past successes to the uncompromising new milieu that ensued.Ferguson arrived in England with the avowed ambition to displace LFC from the top of the English tree and to our shame we have been unable to come to grips with the changing culture of football in the age of the EPL to prevent this from happening. 17 championships is too close to LFC's "enduring legacy" to ever be acceptable. Ferguson has stated recently that he will retire by 2012 and every kopite should make it their singular aim to ensure that he departs with fewer championships than LFC whatever it takes!
Although tradition is the bedrock of this club it has sadly become a burden which time and again prevents us from opening a new chapter in its proud history. The appalling way that the ownership debacle has played out has magnified these deficiencies to an intolerable extent. Sadly Rick Parry has been more than complicit in the excesses that have come to light. In contrast look at the way the SS dealt with the Glazer takeover. There were practically riots in the streets of bleak city in the lead up to the deal. Having been signed however, when is Brian Glazer ever seen or heard from in the press or elsewhere? I'm sure that at Ferguson's insistence all boardroom dealings and behind the scenes shenanigans have been kept squarely where they belong - out of the public gaze.
Yes, "...we had Heighway on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing of glory on the fields of Anfield Road". I was there! Paisley and Fagin fulfilled those dreams forged in Shankly's vision but it's high time we came to grips with the realities of today's game.
This preamble is written in an attempt to contextualise my response to contributors'comments about Stevie G. SG is passing the opinions of one professional footballer about another who happens to be a friend, England teammate and a high calibre player with justifiable aims and ambitions comensurate with his skill.To label this as "tapping up" is to flagrantly disregard the definition of this phrase as currently understood. Mourinho/Cole, Parry-Yanks/Klinsmann, Thaksin/Hughes etc. are more accurate examples of the consequences of tapping up where men of wealth, power and authority to determine the financial and professional direction of huge business entities, unethically and at times illegally approach players and managers to achieve their own ends, is to put this practice into proper perspective. To put a player who has the fervent desire to fulfil his only lacking professional achievement in the same category is to denigrate and disrespect a player who gives his all to this club. Get a bit of perspective and ask yourself where LFC would have been over the last 5 years if not for his skill and leadership. He certainly has influence in the shaping of fans' opinions but let's take an example of undue influence from recent history and see how it measures up.
In the wake of the Ashley Cole "respect" debacle, Ferguson seized upon this climate of opinion to unscrupulously manipulate the outcome of the MANU LFC game the following week. In an inexcusable and calculatedly hysterical tirade against Keith Hackett, the refs and their association he effectively created a climate in which they had to make a strong point at the "Theatre of Schemes". With "Stretford" Steve Bennett in control and (surprise surprise) Hackett in attendance, Ferguson abused his influence as the Chairman of the Professional Managers Association to influence the outcome of a game by unreasonable coercion of the ref. Did anybody see or hear a single syllable of admonition written or spoken by the game's pundits against his actions - of course not!!! Yet those who purport to be fans of LFC roundly criticise their own captain for demonstrating the single mindedness necessary to redress the balance of power that has been skewed in Ferguson's favour for far too long.
To close for now I would like to pass the comment that, love him or hate him, Ferguson has always been prepared to demonstrate the ruthlessness to keep his mob at the top and it's about time we stopped whining about our "enduring legacy" and followed suit. We stand on the shoulders of giants - let's do them proud!