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Conservative Bloggers and Conservative Writers Are Invited To Write At The Nolan Chart
If you're a conservative blogger, writer, or author, you have arrived at the best place to write!
As a writer from the Nolan Chart, I wish to greet you to the site and also to invite you to become a writer here yourself. The 'Chart
is really a political news and opinion website where contributors from all political camps: conservative, liberal, libertarian, centrist
(or moderate), and statist, share space on a single site, with each getting their very own, devoted space for their own political camp.
I am working particularly hard at inviting and bringing in conservatives to lead here because conservative thought has to date been
way too underrepresented on the website. The libertarian presence here is larger than the other camps combined, but that needs to change!
Despite the fact that I am a libertarian too, there's a great deal that my fellow libertarians write which makes me cringe, and I really
want to see a larger conservative presence prepared to argue the conservative side of the debate. I'm also reaching out to liberal
writers, so you'll get the chance to face the opposition here!
So, if you're a conservative author or blogger, or even if you haven't written regularly about conservative slants about the issues
previously but want to do it now, you're wanted here. There's no expected schedule. You write as frequently or infrequently as you need to.
All we request is you obey certain rules of engagement that authors on the website are required to obey.
Obviously, we would like you to definitely talk about probably the most potent and popular conservative issues, which conservative
supporters usually put on their top lists of issues, for example:
- Federal Spending
- Taxes
- Size of Government
- Health Care
- Iraq
- Administration Change
- Afghanistan
- Entitlement Programs
- Immigration
- War on Terror
- Court appointments
- Jobs
- Financial Regulation
- Energy & Global Warming
- Social Security
- START Treaty
- Education
- etc., etc.
I additionally hope you'll challenge the libertarian, liberal, centrist, and statist authors on the website regarding the political
issues they raise and discuss. It is the diversity of mindsets and also the attention to controversy that makes the Nolan Chart unique
on the internet. You can be a part of it.
Two kinds of conservative bloggers (not to mention liberal, libertarian, moderate, and statist bloggers!)
Essentially, you will find two kinds of political writers on the planet.
- Most political writers, columnists, authors, and contributors would rather write from the peanut gallery, lobbing peanut shells
within range of their opposition (real or imagined), but in reality they're nothing more than frightened bullies. Bring them in contact
with their competitors, and they faint. No guts and no glory.
- Another type of political blogger favors interaction with the opposition face-to-face and nose-to-nose without resorting to
snarking or pissing on the opposition because the grounds for their own arguments are lacking. This sort is the one with the real guts.
They're the type of blogger we search for to publish at the Nolan Chart.
It's absurdly easy to setup a political blog nowadays, and 1000's of individuals have done so. Conservative writers, like most of us,
benefit from the thrill of seeing site visitors who think like they think arriving to visit their blogs. In a couple of rare cases,
some blogs gain popularity enough the authors can even make a living by blogging. However, for most, blogging is simply a chance to
vent their spleens, call the opposition some dirty names, and participate in rampant sarcasm whilst getting repeated pats on the back
from the writer's well-wishers. Eventually, however, the excitement fades, and the blogging becomes a lot more like a chore than the
usual hobby or interest. The reason behind this really is that good conservative writers ultimately want to blog because they would
like to engage their opposition. They need an opportunity to try to change the other man's mind, to rip apart another person's argument,
and counter-charge when the other person responds.
To the very best of our understanding, the Nolan Chart may be the only political site on the web that really invites, includes, and
engages conservatives, liberals, moderates, libertarians, and all sorts of political viewpoints in one place. The 'Chart may be the
ultimate expression of free speech, since it is a chance not only to address your supporters, but additionally to defend yourself against
your competitors mind-to-mind.
Roots of the Nolan Chart
The late David Nolan produced the initial Nolan Chart, a political map made to expand upon and replace the standard left-right spectrum map
most political bloggers make reference to. For individuals who don't know him, David Nolan was among the original founders from the Libertarian
Party and a noted political researcher. This website was produced in 2007 to enable David's magnificent chart to operate as a venue for
political debate and discussion. Before his untimely death in November 2010, David was a regular contributor at the 'Chart. We continue
his tradition by taking his original idea and making it a forum for political discussion and debate on the issues each day. David loved
writing here, and we are certain you will, too. Please be aware our term "libertarian" on this web site doesn't solely make reference to
the Libertarian Party. Actually, most libertarians on the website aren't connected with that party whatsoever. In its fullest meaning, to
be libertarian means support of freedom and liberty, and that is the definition we apply to the term on this site. A lot of us (myself
included) won't have anything to do with the Libertarian Party directly, although the site does indeed include some party people who like
our website and choose to write here.
Powerful Yet Sincere Debate
We all do insist upon a particular degree of decorum and respect for a person's competitors and experts, which a worthwhile conservative
blogger or conservative author can appreciate and support, since conservatives, too, want respect in exchange, much like other people do.
Ad hominems (personal attacks) are frowned upon. We stick to the rule that if you wish to call another person a clown, you need to prove he
dresses up in grease paint and baggy clothes for kids' birthday parties for fun on Saturdays, or something similar to that, in order to be
able to make use of the label. No conservative author really wants to play the role of the victim of name calling or nasty language, just like
liberal, liberatarian, or moderate authors similarly do not want exactly the same situation to occur. We strongly discourage using nasty
language to describe a person's competitors, while realizing that ad hominems can't ever be completely prevented in political debate.
Strictly speaking, to say that your opponent is wrong is to engage in a personal attack, albeit of a very minor
kind. It doesn't matter whether you are conservative, liberal, libertarian, statist, or moderate. It's true for all
of us. Thus, to eliminate all personal attacks would end political debate. We recognize that it would be counter-productive
to maintain a pure line on such attacks. However, our rules do cut down dramatically on the frequency of overtly and
intentionally cruel and nasty personal attacks, and we do not hesitate to enforce our rules.
So if you are the kind of person who isn't afraid of a little head-to-head to debate and can engage in it by writing
articles and columns without trying to drag the debate into the gutter, you are the kind of contributor the Nolan Chart
seeks, regardless of your political views. We welcome all political viewpoints that are presented in a respectful and
engaging matter.
I should also note that while bloggers of all kinds often put little, short entries on their blogs, that's really
not something we want. Writers here are expected to write full articles. They don't have to be terribly long, but we don't
want them to be just one paragraph either. Good bloggers can easily crank out 200-300 words on a subject. If you are a
conservative writer (or even just a wannabe conservative writer), and can write a short, yet complete, article on a topic, then
you are the conservative blogger or writer we've been seeking!
Documenting Claims
We require that factual claims be documented with links (whenever possible) within all articles. So if you claim a
particular statistic to back your argument, or if you quote someone else, you have to include the source of your claim
within your article and link to that source from within the article. This policy significantly improves the quality of
the article and op/ed writing that takes place at the site, and it is one of the main reasons that the site is so successful
four years after its initial launch in August 2007.
We are not interested in articles whose primary purpose is to promote another website or venture. So if you're merely
a marketing person trying to promote some kind of business scheme, and that's the main purpose of your writing, we don't
want you.
If you want to promote a particular political viewpoint or campaign, that's fine. You are welcome to participate at
the Nolan Chart.
Original, Previously Unpublished Writing Only
We also only want original writing that has not yet been published elsewhere. If you already have a conservative blog or have
written for a conservative website somewhere else, that's fine. We just ask that you don't just recycle your old stuff. If you want
to share some of your better pieces with us, the way to do so is to rewrite them, give them a conservative, fresh coat of paint
so to speak. It takes a little bit of work, but it can be well worth it. It's amazing how one's own views and understanding
change or become more detailed and comprehensive over time. So that old article you thought so highly of may actually not be
your best work, and taking the time to re-write it results in a new article that is actually many steps better than the
original. The process makes you re-think your own arguments, and writers often find that they've got new information to add
that they didn't have when they wrote the original version.
You Are The Editor
We require that you take responsibility for doing all your own editing. We will not edit your articles for you, although
we may kick them back to you if the editing is poor. You are welcome to use any editing software of your choice. The online
editor we provide where you enter your articles (even if only by copying and pasting from your preferred word processor) is
small but robust. It includes a built-in spell-checker, too. We might also kick your article back if you have taken liberties
with the way articles are typically laid out on the pages of our site. If that happens, we will always inform you what changes
need to be made in order to get your article approved for publication on the site.
Our Readership
As mentioned above, Google News includes our site's articles in its listings, which adds further interest and readership.
Overall, we currently average about 60,000 unique readers per month, and we have plans in place to increase those numbers
dramatically in the weeks and months ahead. By the time the 2012 presidential election arrives, we hope to have those numbers
in the hundreds of thousands each month. In fact, in the long run we're aiming at the day when we have hundreds of thousands
of unique readers each day!
Revenue Sharing
While everyone who writes here does it for the love of writing, for the thrill of seeing their articles posted in Google News,
and to challenge the powers-that-be, we do also have a revenue sharing program. You won't likely be able to make a living from it,
but we make it available in case we get writers who succeed in bringing large numbers of new visitors to the site on a regular
basis because of what they write. We take one-half of our entire revenue stream from advertising on the site and make it available
in a revenue sharing plan. Those who opt-in to the plan are credited with their share of the revenue sharing as measured by the
writer's readership levels. The shares of those who do not opt-in to the plan revert back to the ownership of the site. Again,
the advertising revenue we currently collect does not enable any of our writers, even the most successful, to earn a living from
it. But as our readership numbers grow, the advertising revenue will also grow, leading to the day when writing at the Nolan Chart
may become a vocation for some of our writers as well as a hobby and an interest.
Other sites such as the Huffington Post hinted at possible revenue sharing plans of their own at one time, but they ended up
selling out, leaving their writers with nothing while Arianna Huffington collected $315 million from AOL. At the Nolan Chart, our
intention is to always retain the revenue sharing program, because we know and recognize that our success depends upon the
contributions of writers like you. Thus, even when we we've lost money (more expenses than income), we've always paid out the
revenue shares as writers reached at least the $25 level in accumulated revenue share earnings.
Get Started
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