The mature follower of Jesus stops asking, "Who's going to meet my needs?" and starts asking, "Whose needs can I meet?" Do you ever ask that question? -- Rick Warren
Why Did You Start Right Wing News?: I got really angry during the 2000 election at the horrible, biased job the media did in covering Florida. The breaking point for me was when I was watching a show on CNN and an emailed comment from a listener came in suggesting that "Bush should concede." That was the moment I decided to put together a conservative web page although I didn't actually get RWN off the ground until several months later.
When Did RWN start? The page was actually created in early 2001 and at the time I was splitting my time between Brass Knuckles Webzine (A humor zine I was running online that was pulling around 2000 people a day M-F) and RWN. In April of 2002, I switched RWN over to a blogging format. At that time, I was doing 300 daily uniques M-F.
What Was Brass Knuckles Webzine?: It was non-political webzine I ran for about 2 1/2 years that featured humor for the most part along with a sprinkling of daily links, interviews, & articles. At one point I was pulling about 3500 daily uniques during the week, but eventually the traffic dropped down to about 2000 daily uniques and I was not consistently able to take it any higher. After spending roughly a year running both BKW and RWN at the same time, I decided to drop BKW and focus all my time and effort on Right Wing News.
Didn't You Consult For Duncan Hunter's Presidential Campaign?: I spent six months helping the Hunter campaign get out their message in the blogosphere. You can read more about that here.
Do You Really Do This Full-Time?: Yes, I am one of just a handful of professional bloggers out there.
What Do You Mean By 'Right Wing'?: In the US, the terms right wing and conservative are largely synonymous. Conservatives in the US support small government, capitalism, a fairly strict reading of the Constitution, and traditional American values.
How Often Do You Have A Q&A Friday?: Every other Friday.
How Does A Page Get Named 'Website Of The Day?: I pick a website that I find entertaining and/or informative and I give it the nod. I try not to select any website more than once in a year.
Can I Link Right Wing News?: Absolutely.
How Do I Get On Your Referrers List?: Simple. If you're one of my 30 top referrers over a week long period, you'll be on the list.
Can I submit columns to RWN?: Yes, just email them to me. But, do keep in mind that I publish very few guest columns on the page.
If I Send You An Email Will It Be Published?: Although I only publish only a very small percentage of the emails that I receive, I reserve the right to publish any email sent to me.
Can I Send You A Free Copy Of My Book?: Yes, but do keep in mind that I usually go through about a book every 2 weeks and I have a rather large backlog of reading material I'm already trying to finish up. So even if you send me your book, it may be awhile before I get a chance to read it. Furthermore, do keep in mind that I generally don't do book reviews.
Can I Use Your Material?: If there is a particular RWN piece you want to use, email me and ask permission. As a general rule, I'll say, "yes."
Can I Buy Advertising On RWN? Yes, you can. Click here for details.
Can You Do A Speech At My Event, School, Etc? Yes. Typically, I charge $3000 plus travel expenses (Plane tickets, hotel room, food, etc). If you're interested, just shoot me an email at johnhawkins|nospam|@rightwingnews.com (take out the |nospam|).
How Do I Register To Post Comments?: Because we have had multiple people who literally spend more than an hour per day, almost every day, changing their IPs, registering multiple accounts on RWN, and then posting comments -- even though their posts will be deleted within a few hours -- we've had to create a system designed to keep their ability to annoy everyone else to a minimum. (PS: When they do get through, the best advice I can give you is to completely ignore them. These people are typically so desperate for attention that even negative comments only encourage them.)
During the week, at completely random points, for 30 minutes to an hour at a time, you will be able to register to post comments. There won't be an announcement, you'll just have to watch for it. Here's what it will look like when it happens,
Once you click on sign up and get in, you should be able to login and comment from that point forward.
Did You Have Something To Do With The First Big Fund Raising Effort On The Right Side Of The Blogosphere?:
Yes. During the 2006 election cycle, I created a led a group of bloggers called Rightroots. We raised almost $300,000 for conservative candidates in about 3 months. Now, I'm on the board of another group, Slatecard, and we're raising money for Republican candidates.
Are There Any Rules About Posting Comments?: Yes, please don't flame excessively, use an exceptional amount of vulgar language, call anyone a "towelhead," "raghead," or "wetback," continually post off topic material, spam, use racial or gay slurs, libel anyone, troll, make threats, or challenge anyone to fight.
In short, don't be a jerk.
If that won't work for you, I'll delete your posts and ban your IP. If you are banned and genuinely don't know why, email me. If you know you were doing something mentioned above and you are banned, please don't try to get around the ban. Do everybody involved a favor and find somewhere else to post where they appreciate what you have to say.
I am a registered user, but I lost my password. What do I do?: Type in your username and 'reset' for the password and a new, random pass will be sent to you. You can change the password to whatever you want once you login.
Do you sell or give away the email address I use to register?: Absolutely not.
Why Haven't You Answered My Email?: Unfortunately, I don't respond to most email I receive. That's not because I don't want to do so, but because there are only so many hours in a day and I receive so much email that it would take me several hours per week to answer all of it.
Even after deleting all of my spam, it's not unusual for me to receive 500+ emails per week and that number isn't going anywhere but up. So you can send email to me and I will definitely respond to the press & advertisers. But unfortunately, everyone else who writes may not receive a reply.
Who Is Really Behind RWN?: Yes, I do get this question. I even had a reporter ask me this once. The truth is that I'm just an independent operator running a blog. I don't take marching orders from anyone, there aren't any think tanks involved, and I don't have any big donors giving me cash. Do keep in mind that I wouldn't mind having a large cash infusion from a donor, but so far, that hasn't happened.
How do you get all those interviews with big name conservatives?: I ask them. That's really just about all there is to it -- honestly.
