I know it’s been a while since the last post here on the blog, and probably a while since you’ve heard anything from YBN. I just wanted to let our readers know that we are still around, and we are still very committed to growing and maintaining YBN. At the moment, most of our staff is busy with school work or other end of the school year priorities, as I am myself. However, starting in June, YBN has some plans (which we have mentioned earlier) to buld the YBN community. We are working on many new features and additions to the site that are putting along slowly. We will release more details as more progress is made, and when we have the chance to dedicate more time to the site. I hope this update has satisfied any confused readers or members. Remember, you can always contact us via the Contact Page and we will be sure to get back to you.

As we announced before, YBN is looking to build a small team of teen bloggers to help run the site. At the moment, we have found a few forum moderators who will be managing the forums (when activity starts up again). What we are in need of now are some teen bloggers willing to write for YBN. We are looking for 3 teen bloggers to write 2 posts per month for the YBN blog. These posts can be about anything having to do with blogging, web design/development, social media/networking or teens. If you would like to be one of these 3 contributers, you must meet the following requirements:

• You must have your own blog that is updated somewhat regularly
• You must be able to write in English reasonably well
• You must be willing to contribute 2 posts per month to YBN

If you feel that you are interested and meet the requirements above, please contact us and we’ll work out any details. This could be a great opportunity for any young blogger looking to grow his or her blog. A backlink and description of you/your blog is left beneath every post you publish.

If you would like to send in a guest post to YBN but are not interested in writing regularly, you may do so at any time. Just contact us.

Today we are happy announce that the Youth Bloggers Network is officially joining the Teens in Tech network. Yes, this is the “exciting news” we’ve been trying to hype up. I have been communicating with CEO Daniel Brusilovsky of Teens in Tech over the past month or so, discussing the best course of actions for both of our endeavors to take. We decided that by joining forces, our projects could help each other vastly. We figured that YBN and TinT complement each other very nicely. TinT offers a place where teens can get set up with a free blog, while YBN offers a community for young bloggers to collaborate, communicate, and grow their blogs and projects.

What does this mean for YBN?

Firstly, we hope that this acquisition of YBN by TinT will push us into the public spotlight and present us to a wider audience. We also hope that YBN will become the center point of teen blogger interaction on the internet. We understand that teen bloggers already use social networks such as twitter to communicate, and that is why we want to push YBN towards becoming a full-out social network for teen bloggers (more on this later). By joining the TinT network, this vision can now become possible with the support of a very intelligent and devoted team at our side.

Looking Ahead

Here is a segment of an email I sent to Daniel the other day to sum up what we plan to do:

First, I began by looking at the “function” of YBN on the internet. Why would someone want to join it? YBN is advertised as a place where young bloggers can collaborate and communicate. It sounds great, but not all that special. Young bloggers have already been collaborating via twitter and all sorts of other social networking sites before YBN. YBN needs to figure out a way to be different, and still be specific to young bloggers – otherwise all we are is just another forum to them. What YBN needs to focus on right now is figuring out methods to help young bloggers. It is assumed that all those who join the site already have their own blog. Therefore it is the job of YBN to provide resources and a supportive community for a young blogger to find help and share ideas. So what can be done to make YBN a more supportive environment? Community is key. Building up a community is very important, and will play out on its own.

In short, we plan to focus on building an awesome community of and for young bloggers. We are also looking to build up a stockpile of resources we could offer to the YBN community. These would include WP themes, e-books, and coupons to help our members grow their blogs.

What you will be seeing in the future on YBN:

• More community features to slowly transform YBN into a social network for young and teen bloggers.
• More content and publications published on this blog by our members and people from across the blogosphere to help enhance your blogging experience.
• A slightly larger team of YBN mods to help keep things clean and friendly around the site.
• More “documentation” on YBN. We will be improving our “about page” for members who are confused (you can always head to the forums as well)
• A “download center” for members only with an array of premium blogging resources (for free and at discounted prices only)

And much, much more. If you are interested, it is imperative that you sign up for our weekly newsletter to the right, subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on twitter, or register.

I am excited to say that you can now read the YBN blog and forum while on the go! YBN mobile has just been setup with MoFuse. All you have to do is access http://youthbloggers.net/ through your mobile device, and you will see the mobile friendly version of the site. The mobile version is “read-only” so you will not be able to post in the forums or login etc. You must switch to the full site version (link at bottom of mobile site) to login and post any content.

You may preview the mobile site here: http://youthbloggers.mofuse.mobi/ and the iPhone preview here: http://youthbloggers.mofuse.mobi/iphone/preview/

Use the widget below to send the url to your cell via text message

The Youth Bloggers Network has grown considerably since it’s debut in May 2007. We are currently featuring our latest and greatest site design and will be making a major announcement at the end of this month.

However, we are still looking for people to join the network as “more” than regular members. We are looking for one or two people to help moderate the forums and to produce content for the blog. Basically, we are looking for dedicated young bloggers who are willing to spare some time every week to moderate the forums and help take care of the site. You will come aboard the YBN team as either a “Forum Moderator” or “Blog Author” depending on what you would like to contribute (forum moderation or blog posts). Please contact me for more details.

This would be a great way to increase your online presence and get the word out for your blog. Keep in mind that you must show some dedication.

This is just a quick announcement to YBN members to keep their eyes peeled for a major event coming at the end of March 2009.  At the moment we are keeping it a surprise.

We have also switched hosts, so if you have had any trouble accessing the site within the past week, everything should be working fine at this point. More details on this coming with the announcment.

I’ve just implemented a new feature into the site: community news submissions. Now members can submit links to sites having to do with blogging or young bloggers that will be displayed on the homepage. Login to see more details.