Welcome to my new way of recognising the up and coming talent at Bolt. What I am going to do is feature different photographers who I think deserve a mention for their hard work they put in and then make the effort to share their work with the rest of us. At the moment I'd say they are going to be monthly features, but I guess we'll see how busy I am, they may end up being three weeks at a time.
On with the show!
This month's feature is a double: lizzs20 and best friend littleLanie. These two are impressive. Working together they have produced some really interesting, off the cuff photography which turns everyday situations into funky snapshots of life.
They've caught my eye and it's now time to share the grooviness with you all. I hope you enjoy this launch of the series and please leave me comments on what you thought.
For the record.
Your names?
lizzs20: Elizabeth
littleLanie: Lane AKA Lanie
Ages?
lizzs20: 17
littleLanie: 17
Hometowns?
lizzs20: St Joseph, Michigan
littleLanie: Stevensville, Michigan
Your work.
You have got some awesome pictures in your profiles! Some of the best I've seen in my travels around Bolt. Do you consider yourself a professional?
lizzs20: Lanie and I always refer to ourselves as photographers. I think if I wanted to I could call myself a professional but I prefer "photographer" and/or "Artist"
littleLanie: Not at all. I still have much to learn about the art of photography. I'm very young yet...and I need at least some formal education. I've been to photography camps such as MIPA at MSU, but other than that, I know very little about it.
What camera/s do you use to capture these images?
lizzs20: Well, actually my camera isn't too fancy...I have a Kodak Easy Share with a limited amount of 4.0 mp...and then a even worse camera called a Canon Powershot which, its a sad 3.2 mp.
littleLanie: Some of my older pictures were taken with a Canon PowerShot. My more recent work has been done with a Canon Rebel XT.
Do you use Photoshop or the like to alter them?
lizzs20:I always alter the lighting and shadows because my camera doesn't have the aperture adjusters, I've gotten into more of the natural setting for a picture just because I feel that is more artistic and takes more of the eye for art but if you know what your doing and manipulation isn't taking over the picture I think its alright...I play around with it
littleLanie: On a lot of my older images I used a mediocre sort of imitation Photoshop, but now I hardly ever alter the images. I prefer to have a more natural feel to them.
When did you first get into Photography? What was your first camera?
lizzs20: I've always loved photography I guess, I always had to own a camera but when I got my digital camera last year that's when I started being creative with my photography and capturing images.
littleLanie: Actually, the first time I ever got into photography was last December when I slept over at Lizz's house and I had to leave early the next morning. So, I basically didn't feel like going home yet and I randomly went to the beach and started taking pictures. After that, I've wanted to capture amazing photos. (Lizz and I would always have "picture adventures" before this, but it would be basically pictures of the two of us being goofy. Not a form of REAL photography.) My first camera was my Canon Powershot that I got for Christmas that year.
It's good to see the both of you working together on projects. You have an exhibition coming up too, how is that going?
lizzs20: Well, we're still in the process the communications between us and The Box Factory (the Art gallery) who aren't too organized and it's not so easy when school overrides everything but, next month we should at least have something hanging on the walls of The Box Factory.
littleLanie: Eh, to tell you the truth, I've been slacking lately on taking photos. I only take them for work I have to do at school. I haven't yet found the time to go out on my own to take photos. *keep in mind, I'm a high school student and athlete.*
So when did you guys meet? Was it through school? What's the story?
lizzs20: Lane and I have been best friends since 8th grade during those rough middle school years when no one had identities, the only thing we knew was we both wore KSwiss and that was sweet...(and still is) We basically keep each other sane because we can't find anyone else quite like us and its a lot more comforting being able to share our interests with someone else who sees things the same way.
littleLanie: Actually, we've known each other our whole lives, basically. Lizz went to school with me from first grade until present. I never really liked her much in elementary and (she claims) I'd run away from her on the playground. I don't really remember this...but I could see that happening. In eighth grade, I had a social studies class with her and I didn't like anyone in the class...so I started talking to Lizz. (ha...sort of mean.) We did a project outside of class together and have been best friends ever since. ta da.
Professionals.
Who is your favourite photographer or film maker? Do they inspire you?
lizzs20: Well, actually, my inspiration is Andy Warhol. I feel so cliché naming him but in a way he reminds me of him, only I had a less intense version. Of course no one will ever compare to him. I've read a biography about him, his book of philosophy and his diaries, I feel like in a way I've figured him out, and everything that I've learned about him just awe-inspires me to think differently, be original and just emphasize the characteristics about myself that make me unique.
littleLanie: Well...I wish I could answer this better, but to be honest I really don't know the work of many photographers. I sort of just picked it up. I never had an interest for it until I DID it. But, I love the movie Garden State (written and directed by Zach Braff) and the way scenes are composed is fantastic. It inspires me very much, especially the scene where Large wakes up on the couch and the light is pouring in the room.
If not, where does your sense of creativity and inspiration for your type of shots come from?
lizzs20: All day I take pictures with my eyes like I just capture images and tell myself, 'dang that would look great in a photograph". I guess I just have my own style, I'm not really sure if I necessarily have an inspiration for the creativity in my photographs, I just take them after I capture the image through my eyes I suppose. I never really think I'm being creative, I'm just capturing something natural that no one thinks of taking the time out to look at unless it's already captured.
littleLanie: My main inspiration is seeing the beauty in life. I think that we take the most simple things for granted. Also, I live in one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. I love it here and I want to share it with everyone. Another part of my photography style would be that I like taking shots at very close angles to show a different viewpoint because there are more ways you can see something than just one.
Do you see yourselves in the photography business as you pass through school and college?
lizzs20: It seems like everyone is in photography lately because of this Digital Camera craze and everyone wants their own business. Lanie and I have talked about it before, we've thought of names, and eventually I think we might have something small. It'd most definitely be a good project while we go off to college. It would keep us in touch. I don't want to have my life career in photography however, maybe something that requires a sense of capturing images but, I like to do things that people AREN'T doing yet. Everyone's taking pictures, I need to find a new medium of imaging.
littleLanie: Being a photographer would be amazing. I have a hard decision to make...and that is photography or Journalism. I can't decide which I want to do, considering I love to write and I love to create images. I plan on at least getting a minor in photography. Also, not like it's a business or anything, but I do take a large amount of photos for my school newspaper and yearbook.
If no, where do you see yourselves in say 10 years time?
lizzs20:I always think I'm sure of what I want to do and then with a little time and more experiences, I become lost again. I want to do something arty, I don't want to do freelance, I want to inspire people, I don't want to teach, I want to observe and inform people.
I'm into Anthropology and I'm also into illustration... I'm not sure where that can lead me but I want to include those things in my career. annnnd I don't want kids...so I guess I can drift into whatever my heart or head (which ever dominates) is feeling without too much craziness dragging along...maybe a husband... Who knows..? I'm just looking forward to letting the world see me
littleLanie: Oh no, this is my biggest problem. I have NO idea where I see myself. I know that I will probably be a journalist...and, of course, I will still be taking many many photos.
Bolt.
How did you come across this site?
lizzs20: I got a email one day, and I was bored enough to check the new site out and my jaw just dropped and I was like "Wow! Cool. Let's do this."
littleLanie: I stole the idea from Lizz. I saw she had one and I saw all of the people on the site and how amazing their photos were and I thought, "hmmm...I would love to share my photos with them and be able to see their work too."
Do you have a favourite piece of content on here? a Member even? Who/What?
lizzs20: Hmm I'm not very sure, I mean I liked "The Pixie" but of course it was fake... I like all the Bolt Staff a lot, and I like Remy-Soho and I think Smileforgrape is pretty sweet just because I am infatuated with the name Grape...beautiful. I kind of wish I could be a bolt staff member actually hah.
littleLanie:
One of my favourite members was the Pixie, but I found out she was a girl who's identity was stolen on this site. She had the most strange and beautiful pictures. As for portraits, Tara-the-Jedi has some awesome self portraits. (Portraits are my weak point and I WISH I could take photos like those!)
Well with that said, check them out! littleLanie and lizzs20. That's all from me for this time, go give the girls some love and if you think you've got someone in mind, or even yourself for a feature, drop me a line and it just might be your work appearing here next time.
This has been no1bone aka Scott.
Permalink
17 Comments 627 Views
Unfortunately Bolt is becoming no different to other community based website. Through no fault of its own it is becoming a breeding ground for attention seeking children, and I say children because the majority of the offenders are under the age of 18.
Know what Im talking about yet? Of course you do. Its the proliferation of 'flirt' shots of teen ass and pushed up boobs, 'rock hard abs' and gangster posed grabbing crutch shots.
Take a look at the
most viewed photos on bolt and tell me what you see. Exactly what Im talking about. With the exception of a few normal decent shots they are all the afore mentioned 'flirt shots.' Im not trying to be an old man, devoid of all humour and such, but its a little bit worrying when you think about it. In the age where all of a sudden you need to be "omfg ur lyk hawt" to get any attention on these kinds of sites its is pushing 'real' people out of the picture. I use this site as a place to find creative people like me. Im not the best photographer, or the funniest guy on Bolt. But I do what I can to make this place fun. Ill talk randomly after a big night out, create marketing stuff for Bolt, Dance in public, and photograph my city all in the hope that other people will take the lead and do something similar. I want this place to grow and become a Creativity hub.
On the eve of hitting 1 million members, this is the first big milestone for Bolt.com. I hope this continues to grow and transform into a fantastic site, one that becomes infused with the English language. Many months ago I was asked "What can Bolt do to become better?" "What is it that we need to do to grow?"
I said become synonymous with 'online community.' When you ask most people (not the die hard Bolt peeps like me) where you post your online pics and meet people, you get "Oh MySpace" the term MySpace has become synonymous with Online pics. Now referred to as WhoreSpace, which it is, it has become the hub of underage people showing cleavage to get attention. Maybe thats what make it popular? Maybe its something else. Maybe its because its been around longer and is just the first place you think of, so you forget the up and comings like Bolt. I want to change that.
In an ironic twist, part of Bolt's popularity might be due to the 'flirt shots' that grow in number everyday. OK, thats fine, as long as there is something substantial in between. The staff here work hard to get the creative juices flowing for members with competitions galore promoting creativity. I admire that. I'd love to be a part of the team but geographical location issues prevent that from happening. If only online Mods and such were available.
So whats the point of this rant? Point is that it seems that unless you show a bit of skin, you get forgotten. Few of the most favourite things on Bolt are creative, user inspired work. Everyone wants to get a look at the most risque shot that still is allowable on sites like this. Pushing the limits to just blurring out the nipple, or sliding fingers down the underwear, just enough to tease, but not too much so it leaves something to the imagination. Is this what people need? To be told "dayum i wanna piese of dat"... please...
Instead of baring all of your body, how about baring some of your mind? How about showing assets that involve what you drive to work, and what you got for your last birthday? How about leaving the flashing to the Camera? Ahhh.. I dont know. Each to their own I guess.
Despite all of this, I have met some amazing people here. There are some truely amazing photographers (my main interest) and people here that push the creative Envelope.
Tara Stefan Nicola Nate aveline Lore Timur Amichele Lanie Stronger Remy Annieand of course all of the
Bolt Staff
The list is literally endless with more and more interesting people coming aboard all the time. I just dont have enough room in this blog to put them all down. So sorry if I missed you
So in short.
GET CREATIVE
Ill keep coming up with little challenges to get the creative juices flowing if you keep responding to them. Dont make this place just a gallery of tits and ass. Make it something thats worth more to someone than just a cheap perv.
True art takes note not merely of form but also of what lies behind.Mahatma Gandhi
Take care, and keep creating
Scott
I just have to get this out of my head. Im going to apologise now for typos because I know there will be many as its late, Im tired and very near to the end of my rope as far as stress tolerance will go.
I have, and always will be a supporter, promoter, fan, and acolyte of Bolt Media, whatever form they take, whether it is in this phoenix type form here or the older, now neglected Bolt2. I have stuck with this site in the 5 years Ive been a part of it, and there was only once for a while i dispaired and left due to a slow internet connection and too many ads. Not a good and sane combination.
But I have to say this. Whether this clear neglect, and I will say that, neglect, because there is only one staff member manning the whole of Bolt2, is temporary or not it is besides the point. I genuinely feel and believe that although bolt are moving forward and being from capitalist roots, Id do the same, they are leaving alot of faithfuls like me in to specualte and get frustrated with the lack of support we are getting. This is my point. There has been alot of disgrunteled words over people refusing to come here in protest, and to be honest, I dont think that it will change a thing, because realistically, as much as you want to believe it, 1 person cannot make a difference. And although they may tell other people, who then in turn tell others.. etc... really, the grand scheme of things isnt affected. But what I will say is this. Alot of those members who are being the most vocal in opposition to the neglect are the ones with the loudest voice to support it too. Major operations have been formulated to stem the 'death of Bolt2' and I think this shows a genuine concern for something that you have no control over. I am genuinely warmed to thin people are fighting for something they believe so strongly in.
Now in a rare serious moment, I will say that I am anti-protest. I dont believe that it gets you anywhere, and although this theory has been recently waivered by the French youth riots, it still holds true. The only reason it worked was because of the violence, not necessarily the message behind it.
Not to be disrespectful and compare the French issue with the Bolt Boycott, but some of the themes are similar. The raw passion for a belief is there. And THAT is something I really like to see. In my more recent active times I have met SO MANY people on Bolt(2) that I would call friends, and many more Id love to get to know better. These people EVERYDAY surprise me with their enthusiasm, and that is something that Bolt was built on. So I find it sad when these people are the ones that would do anything to save a site that is, in effect, abandoning them.
Im not here to badger staff, harass people or send hate, because a staffer job is to do what they are assigned to. If they are assigned to keeping Bolt bug free, because its all shiny and new, then who are they to argue, ITS THEIR JOB. You cant tell me you wouldnt do the same. If your job was one thing, then that is what you do. Yo umight want to help Bolt2 out, but do you have time? Authorisation? Oppurtunity? maybe not, i dont know how the system works, but I imagine they are not the same for both. So even Bolt staff members who want to help Bolt2 may not be able to.
Do I have a point or am I just rambling? Im not sure.
i want to say this though:
*Bolt is neglecting members that helped make it what it is today.
*I think the staff do a Great job with the time and resources they have, remember they are human too, they have lives, kids, partners and require sleep. Just because the site is 24/7, doesnt mean the staff are too. (Thats why they need an Aussie to work in the off periods ;) )
*There are members who are genuinely better for the invention of Bolt, i know I am. I was speaking to some members, that, though being members of Bolt (2) have formed relationships, friendships and together have raised over $12,000 for charities as a result of campainging on the site and outside through the contacts ans friendships made. THESE are the members that are suffering, these are the members I feel for, because although this Bolt will be similar to the old one, in the interim, things are degraded to a point that is really unacceptable. It doesnt portry a good image to other first time users when they join here, get told of this wonderous site Bolt2.com and cannot create an acount because of system failure.
This is what annoys me. This is what disheartens me. This is what I wish i could change, but cant.
Summary I guess - im disappointed in the actions taken to allow Bolt2 to fall so far into disrepair. I assume its because this site will formally take over all functions of Bolt2 soon and there is not point fixing what will be deleted anyway, but in the interim, alot of faithful members are getting angry at something they have loved and helped sustain for so long. Im not sure why I had to write all this but its true.
Im not going to read this back before I submit it because its my feelings as they flow, good or bad as they may be. Leave me a comment, im interested to know what you think. For better or worse, Scott isnt always the Cheerful guy I normally am. Lots of pressure from every angle of life makes me tired, and then to see something I love, and I say that truthfully, go into disrepair and there is nothing I can do about it, is a bit upsetting really.
Im off to bed.
Permalink
10 Comments 194 Views
Today when I got to work there was a bit more bustle than normal. Why? There had been an explosion in a building just a few streets from ours. At 3am last night/this morning there had been a huge blast in a club/restaurant that I’ve been too before called the Wine Bar/JP's Cafe. They say that the cause is now a petrol fuelled fire, not a gas explosion like they first thought. Ill keep this updated.
Here is the
story from the newspaper and the photos I got sent to me this morning from a mate:
MAN KILLED IN INNER-CITY ADELAIDE BLAST
02 May 06
A 49-year-old man has been killed in a massive early morning explosion which destroyed an Adelaide city building.
His body was found in the wreckage of JP’s Cafe, on Pirie Street in the heart of the CBD, several hours after the explosion blew apart the two-storey building.
The man, who is believed to be the cafe owner, was found under a large pile of rubble at the rear of the building, which also housed a retail wine outlet and a sports store on the first floor.
“It would appear that the rear wall has collapsed on top of him,” Superintendent Paul Schramm told reporters.
The cause of the 3am (CST) blast was still being investigated but Supt Schramm refused to rule out any possibility including an accidental gas explosion or even a bomb.
“As we would always say in these matters, we don’t rule out any set of circumstances,” he said.
“The investigation is still ongoing and when we have all the facts and all the forensic tests have been returned, we will provide that information to the coroner.
“We don’t rule out any possibility at this stage.
“There’s no evidence to suggest it was a bomb as such, but again we’ll just wait to see the results.
“It was an extremely large explosion. There are a whole range of things that could cause an explosion of that magnitude.”
Investigators have taken material from the site for forensic examination.
JP’s employee Lisa Brook described the dead man as a dedicated businessman.
She said it was not unusual for him to be at work at such an early hour of the morning.
“He’s a bit of a workaholic,” she said.
Ms Brooks said she had only been working at the cafe for six months but already felt at home.
The owner of the first floor sports store, former Adelaide Crows footballer Tom Warhurst, said he expected the building to be demolished.
He said when he got the call this morning that alarms had been activated his first thoughts were of a break-in.
“I thought someone had probably just come through the roof or something like that,” he said.
“You never think of something like this happening.”
The blast appeared to have been sparked in the basement of the building.
It blew out the front and rear sections, showering wreckage across Pirie Street.
Police declared a dangerous zone around the building with the facade so badly damaged it was considered at risk of collapse.
So severe was the blast that a building across the street also had windows broken by flying debris.
South Australian Premier Mike Rann visited the scene early today and said he was shocked by the incident.
“Anyone would be shocked by something like this happening in the middle of our city,” he said.
“I’ve just looked from a building above, it’s quite a huge blast which has done damage to other buildings.
“It’s a terrible thing to happen in the middle of our city"
These photos are in my Album if you want a closer look
Permalink
6 Comments 232 Views
I just clicked over 400 photos uploaded to Bolt here!!!
Although its a shy amount on the over 600
Tara and
Stimy has, but still, Im happy with it. This place has become an online photo journal of my life since getting my new camera in December 05. Its incredible just what you can take photos of when you arent paying for the developing.
And if I may be so bold. I have got to this amount of photos by not posting crap, or reposting ANY of the pics. They are, for the most part, either shots of my outings, graphic art, or photography art. And the only reason stopping me from uploading more is the photo size and the problems Bolt has with dealing with more than 2-4 photos of 2MB each in size. It doesnt like anymore than 3 if you are lucky, anymore than that and I get a time out error. I could re-size the picture yes, but whats the point of taking them in full scale, if only to shrink them?
Kudos to Bolt, for its new logo "Cult of Creativity"
Kudos to Bolt for featuring my hair in a new Ad
Kudos to Bolt for actually loving my hair enough to keep using it, HAHA I <3 it!
Kudos to Bolt... well for just being here, sending me promo stuff, and opening my eyes to a lot of things, people and places. This is something money can't buy.
<3
As you may have already seen,
Stefan has started the first photo competition for Bolt. Out with the old 1MFF, in with the New!!!
Basically the idea is to make these songs come to life through photography. Im going to strike out the ones Ive done so check for them in my
ALBUM
Check out the Full Details
HERE
Please note:
Contest changes...Deadline extended out to the 1st of June
1.
Everyday I Love You Less and Less
2.
I Predict A Riot
3. Modern Way
4.
Na Na Na Na Naa
5.
You Can Have It All
6.
Oh My God
7. Born To Be A Dancer
8.
Saturday Night
9. What Did I Ever Give You?
10.
Time Honoured Tradition
11. Caroline, Yes
12. Team Mate
OK Guys, Definitely time for an update!
Its now moving into week 5 at Uni, which is scary in itself, because that is the first peak week. So I have a report due Monday and Friday, and Essay due Wednesday and thats just for Uni. For placement (ooohhh more to follow) Ive got to take part in a workshop on the big survey project and I have to make sure I have some figure for them by then, which is basically what I have been trying to collate since I started there. Not as easy as one might imagine. But anyway, so thats my busy as hell week to come.
Now lets have a look back on the weeks that were!
OK, still been flat out with trying to juggle everything, as you may have picked up last time its hard. And now Im physically feeling it too. Its hard to do full days of work and then come home and then do 4 hours of Uni and then sleep. So Im glad in a way that week 5 is coming, because that means it can go just as fast and Ill be ok for a while longer. Ummm yeah.
I feel like a boring git because I havent been doing anything spectaculary exciting lately! So Ill just talk about work (placement) The Benchmarking report im doing is coming along, I wouldnt say nicely, but I would say along. IUts slow going because no one is willing to give out the information I need, or if they do its at a much higher level than what I need, I want a bit more details and such, but no one has it, which is making this hard. I wrote another report for them and got the American to have a look at it for me (Not my supervisor/mentor guy) And it basically came back with more red ink on it than it did the black print out! So this is going to take some getting used to. I mean the points were valid and such, but it was a shock to see it so mercilessly slashed and burnt... oh well it comes with the territory. I have to hand in the final doc on Monday, so Im hoping that my changes are accurate and worth it, becuase Im running out of time.
Anyway on to better things. Like I say the report is coming along, but because it isnt THAT interesting, I have been taking a greater interest in the other project that this report is part of, becausse I get to go to meetings in other buildings and departments and such and its great! So basically they have said because Im keen, I can be apart of the greater whole of the project if I wanted!!! SCORE!!! Muchly happy right about now!!!
Granted I still have to get the report done, but they have opened it up to me saying I can take on as much more (within reason) as I like as long as it doesnt impact the report. Which is fine by me!! So thats all going on there. Im getting a bit more a of name for myself which is good and will be handy later when I do leave, hopefully with a glowing reference.
So that aside, the social life:
St Patricks Day last Friday, which was also the last weekend of the Fringe Festival and the Adelaide Festival of Arts. So town was quiet for about 3 days and this weekend is the Clipsal 500 street race. Its all the V8's so its a major deal. Im not a car person so I dont care as much, I mean its a 4 day event (Thurs - Sun) at it keeps the city alive, but with bogans!!! Damn them, they are everywhere, all pissed and stumbling after a full day of drinking in the sun... pfft
Actually speaking of sun, it has been gorgeous weather here lately, and Dad and his partner have gone on their 2 week holiday, (part of which is seeing my uncle) and so its just been Bro and I here at home and because Im rarely home, I work, come home sleep repeat... and I assume thats what he does too, but anyway, we forgot to water the plants, and we looked today and like half our garden is DEAD and there are some bushes that are beyond repair. I managed to pull up some little plants and hope no one will notice, and I have been like water logging the rest hoping they'll pull through. I mean alot were just brown and wiltered, so I have hope for them... So still another week without Dad and partner, so its grand. I dont know, I love being here by myself. Makes the moving out thought move up in priority in the brain.. still to expensive, but its there.
What else?
I dont know, so Ill spare you more useless dribble and call it off there.
Im still checking bits and pieces as often as I can, Trying to actually take some photos to upload so we'll see how we go.
OH ACTUALLY
This is the last week to vote in the 1 minute Film Festival, so if you havent already, go and vote on my vids, as mediocre as they may be!
Take care people, and we'll see you all about soon.
Scott
Permalink
1 Comments 111 Views
Bolt.com's Gen-Y members have created an influential online community that expresses more than simply teen spirit.
Handelman, David
Brandweek; 08/07/2000, Vol. 41 Issue 32
For anyone accustomed to old media, the idea of a "content-free" Web site seems a contradiction in terms. Why would anyone (except, perhaps, Jerry Seinfeld) seek out something providing no content?
Yet in just three years, three million users, 70 percent of them in the United States, have registered with Bolt.com, which exists purely as a community--a platform for older teenagers (15-20) to meet and exchange opinions. They have created 50,000 clubs and thousands of message boards, organized into topic pages ranging from "Sex and Dating" to "Mystic" to "Poetry," pass "Bolt Notes" to each other and generate poll questions for each other, tallying responses in personal "tagbooks."
It's become a self-perpetuating behemoth. A year ago, there were only a million users. Every day, up to 15,000 new users sign up, mostly by word of mouth. "It's viral," marvels cofounder Dan Pelson.
The commerce aspect is also unusual: Bolt intends to let the teens dictate much of what is being sold to them. For instance, Pelson claims the site will only sell items once the members have clamored for them and, in some cases, even created the items themselves. The site's first such foray into this territory is its ongoing "tenbuckettee," a T-shirt design contest, for which the site manufactures winning entries, submitted and voted on by members, and pays the creator a $1-per-shirt royalty.
The site's actual revenue model, however, is less visible to the naked eye. An ongoing accumulation of data about those 3 million users, including their preferences on everything from popular music to shampoo, is sold to corporations--including Ford, Pepsi, Adidas, Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Navy--who heretofore had been stymied in their efforts to access these hard-to-reach teens.
For instance, Pepsi, which has its logo on Bolt's music page to affirm that brand's connection to music, can now learn its target audience's preferences in music. While the teens are voting on each other's mixes or commenting on Britney Spears' trendy, trashy outfits, "it's Pepsi that is in their faces--in a subtle way," says Pelson. Nestle has promoted its Spree candy on Bolt as well, and Johnson & Johnson turned to Bolt to raise awareness for its Clean & Clear skin cleansing products, Neutrogena line and other products.
Bolt.com was co-founded by Pelson, a former Sun Microsystems executive who created the early online magazine Word, Jane Mount, who was design director at Word, and Aaron Cohen, now the CEO of Concrete Inc. and formerly Word's marketing director. Bolt's success is such that even America Online bowed, enlisting the company, in essence, to take over AOL's teen community.
The company's Soho offices are, like most Internet offices, bursting at the seams with employees (some 200). Pelson's is the only one with a door; even co-founder Mount shares a space back-to-back with another employee. The walls are lined with giant posters of various "Members of the Day"--Bolt teens who the site has featured.
Pelson meets me in a conference room in which a computer is logged onto the site; he types in one of his screen names, admitting, "I'm always a little nervous about visiting; you never know what's going to be in here. . ." Today's front page, for instance, happens to have a discussion about masturbation "for girls only."
IQ: Where did the concept of Bolt.com come from?
Dan Pelson: There was clearly a void. No one was really reaching teens on a global basis nor did anyone have a really deep brand relationship with them. Even MTV still has a long way to go. And we saw other trends. Number one, teens and young people seem to be fleeing traditional media: newsstand sales are down to this audience, they watch less television than any other consumer segment. They're difficult to reach.
The second trend is that they're flocking to empowering media--the Internet, wireless, two-way paging. They are the early adopters; they're hyper-communicators. All they want is to say, "Here's what I think. What do you think?" and create dialog. We [give them] the ability to do it in an anonymous way. If you want to stand up and say "I love poetry, what do you think?" there's a big difference between doing it in your high school cafeteria and doing it at Bolt.
And there were other trends. It's a huge audience globally. The world is getting younger, children of baby boomers have tremendous spending capital and influence on other people's spending. So we said, let's create a business that serves this audience's need because we know there will be revenue based on marketers who are out there thinking, "This is our audience and we're having a really hard time reaching them with traditional means."
How did you decide what age range to focus on?
We focus on 15 to 20 because globally that's the transitional period in life. They're making theft first brand decisions, having theft first experience driving a car. Everyone talks about the Internet being this global medium, but very few companies have been able to take advantage of that fact. They just naturally get overseas traffic. We would argue that teens are probably the one consumer segment that is very similar on a global basis--an 18-year-old in the U.K. is pretty similar to one in the United States or Japan or Poland. They're going through a transition to adulthood: They're maturing physically and emotionally, they either just moved out of the house for their first job or into college or into the armed forces.
Do you think this cress-cultural similarity is a recent development?
Because of the Internet, TV and these kinds of things, culturally there's a lot more similarities now, but I think it's been this way for thousands of years. Teens are the epitome of a disenfranchised community. "Mom and Dad are hard to talk to, don't understand me, I can't talk to my teachers, I don't talk to my guidance counselors or mentors."
They need a voice. And this medium is awesome for empowering disenfranchised communities. Add to that the fact that the world is getting much more multicultural, and this audience in particular is much more accepting of foreign cultural influences than their parents--that has created an awesome opportunity for us.
Why did you name it Bolt?
I wish I had some really fascinating story. We just wanted a four-letter URL--something easy to remember and easy to type. It's amazing how many sites are being launched with a 15-letter URL. If I can't spell it, how's the teen going to spell it? And we didn't want it to have a lot of meaning. When you're creating a new brand, the best-case scenario is that the name doesn't hurt you. It's hard to have it help you, because it's not going to have a lot of meaning until people star-t using the product. If you called it anything "teen" then you're going to get 12 year-olds, like Seventeen magazine, and we didn't want that. We also wanted something that really didn't have a lot of meaning globally, so we looked into "What does Bolt mean in French? Does it mean kill your mother?" You can apply meaning to Bolt--"out of here," like bolting out of here, "lightning bolt"--but if anything, it's a sound.
How did you attract your earliest users?
The most important distribution deal we did was with Hotmail in early 1998, before it was bought by Microsoft. Teens saw it as a portal. And for us at that time it was basically at no cost. Hotmail [wanted our platform] because they realized they needed to add value to the e-mail. People started clicking through. [Our presence] is still there.
Most sites tend to skew male or female, but you decided early on to serve both audiences. Why?
If you're a traditional media company that creates content, you probably have to split a segment or audience. But we don't create content here. Our model is communication; we provide context. People say content is king--well, context is queen and we know who rules in those situations. Our job is to provide the framework. This audience is creating the content that they want to consume. They're a hell of a lot smarter then we are when it comes to what's on their minds, and we're not going to try to guess.
Because of that we can do dual audience. And we found out something fascinating: If you have a lot of women there, you'll have a lot of guys, and if you have a lot of guys there, you'll have a lot of women. Shocking! We have a little bit more women registered, probably because women are a little more apt to making a commitment to the site then guys are--another little thing we discovered. So 40 percent guys with 3 million users, that's a heck of a lot of guys. There's very few media properties out there, with the exception of ESPN, that are reaching this many guys.
Can you contrast Bolt with some other Teen-specific sites?
ITurf and Alloy grew out of being early entrants in the catalog business. They really focus on the commerce aspect of having teen girls buy apparel on their sites. Snowball took an ad-network approach and offers lots of visitors on hundreds of different sites to advertisers. These approaches aren't necessarily wrong, but they are very different from Bolt. We believe that by offering a single registration process that gives our audience access to over a dozen tools in a similar fashion to Yahoo! and AOL, we create tremendously loyal members and we're able to offer our partners access to this audience in a multitude of ways.
How did you hit upon the content-free Idea?
The people who founded the company--myself and Jane Mount and Aaron Cohen--came out of the Internet, which makes us really old-timers. We knew that communication tools were going to be critical to our success. However, we did start with a relatively traditional approach. We had writers, editors, people who were trying to write cool content, and what we found relatively quickly was that the stuff that we were creating was getting some activity, but it wasn't justifying the cost of creating it. The stuff that our audience was creating was really low-cost because they were creating it--and that's what was keeping people on the site.
So we empower this audience, and they reward [us] with loyalty, and then they tell their friends about it. They couldn't care less what some 28-year-old has to say about Eminem or dating, I mean, God forbid. They care what their peers have to say. So over the course of that first year we started focusing on other tools to communicate, like Bolt Notes, which are what you did in class--it's passing a note back and forth on a one-to-one basis.
Like an instant message?
Yes, but the difference is you can leave a note for someone and they don't have to be there [online] to receive it. If they want to just send a quick message to somebody on the phone or pager or on the Web site, boom, there it is. I'd like to tell you that we were so brilliant as to [anticipate] WAP [wireless application protocol] and SMS [short message services]. But it just turns out it works really well in this new empowerment medium. Three years ago we weren't thinking about that. But when everyone started focusing on WAP, we just converted all our tools to WAP.
Why are the tagbook polls so popular?
It's extraordinarily personal. You can ask the question and have a couple hundred peers respond. Being a teen you say, "Here's what I think, what do you think?" Now, I'm not going to be doing a lot of this online, but to a 16-year-old this is relevant. People find each other through tagbooks.
How do you define "the Bolt Economy," and what is the strategy?
The Bolt economy is about empowering teens to not just spend their money online--which everyone else is focused on--but also empowering [the teens] to make money. We believe we have enough of a global reach and our growth is fast enough that we can create a global youth economy where they're creating products and services. We've already started to implement that [with] "tenbucktees." Instead of us trying to guess what T-shirts they want to buy, we say, "You guys try to design them yourself, we'll put them up, let people vote on them." We get thousands of submissions every week. One of our biggest selling T-shirts is a Braille shirt. I think it says "Braille" in Braille. It has sold nearly a thousand, so there's some 18-year-old out there who is making a thousand bucks. The idea is we're not taking risks because we know who wants them, how many we should order. You look at the voting and you use the data. It took us time to develop and understand this process, but now we can apply it to other products and services: jewelry, hats.
You've said that you wait for them to tell you what to sell them. How does that work?
The same way: by having a communications platform. When you register to become a member, those 3 million users represent a couple of hundred data points. You're really telling each other what kind of music you're into, your favorite television shows, other things going on in your life. And if you respond to certain polls, that gets added to your profile.
Are they aware of that?
Absolutely. They're not only aware, they love it. The ultimate reason they're doing this is so [the world] can know who these teens are. Again, you and I are not going to do this. A 17-year-old wants people to know who he is and what he's all about, what he likes and what he doesn't like.
You hear people talking about how these kids don't like being sold something, are very hyperaware of being marketed to, yet here they are volunteering their entire . . .
People say teens don't like to be sold to, but they forget to end that sentence with "teens don't like to be sold things that are irrelevant in their lives." This audience wants things that are relevant in their lives, whether it's people that they're meeting, ads they're seeing, or commerce opportunities.
If this 19-year-old guy is into snowboarding and lives in New York and you put an ad up in front of him that if you go to this store in New York you get a 30 percent discount, not only do they not mind it, that's valuable. By the way, they're all anonymous too--it's not like we're sending it to their home addresses. This is just a user profile that we're sending it to.
What Is the most popular topic--"Sex and Dating?"
Of course. Also, the cultural things, music and television, movies. "Dealing" [as in "coping"] gets tremendous activity. "Cars" gets a lot of guys.
You have one of the stickiest sites on the Web--the eighth stickiest site for 13-17 year olds, according to Media Metrix figures. (And with 44.7 minutes logged per visitor.) Did you design It with that In mind or is that a happy by-product that you now try to keep going?
Frankly, it's more the latter. Three years ago, no one was saying the word "stickiness"; we were saying "repeat"--we need to get people to come back to the site. Now the buzzword is stickiness.
From the beginning we were [asking], "What's going to keep people coming back?"
You build barriers to exit. They meet a lot of people, they have a lot of friends, they're using it for their e-mail and voicemail and their Bolt Notes and the tagbooks, and they're getting other people to the site.
If somebody replicated Bolt exactly and called it "Blot" and put it up tomorrow, they're going to have a really hard time. Why? Because the thing that ultimately makes this sticky is the 3 million members that are on the site. I think being there first was a big part of it, but now we've also spent three years developing technologies and a communication platform that really work for this audience.
With so much being posted every day, how much control do you have on Improper conduct?
We get probably a million communications every day, way more then we can read, so you obviously can't screen everyone. And that's not our intention because if you're going to empower this audience you have to allow them to talk.
If we censor the word "shit," when someone said Eminem is "da shit," they're going to go somewhere else. We do eliminate certain things--violent speech, racist speech, sexist or bigoted speech. Why? Because that's what the community wants. Adults don't give this audience enough respect and trust. The vast majority of this audience is a hell of a lot more mature and intelligent then you'd expect. One percent of people can cause a lot of problems and we handle those people.
How?
We terminate their account. If they come back and sign in as someone else, we'll know because we can look at the user code from the person's ISP. The most important thing to us is allowing members to control their privacy. Users can block [their own accounts from seeing] certain people's notes or posts on the site. That's the best way to allow our audience to censor: If you're a religious teen and you don't want to see kids using that language, just block them.
Can you explain the partnership with Ford, which seems unusual for this age group?
Ford realized that it had to establish a relationship with teens. They're driving for the first time, making those early decisions. But Ford realized it wasn't in a position to start pounding marketing at them because they didn't have a relationship established. So we launched Cars.Bolt.com.
Does Ford create this content?
No, we do. In fact, we don't, the teens do. Ford needed to get preference information, so [the logo is on the main car page, which asks questions like] Kia versus Toyota. Isn't that kind of weird, that Ford would want to be the sponsor of something that allows you to talk about a Japanese car company? They realize that to reach this audience you have to allow them to have a say in your marketing message. You make them part of it, you've won the game. Because the audience is so savvy and so aware of marketing that they realize that Ford is the one that allows them to say that Chevy has a cooler look then a Ford. Do you understand how valuable it is for Ford to know that the audience may think that?
That goes completely against the grain of traditional marketing.
Exactly. And this audience goes against the grain in terms of how you have to reach them.
In what form does Ford get the feedback?
We have a car analyst who sits there and looks at as many of the posts as he humanly can. He'll do word searches for certain things--how often Ford is mentioned, say--summarize results, and then give them to Ford on a weekly and monthly basis. The only way to get closer to this audience is to tap their phones.
Beyond that, we have a panel of more than 200,000 teens who have said they want to be part of surveys and will go to a deeper level of preferences. [The "Bolt Bus," a proprietary omnibus survey.] We get their member name, their ethnicity, geography and age, in addition to detailed attitudes and behaviors.
You're trying to prevent under-15s from Joining, but how do you prevent the kids from typing in a fake birth date?
This audience actually tells the truth. Can someone re-log in and enter a different age? Yes, of course. Can some 15-year-old go out and buy a pack of cigarettes? Yes, of course. What we've found is that in this environment this audience tends to be more truthful about themselves than in the real world. When you're a teen, that's when you really have your mask on. If you're walking through high school and you're the jock that happens to be into poetry, are you going to let all your friends know about that? Probably not, but here you will. Why? Because you're anonymous.
You've said that this age group has loyalty but It's fleeting-that It can turn over every eight months.
That's why it's impossible to create content for this audience--because they're constantly changing. And that's why we didn't want to be in that business. Certain brands come and go, and for this consumer segment it's probably going to happen a lot faster. The challenge is, how do you to adapt? The Bolt business model is, pay attention to what's going on here, listen to what they're saying--they're going to tell you how to adapt. They want you to know, they want Ford to know what they're into.
How do you track the 100,000 posts a day and make sense of them for your clients?
It's all done by computer software. The bulk of it is data warehousing and data mining, and I would guess that we're years ahead of companies that are a heck of a lot bigger than us.
We have a bunch of Ph.D.s focused on understanding the data and able to communicate the data to our clients and to us. Then we have a business intelligence group that's doing surveys with our panel and then combining it with the analysts' findings and creating reports. It really is about the data. Data is kind of a scary word for saying their likes and dislikes. It's taken us four years to get there, but it's extraordinarily valuable.
Is there any risk in places like record companies going on the site pretending to be kids to stir up Interest In one of their acts?
Sometimes. But they take a risk. Because if everyone says "She sucks, she's awful," you're done. If someone does that, it's not going to make or break that performer, and it certainly will come down to the quality of the product.
But It's certainly cheaper then trying to find the e-mall addresses of people in your audience.
That's true. If you're blatantly promoting something, it gets deleted. What tends to happen is if someone wants to promote something for free on the site, they'll post it 200 times in all these boards. We have the ability in about two seconds to find that post, click a button and [delete it]. But if one person gets in there and says, "What do you guys think about Christina Aguilera? I think she's pretty cool," it's going to stay up.
What do you do when members turn 20? Are you going to try to expand to hold their interest, or create a different site?
First of all, people don't necessarily leave when they're 20. It's not like we suddenly delete them. But the reality is, a 22-year-old has very different interests because at that stage in life they're graduating from college, they're getting their first job. They have very different needs. Because of the nature of this medium our first goal is to be the largest global communications platform for teens. You're going to see us expanding in certain parts of the world before we focus on expanding the demographic. There's about a billion people out there that are in that older teen audience, and when we hit some significantly large percentage of those people every day then we'll start worrying about other demographics.
Short answer: Yeah, some people will leave the site.
Do you think you could put market research firms out of business?
How do I answer that one? It's not our intention to put anyone out of business. We work with a lot of market research firms that have great reputations and kind of traditional market research processes. A lot of them realize that they don't have access to the audience. Maybe the way to answer is to say that market research firms that adapt to the Internet are going to do well and those that don't won't.
How does direct e-mall for your sponsors work? Do you give them a list of people?
We control it internally because we're not selling e-mail addresses. That's not ultimately what [our clients] want. During the registration process, [members] are presented a list of our partners and it says if you want information about, say, BMG Music Club, click here. Our database segments those people and we work with BMG to tweak what its response will be. Then we deliver the e-mail for them.
What's Involved with the new wireless deals you Just struck with Arch and AT&T?
The real key is using our communication tools on pagers and cell phones. Have Bolt Notes sent to me, my tagbook responses, my horoscope, "What's Cool," music reviews, movie reviews. Wireless is going to be absolutely massive for this audience. It is already.
What made you decide which things, like the Gravity Games--the extreme sports showcase In Providence, R.I.--Bolt would put Its money behind?
It's the efficiency of the event. We tend to be extraordinarily efficient in how we reach this audience. Our cost of acquiring a member is a few bucks and is, I would guess, the lowest in the industry by far. There are other sites that focus on a particular consumer segment spending 15, 20, 25 bucks. There are certain events for which we want to have a real-world presence. We use the Internet pretty heavily because that's where this audience is. We use our partnership with AOL.
Can you describe that partnership?
Since February, we've been managing AOL's teen community. AOL realized that they were becoming their father's Oldsmobile--it may have a lot of teens, but its teen's parents are also using the service, and AOL was not addressing the needs of its teens as well as we could. So, AOL came to us and said "Create AOL.Bolt.com." It's basically our platform integrated into the AOL environment. We've mutually found a way to combine our respective value--AOL's reach and Bolt's platform--to better serve this audience.
What have been the biggest surprises?
I would have never guessed how viral marketing can really grow the site. When we have a 15,000 person day it's not solely because of our marketing team--something's going on out there beyond our control.
The other thing is how they take ownership. Our goal is not to be cool with this audience, and we've learned this over time. I think if you were talking to me two years ago, I would have said we want to be the coolest brand. Reality is, we just want to work for them, and we've learned that from dealing with this audience. We want to be about as cool as AT&T is cool when you make a long-distance phone call. It's not really cool at all--unless you think it's cool that you just made a long-distance phone call. It just works for this audience. And they really have controlled it. If there is something they think could be better about the site, if they feel it's their responsibility to talk about something and talk to each other about it, we'll listen.
Finally, the stickiness number--people who have actually become members spend over four hours a month on this site. That's really surprising to me. That's an incredible indication of loyalty not just to Bolt per se, but to each other.
What do you think this generation Is going to be like as adults? Is all this going to change?
I think a lot of things will change. The Internet shifts power quickly, from the seller to the consumer. That's what's going on in Bolt. There will be a dramatic impact on media companies because this audience wants to control the content, they want to create it. Using us [30-somethings] as the counter-example to teens, if I want information about what movie to see, I may watch Roger Ebert. [My generation] is coming from a world where this authoritative voice dictates to its reader or its viewer what they need to know. For better or for worse, this audience doesn't want to be dictated to, and it's not just a teen thing; the Internet has a lot to do with it. They've got the bug and as they get older and older it's going to impact how media is consumed. Look at the popular shows on TV: Cops, Survivor--it's real people. People are more fascinated by each other then they're fascinated by what the "experts" have to tell them.
The brands, the P&Gs, the Fords that are tapping into that are going to be tremendously successful because they realize the shift has occurred and will change the way companies market forever. The cat's out of the bag.
Permalink
0 Comments 151 Views
