Last week I came across a new news site called Newsvine which apparently is pretty good, especially as you get to be part of the News and write your own News Articles, I thought this was a really nice idea that you could do this so I registered my email on Newsvine hoping I would get sent an invite and well what can I say it didn’t take them long to send me one!

I’m just checking all of its features out now, it’s pretty good, I also have been given some invites to Newsvine so if you think you are worthy of being part of Newsvine, leave a comment and tell me why you would like to join and what you can offer and I’ll invite you!

But for now here’s a bit more about it:

About Newsvine
Seattle-based Newsvine, Inc. was founded in 2005 by a small team of like-minded colleagues with one purpose: to build a perfectly different, perfectly efficient way to read, write, and interact with the news. Founded by veterans of Disney, ESPN, and other media organizations, the mission of Newsvine is to bring together big and little media in a way which respects established journalism and empowers the individual at the same time.

Reading on Newsvine
Established news sites like MSNBC and CNN are able to bring you a wealth of information from around the world mostly by editing and syndicating thousands of Associated Press articles every day. Depending on what your favorite news site is, somewhere between 70 and 90% come from the A.P. Newsvine syndicates these exact same articles but takes things a step further.

Why shouldn’t you, as a reader, be able to comment on every single article you read? After all, you may have information the original author did not have. How about chat? If 20 people are reading an article at the same time, why shouldn’t they be able to discuss it amongst themselves afterwards?

At Newsvine, all this happens right within the story itself. Nothing to purchase. Nothing to install. Just start typing and Get Smarter.

Writing on Newsvine
Aside from being the friendliest place to read your news, Newsvine is also a great place to write. Sign up for a free account and you’ll have your own column within seconds. Want to write about a popular subject like the NFL, The Supreme Court, or mobile phones? Go ahead. How about a lesser known subject like your kid’s little league team? Not a problem. As long as you “tag” your articles correctly, they will automatically show up in the appropriate section on Newsvine.

For instance, if you write an article about Michael Jordan’s gambling habit, you might enter a few tags (keywords) like “michael-jordan, gambling, poker, addiction” in the tags field at the end of the article. Your article would then automatically show up on:

• newsvine.com/michael-jordan
• newsvine.com/gambling
• newsvine.com/poker
• newsvine.com/addiction

Tags are great for writers, but they are equally great for readers. Are you looking for news on Saddam Hussein? Just go to newsvine.com/saddam-hussein. No need to even search Google.

“Seeding” Newsvine
You don’t even need to be a writer to make good use of your column on Newsvine. Perhaps you just want to point to other news around the web. Save the “Seed Newsvine” button to your browser bar and you can publish a link to any article you’ve just enjoyed with one click. Here’s an example:

You’ve just read a great story from Bill Simmons on ESPN.com. Click the Seed Newsvine button and a small window will appear. In it, you type:

• (headline): Bill Simmons takes Alex Rodriguez to Task
• (comment): Does Alex Rodriguez really think that $250 million can buy him happiness? As long as he’s playing for the Yankees, he will always be in the shadow of Derek Jeter.

Then hit the Publish button and a link to that ESPN story appears both in your column and elsewhere around Newsvine (attributed to you of course). Not only is seeding Newsvine a great way to influence the news but it also creates a list of stories you’ve enjoyed for future reference.

So why participate by writing articles or “seeding The Vine”? Other than the warm-fuzzy feeling you’ll get from seeing an article you brought into Newsvine reach the top, we want to reward you for your contributions by giving you all of the earnings generated by the content you create and recommend. Thats right, Newsvine users are financially rewarded in direct proportion to the value they add to the community by way of creating and submitting articles. We do this because we believe that there is a vast number of people out there who are experts in a particular field or on a specific topic who are not professional writers or journalists, yet have a lot to share. We want to share the wealth with those who share a wealth of information.

Sounds great. Now what?
Go set up your free account and begin exploring!

Visit Newsvine Now!