How What Why
We’re setting up a little homepage / starting point for future bloggers (more on that in a tick) it can be found at: blogs.leithermagazine.com and will contain tutorial videos, some documentation along with the latest from each and every blog that we currently host. Take a look at the initial idea, let me know what you think.

Where’s It Going?
In next month’s printed magazine I’m hoping to do an introduction to the Leither Blogs (which i’m thinking about re-naming ‘The Leither Links’) for anyone and everyone out there, we want people to get up and use it– to setup their own Leither Blogs and join in the fun. It’ll be a accompanied by a few choice morsels from our favourite authors THAT MEANS YOU. Maybe some photography– if you fancy putting a face to a blog then give me a shout. The more the merrier!

I’m going to add a small navigation bar to the top of your blog, it will allow visitors to connect with similar authors / blogs on LeitherMagazine.com and will also have a search function (so  you can search for all the blogs at once). Another idea: a ‘PROMOTE’ button which will allow your visitors to vote on your posts and, depending on ranking, we’ll include them in a weekly showcase on the main website. Sound good?

So- next month we’re launching this. Would be nice to hear your comments before we take this to the next level. Thanks!

p.s. here are some leither links for today:

Griffen Fitness

Cinematheque

The Quiet American

Tea Room With a View

The Comely Banking Crisis

Thoughts From A Soiled Belief

He Who Pays The Piper Calls The Tune

oh and then there’s: CHARLIE BIG POTATOES

The site is slowly evolving – remember the layout is by no means set-in-stone – over the last three months we’ve added the What’s On page and now we have a Blog Homepage there’s going to be a new addition to the site pretty much every month…. based on the statistics and (most importantly) your feedback I’ve made some alterations to the Homepage (in particular: the navigation for the latest issue of the magazine). Take a look- your thoughts / ideas are welcome. Thanks for your support so far.

NEW: Leither Blogs

Now, most of you are actually blogging already- if you’ve got something to say you’re posting it on facebook or twitter, some of you have your very own website –which is fantastic!

We can now offer you your own space on the site- something bigger, more expansive and altogether more personal than that little Author’s Page. We’ll call them Leither Blogs (ooh, original!) but don’t let that frighten (or bore you). You can use this space as a continuation of your work– post unedited articles, news, other stuff that doesn’t make it into the magazine, perhaps articles that aren’t about The Leither at all… whatever you want really. You can Post these articles (easy stuff) to your own Leither Blog instantly- I’ll show you the ropes and provide all the support you’ll ever need.

Your Blog will tie in with the main Blog Homepage when we cherry-pick / promote your most interesting articles (in-so-doing we promote your personal blog / space / work etc.). We’re then going to do a ‘Best of The Leither Blogs’, starting online but hopefully they’ll be a space in the published magazine for it someday soon.

We don’t mind if you’ve posted this stuff on your own site already- just get up and use it. Bit of fun for now…

Examples of Leither Blogs:

http://quietamerican.leithermagazine.com/

http://cinematheque.leithermagazine.com/

http://griffenfitness.leithermagazine.com/

http://thepipercalls.leithermagazine.com/

http://tearoomwithaview.leithermagazine.com/

http://charliebigpotatoes.leithermagazine.com/

http://gossipgirl.leithermagazine.com

http://soiledbelief.leithermagazine.com/

Interested?
This is live. Now. Every contributor can have a Leither Blog as of today all you need to do is email me the title / address you’d like your blog to be found at: myblog.leithermagazine.com and i’ll do the magic. Be as creative as you want- by all means you can post anonymously, incognito. If you’d prefer not to be part of the published ‘Best of The Leither Blogs’, well that’s cool too!

So, enjoy that. If you need any further details- you know where to find me.

- Callum

As it stands here are the three main features of leithermagazine.com

1. From now on we’re adding every article to the site as each Leither is published- those articles are now archived. Every article has it’s own page and, most importantly, a comments box where visitors (or even authors) can leave their thoughts or anything else you’d care to air.
Where you can help: get on there and hammer those comments, add ‘em left-right-centre!

2. The Archives: this page will help visitors browse our articles by date, category or author. There’s also a swishy selection of Covers from which you can click to load up an old issue of the magazine, just as it was in print. This will soon stretch back as a complete back-catalog- it’s a bit of a work in progress. If you’re looking for a particular Author’s work on the site, there’s an ‘Authors’ index. There’s also a search box at the top of every page.
Your Ideas: I’m thinking of using Categories as a better way of dividing articles- what best suits your work?

3. Beyond the magazine: From the all-new ‘Blog’ to our pages on a number of social networks we’re starting to spread the good word. The idea is that by adding unpublished news and articles to our website, throughout the month, we draw in an audience (via links to these articles on Facebook / Twitter etc.) that initially visit because they’re interested in that particular headline, who are then (hopefully) intrigued by the ‘related articles’ etc. and delve deeper into the site and into your work.
We need you: are you on facebook? Link your articles to your profile… just click the Facebook icon on any article page and *boom*.

We’re going to add a new feature every month and one big idea (which needs some work) is based on you folks having a lot to say… you do have a lot to say, right? Far more than Billy can fit in the magazine even more than we could ever post on the Blog, I hope.

What you get: I would love to give you all a more personalised home-page for your work. It’ll be similar to the profile pages of Facebook etc.: fill it with stories, articles, links, photos… it’ll be up to you. I’ll show you how. Let me know if this sounds interesting I can set you up with everything you’ll need to get started. It’s very straightforward. The CAPS-LOCK-EDITOR can even get his head round this one!

Thank again,

- Callum.