Doin’ the Montage

So what’s the Montage? Given most Montecitans have strong
opinions and an abundance of intelligent ideas, the Montage is
Montecito’s only “real time” home for those tenets. It’s
Montecito’s first and only community news/issues blog, a perfect
place for those who are impatient with the printed page. If you’re
interested in debating Montecito topics, or you are exploding with
immediate news and opinions, the instant-message-Montage is the
place for you!

And, who’s reading and blogging? According to Alexa, the web
traffic ranking authority, The Independent’s web gets an
average of 324,762 hits per week. Nationally, KnowledgeStorm
recently surveyed 4,500 businesspeople about blogs and found:

• More than 80 percent of those surveyed read blogs. • 18
percent of those who read blogs do so daily. • 33 percent read
blogs weekly. • 50 percent of those who read blogs comment or
contribute at lease once per month. • 70 percent of those readers
recommend blog contents to colleagues.

Montecito blog-use may not be quite on par with the national
norms, but in speaking with neighbors searching for news, it’s
clear that blogging has entered the Montecito mainstream. The
84,000-per-month increased visits to The Indy web is a
factual gauge that e-journalism has found a place as Santa Barbara
mainstream news source.

To participate, there’s a comment box at the bottom of the
column and the process is simple. Just type in your thoughts, hit
post, and faster than you can say “text message” your comments will
be on the World Wide Web. Depending on your mood you can boldly use
your real name; however, some people choose anonymity by using a
blogger nom de plume. The Indy’s posting rules
require an email address, but be assured those addresses are never
sold or divulged (not even to me!).

If you’re still feeling insecure about commenting (and frankly
my palms were sweating on my first post), hit “Back” twice and
visit The Indy’s blogging supersite “Santa Barbara Media
Blog.” Once you’ve got the gist, return to the Montage, and post
confidently and constantly, because when Montecito speaks,
everybody listens!